6 Best Conference Call Services for 2019

Conference call services facilitate meetings between business owners and employees, customers, clients, and remote workers using computers or mobile apps when face-to-face meetings aren’t viable. We looked at a variety of services and compared them by price, features, and ease of use to determine the top six, including the best overall.

6 Best Conference Call Services for 2019

How We Evaluated Conference Calling Services

The best conference calling services should allow one-on-one meetings and also accommodate groups of three or more participants. Providers should also offer extras like video calling, collaboration tools like file sharing, and a conference bridge to accommodate additional callers. Conference calling services should be easy to set up and use, and have good customer support to back it up.

Therefore, we evaluated the top six best conference calling service providers based on:

• Price: Most conference calling services offer tiered pricing structures. To evaluate each company fairly, we attempted to compare packages costs on a per-user basis with similar features.
• Audio quality: The best conference calling services have reliable audio quality that doesn’t degrade as participants join the call.
• Number of participants: Some companies limit the number of participants that can join meetings although, in some cases, it’s possible to buy additional seats.
• Number of meetings: Some companies limit the number of meetings you can host at different tier levels.
• Conference bridge: Conference bridging allows participants to dial in from their own phones to attend calls and meetings rather than wait for the host to call each participant individually.
• Business application integration: Business app integration extends the benefits of conference calling by linking it to popular productivity and sales tools like Slack and Salesforce.
• Support access: Conference calling services should offer online documentation and customer support that is easily accessible. The companies we reviewed offer a combination of phone, email, and chat support, online knowledge bases, and community forums.
• Ease of use: Conference calling service customers usually manage their accounts through software installed on a computer or through a web browser. We evaluated how easy the software is to install and set up or use in a browser.

Based on our research, we recommend RingCentral as the best overall conference calling service for small business for a combination of features, price, and value for the money. Here’s how the six services we evaluated stack up when compared against each other for price, features, and customer support.

Best Overall Conference Calling Service for Small Businesses: RingCentral

RingCentral conference calling service is part of RingCentral’s highly rated business voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone system. Each tier offers unlimited meetings and reliable phone service with plans from $29.99 per user, per month. RingCentral is the right solution for businesses that want the best conference calling service with a built-in business VoIP phone package and robust features.

RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral’s prices range from $29.99 per user, per month for up to 10 users to $34.99 and $44.99 for unlimited users and features like faxing and call recording. The number of meeting participants varies from four to 200, depending on plan level, and is the only service that comes value-bundled with VoIP.

RingCentral Tiered Features

Essentials

RingCentral’s Essentials level supports up to 1,000 participants for an unlimited number of meetings. This is less than what Zoom allows, but removes the meeting time limit that comes with Zoom’s entry-level plan. This tier includes mute, caller count, and call recording. Customer support options across all levels include a community forum, live chat and phone support, and an online ticketing system.

This tier doesn’t have multilevel auto-attendant, internet fax, automatic call recording, or voicemail transcription of the higher tiers. It’s also missing local recording, which Zoom offers. However, at $29.99 per user, per month, the Essentials plan a good choice for very small businesses that need phone service with their conference calling service.

Standard

RingCentral’s Standard tier level keeps the number of meeting participants at four and adds internet faxing and a multilevel auto-attendant for call routing capability to multiple locations and to external phone numbers. The auto-attendant feature can be set at an individual or company-wide level to answer and route calls during conference calls, making this tier right for businesses that need a helping hand to automatically direct calls when teams are busy.

This tier is missing the automatic call recording, voicemail transcription, and customer relationship management (CRM) integration of RingCentral’s upper tiers. It also doesn’t offer as many call controls as Zoom, though it does offer more overall features, like visual voicemail, than Vonage. At $34.99 per month, this plan is on par with Vonage and Grasshopper’s mid-level tiers.

Premium

RingCentral’s Premium tier level bumps the number of meeting participants up to 100, adds automatic inbound and outbound call recording, and also adds integration for Salesforce, Zendesk, and Desk.com. In addition to giving workers the ability to review calls handled by colleagues while they were attending a conference call, this tier adds voicemail transcription, which automatically converts voicemails to text that can be read in emails and text messages.

RingCentral Premium is best for call centers, sales teams, and businesses that want to keep audio records of calls for quality assurance, training, and compliance purposes. At $44.99 per month, this is one of the more expensive service plans on our list, but the combination of robust conference calling tools and a comprehensive VoIP business phone system is still an excellent value for the money.

What RingCentral Is Missing

RingCentral doesn’t offer a free plan for customers, and the basic package starts at $29.99 per user, per month. Businesses that want a completely free conference call service should consider Zoom instead. RingCentral also doesn’t offer unlimited international calling, so companies with global contacts and clients would be better served by Jive.

What Users Think About RingCentral

Our readers are overall positive about RingCentral, giving it an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars. Customers say calls have good sound quality and the service offers a variety of features that are useful for small and medium-sized businesses. However, some readers note the customer service team is occasionally slow to respond. For more user reviews, visit our RingCentral user reviews page.

Where to Find RingCentral

Businesses that want a conference call service with a built-in VoIP phone package should take a look at RingCentral. The company offers a 15-day free trial of its product and 30-day money-back guarantee when you purchase an account. Check out RingCentral’s website for details.

Visit RingCentral

Best Conference Calling Service for International Calling: Jive

Jive is a top-rated call center phone system with conference calling. It offers call merging that rapidly initiates a conference call between two live calls and unlimited free calling to 52 countries, with plans starting at $19.95 monthly. Jive is best for businesses with international clients and companies that expect to expand globally.

Jive Pricing

Jive offers five competitively priced monthly plans ranging from $19.95 to $29.95, depending on the number of users. Phone numbers are an additional 50 cents per month. All plans offer all available features, including unlimited domestic calling, free international calling, call recording, conference calling, and custom greetings.

How Jive’s pricing tiers break down based on number of users:

• $29.95 per user, per month: One to four users
• $25.95 per user, per month: Five to nine users
• $23.95 per user, per month: 10 to 24 users
• $21.95 per user, per month: 25 to 49 users
• $19.95 per user, per month: 50 and more users

Jive Features

In addition to toll-free and local numbers, free calling to 52 countries, and unlimited domestic calling, Jive also features mobile apps, call recording, and call reports. Jive’s service plans also include integration with several business apps, including Salesforce, Zoho, and Redtail.

Additional Jive features include:

Call Conferencing

Jive conference call options include three-way calling by dialing the number of the third person you want to bring into the call. The feature supports merging two simultaneous calls and whisper mode, which allows one participant to listen in undetected. Like Phone.com, Jive also offers a conference bridge to allow up to people to dial themselves into a call. However, Jive limits participants to 24 while Phone.com permits up to 300 people to call in.

Recording

Jive features call recording with its service plans to record some or all of the calls to and from your account. Calls can be recorded system-wide, on specific phone numbers, or by extension. Recordings are stored in the cloud and require a paid subscription to an Amazon S3 cloud hosting service account. RingCentral also offers inbound and outbound call recording, but only at the upper-tier level.

Storage Space

Like Grasshopper, Jive doesn’t offer storage space with its price plans. However, it does support Amazon S3 as its third-party hosting solution for recorded calls. Jive’s online documentation walks you through how to connect your Jive account to your Amazon S3 account for seamless storage.

Customer Support

Jive’s customer support includes an online knowledge base and tutorials, an online ticketing system, and email support. It also offers 24/7 phone support in English for customers across all pricing tiers, and is one of the few conference call services on the market besides Phone.com to also offer 24/7 phone support in Spanish.

What Jive Is Missing

Jive lacks a customer relationship management tools to allow agents to make notes on calls or integration with existing customer relationship management (CRM) platforms like Salesforce. Businesses wanting a conference calling solution with CRM integration should check out options like Nextiva or Phone.com.

What Users Think About Jive

Our readers give Jive overall good reviews, with an average rating of 3 out of 5 stars. Customers praise its standout customer support and like that all features are available with all service plans. However, some customers say the mobile app is outdated and would benefit from more features. Read more customer reviews on our Jive user reviews page.

Where to Find Jive

Businesses wanting a conference calling service with international calling to 52 countries and unlimited domestic calling should consider Jive. The company offers a free demo of its product when you contact the sales team. Head to Jive’s website today for details.

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Best Conference Calling Service for Team Collaboration: Vonage

Vonage is a VoIP provider with call conferencing service, auto-attendant, and call forwarding capabilities, with service plans starting at $19.99 per user, per month. It also comes with team collaboration tools like video conferencing, chat, and file sharing, making Vonage the best fit for teams that want to maximize productivity during conference calls.

Vonage Pricing

Vonage’s well-priced plans are divided into three different plans that range from $19.99 to $39.99. All tiers provide access to conference calling, team messaging, mobile apps, and unlimited calling and SMS messaging.

Add-on features include:

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

Vonage Tiered Features

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 a choice of communicating through a mobile device or desktop. With pricing from $19.99 per user, per month, Vonage Mobile is right for distributed and remote teams or businesses that don’t rely on desk phones.

The Mobile tier lacks local call recording like Zoom offers with its entry-level plan. This level is also missing support for video conferencing, chat, or file sharing, like the Premium or Advanced plan. However, a conference bridge for up to 30 participants is available for $14.99 per month. Like RingCentral, Vonage’s customer support includes an online knowledge base, community forum, online ticketing system, and phone support.

Premium

The Premium plan offers the same auto-attendant and mobility options as the Mobile plan, along with call conferencing, chat, and file sharing for up to 100 users. RingCentral’s mid-level plan supports unlimited users but limits video meetings to four people. This level also includes a multilevel auto-attendant and meeting recording, making it best for teams that want to document and store call recordings.

This tier lacks the visual voicemail and on-demand call recording found at the premium level. It’s also missing robust call control and business phone features offered by RingCentral. However, with pricing from $29.99 per month, Vonage’s Premium tier is on par with similar conference calling services on the market.

Advanced

The Advanced plan features Vonage’s Orange-Glove Setup, which provides a dedicated team of experts that guides you through the setup process. It also features on-demand call recording and visual voicemail for reading transcriptions of voicemail messages in your inbox.

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 access help with its service, including a knowledge base, email, chat, and phone. However, the lack of 24/7 support is a drawback, as this is a feature offered by Jive in two languages. 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 Users Think About Vonage

Our readers give Vonage mixed reviews with a 3 out of 5 star rating. Customers report it’s easy to customize the service to your individual business needs and call quality is solid. 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 reviews page.

Where to Find Vonage

Companies that need a conference calling service with team collaboration tools like file sharing should consider Vonage. Vonage offers a 14-day free trial, and you can cancel at any time without penalties. Start your free trial by visiting Vonage’s website today.

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Best Conference Calling Service for Virtual Phone Numbers: Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a virtual phone number service with conference calling that allows users to switch between business and personal numbers on one device. With pricing from $29 per month, it’s the best conference calling service for business owners or remote workers who also need a business number with extra functionality for their smartphone or landline.

Grasshopper Pricing

Grasshopper offers three competitively priced service plans: Solo for $29 per month, Partner for $49 per month, and Small Business for $89 per month. All plans offer all of Grasshopper’s phone system features, such as unlimited calling conference calling, voicemail, and an auto-attendant.

Each plan includes phone numbers and extensions:

• Solo Plan: One number and three extensions for $29 per month
• Partner Plan: Three numbers and six extensions for $49 per month
• Small Business Plan: Five numbers and unlimited extensions for $89 per month

Grasshopper Features

Grasshopper includes many features that give the solopreneur or remote employees the same tools many traditional business phone systems offer, making it our top pick as a virtual phone number service. It offers unlimited domestic calling and voicemail as well as voicemail transcription and call forwarding, in addition to vanity phone numbers.

Additional Grasshopper features include:

Call Conferencing

Grasshopper allows users to host an unlimited number of conference calls with up to 10 participants, including the host. This is more participants than RingCentral’s entry-level and mid-range plans, but not as many as services like Vonage and Jive, which offer conference bridges to accommodate more callers.

Recording

Unfortunately, Grasshopper doesn’t offer call recording as a feature of its call conferencing service. Business owners wanting to record calls for quality assurance, training, and recordkeeping purposes should turn to RingCentral or Jive.

Storage Space

Since Grasshopper doesn’t feature call recording, it doesn’t offer online storage space to house them. The lack of this combination shouldn’t deter customers from choosing Grasshopper for its dependability as a top-rated virtual phone number provider for business owners who want to get the most functionality out of their personal mobile device or landline.

Customer Support

Grasshopper provides a comprehensive online knowledge base, which is organized by the service’s most common features and frequently asked questions. For more personal assistance, Grasshopper also offers telephone support (although they don’t specify hours of availability) and the option to open a ticketed case should your issue require escalation.

What Grasshopper Is Missing

Grasshopper lacks advanced calling features that larger VoIP providers like RingCentral or Jive offer, but this is reflected in Grasshopper’s lower cost. It also doesn’t include free calling outside the U.S.; however, low international calling rates are available.

What Users Think About Grasshopper

Our readers give Grasshopper mixed reviews, with an average of 3 out of 5 stars. Most customers are satisfied with Grasshopper’s pricing and customer support. However, some users report troubling issues with customer support and sales agents who don’t always provide reliable information. For more reviews, visit our Grasshopper user reviews page.

Where to Find Grasshopper

Businesses owners and solopreneurs looking for the best conference calling service with a virtual business phone number should check out Grasshopper. The company offers a seven-day free trial with no credit card required. Visit Grasshopper’s website for details.

Visit Grasshopper

Best Conference Calling Service for Large Group Meetings: Phone.com

Phone.com is a VoIP service with conference calling that supports group meetings of up to 300 participants. It offers customized phone numbers and phone system features like call forwarding and hold music with plans from $12.99 per month. Phone.com is right for businesses wanting an economical conference calling solution for large meetings.

Phone.com Pricing

Phone.com offers three pay-per-minute plans—Base, Plus, and Pro—with prices ranging from a comparatively low $12.99 per month to $39.99 per month. All plans include conference calling, 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

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 and caller analytics can be added to your service.

Additional Phone.com features include:

Call Conferencing

All Phone.com plans come with an HD-quality conference bridge that supports up to 300 participants for an unlimited number of meetings. Each extension on your network can have its own conference bridge with 15 call controls including mute, and require name announcement during calls. Many services on our list also offer a conference bridge, but most are capped at 100 participants or fewer.

Recording

Phone.com offers system-wide call recording and selective call recording by phone number or extension. All recorded calls are stored in the accounts call logs for 13 months and can be downloaded and saved as MP3 files. Unlike Jive or RingCentral, call recording is not part of Phone.com’s service plans and must be purchased as an add-on starting at $4.95 per month for 300 minutes.

Storage Space

Phone.com allocates space for each customer account to house conference call recordings for up to 13 months. Recordings are stored online and can be accessed by playing the recording or downloading the recording as an MP3 file. Unlike other service providers on our list, call recording is not a standard feature and must be purchased separately as part of Phone.com’s call recording package starting at $4.95 per month for 300 minutes.

Customer Support

Phone.com customer support includes an online knowledge base, user manuals, and training guides. Email, live chat, and phone support are also available 365 days a year. Like Jive, customer support in Spanish is available Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

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 like Jive does. Another drawback to Phone.com is the additional cost for voicemail to email or other features like call recording and analytics, which come standard with conference calling service providers like RingCentral.

What Users Think About Phone.com

Our readers give Phone.com mixed reviews with a 3- out of 5-star rating. Customers like that the service is affordable and that the plans are flexible. However, some users say they are disappointed with the quality of customer support, long wait times, and delayed responses. For more user reviews, visit our Phone.com user reviews page.

Where to Find Phone.com

Businesses wanting a conference calling service that can accommodate large groups of up to 300 participants should try Phone.com. Base plans include a 30-day money-back guarantee. To learn more or to set up an account, visit Phone.com’s website today.

Visit Phone.com

Best No-frills Conference Calling Service: Zoom

Zoom is a conferencing calling service that offers unlimited meetings, on-screen collaboration, and call controls for free. Upper tiers feature cloud storage, reporting, and meeting transcripts from $14.99 per host, per month. Zoom is the best free choice for businesses with no room in the budget for a full-service call conferencing solution.

Zoom Pricing

Zoom’s service plans include a free basic plan with a 40-minute time limit on group meetings and two competitively priced paid plans with no time limit for $14.99 and $19.99 per host, per month. All plans allow 100 meeting participants, while the upper tiers offer features like reporting and cloud storage.

Zoom Tiered Features

Free

Zoom’s free tier supports up to 100 participants for an unlimited number of meetings. This level also includes simultaneous screen sharing, desktop sharing, host controls, and local recording that saves meeting recordings in MP4, M4A, and TXT formats. Unlike Zoom competitors, this service requires participants to download a free app to their computer or mobile device in order to join a call.

This tier doesn’t include the admin feature controls, dedicated phone support, or transcription service of higher tiers. It also lacks a VoIP phone package like RingCentral offers, which could be a drawback for companies that need conference calling with built-in phone service. However, this level offers plenty of features to accommodate solopreneurs and small businesses that hold short meetings and don’t need cloud storage, making it one of the top free conference services.

Pro

Zoom’s Pro tier accommodates up to 100 participants with the option to purchase 500 or 1,000 additional seats. There is no meeting duration limit at this level. This tier also adds user management and admin feature controls that give owners and admins more power over the account, reporting, and 1GB storage for cloud recording.

This tier doesn’t include the vanity URL or admin dashboard found in the Business tier or in virtual phone numbers like Grasshopper. However, at $14.99 per host, per month, this tier’s value pricing is on par with Phone.com. Zoom Pro is the right choice for small teams and businesses that want more control over calls.

Business

Zoom’s Business tier accommodates up to 100 participants with the option to purchase 500 or 1,000 additional seats. There is no meeting duration limit at this level. This tier also adds dedicated phone support, cloud recording transcripts, an admin dashboard, and a vanity URL. A minimum of 10 hosts are required on the Business tier. Zoom also offers an enterprise-level package at this same price point for large businesses, with a 100-host minimum requirement.

All Zoom plans include customer support via an online knowledge base, online ticketing system, and chat. However, this tier also offers dedicated phone support, which is a nice value-added feature for a plan that costs only $19.99 per host, per month. Zoom Business is a good choice for organizations that need access to a customer support team with their conference calling service.

What Zoom Is Missing

Zoom only allows 1GB of cloud storage unless you purchase add-on plans from $40 per month. Businesses needing more than 1GB of storage should consider Jive, where you can purchase as much storage via Amazon S3 as you wish. Additionally, unlike conference calling services bundled with VoIP service, Zoom requires participants to download an app in order to join a call, which could be off-putting to some users.

What Users Think About Zoom

Our readers have overall positive things to say about Zoom, with an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Customers say it offers great quality for conferences and that it’s easy to set up meeting rooms. However, some users report conference attendees sometimes get disconnected when the internet is slow due it bandwidth support issues. For more user reviews, visit our Zoom user reviews page.

Where to Find Zoom

Organizations that need an easy to use and reliable free conference calling service should give Zoom a try. The company offers a free demo and it’s free to sign up for an account. Check out Zoom’s website for details.

Visit Zoom

Bottom Line

The best conference call services help business owners connect with clients and customers when face-to-face meetings aren’t possible. They should be affordable, accommodate groups of three or more, and offer enough call controls and collaboration tools to keep everyone in the meeting on track and productive.

Companies that want the best combination of conference call features at an affordable price can’t miss with RingCentral. Visit the company’s website to learn more and to sign up for a 15-day free trial with RingCentral today.

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