Compare VoIP Phone Services
Phone service | Starting price | Best features |
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Nextiva Best VoIP phone service Why it’s best overall: Nextiva is a full-service VoIP platform that’s easy to use, offers superb features, exceptional customer support, and seamless integration with popular third-party tools. | $18.95 per user per month |
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RingCentral Best for small businesses Why it’s best for small businesses: Besides its reliable call management and telephony system, RingCentral offers other useful collaboration and communication tools, all accessible from a single unified platform. | $19.99 per user per month |
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Ooma Best for remote work Why it’s best for remote work: Ooma outperforms its competitors in helping small businesses or solopreneurs get ahead and save on their monthly bill while working remotely. | Free |
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8×8 Best budget VoIP Why it’s the best budget VoIP: 8×8 Work app lets you collaborate with your customers or employees on any device across the company—no matter where they are in the world. | $15 per month per user |
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Dialpad Best for effective communication Why it’s best for effective communication: Dialpad offers advanced telephony features and third-party integrations to streamline your workflows and improve employee productivity. | $15 per user per month |
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What You Need to Know about VoIP Phone Service
What does VoIP stand for?
Does VoIP require a special phone or equipment?
What are the benefits of using VoIP phone service?
Some benefits of using a VoIP service include:
- Cheaper than a traditional landline phone
- Easier to install and update
- Can be used with any internet connection anywhere
- Includes additional features that aren’t available with a landline
- Continued updates and advances
What are the drawbacks of using VoIP phone service?
Some disadvantages of using a VoIP phone service might include:
- Requires strong and consistent internet connection
- Needs a continuous power supply
- Lag and jitter, when data packets arrive out of order
- Does not support emergency calls
How I Rated the VoIP Phone Services
We rated our top five VoIP phone service picks based on several factors, including features for communication, administration, collaboration, cost, and customer service. We gave points to providers that offer video conferencing, international calling, voicemail transcription, automated attendants, toll-free numbers, a desktop and/or mobile app, and software integrations.
I signed up for each VoIP service and tested for the following seven key factors:
- Standard and advanced features: videoconferencing, voicemail, business text messaging or SMS (short message service), virtual receptionists, seamless call transfer between devices, call forwarding, automatic call forwarding, as well as a desktop and/or mobile app.
- Customer support: provider’s communication channels, business contact hours, and helpfulness, and noted any positive reviews about their customer support
- Third-party integrations: third-party integrations sync with tools that you use frequently, like a CRM, ERP, SMS and fax, cloud storage, and more.
- Security and privacy: redundancy architecture, high-level encryption, advanced account management, multiple servers and data centers in different locations, data center audits, and multi-factor authentication
- Uptime percentage: unplanned outages, technical or infrastructural issues, and other challenges may interrupt the service, leading to delays and differences in uptime.
- Demo or free trial: free trials or demos allow a company to test run a service before committing to it.
- Overall cost: various fees, the availability of free trials or plans, discounts, and monthly versus annual pricing differences, price per installation, or cost per user.
Learn more about our review methodology.