6 Best SIP Trunking Providers for Small Businesses

RingCentral stands out as our overall best SIP trunk provider because of its tiered approach to connecting your on-premise PBX with its cloud phone system via SIP trunking. The RingCentral Cloud Connector uses a phased migration process, allowing teams to transition strategically by department, team, or function.

Available in over 50 countries, this hybrid PBX solution is ideal for growing businesses looking to expand their global presence and implement SIP trunking across various office locations worldwide. It also benefits large enterprises that need to fulfill their existing contracts while gradually transitioning their teams to a cloud phone system.

As the existing infrastructure integrates with cloud capabilities, teams can leverage the modern features of a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone system, including HD video meetings, team chat, and real-time call transcriptions.

With a monthly starting fee of $30 per user, RingCentral is relatively pricier than other monthly subscription options. If your business doesn’t require full cloud phone functionality, we recommend Vonage, which lets you pay only for the features you need.

• Advanced reporting: Get real-time business-critical information on one screen. Use custom reports to generate actionable insights to improve customer service performance and engagement.
• Team messaging: Send instant updates via one-on-one chats or group threads. This collaboration feature lets users chat, share files, and hop into meetings with one click.
• Video conferencing: Host and participate in virtual meetings and increase engagement with advanced features like screen and file sharing. RingCentral comes with unlimited HD meetings that support up to 200 video participants.

Get real-time reports of your phone system’s health. (Source: RingCentral)

Small businesses with little tech know-how on SIP trunking will find Nextiva straightforward to set up and use. It lets you get more out of your PBX system by offering carrier-grade public switched telephone network (PSTN) connectivity with no coding requirements. Choose from the metered and unmetered pricing plans and access ready-to-use SIP trunks, which can be deployed within the same day.

Setting up Nextiva’s SIP trunks only takes four simple steps. First, get a custom quote, check your hardware compatibility, select or port your number, and lastly, receive your SIP service credentials and start placing calls. If you’re keeping your phone number, Nextiva will provide a temporary phone line to get set up quickly until the porting is complete.

Nextiva’s SIP trunk service lacks key features like call recording and voicemail transcription. If you’re looking for a complete phone system, check out Ooma, which includes over 50 standard call features on the base plan.

• Automatic failover: Automatically switch your PBX system if it fails or goes offline. Nextiva’s cloud connectivity directs calls to another destination.
• Call records: See call details and history reports quickly and securely using the Nextiva admin dashboard.
• Enhanced 911 (E911): Access turnkey E911 functionality that sends an address to emergency services when a call is placed using Nextiva.

Specify the address the dispatcher sees when you dial 911. (Source: Nextiva)

Despite the growing bring your own device (BYOD) trend in remote work, most businesses still prefer desk phones because of better call quality and reliability according to a study by Consegic Business Intelligence. If you want to maintain your current setup, Ooma is compatible with most IP-enabled PBX phone systems, including Mitel, Yealink, and Polycom.

Ooma offers IP desk phone models for basic and complex needs, whether you require maximum functionality or support for multiple lines. They come in various selections that work seamlessly with its VoIP and SIP trunking services. If you need advice on the right desk phone model based on your team size and needs, Ooma’s on-page tool offers recommendations. A 30-day risk-free turn applies to all Ooma desk phones.

In terms of advanced collaboration, Ooma lags behind top SIP trunk providers like RingCentral and Nextiva because of limited team chat capacity and basic video meeting tools. If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution, RingCentral centralizes all communication channels into a single platform, including voice, video, and messaging.

• Caller info match: Retrieve the full profile of a caller from your CRM, social media, or search engine to gain all the relevant information you need before picking up the phone.
• Conferencing: Invite unlimited attendees from any location using toll-free dial-in numbers. Create multiple meeting rooms with a secure PIN code.
• Advanced call analytics: Choose from various call reports and custom templates that feature key metrics, such as calls by user, ring groups, queue, and call listings. Use data charts and export reports to Excel.

Ooma connects with LinkedIn to pull up public profiles. (Source: Ooma)

The Telnyx SIP trunking service runs on a multicloud network, allowing voice data to travel on a private backbone. For an added layer of security, your SIP connection automatically generates a username and password for your credentials. Advanced encryption for secure trunking is provided at no extra cost, even if you’re only paying for usage-based minutes.

If you’re looking to cut costs for your outbound campaigns, voice calls are only 0.5 cents per minute. Other features include on-call statistics, automatic top-up, and customizable routing scheme for different business numbers.

Setting up Telnyx can be challenging as the process requires programming expertise. If you’re keen on adopting SIP trunking but lack the assistance of an expert dev team, consider Nextiva, which guarantees ease of setup and use. It has an intuitive trunking portal for managing phone numbers, adding PBX options, and setting forwarding failovers.

• Detailed debugging: Your Telnyx portal account contains multiple tools for troubleshooting SIP calls and configuring call flows. Make test calls without a softphone client and analyze webhooks sent to a customer’s account.
• Custom voice routing: Build call flows using a simple Extensible Markup Language (XML) scripting and Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs. Add call recording, speech-to-text, answering machine detection, or any destination to send callers.
• Inbound call screening: Block suspicious and spam calls by filtering out specific numbers based on customized conditions. Collects data from multiple data sources and refers to a number reputation database to assess a phone number’s reputation.

Create your credentials to set up your SIP connection. (Source: Telnyx)

Vonage makes it easy to connect your PBX system to the cloud with speed and reliability. Power your call center with Automatic Location Based Routing (ALBR), which routes calls to the closest gateway to reduce latency and improve call quality. ALBR determines the user’s location based on the IP address and automatically routes calls to the nearest gateway.

Other features include flexible per-second billing, global inbound and outbound calling, number porting, and custom dashboard analytics. While Vonage’s per-minute pricing is reasonable, businesses with high-volume calling can quickly rack up communication costs. Businesses looking for generous minute inclusions are better off with Nextiva’s unlimited calling plan. It costs $24.95 per user for one toll-free number and unlimited calls in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

• Multicodec support: Vonage supports six different codecs to ensure the right sound quality and bandwidth for your SIP calls. Available codecs include g729, g722, and iLBC.
• Call block: Identify phone numbers you don’t want to hear from. Incoming calls from blocked numbers will hear a busy signal, while outgoing callers will be informed that the number they’re trying to call is blocked.
• Voice Inspector: Analyze voice quality and identity issues in your voice applications through an easy-to-use dashboard. Get call quality measurements, perform call diagnostics, and test call flows.

Vonage offers a knowledge base on how to use APIs for SIP trunking. (Source: Vonage)

Twilio’s SIP trunking solution is best for growing businesses with increasing call traffic needing scalable solutions. It offers a wide array of services that allow you to create custom APIs.

Advanced functionalities include voice analytics, quality monitoring, and alert triggers.

The best part is that Twilio is deployable within minutes and offers pay-as-you-go pricing with unlimited concurrent calls and phone number services in more than 70 countries. It also features Twilio Voice Insights, which generates microlevel analytics for troubleshooting and debugging.

While it has many features and self-service tools, Twilio is more expensive compared with other SIP trunking providers’ pay-as-you-go models. Telnyx offers a more affordable alternative, as local calls tend to be cheaper by a few cents as well as additional fees for voice features like call recording.

• Voice insights: Get a complete picture of your call performance. Twilio gives users access to call quality metrics and reporting tools, including finer details like packet loss and jitter.
• Call recording: Users can add secure call recording with public key encryption. Recording controls include start, stop, pause, and resume call recording.
• Omnichannel capabilities: Streamline communications by combining different points of contact into one platform. Twilio supports chat-based channels for your website and both iOS and Android apps.

Configure your Twilio SIP trunks in an intuitive dashboard. (Source: Twilio)