Best Small Business Phone Service 2024

There are countless business phone service providers to choose from to get a business phone number. Selecting the best business phone systems allows you to focus more on growing your company. We reviewed the six best business phone services. To do this, we spent hundreds of hours researching and trying out various business phone service providers.

If you run a remote business you may be interested in getting a VOIP number for your small business or just adding an additional business line to your cell phone plan. Regardless, you’ll want to get your phone number listed on Google. These guides will help.

Choosing the best small business phone systems depends on three things:

• Type of business you have
• Needs of your business
• Additional services you may want for your business

In this business phone systems review, we’ll look at some of the best business phone services and share what makes them the top choice. By the time you finish reading this review, you’ll know which business phone service is right for you.

1. RingCentral: best price for businesses and it offers free trials.
2. Phone.com: best overall business phone service because of its many features and high-quality phone service.
3. Talkroute: best for smaller businesses because of how many and what type of features it offers.
4. eVoice: best for businesses needing a live receptionist (e.g., doctor’s office).
5. Grasshopper: best for businesses needing auto texting when they can’t take the call.
6. Kixie: best for businesses making telecalls because of its integrated CRM feature.

RingCentral.com connects various communication and collaboration technologies with its complete cloud-based unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform. These technologies include voice, business messaging, team collaboration, video conferencing, and online meetings, to name a few.

What’s more, RingCentral bridges the communication divide between all devices — smartphones, tablets, desk phones, and computers — making it the perfect business phone service for any business.

Offering more than VoIP business phone services and cloud PBX, RingCentral delivers complete unified communications as a service (UCaaS), which have been engineered to fit seamlessly inside of your current application framework. RingCentral’s solutions scale as a business grows, making it a great fit for any size business.

RingCentral Pros and Cons:

Pros

• Easy to set up phone systems with desktop, desk phone, and mobile app access
• 15-day free trial to test out the phone system
• Great call quality on all systems
• Works via Wi-Fi and cellular data services
• Unlimited minutes and teleconference calls

Cons

• The quality of RingCentral’s customer service has declined over the past few years, including call center support in foreign countries and long wait times for billing and other issues
• RingCentral is on the expensive side relative to other services. However, this is balanced out with unlimited minutes for calls from non-toll-free numbers

Standard Features:

• Unlimited phone and conference calls
• Video conferencing
• Text messaging
• iPhone and Android apps
• Voicemail to email
• Team collaboration (e.g., file sharing, instant messaging, chat rooms, etc.)
• Integrations with popular apps (e.g., Microsoft, Google, Dropbox)
• Team members get access to team messaging through mobile apps
• Receive traditional phone calls through iOS and Android apps on any mobile device

Pricing:

Essentials: Starting at $19.99 per month per user

RingCentral’s Essentials plan is its most basic package and includes the following features in addition to the basic features mentioned above:

• Up to 20 users only
• Business phone or toll-free numbers
• Unlimited calls within the US and Canada
• Unlimited business SMS
• Voicemail-to-text
• Team messaging
• Document sharing

Standard: Starting at $34.99 per month per user

Standard is the first plan that allows for unlimited users. Pricing per user depends on both the number of users and if it is paid monthly or annually.

The Standard plan contains everything in the Essentials plan, plus:

• Unlimited users
• Business phone numbers in over 100 countries
• Unlimited internet fax
• Unlimited audio conferencing
• Video meetings with up to 100 participants
• Up to 24-hour meeting duration
• Quality-of-service reports
• Integration with platforms such as Office 365, Google Workspace, and Slack
• 24/7 support

Premium: Starting at $44.99 per month per user

According to RingCentral, the Premium plan is its most popular package. It contains everything in the Standard plan as well as:

• Automatic call recording
• Single Sign-on
• Multi-site administration and management
• Up to eight-digit extensions with site codes
• Hot desking
• Advanced call handling, including whisper and barge
• Video meetings with up to 200 participants
• Real-time analytics
• CRM integration with platforms like Salesforce and Zendesk
• Industry-specific integration with platforms like Canvas and Smarsh
• Developer platform and custom integrations

Ultimate: Starting at $59.99 per month per user

Ultimate is RingCentral’s most expensive plan, and while it does not offer more functional features than the Premium plan, it is valuable for callers looking to have the maximum amount of toll-free minutes and as many conference callers as RingCentral can handle.

This package offers everything in the Premium plan, with the addition of:

• Device status reports
• Device status alerts
• Unlimited storage

Phone.com is a telecommunications company that provides cloud-based VoIP phone service and virtual office solutions. Phone.com’s features include a local or toll-free number, unlimited calling, voicemail to email, conference calling, and more. Phone.com’s services are affordable, reliable, and easy to use. They are perfect for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to make their business more professional.

Phone.com Pros and Cons:

Pros

• Reliable call quality
• Low prices
• Use any phone
• Convenient mobile app
• All-in-one platform
• Customer analytics
• 24/7 customer service

Cons

• No analytics on lower-tier plans

Pricing:

Basic: Starting at $10.39 per month per user

Phone.com’s most basic plan offers the following phone services:

• 300 minutes
• One number per account
• 1,000 texts
• Video conferencing with 10 users
• Mobile and desktop apps
• 50 standard voice features

Plus: Starting at $15.99 per month per user

The Plus package includes all the features in the Basic plan, plus the following features:

• Unlimited minutes
• One number per user
• Unlimited business text messages
• Video conferencing and recording with 25 users
• IP desk phone compatibility

Pro: Starting at $23.99 per month per user

The Pro package includes everything from the Plus package, plus:

• Call recording
• Call analytics
• CRM integration
• Video conferencing with 100 users, recording, and whiteboards
• Voicemail transcription

Talkroute is a business phone service provider that uses voice over internet protocol (VoIP) to help small businesses appear like large corporations. They offer loads of features like call routing, business hour settings, call forwarding, free number, hold music, SMS text messaging, visual voicemail, and lots more for your business needs.

Talkroute Pros and Cons:

Pros

• Talkroute offers unlimited minutes to the US and Canada for each and every one of their plans
• Customers rate Talkroute well for customer support, which is refreshing in an industry with many competitors that have overwhelmingly bad reviews for difficult customer service experiences
• With a baseline price of $19 for a softphone system without some auto-attendant features, Talkroute Basic is great for entrepreneurs who just need a phone number and some simple features to get started
• Talkroute does not try to sneak in hidden fees or unexpected add-ons to their service

Cons

• Talkroute only offers a seven-day free trial, which is one of the shortest of the competing services we’ve reviewed. Because of this, we recommend having a plan in mind to test the system when signing up

Pricing:

Basic: $19 per month

The Basic plan from Talkroute includes standard business phone services, including:

• One local or toll-free number
• 500 SMS and MMS text messages
• Unlimited incoming and outgoing calls
• One voicemail box
• One account user
• Unlimited call forwarding and routing
• Call stacking
• Desktop, mobile, and web apps for macOS, iOS, Windows, Android, and Linux
• Custom greetings
• 24/7 customer support in the US and Canada

Plus: $39 per month

The Plus package is the most popular package and contains everything in the Basic package, plus the following phone services:

• Two local or toll-free numbers
• Unlimited text messaging, including SMS and MMS messages
• Three account users
• Three voicemail boxes
• Customized caller ID name
• Auto attendant/IVR call menu
• Single-digit phone extensions
• Call blast
• Live call transfer
• Ability to configure hours of operation

Pro: $59 per month

The Pro plan provides all the small business phone services offered on the Plus plan, with the addition of:

• Three local or toll-free numbers
• 10 account users
• 10 voicemail boxes
• Submenus
• Unlimited multi-digit extensions
• Company directory
• Call recording
• Scheduled call forwarding
• Downloadable call analytics
• Professional voiceover services with Voice Studio

Enterprise: Starting at $99 per month

The top-tier Enterprise package is the only one that asks users to contact customer support before starting a trial. This plan offers the same features as the Pro package, plus:

• Five local or toll-free numbers
• 20 account users
• 20 voicemail boxes
• Service-level agreement (SLA) and business associate agreement (BAA)
• Account management system
• Custom software and solution integrations

Looking for virtual business phone services? eVoice is a business phone system that acts like other business phone systems, but the difference is you can be anywhere and receive your calls using their cloud-based PBX phone line. They even offer a live receptionist service that will take your calls and provide a host of administrative services, like booking appointments, collecting customer information, processing payments, you name it.

eVoice Pros and Cons:

Pros

• eVoice offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is among the longest of the services we’ve researched
• You can get a free, professionally recorded greeting if requested within seven days of setting up your account
• eVoice offers the most phone numbers available per plan, starting with three numbers on the lowest plan and up to 33 numbers on the most expensive plan

Cons

• A credit card must be entered to start a free trial, and from customer reviews available online, the cancellation policy of eVoice is not reliable
• A phone number cannot be ported or used on services outside of eVoice unless it had been ported into eVoice in the first place and requires a $40 service fee to complete
• Unlike many competitors, eVoice does not have an unlimited minutes plan for calls to the US and Canada. While this lowers the entry price, it can lead to a more variable monthly cost

Standard Features:

• Call forwarding
• Virtual answering service
• Advanced call routing
• Voicemail
• Custom greetings
• Call screening
• Web portal and mobile app
• Call queueing

Pricing:

Elite 11 Monthly: $13.50 per month per user

• 11 users
• 30,000 minutes per month
• 33 toll-free or local phone numbers
• Unlimited extensions
• Inbound online faxing

Elite Monthly: $14 per month per user

• One user
• 30,000 minutes per month
• Three toll-free or local phone numbers
• Unlimited extensions
• Inbound online faxing

Elite 6 Monthly: $13 per month per user

• Six users
• 30,000 minutes per month
• 18 toll-free or local phone numbers
• Unlimited extensions
• Inbound online faxing

Elite 10 Monthly: $10 per month per user

• 10 users
• 30,000 minutes per month
• 30 toll-free or local phone numbers
• Unlimited extensions
• Inbound online faxing

Grasshopper is a great small business phone system offering a range of features like auto-texting customers when you can’t make and receive calls. They also offer hold music, a free number, call logs, and other business VoIP phone service features.

Grasshopper Pros and Cons:

Pros

• All Grasshopper plans include unlimited calling to the US and Canada
• There is not a per-user charge on Grasshopper plans, which allows you to add as many users as you need without worrying about extra fees. This is not the case when using many of the other companies we reviewed
• While Grasshopper does not offer a free trial, their service comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, with a full refund available if canceled within that time period

Cons

• According to many online reviews, while Grasshopper’s customer support team seems responsive and capable, there have been reported billing problems and issues in the product that should not need a call to customer support to manage (such as voicemail management)

Pricing:

Solo: $29 per month

The Solo package is Grasshopper’s basic plan recommended for entrepreneurs, which includes standard small business features like:

• One phone number
• Three extensions
• Mobile and desktop apps
• Business texting
• Call forwarding
• VoIP phone service and Wi-Fi calling
• Virtual fax
• Voicemail with text transcription
• Instant Response text messages
• Custom Greetings
• Call transfers
• Call control
• Call reports
• Call handling

Partner: $49 per month

The mid-level Partner package is recommended for growing small businesses with one to three employees. It offers the same features as the Solo plan, plus:

• Three Numbers
• Six Extensions

Small Business: $89 per month

Grasshopper’s Small Business plan is recommended for established small businesses. It offers the same features as the lower plans but increases capabilities to:

• Five phone numbers
• Unlimited extensions

Want the perfect business phone systems for your telesales team? Kixie is exactly what you’re looking for because Kixie offers an integrated CRM platform alongside its VoIP business phone system. Small businesses that rely on VoIP phone service for reaching out to leads to turn them into customers will appreciate all the features Kixie has to offer.

Kixie Pros and Cons:

Pros

• In an industry full of mediocre customer service, Kixie stands out with very good reviews and support
• Kixie allows you to take your phone number with you if you choose a different service, which is not allowed at all on some services, such as eVoice
• Kixie offers simple to set up integrations with CRM systems like Salesforce, Insightly, Nutshell, Pipedrive, and more to log calls, as well as team communication tools such as Slack, an extremely powerful chat application
• Their pricing is extremely transparent and does not attempt to lock you into an annual contract
• Their cost per minute is one of the cheapest in the industry, starting at $0.01 for US phone calls. For comparison, their competitor eVoice starts at $0.03 per minute for US phone calls

Cons

• While Kixie’s pricing is transparent, their plans only include 300 standard call minutes, and unlimited minutes for calls to the US and Canada must be added for an extra monthly cost
• Kixie only offers a seven-day free trial, which means you will need to have a plan in mind to test the phone system within this short window
• While email support is available at all tiers of Kixie’s service, phone support is only available for the most expensive Enterprise plan

Pricing:

Integrated: $29 per month per user

The Integrated plan is the lower-level Kixie package, also referred to as their “Starter” package. It includes:

• 300 standard minutes (unlimited minutes available for an additional $30/month/user)
• Unlimited inbound and outbound text messages
• Number porting
• Power dialing
• Click-to-Call
• Mobile apps
• IVR auto attendant
• Ring groups
• New CRM lead creation
• Call outcome logging
• Call recording
• Sales leaderboard
• Live call board
• CRM integration, including Hubspot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive Zoho
• Email support

Professional: $55 per month per user

The higher-tier Kixie package offers the same features for small businesses that the Integrated plan has, plus:

• Inbound call queues
• Local presence dialing
• Missed call alerts
• Intelligent AutoDialer
• Progressive Caller ID
• Instant website lead caller
• Voicemail drop
• Automated texts
• Text templates
• Live call coaching
• Reporting dashboard
• Developer API integration
• Integration with Zapier and Slack
• Phone, email, and live chat support

Enterprise: Varies

• The Enterprise package offers all of the features included in the Professional plan but offers a more customized experience to small businesses. Businesses must schedule a demo with Kixie to get more tailored information