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In this Vonage review, we cover a highly popular VoIP service. Whether you’re after the Vonage residential package or the business communications solution, we cover everything you need to know before you decide if it’s the right service for you. Besides covering its pricing, features, and pros and cons, this review also gives you insight into how it compares to leading Vonage alternatives like Ooma.
How Does Vonage Work?
Vonage works like any VoIP service, letting you place and receive calls over the Internet. With traditional landlines becoming obsolete, a service like Vonage is vital to both businesses and Homeowners.
Unlike landlines, Vonage for Business offers numerous tools to enhance your communication, including an array of audio and video features for improved collaboration.
With desktop and mobile apps, you and your teams can communicate with one another and customers from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection.
Vonage’s Pricing
The Vonage service offers several plans, the most popular of which is the Premium plan. Here’s an overview of each one. Keep in mind that all plans require a minimum one-year contract term.
| Mobile | Premium | Advanced | |
| Starting Price | $13.99/user/month | $20.99/user/month | $27.99/user/month |
| Unlimited Calling (Domestic) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Unlimited Texting (Domestic) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| International Calling | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Numbers | $0.87/m (SMS and voice) | Same as the Mobile Plan | Same as the Mobile Plan |
| Video Conferencing | ❌ | 200 participants | 200 participants |
| Call Recording | Add-on — $4.99 | Add-on — $4.99 | ✅ |
| Voicemail Transcription | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Vonage’s Features
Vonage Business Communications offers 50+ features — all centralized on one intuitive portal. Compare this to providers like MightyCall, which offers a more modest suite of around 30 features.
It’s easily one of the best call-tracking software solutions, with analytics for each extension and premium features like Voicemail Transcription — Vonage is undoubtedly as usable as it is scalable.
Here’s a quick overview of the key features we found noteworthy to expand on in our testing of the platform:
With the Vonage phone system, you can use Ring Groups (or Call Groups) to forward calls to multiple extensions at once — ringing several people at the same time.
We found that direct incoming calls can ring up to 25 extensions at once or in a sequence. This is on par with several other popular VoIP providers. For example, you can dial up to 20 numbers with Nextiva.
With Vonage, your unanswered calls are either directed to another extension or sent to voicemail. Overall, this is a must-have to ensure calls to customer support and sales teams are evenly distributed.
This is a popular feature, as it can help reduce your teams’ workload, boost productivity, and cut your customers’ wait times — thereby improving your customer service.
With this, you can forward unanswered calls to a different extension or phone — rather than to voicemail. This ensures your employees don’t miss important calls when they aren’t in the office.
Vonage’s Call Forwarding feature gives you 3 options for forwarding calls:
- The ability to call a designated extension
- A staggered approach — forwarding to a series of extensions or numbers (up to 3), essentially “following” the employee
- Calls get sent to a group of extensions (such as your customer service or sales department)
We found the Call Forwarding simple to set up; we could easily amend who to forward the call to and how many rings a caller had to wait before their call was forwarded.
Whether on mobile or desktop, it was easy to initiate, join, and record video meetings. Like Ooma and Nextiva, we found that you can also share files with Vonage’s screen-share capabilities.
In addition, the speaker view feature made meetings engaging throughout. We found the whiteboard feature particularly cool — allowing up to 20 attendees to share ideas on a Paint-esque canvas.
Vonage offers a dedicated dial-in number from 60 countries and a meeting PIN for fast access. The calendar integrations are great for ensuring your team knows when their next meeting is.
With this, you can create a written transcript of your voicemails and view them on the desktop or mobile app. You can also forward voicemail audio files and transcripts to your email inbox.
Visual Voicemails are automatically transcribed, helping to ensure the caller’s privacy. This nifty feature is an add-on that costs $4.99/month.
Add-ons offer great flexibility and scalability, but their costs can rack up. However, Vonage’s pricing is refreshingly clear, so you’ll see the costs tally when you add them to your plan.
Vonage’s Auto Attendant (or Virtual Receptionist) helps automate call management. This gives callers the chance to select options from a menu — which you can customize based on:
- Departments
- Employee availability, and
- Workday and holiday schedules
You can get a multi-level Auto Attendant (on the Premium plan) to manage your phone menu, route calls, send messages, and prioritize specific callers, or the basic one on the starter plan to transfer calls.
Overall, we were impressed with how easy it was to record and modify greetings with text-to-speech and to preconfigure the attendant based on workday and holiday hours.
Besides being an impeccable business phone system, Vonage’s home phone service is equally popular. Starting at just $9.99/month, the residential service offers numerous benefits, including toll-free numbers, so US or Canadian callers aren’t charged when they call you, and unlimited international calling to a whopping 60+ countries. You’ll also benefit from features like call forwarding and filtering.
Vonage Integrations
Vonage integrates with over 20 business and productivity apps. Plus, there are embedded (UI-level) integrations that remove the need to toggle between apps and services. Integrations include:
- Salesforce ($4.99/m)
- Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Dynamics, Office 365
- Slack
- Zapier (for thousands more)
- Zendesk
- Google Workspace, G Suite
- Connectwise to call contacts and forward calls to voicemail
- Apptivo Estimates ($10/m) and Apptivo Invoices ($10/m)
- Bullhorn for recruiters ($4.99/m)
As we’ve indicated above, some need to be paid for. It’s also worth noting that some users have found it tricky to integrate their CRM software but have found that it works fine after the initial setup.
Unfortunately, this isn’t uncommon with other providers. For example, we found similar technical issues when we did our review of RingCentral.
Is Vonage Safe?
To compare, Nextiva offers call encryption but at a small additional fee. That said, as with Nextiva and RingCentral, Vonage also adheres to HIPAA, HITECH, and HITRUST compliance.
This ensures that privacy and data protection standards are met. In addition, they also undertake regular audits and testing of application security to pinpoint any potential vulnerabilities.
To top it off, Vonage’s servers are hosted by IBM Softlayer and AWS data centers — and Softlayer, for example, is compliant with security standards like ISO 27001.
It doesn’t end there either, Vonage’s servers are also protected with additional firewalls and logical access control.
What is Vonage Good for?
Vonage was built as a small business VoIP, offering small teams the tools and technology that were previously only accessible to large enterprises with complex IT departments, like a contact center.
They offer a pay-for-what-you-use model that allows companies to automate processes, streamline communications, offer multichannel customer support, and build out their tech stack with integrations.
If you’re a larger enterprise, you may want to look into a VoIP solution like Nextiva that offers Quality of Service for large-scale communications, plus:
- 24/7 network monitoring
- Features like digital faxing, and advanced voicemail, and
- Local and toll-free numbers
Vonage vs Top Competitors
While Vonage is one of the best VoIP services, there are several other solutions out there that may be a better fit for you. Here’s a quick comparison to see how it compares to leading Vonage competitors:
| Vonage | Ooma | Nextiva | Phone.com | MightyCall | |
| Best For | Small businesses | Ease of use | Enterprises | Businesses on a budget | Small businesses after an affordable VoIP |
| Starting Price | $13.99 per user per month | $19.95 per user per month | $18.95 per user per month | $12.74 per user per month | $15 per user per month |
| Trial Period | 14-day trial | 60-day trial | 7-day trial | ❌ | 14-day trial |
| Mobile App | Android and iOS | Android and iOS | Android and iOS | Android and iOS | Android and iOS |
| Top Features | 99.999% uptime, multi-level auto-attendant, visual voicemail for transcriptions | Video conferencing (100 participants), meeting recordings, call queues | Free toll-free number, unlimited Internet faxing, voicemail to email delivery | Minute bundles for high-volume users, a live receptionist, call routing options | Detailed call notes, Call Whisper, call interception |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days |
Vonage vs Ooma
As we explore in our Ooma Review — Ooma, like Vonage, is one of the best small business VoIPs. Both offer 50+ features and affordable plans for those on a budget who want all the bells and whistles.
Both offer a virtual receptionist, ring groups, call queuing, and CRM integration, but Vonage has slightly more integrations and 99.999% uptime. That said, as a leading alternative to Vonage, Ooma has more positive reviews.
That said, Vonage is a better choice if you’re looking to juggle multiple applications, while Ooma could be a good call for less tech-savvy teams that like more intensive support.
Learn more with our full Ooma review.
Vonage vs RingCentral
Both Vonage and RingCentral are known for their usability and reliability, with both offering a 99.999% uptime and neither requiring extensive onboarding and training to use effectively.
While Vonage boasts 20+ integrations, RingCentral has over 200 — making RingCentral the better option for businesses with complex tech stacks.
When it comes to pricing, Vonage edges out RingCentral — with Vonage costing just under $20/month and RingCentral costing $30/month.
So, if you’re looking for advanced integrations, then RingCentral is best for this, while Vonage offers a number of useful features and a high-quality service for slightly less.
Need more? Here’s a full review of RingCentral.
Vonage vs 8×8
8×8 is known for its 99.999% uptime — just like Vonage. Both offer every feature you’d expect from your VoIP — including unlimited calls, virtual receptionists, and call routing.
However, Vonage slightly takes the edge if you’re looking for more integration capabilities. If budget is a bigger concern, then 8×8 is certainly one to look at, as it costs just $15/user/month.
Here’s our in-depth 8×8 review for more details.
Vonage Customer Reviews
Vonage’s business service has stellar reviews across many sites, with a rating of 4.5 (out of a total of 1,400+ reviews) on TrustPilot and 4.1 (out of 300+ reviews) on Capterra.
Many say they appreciate the knowledgeable support. They particularly enjoy Vonage’s integration capabilities and how easy it is to integrate with key apps to streamline business operations.
Vonage reviews also highlight how usable it is across desk phones, mobile phones, and other devices, with many adding that the interface is simple to navigate to manage communications — from international calls to video conferencing.
Besides an easy setup and intuitive interface, they say the sound quality is great, no matter where or when phone calls are taken. However, some users note occasional drops in call quality with the service.
In addition, while many users love Vonage’s customer support — there are some Reddit reviews where customers note that, at times, their tech support is hard to reach.
How to Use Vonage — A Quick Guide
Step 1 - Sign Up
To get started, you’ll need to choose a plan and create an account. Once this is done, you’ll be able to log into your account on your desktop or download Vonage on your mobile phone.Step 2 - Place Calls
The Calls window will be the first one you’ll see when you log in. On the left, you’ll see a log of all the calls you’ve placed, received, or missed, and on the right, you’ll see the caller’s details. To place a call, simply click on ‘New Call’ located in the top right. Enter their phone number or the extension you want to call and click ‘Call’.
Step 3 - Getting Started With Team Messaging
Select ‘Team Messaging’ on the left panel. As with everything, this is clearly laid out, and we found it incredibly easy to use. On the left of this screen, you’ll have all your chats and groups laid out chronologically, with each chat selected shown on the right side.
Step 4 - Hosting Meetings
Similarly, for meetings, click on the ‘Meetings’ tab on the left. You’ll see a log of all your meetings on the left, which you can categorize to find missed ones, all ended meetings, etc. On the right, you’ll find all meeting notes, participants, and everything else centralized. To host a new meeting, simply click on ‘New Meeting’ in the top right and select the participants.
Step 5 - Using the Receptionist Console
Click on ‘Receptionist Console’ on the left-hand side of the interface. This Admin Portal gives you an overview of all calls, contacts, parked calls, and calls in the queue. You can also answer calls, transfer them to another team member, and access valuable information like average wait times.
Step 6 - Reporting
Under the ‘Reports’ tab on the left, you have numerous options, including a company summary. You can download the reports in CSV or PDF format, print them, and email them.
How We Review And Test VoIP Services
We base our recommendations on first-hand testing. All the VoIP products we feature, have been tested based on the following criteria. If you’d like to know more about how we evaluate VoIP software, you can visit our dedicated page explaining how we test and review VoIP systems.
- Features: We explore the platform’s general call and video conferencing capabilities and unique features like automation, call queuing, call recording, and IVR features.
- Integrations: We assess whether it offers integration support for popular business apps such as CRMs, project management platforms, helpdesk software, and others.
- Reliability: We test the call quality on offer with the VoIP platform, and we only include services that offer an uptime guarantee of close to 100%.
- Security and Compliance: We check whether the platform offers industry-standard encryption, access controls, compliance with regulations like GDPR, and firewalls.
- Numbers: We factor in whether the platform offers a variety of number options like local, toll-free, international, and vanity numbers.
- Ease of Use: We test the VoIP service on its available platforms to ensure we can give accurate insight into its usability.
- Value for Money: After our hands-on testing, we’re able to better analyze whether the price point is fair to offer insight into the feature-to-price value on offer.
- Reviews and Reputation: Beyond our hands-on testing, we explore third-party reviews to see if we need to investigate certain aspects of the VoIP service further. This combined allows us to offer a good overview of what our readers can expect from the platform.
How to Choose the Best VoIP Provider
How do you choose the best VoIP provider for your business? Here are the key factors you should consider before you buy:
You should consider your budget and how each plan meets your functionality needs. Solutions like Ooma are great if you’re on a budget, while Vonage is ideal for an all-in-one solution if you’re happy with the cost of add-ons.
Also, don’t forget to consider any hidden fees, such as taxes and call costs, and keep in mind that new users are usually charged on a per-user basis.
You need to consider which features you need based on your budget requirements. Vonage and Nextiva typically offer more advanced features for a higher fee, while other providers like MightyCall, for example, prioritize affordability.
Be sure to factor in whether you need unlimited calling, unlimited meetings, paging groups, a virtual assistant, or just standard features.
Next, note how much it costs to scale and whether the added functionality you’ll need is available with that provider — at a price you’re willing to pay.
It’s always a good idea to make sure a platform is easy to use and requires minimal onboarding and training. Always schedule a demo or make use of any free trials and guarantees to test the usability.
As we’ve explored in all of our reviews, including this Vonage Review, some integrations (such as Vonage’s CRM integrations) may only be available on higher-tier plans or as an add-on.
Support hours and the channels these services deliver support on are important—make sure these are right for your team. For example, will chat support suffice, or do you need phone support?
This is essential to the smooth running of your business. Be sure to factor in every ‘9’ in the reported uptime, as this translates to the downtime your company will experience every year.
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FAQs
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References
- What is HIPPA? (CDC.gov)
- AWS Data Centers (AWS — Amazon)
- What is Quality of Service (RegulationBodyofKnowledge)
- Vonage Customer Reviews (Trustpilot)
- Vonage Customer Reviews (Capterra)
