Vonage Comparison and Review

Pros:

• Mobile applications available for iPhone and Android
• Free to port existing number into service
• Voicemail to text transcription
• 24/7 Phone support

Cons:

Conclusion:

Vonage provides a comparatively expensive Business VoIP service with fewer features than most of its competitors for unlimited calling. Vonage charges $49.99 per line for unlimited calling, which is above our Market Standard. Vonage does not provide a customizable auto-attendant to allow callers to direct themselves to a proper extension when calling your main number. We find auto-attendants to greatly increase the professional appearance of a small business and wouldn’t recommend a service without one. Vonage does not offer toll-free numbers, does not provide or service IP-enabled phones, and requires you to plug a standard telephone into its adapter. We find that standard telephones coupled with analog telephone adapters provide worse quality than IP phones. Vonage’s focus on residential plans has not yet been fully optimized for the small business environment. You can find better quality service among our business VoIP reviews for less money.

Pricing

Vonage offers tiered pricing plans based on the number of lines that you order. The Small Business Basic 1500 plan costs $39.99 per line and comes with 1500 local minutes, and the Small Business Premium Unlimited plan costs $49.99 per line and comes with unlimited local and long distance minutes over a local phone line.  Neither plan includes toll-free minutes. There are no start-up fees. Vonage does not offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee, which does not meet our Market Standard.

Online Features

An online interface is an important feature of any Business VoIP system. By logging into the online interface, you are able to set up and maintain your system, as well as view call logs, access voicemails, and more. Vonage offers an above average online interface. You can store an unlimited number of call logs, which can be filtered and sorted. Recorded calls cannot be downloaded, but you can receive voicemails as emails. Voicemail to text transcription is available. Vonage does not provide an auto-attendant to allow callers to direct themselves to a proper extension when calling your number.

Phone Numbers

Vonage offers local numbers in 48 states and Washington D.C. 855, 866, 877, and 888 toll-free numbers as well as true 800 toll-free numbers are not available. Overage costs for local calls are $0.04 per minute.  Porting an existing from a different telecom provider into your Business VoIP system is free with Vonage.

Technological Requirements

Vonage will work with most high-speed Internet connections such as cable and DSL. Current cable modem service providers generally provide at least 1000 Kbps of bandwidth, and often provide much more, so no additional Internet service is required for most users. A Vonage phone adapter is required to use the service.

Technological Accessories

Vonage does not offer phones for sale or lease. Its phone adapter is free with the purchase of a plan and comes preconfigured for your account. Vonage provides a softphone for use with its service. A softphone is a computer program for making and receiving phone calls with speakers and a microphone connected to your computer.

Conference Calling, Internet Faxing, and Mobile Apps

Conference calling and Internet faxing are additional services that are often included with a Business VoIP system. Vonage offers conference calling with a maximum of three people on a call. It does not provide an Internet fax service with its Business VoIP service, but it does give you a dedicated fax line for use with fax machines that come with 500 minutes of outgoing fax service and unlimited incoming faxes. Mobile applications are available for the iPhone and Android that allow you make phone calls, view recent calls, change account settings, and search your contacts.

  Customer Service  

Vonage’s phone support is available 24/7. Vonage also offers email support, live chat support, forums, FAQs, and tutorials. Its customer support is average quality and located in the US. Vonage does not have server redundancies, which other Business VoIP companies provide to make sure service interruption stays at a minimum if one of its servers goes offline.