6 Best Business Phone Services for Small Business (2022)
Are you looking for the best business phone service for your WordPress powered website? Adding a phone service can help you efficiently manage calls with customers. In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best business phone services that you can use along with your WordPress site.
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 wouldn’t look professional, and you will not be able to communicate effectively.
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.
- Share one business phone number among several users simultaneously (auto attendant feature allows you to route call to the first available representative)
- You can use a desk phone system, cordless phones, mobile cell phone, or a computer to receive and make calls.
- Easily add new employees without calling in a IT technician.
- Business phone systems transmit voice over internet (VoIP systems), which means you can take your local or toll-free number anywhere you want. All you will need is a high-speed internet connection.
If you are running an online store or a small business website, then adding a professional business phone service can help you grow your business. You can use it to build better customer relations with professional sales and support provided over the phone.
That being said, let’s take a look at the top business phone services that you can use with your WordPress site.
1. Nextiva
Nextiva is the best business phone service in terms of features and ease of use. 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 easily 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, advanced IVR (interactive voice response) system, and more. As a platform Nextiva also offer other powerful features including CRM, Live Chat, online surveys, call analytics, and other solutions that work very well with the business phone system.
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 $18.95 per user every month for the Essentials plan. Their pricing gets cheaper as you add more users. You can also create a pre-paid account to save more money.
Note: We use Nextiva on WPBeginner as our business phone service. In our experience, Nextiva is the best small business phone system in the market from both features and pricing point of view.
As a small business, our favorite feature is that Nextiva lets us add a business line for cell phone, 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 give us text messaging and video conferencing which makes it easier for our team to connect with our customers using their preferred business communication channel.
With that said, if your business needs an office phone system that works on existing handsets, then Nextiva offer 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.
Expert Review: We believe Nextiva is the best overall business phone service for small businesses with affordable enterprise-level plans.
2. RingCentral
RingCentral is another popular business phone service for companies of all sizes. They offer one of the most feature-rich small business phone systems on the market.
Their business phone platform includes all the standard business calls functionality you would need including unlimited calling, call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting and transfer, share one line on multiple mobile devices and users, SMS messaging, visual voicemail, and more.
Apart from that, it also comes with video meetings with screen sharing, team messaging, 1000 toll-free minutes, and integrations with Gsuite, Dropbox, Microsoft, and other services. It comes with an intuitive cloud based administration that makes it super easy to set up and manage your calls.
Their Essentials plan starts at $19.99 per month for each user (billed annually), and you can add up to 10 users. Other plans come at different pricing and features.
You can also pay extra to get a vanity number for your business which allow you to have catchy and memorable business phone number.
RingCentral is a great phone solution for both physical offices that are looking to replace landline phones as well as those moving to a virtual office.
It can work with your telephone system when compatible, or you can use their virtual phone system through RingCentral desktop app and mobile app which works on all smartphones (iOS and Android).
Because RingCentral is one of the most popular business VOIP platform, they have 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 you can have an integrated customer contact center.
Expert Review: We believe RingCentral is a great business VOIP solution for small-to-medium sized businesses.
3. Ooma
Ooma is a popular business VOIP phone provider that offers business phone numbers, and 1-800 toll free phone numbers at affordable prices. 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.
Ooma office platform comes with all powerful features that you would expect such as 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, 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 35+ business phone features.
They also have a Ooma Office Pro plan which costs $24.95 per month and includes additional features such as video conferencing, voicemail transcription, enhanced call blocking, call recording, desktop app, and more.
Expert Review: We believe Ooma is the best business phone service for traditional office settings with desk phones. Their new features also make it great for remote teams looking to advance collaboration.
4. GrassHopper
GrassHopper offers virtual phone numbers through voice over internet protocol (VOIP), and it is great for solopreneurs and small businesses. A virtual phone number means it can forward calls to any phone number or mobile device. However, for outgoing calls you will still need a regular phone line.
They offer intuitive web and mobile apps to manage your account and phone service. You can use multiple extensions for your number, and you can choose from local, toll-free, and vanity phone numbers. It offers US, Canada, and UK based local and toll-free numbers.
GrassHopper comes with all standard features like call forwarding, routing, waiting, call hold music, voicemail to email transcripts, and more. It is perfect for remote teams because you can add extensions that can be used from anywhere using mobile or desktop apps.
Their plans start from $29.99 per month with 1 local number and up to 3 extensions. You can increase the number of users and add multiple local phone numbers on their higher plans.
Expert Review: We believe GrassHopper is the best business phone service for freelancers and solopreneurs.
5. 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 to those countries way cheaper. You can also integrate your business phone service to third-party CRM software like Salesforce and Zoho.
They have two types of pricing options pay per minute and unlimited. Pay per minute plans start from $12.99 per month and unlimited plans start from $22.99 per month.
Expert Review: We believe Phone.com is the best cheap business phone service for budget-conscious companies.
6. GoToConnect (formerly Jive)
GoToConnect, formerly known as Jive, is another great option for small business phone service. They offer an advanced cloud business phone system at an affordable price.
Their VOIP phone service includes all the standard features like 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 just business phone services. They have HD video conferencing that makes it easy for you to collaborate with your customers and team members.
They have over 100+ cloud VoIP features including several notable features like unlimited call queues, advanced dialpad editor, cloud branch exchange, advanced ring groups and wait time announcement for call centers, paging system, eFax, and more.
Since GoToConnect is part of the larger GoTo software family, it seamlessly integrates with their other webinar and meeting softwares like GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, and more.
Their pricing starts at $24 per month for the basic business phone service. Their premium plan comes with advanced features for larger call centers.
Expert Review: We believe GoToConnect is the best business phone service for small businesses in education and healthcare industries.
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 in the market.
Their plans are affordable for businesses of all sizes, 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 as a very close second. Their voip phone system offers a lot of the same features as Nextiva, and at the end for us it came down to price and customer service.
You really can’t go wrong with either of these top two VoIP providers.
We also looked into many other business phone service providers that are not listed in this article like Vonage, 8×8, Dialpad, AT&T, Verizon, Skype, 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 goal is always to make it easy for you to choose the best provider for your needs.
We hope this article helped you find the best business phone service for your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a free business email address and the best email marketing services for small business.
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 landline because it uses your existing internet connection rather than requiring a separate system or hardware. VoIP business phone service also lessen 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 you can even save up to 90% on internal calling costs with top providers like Nextiva.
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.
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 phones 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 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:
- Nextiva
- RingCentral
- Ooma
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