6 Best Auto-attendant Phone Systems of 2023

The best auto-attendant phone system can handle various call routing tasks, such as greeting callers, delivering information, and transferring callers to the right destination. It should also have multiple extensions and phone tree builders to configure your call routing strategy. In this guide, we looked at six industry-leading auto-attendant systems and ranked them based on cost, features, customer support, and ease of use.

Based on our ratings, the best auto-attendant phone systems are the following:

• RingCentral: Best overall for businesses needing an automated voice system with unified communications (UC) capabilities
• Nextiva: Top choice for businesses wanting to manage team and customer communications in one place
• Grasshopper: Best automated answering service for small teams looking for an affordable flat monthly fee
• 8×8: Ideal for global companies looking for an automated phone system with unlimited international calling
• Phone.com: Suitable for small businesses with low incoming call volumes needing a metered subscription
• Vonage: Best automated phone service for teams looking for flexible, a la carte phone plans

Best Auto-attendant Phone Systems at a Glance

RingCentral: Best Overall Auto-attendant Phone System

*Pricing is based on one to five users. Choose annual billing to save up to 40% and receive additional discounts when adding 100 or more users.

RingCentral is the best auto-attendant phone system for small businesses looking for robust centralized communications. All subscriptions include unlimited calling, SMS and MMS text messaging, team messaging, voicemail, and document sharing. Subscribing to its advanced plans provides rich video conferencing features like screen sharing, closed captioning, and cloud recording.

Aside from its unified communication capabilities, RingCentral delivers comprehensive voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) features. The entry-level plan includes answering rules, call screening, and call transfer, while high-tier plans provide advanced phone system tools like real-time analytics, multi-level auto-attendant, and call monitoring.

While most organizations use RingCentral extensively, it is not suitable for smaller teams with basic phone system requirements. In this case, choose Grasshopper, which offers cost-efficient pricing because of its flat monthly fees instead of the usual per-user pricing. Plus, it includes must-have features like call forwarding, voicemail, and extensions that won’t overwhelm a small team.

RingCentral Features

• Phone extensions: Assign phone extensions to connect multiple departments and individuals across devices and locations. Provide employees with their own number with voicemail, answering rules, and on-hold experience.
• Presence and head-up display: Get a strategic view of your team’s call status, whether they’re using a softphone, desk phone, or mobile app. Know who’s available, already on a call, holding, or has a call ringing.
• Call delegation: A single dashboard that lets you manage multiple incoming calls from your desktop and monitor the real-time presence of user extensions. Assign up to 10 assistants to place and receive calls on behalf of a line owner.

Nextiva: Best for Integrated Team & Customer Engagement Solution

*Pricing is based on one to four users. Save up to 28% by paying annually.

Nextiva ranks as one of the best phone auto-attendant providers for companies wanting to manage team and customer conversations from a single screen. The NextivaONE solution is a communications and productivity work hub designed to address siloed data, application overload, and complex integrations. Users can access all internal and external interactions within a centralized platform, including calls, emails, SMS, and video meetings.

Regarding routing capabilities, Nextiva shines as a provider because of its multi-level auto-attendant, intelligent interactive voice response (IVR) as an add-on, and free professional greeting recordings. It also has a user-friendly dashboard for managing incoming and outgoing calls.

Despite the noteworthy features of Nextiva, its monthly plans are relatively expensive compared to its competitors. Whether your business is just starting or working on a tight budget, consider a low-cost provider like Phone.com. It offers metered and unmetered plans at a lower price and allows users to mix and match plans for each member.

Nextiva Features

• Busy lamp field (BLP): Monitor the call status of as many as 50 users in your company. Call status includes idle, incoming call, on a call, and call on hold.
• Call Me Now: Add a web-based link or icon to your website to encourage your visitors to initiate a call to your business. It also allows reverse click-to-dial, which means any phone number entered on your website during business hours will result in a call being placed from your phone to that number.
• Directed call pickup: Answer an incoming phone call ringing someone else’s line. A call will be transferred to your line once you dial the feature access code and the extension of the user receiving the call.

Grasshopper: Best for Flat-rate Pricing

*Save 10% with annual billing

Grasshopper is an automated phone answering service for smaller teams that prefer a flat-rate pricing model to save on costs. While most providers charge a per-user fee, Grasshopper prices its plans differently by charging a one flat fee per month, meaning you can add as many users without increasing your monthly bill. Whichever plan you choose, you get the same feature set, which includes business texting, virtual fax, and custom greetings.

If you’re a small business that simply wants to establish a professional image, Grasshopper is a good option for a no-frills virtual phone system. It offers local, toll-free, and vanity numbers, allowing users to establish a memorable presence with their customers.

Unlike other providers in this list, Grasshopper doesn’t have a video conferencing feature. If you want the affordability of Grasshopper with added unified communication features, try Phone.com. At a monthly fee of 14.99 per user, you get video conferencing tools, including 50 standard voice features such as call handling, phone greetings, and call screening.

Grasshopper Features

• Virtual receptionist: Grasshopper integrates with Ruby, a live answering service, to answer incoming calls to your business. From scheduling appointments to collecting information, a virtual receptionist helps create positive connections with your customers.
• Instant response: When you miss a call, this feature will automatically send a text message to the caller to let them know you’re unavailable. Customize the message by including your company logo and website link.
• Custom phone greetings: Customize your phone greeting to welcome and direct your callers. Grasshopper allows you to record it independently or request a professional voice actor to record it for you.

8×8: Best for International Calling

*Pricing is based on monthly billing. Save up to 25% by paying annually.

8×8 offers unlimited calling to 48 countries, benefiting companies that want to avoid international call charges. It also provides phone number support in over 100 countries, which helps establish a virtual presence in places where you don’t have a physical office.

8×8 has a front desk app for receptionists and operators handling high call volumes. It includes advanced call handling features that let you manage multiple calls, voicemail, and chat sessions and route communications to the right contacts across the organization.

8×8’s collaboration features are limited to file sharing, team chat, and video meetings. If you need additional productivity tools, choose Nextiva, which offers a virtual workspace that combines file sharing, screen sharing, group chat, task tracking, and audio/video conferencing.

8×8 Features

• Conversation IQ: 8×8 uses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to help team leaders and supervisors monitor and evaluate voice interactions across the organization.
• 8×8 Work app: Access all business communications, such as chat, video meetings, and voice calls, in a single app. It works on any device to connect with your customers and colleagues anywhere.
• Visual voicemail: Manage your voicemail recordings and transcriptions from your desktop or mobile device. Transcripts and audio files are sent to your email, making it easy to share with colleagues.

Phone.com: Best for Metered Subscription

*Save up to 20% with annual billing and get volume discounts when adding five, 10, or 25 users.

Phone.com is an automated phone answering system for small businesses with low or fluctuating call volumes. Metered and unmetered subscriptions allow you to mix and match plans based on your team’s individual needs. For its metered phone plan, users can share call minutes and texts and purchase additional minute bundles if needed.

Marketing teams needing multiple numbers for call tracking campaigns will appreciate Phone.com’s volume pricing for virtual phone numbers. Whether you need local, toll-free, vanity, or international numbers, Phone.com will help you find the right number for your business at a lower price.

Phone.com only supports up to 100 video participants on its highest plan tier. If you need a larger participant cap for your meetings, check out 8×8. This provider allows up to 500 meeting participants and offers rich video conferencing tools like analytics, livestreaming, cloud recording, and calendar integrations.

Phone.com Features

• Text-to-greeting: Create custom greetings from over 40 automated personalities and sound effects. Submit your text greeting, choose a voice personality, and save the audio file in your account.
• Video conferencing: Host video meetings right on your browser and access built-in tools like screen sharing, document sharing, meeting chat, and a branded meeting room.
• Voice tagging: If you have several menu options all ringing to a single number, this feature will inform you what option the caller selected before you answer the call.

Vonage: Best for a la Carte Features

*Volume discounts apply when adding over five users

Vonage is an automated attendant phone system offering flexible, a la carte plans. While all packages include over 50 phone features, users can determine which advanced features they want to include in their purchased plan. Currently, Vonage has 18 paid add-on services, including call recording, internet fax, conference bridge, and virtual numbers.

Vonage has a self-service app center that lets you deploy third-party applications directly within its platform without needing professional services. Choose from a wide range of integration services, such as contact center, customer engagement, mobility, and remote work.

While most providers offer professionally recorded greetings for an extra fee, Vonage has no similar service on its add-on plans. If you want to project an image of an established business through your phone greetings, consider Nextiva. This provider offers free professionally recorded greetings on its paid plans, whether you want to use it for your auto-attendant, hold music, or welcome messages.

Vonage Features

• Business inbox: Capture message-based conversations like SMS, MMS, and Facebook Messenger within a unified inbox, and add photos, emojis, and audio/video.
• Call continuity: In the event of a power outage or internet issue, configuring this feature will automatically reroute your calls to a backup phone number of your choice.
• Spam shield: All phone numbers of every incoming call run against a database of numbers associated with robocalls, scams, and telemarketing. When the number matches the list, it will warn the user of phone spam before answering.

How We Evaluated the Best Auto-attendant Phone Systems

We looked at several business phone systems offering auto-attendants in their subscription packages. From there, we narrowed the list further by evaluating factors important to small business owners, such as pricing, general features, and ease of use. We also considered value for money, user reviews, niche features, and our expert opinion.

Learn how we evaluated the best auto-attendant phone systems by clicking on the tabs below:

Bottom Line

Auto-attendants are the most useful phone system features for businesses and call centers to manage incoming call traffic and avoid long wait times. From greeting callers to providing general business information, a well-designed business phone auto-attendant should optimize the call handling process.

Our top pick for the best phone system with auto-attendant is RingCentral. Its virtual receptionist services include robust customization options—from voice menus to company greetings and user extensions. Sign up for a 14-day free trial to see how it works before committing to a plan.

Visit RingCentral