15 Best Google Voice Alternatives To Run Your Small Business
Introduction
Google Voice launched in March 2009. While it’s been around for more than a decade, it's still one of the most popular ways for solopreneurs to connect with their customers. However, just because it’s top of mind for many business owners doesn’t mean it’s the ebay choice. In fact, there are several alternatives that can help you do more with your small business, especially as it scales up and grows.
With that in mind, in this guide we’ll examine 15 of the best google voice alternatives to run your small business. We’ll explore what each of them offer, and the limitations you may experience with each service.
We want to help you make the best decision for your growing business and its unique phone needs.
What Is Google Voice?
Google Voice is a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service that allows users with a Google account to make free calls to numbers based in the United States with the option of paying an additional fee for international calls. Google Voice users can also send text messages and set up a customized voicemail greeting for their business.
The service offers a free plan that is intended for personal use, and if you would prefer to use it for business, you will have to choose one of their three paid plans. The least expensive plan allows a small operation of up to 10 people to have a reliable VoIP system that is easy to use and acts as a great starting point for small businesses. While the more expensive plans permit an unlimited number of users, they also come with the higher price tag of $20 per user, per month and $30 per user, per month.
Limitations of Google Voice?
Despite Google Voice's popularity and reliability, it does have some limitations that may affect your choice of service. Google Voice is not the best option for remote teams or call centers that need a more sophisticated system. The reason for this is that it’s not a robust system for team chat and collaboration. This becomes a challenge as your business grows, especially if you have multiple locations or remote team members.
Project managers also need a more collaborative platform to communicate with clients on a shared online workspace. If you're looking for something that offers more options, it may be better to use one of the other services listed below. Without further ado, let’s get into the 15 best alternatives to Google Voice.
1. Ring4
At the top of our list is Ring4. The Ring4 VoIP system is by far one of the most user-friendly and integrated systems available. It is helpful for both small-size businesses and also those that have more complexity within their organizational structure.
Ring4 provides all of the basic functionality of Google Voice while also offering features that provide business-friendly benefits. The Ring4 system can be used to create teams with multiple divisions or departments while still providing a single phone number for your customers to call.
Ring4 also offers an admin console which makes it simple to monitor the entire company's phone usage and efficiency. It also offers a free option that allows teams to hold free video meetings with up to 10 people - and they don’t even have to sign up to use the free video conferencing.
The paid plans allow users to pay for the usage and features they need most, instead of those that most people will never use. This gives customers more flexibility and lower prices to design the perfect plan for them and their team.
Ring4 does an outstanding job for companies that have remote teams or remote call centers, but it can also act as an affordable option for small businesses that are more simplistic.
Ring4 is an excellent choice for companies with a small team or even 250 plus employees. It offers the most features and options at affordable prices, making it our favorite among competitors! Read the full comparison guide between Ring4 vs Google Voice to learn how the two stack up against each other.
2. Grasshopper
Grasshopper is another popular alternative that has helped small businesses to increase their productivity. They offer a free trial for any of their plans so that you can test out their service before you commit.
Grasshopper is most known for its fax capabilities, but they also offer the ability to make calls from a virtual phone number. They offer many of the same options as Google Voice, such as making free calls to U.S.-based numbers and setting your business' voicemail.
Their pricing is on the higher end compared to other companies on our list beginning at $26 per month. It is also important to note that Grasshopper plans pretty much all offer the same features - the only difference being how many phone numbers and extensions you get for the price. However, no matter what plan you choose, it will have the same features including business phone numbers, call forwarding, voicemail, voicemail transcriptions, call transfers, call holding, etc... Their plans may be considered good or bad depending on the needs of your company.
Grasshoppers' main advantage over Google Voice is the ability to do virtual fax, but this feature comes at a steep price if that is the only feature you want that you can’t get from Google Voice. If you want to learn more about how these two services stack up against each other, read the full comparison guide between Grasshopper vs Google Voice.
3. RingCentral
RingCentral is great for companies looking to manage calls, texts, internet fax, document sharing, and video conferences within the same interface. Their starter plan can be purchased for as low as $19.99 per user, per month. However, if you choose to pay month to month, the plans begin at $29.99.
RingCentral is designed for more enterprise-level clients. They also offer a free video service similar to Ring4. The RingCentral system can take some time for your team to learn, but once installed into your organization, it can help create efficiency with its many integrations with software like Salesforce, Zendesk, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365. This can be very useful if you currently incorporate these tools into your business process.
Overall, RingCentral is a great platform that offers tons of features and integrations for your business. It does, however, become expensive as you scale up, and may therefore be priced out of reach for many small business owners. Another factor to consider is what is required to implement this into your business. For example, business owners that are considered low-tech, may experience a steep learning curve.
We’ve created a more thorough comparison guide between RingCentral vs Google Voice as well. Click here to learn how the two stack up against each other.
4. OpenPhone
OpenPhone is an excellent alternative to Google Voice because it's considered pretty straightforward to get started. According to their website, users can sign up and be making phone calls and texts within minutes. OpenPhone offers an affordable price of $10 per user, per month, making it a desirable option for small businesses with 25 employees or less.
OpenPhone has a lot of text features like SMS, MMS, group messaging, and international messaging. Most of the same features that are offered by Google Voice are also provided by OpenPhone.
You can port over an old number if you switch systems and even integrate with some popular CRM's. This system is designed as a step up from Google Voice and will give your growing small business an easy way to keep in contact with your team.While their basic pricing isn't horrible, fees can stack up quickly as your business scales up, and you’ll experience an additional $5 surcharge per month for each additional phone number you add to your plans. For most small businesses with a handful of team members, this will be a great system for you because it allows easy text communication and group chats. To learn more about how OpenPhone compares to Google Voice, read our full comparison guide.
5. Skype
Skype is well known for its ability to allow individuals and businesses to chat all around the world. For individual business owners who need a way to connect with suppliers in other countries or have group discussions, it makes the process easy for them to do so.
Skype is very similar to Google Voice in some respects. For example, it offers group messaging and video conferencing. People can also share files and documents in a shared environment. Finally, Skype also gives businesses the ability to have a personal phone number which can be used as a landline if a company needs one.
Skype allows you to buy credits that can be used for calling domestic or international. Skype offers more paid options that include Microsoft 365. Skype credits can also be used for Meet Now and Skype Manager. Google offers many similar features for free, which can be helpful if you are just getting started or are on a very tight budget.
If your small business has international business partners or in different parts of the country, Skype can give you an easy way to stay in contact with everyone and share updates. However, as a VoIP, it doesn't offer many of the features that most local or remote teams need to be efficient.
Then again, as Skype for Business continues to be phased out, considering Google Voice vs Skype will almost become an obsolete conversation. For business owners seeking Skype for Business, you’ll find that if you want to purchase a plan from most links online, you’ll be redirected to the Microsoft Suite of products instead.
6. Sideline
Sideline is a great way for businesses to keep their personal and business text separate. The service lets you access your business text in a different business-only phone number. Sideline can be used with Apple and Android devices.
If you have multiple lines, you can use them all on one device, making it easy to switch between work and home without logging into two apps. This system is designed to help business owners stay in contact with customers through text messaging. Users can set up automatic text responses or send broadcast messages to your entire contact business list.
This system can add significant value to businesses that want to incorporate automated text sequences or broadcast messages to their entire list. The service is not focused on being a VOIP, making its utility very limited for your business.
Sideline has a clear delineation of business and personal contact lists. At $9.99 for the monthly plan, it is priced reasonably for what it is, but is not a great platform for teams or businesses who need to connect multiple employees. Read the full comparison guide between Sideline vs Google Voice to learn how the two stack up against each other.
7. Ooma
Ooma is one of the only companies on our list that combines software and hardware. The company offers phones as well as plans to use those phones. Ooma's main benefit is the ability to have a virtual receptionist. While this can be great for solopreneurs who are on the job and can't accept calls, Ooma has many of the same phone features as many of the other VoIP services on this list.
At a starting price of $19.95 per month per user, their rate is slightly higher than some of the other options on our list, which is something to consider if you plan to grow your business in the future. Of course, it’s also important to note that because their plans combine software and hardware, you will need to budget for the cost of the phones which begin at about $60 per phone.
Still, some users feel that Ooma is a fabulous option for new or small businesses with a physical location and/or businesses that need the convenience of having someone answer the phone without hiring an employee. Oomas other key features include a mobile app, extension dialing, virtual faxing, voicemail with audio email attachments, SMS messaging, and more.
Want to learn more about the differences between Ooma and Google Voice? We’ve created a full comparison guide of the two services. Click here to check it out.
8. Sideline
Phone.com provides users with a professional number for their businesses. With plans beginning at $10.39 per user, per month, it’s only slightly more expensive than Google Voice’s starter plan, with the main difference being Phone.com has video conferencing. However, with a Google account, you will have access to video conferencing with Google Meet.
That said, Phone.com’s service also has more charges attached to features that are standard on many other service providers, including not offering unlimited text messaging on their basic plan. They do offer CRM integration though, which is helpful if your business uses a CRM to manage accounts.
Similar to Ooma, Phone.com offers a virtual assistant which can be added on for an additional charge. Phone.com also allows you to create a phone system that works for your business.
They include features like document sharing, an iOS app, video whiteboard, HIPAA compliant video, call analytics, number porting, and voicemail to email notification. This service is great for small to medium-sized businesses that are looking for a professional and straightforward phone system. It would make a great phone system if you have one office location that your company works out of.
9. Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts is an app found in the Google Apps platform. If you are a business owner, you'll be interested to know that there is both a free version and a paid enterprise version of this tool. The free version offers unlimited group video calls with up to 100 people.
Google Hangouts paid plans are now called Google Meet. Google Hangouts is hosted in the cloud, so you do not have to go through technical or installation issues.
You can start communicating with colleagues or team members in less than a minute. There's no need for invite codes or other complications that you may experience with some video conferencing services. If your company already uses Google Apps/the Google suite of products, you are likely already able to access Google Meet.
The free version offers many features that will be more than enough for small business owners who only have a couple of people on their team. On the other hand, the main advantages of switching to a paid plan include the ability to record group meetings, dial-in phone numbers, intelligent noise cancellation, and breakout rooms.
Google Hangouts (Meet) is designed for small businesses who need a simplistic way to host/manage video conferences. This would be a great tool to use in addition to Google Voice, but it’s worth noting that Google Hangouts is not a phone service. Nonetheless, we wanted to include it on the list because it can be a great addition if you're using Google Voice.
The free version of Google Hangouts offers more than enough features for most individual business owners and small businesses. Read the full comparison guide between Hangouts vs Google Voice to learn how the two stack up against each other.
10. CallHippo
CallHippo is a comprehensive system for businesses that are incorporating their first VoIP system. The approach is straightforward and offers many of the standard features a company would need. Many of the features that come in the lower plan that begins at $16 per user, per month resemble the free Google Voice plan features.
CallHippo has several different plans to choose from, based on the type of features your business needs. The plan with the most features is their enterprise-level plan, for which pricing is determined on a business-to-business basis. These plans can get costly on a per-user basis, and if your company has more than two users, charges can quickly add up making it less suitable for the bootstrapping entrepreneur with a small team.
Furthermore, there are many add-on features that can be purchased ala carte, which can add to the cost of your phone system overall. What draws people to CallHippo however, are the features they offer including SMS messaging, call recording, holiday routing, power dialer, and sticky Agent. One of the main cons outside of its higher cost, is CallHippo’s lack of CRM integrations, which can be frustrating for larger organizations.
CallHippo might be an excellent service for small businesses that are just getting started with VoIP, and don’t want to fuss with hardware or installations. Then again, for larger organizations, the cost might be too great for what you get.
11. Cloud Talk
Cloud Talk offers many key features that would be ideal for a call center or sales team. These features include call tagging, call notes, real-time customer cards, and speech-to-text. These features can be great for your team to take notes and keep key insights about your customers.
You can track your team's call results and compare them with other team members with real-time analytics. This is very helpful when paired with one of their integrations like Salesforce.
They also have an open API which offers flexibility to those who want custom integrations. Options like this can help small business owners get accurate data on the effectiveness of their sales or CS teams.
The agent status feature allows inbound phone calls to be routed to those agents who aren't currently helping customers. This helps create a layer of efficiency for your team that ensures customers are being assisted and your team is working effectively.
Cloud Talk has three main plans beginning at $25 per user, per month. These plans are priced relatively high per user compared to many of the other Google Voice alternatives on this list. There is also an enterprise-level which is a custom plan for larger organizations.
The Cloud Talk VoIP service is designed for teams that are serious about customer service and want to increase their team's efficiency. This system is well designed and offers many features that are in demand to help a business be more profitable over time. It’s designed for medium to large businesses with lots of phone lines and users. At the enterprise level, you can create custom plans that make it easy for your business to work with the pricing.
If your business has a large number of employees that you need to keep track of during business hours, Cloud Talk may be the best service option for your company. Custom routing features allow businesses to determine where calls should be routed and in what order.
Call queues and transfer features allow you to build a call center that can handle many different calls at once and help give your team the speed they need when working with customers. It’s worth noting however, that at just $8 per user, per month on the annual plan Ring4 offers similar features at a much more affordable price that help make it more accessible for small businesses but robust enough for larger organizations.
12. Dialpad
Dialpad offers many similar features when compared to Google Voice. With their base plan starting at $15 per user, per month, businesses get unlimited calling, unlimited texting, voicemail transcription, and custom voicemail greeting. These features are almost identical to the$10 per month, per user plan Google Voice offers. With Dialpad however, you have the opportunity to add on fax for an additional fee if this is something your business will utilize.
Dialpad has tons of integrations like G-Suite, Office 365, Zendesk, and Zapier. These integrations can be helpful for a start-up or small business with no robust system in place.
Dialpad offers pricing plans that are slightly higher than Google Voice paid plans. The main difference between plans is the number of allowed integrations, seat minimums, and office maximums. For example, the $15 per user, per month plan is for one person. The $25 per user, per month plan is limited to three people, and you’ll need to contact the company if you need pricing for 100 people or more.
Is Dialpad an exceptional service for small businesses that are looking to make the switch from Google Voice? Perhaps, but it will certainly cost you! With comparable features though, it can be an easy way to get your business’s VoIP system up and running while continuing to utilize business tools like Slack or G-Suite.
13. GoToConnect
You may be familiar with GoToWebinar or GoToMeeting. GoToConnect is part of this family of products. If you already utilize the company’s other services, GoToConnect will be easy to integrate. However, for businesses who don't utilize GoTo services, you will have to learn how to use the features of this system. GoToConnect offers calling, call recording, team members can be added, and group meetings.
This system integrates a simple phone system with video conferencing. This system is designed for teams who need to collaborate on projects or work remotely. It can also be a great way to connect with audiences if you are a speaker or influencer.
There is a significant distinction between each plan and the features that you get. You may be tempted to get the premium plan which starts at $39 per user, per month. While this plan can allow your business to have the features and flexibility it needs, many of the premium features such as call analytics and call monitoring are standard options with the lower priced services mentioned in this list.
The GoToConnect system is designed for businesses that need a lot of collaboration to work on projects. Since this system has a lot of other tools like video conferencing and screen sharing, it can be a great way to work with your team or customers that need a collaborative virtual workspace. That is, if you can afford the price tag for it and it’s integrations which come with added monthly fees.
14. Nextivia
Nextiva VoIP software offers many of the features that you may have already become accustomed to with other systems mentioned on this list. It combines calling, video conferencing, texting, and faxing into one plan. With this offering, your business will get a system that can handle all your calling and can be expanded in the future when you’re ready to scale up.
The basic plan which starts at $18.95 per user, per month comes with unlimited voice and video calling, and also allows for CRM integrations like Hubspot, Zendesk, and Salesforce. The basic and professional plans are priced in the mid-range compared with others on our list. Still, Nextiva offers some unique features such as automated surveys, a ticketing system, and customer journey analytics. These features are great when paired with a CRM like Salesforce or Zendesk to create a level of customer tracking that you will not find with many other providers.
Bottom line, Nextiva may be a great system for midsize to enterprise-level businesses who want the added features and flexibility under one platform. This provider offers integration and automation tools that can help track customers easily or give your business more structure if you need it.
15. Aircall
We've made it to the end of our list with Aircall, a VoIP platform that offers many of the great features businesses are likely to expect from a phone system. The Aircall system’s lowest priced plan starts at $30 per user, per month. This price is nearly four times that of Ring4, and three times higher than the cheapest Google Voice plan. Add to that the fact that Aircall requires a minimum of three users, and this VoIP system is clearly not an ideal option for the solopreneur.
Some of the main features of Aircall are IVR, Salesforce integration, unlimited worldwide calls, a dedicated account manager, and unlimited analytic history. Much like the other companies on this list that fall into the enterprise level, Aircall offers you flexibility and customizability in how you build your business.
While some may argue that Aircall is designed for more established businesses that need more than just a way to call customers, as far as we can tell, their added features aren’t worth the higher price tag.
Why We Choose Ring4 and Why You Should Too
As you can tell from this extensive list, there are many different VoIP systems to choose from, various features, and pricing all over the place, making it laborious to find the best choice for your business. If you’re like most business owners, you want to find a system that won't break the bank, offers the features your business needs today and those it will need in the future. It is also necessary to find a system that is inexpensive with transparent pricing, that’s easy to integrate into your business, and one that is easy to use for those of us who are not tech-savvy.
With all of this in mind, we feel confident in saying Ring4 is not just the best alternative to Google Voice, but also the best alternative to any VoIP provider on this list thanks in large part to its affordable price, ease of use, and abundance of features. Ring4 offers a free trial, so you can see for yourself if it is the best choice
Ring4 allows you to design a system that fits your company's needs and not pay for features you're never going to use. This is a notable factor when choosing the right VoIP provider. Ring4 offers plenty of customization for your business so you can have all the features you require to run your company efficiently, even if that means running it 100% online.
The Ring4 VoIP pricing includes unlimited calls and texts, mobile numbers for every team member, an app that allows everyone to answer their business calls directly on their smart device (no extra hardware or extra phones needed!), video conferencing and so much more. And, just because your business scales up to 10 people or even 100 people, we’ll never punish you for growing. You’ll always enjoy the same annual rate of just $8 per user, per month.
It's no wonder Ring4 is quickly becoming the go-to phone service for businesses everywhere! It's time you try it out, too. Click here to learn more about how Ring4 works.
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