VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol (also referred to as Voice over IP), describes a cloud communication technology that allows you to make and receive phone calls over the Internet as opposed to traditional landline telephones that are connected to phone lines with copper cables.

VoIP phone services allow you to make calls to and from any device that connects to the internet and has a mic and camera, including mobiles, desktops, landlines, or tablets. The VoIP apps you use to make these calls are sometimes referred to as ‘softphones’. This allows for complete location flexibility when it comes to taking calls incoming to your business phone number(s) or your home landline number (called virtual or internet numbers when part of a VoIP system) – anywhere your mobile device can go, you can take the call.

Using a VoIP Phone system should mean:

• Lower phone bills
• Better call quality
• Location flexibility (receive calls to chosen number form anywhere)
• Multi-device use and calling
• Advanced features for call handling including call routing, forwarding, and screening, and recording
• “Unified communication” on one platform for phone, sms, video, instant messaging, and more
• Better remote, hybrid, and home working setups
• Call analytics and reporting functions
• Easy and cheap scalability depending on usage needs

This is for both business, enterprise, and residential users of VoIP.

They should be easy, cheap, or even free to implement with little or no hardware setup required. They should also seamlessly integrate with other software such as CRM systems, communication software, or apps you use daily.

Our Testing Criteria for Project Management

We evaluate All VoIP software on the exact same sets of testing criteria to ensure our reviews are fair and truly demonstrative of how the products compare. We treat them all the same so we can see how they are different in the areas that really matter to users.

Our seven key areas of investigation when testing and researching VoIP software are:

1. Features and functionality – evaluating the presence and quality of core and advanced VoIP features
2. Usability and Reliability – evaluating the user interface of the VoIP applications and web portals, learning curve, onboarding, up-time, call quality consistency, and accessibility on multiple devices
3. Compatibility and Integrations – evaluating the compatibility with third-party apps, software, and hardware
4. Customer Support – evaluating the available customer support options offered by the VoIP software provider, and the quality of their service
5. Scalability and Future-Proofing – evaluating the scalability of the software to accommodate business growth
6. Security – a thorough security analysis to identify any vulnerabilities and ensure the protection of sensitive data
7. Cost and Pricing – assessing the VoIP products’ value for money in terms of features vs average plan price

We’ll explain more about why and how we test in these areas below. Our testing process includes:

• Hands-on software testing, scoring, and evaluation
• Review documentation and video tutorials
• Focus group interviews with software users
• Third-party reviews and user forums

1. Features and Functionality – Evaluating the Presence and Quality of Core and Advanced VoIP Features

Why We Test Features and Functionality: there’s a lot of market variety between VoIP products when it comes to the quality and depth of advanced calling features, and this can make a huge difference to the impact the systems have on business operations or home usage. It’s important for us to closely analyze the VoIP software features so we can highlight how the products differ from each other and in what ways they excel in bringing real-life value to users. Not everyone will need all features, so getting into the details of which-one-offers-what is critical for understanding to whom each VoIP solution is best suited.

How We Test Features and Functionality: first, we established which features are the most important based on our own use and third-party user feedback. Below, we’ve outlined how we test each one, in a nutshell:

• Virtual numbers (online or internet numbers) – looks at how many virtual phone numbers are available on different plans, if users can import their existing numbers, if toll-free numbers are available (and how many), and how many countries, states, or locations the numbers are available in.
• Call Routing – asses if call routine based on pre-set, customized rules (e.g. time of day, caller ID) available, if there is an auto-attendant or an advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to minimize human intervention, if there is AI Smart-routing available, and if customizable hold music and messaging can be setup.
• Call Forwarding – points are awarded for conditional call forwarding (“redirect to X if y”), simultaneous ring functionality (multiple devices)forwarding to voicemail, and sequential ring forwarding (sequentially forwards to different pre-set numbers if no on answers)
• Voicemail management – the score will be higher for each of the following being available: voicemail transcription, voicemail-to-email, customizable and conditional voicemail greeting (e.g. if on sick leave, on vacation, etc. ), and visual voicemail
• Caller ID and Screening – we look for customizable block lists, effective robocall detection filters, customizable Do Not Disturb settings, two-step incoming caller verification, and robust fraud and spoofing prevention
• Call recording – top performers will offer customized automatic call recording as well as on-demand recording, speech-to-text transcription, and encryption of recorded data (both during transmission and after ‘at rest’)
• Call analytics and reporting – evaluation is based on whether the software offers real-time call analytics for active calls, customer sentiment analysis of recorded calls (including voice and tone analysis), predictive and forecasting analytics, cross-channel reporting, and its ability to generate reports on a long list of metrics including call duration, call traffic, first call resolution (FCR), etc.
• Unified Communications Mobile useability – VoIP software will be rated better if it offers SMS, instant messaging, email, fax, file sharing, and video calls and conferencing (and if the latter includes screen-sharing and on-call collaboration tools) as well as phone capabilities
• Mobile useability  – we look at how well the apps perform on both iPhone and Android operating systems in terms of navigation, design, access to features, voice clarity, and latency or dropped calls.

Usability & Reliability – Evaluate the user interface and learning curve for the VoIP software

Why we Test Usability and Reliability: to ascertain how straightforward it will be to set up and start using the product, as well as how good the experience will be of using it thereafter. Regarding home use, this is important for understanding how well the product will fit into the home ecosystem and benefit all household members who use it. For businesses, it will be easier to get staff and team-member buy-in (no resistance) when introducing the product, and it will save time and money when it comes to software onboarding, training, and implementation. Teams will never work efficiently if using software that’s not user friendly and reliable.

How we Test Usability and Reliability: for usability, we evaluate the product’s onboarding process, awarding more points for “plug-and-play”-style software, those that provide human training sessions, and products which offer clear, helpful onboarding prompts within the platform. We conduct qualitative audits of the visual design, layout, and user experience of the app or web portal interfaces as well as any variations in these things across multiple devices. For reliability, we collect quantitative data on call quality (latency, jitter, packetloss), uptime, and whether the providers have redundant data centers and failover mechanisms.

Compatibility and Integration – Check compatibility with different software and hardware systems

Why we Test Compatibility and Integration: to ensure it will be possible (even better: easy, seamless) for users to integrate the VoIP system into their existing software ecosystem and connect it with the other applications they rely on to manage customer relationships and communication. There is, therefore, a particular focus on connecting it with their CRM system (e.g. Salesforce) and internal business communication systems (e.g. Slack, Teams). This results in maximized data accuracy and efficiency across all activity; it minimizes information silos, disjointed reports, and disruption during implementation which can make it harder for the team to adopt and appreciate.

How we Test Compatibility and Integration: we collect and compare data on how many integrations the VoIP products offer in total as well as whether or not they are designed to integrate with the top 20 most-used business software and business communication applications used in the US (including Slack, Teams, Zoom, HubSpot, and Salesforce). We evaluate compatibility and performance across multiple internet browsers and devices as well as how well they connect with the most popular IP desk phones, phone headsets and email clients (predominantly Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail).

Scalability and Future-Proofing – Evaluate the scalability of the VoIP product to accommodate business growth

Why we Test Scalability and Future-Proofing: the software a business uses should never be a limiter of their growth. It’s important to assess that a VoIP phone system will accommodate the size and structure of the business hopes to be doing in 5+ years (without them having to upgrade to unaffordable enterprise-level plans). The risk of not considering this is that businesses will either stunt their growth by limiting their communication capabilities or will need to spend time, money, and effort changing their VoIP system in a few years time.

How we Test Scalability and Future-Proofing: we look at the number of users and virtual numbers available on each tier of pricing plan to get an idea of the expense of scaling. We award extra points if the provider offers flexible licensing structures and elastic scaling options (as opposed to locked-in long-term contracts) that make it easy to increase usage limits as needed. Our methodology favors plans that are generous with the number of locations these phone numbers are available for at all plan levels, that have a cloud-based-first design (over on-premises), and which allow users to scale usage without needing excessive bandwidths.

Security Assessment – Conduct a thorough security analysis to identify any vulnerabilities and ensure the protection of sensitive data

Why We Test Security: to ensure there is no chance of the VoIP software a business is using opening them up to security vulnerabilities, breaches, financial penalties, or damages to brand reputation.

How We Test Security: One of the most important criteria is whether the software offers end-to-end encryption of voice data during transmission (Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) or Transport Layer Security (TLS)) as well as when it is stored as a recording. Like with most software, we rate the products based on if they offer thighs like user authentication (multi-factor authentication is best), access through secure passwords, role-based permission and access controls, device authentication, and real-time security alerts. We also consider if they have an incident response plan available to their users should there be a crisis and provide regular security patches, firmware updates, and software updates.

Customer Support – Review the available customer support options offered by the VoIP provider.

Why We Test Customer Support: to ensure that this software will not be an unnecessary block to day-to-day activity when users encounter glitches, faults, errors, or are simply stuck due to lack of product knowledge. For businesses, not being able to communicate internally or externally means they need to grind to halt and risk losing business, upsetting customers, or having to pause internal initiatives. For home users, losing a key mode of communication could risk them missing important or urgent calls from friends, family, or children. It could also mean they are unable to work from home, which could impact their income or job performance. Strong customer service needs to be available so issues can be resolved fast.

How We Test Customer Support: we combine quantitative data about the number of support channels available, average response times, and average resolution times with quantitative data about the quality of the service, which we make sure to test out with our own support requests. We award extra points if the provider offers phone support and 24/7 live support (we look less favorably on ones which offer ticket-based support systems only).

Value for money

Why We Test Value for Money: any business, including solo or freelance ventures, will care about the bottom line, and any individual consumer will want the best value for money from their products. All software is an expense, so people want to know that what they’re paying for is enhancing their life or business and adding value to their day-to-day lives. We try to give the fairest assessment of not just how cheap/expensive each VoIP product is, but how much value it offers for their price point in terms of features.

How We Test Value for Money: we do calculations to weigh the plan prices against the quality and breadth of features to answer the question, “does it offer better or worse value for money than its competitors?”. Things we may award points for include if it has a free plan, free trial, or a money-back guarantee window as well as if there are low or no setup and hardware fees. We also look favorably on software that offers the option of month-to-month plans, flexible licensing, or pay-as-you-go pricing (as opposed to long-term fixed contracts). Software may lose points for notable hidden fees and costs as well as if it imposes huge price hikes to upgrade from one plan to another (which would limit scalability).