7 Best Cheap VoIP Services

RingCentral is the best cheap VoIP phone service, offering great value with advanced features like unlimited domestic calling and call queues in its entry-level plan.

Many of RingCentral’s advanced VoIP capabilities, such as interactive voice response (IVR), caller ID, call queues, and on-demand call recording, are already unlocked in its base plan. It’s one of the few best small business VoIP services with a full-featured video conferencing and messaging solution on the lowest tier.

The downside of choosing RingCentral is that it doesn’t support unlimited texting and only allows a specific number of short messaging services (SMS) credits per user a month. If you regularly communicate with your clients via SMS, we recommend Grasshopper, which offers unlimited business texting and customizable SMS features like instant response.

• Conversational AI: Machine learning is combined with natural learning processing (NLP) for intelligent features like chatbots and sentiment analysis. These features enable teams to deliver efficient customer service and automate manual tasks.
• Extensive integrations: Eliminate the need for constant app switching by seamlessly connecting your phone system with over 300 platforms in the app gallery. Some of the top RingCentral integrations include Salesforce, Slack, Dropbox, and Google Workspace.
• Multilevel IVR: Configure your phone tree menus with RingCentral’s IVR editor to help customers access basic information and self-service options, even when your team is unavailable. Customize up to 250 voice menus and submenus per RingCentral account.

Map out caller journeys with RingCentral’s visual IVR editor. (Source: RingCentral)

Grasshopper is one of the best cheap VoIP companies, offering a highly accessible entry-level plan for only $18. It’s further reduced to $14 when you select preannual billing. Unlike other VoIP providers that offer one phone number per user, Grasshopper’s higher-tier packages feature multiple phone numbers, making it an ideal solution for teams sharing numbers.

Among the cheapest VoIP providers listed here, it’s the only one that doesn’t charge per user. Instead, it has a fixed rate for unlimited users, starting with the Solo Plus plan. So, as you grow your team and add more members to the VoIP phone system, you won’t have to worry about additional costs.

While Grasshopper provides a full range of call management tools regardless of your plan, the package inclusions aren’t enough to support large call volumes. Other VoIP solutions, like RingCentral and Dialpad, have stronger capabilities in managing high call traffic.

• Customized greeting: Greet your customers professionally and align the phone system messaging with your brand identity using Grasshopper’s custom voice recordings.
• Voice Studio: Hire professional voice actors to record welcome greetings for your automated phone system. Each order costs $75 and allows several scripts to be recorded.
• Instant response: Automatically send a text message to a new client after you miss their call. Instant response lets you touch base with new prospects for better customer conversions.

Create department and employee extensions for your Grasshopper number. (Source: YouTube)

Phone.com is the cheapest VoIP business phone service for companies expanding their global presence. Purchase phone numbers in over 50 countries for only $4.99 per month; the typical rate for local phone numbers drops to $1.99 each for over 100 numbers. Its Standard rate for global numbers costs $5 per month plus usage, and Premium rates are $15 per month, making it ideal for international communication.

While Phone.com is suitable for strengthening a business’ local presence overseas, it only natively integrates with four third-party apps. The limited integration may be a deal-breaker if you rely heavily on CRM systems and productivity tools like Google Workspace. Go for RingCentral instead, which connects with over 300 apps.

• Live streaming of video meetings: Reach more audiences and stakeholders by broadcasting video conferencing sessions on YouTube. Take advantage of the branded meeting rooms to reflect your unique brand identity on live streams.
• International calling: Maximize Phone.com’s low rates for calling customers in select countries. Pay local fees for outgoing calls to landline numbers in Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.
• Virtual fax: Send and receive important documents through the virtual fax feature. Note that only dedicated numbers can receive inbound messages and that the maximum attachment is 200 pages long, below 10MB in size.

Send and receive fax messages conveniently via Phone.com. (Source: Phone.com)

Vonage is an inexpensive VoIP phone service with software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) as one of its default features. SD-WAN is a technology that automatically prioritizes communications traffic, ensuring high-quality voice and video calls.

Aside from ensuring a reliable service, Vonage’s Smart WAN helps companies do away with complex, costly network infrastructures. Since the technology optimizes network traffic, small businesses can settle for cheaper broadband plans, which offer multiplied cost savings in the long run.

The best part about this affordable VoIP service is that subscription plans include over 40 default unified communications tools. The downside is that you must pay extra fees on top of the monthly subscription plan for additional phone features, like call recording and call queues. These are standard tools in other VoIP solutions like RingCentral.

• Call park: Put calls on hold and let your colleagues pick them up. While the call is parked, you can continue making and receiving calls and use other VoIP features.
• Call flip: Switch between devices while on an active call without interruptions. Add up to five devices to multiple extensions.
• Call rerouting: Automatically direct inbound calls to a preconfigured backup phone number during a power outage. This ensures you get all important messages from clients.

Park a call and allow other users to retrieve it for faster customer service. (Source: Vonage)

Dialpad is another low-cost VoIP phone service ideal for teams wanting to enhance communication efficiency through AI. For only $27 per user a month, you’ll tap on different AI technologies, such as automated speech recognition, NLP, and semantic search. Automated speech recognition is applied to active calls, with the system transcribing the dialogues between call participants in real time.

Apart from its AI-based features, Dialpad is a unified communications provider that lets you easily switch between calls, chat, and video meetings within a single workspace. Plus, it has a full-featured phone system equipped with custom IVR, a company directory, and visual voicemail.

Unfortunately, Dialpad limits its video meeting capacity to 10 attendees. If you often host big virtual discussions, consider RingCentral, which offers a large meeting add-on, accommodating up to 500 attendees. Plus, you get the same smart meeting features offered by Dialpad, like live transcription and meeting summaries.

• Custom call routing: Set call distribution rules to efficiently manage inbound calls. Dialpad supports fixed order, round-robin, skills-based, and longest idle routing methods.
• Message threading: Start mini-discussions within group chats to keep track of different topics. To start a thread, hover over a message and select the “Reply in thread” icon from the options.
• International SMS: Maintain rapport with overseas clients by keeping in touch via text messages. Dialpad supports international SMS in over 150 territories.

Organize discussions within Dialpad channels by starting a thread. (Source: Dialpad)

Nextiva is the best cheap VoIP service for CRM and client support, with features like automatic call logging, call analytics, and customer interaction history.

Its Nextiva App integrates seamlessly with CRM platforms such as Salesforce and Zoho, allowing teams to manage calls and access customer data from one central platform. Additionally, Nextiva offers discounts for adding more users, enhancing its cost-effectiveness as your business expands.

Aside from the excellent call management tools, Nextiva features sales tools that help agents close deals efficiently. It has a built-in, customizable sales pipeline, allowing users to monitor sales activities. The Leads details tab contains comprehensive customer profiles, including information about the lead source, sales stage, and account value.

Unfortunately, Nextiva’s video calling and meetings are limited to 45 minutes. In contrast, RingCentral allows you to host meetings for up to 24 hours.

• Call screening: Filter incoming calls to enable agents to focus on legitimate, important customer inquiries. Enable anonymous or selective call rejection.
• Call transfer: Move active phone calls to the right agent and resolve customer concerns faster. The cold transfer option lets you transfer calls without speaking to the next agent, while the warm transfer requires you to give a heads-up to the service representative.
• Call recording: Store all phone conversations and use them to resolve disputes and train new agents. Nextiva offers the option to pause and resume a call recording while on a live call.

Pause and resume call recording on Nextiva. (Source: Nextiva)

Among the listed software solutions here, Zoom Phone is the cheapest VoIP phone service, with a monthly starting fee of $10 per user. All service tiers, including the basic package, provide all-inclusive access to key call management features, such as auto-attendant, call routing, call monitoring, and call recording.

On top of the affordable fees, Zoom Phone makes calling customers in international locations easier. Its highest-tier plan, which only costs $20 per user a month, allows unlimited domestic calling within one of the 48 countries supported, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Japan.

At the same time, you’ll be able to secure unlimited international calls to 19 countries, including New Zealand, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

While Zoom Phone has the lowest monthly subscription plan among the listed cheapest VoIP services, it doesn’t have a built-in virtual fax. If your business frequently sends documents to partners and customers, go for other VoIP solutions offering internet fax, like Grasshopper and RingCentral.

• Call barge: Join live conversations between an agent and a customer and help address inquiries faster. Other call monitoring tools include whisper and takeover.
• Shared line appearance: Executives can delegate calls to other employees and let them handle inquiries. This helps leaders focus better on more complex tasks and still ensure customer communications are handled properly.
• Hot desking: Use any phone in your company and access your unique profile and settings. With this feature, employees can work wherever they feel comfortable.

See the assigned call delegate on Zoom Phone’s “Lines” tab. (Source: Zoom)