Vonage is a leading VoIP service provider that offers solutions for businesses of all sizes. Its most affordable plan starts at $19.99 per user, although volume discounts are available, and all plans are highly scalable. Vonage is known for its attractive mobile interface, excellent functionality, and integrations with third-party CRMs and other platforms. Live chat support is somewhat limited, but the self-help resources are excellent.
PROS
- Highly scalable
- Attractive mobile apps
- Excellent CRM integrations
CONS
- No free trial
- Limited live chat support
Features Available with Vonage Business VoIP
Vonage lacks some minor features in its more affordable plans, but there are many offerings in the Premium and Advanced subscriptions.
Vonage Meetings
All of Vonage’s VoIP plans include access to the Vonage Meetings video conferencing app. It’s a great tool for hosting high-quality meetings between team members. You can send invitations when needed, and it includes screen sharing and meeting recording tools.
Integrated Admin Tools
It also includes an advanced management portal, which is especially useful for large businesses. It allows you to manage all aspects of your phone system from a central location, making it easy to manage common operations. The management portal also lets you control access permissions and view your account activity in real time.
Business Inbox
Vonage’s Business Inbox is a separate add-on that costs $9.99 per month, but it’s worth considering. It lets you collect SMS, MMS, and Facebook Messenger conversations into a single inbox so you can manage and respond to them efficiently.
Voicemail to Email
The Voicemail to Email tool does exactly what its name suggests: it transcribes any voice message and sends it to a specified email address. The MP3 recording is also sent as an attachment, allowing you to listen to it or save it if needed.
Call Recording
Vonage offers excellent call recording options. You can set the app to record all calls or use on-demand call recording to save the most important ones. You can also record incoming and outgoing corporate calls according to certain rules that you can set.
Vonage Security and Reliability
Vonage claims to implement various security measures to protect its customers’ data. While it doesn’t specify what specific measures it uses, it shows compliance and certification from several organizations, such as HITRUST, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and SOC. It also complies with GDPR regulations.
Vonage Integrations
Vonage offers 20 integrations with various CRM and enterprise applications. Enterprise applications, such as Microsoft Teams and Surfly, are available on all plans. However, to access CRM integrations, you’ll need to upgrade to one of two premium plans, such as Bullhorn, G Suite, HubSpot, Office 365, Salesforce, SugarCRM, Zendesk, Zoho, and more.
Some of Vonage’s integrations are free, but many require an additional monthly fee. Connecting your apps to Vonage is a simple process and doesn’t require any specialized technical knowledge. What’s more, many of the integrations can be customized.
Vonage App
Vonage has a highly functional mobile app for iOS and Android devices. It offers text, voice, and video calling, as well as team messaging, call forwarding, and other tools. You can also sync accounts across multiple devices.
The mobile interface is attractive and easy to navigate. There are a lot of VoIP tools, but they’re smartly distributed throughout the app, so they never feel cluttered or confusing. Another standout feature is the App Center, which lets you integrate your mobile VoIP with a variety of business and productivity apps.
Vonage Customer Support
Vonage offers support via live chat, phone, and email. Email tickets can be accessed through your admin portal. Phone support is available Monday through Friday (8:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST) and Saturday and Sunday (9:00 AM to 9:00 PM EST). Live chat is only available through a built-in chatbot and is very slow. At one point, we wanted to ask a simple question about Vonage’s call recording features. However, we had to give up after waiting over an hour without a response.
On the plus side, the Business Support Center offers a wealth of self-help resources. It includes a variety of articles and guides, including a comprehensive “Getting Started” section and an extensive FAQ. You can find more informative and educational content on the “Resources” page on the main website.
Pricing & Special Offers
Vonage offers three unified communications plans, with prices ranging from $19.99 per month to $39.99 per user. The price per user decreases as you add users, and all plans with more than 100 users have special pricing.
The most affordable mobile plan starts at $19.99 per month per user and includes unlimited calling and texting, as well as access to the Vonage App Center. The Premium plan (starting at $29.99 per month) includes CRM integrations and a multi-level auto attendant, while the Advanced subscription (starting at $39.99 per month) includes call recording and visual voicemail.
Physical phones and other products can be purchased through the Vonage website. Several additional services are available at checkout, including toll-free phone numbers ($49.99 per month), voicemail transcription ($4.99 per month), and a call queuing tool ($14.99 per month). Premium support services can also be purchased.
Vonage vs RingCentral
RingCentral is another leading VoIP service provider and, like Vonage, offers options for businesses of all sizes. RingCentral is a bit more expensive, but it boasts hundreds of integrations compared to Vonage’s 20, and its 24/7 support is excellent. RingCentral is also very transparent about its security practices, which are among the best we’ve seen.
Vonage vs Ooma Office
Ooma Office is a bit more expensive than Vonage, but it offers a lot more advanced features. For example, it supports analog phones (with additional hardware) and has an excellent interactive voice response (IVR) system. Ooma Office also offers a 30-day free trial, which Vonage does not.
Vonage vs Grasshopper
Grasshopper is a very affordable VoIP service provider and is great for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a convenient free trial and an easy-to-use mobile app, but some features are somewhat limited. For example, Grasshopper does not offer integrations or video conferencing, two areas where Vonage excels.
Bottom Line
Vonage is a highly rated VoIP service provider, and it’s easy to see why. It’s relatively affordable compared to its competitors, offers a lot of useful features, and has a user-friendly interface and mobile app. While some aspects of live support are somewhat limited, there is a comprehensive help center with helpful guides, tutorials, FAQs, and other resources.
Some of Vonage’s features include Business Inbox, the Vonage Meetings video conferencing tool, and a voicemail-to-email conversion tool. While not all the details of its security practices are available on its website, Vonage has certifications from several major organizations and is GDPR compliant.
The downside is that there is no free trial or way to test the platform without a paid subscription. But if you’re looking for a scalable VoIP solution or a good phone company, Vonage is definitely worth considering.
