- Best business phone service overall: RingCentral
- Best for customer experience management: Nextiva
- Best for teams that prefer traditional desk phones: Ooma
- Best for global contact centers: 8×8
- Best for sales teams: Dialpad
- Best for low-volume calling: Zoom Phone
- Best for custom in-app calling solutions: Vonage
- Best for startups: OpenPhone
The best business phone services are packed with communication features that go beyond basic calling capabilities. From video conferencing to team chat, texting and automation, teams get everything they need, plus the flexibility to support remote and hybrid work environments.
For this buyer’s guide, I picked RingCentral as the overall top business phone service because it’s the best value for features and reliability. It’s versatile enough to support teams of all sizes in any work environment, and it delivers all the phone and communication tools you need under one roof.
Top business phone services comparison
It’s really hard to compare vendors in an apples-to-apples way, but every buyer will have to think about how a phone system handles calls and the other software that must integrate with it.
I’ve rated each service’s call management features and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capabilities for the provider’s entry level business phone service plan, along with its starting monthly price per user.
| RingCentral | |||||
| Nextiva | |||||
| Ooma | |||||
| 8×8 | |||||
| Dialpad | |||||
| Zoom Phone | |||||
| Vonage | |||||
| OpenPhone |
RingCentral: Best business phone service overall
RingCentral is the best all-around option for businesses looking for a modern phone service to support operations moving forward. There are lighter and less expensive options out there for companies with strong in-house telecom and IT teams, sure, but not everyone wants to manage a VoIP server and I don’t blame them.
RingCentral can accommodate whatever technology your organization is working with already, and is investing heavily in the technology of tomorrow. Whether you need VoIP phone systems or UCaaS, RingCentral excels at delivering capable solutions to a broad range of businesses.
Why I chose RingCentral
It’s the best value for most people. Say you are a small business that needs a few dozen employees to be reachable — RingCentral is fine. You’ll never need to switch. Say you are a business with a few different locations and 24/7 customer service — RingCentral is still fine.
The entry-level phone system comes with a multi-level auto attendant and IVR to help you improve call flows. There’s also call queues, call recording, visual voicemail and shared lines — all on the entry-level plan. Plus, each user gets their own dedicated number, and you can choose between a local or toll-free option.
When you look at other vendors, many of those features are add-ons or only available upon upgrade. This feature-depth extends to the team collaboration tools. You’re getting unlimited video conferencing, AI meeting insights, live transcriptions, whiteboarding, collaborative notes and breakout rooms.
If you move up beyond the basic tier, you’ll unlock even more advanced capabilities, including live call monitoring, whisper and barge. There are plenty of add-ons and options to support advanced sales needs, like RingSense for Sales, which is the platform’s AI-powered sales intelligence suite.
Take a look at our full RingCentral review for more details.
Pricing
- Core: Starts at $20 per user per month billed annually.
- Advanced: Starts at $35 per user per month billed annually.
- Ultra: Starts at $45 per user per month billed annually.
- Free trial available? Yes, a 14-days free trial is available.
Annual billing saves you up to 33% compared to RingCentral’s month-to-month prices. Also, volume discounts are available for teams with at least 100 users.
Features
- Unlimited domestic calling.
- AI meeting insights and live transcription.
- Call recording.
- Multi-level IVR.
- Real-time QoS analytics.
- Team messaging and file sharing.
- Video conferencing and breakout rooms.
- Customer support: 24/7 phone and live chat.
- Virtual fax: On select plans.
- Single Sign-On (SSO).
- Business SMS and MMS.
Pros and cons
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Nextiva: Best for customer experience management
Nextiva is another good all-around option that’s malleable enough to work for just about any business — but where it steps above the competition is customer engagement. Yes, they offer business phone and call center services, but Nextiva has been reshaping the foundation of their platform to help companies meet their customers where they are most active today.
Why I chose Nextiva
From an admin standpoint, the initial setup and deployment of Nextiva is about as easy as it gets. You can onboard users in just a few clicks, and they can start using Nextiva from their existing computers and smartphones, so there’s no need to buy new or expensive phones.
As a user, you’ll have access to all the necessities plus powerful extras available from a sleek dashboard. You can field an incoming call while simultaneously messaging your team members and even pulling up a fax on the same screen.
It would be nice to have call recording and voicemail transcription available on lower-tier plans; also, you’ll need to upgrade for most integrations, including Salesforce, HubSpot and Zendesk.
Upgrading to get CRM integration is typical of business phone services — what’s not typical is getting built-in tools to manage your brand’s reputation. Nextiva lets you manage three social media accounts and review sites directly in your communications platform. This makes it easier for employees to be responsive, as well as centralizes customer data across channels in a single platform.
Check out my Nextiva review if you want to learn more about it.
Pricing
- Digital: Starts at $20 per user per month.
- Core: Starts at $30 per user per month.
- Engage: Starts at $40 per user per month.
- Power Suite: Starts at $60 per user per month.
- Free trial available? No, demo only.
Digital plans do not include inbound/outbound voice. Online fax, live chat, and chatbot channels are add-ons with Core plans.
Features
- Unlimited calling in North America.
- Unlimited audio and video conferencing.
- Social media management.
- Social messaging.
- Shared email inbox.
- Review site management.
- Simple IVR.
- Voicemail with AI transcription.
- Call metrics dashboards.
- Team messaging.
- Free number porting.
- Customer support: 24/7 phone and live chat.
Pros and cons
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Ooma: Best for teams that prefer traditional desk phones
Ooma is a solid business phone system that works best when it’s deployed in traditional office environments, especially if your team likes desk phones over smartphones and computers. Everything about Ooma is built to support the needs of small businesses; it’s easy to use, and Ooma comes with plenty of features that won’t make your head spin.
Why I chose Ooma
Ooma makes it a seamless transition for businesses that want to switch from a landline to a VoIP phone system. You can even keep your existing phones, and Ooma will work with plug-and-play adaptors.
If you do want to purchase new phones, no problem — all of Ooma’s hardware is pre-configured out of the box, so there’s no complex setup or need for IT support.
The calling features are somewhat limited compared to other phone systems on the market, but for small teams that just want a phone that works well, Ooma is sufficient. Plus, Ooma comes with the tools you need to handle in-office communication, like intercom, overhead paging, a company directory, extension dialing and transfers.
Learn more about all of its services in my full Ooma review.
Pricing
Ooma’s three pricing plans don’t require contracts.
- Essentials: Starts at $19.95 per user per month.
- Pro: Starts at $24.95 per user per month.
- Pro Plus: Starts at $29.95 per user per month.
- Free trial available? No, Ooma does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The Essentials plan does not include text messaging, video conferencing, call recording, voicemail transcription and even the Ooma desktop app, so you’ll need to start at the Pro tier to unlock those features.
If you want access to team chat, hot desking, CRM integrations and advanced call management tools, opt for Ooma’s Pro Plus plan.
Features
- Unlimited calling in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
- Desktop and mobile apps.
- Virtual receptionist.
- Extension dialing.
- Ring groups.
- One DID per user.
- Free local or toll-free number.
- Free number porting.
- Call forwarding and simultaneous ring.
- Customer support: 24/7 phone.
- Virtual fax: Unlimited.
Pros and cons
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Features
- Unlimited calling to 14 countries
- Up to 500 active participants in video conferences
- High-volume SMS/MMS messaging
- Call analytics and reporting
- 8×8 for Microsoft Teams service bundle
- Team chat and collaboration tools
- Receptionist console
- No-code integration
Pros and cons
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Dialpad: Best for sales teams
Dialpad delivers unlimited calling, texting and team collaboration under one roof. Similar to other tools on my list, it’s great for inbound call handling, outbound dialing and team meetings.
But Dialpad really stands out for the way it’s integrating AI into nearly every feature. While AI is starting to creep into the way all business phone systems are powered, Dialpad is definitely leading the pack.
Learn more about the company and its mission in my full Dialpad review.
Why I chose Dialpad
I wanted to include at least one option for sales teams looking for a sleek business phone service. Make calls, track leads, close accounts, repeat. Dialpad is easy to use, affordable, and deploys in minutes. For the price, it’s surprisingly feature-rich.
Real-time AI-generated transcripts are available on every plan, which is a nice perk for such a low entry-level price. As you upgrade your plan tier, you start to access even more AI capabilities, including advanced automation.
While these features can be useful for any business, they’re really helpful for high-volume outbound sales teams. Although more expensive than its base business communications platform, Dialpad sales-specific contact center packages with a price that’s easily justified when you consider what you’re getting.
You can access power dialers, AI-generated notes, live AI agent assistance, local number dialing, advanced coaching capabilities and much more. These features ensure your sales reps are more informed and close more deals, while spending less time on mundane admin tasks.
Take a look at the full Dialpad review if you want to learn more.
Pricing
Here are the base pricing options for Dialpad’s business communication platform:
- Standard: Starts at $15 per user per month.
- Pro: Starts at $25 per user per month.
- Enterprise: Custom quote.
- Free trial available? Yes, a 14-days free trial is available.
The low rates are somewhat deceiving, as you’ll need to upgrade to access advanced features. And even some basic features, like internet fax, cost extra.
So if you’re going to spend more money, it’s worth upgrading to Dialpad’s Sales Contact Center; those plans start at $60 per user per month.
Features
- Unlimited calling.
- SMS/MMS and team messaging.
- AI-powered call transcripts.
- Multi-level auto attendant.
- Call recording.
- Customer support: 24/7 live chat.
- Virtual fax: $10 add-on.
- QoS reports.
Pros and cons
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Zoom Phone: Best for low-volume calling
All the business phone systems on my list offer unlimited calling; Zoom Phone offers this too, but you can also opt for metered rates if you’re a low-volume user. This is a great way to save money if the average user spends just eight minutes or less on outbound calls each day.
Why I chose Zoom Phone
This isn’t the latest and greatest phone service, but it can be very cost effective, especially if you are already using Zoom for meetings. Yes, Zoom Phone falls on the more basic end of the spectrum compared to some of the other providers on this list — but it checks all the important boxes at a price that is potentially much lower than what you’d pay elsewhere.
Zoom Phone allows you to mix and match plan types. For example, let’s say you need a phone system to accommodate 25 users, but just five of them make lots of calls, while the others barely touch the phone. You can easily set up your system so those five users are on an unlimited calling plan, and your low-volume users pay less for metered billing.
All plans come with call recording, hot desking and Salesforce integrations, which are normally reserved for mid-level plans or higher.
Check out my full Zoom Phone review for more details.
Pricing
- US and Canada Metered: Starts at $10 per user per month.
- US and Canada Unlimited: Starts at $15 per user per month.
- Global Select: Custom pricing.
- Free trial available? No.
If you’re on the unlimited plan, you can add on international calling to 19 countries for just $10 per month. The Global Select plan gives you access to unlimited calling in one region from a list of 48 countries, which is nice if the majority of your team or customers is based internationally.
Features
- Standard call administration.
- Multi-level IVR.
- Toll-free numbers.
- Call recording.
- SMS, MMS and team messaging.
- Desktop and mobile apps.
- Hot desking.
- Voicemail with transcription.
- Live monitoring, whisper and barge.
- Customer support: 24/7 phone and live chat.
Pros and cons
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Vonage: Best for custom in-app calling solutions
Vonage has a basic unified communications system, which is fine for just one or two people who want to add a business line to their existing smartphone. You’ll get unlimited calling, SMS/MMS messaging, voicemail and a virtual receptionist — plus the ability to handle calls from your smartphone or desktop computer.
But these plans are pretty limited, and you’ll need to upgrade to access team collaboration features. Once you reach that price point, you get a much better, fully-featured phone system for either the same rate or less.
Why I chose Vonage
While its standard phone system pales in comparison to others, its standalone communication APIs are a great way to add calling capabilities to other software.
Let’s say you want to set up a virtual video meeting or appointment option from your website or mobile app — you can do this with the Vonage Video API. Or, maybe you want to add global calling capabilities built into your website or mobile app — Vonage’s Voice API has you covered.
You’ll need development resources to handle these things for you. But in the world of business communications, you can essentially build anything you want with the Vonage APIs.
The platform even makes it possible to verify and validate users worldwide. For example, you could send a text or voice verification code to users when they sign up or try to log into your financial app or healthcare app.
Learn more about their pros, cons, mission, and services in my full Vonage review.
Pricing
- Mobile: Starts at $19.99 per line per month billed annually.
- Premium: Starts at $29.99 per line per month billed annually.
- Advanced: Starts at $39.99 per line per month billed annually.
- Free trial available? No.
You’ll need to start at the Premium tier to unlock basic team collaboration features. Call groups, visual voicemail and calling recording aren’t available until you reach the Advanced level.
Pricing for Vonage’s communication APIs is based on usage, starting at $0.0043 per minute.
Features
- Unlimited calling.
- SMS and MMS.
- Voicemail.
- Virtual receptionist.
- Mobile and desktop apps.
- Customer support: chatbot (limited hours for live agents).
- Virtual fax: $14.99 add-on.
Pros and cons
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OpenPhone: Best for startups
OpenPhone is a cost-effective phone solution for small teams that’s lightweight, modern, and effortless to deploy. It’s an ideal choice for startups because it blends simplicity with powerful features that enhance team communication. With affordable pricing, OpenPhone keeps costs manageable while offering lots of handy tools for small teams.
Read more in my full OpenPhone review.
Why I chose OpenPhone
New businesses don’t necessarily need all the complex call administration features that come with the standard business phone service. OpenPhone offers an easy to setup and user-friendly interface that allows teams to get started quickly. There’s a shared inbox, built-in contact management, and team collaboration tools ensure smooth workflows.
OpenPhone shines for its unlimited texting throughout the U.S. and Canada. You can set up AI-powered message replies, auto-responses and even scheduled messages at scale.
These work really well for outbound text campaigns or just any business that would rather text with their customers instead of call them. From appointment reminders to promo codes, there are tons of ways you can use this platform to grow your business.
One really cool feature of OpenPhone is its unique ability for multiple team members to collaborate on the same text thread. This ensures your customers get a prompt response, they’re always being helped, and they’ll never know that they’re actually texting with more than one person.
Pricing
- Starter: Starts at $15 per user per month.
- Business: Starts at $23 per user per month.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing.
- Free trial available? Yes, a 7-days free trial is available.
There’s also a one-time fee of $19 to set up texting and an ongoing fee that ranges between $1.50 and $3 per month for texting.
Each plan comes with one phone number per user, and additional lines can be purchased for just $5 per month.
The entry-level Starter plan is capped at 10 users, so you’ll need to upgrade to a Business plan once you exceed that limit.
Features
- Unlimited calling and texting in North America.
- Call recording.
- Voicemail transcripts.
- Scheduled messages.
- Free local or toll-free number.
- Customer support: Standard.
- Web, desktop, and mobile apps.
- Automated messaging (Add-on).
Pros and cons
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How do I choose the best business phone service provider for my business?
Start by identifying your business needs across your whole organization. Anyone who is going to use the phone system or be part of an IVR call flow has to be taken into consideration. Spend time here getting the full story about system requirements and desired capabilities — it’s painful to go through this methodically, and you may have to chase people down to get the information you need, but it is worth it.
Next, select the type of phone system that best suits the need you have identified. Broadly speaking, you will have the following options:
- VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), a flexible, internet-based system ideal for businesses seeking cost savings and basic calling features.
- UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) expands on VoIP by integrating voice, video, messaging, and collaboration tools into a single platform, making it a strong choice for businesses prioritizing seamless internal communication.
- Unified Communications is a broader term encompassing both UCaaS and on-premise setups that unify communication channels.
- CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) focuses on customer engagement, offering tools like call routing, chat, and omnichannel support for businesses managing customer service operations.
- CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) provides APIs that enable businesses to build custom communication tools into their apps, perfect for companies with unique needs or heavy integration requirements.
As you shop around, you will notice that vendors offer some or all of these solutions. You’ll have to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each vendor’s offering. Ideally, you’ll be able to rule out enough potential options to create a shortlist of providers to try or demo.
Once you have tested the software, then start to think about costs. It’s really hard to estimate the cost of a VoIP phone system or contact center by looking at a pricing page. Providers typically charge setup fees, monthly per-line fees, and additional costs for advanced features.
Don’t forget to factor in the total cost of ownership, including hardware (if applicable), maintenance, and any hidden fees for features like call recording or integrations with CRM software.
Methodology
I looked at dozens of business phone services before narrowing down the top eight providers. Then each of these top picks were evaluated based on the same criteria, including cost, features, collaboration and customer service.
While basic phone systems are fine for some use cases, I gave extra points to systems that came with more advanced capabilities.
- Standard and advanced features: Things like unlimited calling, voicemail, video conferencing and texting are all basic features. Others, like multi-level IVRs, AI-powered automation and call summaries, are a bit more advanced.
- Customer support: 24/7 phone and live chat support should be the standard, but it’s not. Beyond support hours and channels, I also assessed how helpful each provider’s customer service team is and if they actually solve problems quickly.
- Third-party integrations: You should be able to seamlessly integrate your business phone system with tools like CRM software, ERP software, fax systems, cloud storage and help desks.
- Security and privacy: You shouldn’t have to worry about your calls, messages or data being intercepted. The best business phone providers have multiple servers and data centers worldwide and perform regular audits on them. They also have high-level encryption, redundancy architecture, advanced account management tools and multi-factor authentication.
- Uptime percentage: Does the provider have an uptime guarantee or SLA? Any technical flaws or infrastructure issues could lead to unplanned outages or downtime.
- Demo or free trial: You should be able to test the system before buying it or committing to a contract.
- Overall cost: I assessed all the various fees, including cost per user, installation costs, differences between paying monthly or annually, discounts, optional hardware and more.
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