Best Business Phone Systems
Based on In-Depth Reviews

A lot--or everything, some might say--has changed in 30 years with the rise of the internet. There’s a whole generation growing up that has never lived in an offline world devoid of the ease of communication the web has brought. 

Businesses have had to adapt to the disruptive power of the internet or die trying. Some, like the encyclopedia business, never had a chance for survival. On the other hand, the internet has also created opportunity for new businesses to rise and has invigorated older businesses. And in the case of business phone systems, the internet has changed the game drastically.

If you are in the market for a business phone system, the good news is we’ve done the homework for you! 

Business phone systems utilize either landline technology or Voice over IP (VoIP) technology. We strongly suggest you choose VoIP, the internet-based phone system. And here’s why…

The Future Called and Nobody Noticed

Landlines are not here to stay--and businesses need to keep that in mind when choosing a phone. That might not seem surprising at all considering that most people we know have switched to wireless. However, when you think about company phones, what might pop into your head is a business person at a desk using an almost comically big black phone. 

But that’s no longer the norm. There’s been a consistent decline of landline users, while the number of wireless and VoIP customers increases year after year. Yet the landline business is still showing signs of life against all odds. The reason for this is that landlines have standout qualities that other telecom systems have yet to match. 

One of these standout qualities is that landline technology, though outdated, is not affected by power outages. This might not be the first thing in your mind when choosing a system for your business, but if a storm hits and your area’s power goes out, you will still be able to make calls with a landline phone. 

In fact, there is no other type of phone system that measures up to landlines in the most basic thing you use your phone for: calls. Landlines offer the best call quality, a fact that is universally accepted. Many people who argue that landline technology is not dead do so on the basis of its tried-and-true nature. 

Landlines still exist because they are the most reliable system for long distance communication in isolated or rural areas where wireless communication or VoIPs are not as consistent. They are also easier for emergency responders to locate than wireless or VoIP users. Landlines are also un-hackable, since they don’t rely on internet, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be tapped. 

However, installing and maintaining the copper wiring needed for landlines is very expensive for a product in steady decline. The last published report the FCC issued for Voice Telephone Services shows that while the number of wireless and VoIP users is increasing, the number of landline users is doing the opposite. 

And that’s not all. AT&T was the first company to propose completely phasing out landline technology and transitioning to wireless and internet-based networks. Twenty state legislatures gave AT&T the green light to leave the landline business. The company and the FCC have worked on trials to see what challenges needed to be addressed for this monumental technological transition. 

Understanding that the ‘Tech Transition’ was inevitable, the FCC has been putting out regulations to protect the customers when the legacy carriers, like Verizon or AT&T, transition from analog to Internet Protocol. And a clear indicator that landlines will finally kick the bucket, you can see them referenced as POTS, or Plain Old Telephone Service, on the FCC website. 

Taking all of this into consideration, if you choose a landline phone system for your business, know that you will soon have to transition to an internet-based one.

Voice Over IP Takeover

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a technology that allows people to make telephone calls through the internet by sending and receiving voice data packets. Unlike landlines, VoIP doesn’t require a circuit to remain open for the entirety of the call. Every time a user speaks, the sound is picked in a voice data packet and sent to the receiver. The caller’s data packets travel through the internet to a business LAN or server, then they are sent through the internet to the receiver.

Put in layman’s terms, VoIP transforms analog phone conversations into digital form so they can be transmitted through the internet. 

The first commercial VoIP was brought to the public by Volcatech Inc. in 1995. After that, more businesses jumped in and invested in and marketed the product as a way to cut down costs for long-distance calls. By 2003, eight years after the first VoIP system was released, VoIP calls accounted for 25% of all calls. 

In fact, you might be using VoIP without being aware of it. If you’ve made a call through WhatsApp or Skype, you have used VoIP to communicate. And why is that? Why do people and telecom providers gravitate toward this technology? The main reason is because it’s cheap. For example, people who have family or friends abroad can call or text their loved ones for free through WhatsApp if both parties have the app on their phones, instead of calling them through their wireless phones and paying long-distance fees. 

Not only VoIP is cheap, it offers many features that landlines can’t hope to provide, features many of us have come to take for granted.

As you can see in the above graphic, VoIP encompasses much more than what a traditional business phone system does. These new features are now the industry standard. Business owners and IT specialists expect many of the VoIP systems to at least offer call forwarding, auto attendant, and texting. 

VoIP is disruptive technology, and as such, it has the power to change the way businesses work. With all this functionality that was unattainable just 20 years ago, small businesses today can do things that might have seemed impossible. Prime examples are sharing presentations on a teleconference between managers, answering business phone from home or on the road, sending messages through intra-company chats, or pulling a call log with recordings and analytics. 

How Has VoIP Changed Business?

VoIP has irrevocably changed the business phone game, giving tools to companies that enable faster and more robust communication between customers and businesses and/or between businesses. It has also blurred the lines between national and international calling. 

To get a sense of how business phone systems are actually used in the small business arena, we interviewed Vanessa Montenegro, Operations Director of Flavors Food Tours, a company that conducts culture and culinary tours in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Martin, and Atlanta, GA. Montenegro offered insight into her business phone needs as a remote worker. She explained she uses the VoIP system to take customer service calls through the company’s toll-free number and international number, which are then forwarded to her customer service team. Nevertheless, she also has the ability to log in her VoIP system through her smartphone app or desktop app to make international calls, call customers or text customers.

Vanessa Montenegro, Operations Director of Flavors Food Tours

When asked about if she was happy with her VoIP system, Montenegro said enthusiastically, “Yeah! We are a small company. [VoIP] has been helpful to us and our productivity.”

After learning Montenegro does all her phone business through her mobile phone, we asked her if she would consider getting a physical phone for her home to take her business calls. In reply, she said, “I’d rather keep using my phone and having an app than having a physical phone. I think the idea of having a [physical] phone is a little outdated. Nowadays, everybody has their own cellphone.” Though Montenegro was critical of the application she used, and had to wait for it to load sometimes, she said she would recommend the system. 

With full controls and the ability to take or make business calls from anywhere, VoIP systems have made the workplace much more flexible. These systems seem particularly suited for small to medium-sized businesses, remote and digital businesses, and customer service and sales teams. Bigger enterprises would also benefit from this technology and could cut costs while adding functionality.

Functionality & Features

VoIP technology is the foundation for Unified Communications (UC), the consolidation of all internet-based telecom features into a single system. For example, a good UC system connects the VoIP system with email, calendar, and apps like Slack, Trello, and Asana. Having all these communication applications in one place is much more convenient than having all apps open and jumping from one to the other.

VoIP is able to make these tools available for businesses in a streamlined manner, helping keep productivity and efficiency levels up while providing new features that aren’t available on older phone systems. Popular features businesses might benefit from are:

• Auto-attendant: This feature has become a popular one because it takes away the need for a receptionist. It is a voice menu that helps callers choose where they would like to be transferred.
• Call forwarding: People who don’t want to miss a business call are able to forward all calls to their personal phone. This also helps to maintain privacy, since there is no need to give out a personal phone number.
• Video conferencing: Especially for remote workers, video conferencing has become a necessity. This allows employees to communicate via video in real-time with anyone in the world. So if a business owner needs to have a face-to-face meeting with a person in another state or country, he or she can host it through the business phone system. This also cuts costs since there might be no need to travel. 
• Screen sharing: This tool is a fantastic way to share presentations and explain reports when in a conference. With this feature, everyone is able to see the same document, and the person sharing can make any changes in real-time.
• Softphone applications: One of the benefits of VoIP systems is that users don’t need hardware beyond their own personal mobile phones or desktops.

Room for Improvement

We have no qualms declaring VoIP technology a great and innovative business tool. However, that doesn’t blind us to its shortcomings. 

The biggest downside is that a good internet connection is needed to make and receive calls at all times. If users can’t access the internet, they can have the calls forwarded to another phone number. 

The recommended bandwidth users should have available to make and receive calls is 100 Kbps, 1/10 of an Mbps. This is important to having the uninterrupted, clear service businesses need. Usually, this is no problem since internet plans provide way more bandwidth than what is required, but if your business is in a rural area or a place were internet service isn’t consistent, this might become an issue. We recommend checking with your VoIP provider to confirm your specific internet needs.

The other downside of VoIP, one shared with wireless phones, is that emergency services might have a hard time locating from where a 911 call is originated. However, the FCC requires that VoIP providers meet their enhanced 911 requirements. The FCC also urges users to make sure their provider has the correct physical address and to be familiar with any limitations their service might have.

What is the Right Business Phone System for My Business?

When choosing a VoIP system for your business, it is important to ask yourself who you communicate and how you communicate with them. This will guide you when you’re looking for a system with features and integrations to match your needs. For example, if you have to communicate with various third parties across the country, you need to have video conferencing and screen sharing. 

The chart below lists the essential functionality that different types of businesses should look for. It might be that a business happens to be in more than one category, so we suggest you look for a solution that covers all or at least most of these needs.

While the advantages of VoIP systems are obvious, there’s no denying that choosing the best one for you is more complicated than choosing among landline systems in days gone by. Still, there is more than a grain of truth to the advertising chatter about how VoIP is a “disruptive” or “transformative” technology. Adopting it will change the way you do business. That change may be daunting in the short term, but will rapidly pay off for most small to medium-sized business.

Features Glossary

Because most people are not used to the lingo and functionality of VoIP business phone system, we decided to briefly explain some features below:

• ACD/IVR: These technologies work together so phone systems obtain callers information to route calls according to preset rules.
• Analytics: Depends on the VoIP provider, but most VOIP systems with call center functionality collect call data and produce reports to show average call time, average wait time, agent performance, among many other things.
• Call Monitoring: Gives the manager the opportunity to listen in on an active call, speak to the agent while in a call without letting the customer know, and/or jump into the call and talk directly to the customer.
• International Numbers: Users can buy an international number to call or receive calls from anywhere in the world.
• Softphones: Applications that enable users to make calls from a desktop or mobile device.
• Vanity Numbers: Businesses can stand out with a toll-free number, like 1-800-FLOWERS.
• Virtual Faxing: Enables users to send and receive faxes via email.