6 Best Auto-attendant Phone Systems for 2022
Corey McCraw is a staff writer covering VoIP and Unified Communications. Corey has over a decade of experience in marketing, tech writing, and corporate communications and has even penned content for the former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
This article is part of a larger series on VoIP.
The best auto-attendant phone systems have easy-to-use menu builders, route calls accurately and efficiently, and support multiple extensions. Callers are greeted by a virtual receptionist and interact with the automated phone system using their keypad or voice, eliminating the need for a live operator. Here are the six best business phone systems with auto-attendants as well as other important call management tools and unique features.
Based on our ratings, the best auto-attendant phone systems are:
- Nextiva: Best overall, and best auto-attendant phone system for business owners wanting free, professionally recorded greetings
- RingCentral: Best automated phone system for larger organizations looking for a full unified communications (UC) platform that supports extensive integrations
- 8×8: Great option for global companies needing unlimited international calling, mix-and-match plans per user, and a low-cost entry tier
- Vonage: Best auto-attendant phone system for businesses with up to 99 employees wanting a la carte features
- Grasshopper: Best virtual phone system for solopreneurs and small teams seeking an auto-attendant, basic calling features, and an affordable, flat monthly fee
- Phone.com: Top choice for small businesses with a low volume of incoming and outgoing calls
Auto-attendant Phone Systems | Starting Price | Key Features | Routing Features | Our Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | $30.95 per user, per month |
|
| 4.63 out of 5 |
 | $19.99 per user, per month |
|
| 4.42 out of 5 |
 | $12 per user, per month |
|
| 4.18 out of 5 |
 | $19.99 per user, per month |
|
| 4.02 out of 5 |
 | $29 per user, per month |
|
| 3.93 out of 5 |
 | $10.39 per user, per month |
|
| 3.87 out of 5 |
Which Auto Attendant Phone System is Right for You?
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Nextiva: Best Overall Auto-attendant Phone System
Nextiva
Overall Score: 4.63
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Subscriptions include from 1,500 to 12,500 toll-free minutes depending on plan
- Auto-attendant at every level and multi-level auto-attendant with all but lowest-tier package
- From one to three professionally recorded greetings included with all packages (but not on the Essentials plan)
What's Missing
- Entry-tier plan lacks team messaging and screen-sharing features
- Doesn’t offer a low-priced plan suited for solopreneurs or small teams
- Texting isn’t available with the Essential package
Nextiva Pricing*
- Essential: $30.95 per user, per month for an auto-attendant, unlimited one-to-one voice and video calling, team messaging, a free local and a toll-free number, and 1,500 toll-free minutes
- Professional: $35.95 per user, per month for a multi-level auto-attendant, one professionally recorded greeting, audio conferences with 40 attendees and video meetings with 250 participants, 3,000 toll-free minutes, short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging (MMS), and 250 call pops
- Enterprise: $45.95 per user, per month for unlimited audio conferencing participants, three professionally recorded greetings, 12,500 toll-free minutes, unlimited call pops, voice analytics, and voicemail transcription
- Ultimate: $75.95 per user, per month for spam protection, survey templates, survey analytics, and survey landing pages
- Free trial: 30 days (or 7 days for Essential)
*Pricing based on one to four users with a monthly payment. Save money by adding more users or paying annually.
Nextiva tops our list of the best auto-attendant phone systems because it offers a multi-level auto-attendant, intelligent IVR as an add-on, and free professional greeting recordings. In fact, Nextiva is the only service that supplies up to three complimentary messages for your virtual receptionist. Check out our full expert Nextiva review to learn more.
Nextiva also provides the most toll-free minutes per plan, along with a local and toll-free number. However, the cheapest plan doesn’t come with text messaging or conferencing capabilities. If your business needs an automated phone system with a more affordable entry-tier price, the 8×8 Express plan costs less and supports text messaging as well as video and audio conferencing.
Nextiva Features
- CommPilot Express: Set up different ways to handle incoming calls based on where and when you work. The four modes include: available – in office, available – out of office, unavailable, and busy.
- Professional greetings: Choose your voice-over talent, provide an auto-attendant script, and let Nextiva do the rest. Nextiva records your greetings, edits the audio, converts the file, and emails you a copy. The company can also upload your recording directly to your Nextiva system.
- Priority alert: Hear a unique ring when important clients or team members call by setting up criteria for priority alerts. You can choose up to 12 numbers to prioritize per alert and can be based on a holiday or other time schedule.
RingCentral: Best Auto-attendant Phone System for a Unified Virtual Workspace
RingCentral
Overall Score: 4.42
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Drag-and-drop phone tree editor makes it easy to configure the auto-attendant
- Highly rated mobile and desktop apps
- Voicemail-to-text comes standard with all subscriptions
What's Missing
- Professionally recorded greetings can add up at a cost $50 per 75 words or $99 for on-hold messages
- Entry-tier plan doesn’t include video conferencing or unlimited faxing
- Unlimited international calling isn’t available
RingCentral Pricing*
- Essentials: $19.99 per user, per month for up to 20 users for unlimited domestic calls, SMS and MMS, and voicemail-to-text
- Standard: $27.99 per user, per month for unlimited number of users, unlimited internet fax, audio conferencing, video meetings up to 100 participants, international business phone numbers, and integrations with Slack, Google, and Microsoft
- Premium: $34.99 per user, per month for video meetings with 200 attendees, automatic call recording, single sign-on (SSO), customer relationship management (CRM) integrations, and hotdesking
- Ultimate: $59.99 per user, per month for device status reports and alerts and unlimited media storage
- Free trial: 30 days
*Pricing is based on two to 20 users with monthly billing. Choose annual billing to save up to 33%, and receive a volume-based discount when adding 100 or more users.
RingCentral is the best business phone system for larger companies wanting a full-featured unified communications platform for distributed and remote-hybrid teams as well as an automated phone system. All subscriptions include unlimited team messaging, unlimited calling, and SMS and MMS text messaging in the U.S. and Canada, and document sharing.
Although RingCentral’s entry-tier plan comes with team collaboration tools, it lacks unlimited faxing capability found on Nextiva’s least expensive subscription. Plus, it can be pricey for small teams compared to other VoIP and virtual phone systems like Phone.com, 8×8 Express, and Grasshopper.
RingCentral Features
- IVR tools: RingCentral provides IVR tools, including the ability to import and export extensible markup language (XML) files, a visual IVR menu editor, and prerecorded prompts for your auto-attendant. Its IVR functionality also earned RingCentral a spot on our list of the best IVR systems.
- Presence display: View the status of a team member’s availability on a softphone, desk phone, or mobile app. Users can choose from three statuses: invisible, available, and do not disturb (DND).
- Hotdesking: If your business runs multiple shifts or team members share phones, hotdesking is a must-have feature. It lets users log into any phone and quickly access their voicemail and other communication and collaboration tools.
8×8: Best Auto-attendant Phone System for International Calling
8x8
Overall Score: 4.18
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Auto-attendant with all plans, and multi-level attendant with all X-Series plans
- All X-Series plans support up to 500 video meeting participants, the highest capacity out of all providers on our list
- Entry-tier plan is packed with advanced features, including video conferencing up to 100 participants, meeting recording, and transcriptions
- Affordable solutions for small teams as well as large organizations needing call center features
What's Missing
- Customer support isn’t as highly rated as other providers
- Professional greetings start at $86, more expensive than the other auto-attendant phone system providers
- You can only connect one device to an extension
8x8 Pricing*
- 8×8 Express: $12 per user, per month for an auto-attendant, unlimited domestic calling, 100 video conference participants, and meeting recordings and transcriptions
- X2: $32 per user, per month for unlimited calling to 14 countries, a multi-level auto-attendant, 500 video meeting attendees, integrations, and unlimited media storage
- X3: Contact 8×8 sales for this package to get unlimited calling to 32 countries, unlimited media storage saved for 130 days, and the Switchboard Pro feature for operators
- X4: $57 per user, per month unlimited calling to 47 countries, supervisor analytics, barge, whisper, and monitor
- X6: $125 per user, per month for skills-based call routing, post-call surveys, contact center reporting and analytics, and web callback
- X7: $138 per user, per month for co-browsing and access to additional communication and collaboration channels like email and social media
- X8: $175 per user, per month for an auto-dialer, speech analytics, and quality management tools
- Free trial: 30-day free trial of 8×8 Express
*Prices are based on monthly billing. Save up to 25% with an annual prepayment.
Calling internationally can add up quickly, even with low per-minute fees. Fortunately, 8×8’s X-Series calling plans offer unlimited calling to up to 47 countries. In addition, you can mix and match packages. Save money by choosing 8×8 Express for most employees and the more expensive X-Series versions only for those team members making a high volume of global calls.
Like Nextiva and RingCentral, 8×8 features a single and multi-level virtual receptionist. Plus, all X-Series plans allow up to 500 video meeting participants, the highest participant cap of any of the automated phone system providers on our list. Unfortunately, 8×8’s customer support can be slow to respond, and the self-service tools are less user-friendly than RingCentral’s.
8×8 Features
- Automated attendant: 8×8’s virtual auto-receptionist comes with all packages—the lowest per-user cost for auto-attendant phone systems that offer unlimited calling on our list. All X-series plans include a multi-level attendant and contact center licenses come with speech-enabled IVR.
- International support: 8×8 is the only provider on our list offering unlimited calling plans to up to 47 countries, saving businesses money when serving clients worldwide. It also provides international business phone numbers in over 120 countries and multilingual customer support.
- Integrations: 8×8’s X-Series subscriptions integrate with many business tools, including Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Freshdesk. However, 8×8 Express only connects to Microsoft and Google calendars.
Vonage: Best Auto-attendant Phone System for a la Carte Features
Vonage
Overall Score: 4.02
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Use up to three different devices for each extension
- More than 20 third-party integrations with all subscriptions
- Intuitive desktop app design is easy to navigate
What's Missing
- Toll-free numbers cost extra
- Entry-tier plan offers fewer features than similarly priced packages
- Doesn’t offer professionally recorded phone greetings
Vonage Pricing*
- Mobile: $19.99 per line, per month for unlimited calls, texts, team messaging, and integrations with tools from the Vonage app center
- Premium: $29.99 per line, per month for unlimited video meetings with 100 participants, customer relationship manager (CRM) integrations, multi-level auto-attendant, and internet protocol (IP) phone compatibility
- Advanced: $39.99 per line, per month for 15 hours of on-demand call recording, visual voicemail, and call groups
*Prices are based on one to four users. Add more users for volume-based discounts. Get 30% off your subscription if you sign up by December 31, 2021.
Vonage provides a user-friendly interface and more than 50 voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone features, making it a good choice for users new to cloud-based services. It delivers the features most businesses need, such as unlimited domestic calling, video conferencing, and an auto-attendant.
With Vonage, you don’t have to pay for features you don’t use, such as toll-free numbers and call recording. Instead, add them as your requirements change, or save money if you don’t need them.
Although Vonage functions well for voice calls with high-definition (HD) audio quality, its video conferencing platform is less robust. Only 16 people can participate on the entry-tier plan, and Vonage doesn’t offer virtual backgrounds or HD video. If your team relies heavily on video meetings, consider 8×8 or RingCentral, as these providers offer more features and HD video quality.
Vonage Features
- Call continuity: Don’t let a power outage or unstable internet connection disrupt your meeting. Instead, set up a backup number on Vonage, and if your line loses connectivity, Vonage will automatically reroute the call to your backup number.
- Follow me: When you’re on the move, set up your Vonage service to ring different numbers in a row. You can configure this feature in the admin or user portal and mobile apps.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) virtual assistant: Use this add-on feature to improve caller experiences. It delivers answers to frequently asked questions and messages related to marketing and sales campaigns.
Grasshopper: Best Auto-attendant Phone System for Small, Remote Teams
Grasshopper
Overall Score: 3.93
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Flat monthly fee instead of per-user pricing makes Grasshopper very cost efficient for small teams
- Offers a live receptionist as an add-on feature
- Desktop and mobile apps are easy to set up and use
What's Missing
- Professionally recorded greetings cost $75 ($75 flat rate per session, can record multiple greetings per session)
- Shorter free trial than other auto-attendant phone systems
- Video conferencing isn’t offered with any Grasshopper plans except through third-party software
- Not a standalone phone system; calls are forwarded to your existing number
Grasshopper Pricing*
- Solo: $29 per month for one phone number and three extensions
- Partner: $49 per month for three phone numbers and six extensions
- Small Business: $89 per month for five phone numbers and unlimited extensions
- Free trial: 7 days
*Prices are based on monthly billing. Save 10% with annual billing. Currently, you can save up to $75 by signing up for Grasshopper.
Grasshopper provides an excellent virtual automated phone system for solopreneurs and small teams. Unlike other providers, Grasshopper doesn’t charge a per-user fee. Instead, you pick plans with three to unlimited extensions, making the service a potentially cost-effective tool.
Like Vonage, Grasshopper is a good fit for new VoIP users with must-have features that won’t overwhelm a small team. However, Grasshopper probably won’t work for medium to large businesses as it lacks advanced features and isn’t a standalone phone system.
If you have 20 or more employees, consider Nextiva or RingCentral. Both providers can replace your current business phone system, have advanced features, and work for contact centers.
Grasshopper Features
- Automatic text messages: Interact with customers even if you’re on another call using the Instant Response feature. Create text templates to automatically respond to missed calls, and callers can respond with their questions or the best time to call back.
- Voicemail transcription: All Grasshopper plans include voicemail transcriptions. Send voicemail transcriptions to up to 15 email addresses, and Grasshopper also attaches the audio file.
- Ruby Receptionist: Easily handle overflow and after-hours calls by adding a live receptionist. Ruby Receptionist even offers bilingual assistants who can answer frequently asked questions or schedule appointments. Although it costs more than the live receptionist available through Phone.com, Ruby Receptionist answers calls seven days a week versus just six with Phone.com.
Phone.com: Best Auto-attendant Phone System for Low-volume Calling
Phone.com
Overall Score: 3.87
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Mix and match metered and unlimited plans to save money
- All subscriptions include a dial-by-name directory and auto-attendant
- Volume discounts when purchasing additional phone numbers
What's Missing
- Unlimited calling plans cost about the same as other providers but have fewer features
- Only supports up to 100 video conferencing participants on the highest plan tier
- Android and iOS mobile apps are less user-friendly than other auto-attendant phone systems
Phone.com Pricing*
- Basic Users: $12.99 per user, per month for one number per account, 300 minutes per user, 1,000 pooled text segments, and 10 video conference participants
- Plus Users: $19.99 per user, per month for one phone number per person, unlimited minutes and texting, IP phone compatibility, 25 video meeting attendees, and video recording
- Pro Users: $29.99 per user, per month for one phone number per user, unlimited minutes and texting, 100 video conferencing participants, and CRM integrations
- Money-back guarantee: 30 days
*Prices are based on monthly payments. Save 20% with annual billing, and volume discounts are available.
Phone.com is the only provider on our list offering a metered plan, making it an excellent solution for small businesses with low-volume calling. With the metered plan, users share minutes and text segments but still get crucial VoIP features like call forwarding, click-to-call, and on-hold music.
Like 8×8, Phone.com lets you mix and match subscription features to give each employee access to the minutes and features they need. With that said, 8×8 is still the better option if you want unlimited international calling or higher video meeting capacity limits.
Phone.com Features
- Audio conferencing: All plans come with a conference bridge and a dedicated, password-protected dial-in number. Meet with up to 300 people for audio conferencing with HD voice.
- Live receptionist: Phone.com offers a live receptionist as an add-on feature, and getting a live receptionist costs less per month than Grasshopper’s Ruby Receptionist. The live receptionist service can transfer calls, take messages, and is HIPAA-compliant (compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
- Dial-by-name directory: Callers use their dial pad to enter the first or last name of your employee. From there, the auto-attendant supplies the person’s full name and extension to the caller. Team members can also record their names for a more personal touch.
How We Evaluated the Best Auto-attendant Phone Systems
We examined pricing, general features, and added benefits to determine the best auto-attendant phone systems. In each case, we rated services based on the type of basic and advanced features offered, how user-friendly each system is, and considered customer reviews.
Nextiva takes first place for auto-attendant systems with a score of 4.63 out of 5 based on our criteria. It offers a robust feature set, a user-friendly phone tree editor, and free professional greetings. Plus, all Nextiva plans include an auto-attendant and contact list integrations. Sign up now to take advantage of a 30-day free trial.
Learn how we rated the best auto-attendant phone systems by clicking on the tabs below:
25%
Pricing
25%
General Features
25%
Added Benefits
25%
Expert Score
25% of Overall Score
Cost is often a primary factor when choosing a small business phone system. We rated each auto-attendant phone system according to the current cost of its subscription plans. In addition, we confirmed whether the provider offers annual billing or volume-based discounts.
25% of Overall Score
To make our list, an automated phone system must come with an auto-attendant and menu builder. We also looked for advanced options, such as an interactive voice response (IVR) and multi-level auto-attendant. To round it off, we gave points to platforms offering the ability to produce professionally recorded voice greetings.
25% of Overall Score
Voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) business phone systems and virtual phone number platforms offer a variety of call management and communications features. We assessed additional features and benefits, such as toll-free and international numbers. Also, we considered plans with unlimited international calling, video meeting capabilities, and mobile apps.
25% of Overall Score
We factored in the overall value for the cost and standout features to determine our expert score. Plus, we evaluated the mobile and desktop apps, web-based portals, and phone menu editors for usability. Finally, we looked at online reviews of real customers to determine each platform’s popularity and ease of use.
*Percentages of overall score
Bottom Line
The best auto-attendant phone systems improve caller experiences and support on-premise and distributed teams. Automated phone systems should be affordable while still providing many VoIP call management features, including a phone tree editor, and be user-friendly. Although many business phone systems come with an automated attendant, solutions differ by features and price points.
Our top pick when it comes to the best automated phone systems is Nextiva. It comes with easy-to-use auto-attendant configuration tools, local and toll-free numbers, and up to three free professionally recorded voice greetings. Explore Nextiva features by signing up for a free trial.
