The days of the business landline are long gone. Instead, cloud-based business phone services harnessing VoIP have become the new industry standard.
Apart from being scalable, budget-friendly, and accessible anywhere, these business communication systems also come with handy AI features such as automatic call transcripts and voicemail-to-text.
But in 2023, the market for business phone services has become crowded, with numerous providers extolling their platforms. So how do you know which one to opt for?
In this article, we round up the five best business phone services in 2023. Read on to find the one that best fits your unique needs.
Nextiva – Best Overall
Topping our list is Nextiva, a wildly popular business phone service. It offers a central communication platform for voice and video calls, as well as messaging and fax.
One of Nextiva’s biggest advantages is that it allows customers to mix and match plans to optimize their budget and meet their individual needs.
Nextiva is renowned for its ease of use and award-winning 24/7 customer service. Its interface is intuitive and easy to set up even for first-time VoIP users.
Plus, Nextiva guarantees full cybersecurity and reliability, including HIPAA compliance, SSAE-16 certified data centers, and a redundant call path network.
In terms of AI productivity tools, Nextiva offers interactive voice response as well as voicemail transcription.
Finally, Nextiva can also boast a wide range of native integrations with other business platforms, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, and Oracle Sales Cloud.
Pricing for Nextiva’s business phone service ranges from $18.95 to $32.95 per user per month, with 10-15% savings if you opt for annual billing.
Dialpad – Stand-Out AI
Next up on our list of the best business phone services is Dialpad. Similar to Nextiva, it offers voice and video calling, MMS, SMS, and group messaging. Plus, it includes toll-free numbers and comes with nifty features like call waiting and voicemail greetings.
One of Dialpad’s stand-out features is its wide implementation of AI. The provider harnesses AI to allow users to gain real-time insights into your phone calls as you make them. It also offers live sentiment analysis, keyword tracking, real-time assist cards with custom notes, and speech coaching.
Furthermore, Dialpad’s AI can provide full call transcripts, automated post-call summaries, and agent performance reports.
Another upside of Dialpad is that it comes with a significant number of useful integrations. Even at the most basic plan, you can connect it to Microsoft 365 as well as Google Workspace. At higher levels, more integrations become available, such as with CRMs like Zoho, Salesforce, and Bubble.
Pricing starts at $23 per user and month if billed monthly, and $15 if billed annually.
RingCentral – Most Integrations
In third place on our list of the best business phone services in 2023 is RingCentral. This is one of the most traditional platforms out there, having launched in 1999, but it has expanded its capabilities and adjusted to trends over the years.
RingCentral, like Nextiva, provides a strong unified communications basis. It combines voice and video calling as well as text messaging and, at higher-tier plans, fax and file sharing.
Additional features include auto-attendants and automatic call recording. At its Ultra tier, extensive AI-based business analytics also become available.
One of RingCentral’s stand-out features is the sheer number of integrations it offers. You can connect it with over 2,000 other business platforms to streamline your processes.
Pricing starts at $30 per user and month, billed monthly, and $20 if billed annually.
Vonage – Best for Remote Teams
Another top contender among the best business phone services is Vonage. You can harness it to collaborate with team members and communicate with customers across all device types. In terms of communication channels, Vonage includes voice and video calling, texting, file sharing, and chat. Plus, its Premium plan gives you access to Amazon Chime-supported video conferencing.
Vonage’s App Marketplace allows you to customize and extend the capabilities of your plan. It comes with dozens of handy functionalities, from AI virtual assistants to invoicing software integrations.
Pricing starts at $19.99 per month and line.
Grasshopper – Best for Small Businesses
Grasshopper, finally, rounds up our list of the best business phone services. Its key advantage is that it was specifically designed to meet the needs of small businesses.
In principle, Grasshopper comes with one line and three extensions. It’s fast to implement and easy and intuitive to use on all devices. If you still run into any issues, customer support is available 24/7.
Some of Grasshopper’s handy features include call forwarding, voicemail, custom greetings, virtual fax, and call transfers. Plus, it can automatically generate easy-to-read call reports.
Pricing starts at $26/month, billed annually.
The Bottom Line: The Best Business Phone Service
Choosing the right business phone service for your business is crucial in 2023. No matter what other channels of communication become available, voice and video calls remain customer favorites when it comes to reaching out.
By using the list above as a basis and investing some time and effort in research, you’ll be able to pinpoint the provider that best fulfills your business’ communication needs.