Feature Set:  

RingCentral really does everything, we liked its interface and desktop tool and were thrilled to see how quickly we set it up to work with our Outlook account. Its’ only shortcoming, which in minor, is that it only stores messages for 30 days online, however, you can save your messages on your desktop for as long as you want, so this really doesn’t matter too much as long as you back up your messages from time to time. This service supports toll-free and local numbers or you can add a vanity number for a small fee. It can receive faxes from any fax machine or fax service on the planet.

In terms of security, all messages are sent over a secure connection and faxes are stored in a password protected account. They also offer great spam fax protection and filters, you can block or allow specific numbers or area codes, you can also set a variety of other blocks such as “Block fax messages without Caller ID.” Blocking features are extremely important, especially if you publish your fax number online, spam faxes can use up your page allowance really quick if you are not careful, it is nice to see that RingCentral supports solid anti-spam fax efforts.

Through this service you can send/receive faxes through their desktop interface or through their online service. We particularly liked their desktop tool, which will instantly let you know when a new fax comes in, or you can set the service to send you an email or cell phone alert. As far as attachments go, this service supports over 50 different file types including all Word 2007 types, image files including PSDs, xml and html types and even csv files and mcw for Macs.

Through the handy desktop tool you can view your incoming faxes, access your account, synchronize contacts, send faxes and more if you subscribe to RingCentral’s call services. When we tested this service we noticed that our faxes went through really fast and it was easy to create cover pages and so on. This whole service is really easy to use and can save you from the tedious work of needlessly printing documents, manually entering fax numbers and feeding pages through, not too mention the pounds of paper waste that can be avoided. It is also nice to have a neat record of sent/received faxes all put together for you without having to print reports and it eliminates the burden of running to the fax machine to see if something has arrived or if an important document successfully sent. This service can really save you many man hours as well as lower your stress level and paper use.

Ease of Use:  

This service was surprising simple to use, we had the desktop interface installed and the service synced with our Outlook quickly and literally within minutes we had our first fax with a cover page sent out. We really did not have to consult with the help pages to use this service, we only looked through them for the purpose of this review, but you should be able to sign up, install the interface (or not, it is not required) and have your first fax sent out within minutes. We also found it easy to set our preferences, such as our notifications and allow/block preferences; the online interface is clean, straightforward and surprisingly uncomplicated.

Customer Service:  

RingCentral offers all of the support services we were looking for except 24/7 support. Otherwise, they post FAQS, an entire user manual, a searchable knowledgebase, training videos and much more online. You can also contact RingCentral by email or telephone, toll free.

Price/Extra Costs:  

As mentioned, this service has the lowest over page fee offered, as low as 3.9 cents per page for their Fax2500 plan. Keep in mind though that the over page fee is assuming a one minute or less transfer time. They also do not charge a set up fee and offer three different page limit packages, from 300 to 2500 pages.

We actually enjoyed reviewing this service; we first looked at online fax services a few years back and really could see the value of this type of service right a way and we were pleased to see a service like RingCentral embracing the possibilities of online communications.

RingCentral offers some of the best priced packages and the lowest over page fees. They are also extremely convenient to use with online or desktop account access as well as email and cell phone notifications. We really cannot think of anything this service lacks when compared to the competition, except maybe online storage of messages for back up purposes and 24/7 support, but really those two things are pretty inconsequential. Good job RingCentral.