6 Best VoIP Services for Home Offices in 2020

Voice-over internet-protocol (VoIP) phone services transmit calls over a data network instead of traditional landline-based systems. This provides savings as well as additional features like video calling, call forwarding, and auto-attendants. We looked at the best VoIP services for home office users and evaluated them based on pricing, features, and usability.

Top 6 Home Office VoIP Systems 2020

How We Evaluated VoIP for Home Office Systems

In order to be considered, all of the systems in our guide had to be affordable and intuitive enough for workers to use in their home offices. They need to offer features for making and receiving calls and SMS messages, as well as the ability to check voicemail. Advanced features include automated attendants to greet and route callers, video chat, and integrations with outside business software.

We evaluated VoIP services for home offices based on the following:

• Pricing: Services should be affordable enough for business owners working out of home offices.
• Ease of use: Every service we looked at is easy enough to use for regular office workers.
• Call management: Services should offer controls for making and receiving calls.
• Phone numbers: We looked at the types of phone numbers, such as local, toll-free, or vanity, offered by each service.
• Device support: We looked at whether each service supports use over desktop, mobile, and other devices.
• Call quality and reliability: Services should offer clear and consistent audio quality during calls.
• Advanced features: Many systems offer advanced features like an automated attendant, conference calling, and international calling.

Based on the above criteria, we find that Grasshopper is the best VoIP service for home office users. The system is powerful, affordable, and is compatible with both desktop computers and smartphones via the app. It also comes with a free toll-free number, which makes your company look more established to customers.

Grasshopper: Overall Best VoIP Service for Home Offices

Grasshopper is a virtual phone service that provides unlimited domestic calling, text messaging, voicemail, and more starting at $26 per month. The solution is compatible with desktop computers, smartphones, and landline devices, as it essentially works as a call forwarding system with advanced features. The service is great for any home office user who is looking for a professional phone system on top of their existing line.

Grasshopper Pricing

Grasshopper offers three different pricing plans. Each tier of the service comes with a certain amount of numbers and extensions. Grasshopper does not lock any features behind more premium editions of the service. It is an affordable VoIP service for home offices.

Grasshopper’s plans are priced accordingly:

• Solo: $26 per month for one number and three extensions*
• Partner: $44 per month for three numbers and six extensions*
• Small Business: $80 per month for five numbers and unlimited extensions*

*Pricing is on an annual basis

Grasshopper Features

Grasshopper comes with all the features you need to make calls, send texts, and check voicemail in your home office. The availability of a mobile app helps you get work done while traveling, and the automated attendant can automatically greet and route callers. It may not offer as many advanced features as Nextiva, but it still serves as a comprehensive small business phone system.

Grasshopper’s features include:

Call Management

Every Grasshopper account comes with unlimited calling and SMS within the United States. It also has visual voicemail, which lets you read transcripts of all of the messages in your inbox. It does not come with other communication tools like video calling, like the most expensive version of Phone.com, but the system still provides an effective means of handling traditional call traffic.

Phone Numbers

Each new Grasshopper account comes with one or more local or toll-free numbers. A toll-free number is useful as it allows customers to call your company at no charge to them. It also makes your organization look like a large, established enterprise rather than a neighbor operating his or her business from down the street. You can also buy a vanity phone number with a custom number such as 1-800 FLOWERS to make yourself even more memorable.

Advanced Features

Grasshopper offers an automated attendant that can greet all incoming callers and route them to their desired Grasshopper extension without human intervention. This is an ideal feature because it saves you from having to answer every single call. It also has an inbound faxing module that lets you receive faxes in the form of digital documents.

Setup & Ease of Use

Grasshopper takes only a few minutes to set up. Once you have made an account and chosen your phone number, the software will guide you through downloading the app, configuring your settings, and using the system’s features. All told, Grasshopper is one of the more intuitive services on the market today.

What Grasshopper Is Missing

Grasshopper is a powerful service, but as a virtual phone system, it requires an existing phone line to forward calls to. If you are looking for a solution that works completely on its own, we recommend looking at Nextiva instead. That system also comes with advanced features such as a professionally recorded voice greeting.

What Users Think About Grasshopper

Our readers are generally satisfied with Grasshopper. They like that the service is affordable and offers a complete set of telephony features. However, there are some complaints about the company’s customer service. Some users find it to be slow and unhelpful.

Nextiva: Best Home VoIP Service With Advanced Features

Nextiva is a business VoIP system that ranks as our top small business VoIP service thanks to its features and usability. The service starts at $30 per user, per month and comes with unlimited calling, text, and an auto-attendant to greet callers. Advanced features like hold music and conference calls make the service great for home office users who want a robust set of telephony features.

Nextiva Pricing

Nextiva offers three different service plans. Pricing ranges from $30 to $45 per user, per month for one to four users on an annual basis, but goes down as your distributed team grows. This is one of the more expensive VoIP services for home offices available.

Nextiva Tiered Features

Basic

The Basic version of Nextiva comes with the choice of a local or toll-free number just like Grasshopper and other competitors. It also comes with unlimited calling and an automated attendant to greet callers. This package starts at $30 per user, per month for one to four users, but can cost as little as $20 per user, per month if you have more than 100 people scattered in home offices sharing an account.

This edition is missing the texting and unlimited conference calling functionality of the Pro and Enterprise features. It is also missing access to the Nextiva mobile app, which is unfortunate considering more affordable options like Grasshopper and Google Voice come standard with apps for iOS and Android devices. Still, Nextiva Basic offers a strong set of functionality, and the service could be ideal for home office users who have no need for mobile business calls.

Pro

Nextiva Pro costs $33 per user, per month and adds SMS to the service so you can send and receive text messages with your work number. It also comes with the Nextiva app that lets you effectively take your work phone wherever you go via a smartphone app. However, the most notable addition might be the free, professionally recorded voice greeting that can effectively be the “voice” of your company’s phone system.

The Pro edition lacks the call recording module of the Enterprise tier, so you won’t be able to save important conversations for later reference. It also lacks voicemail-to-text and analytic reports of on-call activity. Therefore, Nextiva Pro is best suited for remote teams that want a centralized professional voice greeting, but have no use for call recording features.

Enterprise

The top-tier version of Nextiva adds the ability to record all calls made with your account. It also comes with voicemail-to-text, so you can read your inbox contents without having to listen to messages. It also includes an analytics dashboard that provides reports on call activity such as total calls, average call time, and more.

Voicemail-to-text is a feature found in all versions of Grasshopper and other systems, so it is odd that Nextiva locks it behind their most expensive package. Furthermore, the service could be too expensive for smaller organizations that are only looking for a core set of phone functions. Still, Nextiva Enterprise is ideal for highly distributed teams that want a no-compromise feature set that is still very easy to use.

What Nextiva Is Missing

Nextiva is a strong contender in the VoIP space, but it only offers packages with unlimited calling. If you have low monthly call volumes, you could be paying for functionality you don’t need. If you are looking for an affordable system that offers bundles of minutes, we recommend looking at Phone.com instead.

What Users Think About Nextiva

Nextiva’s customers like that the solution is easy to use and is flexible enough for small businesses and large companies alike. With that in mind, some of our readers have complained that they have run into a number of technical difficulties while using the service.

Phone.com: Best VoIP Service for Low Call Volumes

Phone.com is a VoIP service that offers local or toll-free phone numbers, SMS messaging, and an automated attendant to answer calls. The service, which starts at $9.99 per month, stands out from competitors because it offers the ability to subscribe to plans with monthly allotments of minutes. This is great for home office teams with low call volumes that want to save money.

Phone.com Pricing

Phone.com comes in three different small business packages. Limited minute plans range from $9.99 to $29.99 per month on an annual basis. Plans are also available with unlimited minutes ranging from $24.99 to $49.99 per month. This is one of the more affordable services available for home office users.

Phone.com Tiered Features

Base

Phone.com’s Base tier comes with one local or toll-free number for $9.99 per month. It also includes 300 monthly minutes and 5,000 text messages. While this is basic compared to unlimited phone system tiers, it’s an affordable package that also includes advanced features like an automated attendant and voicemail-to-email.

If you want your voicemails transcribed automatically, you will have to upgrade to the Plus version. It also lacks analytics and video calling, unlike the Pro edition. Still, the Base package of Phone.com offers a strong core feature set for an affordable price. It is good for home office teams that only need a low amount of monthly calling minutes.

Plus

Phone.com’s Plus package comes with 500 calling minutes and 5,000 text messages. It also comes with a voicemail transcription module as well as a selection of hold music that plays while your callers wait to be connected. This package costs $14.99 per month.

This version is missing the analytics and video conferencing found in the Pro edition. It is also missing advanced features found in other intermediate packages, such as the call center-specific features found in AirCall. Still, this offers a generous amount of minutes for teams that want to look more professional via hold music for callers.

Pro

The Pro version of Phone.com comes with 20,000 texts and 1,000 monthly calling minutes. For $29.99 per month, it also comes with a reporting module that provides reports on total calls, average call time, and more. Perhaps most notably, Phone.com Pro comes with a video calling function unlike other systems we looked at.

At this price, Phone.com is more expensive than the starting price of Grasshopper, which offers unlimited minutes. It is also worth noting that, at no cost, Google Voice also offers unlimited domestic calling. Still, Phone.com Pro offers an advanced set of features for a relatively affordable price. It is good for home office workers who want video calling, but don’t need unlimited minutes every month.

What Phone.com Is Missing

Phone.com offers a range of pricing structures to meet different budgets. However, this could be confusing and frustrating for home office users who are looking for a phone system with a streamlined pricing structure. For those customers, we recommend Ooma, which offers just one tier of all-inclusive service at $19.95 per user, per month.

What Users Think About Phone.com

Our readers find Phone.com to be a capable, intuitive solution. They especially like its affordable pricing. However, some customers report that the software can be laggy at times.

Ooma: Best VoIP for Home Service With Streamlined Pricing

Ooma is a small business phone service that comes with features such as unlimited domestic calling, a virtual receptionist to greet callers automatically, and call management. It also has E911 support in areas that support the feature. This home office VoIP service, which costs $19.95 per user, per month, is great for business owners who want a service with a simple pricing structure and a strong core set of features.

Ooma.com Pricing

Unlike other services that have multiple tiers of pricing, Ooma only offers one version that costs $19.95 per user, per month. This is quite different from Grasshopper and other competitors, which lock features behind different plans. Ooma has one of the more intuitive pricing structures on the market.

Ooma Features

Ooma is similar to competing systems in the sense that it comes with unlimited domestic calling, voicemail, and call management functionality. It also has a virtual receptionist module that greets and routes callers without human intervention. It may not match the feature set of robust services like Nextiva, but the solution comes at a good value.

Call Management

Like other services we looked at, Ooma has a full set of tools for managing all of your call traffic. Standard features include voicemail, call transfer, and call forward. Additionally, the service comes with a ring group module that can ring multiple phones simultaneously when a specific number or extension is dialed.

Phone Numbers

Each new Ooma account comes with the choice of either a toll-free or local phone number. A local phone number can help your company portray a regional, personal touch, but a toll-free number can make your organization look like a large, national enterprise. This is on par with other services in our guide.

Advanced Features

Ooma is a fairly basic phone service, so it doesn’t have as many advanced features as Nextiva and Freshcaller. However, it does come with an automated attendant, which the company calls its virtual receptionist. This module can automatically greet your callers and send them to their desired extension. It works in a similar fashion to the attendants found in Grasshopper, Nextiva, and other services.

Setup & Ease of Use

Ooma offers guided help in setting up the system when you make a new account. If you run into any problems, you can call the company or chat with an agent on Ooma’s website. It is one of the more intuitive services on the market today.

What Ooma Is Missing

Ooma is a fantastic option if your business needs are limited to making calls and sending text messages. However, if you are looking for a solution that will allow your business to operate like a call center even though representatives are working from their home offices, then you will find the system to be lacking. We recommend Freshcaller for remote-based call centers, as it has advanced call routing, ticket management, and other features.

What Users Think About Ooma

Customers like Ooma’s affordable pricing and strong core set of features. Our readers also mention that the company’s customer service is remarkably helpful. However, some users have said that the process of porting numbers can be frustrating.

Freshcaller: Best Home Office VoIP Service for Remote Call Centers

Freshcaller is a VoIP service that offers a free entry-level plan as well as paid versions starting at $19 per user, per month. In addition to features like call management and voicemail, Freshcaller also offers call center-focused modules such as call queuing, reporting, and more. It is ideal for users who want to maintain call center-like operations while utilizing remote employees.

Freshcaller Pricing

Freshcaller offers three different plans for small businesses. The Sprout version is free, the Blossom edition costs $19 per user, per month, and the Garden package is $40 per user, per month. All plans include per-minute call rates and local numbers for $1 per month. Toll-free numbers are $2 per month.

Freshcaller Tiered Features

Sprout

Freshcaller Sprout is the company’s free package. It supports an unlimited number of users and offers basic call queues for incoming traffic. It also has call forwarding to mobile phones. While this is a very basic service, the fact that it is free makes it a good introductory solution for those looking for call center functionality.

This version is missing the voicemail and call recording modules offered by the Blossom edition. It also lacks the wealth of call management tools found in systems like Grasshopper. With that said, the inclusion of call queuing makes this a good value for businesses that want call center capabilities no matter where their representatives are located.

Blossom

The Blossom edition, which costs $19 per user, per month, adds features such as the ability to configure routing during business hours. It also has voicemail and call recording that can be used for training and quality assurance purposes. It beats Grasshopper in this respect, as that service does not offer any call recording.

This tier does not come with the conference calling found in the Garden version. Additionally, it is missing an automated attendant like Grasshopper and Nextiva. This plan is best suited for home office call centers that want to configure business hour rules for call routing.

Garden

Freshcaller’s Garden plan is $40 per user, per month and adds advanced capabilities such as call recording and conference calling. It also comes with reports on all of your company’s call activity, including total calls and average call time. This can be used to gauge your team’s productivity and ensure that all staff are doing their jobs correctly.

Unlike Grasshopper, this plan does not have advanced voicemail functionality like voicemail-to-email. Therefore, you will not be able to listen to inbox messages directly from your email client. With that in mind, Freshcaller is the only service we looked at that offers home office call center features in such a friendly, accessible package.

What Freshcaller Is Missing

Freshcaller has a wealth of contact center features, but if you only need to make and receive calls, you are essentially paying for features you don’t need. For smaller teams that only want a separate business line, we recommend Google Voice. That service is completely free to use and gives users their own local phone number.

What Users Think About Freshcaller

Freshcaller’s customers are mostly satisfied with the service. Many say that the platform is intuitive and that they like the service’s various contact center features. However, customers also find that the software’s dashboard can be cluttered at times.

Google Voice: Best Free No-frills Home Office Phone Service

Google Voice is a free business phone service that includes unlimited calling within most of the U.S. and Canada. It also comes with features such as texting, voicemail, and call recording. The system offers home office business users with a free local phone number, and it is great for those who are merely looking for a separate business line to use along with their personal phones.

Google Voice Pricing

Google Voice is completely free to use, and offers free calls to the majority of the United States and Canada. You only have to pay for calls to select locations in the U.S. and international numbers. Rates start at one cent per minute. This is one of the more affordable options available.

Google Voice Features

Google Voice is a home office VoIP system that is completely free to use. As such, it lacks many of the features found in paid services like Grasshopper. However, the fact that it offers business users a free local telephone number makes it a very attractive solution for smaller and growing companies.

Call Management

Google Voice comes with options for making and receiving calls, as well as communicating via SMS messages. In fact, the Google Voice mobile app looks almost identical to the default phone app found on many Android devices. Making calls with Google Voice works in a very similar fashion to other home office VoIP systems.

Phone Numbers

Google Voice offers users a free local phone number when they make a new account. The company lets you search for numbers based on area code or city and state. This is lacking when compared to more advanced services like Phone.com that let you adopt a customized vanity number.

Advanced Features

As a free service, Google Voice doesn’t offer many advanced features. However, it does let you record all calls, which is helpful if you want to save important conversations. This is impressive, as Nextiva only offers call recording in its most expensive package.

Setup & Ease of Use

Google Voice takes only a few minutes to set up. Once you create an account, you can immediately start making calls with the service. The fact that the interface looks so similar to the basic telephony features found on a smartphone makes the service feel even more friendly than other systems available.

What Google Voice Is Missing

Google Voice is a free service, so it is easy to forgive the fact that it doesn’t offer many features. However, if you want to appear as an established organization, you may want features like an automated attendant. You may also want a toll-free number so that customers can call your business at no cost to them. In that case, we recommend Grasshopper instead.

What Users Think About Google Voice

Google Voice is popular with customers who are looking for a simple phone service that is free and easy to use. Many users appreciate that the system makes it easy to choose a local number. However, common complaints include trouble porting numbers to and from the service.

Bottom Line: Best VoIP Services for Home Offices

Advancements in technology have made it easier than ever to run a business from the comfort of your own home. Business phone systems that transmit calls over the internet have allowed users to have unique business numbers even in their home office. They even provide features like call recording and automated attendants.

We recommend Grasshopper for any home office user who wants a dedicated phone system for their company. The service is easy to use, compatible with a wide range of devices, and affordable enough for most companies. Click the button below to start your seven-day free trial.

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