12 Best Business Phone Services for Small Business (2024)

Implementing a reliable business phone service can significantly enhance how you manage customer calls and communications. However, choosing the right solution tailored to your business needs is crucial.

At WPBeginner, we’ve had hands-on experience with several business phone services to keep our team connected and our customers satisfied. Through this extensive testing, we’ve gained valuable insights into the features and functionalities that truly matter for small businesses.

In this article, we’ve hand-picked some of the best business phone services that you can use alongside your WordPress site based on our detailed research and experience.

Want to see the answer quickly? Based on our extensive research, the best business phone services for small businesses are Nextiva and RingCentral.

In a hurry? No worries! Take a look at our top picks so you can quickly choose the right phone service for your business.

How We Test and Review Business Phone Services

We conducted in-depth testing using real-world scenarios to recommend the best business phone services. Our review process focused on evaluating each service based on the following factors:

• Ease of Use: We set up and used each business phone service ourselves, focusing on the intuitive user interface. We tested how easy it is to manage contacts, set up call forwarding, and use voicemail features. We also evaluated how straightforward the onboarding process was, especially for teams that may not have technical expertise.
• Features and Integrations: We reviewed each service’s key features, such as voicemail-to-email, call recording, and conference calling. We also tested how well these services integrate with popular business tools like Slack, Google Drive, and CRM software.
• Call Quality and Reliability: During our tests, we made multiple calls to evaluate the clarity of both local and international calls. We also monitored call drops and lag, especially under peak usage times. We assessed whether the service could maintain call quality during power outages or weak internet connections, ensuring reliability even in difficult circumstances.
• Pricing: We compared pricing structures across services to identify those offering the best value for small to medium-sized businesses. Our analysis included evaluating what each pricing tier offers regarding features, flexibility, and scalability. We also checked for any hidden fees or extra charges that could impact long-term use.
• User Reviews: In addition to our internal testing, we reviewed user feedback from actual business customers. This gave us insights into common issues that might not appear during initial testing.
• Personal Experience: We currently use Nextiva and have previously used other business phone companies. This gave us additional insights into the practical usage in real business scenarios.

Why and When You Need a Business Phone Service?

Normally, you can just add your landline or mobile phone number to your WordPress site and use that to receive calls from customers. However, your phone number won’t look professional, and you will also run into some communication and privacy challenges.

Adding a proper business phone service allows you to do the following:

• You can easily track call duration, hold times, wait times, and overall usage.
• Most business phone services come with call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting, inbound call routing, call recording, and more.
• You can share one business phone number among several of your team members simultaneously (the auto attendant feature allows you to route a call to the first available representative)
• You can receive and make calls using a desk phone system, cordless phones, mobile cell phones, or a computer.
• Easily add new employees without calling in an IT technician.
• Business phone systems transmit voice over the internet (VoIP systems), meaning you can take your local or toll-free number anywhere. All you will need is a high-speed internet connection.

If you’re running an online store or a small business website, adding a professional business phone service can help you grow your business. You can use it to build a better customer experience with professional sales and support provided over the phone.

That said, let’s examine the top business phone services for your WordPress site.

1. Nextiva

In our opinion, Nextiva is the best business phone service overall. It’s great for both small businesses and enterprises. For more details, check out our full Nextiva review.

We love Nextiva because they offer a large set of features, with quick setup and reasonable pricing. It comes with a simple web-based admin panel, which makes it easy for small business owners to manage the unified communications platform like a pro.

Nextiva’s VoIP phone service for small businesses includes advanced call routing, unlimited free domestic calling, voicemail to email and text, online faxing, text messages, and more.

You also get a free local or toll-free number, free number porting, and all the standard call management features like caller ID, call forwarding, routing, custom greetings, an advanced IVR (interactive voice response) system, and more. As a platform, Nextiva also offers other powerful features, including live chat, CRM, online surveys, call analytics, and other solutions that work very well with the business phone system.

When researching the service, we found that their phone call quality is excellent, their VoIP solution offers 99.999% uptime, and their customer service representatives are always helpful.

Pricing for Nextiva’s business phone service starts from $21 per user every month for the Core plan, which is paid annually when you use our Nextiva coupon.

As a small business, our favorite feature is that Nextiva lets us add a business line for cell phones, so our team can receive incoming calls from our office or even when working remotely without having to share their personal cell phone numbers. The Nextiva app works on both iPhone (iOS) and Google (Android) smartphones.

They also offer text messaging and video conferencing, which makes it easier for our team to communicate with customers using their preferred business communication channels.

That said, if your business needs an office phone system that works on existing handsets, then Nextiva offers that as well. Call centers and enterprise companies often use Nextiva to transition their Avaya private branch exchange (PBX system) into a powerful cloud phone system with SIP trunking.

Nextiva is the official phone provider for top universities such as Stanford, UCLA, University of Southern California, as well as top brands like Taco Bell, Conan O’ Brian, and more.

Why we recommend Nextiva: We believe Nextiva is the best overall business phone service for small businesses with affordable enterprise-level plans.

Bonus: WPBeginner users can use our Nextiva coupon code to unlock the best deal.

2. RingCentral

RingCentral is another popular business phone service for companies of all sizes. We were impressed by its cloud-based features. What’s more, at that price point, we found it to be the most feature-rich small business phone system on the market.

For more details, see our full RingCentral review.

Their business phone platform includes all the standard business call functionalities you would need. This includes unlimited calling, call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting and transfer, and sharing one line on multiple mobile devices and users. You also get SMS messaging, visual voicemail, and more.

During our research, we discovered that it also includes video meetings with screen sharing, team messaging, 1000 toll-free minutes, and integrations with Google Workspace, Dropbox, Microsoft, and other services. Its intuitive cloud-based administration makes setting up and managing your calls super easy.

Their Core plan starts at $20 per month for each user (billed annually). Other plans come at different pricing and advanced features like auto call recording, internet fax, unlimited video, whiteboards, messaging, and more. You can use our RingCentral coupon code to unlock special pricing.

You can also pay extra to get a vanity phone number for your business, which allows you to have a catchy and memorable business phone number.

RingCentral is a great phone solution for physical offices looking to replace landline phones and those moving to a virtual office.

It can work with your telephone system when compatible, or you can use their virtual phone system through the RingCentral desktop app and mobile app, which works on all smartphones (iOS and Android).

Because RingCentral is one of the most popular business VoIP platforms, it has a large app integration directory.

This allows you to connect with other services for automatic transcription, real-time analytics, voice-over call recording service, sales call insights from Chorus.ai, integrations with call center software, connection with support help desk software, and many more add-ons so that you can have integrated customer contact center. They also offer APIs for developers.

Why we recommend RingCentral: We believe RingCentral is a great business VoIP solution for small- to medium-sized businesses.

3. Zoom Phone

Zoom Phone is a modern and scalable small business phone service that offers flexible pricing without long-term contracts. In our opinion, it’s a great option if your small business is on a tight budget. It’s half the price of our other top choices, but its cloud VoIP phone system includes everything you need.

With Zoom Phone, you’ll get call forwarding, call recording, voicemail transcription, automatic call attendance, SMS, desktop and mobile apps, desk phone support, and more.

We particularly liked the feature that allows you to easily make phone calls from any device using the familiar Zoom interface.

Plus, with Zoom Phone, you get VoIP phone, video meetings, and team chat all together. With a simple click, you can seamlessly elevate a phone call into a video conference with Zoom Meetings or transfer a call to a Zoom Room.

This eliminates the need to juggle multiple platforms, saves time, and helps improve team and customer communication.

During our research, we also found that it integrates with popular apps and services, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Outlook, Google Workspace, Slack, Twilio, Talkdesk, and more.

Their phone plans start at $10 per month per user for the pay-as-you-go plans. However, you need to upgrade your plan to access unlimited outbound calls, starting at $20 per month per user.

Why we recommend Zoom Phone: We believe Zoom Phone is the best business phone service for small businesses that are looking for a cost-effective solution. They offer affordable monthly and annual plans with advanced features.

4. Grasshopper

Grasshopper offers virtual phone numbers through Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). We believe it is a good alternative for solopreneurs and small businesses. A virtual phone number means it can forward calls to any phone number or mobile device. However, you will still need a regular phone line for outgoing calls.

They offer intuitive web and mobile apps to manage your account and phone service. You can use multiple extensions for your number and choose from local, toll-free, and vanity phone numbers. It offers US, Canada, and UK-based local and toll-free numbers.

Grasshopper comes with standard features like call forwarding, routing, waiting, call hold music, voicemail-to-email transcripts, and more. It’s perfect for remote teams because you can add extensions that can be used from anywhere using mobile or desktop apps.

Their plans start at $14 per month with 1 local number and 1 extension. On their higher plans, you can increase the number of users and add multiple local phone numbers.

Why we recommend Grasshopper: We believe Grasshopper is the best business phone service for freelancers, solopreneurs, and anyone who is looking for a low-budget business phone setup.

5. Ooma

Ooma is a popular business VoIP phone provider that offers business phone numbers and 1-800 toll-free phone numbers at affordable prices. We found it to be a great option for growing businesses looking for a multi-channel platform for their operational needs.

For more information, read our full Ooma review.

You can add a toll-free number to any Ooma office plan. By default, they will pre-select a toll-free phone number for you, but you also have the option to choose a new one.

The Ooma Office platform comes with all the powerful features you would expect, such as a virtual receptionist, extension dialing, music-on-hold, smart mobile phone apps, call logs, and more. Best of all, the setup is very easy, and you can do it within minutes.

You can use their control panel to easily manage calls, add new team members, configure settings, and more.

Their pricing plan starts at $19.95 per month per user with no contracts, and it comes with a free toll-free number and 50+ business phone features.

They also have an Ooma Enhanced plan, which costs $27.99 per month and includes additional features such as video conferencing, voicemail transcription, enhanced call blocking, call recording, a desktop app, and more.

The Call Center plan, which costs $49.99 per month, comes with more advanced features like unlimited call queues, Salesforce integration, meeting recording, hot desking, and more.

Why we recommend Ooma: We believe Ooma is the best business phone service for businesses of all sizes. They’re great for both traditional office settings with desk phones as well as for remote teams who are looking to increase productivity and collaboration.

6. Phone.com

Phone.com is another good option for small business phone service. They offer a simple web and app-based administration panel with standard phone service features like call forwarding, call routing, caller ID, conference calling, video conference calls, and more.

They include several European countries and Canada in their local call minutes, which makes calling those countries way cheaper. You can also integrate your business phone service into third-party CRM software like Salesforce and Zoho.

Their plans start from $12.74 per month for 500 calling minutes, one account phone number, video conferencing, and more.

Why we recommend Phone.com: We believe Phone.com is the best cheap business phone service for budget-conscious companies.

7. GoToConnect (formerly Jive)

GoToConnect, formerly known as Jive, is another great option for small business phone services. They offer an advanced cloud business phone system at an affordable price.

Their VoIP communication solution includes all the standard features, such as unlimited calls, unlimited extensions, call forwarding, number sharing, voicemail to audio email, automatic call attendance, mobile apps, chat, SMS, and more.

They also have hundreds of CRM integrations and other marketing integrations with popular services like Salesforce, Zoho, Microsoft Outlook, Google Workspace, Zendesk, Slack, and more.

GoToConnect offers a truly unified business communication platform that goes beyond business phone services. Its HD video conferencing makes it easy to collaborate with customers and team members.

They have over 100+ cloud VoIP features, including several notable features like unlimited call queues, an advanced dial-pad editor, cloud branch exchange, advanced ring groups and wait time announcement for call centers, a paging system, eFax, and more.

Since GoToConnect is part of the larger GoTo software family, it seamlessly integrates with their other meeting and webinar software like GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, and more.

Their pricing starts at $27 per month for the basic business phone service. Their premium plan comes with advanced features for larger call centers. We found it to be a bit pricier than some other solutions we tested, which is why we think it is more suitable for mid-size companies.

Why we recommend GoToConnect: Because of our experience with VOIP services, we believe GoToConnect is the best business phone service for small businesses in the education and healthcare industries.

8. Freshcaller

Freshcaller, formerly Freshdesk Contact Center, is an easy-to-use, affordable contact center solution for businesses of all sizes. This cloud-based business phone service is designed to manage inbound customer support calls.

It comes with all of the call center features you’d expect, such as voicemail, call recording, call monitoring, warm and cold transfers, routing automation, agent availability reports, and much more.

Freshcaller also makes it easy to scale your business. You can create a global contact center by bringing your carrier or by purchasing numbers from 90+ countries.

They offer a pay-per-minute plan that you can use to get started. Or, you can upgrade to the Growth plan, which includes up to 2,000 free incoming minutes, starting at $15 per month per agent.

Why we recommend Freshcaller: After reviewing Freshcaller, we think that this phone service is best suited for businesses with dedicated customer support teams that handle a high volume of customer calls.

9. Dialpad

Dialpad is an AI-powered cloud communication platform that offers calling, video conferencing, messaging, and more, all in one user-friendly interface.

You can set up a Dialpad business phone in minutes, and it runs on the Google Cloud Platform and their worldwide data centers, so they guarantee 100% uptime.

You can automate tasks and improve communication by using artificial intelligence features, such as automatic voicemail transcription, live speech-to-text, real-time call analytics, and more.

It even comes with AI live coaching that provides real-time recommendations during calls. This makes training new agents easier and can help your seasoned agents make more sales.

Plus, Dialpad seamlessly integrates with 70+ popular tools and apps, including Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Zendesk, just to name a few.

Dialpad pricing starts at $15 per month per user. You can also purchase addons separately, such as conference room lines, virtual faxes, and additional local, international, or toll-free numbers.

Why we recommend Dialpad: Dialpad is a great phone service for businesses that want powerful voice intelligence features. It’s also a good fit if you already use cloud-based tools because it integrates with many popular services.

10. Vonage

Vonage is a popular VoIP phone service for small and large businesses. All you need is a high speed internet connection and you can start making online calls.

You can add local, toll-free, and international company phone numbers right from the admin dashboard. Plus, it comes with tons of advanced features, such as a virtual receptionist, call screening, click-to-dial, AI virtual assistant, and more.

They also offer contact center solutions if your business has high call traffic. It includes an integrated CRM, auto-dial, auto-log calls, call recording, and AI routing.

Vonage’s pricing is based on minutes. Their internet calling starts at $0.0043 per minute.

Why we recommend Vonage: We think Vonage is best if you’re interested in a phone service that has advanced features and APIs for developers.

11. 8×8

8×8 is another cloud-based communication platform designed specifically for businesses. Aside from phone calls, it offers a variety of features, including HD video and audio conferencing, SMS, and team chat.

It’s not as feature-rich as some of the other providers in this list, but it offers a 99.999% uptime SLA and 35+ public and private data centers, so you can be sure your communication channels will always be available.

It’s also easy to scale as your business grows. You can start with the basic plan, which includes unlimited calling to 14 countries, and easily upgrade to access more advanced features.

8×8 doesn’t advertise its pricing publicly, so you’ll have to contact the sales team to get a quote for their services.

Why we recommend 8×8: We think that 8×8 is suitable for businesses that need a reliable phone service with basic calling features.

12. Verizon

Verizon is a well-known mobile network carrier that also offers business phone service solutions. It allows you to use traditional phone lines or VoIP plans.

The Business Unlimited plans offer unlimited talk, text, and data. Other features include mobile hotspot data, call filters, mobile security, and more.

Verizon is one of the more expensive business phone services we’ve reviewed. The Business Unlimited plans start at $30 per month per line.

Why we recommend Verizon: We think Verizon is best suited for businesses with a higher budget who want to utilize traditional phone lines.

Which Is the Best Business Phone Service for You?

After carefully researching all the top business phone service providers, we believe that Nextiva is the best business phone service provider on the market.

Their plans are affordable and scalable for businesses of all sizes; you get unlimited voice calls, and they offer a lot of powerful features along with top-notch customer support.

The best part is that while Nextiva business phone line works on your cell phone, tablets, and computer, they also often run free promotions for advanced business phone systems like Poly VVX150 or Nextiva X-885, which is used by many professionals for multi-line handling and more.

For all the reasons above, we decided to use Nextiva for our own business and rate it as the #1 best business phone system in the market.

In our research, RingCentral came in a very close second. Their VoIP phone system offers many of the same features as Nextiva, and in the end, it came down to price and customer service.

You can’t go wrong with these top two VoIP providers.

We also looked into many other business phone service providers not listed in this article, such as Skype, Viasat, Avaya, and others. We decided it wasn’t best to list them all in this article because we don’t want to cause choice paralysis.

Instead, our ultimate goal is always to make choosing the best provider for your needs easy.

Business Phone System FAQs

Having helped thousands of business owners find the best business phone system for their needs, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are some of the answers to the most frequently asked questions about VoIP business phone systems and service providers.

What is VoIP, and how does it work?

VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a phone technology that allows you to make and receive phone calls using the internet wi-fi instead of traditional phone lines.

We wrote a detailed guide on what is VoIP and how it works.

Here’s a quick visual VoIP infographic:

Is business VoIP phone service cheaper than a landline phone?

Yes, VoIP business phone systems are cheaper than on-premise landlines because they use your existing internet connection rather than requiring a separate system or hardware. A VoIP business phone service also lessens internal IT and support burdens by simplifying the overall workflow.

Typical landline phone providers charge extra for advanced call features like call queuing, call transfer / automatic call forwarding, music on hold, extension dialing, conference bridge, etc.

With business VoIP, all the advanced features are included in a flat monthly fee, and top providers like Nextiva allow you to save up to 90% on internal calling costs.

Another huge benefit is that you get international calling at far more affordable rates.

Can I switch from landline phone to business VoIP service?

Yes, you can easily convert your landline business phone system to an online business VoIP solution. All the top business phone system companies like Nextiva and RingCentral make it easy for you to keep the same business phone number when switching from landline to VoIP.

How much does a business phone service cost?

The cost of your virtual business phone service will depend on the provider you choose, but typically, a VoIP service would cost around $20 per month.

Can I use my cordless phone with business VoIP?

Yes, you can use your existing cordless phones, softphones, and desk phones with most business VoIP providers. All the top providers that we mentioned in our list also come with a mobile phone app that you can install on your personal cell phone as well.

If you’re currently using analog phones or have a PBX setup, then you can use a VoIP adapter to keep the same business phone system.

What are the disadvantages of VoIP business phone systems?

VoIP business phone services make phone calls over internet. The biggest disadvantage is that if you do not have a reliable internet connection, then your customer call quality will not be as good.

Also, if your business experiences a power outage, then it likely means that your internet router will also lose power. This can lead to call dropping. We always recommend using a battery backup with your internet router to avoid call quality issues.

These disadvantages can be easily mitigated, and the advantages of VoIP business phone systems simply outweigh any cons.

You get all the advanced call features like call routing, music on hold, conference calls, auto-attendant, interactive voice response (IVR), call queuing, extension dialing, voicemail forwarding, video calling, and a lot of flexibility without the high costs of landline phones.

Which is the best business phone system in your expert opinion?

Our top 3 choices for the best business phone services are:

1. Nextiva
2. RingCentral
3. Zoom Phone

No, this last question is not a joke. We seriously get this question even after referring people to this guide.

That’s why we even made a video comparison of the top business phone services:

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Related Readings

• Best virtual business phone number apps
• Best call center software
• Best conference call services
• Best business cell phone plans
• Best business voicemail transcription service
• Best business VoIP phone system

We hope this article helped you find the best business phone service for your WordPress site or small business. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a free business email address and our expert picks of the best email marketing services for small business.

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