MetroFax is a long-running online fax service owned by Consensus Cloud Solutions, the same parent company as eFax and sFax. It offers send-and-receive faxing by email and web, plans built around a 500-page allowance with $0.03 per additional page, and no activation or termination fees. It is a reasonable, inexpensive choice for general business faxing. Where it falls short is regulated work: MetroFax does not publish a Business Associate Agreement or a HIPAA compliance statement, and it has no documented API. For healthcare, legal, or financial document workflows you need a provider that signs a BAA — Documo includes one on every plan from $25/month.
Quick answer: is MetroFax a good online fax service in 2026?
For a small business sending and receiving ordinary faxes, yes — it’s inexpensive, established, and the $0.03 per page overage is genuinely competitive. Two caveats matter.
First, it isn’t suitable for protected health information. MetroFax publishes no BAA. Under HIPAA, a covered entity may only disclose PHI to a vendor that has signed one, so using MetroFax for patient records puts the sender out of compliance regardless of transmission security.
Second, cancellation is a recurring complaint. This shows up consistently enough in user reviews to be worth factoring into the decision — particularly since MetroFax advertises no early termination fee, which suggests the friction is procedural rather than contractual. Test the cancellation path before you depend on the service.
What MetroFax is
MetroFax is a cloud fax service in the traditional mould: you get a fax number, send faxes from email or a web interface, and receive inbound faxes as email attachments. There is no hardware, and there is no fax server.
What it does well:
- Low cost per page. $0.03 per additional page is at the low end of the market.
- No activation, transmission, or early termination fees.
- Simple. For a business that just needs a working fax number, there is little to learn.
- Established. It has operated for years, with the stability of a large parent company behind it.
Its constraints:
- No published BAA or HIPAA statement. Disqualifying for PHI.
- No documented API. Nothing to integrate into an application or workflow.
- No document processing. It transmits; it doesn’t read.
- Cancellation friction reported by users.
- Pricing not clearly published — as of August 2026 the plans-and-pricing URL returns an error, which is itself a small signal about how much attention the product gets.
Where MetroFax is the right choice
A small business or professional office that faxes a moderate volume of non-regulated documents, wants the lowest defensible monthly cost, and has no need to integrate faxing into other software. In that scenario MetroFax is a sound choice and Documo would be over-specified for the job.
MetroFax vs Documo
| MetroFax | Documo | |
|---|---|---|
| Parent company | Consensus Cloud Solutions (also eFax, sFax) | Documo |
| Starting price | $11.95/mo | $25/mo (Solo, annual) |
| Included pages | 550 | 300/mo (Solo), 1,500 (Business), 6,000 (Enterprise) |
| Overage | $0.03/page | $0.15/page (Solo) to $0.07/page (Enterprise) |
| Setup / termination fees | None stated | None |
| BAA / HIPAA | No BAA published | Yes — every plan |
| SOC 2 Type II | Not published | Yes |
| Encryption | Not published | TLS 1.2 in transit, AES-256 at rest |
| Audit trail | Not published | Yes |
| Send / receive by email | Yes | Yes |
| API | Not published | Yes — Business plan and up |
| EHR integrations | No | Yes |
| Document classification / extraction | No | Yes |
| eSignature | Not published | Yes — cloud fax signatures |
| SSO | Not published | Yes (Enterprise) |
Documo pricing from documo.com/pricing; MetroFax details from metrofax.com. Verified August 13, 2026. “Not published” means MetroFax does not disclose it publicly, not that it is necessarily absent. Verify before purchasing.
Is MetroFax HIPAA compliant?
MetroFax does not publish a Business Associate Agreement or a HIPAA compliance statement. Without a signed BAA, it cannot be used for protected health information.
The reasoning is contractual, not technical. HIPAA requires a covered entity to have a BAA in place with any business associate that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits PHI on its behalf — see HHS guidance on business associate contracts. A service can encrypt everything and still leave you non-compliant if there’s no agreement.
There’s an additional wrinkle worth knowing: MetroFax’s parent, Consensus Cloud Solutions, does offer HIPAA-eligible products — sFax is positioned specifically for healthcare. That the same parent sells a separate healthcare product is a reasonable indication that MetroFax is not the one intended for PHI.
The cancellation complaints
This deserves more than a passing mention because it’s the most consistent theme in MetroFax user feedback, and because it’s the kind of operational detail a feature table can’t capture.
The pattern reported by users is difficulty completing cancellation — requirements to call rather than cancel in-app, and continued billing after a cancellation request. MetroFax advertises no early termination fee, so the issue appears to be process friction rather than contractual lock-in.
Two practical implications. First, verify the cancellation path before you commit — ask support directly how to cancel and get the answer in writing. Second, if this is a trial or short-term need, factor the exit cost in as real, not hypothetical.
Where Documo is different
Documo costs more per page than MetroFax. Two things account for the difference.
Compliance on every plan. The BAA, SOC 2 Type II certification, TLS 1.2 in transit, AES-256 at rest, and complete audit trails are included on the $25/month Solo plan, not gated behind a healthcare tier. This is worth checking against any vendor you evaluate — being a paying customer and being covered for PHI are not the same thing.
Documo reads the document. Intelligent document processing classifies each inbound document, extracts the fields, and routes structured data into a downstream system such as an EHR. A referral arrives as a fax and becomes data on the correct patient record, instead of a PDF in a queue that someone opens and retypes.
That’s the honest framing of this comparison. MetroFax is a cheap, competent fax line. If a cheap, competent fax line is what you need, buy the cheap one. If the documents arriving by fax create downstream manual work — or if they contain PHI — the comparison isn’t really about fax pricing at all. The ROI calculator sizes the manual-work side against your own volume.
How do I switch from MetroFax to Documo?
Port your existing number so senders don’t have to change anything — typically 2–4 weeks depending on the losing carrier, with both numbers running in parallel through cutover. Confirm MetroFax’s cancellation requirements early given the reported friction, and don’t cancel until the port completes. The BAA is executed at signup.
Start a free trial or contact sales.
Frequently asked questions
Is MetroFax HIPAA compliant?
MetroFax does not publish a Business Associate Agreement or HIPAA compliance statement. Without a signed BAA it should not be used for protected health information, regardless of transmission encryption.
How much does MetroFax cost?
MetroFax builds plans around a 550-page allowance with $0.03 per additional page and charges no activation or early termination fees. As of August 2026 its plans-and-pricing page returned an error; check metrofax.com directly.
Who owns MetroFax?
Consensus Cloud Solutions, which also owns eFax and sFax.
Is MetroFax hard to cancel?
Cancellation difficulty is the most common complaint in MetroFax user reviews, typically involving having to call to cancel and billing continuing after a request. MetroFax charges no early termination fee, so the friction appears procedural. Confirm the cancellation process in writing before signing up.
Does MetroFax have an API?
MetroFax does not publish API documentation. For programmatic faxing you would need a provider with a documented API, such as Documo’s fax API.
What is the best MetroFax alternative for healthcare?
A provider that signs a BAA. Documo includes one on every plan from $25/month with SOC 2 Type II certification and audit trails. Documo also publishes AES-256 at rest validated to NIST FIPS 140-2 and TLS 1.2 minimum in transit — encryption specifics MetroFax does not publish.
Is MetroFax cheaper than Documo?
On per-page overage, yes — $0.03/page undercuts every Documo tier. Compare total cost at your actual volume rather than headline rates, and note that no MetroFax plan is eligible for PHI.
Can I keep my fax number if I leave MetroFax?
Yes. Fax numbers port between providers, typically in 2–4 weeks. Keep MetroFax active until the port completes.
Bottom line
Choose MetroFax for low-cost, non-regulated business faxing where $0.03/page matters and you need no integrations — going in with eyes open about the cancellation process.
Choose Documo if the documents are regulated, if you need an API or EHR integration, if you need an audit trail you can produce on demand, or if the real cost is the manual work that begins once the fax arrives.
Start a free trial · See pricing · Security and compliance
Related comparisons
- SRFax vs eFax vs Documo
- FaxZero review 2026
- Best HIPAA-compliant fax services in 2026
- Top eFax alternatives
Documo publishes this comparison and sells a competing product. MetroFax details are sourced to MetroFax’s own site, verified August 13, 2026. Where MetroFax does not publish a detail, we say so rather than guessing.
