Phone.com vs Grasshopper: Price, Features & What’s Best in 2019

Voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) providers Phone.com and Grasshopper both offer business phone features like unlimited calling at an affordable price. Phone.com is a traditional VoIP phone system offering customizable vanity phone numbers like 1-800-FLOWERS while Grasshopper is a virtual phone service giving solopreneurs a business line on an existing personal landline or mobile phone.

When to Use Phone.com

Phone.com is right for solopreneurs and small business owners wanting an affordable turnkey vanity number and VoIP provider with a great combination of business phone features. Phone.com’s business phone service also ranks as our best vanity phone number provider, with service plans starting at $12.99. Features include voicemail transcription and call recording.

Visit Phone.com

When to Use Grasshopper

Grasshopper is best for small business owners or solopreneurs who need a competitively priced business number for their mobile phone or landline but don’t want to invest in additional equipment like desk phones. Grasshopper is our top choice for the best virtual phone number provider, with plans from $29. Features include call routing and a customizable auto attendant.

Visit Grasshopper

Phone.com vs Grasshopper at a Glance

How We Evaluated Phone.com & Grasshopper

Phone.com and Grasshopper are small business VoIP services with similar features like unlimited domestic calling, local and toll-free numbers, and voicemail. While Grasshopper is about double the price of Phne.com, Grasshopper includes features that Phone.com charges extra for which may drive up the overall price. Both systems are easy to set up and provide self-assist online troubleshooting documents as well as excellent live customer support.

Therefore, we evaluated Phone.com and Grasshopper based on:

• Price: We evaluated the price of both services and compared package costs on a per-user basis.
• Ease of Use: Each provider’s set up and ongoing maintenance requirements were reviewed to make sure the process is user-friendly.
• Call management: We assessed the types of call management features each provider offers, including voicemail call screening, call forwarding, and call block capability.
• Auto attendant: Both service’s auto attendant features were evaluated for their ability to greet and route callers easily.
• Voicemail transcription-to-email: The voicemail transcription to email features of both providers were assessed for quality and reliability.
• Call quality: We looked at online customer reviews of each virtual number provider’s call sound and quality.
• Customer support: We evaluated the type of customer service support of each provider offers and hours of availability.

Based on our research, we recommend Phone.com for companies that want a VoIP phone service provider with a memorable vanity phone number at a reasonable price. We suggest Grasshopper for business owners and solopreneurs that want to add a line to their landline or mobile phone to make and receive business calls.

Phone.com vs Grasshopper: Pricing & Features

Phone.com and Grasshopper have similar feature sets, yet each brings its own value to the table. With an auto attendant and voicemail, Phone.com’s service plans from $12.99 may be a better value. However, with plans from $29, Grasshopper might be best for business owners that want to create the illusion their company is larger than it is by offering a business line that works discreetly on a user’s mobile device or personal landline.

Phone.com Pricing

Phone.com offers three price plans with a bundle of calling minutes and text messages. Plans range from $12.99 for 300 monthly minutes and 5,000 texts to $39.99 for 1,000 monthly minutes and 20,000 texts. One-time fees for custom numbers start at $100 and cost $4.99 per month.

Phone.com also offers unlimited calling plans for its three packages:

• Base: $22.99 per month
• Plus: $24.99 per month
• Pro: $27.99 per month

Phone.com Tiered Features

Base

Phone.com’s Base plan includes one local or toll-free phone number with 300 minutes of monthly calling time, and 5,000 short message service (SMS) messages. This tier also includes call conferencing, voicemail-to-email, and an auto attendant. The Base plan is a good choice for solopreneurs, freelancers, and small teams that don’t require a lot of calling minutes.

This plan doesn’t include premium hold music, call analytics, or call recording found in Phone.com’s upper-level packages. It’s also lacking hold music, call recording, and voicemail transcription that’s offered with all of Grasshopper’s service plans. However, at $12.99 per month, this tier costs less than Grasshopper’s first-tier level, which is a benefit for teams and businesses on a budget.

Plus

Phone.com’s Plus plan includes two local or toll-free phone numbers with 500 minutes of calling time. This level also features 10,000 SMS messages, voicemail-to-text, and premium hold music. This package is right for businesses that communicate more frequently over text than by phone.

This level is missing video conferencing, call recording, and call analytics offered with Phone.com’s premium plan. However, most VoIP providers include only one free phone number per service plan, so the additional number with this tier is an added value for this $19.99 per month plan.

Pro

Phone.com’s Pro plan includes three local or toll-free phone numbers with 1,000 minutes of calling time. Custom toll-free numbers are available and, unlike Grasshopper, custom local numbers are as well. This level also includes 20,000 SMS messages, call analytics, call record and space for online storage as well as video conferencing for up to 25 participants. This level is good for business owners who want call data and analytics to help with business planning.

Overall, Phone.com’s feature set is similar to what Grasshopper offers, but with most service plans at a lower price. In addition to a budget-friendly service plan for businesses with low calling needs, Phone.com stands as one of the few providers to offer low-price calling to certain countries outside the United States. Customers can use their calling minutes to dial landline numbers in Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.

Phone.com video conferencing

Grasshopper Pricing

Grasshopper offers three plans that all include the same features, like a local phone number, unlimited calling, and voicemail for one monthly price. The $29 Solo plan includes one number and three extensions, the $49 Partner plan has three numbers and six extensions, and the $89 Small Business plan includes five numbers and unlimited extensions.

Grasshopper call forwarding

Grasshopper Features

Grasshopper’s features include unlimited domestic calling, desktop, and mobile apps, call forwarding, Wi-Fi calling, inbound fax, business texting, and voicemail and voicemail transcription. Additional phone numbers are available for a small fee through the customer support team and low international calling rates are available at a per-minute rate based on location.

Automated Attendant

Grasshopper’s automated attendant answers inbound calls, then forwards them to the phone number or extension the caller is trying to reach. Grasshopper users can route calls to any phone number, including mobile phones or landlines. However, Grasshopper’s auto attendants aren’t as robust as Phone.com, which also includes an interactive voice response (IVR) menu with button-press choices for rapid call routing and custom messaging.

Extensions & Call Routing

Grasshopper’s plans include up to five extensions that give users control over how incoming calls are routed. Customers create extensions, choose the numbers where calls should be routed, define the order in which those numbers should ring, and how many rings before switching to the next number. Extra extensions can be added to Grasshopper’s plans for an additional fee, but Phone.com offers unlimited extensions with all its plan levels.

Grasshopper visual voicemail

Voicemail to Email

Grasshopper transcribes all voice messages received and delivers them to users via email. Notifications and messages are also delivered through the softphone app. Phone.com also offers voicemail to email transcription as well as human-assisted transcription for an additional 25 cents per transcription.

Call Management

Grasshopper’s call management tools include call forwarding, call transfer, and custom call controls scheduled around your business hours. Call screening allows you to hear the caller’s name or number before deciding whether to take the call, which is helpful if you take personal and business calls on the same phone. Grasshopper also offers call conferencing, call recording, and call analytics, which are only available at Phone.com for an additional fee.

Phone.com vs Grasshopper: Ease of Use

Ideally, VoIP phone setup should be a straightforward process and ongoing service easy to maintain. Vanity and virtual phone numbers should be simple to choose and register, and features should be intuitive and approachable no matter the user’s technical skill level. While evaluating Phone.com vs Grasshopper, we looked at what customers had to say about each provider’s ease of use and learned they matched head-to-head.

Phone.com Ease of Use

Phone.com provides a self-service platform so that, once your signup is complete, the virtual number system is ready to use right away. Most functions are performed with a few clicks and, as your business grows, you can purchase the additional adapters or phones directly from Phone.com.

Grasshopper Ease of Use

Grasshopper setup takes about 30 minutes and can be done on the company’s website or over the phone with a support team specialist. No additional equipment like adapters or desk phones are required to use Grasshopper, unlike what is required by other alternatives. Once an account is set up, a greeting is recorded, and extensions are assigned, the phone number or numbers are immediately ready to receive calls.

Phone.com vs Grasshopper: Customer Support

When you invest in a business phone system, you want to know they’ll be there to assist you if any issues come up. While assessing Phone.com and Grasshopper, we reviewed the types of customer support each provider offers, including live chat support, online self-assist documentation, and when their phone lines were open for taking calls. Phone.com emerged as the clear winner in this face-off.

Phone.com Customer Support

Phone.com customer support includes an online knowledge base, user manuals, and training guides. Email, live chat, and phone support are also available 365 days a year. Customer support in Spanish is available Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time.

Grasshopper Customer Support

Grasshopper’s customer support includes an online knowledge base and 24/7 phone support. They also offer an online quick start guide and video tutorials for setting up the desktop and iPhone apps. For more personal assistance, Grasshopper also offers telephone support ― although they don’t specify hours of availability ― and the option to open a ticketed case if your issue requires escalation.

Phone.com vs Grasshopper: Customer Reviews

User experience can provide exceptional insight into how a VoIP system can handle the day-to-day rigors of service. When considering VoIP providers, it’s important to consider what customers have to say about their experience with Phone.com and Grasshopper. When we looked at our user review pages to learn what each company does well and what each one doesn’t, Phone.com edged out Grasshopper as the clear winner.

Phone.com Customer Reviews

Our readers give Phone.com good reviews with a 3 out 5-star rating. Customers like that the service is affordable and that the plans are flexible. However, some say Phone.com is unreliable with frequent down times. For more reviews, visit our Phone.com User Reviews page.

Grasshopper Customer Reviews

Our readers are generally positive about Grasshopper and give it an average rating of 3 out of 5 stars. Customers say accounts are easy to set up and easy to use and find the pricing affordable. However, users say tech support can be slow to respond and product updates can temporarily affect usability. For more user reviews, visit our Grasshopper user review page.

Bottom Line ― Grasshopper vs Phone.com

When comparing Grasshopper vs Phone.com, both offer great VoIP business phone service with similar features at a comparable price. While Grasshopper offers virtual phone numbers for extending business calls to personal landlines or mobile phones, Phone.com pulls ahead for companies that want a memorable vanity phone number and business VoIP system at an affordable price.

Businesses that want turnkey VoIP business phone system that comes with a vanity number and unlimited domestic calling as well as local and toll-free phone numbers, we recommend Phone.com. The company offers a free demo of its product when you contact the sales team. Visit Phone.com’s website for details or to set up an account.

Visit Phone.com