6 Best Google Voice Alternatives for 2022

You may have started using Google Voice free as a second number, but now find that your business needs features like toll-free numbers, call handling features, and software integrations. The best Google Voice alternatives offer more advanced business tools than Google Voice at a similar price point. We compared voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) and virtual phone services to find the best Google Voice alternatives for small businesses.

According to our research, the best Google Voice alternatives are:

• Phone.com: Best overall Google Voice alternative, and top choice for companies looking for per-minute and unlimited plans
• RingCentral: Best Google Voice alternative for medium to large organizations needing a unified communications (UC) platform
• 8×8: Best option for businesses wanting to expand into global markets and make unlimited calls worldwide
• Grasshopper: Best alternative to Google Voice for solopreneurs and small teams looking for multiple phone extensions without per-user fees
• OpenPhone: Top choice among Google Voice alternatives for companies seeking a budget-friendly service with integrations
• Sideline: Best Google Voice alternative for small businesses wanting short message service (SMS) text marketing features

Google Voice & Best Alternatives at a Glance

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Phone.com: Best Overall Google Voice Alternative for Metered & Unlimited Plans

Phone.com offers more VoIP business phone features than Google Voice and, in some cases, costs less, especially if you pay annually or add five or more users. With Phone.com, you get similar functionality as Google Voice, including visual voicemail, call forwarding, and mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices. All plans include video conferencing and a local or toll-free phone number (Google Voice doesn’t provide either option).

Phone.com Pricing at a Glance*

• Basic Users: $12.99 per user, per month for one number per account, 300 minutes and 1,000 pooled text segments per person, 10 video conference participants, and an auto-attendant
• Plus Users: $19.99 per user, per month for one phone number per person, unlimited minutes and texting, 25 video conference participants, video recording, and voicemail transcription
• Pro Users: $29.99 per user, per month for one phone number per person, unlimited minutes and texting, 100 video conferencing participants, video transcription, customer relationship manager (CRM) integrations, and call analytics

*Plan prices are based on monthly payments for one to four users. Select annual billing to save 20% and add five or more users to lower the cost per user.

Phone.com Features

• Mix and match plans: Unlike Google Voice, Phone.com lets you choose different packages for each user, which can save your business money. Your team can share minutes and text message allotments on the metered plans or use an unlimited subscription for added features.
• Collaboration tools: While Phone.com provides fewer features than a full-featured business phone system like RingCentral, it comes with content sharing, team chat, and conferencing tools. Your team can meet online and work in real time without paying for features it might not need in a more expensive system.
• Add-on options: Phone.com packages come with more than 50 VoIP features. However, you don’t have to upgrade to a higher plan tier if you want to add call recording or a live receptionist to a phone line. Instead, you can add these features to one line or all of them.

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RingCentral: Best Google Voice Alternative for Unified Communications

RingCentral is an excellent choice for companies wanting a unified communications (UC) system, as it can replace your current phone service, video conferencing, and collaboration tools. Your team can use RingCentral to meet in real time to share screens and documents, and host meetings with up to 200 video participants.

All RingCentral plans come with toll-free minutes, so you can choose a toll-free 800 business number now or easily add one later. While the cost of RingCentral’s Essentials plan is twice as expensive as Google’s Starter plan for single users, when you remember that it can replace your existing business phone plan, the cost difference may be negligible—or even in RingCentral’s favor. Explore other benefits of using this phone system in our RingCentral review.

RingCentral Pricing at a Glance*

• Essentials: $19.99 per user, per month for up to 20 users for unlimited domestic calls and texting in the U.S. and Canada, 100 toll-free minutes, team messaging, and document sharing
• Standard: $27.99 per user, per month for 100 video participants, unlimited internet fax, 1,000 toll-free minutes, Microsoft and Google integrations, and quality of service reports
• Premium: $34.99 per user, per month for 200 video meeting participants, 2,500 toll-free minutes, 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

*Prices are based on two to 20 users with monthly billing. Save up to 33% with annual prepayment and get additional discounts with 100 or more users.

RingCentral Features

• Conferencing: Interact with your team using high definition (HD) voice and video services through audio and video conferences. RingCentral supports up to 1,000 audio attendees and 200 video participants. Plus, you can share files and chat with the group or individuals during a video meeting.
• Quality of service reports: Ensure your virtual meeting space works well for everyone using RingCentral’s easy-to-read reports. They measure service quality by looking at jitter, codecs, latency, and packet loss. The reports detail trends at the call and user levels.
• Flexible device usage: Your team can answer calls and work using any internet-connected device, thanks to RingCentral’s mobile and desktop apps. You can also rent or buy desk phones and headsets or use your existing compatible devices. If you’re looking for home office solutions, check out our Ooma vs Google Voice comparison.

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8×8: Best Google Voice Alternative for International Expansion

Unlike Google Voice, 8×8 supports companies as they expand operations worldwide. 8×8 offers local and toll-free international phone numbers in over 120 countries, so you can establish a virtual presence even if you don’t have an office in that location.

Likewise, 8×8 can port local numbers in 40 international markets, which works well for businesses with physical offices worldwide. While 8×8 costs more than Google Voice, you won’t get surprises on your phone bill because 8×8 provides unlimited calling to up to 47 countries.

8×8 Pricing at a Glance*

• 8×8 Express: $12 per user, per month for unlimited domestic calling, an auto-attendant, visual voicemail, meeting recording and transcription, 100 video meeting attendees, and file sharing
• X2: $32 per user, per month for unlimited calling to 14 countries, a multi-level auto-attendant, unlimited media storage, 500 video conference participants, and hotdesking
• X3: Contact 8×8 for package prices for unlimited calling to 32 countries, Switchboard Pro for operators, and to store saved media for 130 days
• X4: $57 per user, per month for unlimited calling to 47 countries, supervisor analytics, barge, whisper, and monitor
• X6: $125 per user, per month for contact center analytics, skills-based call routing, queued and web callback, and post-call surveys
• X7: $138 per user, per month to integrate additional channels, such as social media, email, and messaging platforms
• X8: $175 per user, per month for quality management tools, an auto-dialer, and speech analytics

*Pricing is based on monthly payments, but you can save up to 25% with yearly billing.

8×8 Features

• Video conferencing: With 8×8, connect with up to 500 video participants with X-Series plans, the highest capacity of all Google Voice alternatives. 8×8 provides meeting security, presentation tools, and interactive features to keep your team engaged.
• Global support: 8×8 has technical service teams with multilingual capabilities located worldwide, so your team can access customer service regardless of location without language barriers. In addition, 8×8 services include emergency service access worldwide.
• Reporting: Explore how your team and customers use your voice services with in-depth reporting features. You can run reports by user, time of day, or after-hours calls. Plus, you can view talk-time totals and call detail records.

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Grasshopper: Best Google Voice Alternative for Solopreneurs & Small Teams

Like Google Voice, Grasshopper is a virtual phone number provider offering a quick setup process if you need a second phone number for your business. However, Grasshopper’s annual discounts and flat fees for plans with multiple extensions make the real per-user cost less expensive than Google Voice. You pay one price and connect your team via extensions.

Plus, Grasshopper provides a unique instant response feature that Google Voice lacks, allowing you to automatically send a text message when you miss a call. Check out our in-depth comparison to learn how Grasshopper and Google Voice differ.

Grasshopper Pricing at a Glance*

• Solo: $29 per month with 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

*Prices are based on monthly payments, but you can choose annual billing to save more than 10%.

Grasshopper Features

• Multiple extensions: Create call forwarding rules and Grasshopper transfers incoming calls to the selected extension. You can even add informational extensions to deliver account or promotional details to callers.
• Custom greetings: Personalize greetings for each phone number, voicemail box, and extensions by uploading an audio file. Grasshopper also offers professionally recorded greetings for an additional flat per-session fee.
• Instant response: It’s tough to answer every call when you’re running a small business. Fortunately, Grasshopper’s instant response feature lets you reach out to callers using a text message template or a personal message.

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OpenPhone: Best Google Voice Alternative for Integrations

If you’re switching from Google Voice to OpenPhone, your phone bill could stay the same since both providers offer a $10 entry-tier plan. However, you don’t need a Google Workspace subscription to use OpenPhone. And OpenPhone delivers more for your money than Google Voice because the Standard plan includes integrations and a mini-CRM.

OpenPhone provides basic expected features like call recording, voicemail-to-text, and an auto-attendant, making it a good choice for small businesses that need a simple, professional phone system.

OpenPhone Pricing at a Glance

• Standard: $10 per user, per month for unlimited calls and texting to the U.S. and Canada, group messaging, call recording, standard interactive voice response (IVR) system, auto-replies, and Zapier and Slack integrations
• Premium: $25 per user, per month for an advanced auto-attendant, HubSpot integration, analytics and reporting, call transfer, and priority support
• Enterprise: Contact OpenPhone to customize your plan, get audit logs, and a dedicated account manager

OpenPhone Features

• Integrations: While other services, like RingCentral and 8×8, connect with more third-party tools, they can also cost double or triple the per-user price of OpenPhone. In comparison, OpenPhone uses Zapier to provide more than 3,000 integrations. Plus, it comes with Slack integration on the Standard plan, and the Premium package connects to HubSpot.
• Snippets and auto-replies: Like Grasshopper, OpenPhone can automatically send a text message when you miss a call during or after business hours. In addition, message templates called snippets standardize your responses to chat or text messages.
• Lightweight CRM: OpenPhone’s CRM tool lets you add custom attributes to your contacts, allowing you to track industry or business-specific details, such as a date to follow up with a lead. You can also leave notes and import contacts from a comma-separated values (CSV) file or Google Contacts.

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Sideline: Best Google Voice Alternative for SMS Marketing

Sideline stands out for its text marketing tools that help your sales and marketing teams capture leads and retain customers. Plus, you can select a shared plan, and for the cost of one user on Google Voice, every employee can use your phone line. Check out our Sideline vs Google Voice review to see more about how these services stack up against each other.

Sideline uses cellular data for calls and doesn’t work with internet protocol (IP) desk phones, so it’s a better option for remote sales teams than teams working in a shared office space. If you want to replace your office phone service, consider RingCentral or 8×8, as they are among the best business phone systems for unified communications.

Sideline Pricing at a Glance*

• Standard: $9.99 per line, per month for unlimited calls and text to U.S. numbers, auto-reply, voicemail-to-text, and up to 10 people in group messages
• Team Number: $9.99 per line, per month for all features from the Standard plan, but all your employees can share the same phone line
• Pro: $9.99 per line, per month for SMS marketing, up to 50 people included in a broadcast message, and appointment reminders
• Enterprise: $9.99 per line, per month for all features from the Standard plan plus an auto-attendant

*Prepay Sideline for six or 12 months to reduce the price to $8.33 per month.

Sideline Features

• SMS text marketing: Create text marketing messages for special promotions like a flash sale or send loyal customers a coupon using the broadcast tool available for up to 50 recipients per message on the Pro package. You can create templates to quickly start a new campaign, and recipients can respond to messages for a private conversation.
• Team line: Share one business phone number for one low monthly fee among your staff. Simply send an email invite, and when the phone rings, whoever presses “1” first answers the call. Plus, you can view call logs with data about individual users.
• Business hours: Configure your business hours on Sideline and after-hours phone calls will go to your voicemail automatically. You can also create auto-replies to respond to callers with a text message, even if you’re out of the office.

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How We Evaluated the Best Google Voice Alternatives

We reviewed several business phone systems, including VoIP and virtual providers offering competitive pricing and advanced business calling features, to find the best Google Voice alternative for your business. During our research, we identified six viable options that can replace your existing phone system or serve as a second phone number provider (like Google).

Phone.com scored 4.16 out of 5, making it our top choice for a Google Voice alternative. For companies with five or more employees, Phone.com is less expensive than Google Voice yet provides video conferencing capabilities. It offers metered and unlimited plans, so you can mix and match subscriptions to save money and get the features you need. Plus, Phone.com comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee to test the service and see if it’s a good fit.

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Here’s a breakdown of how we measured each of the top Google Voice alternatives:

Bottom Line

If you like the user-friendly interface of Google Voice but need different features, consider one of the best Google Voice alternatives. Free phone services are hard to come by, but several providers on our list offer low rates at an equivalent or even lower cost than Google Voice that are an excellent fit for small businesses.

Plus, you can choose plans with features Google Voice lacks, such as integrations, toll-free numbers, international calling, and video conferencing. Most Google Voice alternatives are designed for small teams, but if you’re a solopreneur, you might also want to check out our magicJack vs Google Voice review before deciding on another option.

Phone.com received the highest ratings, making it our top pick for a Google Voice alternative. It lets you mix and match plans to keep costs low while meeting with teams via video, voice, or a chat platform. You can even add a live receptionist to your line if your call volume increases during the peak season.

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