8 Best VoIP for Freelancers for Small Businesses

Zoom Phone is the ideal VoIP phone system solution for freelancers, ensuring affordability with a pay-as-you-go plan and a user-friendly interface. Zoom Phone seamlessly integrates with Zoom’s video conferencing tools for a smooth transition between voice calls and video meetings. With ATA analog telephone adapter compatibility across all plans, freelancers can easily transition from traditional phone systems to VoIP without hassle.

All plans come with unlimited domestic calling, metered global calling, call monitoring tools (i.e., barge and monitor), call recording, and team messaging. However, it has limited artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities compared with competitors like Dialpad. Its AI-powered features, such as real-time transcription and smart call routing, enhance productivity and provide valuable insights that freelancers can use to manage communications more effectively.

• Mixed plan types: Customize your VoIP service with choices like pay-as-you-go, metered plans that charge for extra usage, or unlimited domestic calling. The global select plan grants domestic calling across more than 40 countries under a single rate plan and a direct dial number (DID) for each license.
• Zoom meeting: With a single click, elevate a call to a video conference or transfer a call to a Zoom meeting room. Use this when you need to quickly transition between calls and video, enhancing collaboration and adapting to the evolving needs of any conversation.
• Holiday and business routing: Set custom call routing based on your schedule and business operations so all inbound calls are routed to specific lines and voicemails. This maintains professionalism and streamlines call management during off-hours.

Forward all unanswered and declined incoming calls to your voicemail. (Source: Zoom Phone)

Handling all incoming calls can be difficult if you’re managing your business alone. With Dialpad’s automation capabilities, you get an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered phone system that will do all the manual and repetitive work, including transcribing voicemails, summarizing calls, and analyzing call performance in real time.

Dialpad AI offers actionable insights, real-time transcription, and workflow automation to personalize your business conversations. You get an instant summary of every customer interaction, including AI-recommended action items, allowing you to reduce time spent on guesswork.

If Dialpad’s advanced AI features are overkill for your freelance needs, you need a basic VoIP solution like Grasshopper. This provider heavily focuses on telephony and SMS capabilities, so you don’t have to pay for premium features you don’t need.

• International conference call: Enable meeting participants to join your conference call by phone using an international access number. You simply dial the local access number based on your location.
• Virtual receptionist: Automatically direct calls based on how you customize your call routing options. Upload custom greetings, list your department options, and route calls to individual team members or specific departments.
• Call park: Move incoming calls to a “virtual parking lot” so other teammates can pick up the call from another extension. This can be used in high-call volume industries to ensure calls are handled efficiently.

Dialpad’s simple interface makes it easy to adjust call answering settings. (Source: Dialpad)

We recommend Ooma as the best VoIP for personal use, thanks to its free home phone service, which comes with the $99.99 Ooma Telo purchase. This is ideal for freelancers or solopreneurs who work from home and need a cloud-based phone system with basic VoIP features.

The Ooma Basic calling plan includes HD voice quality, free number porting, and answering machine functionality. You can upgrade to Ooma Office for more advanced calling features like ring groups, virtual receptionists, and voicemail transcription.

However, phone system configuration is quite complex with Ooma because of its heavily outdated interface. If you want a smoother user experience, consider Dialpad, an AI-powered phone system with a clean and intuitively designed dashboard. It lays out all the options you need on one screen, allowing you to save time and effort when setting up call flows.

• Complimentary number porting: Keep your existing business phone number when moving from your old carrier to Ooma. Porting is free. This ensures your customers can still contact you even if you switch service providers.
• Shared speed dial: A custom phone book lets you store up to 1,000 contacts that can be accessed by anyone in your company. Use it to record the contact information of your customers, vendors, and contractors.
• Call blocking: The account admin can block up to 1,000 phone numbers from reaching your company’s extensions, both individually and in bulk.

Ooma lets you specify what happens to blocked numbers. (Source: Ooma)

Talkroute stands out as the best VoIP solution for freelancers for multiple projects because you can assign unique virtual numbers for each client or project for organized communication. Create unique custom greetings, call routing rules, and voicemail settings and manage separate communications streams for each client or project. It offers different phone numbers, including local, toll-free, and vanity numbers, and allows number porting across all subscription plans.

All-inclusive plans cater to small teams of three to 10 members, with the option to add users for $5 each, ensuring transparent pricing with no hidden fees and premium features available. However, if you’re expanding, Talkroute lacks international calling and international numbers. If you’re looking for a freelance VoIP system to connect to your global audience, Phone.com offers all four types of virtual numbers: local, toll-free, vanity, and international, as well as low international call rates.

• Call stacking: Allow multiple incoming calls to be queued and answered in the order they arrive, so no calls are missed, even during peak hours. Use this feature to manage high call volumes effectively without sending callers to voicemail.
• Operating hours: Talkroute will route calls based on your business schedule and direct after-hours calls to voicemail or other designated lines to maintain a clear communication flow.
• Meeting chat: This is an in-call messaging option for collaboration during meetings without interrupting the call flow.

Talkroute’s inventory of virtual phone numbers has thousands of options available. (Source: Talkroute)

Google Voice leads as the best free and low-cost VoIP phone system for freelancers because it offers a free personal plan for any US phone number holder with a Google account. The business plan starts at just $10 per user monthly, one of the most affordable options. Google Workspace users gain access to advanced Google Voice features like auto-attendant, call transfer, ring groups, and voicemail transcription.

For freelancers just starting or those with minimal communication needs, Google Voice is a great way to separate personal and business lines without incurring extra costs. The free plan also supports basic voicemail transcriptions, making managing missed calls easier and staying responsive to clients.

As a lightweight VoIP solution, Google Voice is not suitable for freelancers with advanced VoIP needs or those needing integration with third-party apps. In this case, choose Zoom Phone; it offers a complete phone system, robust video conferencing, and integration with over 2,000 applications for enhanced productivity.

• Voicemail transcription: This option allows you to listen to your voicemail or read its transcript. Supported languages include English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
• Custom call forwarding: You can forward incoming calls from specific contacts directly to your voicemail or any linked phone number. You can also screen calls and play custom greetings.
• Hunt groups: Allow team members to take turns answering calls from the same Google Voice number. The call could ring members sequentially or in random order.

Google Voice has a user-friendly interface. (Source: Chrome Web Store)

Freelancers have straightforward communication needs, so they need a VoIP service that won’t overwhelm them with advanced features. Grasshopper is part of this list because it caters to businesses whose modes of communication are limited to phone calls and text messaging. All Grasshopper plans include the same set of standard call features, such as call forwarding, voicemail, auto-attendant, and custom greetings.

The major highlight is the inclusion of a toll-free vanity number with the purchase of a monthly plan, which can help establish your reputation as a freelance professional. On the downside, Grasshopper doesn’t support video calls and group chat, so Google Voice is a better option for team collaboration. Priced at $10 per user, it integrates with Google Workspace, specifically Google Meet for video conferencing, Google Chat for messaging, and Google Drive for file storage.

• Virtual fax: Use your Grasshopper number to receive faxes and have them delivered to your Grasshopper app or email inbox in a PDF file. Note that Grasshopper only supports inbound faxing.
• Incoming call control: Customize how and when to receive calls during and after business hours. You can also screen calls, block unwanted callers, and ring all forwarding numbers simultaneously.
• Reporting: This feature provides detailed call tracking metrics, including average call length, caller information, and missed calls. Reports are divided into three types: usage, detail, and activity.

Create a custom schedule for directing incoming calls based on your preferences. (Source: YouTube)

eVoice is a great choice for freelancers and small businesses thanks to its bundled number feature for managing multiple local, toll-free, or international numbers under one account. It makes scaling a business easier because all the phone numbers are in one system. Bundled numbers and multiple extension services are ideal for companies expanding into new markets or regions, streamlining call management, and eliminating the need for various services.

Features like call forwarding, auto-attendant, and voicemail transcription support bundled numbers. Route calls from any number to the correct device or extension so callers will always reach the right person. Its voicemail transcription makes reading and responding to messages easy without listening to lengthy recordings, boosting productivity and professionalism.

One limitation of eVoice is its need for advanced call analytics; it only offers usage reports. Consider Talkroute because it provides robust analytics, enabling businesses to track call metrics, understand customer behaviors, and improve communication strategies based on data insights.

• Merged calling: Small businesses can consolidate multiple calls into one conversation, streamlining communication when managing several clients or team members simultaneously.
• Voicemail transcription: This service converts voicemails into text so users can quickly review messages and respond efficiently without listening to audio.
• Virtual fax: Use a digital alternative to traditional fax machines to send and receive faxes via email. This is especially useful for handling contracts and formal documents remotely.

eVoice’s voicemail includes transcription services that convert voice messages into text. (Source: Google Play)

If you’re just starting your freelance career with a small client base, you may have periods of low and fluctuating call volumes. In this case, you need a VoIP provider like Phone.com that lets you customize your subscription based on your needs. Instead of paying for an unlimited call plan, Phone.com has a metered plan with 500 pooled minutes that renews every month.

While Phone.com plans include 50 standard voice features, they use a la carte models, where you can add premium features as needed. You can choose from additional minute bundles, global numbers, live receptionist services, and desk phone connectivity.

Unfortunately, Phone.com limits call recording to its highest-tier plan, making it less accessible for budget-conscious users. Call recording is vital for capturing client conversations and ensuring quality assurance. In contrast, Zoom Phone and Dialpad include call recording as a standard feature across all their plans, making them more suitable for freelancers who need efficient communication to manage multiple projects and client relationships.

• Call queues: Direct incoming calls to a group of phone numbers or members of a queue. All incoming calls in a queue are served in the order of who called first.
• Schedules: Route incoming calls to specific menus, extensions, or numbers based on custom schedules. For example, you can set the after-hours greeting for calls received after business hours.
• Voicemail to email: This function converts your voicemail recordings as audio attachments and sends the audio copy to your specified email address.

Specify your business schedule to control how incoming calls are routed. (Source: Phone.com)