The best business phone systems make it simple and easy to set up and manage a software-based phone system for your office and home work.
Best Business Phone Systems: Quick Menu
Using HD VoIP calling, these software-based business phone systems have completely replaced many enterprises’ traditional hardware-based PBX systems. Additionally, the increased use of business smartphones means they can now also be added to modern cloud-based business phone systems, allowing employees to take calls from anywhere, whether in the office, on the go or working from home.
The result is an enterprise-grade solution that works for any business, big or small, and provides the flexibility to meet the needs of office or home work at a cost-effective price.
Best of all, software-based phone systems provide integration and analytics that allow you to discover actionable insights about customer journeys and customer behavior, and make it easier for sales and support to engage with customers.
Below we take a look at the best business phone systems for modern offices and remote work.
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Full text of the best business phone systems of 2023:
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Best Overall
RingCentral MVP is an all-in-one cloud platform for calling, audio conferencing, online faxing and messaging. It is a powerful yet flexible system that allows you to run as a softphone using most mobile devices and has good compatibility with a range of existing PBX phone hardware.
As expected, a comprehensive set of features comes standard, including call logging, monitoring, voice recording and online faxing. It also provides HD voice and audio conferencing via mobile devices, as well as team collaboration through screen sharing and HD video for task completion and video conferencing.
Central contact center with omnichannel routing, CRM software integration, agent management tools, and actionable analytics. There are also integrations for a host of applications, including SalesForce, Microsoft 365, Zoho, Zendesk, Oracle, and more.
Pricing depends on the number of users and the number of features required, with the best price available when the number of users exceeds two. You can also choose to include a developer network that allows access to APIs to create truly customized phone systems.
Read our full article RingCentral MVP Review.
Most affordable
Ooma Office is a web-based business phone service designed to provide small businesses with a large-scale business phone experience.
Ooma may not be full of bells and whistles like some VoIP services, but it’s a solution for smaller companies on a tight budget, and it’s very well-positioned in that regard.
It offers a lot of features for a relatively modest monthly expenditure per user. There’s nothing fuss–you get all the features with a subscription plan–and the system is easy to set up and use.
Of course, you don’t get everything compared to the feature sets of pricier competitors, and the most glaring missing piece is the lack of CRM software integration.
Read our full article Malaysia Office Review.
Best for function
All of the VoIP solutions featured in this guide offer a variety of different features, depending on the specific pricing plan your business decides on. What makes GoToConnect so impressive is the sheer number of features it offers, with the platform providing businesses with more than 100 calling, collaboration and mobile features and tools, as well as a variety of video conferencing services.
All the usual features are included, including custom call routing, team-based call distribution, and time and location-based routing, plus customers can access Personal Meeting Rooms.
As a UCaaS solution, businesses don’t need to install any new equipment, GoToConnect will handle all maintenance and upgrades. That said, the company does recommend that customers have a commercial-standard router, an Ethernet switch capable of providing quality of service, and a firewall configured to allow access to HTTP, HTTPS and UDP traffic on their network.
Interestingly, unlike most VoIP service providers, GoToConnect doesn’t charge businesses for additional features. Instead, the company’s pricing plans vary based on the number of employees a business has, with customized pricing plans available for businesses with more than 100 employees.
Available features include cloud PBX, custom music on hold, call management, advanced ring policies and one-click screen sharing. Of course, more features do mean a greater chance of problems, but GoToConnect also offers extensive email and phone support should any issues arise.
Read our full article Go to Connect Comments.
Best for Customer Relationship Management
Aircall is another cloud-hosted business phone system solution that can be set up in just a few clicks. This then provides your business with a complete communications center solution for calling, video conferencing and messaging over the web, desktop or mobile device.
Aircall also makes it very easy to set up a call center in minutes and therefore includes a wide range of CRM, help desk and productivity features to support this and improve the way your sales and support teams handle calls, especially when transferring them and Close to the customer aspect. And, as expected, there’s an analytics suite to help measure efficiency and track KPIs within workflows and find ways to improve.
Since Aircall isn’t just focused on unified communications but also on CRM solutions to better serve sales and support teams, it also offers a plethora of integrations, notably SalesForce, Zendesk, Hubspot, Zoho, Freshdesk, and Slack.
Pricing depends on the scope of services required. However, please note that at least three users are required to operate this service.
Read our full article air dial review.
Best for small businesses
8×8
The entry level, called 8×8 Express, offers a basic set of telephony features, including all aspects of call handling such as caller ID, call forwarding, call queues and ring groups, as well as advanced auto attendants. Other features at this tier include team messaging, voicemail and voicemail transcription, and integration with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
The X-Series Some functions. It’s also a very price-competitive plan compared to the competition, although the Enterprise plan may be another issue.
Read our full article 8×8 X-Series Review.
Best scalability
Avaya OneCloud is Avaya’s latest unified communications offering, succeeding the successful IP Office platform and extending its current Avaya IX Workplace and contact center offerings.
The service is designed to create truly scalable solutions using the cloud solutions you are most familiar with. For small and medium-sized businesses that are happy to rely on third-party providers, Avaya OneCloud can easily run over the public cloud, which means you get ongoing service without having to worry about software upgrades or IT purchases.
For enterprises that already have private cloud or hybrid cloud services, they can set up a standard Avaya OneCloud, or customize a solution based on the needs of the OneCloud ReadyNow service. You can choose to configure any required server hardware locally or host it in one of Avaya’s data centers.
Of course, Avaya OneCloud is more than just calls, as a unified communications solution it means consolidating all communication pipes into one system. Avaya has a proven track record of scaling VoIP and UC service offerings, and the sheer scalability of the OneCloud solution must be attractive.
Read our full article Avaya Onecloud Review.
Best for Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams Phone allows organizations to make calls anywhere in the world from any Windows, iOS or Android device, using the company’s cloud services to ensure high levels of reliability and excellent audio quality.
If subscribers are already paying for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams Phone is very affordable. It includes a cloud-based phone system with advanced features such as call forwarding, multi-tiered auto attendants and call queuing, as well as 24/7 customer support.
The main disadvantage for Microsoft Teams Phone users is that it has participant limits, depending on the plan. The free version is 100 and the regular subscription version is 300.
If that’s not an issue, though, Microsoft Teams Phone represents tremendous value for businesses already using Microsoft 365.
Read our full article Microsoft Teams Phone System Review.
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Business Phone System FAQs
Which business phone system is best for you?
When deciding which best business phone system to use, consider your actual needs first. For example, someone who just wants to chat casually with a few people may find that a cheaper option is the most cost-effective while providing all the necessary tools needed. However, if you plan to use your business phone system for professional or commercial purposes, especially with a large number of people and on a regular basis, then you may want to look for higher-end options that get more advanced tools included.
How we test the best business phone systems
To test the best business phone systems, we scoured a range of popular options and took advice from people we know who operate business phone systems. We then tried each platform to see how user-friendly each was and see what tools and options were available. Pricing is also taken into consideration when determining our ratings.
Learn more about how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar.
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