Do you know that a successful business needs better communication and want to know effective ways with the help of which you can improve your business communication? Looking for a technology that can transfer and manage multiple calls but you have a small business?Â
If yes, then you’re on the right page, as we’ll be discussing what a phone system is, the best phone systems for small businesses and some of the key considerations to be kept in mind before choosing a phone system for you.
So, let’s get started with the post without any further delay.
What is Phone Systems?
A phone system is a combination of software and hardware that lets you handle multiple calls, share voice messages and transfer different calls within an organization.
They allow you to handle a large number of calls from multiple devices like tablet, laptop, PC or mobile.
The phone systems serve different types and sizes of businesses in order to track and manage all the incoming, outgoing calls with the facility of forwarding, recording, or rerouting calls to IVR messaging and more.Â
Types of Phone Systems for Small Businesses:
Here are the different types of phone systems mentioned below for small businesses:
Key system unit (mostly used by small organizations):
KSU is the most basic phone system used by an organization with less than 50 employees and serves features such as speakerphone, intercom, hold buttons and paging. It uses a central switching device to select the phone line to select the phone-line manually.Â
However, there is also a KSU-less system which is completely wireless, portable, flexible but only suitable for small businesses.
Private branch exchange (advanced KSU and KSU-less system):
PBX uses programmable switching devices and is largely automated with the facility of automatic incoming call routing. It is used by small businesses and is highly in demand because it even works without electricity for some time.
VoIP (most advanced and works on the internet):
VoIP is one of the most popular and affordable business phone system types which works on the internet with an internet-enabled device. With VoIP, businesses can easily communicate with the clients even from another country.Â
Too busy to read the full article? Here are the 5 best phone systems for small businesses presented to you in a tabular form:
Best Phone Systems For Small Businesses | About (Specifications) | Plans and Price |
Nextiva | Voicemail, unlimited voice and video calls, auto-attendant, voicemail to email, toll-free numbers, unlimited internet fax, Outlook/Google Contact integrations. | Starts at $18.95/user/month. |
Zoom | Free meetings, up to 100 attendees, additional numbers, whiteboard basic, team chat, historical insights, enhanced call queue analytics, auto receptionist. | Free Basic Plan. |
Vonage | Unlimited domestic calling, SMS and MMS, desktop and mobile apps, customizable live video meetings, Verify API, team satisfaction and productivity, integrated CRM, customer first-call resolution. | Mobile Plan starts at $13.99/user/month. |
Ooma | 50+ standard features, mobile accessibility, virtual receptionist, unlimited calling in US, Canada and Mexico, call queuing, CRM integration, advanced call management. | Starts at $19.95/user/month with a 30-day money back guarantee. |
Dialpad | Unlimited calling, unlimited AI meetings for up to 10 participants, team messaging, Google workspace and Microsoft 365 Integrations, AI powered voicemail transcription and calls, | Starts at $15/user/month(Free trial available). |
Best Phone Systems for Small Businesses
Now that we know what a phone system technology is, let’s quickly move further and understand the best phone systems for small businesses, their basic features, plans and pricing:
1. Nextiva
With Nextiva, you get the advanced phone system technology for small business such as auto attendants, toll-free number, team messaging, email integrations and all small business solutions at no extra cost.
From CRM integrations to automatic call recording, Nextiva covers everything for you.
Features
Below are the various important features offered by Nextiva:
Give your clients or customers a menu of options to help them choose what they want. It handles call routing and even the automatic call forwarding.
Nextiva’s business phone system allows you to read and listen to voicemails from email and sends you a visual voicemail transcript in order to help you reply faster.Â
With Nextiva, you can answer multiple incoming calls and optimize call routing but even if the wait time is too long, you can offer your clients a callback option or send a voicemail.
Plans and Price
Nextiva offers an easy, quick start plan at $18.95/user/month. Other plans are Professional at $22.95/user/month and Enterprise at $32.95/user/month.
2. RingCentral
Since 1999, RingCentral has been one of the most popular business collaboration and communication providers for video meetings, calls and messaging with multiple specialities such as smartphone apps, open API/integration, global office, video conferencing, audio conferencing, team messaging and more.
Experience Intelligent Phone, Meetings, Contact Center, and AI Solutions with RingCentral, the complete cloud communications platform.
Features
The multiple features offered by RingCentral are as follows:
With RingCentral, you can get 300+ pre-built integrations such as Microsoft teams or popular CRMs in order to give you the powerful calling experience.
The AI technology by RingCentral lets you have features like call summaries, transcripts, sentiments, action items, voicemail transcription and more.
Can easily add devices like desk phones, laptops or mobile, phone numbers, remote team, offices in a matter of minutes.
Plans and Price
The 3 plans offered by RingCentral include Core at $20.00/user/month, Advanced at $25.00/user/month and Ultra at $35.00/user/month.
3. Ooma
Ooma, is an American publicly traded telecommunications company based in the Silicon Valley, California area.
With 50+ features, Ooma fulfills all your requirements for small business communication including mobile apps, multi rings, virtual receptionist, ring groups, extension dialing, simultaneous ring, enhanced call blocking, desktop app, call recording, voice mail, easy call transfer and more.
Features
Ooma has various other important features and some of them are mentioned here:
With video conference, virtual receptionist and voicemail, you can have a better collaboration with your clients and customers.
Free mobile app by Ooma allows each and every employee in your organization to use and handle phone calls from their mobile phones.
Get the advanced features like call queuing, CRM integration, advanced call management and hot desking with Ooma’s most advanced plan.
Plans and Price
The three plans by Ooma are Essentials at $19.95/month, Pro at $24.95/month and Pro Plus at $29.95/month. All the three plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
4. Zoom
Zoom phone is the most scalable and modern solution for your small business phone system with enterprise-grade security, reliability and services.
Zoom has a number of add-on features like additional phone numbers, workspace reservations or zoom phone power pack for better collaboration and communication.
Features
Here are some of the most important features that are offered by Zoom phone:
With various facilities in the Zoom meetings such as annotations, screen sharing and digital whiteboards, you can start your meetings with clients immediately.
Can easily add additional toll-free or local numbers to your plans and use the additional number as the company’s number.
This feature is specially designed for call center managers and it helps them with facilities like historical insights, enhanced call queue analytics, auto receptionist and more.
Plans and Price
Zoom phone offers a free Basic plan with limited features like meetings for up to 40 members, 100 attendees, team chat and more. For advanced features, there are advanced plans displayed below:
5. Vonage
Since 2001, Vonage has been a communication service provider with an aim to provide personal, flexible and intelligent business communication services.
With Vonage, get 99.999% reliability, data integration and customization, scalability and simple implementation, Vonage meetings, business inbox and more.
Features
Below are the major features of Vonage mentioned for you:
Includes Voice API to deliver high-quality voice experiences, Video API to for customizable live video meetings, SMS for sending messages globally or Verify API to support customers.
Includes Desktop app for video conferencing, phone calls and team messaging, Desk Phones to add business phones from Panasonic or Poly and mobile apps for comfortable communication.
Offers Vonage contact center that would help you in controlled costs, team satisfaction and productivity, integrated CRM, customer first-call resolution and more.
Plans and Price
Vonage offers a special Mobile plan at $13.99/month. Other plans may include Premium at $20.99/month and Advanced at $27.99/month.
6. Dialpad
Want to select a small business phone system but have a low budget?
Dialpad, Ai powered workspace and all-in-one solution for fax, call, text and meeting, gives you a 14-day free trial and starts just at $15/month with high-quality features including VoIP services, AI contact center, AI sales, AI voice, AI meetings, deskphones and many more.
Features
To know more about Dialpad, we have some of the important features mentioned below:
Dialpad allows your sales team to use AI tools such as live AI coaching, sentiment analysis or real-time assists in order to be step ahead of time.
Can easily collaborate with call, message and video meetings with the help of AI as it offers built-in AI transcribes calls, tracking action items or taking notes.
With AI meetings, you can enjoy one-click meetings with no downloads, AI-powered productivity with tools such as call summaries or live transcription and screen sharing or whiteboards.Â
Plans and Price
The 3 plans offered by Diapad are Standard at $15/month, Pro at $25/month and Enterprise (for pricing, contact sales) with a free trial for each plan.
7. GoTo Connect
GoTo Connect is a customizable, scalable, all-in-one cloud phone and meeting system with everything businesses need to connect from anywhere
GoTo Connect is the phone system that clearly works the way you want by getting unlimited extensions, simple call routing plans, dial plan editor, customer engagement solutions, contact center solutions, meetings with up to 250 participants, 50 simultaneous webcams, call monitoring, reporting and analytics.
Features
Here are the most significant features by GoToConnect:
With a drag-and-drop dial plan editor, you can simply customize the call flows and set schedules, create auto-attendants for your business hours.
With the GoToConnect app, you can easily connect and join calls or meetings from your smartphone, desktop and computers or you can even join from a browser.
GoToConnect’s customer engagement solution enables you to grow your small business through SMS and surveys. The contact center solution lets you boost service through admin controls, reporting and analytics.
Plans and Price
GoToConnect offers two simple plans including Basic at $27.00/month with basic features and Standard at $32.00/month with fully-featured phone, chat and video conferencing system.
8. Grasshopper
Grasshopper carefully structured multiple affordable options and features for small businesses such as a 100% virtual phone system at low-cost, extensions, call handling, custom greetings, desktop and mobile apps, call forwarding, VoIP, wifi calling, voicemail transcription and more with round-the-clock support through email, chat, twitter or phone.
Features
Below are the most popular features of Grasshopper:
Allows you to receive and send messages on your business phone number and lets you reply instantly, respond quietly to missed calls, communicate with business MMS picture messages and more.
Lets you forward calls to multiple phones or redirect them to pre-recorded greetings to make sure that the customers or clients don’t wait for a long time.
Gives you the flexible small business phone system solutions as you can text and call from anywhere with an internet connection.
Plans and Price
Grasshopper allows you to go for a free trial by visiting the main website or you can also call and discuss with their Sales Team at toll-free number (800) 820-8210).
9. 8×8
With 8×8, you can get all your small business requirements in a single app, powerful integration with CRM system and Microsoft Teams and features such as call recordings, visual voicemails, multi-level auto attendant, 3-way calling, ring group, call monitoring, call queues, call waiting and parking.
Features
The various other features offered by 8×8 are mentioned below:
Can easily integrate with Google workspace, Freshdesk, Zoho, Microsoft Teams and other powerful business and CRM apps.
Get 99.999% reliability and call quality with zero point of failure with multiple flexibilities and rerouting capabilities.
Get scheduled reports, customizable user interface, enterprise APIs, Speech-based virtual customer agent for customers and trained AI models with previous data.
Plans and Price
The five plans offered by 8×8 have multiple features mentioned below and to know the pricing for each, you need to contact their Sales Team.
10. net2phone
With net2phone, you get the best phone system features for your small business in a budget-friendly manner and multiple devices.
Other features or services by net2phone may include answering rules, voicemail to email, local numbers, music on hold, welcome menu, call routing and so forth.
Features
The multiple features offered by net2phone are mentioned below:
Can easily connect and collaborate from home or office through video conferencing, mobile applications, voicemail to email transcription and other office business phone features.
With net2phone’s web portal, you can easily manage your small business phone system with department wide call logs and statistics, admin and user views or analytics and reporting tools.
Get call transferring, forwarding and voicemail to 40+ countries and various other interesting features like call queues, music on hold or welcome greetings.
Plans and Price
The 3 plans offered by net2phone are Office at $18.99/month, Office Pro at $22.99/month and Office Power at $29.99/month.
11. HubSpot
Want a phone system that helps you in recording and auto-logging the conversation on the contact record for future reference?
HubSpot is the platform for you as it provides such this feature together with other features like call logging and analytics, AI-powered CRM, reporting call metrics, call recording and more.
Features
The most important features by HubSpot are as follows:
Enables you to keep record of all your customer needs, past interaction, activities, store call details and lets you prioritize most important calls.
With HubSpot, you and your team can easily create 300+ custom dashboards that let you combine multiple reports, use dashboard template libraries and easily share dashboards over email or Slack.
Lets you transform your business cards into CRM contacts for free within seconds and skip the process of manual entry or costly apps.
Plans and Price
HubSpot phone system offers free tools at $0 if you are new in business then, other plans are Starter at $18/month and Professional at $800/month with multiple useful features.
For marketing
12. FreeConferenceCall
Did you know that with the audio conferencing feature by FreeConferenceCall, you can invite up to 1,000 participants on a single call?
Besides, it saves your money by giving you audio-only conferencing and is available in 75+ countries with high-quality features including record, playback, sharing important meetings, moving participants in smaller meetings and more.
Features
Here are some of the most important features by FreeConferenceCall:
Enables you to customize your meetings with the help of custom greetings, extra storage that lets you save important meetings and share later and custom hold music to entertain guests.
Lets you invite over 1000+ participants to communicate using high-quality audio. It also lets you record, playback and share your important meetings.
Helps you to host and join meetings on video calls while sharing websites, presentations, videos or documents with an accessibility in 70+ countries.
Plans and Price
Allows you to easily create your free account by visiting the main website and exploring various features and specifications offered by FreeConferenceCall.
Key Considerations for Small Business Phone Systems
Now that we know the best phone systems for small businesses with their features, plans and pricing, let’s move further and understand the major considerations that we can keep in mind before choosing small business phone systems for us.
Firstly, you must know whether you need a wired traditional landline or a VoIP connection on the basis of your business requirements though VoIP connections are cheaper and more flexible for businesses.
Choose a phone system which is budget-friendly and includes all the necessary high-quality features at the same price because a small business has less employees and less requirements.
Ensure that your phone system has high-quality calling features like call logs, call recording, missed call notifications, voicemail to email, call screening, automated-attendants and many more.
You need to make sure that your phone system has easy collaboration tools like instant messaging, web conferencing, video meetings with screen sharing options or tracking devices to check whether an employee is available or not.
Selecting a phone system for you that supports multiple devices like laptop, smartphones or desktop so that each and every employee can use it anytime from anywhere while saving time.
FAQs
Conclusion
Getting a phone system for your small business may help you with easy communication with your clients or customers through features like call forwarding, call recordings, voicemails, music on hold and many more.
We now know the best phone systems for small businesses such as RingCentral, Zoom phone, Vonage, 8×8 or Vonage provides us with multiple high-quality features in a budget-friendly manner.
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