6 Best Auto Attendant Phone Systems 2019

An auto attendant phone system automatically greets and routes inbound calls to pre-specified extensions, phones, or voicemail boxes. Multi-level auto attendants also route calls to multiple locations or external phone numbers so mobile or personal phones function the same as a business phone. The best auto attendants are usually found in voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone systems.

Top 6 Auto Attendant Phone Systems 2019

Best Overall Auto Attendant Phone System: Nextiva

Nextiva is a VoIP phone provider featuring an automated phone system as well as unlimited calling and mobile apps. In addition, Nextiva offers competitively priced service plans and best-in-class customer support, making it the best combination of features for the money. Nextiva is, therefore, our pick for small businesses wanting an auto attendant as part of a complete phone system from a top-rated business phone provider.

Nextiva Pricing

The price plans for Nextiva are broken down into three simple plans. The Office Pro starts at $34.95, Office Pro Plus starts at $37.95, and Office Enterprise starts at $44.95. All plans offer volume discounts and include an auto attendant feature as well as other phone system features.

Nextiva Tiered Plans

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Office Pro

The Office Pro starts at $34.95 per user, per month for one to four users but can go as low as $17.95 with a volume discount if you have more than 100 users. The plan comes with the auto attendant feature for answering calls, unlimited calling, voicemail to email, virtual faxing, and on-hold music as well as guaranteed 24/7 uptime and 100% in-house customer service.

Unlike the Pro Plus or Enterprise, this plan doesn’t provide access to the mobile app or provide you with a professionally recorded greeting for your callers. It’s also missing short message system (SMS) and messaging offered in Vonage’s first-level package. This plan is best if you’re looking for a top-rated basic VoIP provider with an auto attendant system to answer your calls, route your callers, and take messages.

Office Pro Plus

The Office Pro Plus plan has everything in the Office Pro Plan as well as access to the conference bridge for conference calling and the mobile app for easier management of your system. Unlike the Pro Plan, the Plus allows you to have one professionally recorded greeting for your auto attendant menu. It also doesn’t offer two local or toll-free phone numbers like Phone.com’s mid-level plan.

For businesses with one to four users, the plan costs $37.95 per user, but the price drops as low as $20.95 per user if your business has more than 100 employees. This makes this the best auto attendant plan if you’re looking to add a more personal touch to your greetings, as well as an easy, integrated way to hold conference calls with your team.

Office Enterprise Plan

The most expensive option is the Office Enterprise Plan. It includes everything in the Office Pro plan along with access to call recording and Nextiva Anywhere, allowing you to connect your calls with any number. For businesses with one to four users, the plan costs $44.95 and goes as low as $27.95 for businesses with more than 100 employees.

Unlike the Pro Plus plan, the Enterprise includes three professional recorded greetings along with access to call recording. This is the ideal plan for businesses who want to completely customize their auto attendant for their business and leverage the strength of Nextiva’s complete platform.

What Nextiva Is Missing

Nextiva’s pricing, while competitive and affordable, can be a bit confusing at first. Although a contract isn’t required to use the service and the auto attendant feature, the prices shown on the website are for businesses with 100 or more employees that also commit to a three-year contract. We feel the pricing should be made clearer for monthly billing accounts like Grasshopper or Phone.com.

What People Think About Nextiva

Majority of customers are happy with Nextiva’s level of customer service and how easy it is to set up the service. Customers are also happy with the reliability of the platform. For a more in-depth look at what customers think, visit our Nextiva User Reviews page.

Where to Find Nextiva

Businesses wanting an affordable auto attendant phone system with the best combination of standard features and reliable customer support should check out Nextiva. The company offers a free 30-day free trial of its product when you contact the sales team. Visit Nextiva’s website today for details.

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Best Virtual Phone Number System With an Auto Attendant: Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a virtual phone system starting at $29 per user, per month, and featuring an auto attendant that can route incoming calls to extensions. Additionally, it allows users to switch between a personal and business number on a mobile phone and display a business number when making outgoing calls. Therefore, Grasshopper is best for solopreneurs and small business owners looking for a business line on their mobile or personal phone.

Grasshopper Pricing

Grasshopper offers three service plans, which all include an auto attendant and a full suite of features. The solo plan costs $29 per month, the partner plan runs $49 per month, and the small business plan costs $89 per month.

Each plan provides a certain amount of phone numbers and extensions:

• $29 per month: One phone number and three extensions
• $49 per month: Three phone numbers and six extensions
• $89 per month: Five phone numbers and unlimited extensions

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Grasshopper Features

Grasshopper offers a surprising number of features, making it our top pick as a virtual phone system. With just your mobile phone, you can forward calls with the auto attendant, customize your greetings, configure your business hours, initiate conference calls and even get a toll-free number to present yourself more professionally.

Grasshopper features include:

Customized Greetings

Grasshopper presents your callers with an automated welcome. You can then customize greetings for different extensions as well as the greetings that callers will hear if they call outside of regular business hours. You can also choose to have a professional recording created for a fee of $75 through Grasshopper’s voice studio.

Voicemail to Text/Email

Every voicemail you receive is automatically transcribed. Grasshopper provides notifications and details about the message through an email message and the mobile app, allowing you to sort through recorded voicemails easily and prioritize the most relevant messages for your business. Unlike Phone.com and Nextiva, voicemail transcription is available with all plans.

Call Forwarding & Extensions

You’ll get a varying number of extensions depending on the service plan you select. Through Grasshopper’s web portal, you can configure your cell phone, home phone, or employees’ phones as extensions to receive calls that are forwarded by the auto attendant. This is a terrific way to keep your employees connected and receive calls through your business number.

Additional Features

Grasshopper offers call blasting for an additional $10 per month. If you have multiple forwarding numbers on an extension, you can choose to have all those numbers ring simultaneously to reduce wait times for your callers. Grasshopper also offers an integrated fax service so that users can receive faxes which are converted to PDF documents and delivered by email.

What Grasshopper Is Missing

Unlike Nextiva and Phone.com that offer full business phone systems, Grasshopper works as a call forwarding system. That means it lacks features like call recording, integrations with productivity programs like Microsoft Office or Gmail, and the ability to send faxes.

What People Think About Grasshopper

Businesses love the simplicity of Grasshopper and how well it works with existing devices. In a world where convenience is extremely valuable, those who use Grasshopper appreciate the lack of equipment needed to set up and how straightforward the pricing options are structured. For more detailed customer reviews, visit our Grasshopper User Reviews page.

Where to Find Grasshopper

Business owners and solopreneurs that want an automated phone system and a virtual business phone number for their personal mobile phone or landline should consider Grasshopper. Call the sales team or visit the company website today to try Grasshopper with a 30-day money back guarantee.

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Best Auto Attendant Phone System for High Call Volumes: RingCentral

RingCentral is a leading business VoIP provider featuring an auto attendant, internet faxing, call forwarding, and flexible pricing without a contract. Its volume discounts, generous toll-free minutes, and advanced integrations make it best for larger businesses and call centers needing 50 or more lines or those needing a multi-level auto attendant and robust business phone system. Prices start at $29.99 per user, per month.

RingCentral’s Pricing

RingCentral’s pricing is structured into four different plans ranging from $29.99 to $59.99 with no annual contract required. All plans contain the auto attendant feature and also offer a 15-day trial for you to try the service with no cost to you.

RingCentral Tiered Features

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Essentials

The Essentials package, which supports up to 10 phone lines, includes an auto attendant,100 toll-free minutes, unlimited calls, SMS, and voicemail to email. The price starts at $29.99 per month per user and is only available if your business has 10 or fewer employees. If you gain additional employees and expand, you’ll have to upgrade to the Standard package.

Along with all the features listed above, you’ll also get video conferencing for up to four people and access to the mobile app. Unlike the service plans offered by RingCentral and Nextiva, a volume discount isn’t offered at this level. So, the Essentials package is best for businesses with a small team that needs a simple VoIP calling system.

Standard

The Standard package has everything in the essentials package as well as 1,000 toll-free minutes for $34.99 per month, per user with no limit to the number of lines you can have. If your business has more than 100 users, the price drops to $32.99 per month and $29.99 per month if you have more than 1,000 users.

This level also adds internet fax and a multi-level auto attendant with several call routing features, including the ability to direct calls to multiple locations or external phone numbers. The volume discount makes it the best for businesses with larger teams that also want the benefits of a multi-level auto attendant.

Premium

Premium is RingCentral’s most popular package and includes everything in the Standard package and 2,500 toll-free minutes for $44.99 per month per user. Additional features include video meetings for up to 100 people, automated call recording, integration with Salesforce and other customer relationship management (CRM) programs, and voicemail-to-text transcription.

Unlike RingCentral’s lower-tier plans, the Premium plan provides integration with sales and productivity tools like Salesforce and Zendesk. However, it is a bit more expensive than other solutions on our list. This is the best auto attendant phone system plan for businesses with a larger team that heavily use sales and productivity tools and need support for regular conference calls.

Ultimate

Ultimate is RingCentral’s most expensive package at $59.99 per month per user and contains everything in the Premium package. Although there aren’t any new features at this level, the Ultimate plan supports video meetings for up to 200 people, twice the amount of the premium plan, and it provides 10,000 toll-free minutes.

If your business has a large team and relies heavily on video conferencing, this is the best auto attendant choice for you. Although it’s one of the most expensive service plans on our list, the large number of toll-free minutes supports high call volumes and is ideal if you run a call center or provide a lot of phone support to customers.

What RingCentral Is Missing

This option certainly isn’t for the solopreneur or startups. All the features, such as Salesforce integration, automatic call recording, call logs and reporting, custom app development and deployment, and others might be a little too complex for a small business in the very early stages. If you need a simple solution, consider Grasshopper, our best virtual phone system.

What People Think About RingCentral

Businesses that use RingCentral feel would agree that it is an excellent cloud phone system for business. Getting to try the system before purchasing with RingCentral’s 15-day trial period is also a favorite among business owners as they shopped for a business phone system. For a more in-depth summary of user feedback, visit our RingCentral User Review page.

Where to Find RingCentral

Call centers and business owners that want an auto attendant bundled with a robust VoIP system that supports high call volumes should consider RingCentral. The company offers a free trial of its product and 15-day money back guarantee when you purchase an account. Visit RingCentral’s website today for details.

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Best Auto Attendant Phone System for a la Carte Plans: Vonage

Vonage is a VoIP provider that offers an auto attendant phone system, video conferencing, voicemail-to-email, and call forwarding capabilities. While it offers tiered pricing, you can choose options from an a la carte menu of add-ons to customize your service plan’s features for each user. This makes it the best choice if you need the flexibility to modify your plan’s features and price based on individual user needs.

Vonage Pricing

Vonage’s pricing is structured into three different plans that range from $19.99 to $39.99, with a 14-day free trial to use the service. All plans provide access to the auto attendant feature, and a volume discount is available depending on the number of users on each account.

Add-on features include:

• Conference bridge: $14.99 per month
• Paperless fax: $14.99 per month
• Visual voicemail: $4.99 per month, per extension

Vonage Tiered Features

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Mobile

The Mobile plan is Vonage’s starter package. It includes an auto attendant, unlimited calls, and SMS messaging, as well as mobile apps to give users the choice of communicating through a mobile device or desktop. For one to four users, the cost is $19.99 per month. If you have five to 19 users, the cost is 17.99 per month. $14.99 per month if you have between 20 and 99 users.

This level is missing support for video conferencing, chat, or file sharing like the Premium or Advanced plan. It also lacks a free local and toll-free phone number offered by Nextiva’s first-level price plan. This plan is a good choice for remote teams and any business that doesn’t need a desk phone.

Premium

The Premium plan offers the same auto attendant and mobility options as the Mobile plan, along with the benefit of conferencing, chat, and file sharing for up to 100 users. For one to four users, the cost is $29.99 per month. If you have five to 19 users, the cost will be $27.99 per month, $24.99 per month if you have between 20 and 99 users.

Although this level doesn’t offer faxing like Nextiva’s mid-level service plans does, this is a good choice for traditional office environments that make calls, conferences, and need file sharing capabilities to work together as a team. If your team also relies heavily on a CRM to keep track of all activities, this plan offers integration with Salesforce, Zoho, and many other popular CRMs, a clear advantage over the Mobile plan.

Advanced

The Advanced plan features Vonage’s Orange-Glove Setup, which provides a dedicated team of experts that guides you through the setup process. For one to four users, the cost is $39.99 per month. If you have five to 19 users, the cost will be $37.99 per month, and the cost is $34.99 per month if you have between 20 and 99 users.

This is the ideal plan for businesses that need to leverage all the standard features that Vonage has to offer or those that might need regular hands-on assistance from Vonage. However, this level doesn’t offer conferencing for additional users and retains the 100 attendee limit included in the Premium plan.

What Vonage Is Missing

Vonage offers many different ways to get help on the system, including a knowledge base, email, chat, and phone. However, the lack of 24/7 support is a drawback as this is offered by our best auto attendant phone system provider Nextiva and others. Vonage’s customer support staff are only available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with limited emergency support available on the weekends.

What People Think About Vonage

Those who used Vonage were mostly satisfied with the call quality and flexible plans. However, long wait times for customer support and the added cost for some add-ons that come standard with other providers has led people to leave negative feedback about the provider. For a more in-depth look at what customers think about Vonage, visit our Vonage User Review page.

Where to Get Vonage

Companies that need an auto attendant phone system and customizable business phone service plans with add-on options should try Vonage. Calling Vonage’s sales department or completing the signup form on the website will get you started quickly. Vonage also offers a 14-day free trial, and you can cancel at any time without penalties. Start your free trial by clicking the button below.

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Best Vanity Phone Number Provider With an Auto Attendant: Phone.com

Phone.com is a VoIP and vanity phone number provider featuring an auto attendant as part of its lower-cost service plans. It offers customized toll-free and local numbers as well as business phone system features like call forwarding and on hold music. This makes Phone.com best for businesses wanting a customized, vanity phone number (like 1-800-FLOWERS) as well as an economical answering solution.

Phone.com Pricing

Phone.com offers three pay-per-minute plans — Base, Plus, and Pro — with prices ranging from $12.99 per month to $39.99 per month. All plans include an auto attendant, monthly minutes, SMS messaging, local, or toll-free phone numbers, and unlimited user extensions.

For unlimited calling, the prices are:

• Base: $29.99 with one local or toll-free number
• Plus: $37.99 with two local or toll-free numbers
• Pro: $59.99 with three local or toll-free numbers

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Phone.com Features

Phone.com includes a set of standard call features with all of its price packages, including an automated phone system, custom numbers, call forwarding, on hold music, and incoming and outgoing caller ID, making it our top pick as a vanity phone provider. For an additional price, premium features such as call recording, adapters to integrate your existing phones with the service integration with CRMs like Salesforce can be added to your service.

Phone.com features include:

Customized Greeting

Users can customize greetings with Phone.com, recording your own welcome messages and menu options for your callers. For an additional cost of $79, you can sound even more professional by having its experienced voice-over professionals write the script and record the welcome messages, prompts, and on-hold messages.

Voicemail-to-Email

The voicemail-to-email feature is available as a premium add-on with Phone.com. For $1.50 per month, per extension, voicemails can be automatically transcribed and sent to you via email or text message. Unlike providers like Nextiva, Phone.com takes this feature even further with the optional add-on of 25 cents per voicemail for human transcription, and your messages will be transcribed by a real, live person.

Call Forwarding & Extensions

Call forwarding comes standard with Phone.com so you can forward calls to your home, mobile phone, or another number easily. You can also create separate incoming call extensions for departments or employees without adding additional phone lines. Similar to Grasshopper, this gives you a cost-effective way of having multiple users within your business receive calls on your main phone number.

Additional Features

Phone.com has built-in support for faxing, so you can send and receive faxes with your automated phone system. HD audio conferencing is also available, along with group short message service (SMS) to send and receive text messages over any local Phone.com number.

What Phone.com Is Missing

While you can reach support agents through live chat, phone, and email easily, Phone.com does not provide 24/7 support. Another drawback to Phone.com is the additional cost for voicemail to email or other features like call recording and analytics that come standard with our best auto attendant phone system providers like Nextiva and RingCentral.

What People Think About Phone.com

Businesses that use Phone.com are pleased with the affordability of the service as the flexible calling plans allow them to add features as needed. Those who provide negative reviews are disappointed with the quality of customer support, long wait times, and delayed responses. For a more in-depth look at customer comments, visit our Phone.com User Review page.

Where to Find Phone.com

Business owners wanting a vanity phone number that’s easy for customers to remember as well as auto attendant capabilities should consider Phone.com. You can sign up for Phone.com by either calling its toll-free sales and support line or the signup button on its website. The sign-up process takes only a few minutes, and your account is ready to use once billing information has been entered. Phone.com also offers a 30-day money back guarantee for their Base plan.

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Best Auto Attendant Phone System for International Calling: 8×8

8×8 is a low-cost VoIP provider that offers auto attendant capabilities as low as $25 per user, per month, along with a complete phone system. What sets 8×8 apart is its international calling capabilities, which includes unlimited calling to 14 to 47 different countries based on the plan you select. This is best if your small business has many customers or vendors outside of the United States.

8×8 Pricing

8×8’s pricing is broken down into three different calling plans. The X2 for $25 per user, per month, the X5 for $35 per user, per month, and the X8 for $55 per user, per month. All plans include an auto attendant and unlimited calling to a number of countries based on the plan you select.

8×8 Features

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X2

The X2 package features an automated phone system and all standard calling features, provides unlimited calling in 14 countries and 1GB of media storage for $25 per user, per month. Additional features include audio and video conferencing for up to five participants, unlimited faxing, and an unlimited number of phone lines.

This level lacks call recording offered in the next tier and voicemail-to-email transcription featured with Nextiva’s basic plan. However, it is a cost-conscious choice that includes the most necessary features without breaking the bank. If the company is looking to expand team communication across borders, this option will get the job done.

X5

The X5 package includes everything in the X2 package, plus unlimited calling to 32 countries. This package starts at $35 per user, per month and includes an additional 4GB of media storage. Unlike the X2, with this package, you can get an operator switchboard and call recording added to your service for an additional $10 per user, per month.

This tier is missing the call center packages offered at the premium level and integration with businesses apps offered by other providers. However, it’s a good choice for businesses with a global workforce that needs to keep communications synchronized. The additional feature of the operator switchboard also helps a growing business supplement the auto attendant and achieve a more professional appearance.

X8

The X8 package costs $55 per user, per month. It includes all of the features in the X5 packages, plus unlimited calling for 46 countries and up to 50 participants in a conference call. Where this package truly shines is with the addition of virtual contact center features, which is not available with the X2 or X5 packages.

Reporting and three months of call recording storage are also available with this plan. This makes it the ideal package for a business with an international reach that needs a contact center to be able to service all countries in which it does business.

What 8×8 Is Missing

8×8’s auto attendant doesn’t inform callers of estimated wait time will be or what number caller they are on the list, a missing feature that may be important to businesses with a high call volume. 8×8 also lacks 24/7 live chat or customer service, which is offered by our best auto attendant phone system provider, Nextiva.

What People Think of 8×8

Businesses that use 8×8 report they are satisfied with the cost of the service and the customer support. However, users say they are unhappy with the reliability of the service. For a more in-depth summary of customer feedback, visit our 8×8 User Review page.

Where To Find 8×8

Companies that make and receive a lot of international calls and want an automated phone system with unlimited calling plans outside the U.S. should take a look at 8×8. Call a solutions specialist at the company’s toll-free number to sign up for an account or request a customized quote through 8×8’s website.

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How We Evaluated These Auto Attendant Phone Systems

An auto attendant is a standard feature typically included with most business phone service packages. The best automated phone systems should be easy to use and include options like greetings, voicemail, and call forwarding. It should also be affordable and backed by reliable customer support.

Therefore, we evaluated the top auto attendants based on:

• Price: We compared each provider’s pricing tiers and packages
• Features: We evaluated the variety of features included with each auto attendant, such as customized greetings and hold music
• Ease of use: We assessed how easy each auto attendant was to set up and use
• Customer support: We evaluated each provider’s online and live customer support

We recommend Nextiva, which also our best business phone system as the best overall auto attendant phone system, for its balance of features and price. Along with an automated phone system, Nextiva offers different service plans to meet your budget and exceptional customer support.

The Bottom Line

Auto attendants were once only available to businesses who could afford more sophisticated and costly business phone systems. Now, automated phone systems are much more affordable, and you can choose from a wide variety of providers to better match your business’ needs. They offer a variety of features like voicemail-to-text, custom greetings, and call forwarding.

Businesses that want an auto attendant phone system with the best balance of phone system features, pricing, and customer support should check out Nextiva. Along with the auto attendant, it offers service plans that will be within your budget, call routing, voicemail-to-email, faxing, and all the features most small businesses need to stay competitive.

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