eVoice and Grasshopper are voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) business phone systems that provide users with a separate phone number and remote call forwarding functions to mobile phones or landlines. eVoice is a great budget-friendly service for separating your workflow from your personal data, while Grasshopper adds powerful business tools for the businessperson on the go.
When to Use eVoice
eVoice is a fantastic option for business professionals who don’t want to carry two separate mobile devices and don’t need more advanced features like faxing or access to a desktop app. With no need for additional hardware, eVoice is a great solution for budget-conscious small businesses looking for a virtual phone solution.
When to Use Grasshopper
As a phone system designed for entrepreneurs and business people on the go, Grasshopper is an incredibly user-friendly mobile and desktop application that seamlessly integrates your business phone number with your existing smartphone or desktop computer. Grasshopper is a powerful option for those who are looking to separate their personal and business workloads on their phone.
eVoice vs Grasshopper at a Glance
eVoice | Grasshopper | |
---|---|---|
Pricing | From $10.83 per month | From $26 per month |
Virtual Fax | $1.95 per user, per month | ✔ |
Vanity Phone Numbers | $30 one-time charge per number | ✔ |
Texting | ✔ | ✔ |
App Integration | ✔ | ✔ |
Auto-attendant | ✔ | ✔ |
Extensions | ✔ | ✔ |
Voicemail | ✔ | ✔ |
Custom Greetings | ✔ | ✔ |
Toll-free Numbers | ✔ | ✔ |
iOS & Android App | ✔ | ✔ |
Desktop App | N/A | ✔ |
Simultaneous Call Handling | N/A | ✔ |
More Information |
How We Evaluated eVoice vs Grasshopper
eVoice and Grasshopper are designed to be easily provisioned from your smartphone. We, therefore, focused on the ease of setup and use to determine which was the better overall provider for small business users. To do this, we reviewed each product’s features, such as inbound call management, customizable voicemails, and auto-attendant functions that can be easily configured and accessed from your smartphone or landline.
We then used the following criteria to evaluate eVoice vs Grasshopper as virtual phone number platforms:
- Price: We wanted to assess the different price points of each product and decide if the features included are worth the monthly charge.
- Ease of use: Since these are both mobile phone applications, we wanted to know how easy they are to use and if the user interface is logically and intuitively designed.
- Ease of setup: We reviewed the provisioning process for each application to assess how user-friendly the setup process is for new users.
- Customization: Each service includes a hefty list of features, and a big consideration in our review is the customizability of these features.
- Call quality: We wanted to ensure that the calls made from these providers are of high quality
- Reporting capabilities: We looked at the types of reports that each service offers. Helpful data includes call logs, quality of service reports, and total talk time.
- Call routing features: We wanted to know how feature-rich the software is in helping dictate call routing protocols.
- Quality of mobile app: We assessed the usability of the user interface to see if it provides a seamless mobile app experience.
- Customer service: When something goes wrong, we wanted to know how responsive and effective each respective company’s customer service teams are. We also wanted to know how diverse their customer service footprint is and what channels are available to reach them.
Both eVoice and Grasshopper are virtual phone systems, which are a type of simplified business phone service. This means they allow small business users to effectively handle call traffic. Regardless of the choice that you make, both companies will provide quality service that is backed by an effective customer service team.
eVoice vs Grasshopper: Pricing & Features
eVoice and Grasshopper are services that provide a mobile app (and in Grasshopper’s case, a desktop application as well) that provides virtual phone service to any device. They eliminate the need for business professionals in any industry to have a second phone that serves as their business line, and instead provisions an entire phone system on their primary phone that works completely independently of their main phone number.
eVoice Pricing & Features
eVoice comes in four different service plans based on extensions, monthly minutes, and phone numbers. Their pricing options are split between a monthly and annual plan, with the annual plan being about 25% more affordable than the monthly recurring plan.
Prices range from $10.83 per month and go all the way up to $79.99 per month, depending on the package and preference for either the monthly or annual plan. Outbound faxing is available for an additional fee. Of all of the phone system hardware and software applications available on the market, this is quite possibly the most cost-effective solution for the modern phone system.
eVoice price plans are priced as follows and include:
- $12.99 per month: 300 minutes, two extensions, and six phone numbers
- $29.99 per month: 1,000 minutes, five extensions, and 15 phone numbers
- $49.99 per month: 2,000 minutes, 10 extensions, and 30 phone numbers
- $79.99 per month: 4,000 minutes, 15 extensions, and 45 phone numbers
eVoice Features
eVoice provides a secondary phone number to your mobile phone that gives you the ability to perform all of the basic functions of a cell phone through its easy-to-use mobile app. Everything is configured through an easy setup process, and the application is designed to be used with no phone hardware. All of the features on the application can be easily accessed and customized from the application, which is available in both the App Store and Google Play Store.
Mobile Apps
With an incredibly simple signup process, you can begin using eVoice’s mobile app within minutes of downloading it. The mobile app functions in many of the same ways that your phone’s native phone app works, which eliminates much of the learning curve for the new platform.
The phone syncs your cell phone contacts automatically and provides easily accessible options for e-faxing (for an extra charge), voicemail, and text messaging. eVoice has done a great job of helping customers save money by simplifying the phone system setup and usage process. eVoice’s platform is designed to be multifunctional and customizable to fit a number of different uses.
Vanity Numbers
Each tier of eVoice offers the ability to claim vanity phone numbers (such as 1-800-CALL-NOW) for your business at a one-time cost of $30 per number. This figure differs greatly from Grasshopper’s vanity number service, which is free for each number you pay for with your Grasshopper account. Vanity phone numbers are an important marketing tool that helps make phone numbers memorable and helps your business’ brand recognition.
eVoice has made the process behind claiming vanity phone numbers incredibly simple and easy to understand by only requiring a short form to be filled out on their website. With multiple toll-free numbers available with each tier, the number of vanity numbers can be increased to help provide more visibility into your company’s marketing efforts.
Auto-attendant
An auto-attendant is a software function that dictates how incoming calls are answered. For example, common examples of auto-attendant call trees are heard as “press one for sales or press 2 for customer service” phrases. With an increased focus on technology to accomplish business goals being at the forefront of the business world, our dependency on effective call management tools is significantly higher than in years past.
When used effectively, auto-attendants can increase customer satisfaction immensely. eVoice has simplified the auto-attendant system by simply requesting a script of the greetings you would like used for your business, and they procure a free custom greeting by using a professional voice artist to record your script. This simplified and highly personalized customer onboarding process is part of the competitive advantage that eVoice has over other competitors.
Customer Service
eVoice provides 24/7 customer support that can be done through both virtual chat and over the phone. They are also fairly active on all major social media channels, and those links can be found through their website at www.evoice.com/contact.
Grasshopper Pricing
Grasshopper offers three unique tiers for its service that address each of the different types of customers who would use their services. Like eVoice, they also offer a discount for one-time yearly billings and provide two separate price points for each of their tiers for both monthly and annual billing.
Grasshopper’s monthly billing tiers are as follows:
- Solo Tier: $29 per month, one number, three extensions
- Partner Tier: $49 per month, three numbers, six extensions
- Small business: $89 per month, five numbers, unlimited extensions
Grasshopper Features
With unlimited minutes for each tier, Grasshopper is a reliable brand that will deliver great service no matter what stage of the billing cycle you are in. Their premium quality service comes packed with features designed to increase office efficiency and mobility. For example, it provides users the ability to control incoming calls, create extensions among their user network, transfer calls, and perform other call routing functions as a normal phone system would.
Mobile Apps
Grasshopper’s mobile offering is incredibly well-reviewed on both the iOS App Store and the Google Play store. Grasshopper’s user interface enables easy access to the dozens of features that the app has. These features, many of which are not found in other virtual phone number alternatives, combine in ways that help separate your personal phone usage from your business phone usage, and expand the overall communications efforts of you and your team.
This is accomplished through essential phone system tools such as business text messaging, inbound call routing, outbound call management, auto-attendants, customized greetings, and many more functions that empower the mobile office worker. The Grasshopper platform also includes a desktop application that enables the ability for your computer to act as a phone system and mirror your mobile app.
Vanity Numbers
Grasshopper gives business owners the ability to own vanity numbers that help empower their marketing operations through a phone number that is memorable. This amenity is offered as a free service, which is one of Grasshopper’s huge advantages over eVoice. The process behind assigning vanity numbers is easy, and Grasshopper even allows those who are not paid subscribers to see what their phone number options are before signing up.
Auto-attendant
Acting as virtual assistants for your company’s inbound phone traffic, auto-attendants perform essential functions in today’s modern world to help divert and route incoming traffic to the right people. Running a small business is no easy feat, and Grasshopper gives small business owners the ability to easily set up an auto-attendant that is simple, yet effective. The setup process is easy and can be done from either the mobile or desktop app with relative ease.
Customer Service
Grasshopper offers a comprehensive 24/7 customer service support team to its customers that can be easily reached via the number and other options on the website as well as their mobile application. Customer service availability is an area where eVoice and Grasshopper both do a great job of providing comprehensive coverage to existing and potential customers.
eVoice vs Grasshopper: Ease of Use
When comparing the setup process and app integration style of both applications, we found there were many similarities between how the apps are laid out and how users go about onboarding their own personal settings. It is important to note that the features included on both platforms are extremely similar and that these products are essentially providing the same service with minor differences.
eVoice Ease of Use
In terms of usability, eVoice has created a perfect virtual phone system for the iOS and Android operating systems. Customizing your routing features and other app settings to enable functions such as caller ID, greetings, extensions, and other call routing functions are done easily in the app. It’s easy to set up and use, and has an extremely low learning curve, which serves as a significant advantage for the modern business person on the go.
Grasshopper Ease of Use
Grasshopper offers a smooth, intuitive interface that will be easy to understand for workers of all skill levels. The mobile interface, in particular, looks very similar to the default phone app you’d find on any modern smartphone. Therefore, making calls with Grasshopper should be a natural, painless experience. Check out our Grasshopper reviews page for more information.
eVoice vs Grasshopper: Customer Service
Customer service is a super-important feature with phone system services because of the propensity for problems to arise. Effective customer support is what sets apart great phone system providers from average ones. This review focused a great deal on the availability of customer support and a variety of options in reaching someone who can address service problems or answer questions.
eVoice Customer Service
eVoice has a wealth of information on its website that is organized into sections to help business owners find answers to the questions they need without having to get on the phone with customer support. In addition to having many instructional articles designed to help users become more familiar with the service, the Support Center also offers in-depth “how-to” guides to help users learn how to take full advantage of the features of their service.
In addition to the Support Center, eVoice has a comprehensive customer service program in place that runs 24/7. Their customer service efforts can be easily reached either through webchat on their website or at their dedicated customer service number. Another important facet of eVoice’s customer service efforts is the fact that their call center is based in different parts of the United States (as opposed to outsourcing the task to other countries).
Grasshopper Customer Service
Like eVoice, Grasshopper also offers 24/7 support, but it can only be reached by phone. They also provide support on both their Twitter and Facebook pages, but are missing the 24/7 live chat option that eVoice has on their website.
Grasshopper also has a very comprehensive list of support guides on their website that are designed to help users get the most out of their product. These services are separated into three main categories labeled “Getting Started Guides,” “How To Guides,” and “Troubleshooting Guides,” and each category includes a wealth of information. Grasshopper’s encyclopedia of help guides is extremely helpful and was a huge asset in helping me set up my demo account.
eVoice vs Grasshopper: Customer Reviews
While we examined each product’s offerings, ultimately the determination of which system is better comes down to the individual user experience. We took a look at our own customer reviews to see where each product’s strengths and weaknesses lie and what actual, real-life customers think about the various product offerings.
eVoice Customer Reviews
Reviews for eVoice on our site are strong. With an average score of 5 out of 5 stars, reviewers unanimously praised the application’s affordable price, wide availability of features, and their responsive customer service team. Such high praise is hard to find in the telecommunications world, and the fact that eVoice is so well-reviewed on our website is astounding news.
Some users in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store have complained about glitches happening within various parts of the application. While no software platform is completely bug-free, it is important to note that the eVoice mobile app team releases multiple updates a year to address any issues that come up.
Grasshopper Customer Reviews
Grasshopper currently has an average score of 2.9 out of 5 stars on our site. While these reviews are a bit more critical of the phone system, I believe they are more reflective of the reality that the service provides.
Positive reviews of Grasshopper on our site praise the simplicity of the app’s design and the ability to customize the phone system features at ease. Critical reviews of the service claim that the service can be glitchy at times and also make allegations of poor customer service. Learn more on our Grasshopper reviews page.
Bottom Line
Both eVoice and Grasshopper provide comprehensive phone system solutions that can be used at a small business level with great success. They are designed for business professionals on the go, and can be set up easily and without outside help. Call management, auto-attendant, and other routing features are simplified by both of these platforms.
eVoice and Grasshopper are both great options that offer lots of flexibility in both the provisioning process and through the actual usage of the products. Grasshopper receives our recommendation for a number of different reasons. They provide free vanity numbers, a corresponding desktop application, a more comprehensive customer service and online support team, and unlimited calling.
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