Let’s start from what is VoIP? VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. You can think of it as using Skype to render Professional services. As a growing business, small businesses care a lot about their reputation. Offering a reliable and excellent service is very important to them and this can be achieved using VoIP services. Using a VoIP service gives a good quality call experience. It improves your business communication with your clients.VoIP is more reliable and affordable than using the regular landline. It even comes with additional features that landlines don’t support.For small business owners, many VoIP services are equipped with automatic recording function, toll-free numbers and virtual assistant feature. These features give your business a professional outlook to potential clients and it also helps to set up your work practices efficiently. Some of the small business VoIP services also support integration with software like Microsoft office 365.While selecting a VoIP service, you select based on the features you need to run your business. Most small scale businesses just need a cheap replacement for their landline or a VoIP service with basic features for their remote workers. Don’t overpay for services your business doesn’t need. You can upgrade your VoIP service as your business is developing.There are different VoIP services to choose from and you can select the one that suits your business at that point in time. In this post, we’ve put together the best and affordable VoIP services for small business owners that you can choose from.
Intermedia Unite is very suitable for small businesses and it’s quite affordable. It offers unlimited call service within three countries (Puerto, US and Canada). The cheapest of its package offers video conferencing for four people which is quite suitable if your business does virtual meetings with its remote workers. The premium package covers up to 30 people. Intermedia Unite has a cloud storage capacity of 2GB per user for the cheapest package and 100GB for the premium package.Its features also include call recording, spam protection and an option to keep using your current phone number. And if you decide to go into software integration in the future, Intermedia Unite allows integration with office 365, Zoho, Microsoft Teams, GSuite and other CRM softwares. Salesforce support is also included in the premium plan.
RingCentral is suitable for businesses that have branches in different locations and remote workers. The RingCentral VoIP creates a virtual office feeling. It supports texting alongside its standard unlimited calls within Canada and the US. It offers unlimited audio and video calls with about 100 participants, quality service reports, extensive software integration with office 365, Slack and GSuite with an upgrade option to more industry specific integrations and unlimited faxing. It can be set to record calls automatically. The RingCentral VoIP enables your workers to stay in touch and ensures that your client’s calls are followed up.
8×8 is suitable for international businesses. Long distance is no longer a barrier when you go for 8×8 VoIP service.It totally eliminates country restriction problem. It covers up to 14 countries on its cheap packages and about 47 countries on its premium packages. The 8×8 VoIP service helps you save money on international calls or if you have workers around the world.It has extensive call handling features like call forwarding, caller ID,ring groups,call queues and an auto attendant. Premium packages offer extensive software integration for your staff. It includes the Office 365, team messaging and GSuite software integration for your staff.
Vonage Business VoIP
This is a simple web based interface for administrators. It is very easily to understand, you don’t really need much training on how to use it. Vonage Business VoIP service has packages you can choose from. Although its small packages covers unlimited calls, videoconferencing, team messaging and SMS messaging, you might feel the need to upgrade to an higher plan which offers visual voicemail, call recording and software integration. You can choose the one that works with your business needs and budget.
Ooma office is a phone system. It is suitable for businesses that handle calls. The Ooma Office VoIP service is quite cheap. It renders a virtual receptionist service that automatically welcomes and can be programmed to give necessary information to callers, unlimited calling in Canada and the US, also it provides limited integration among other features. It specifies the use of its own phones to get its features. If you’re looking for collaborative features Ooma Office is not a suitable option for you. It’s more effective for handling calls.
This is different from the other VoIP services. It offers a range of free plans with unlimited durations. It has a high quality video footage. You can host up to about 25 participants with good footage on its free plans for 6 months. And if you decide to upgrade to its paid packages, you can get to host 100-400 participants with 4K resolution footage.It’s not suitable for dealing with your clients;it’s more effective for regular video conferences between your employees because its software integration is limited with only Microsoft teams, calendar and email integration. It’s simply for staying in touch and holding meetings remotely and supports long meetings duration up to 24 hours. Its value is equal to its price.
