Best VoIP phone services in 2024

Google is known for its intuitive approach to most everything, and its VoIP plans are no different. While they may not include all the bells and whistles that some other providers do, Google Voice VoIP plans are still packed with the features most businesses want out of a provider, like call forwarding, reporting, text messaging and video calls.

At $10 per user per month for up to 10 people, its base Starter plan is a great place to start as you figure out what your small business wants and needs from a VoIP provider. This is especially true if you already utilize Google products as part of your business model.

Google Voice is best for small businesses that already utilize a host of G Suite products and want to easily integrate VoIP without disrupting operations. We really like that the low starting cost combined with the somewhat limited integrations make it a pretty straightforward solution. Not to mention that it’s backed by the expertise of one of the largest global technology companies in the world.

Value

Price-wise, Google Voice’s starting cost is tied for the lowest of any company on this list at $10 per user per month. And if you sign up for an annual plan, you can save up to $44 per user annually.

If your employees are already among the three billion G Suite users, the value of Google Voice increases tenfold. It links directly to your Google account and works with platforms you’re already comfortable with, like Google Meet and Gmail. This could lead to a much shorter learning curve (and potential business turbulence) when you implement VoIP.

Functionality

Functionality is at the forefront of what Google does. Its desktop and mobile apps are streamlined and simplified, making finding what you need within them easy. And while integrations may be limited, many users may find this lends itself to a more straightforward experience.

Again, if you’re already comfortable working with G Suite products, you should be able to pick up the Google Voice functionality fairly quickly. Plus, the fact that it integrates with some essential tools your small business may already use can mean faster adoption and a higher likelihood of your employees maximizing its features.

Support

All three of its plans include 24/7 customer support and a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of at least 99.9% uptime. However, when we tried to find out exactly what the 24/7 support claim entails, we ran into a few roadblocks. It seems like any issues have to be directed to Google Voice’s complaints department, according to the terms of service.

After filing a complaint, you can expect a response within 10 business days. This is going to be an unacceptable timeframe for most businesses, given that other companies on this list were responsive within minutes. You may be able to reach out faster within the admin console, but we couldn’t find a phone number or email you could reach out to directly. That being said, it does have a pretty extensive FAQ and community forum you can review for real-time support.

*Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. In conjunction with our data and methodology, which underpin our Blueprint rating for each company, we combine first-person experience, subject matter expertise, and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

With its long list of AI integrations, we especially like Dialpad for businesses that need or want to do more with less. Its unlimited calls, texts and video messages include free AI transcription, which many user reviews say works very well and helps save their teams vital time and effort on the backend.

The VoIP software also integrates with a pretty wide variety of CMS and workspaces, including Google Suite, Microsoft 365, Salesforce and Zendesk — making it a flexible choice for most, regardless of what type of setup you already have in place.

However, it limits virtual meetings to 10 employees before you have to pay for more (about $15 more per user per month). So take that into consideration when deciding on price versus value for your specific business.

Dialpad offers more features, not exactly for less in terms of cost, but at least for a reasonable price. With tech-forward elements like AI transcription and custom development with Open API, plus the fact that it integrates with an ever-growing number of business software solutions, Dialpad is an advanced option for small businesses with someone on staff willing to get into the nitty-gritty.

Value

At $23 per user per month for its cheapest plan, Dialpad falls on the somewhat higher end of the VoIP cost spectrum. That being said, it’s packed with advanced features and offers a handful of other products, like a hosted contact center, that you could add to your VoIP for a more well-rounded and integrated solution.

With its wide range of business software integrations, we like that you can customize your VoIP to fit your current operations and not the other way around (like it is with some companies that have more limited integrations and options). This increases the value despite the somewhat higher cost. However, with a 14-day trial, you can test that value for yourself.

Functionality

AI is the defining tech of a Dialpad VoIP subscription. The smart software can immediately and accurately transcribe meetings, calls and SMS, as well as route incoming calls to the right person or voicemail and automate workflows. If you have a dev person on staff, they’ll love its Open API feature for complete customization control.

It also offers what it calls Real Time Assist Cards that help guide your employees through calls by offering helpful insights or details based on real-time AI transcription. For example, if a customer is asking about addresses, it may pop up a card with relevant details. But these all have to be made by hand initially, so make sure you set time aside to get the most out of Dialpad’s functionalities.

Support

Only Dialpad Pro and Enterprise customers can contact customer service by phone 24/7. Those on its base plan are stuck with chat or web support, which, in our experience, means that you’re mostly on your own to solve a problem. That being said, we couldn’t test it without being logged into the customer portal.

Its helpdesk is relatively thorough, though, covering 20 topics with multiple help articles within each section. It also has a discussion forum, although it’s hard to search for relevant topics and discussions.

*Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. In conjunction with our data and methodology, which underpin our Blueprint rating for each company, we combine first-person experience, subject matter expertise, and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

If you want an on-premise VoIP and prioritize your on-site experience, Intermedia Unite is a great option. Many others on our list focus on expanding into tech-forward and remote communications while Intermedia stays firmly planted in the traditional.

It bundles many products with its monthly services, like a free phone or headset, and still offers some advanced features like AI Assistant, HD conferencing and meeting transcriptions.

So, if you’re nervous about jumping into the world of digital VoIP and want to work with a provider that feels more comfortable to you and how you traditionally do business, Intermedia Unite is a great option.

Intermedia Unite isn’t trying to be anything other than a traditional VoIP provider, which may be a big selling point to small companies that don’t want to reinvent the wheel. While its prices per month are a bit more expensive, all users get a free phone or headset with purchase and customer service is actually reachable by phone.

Value

Intermedia Unite is designed for security and compliance, so its main value is its reliability. With audited and compliant data centers and protocols, 99.999% uptime guarantees and in-depth privacy controls (like for FINRA or GDPR), you can trust that your information is safe and secure within Intermedia’s VoIP.

Of course, if those features aren’t a huge priority for your type of small business, the higher starting price tag of $27.99 per user may seem a bit steep, especially if you don’t need the free headset or desktop phone with each subscription.

Functionality

Functionality-wise, Intermedia is pretty straightforward. It supports physical and virtual softphone systems, including access to and syncing with its mobile or desktop apps. You can also expand communication to include SMS and inter-team chats on the apps as well.

While these features are fairly slim compared to some others on the list, they cover most of the necessities when it comes to VoIP. If you want more, you can browse Intermedia’s marketplace of pre-built integrations or take advantage of the ability to build your own with an open API.

Support

With some of these new, more tech-forward companies, it’s nearly impossible to get someone on the phone when help is needed.

In our experience, we got someone on the phone within one minute when contacting Intermedia support by phone. In fact, Intermedia earned its 7th J.D. Power Certification for Excellence in Technical Support in 2023.

If you want to tackle the issue independently, Intermedia maintains a fairly thorough Knowledge Base that can help you troubleshoot issues as they arise. It also has a Digital Assistant pop up (it looks like a live chat, but it’s not) that can help guide you through creating or following up on a support case as well.

*Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. In conjunction with our data and methodology, which underpin our Blueprint rating for each company, we combine first-person experience, subject matter expertise, and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

In the world of VoIP, there are companies that focus on the traditional and those that aim to be tech-forward, and RingCentral falls somewhere in the middle. It sells both phones and headsets and advanced VoIP plans with features like AI assistance and 300-plus integrations, although it doesn’t offer free equipment with purchase (like Intermedia).

If you’re looking for a company that offers a wide range of features and a solid selection of equipment, RingCentral is a good choice.

RingCentral makes it easy to set up your VoIP service and onboard employees, offering a wide range of innate features and optional integrations. It also expands reporting data to include a handful of unique metrics that may benefit certain small businesses.

Plus, it still sells and installs equipment and hardware, meaning you can get a little bit of everything as a RingCentral customer.

Value

Some of RingCentral’s features, like smart notes, take call and video transcription a step further and can increase the overall value the product brings to a team. And in terms of the value it brings to employers, RingCentral offers smart metrics and data that dive into the details of employee performance, with features like post-call highlights and a sentiment analysis of soft skills.

Together, these smart tools can help your business make the most out of not only the product but each and every phone call — even though the starting price is one of the most expensive on this list.

Functionality

One of the biggest selling points is fast setup and adoption. It says you can set up and onboard employees in minutes — which is echoed in reviews — with the ability to further streamline operations with intelligent workflow building. These workflows cover things like SMS keyword auto-replies or out-of-office replies without the need to work with code, like an API.

This can be a big benefit if you don’t have a developer on your small team. While other competitors only offer customization through APIs (a type of code developers use to communicate between platforms), RingCentral integrates it into the tech itself.

Support

The one area in which RingCentral gets consistently dinged in reviews is its customer support. Customers with two or more users receive 24/7 phone support, although the effectiveness of these calls varies from review to review. It also offers a live chat option, which connected us to a live agent within a few minutes. For non-emergencies, it recommends submitting a support ticket instead, although this route could take 72-plus hours for a response.

It also has a robust resource center and helpful community forum stocked with questions and answers from moderators and other customers. However, some small business owners may prefer a company with a dedicated support team or account manager who is always available to help troubleshoot issues.

*Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. In conjunction with our data and methodology, which underpin our Blueprint rating for each company, we combine first-person experience, subject matter expertise, and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Zoom is a great choice for businesses that want a known name in the industry and don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for that name recognition. Its most expensive plan expands service globally and is just $20 per user per month — which is the starting cost for some of the less well-known names in the VoIP space.

For small businesses that reach clients and customers worldwide, it’s hard to find a better deal than this plan. And if you don’t need global or even outbound calling, Zoom’s base plan is unmatched in terms of features for the price.

Zoom’s base plan includes most of the key features business owners want from a VoIP service, including unlimited domestic calls, 24/7 support and AI tech and transcriptions. Business owners also get access to an admin panel to view and manage employees and their calls in one place.

Value

Zoom ties with Google Voice for the most affordable plans on our list. Both companies are giants in the industry, but while Google does a lot of things pretty well, Zoom does one thing very well: video and voice collaboration. For that reason, we love the value Zoom offers for the price.

Its base plan includes unlimited domestic inbound, voicemail transcription, toll-free numbers and more native integrations than Google Voice. But this plan charges for all outbound calls based on location and meters international inbound calls.

So, for the best value, we recommend the $15 per month plan with unlimited regional calling, which is still very affordable comparatively. And if global calling is a requirement, at $20 its Global Select plan is still a great deal.

Functionality

Nearly every professional has used Zoom at some point in their career, so the platform will probably feel familiar to your employees and customers. Its AI-powered platform unifies phone, chat and meetings in one singular place to make it easier to communicate across your company and with your clients.

The AI tech also offers helpful features like post-call summaries and next steps as well as SMS summary threads — taking work off your team’s plates so they can focus on other aspects of your business. However, some of the features that others offer natively (albeit at a more expensive monthly cost) are add-ons with Zoom, like call queues, an auto-receptionist or toll-free numbers.

Support

The way Zoom handles support for its phone customers is pretty confusing. It says that all phone customers have 24/7 phone and chat support available to them, but the same sentence mentions that support plans vary. We couldn’t find any detailed explanation of these support plans and what they include, so you’ll have to log into your account to understand exactly how and when you can contact them for help.

When we used Zoom’s live chat, it was just an AI robot that walked us through pretty unhelpful steps to try to resolve the issue. Reviews from customers mention phone wait times of up to an hour or two if they get any response at all.

*Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. In conjunction with our data and methodology, which underpin our Blueprint rating for each company, we combine first-person experience, subject matter expertise, and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

If custom and in-depth reporting is important to your business model and you have the budget for it, Nextiva’s top-tier plan ($45.95 per month per user) is a really great choice. Its analytics offer real-time assessments of employee activity, customizable reports and dashboards and the unique ability to gamify performance for your team.

So, if you have a subset of employees or a business model that thrives on pressure or competition, these features could really set your team up for improved performance and potentially happier and more engaged employees.

Nextiva offers a lot of robust tech features like advanced reporting and conversational AI, although they come at a higher cost — which is a big consideration since it already has a higher starting cost to begin with.

But, paired with award-winning customer service and solid customer reviews, Nextiva VoIP is certainly a worthy option if your budget allows it.

Value

Nextiva’s two more affordable plans, Essential and Professional, don’t offer many of the features that earned Nextiva its winning accolade as a great reporting tool.

To get the best value and access to features like call recording, voice analytics and Microsoft and Salesforce integrations, you’ll have to sign up for the most expensive plan, which is $45.95 monthly per user. If that starting price feels steep, you can sign up for an annual or multi-year contract to save upwards of $8 per month per user.

Unfortunately, Nextiva doesn’t seem to offer a free trial to test out services — although some affiliates have links for a seven-day free trial. It may be worth your time to reach out to the company directly to see if they’ll give you one.

Functionality

Nextiva’s base plan offers a solid set of features for small businesses, although there are a few key drawbacks, like a lack of voicemail transcription tech, no team messaging or screen sharing and no business SMS. But these are available on its Enterprise plan, which also includes advanced custom reporting features like performance and call monitoring and gamification.

You can add additional reporting features like Voice Analytics, which brings the data to life (and which you may prefer if analysis isn’t your forte), and conversational AI, which almost adds a team member to your staff with virtual assistant tech.

Again, some of these more advanced features are costly add-ons, but they could be worth it if your goal is to do more with less (but not with less money, of course).

Support

Nextiva says it offers 24/7 phone and chat support, but its “Chat With Support” function didn’t work when we tested it, and we couldn’t find a support phone number to call. That’s not to say the company is lying; it could be that you have to be logged into your account to access those features, but this isn’t clearly explained.

Considering reviews on sites like G2 and Trust Pilot continually mention its excellent customer service team — and the fact that it won a Gold Stevie Award for the Customer Service Department of the Year in Telecommunications — that’s likely the case. So, we advise you not to knock Nextiva’s customer service until you try it.

*Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. In conjunction with our data and methodology, which underpin our Blueprint rating for each company, we combine first-person experience, subject matter expertise, and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Webex by Cisco was traditionally a video meeting platform, and its free plan is still wholly focused on that aspect. But, it does offer a calling-only plan that integrates all the video features from the free plan, plus some calling features, for just $17 per license per month.

In some cases, these limited features may be worthwhile and tick the boxes of what you’re looking for out of a VoIP provider. For example, if you’re an architectural firm or a non-profit team that focuses mostly on showcasing your expertise or pitching donors on projects, video conferencing may be at the heart of your work and the free plan could be a steal of a deal.

As a Cisco product, we like the fact that Webex is backed by years of trusted experience and expertise. Its video calling platform is excellent, and when you add calling, it covers many of the VoIP needs a user might want.

But it may not be the best possible choice on this list if you’re looking for a truly robust platform that’s easy to implement.

Value

Small businesses that make a lot of video calls but have had issues with Zoom in the past will find Webex’s free plan a comparable alternative. Both companies’ free plans offer 40-minute meetings for up to 100 participants, with features like interactive whiteboards, meeting scheduling and breakout rooms.

If you want to add calling to your plan (which is a likely scenario when searching for a VoIP phone service), the Webex Call plan at $17 is a solid choice for the price. It integrates all the free meeting features with unlimited domestic calling features at a low cost.

But at the end of the day, the real value is in its video conferencing capabilities, and we recommend it for businesses that focus more on that than calling. Otherwise, there may be a better fit elsewhere on this list.

Functionality

The free plan lacks some of the basic VoIP integrations a business owner may want, like a business phone number or local calling. Those services are available on paid Webex Call or Suite plans ($17 or $25 per license per month, respectively).

The Call plan still limits video calls to the time and participant constraints of the free plan but adds unlimited domestic calling, auto-attendant tech and a business phone number. Plus, it has AI tech that acts almost as your assistant with features like real-time translations and note-taking.

But, its interface feels a bit clunky, and some user reviews note that it’s not intuitive and hard to implement.

Support

Not surprisingly, Webex’s free plan doesn’t include support beyond access to its help center. You’ll have to sign up for one of its paid plans to get access to chat and phone support and submit a ticket.

We like that when you start a chat, the smart assistant asks right away if the problem is regarding an active live meeting or if it’s something else — meaning you may get assistance faster and in real-time as you need it.

*Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. In conjunction with our data and methodology, which underpin our Blueprint rating for each company, we combine first-person experience, subject matter expertise, and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Line2 is simple and straightforward. For some business owners, that sounds like a blessing and equates to faster adoption and less confusion. In other cases, its features and options may feel a bit lackluster — especially after reading the descriptions of all the other companies on the list. If you’re in the first category, then Line2 is for you.

Line2’s singular plan offers most of the features a small business owner needs from VoIP without overcomplicating anything. Plus, the price point is just right: $15.99 per month per user.

We like that Line2 doesn’t try to conflate what it offers, which is simply just a VoIP service. While there aren’t any bells and whistles included with its service offering, the price is affordable, and what is included will tick most boxes for an SMB VoIP service.

Value

At $15.99 per user per month, Line2 is one of the most affordable plans on our list. But, some of the cheaper alternatives include a few added benefits, like advanced AI or video conferencing, that many customers have come to expect out of a plan nowadays.

But, if you prefer the simplest option at the lowest possible price, we like Line2 and think it can provide a solid value to businesses who prefer a tried-and-true approach to VoIP.

Functionality

As a VoIP provider, Line2’s features are pretty standard. We like the fact that calls and texts are unlimited (within the US and Canada) and that voicemail transcription comes standard with the service.

But the transcription process is pretty outdated. It emails you a transcription voicemail rather than integrating it into the application’s UX, which adds a few extra steps for your employees who probably would prefer a tech that automatically downloads, organizes and synthesizes the transcription for them while assigning it to a contact or call. Many other companies on this list offer that service.

Support

Customer support (chat and phone) is only available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST. You also cannot submit a claim ticket during off-hours to help expedite service when the team returns to the office.

Line2’s support forum also lacks depth and expertise and, in our opinion, isn’t all that helpful unless you have a very specific issue that it just happens to have an article for. And considering the forum only has about 55 published articles on tech support and features, it’s likely there isn’t an article for your issue.

This is by far the barest forum or knowledge center we’ve reviewed. Nearly every other company on this list offers some form of 24/7 customer service as part of its package offerings, or at least the option to pay extra for it as an add-on.