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Amy Nichol Smith spent more than 20 years working as a journalist for TV and newspapers before transitioning to software and hardware product reviews for consumers and small businesses. She has been featured in publications such as L.A. Times, Tom's Guide, Investopedia and various newspapers across the U.S.
Kelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content. She is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and she holds an MSc in International Marketing from Edinburgh Napier University. Additionally, she is a Columnist at Inc. Magazine.
Amy Nichol Smith spent more than 20 years working as a journalist for TV and newspapers before transitioning to software and hardware product reviews for consumers and small businesses. She has been featured in publications such as L.A. Times, Tom's Guide, Investopedia and various newspapers across the U.S.
Kelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content. She is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and she holds an MSc in International Marketing from Edinburgh Napier University. Additionally, she is a Columnist at Inc. Magazine.
Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.
Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.
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Reviewed
Updated: Apr 25, 2024, 8:04pm
Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.
Mobile voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) technology makes it easy to use your smartphone for business communications. The best mobile VoIP services make it possible for you to use an Android or iOS app that uses your Wi-Fi or cellular data for incoming or outgoing calls and texts. Typically, you can get a business phone number, which means you can separate personal and business calls.
Forbes Advisor has rounded up the best VoIP cell phone services to help you find the right solution for your needs and budget. You should expect convenient features on mobile apps from the best VoIP services for small businesses, such as call recording, voicemail transcription, auto attendants and more.
The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.
We reviewed providers using a detailed scoring process to help you find the five best cell phone services for small businesses. Our ratings consider factors that included pricing, the availability of general and advanced features, customer ratings and an overview by our panel of experts. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Best Overall
RingCentral
4.7
Our ratings are calculated based on fees, rates, rewards and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Pricing
$20 to $35 per user, per month*
*Paid annually; based on two to 20 users (pricing changes with fewer or more users)
*Paid annually; based on two to 20 users (pricing changes with fewer or more users)
Available
Yes
Editor's Take
RingCentral is a mobile VoIP service provider that allows unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada. Every plan includes visual voicemail, so you can read your voicemails. You can also send business SMS texts and messages to your co-workers via the app. There’s also document sharing on all plans.
The lowest-priced plan starts at $19.99 per user, per month, but your business is limited to 20 users on this plan. You’ll have to upgrade to one of the three other plans for unlimited users; the pricing ranges from $20 to $35 per user, per month, if paid annually. If you upgrade, you’ll gain access to more features helpful to businesses, including video meetings, integrations with Google Workspace, Slack and CRMs and automatic call recording.
RingCentral offers a balance of affordability and features in each of its four plans, making it a suitable mobile VoIP app for any size business.
Pros & Cons
Annual plans deeply discounted
Unlimited domestic calls
Business SMS texting included
Toll-free numbers available
Voicemail transcription
Team messaging included
Video available on high-tier plans
Call handling on top-tier plans only
No call recording on entry-level plan
Best for Entrepreneurs
Grasshopper
4.5
Our ratings are calculated based on fees, rates, rewards and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Grasshopper stands out from other mobile VoIP apps because of its flat-fee monthly pricing. The limiting factor with each plan is the number of phone numbers and extensions you get. For $14 per month (billed annually), you’ll receive one phone number and one extension; the $25-per-month plan (billed annually) gets you one phone numbers with three extensions; and for $55 per month, you’ll get four phone numbers with unlimited extensions.
The biggest benefit of using Grasshopper for mobile VoIP service is that you get all features, regardless of which plan you choose. Make unlimited calls, send unlimited SMS texts, send and receive virtual faxes and read your voicemail transcripts. There are call handling features, including transfers, screening and blocking.
If you need more phone numbers, you’ll have to pay an additional $10 per month per number. You won’t find productivity or collaboration tools on Grasshopper or video calling. There aren’t any integrations with popular work apps either.
Who should use it:
Grasshopper is best suited to freelancers and ultrasmall businesses that need primarily VoIP calling and texting from their mobile phones.
Our ratings are calculated based on fees, rates, rewards and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Nextiva provides much more than just mobile VoIP calling. You’ll be able to collaborate with colleagues, run videoconferences, send automated surveys and manage sales pipelines. Those features are mostly available in the top-tier plans, though.
There are three plans from which you can choose that vary in pricing depending on sales and the number of users you plan to add. For example, the low-priced plan costs $17.95 per user, per month for a business with 100 or more users or $23.95 per user, per month for up to four users, so this is a better pick for larger businesses.
The typical VoIP features are part of most Nextiva plans, including unlimited domestic calling, voicemail transcription and an auto attendant. Video meetings are available on the lowest-priced plan but not SMS texting. As you move up the tiers, you’ll unlock advanced features such as pipeline management tools, customer journey reporting and ticket management.
Nextiva is one of the more expensive options for mobile VoIP services. And you won’t even be able to extend its functionality with integrations until you pay for one of the higher-priced plans.
Who should use it:
Choose Nextiva as your mobile VoIP app if you want a more complete business tool for collaboration between sales, marketing and support teams.
Our ratings are calculated based on fees, rates, rewards and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Even the best mobile VoIP service providers don’t typically offer unlimited international calling, but 8×8 does. You can choose from two plans, which cost $24 to $44 per user, per month. The 8×8 x2 plan lets you communicate by voice, messaging or video, and you get unlimited domestic calls. It also offers unlimited international calls to 14 countries, plus you get team messaging and business texting. This plan also includes integrations with other communication apps, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.
For $44 per user, per month (if billed annually), you can get unlimited calls to 48 countries and features for support center supervisors, including whisper, barge and call monitoring. All plans include a multilevel auto attendant and call management. Even the low-priced plan includes file sharing and one-on-one instant messaging between team members.
Who should use it:
Any small business that provides sales or support to global customers should consider 8×8 because of its unlimited international calling plans.
Business SMS texting on mid- and high-tier plans only
Only 30-day storage for recordings on low-priced plan
Best for Affordability
Google Voice
4.2
Our ratings are calculated based on fees, rates, rewards and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Google Voice changed recently, so it’s exclusively a business product—you can no longer get free Google numbers for personal use. The good news is Google Voice is part of Google Workspace, so it works well for any business that’s already using the Google suite of products. It’s also one of the cheapest mobile VoIP apps available.
The three Google Voice plans cost $10, $20 or $30 per user, per month. The Starter plan limits you to ten users, so as your business grows, you’ll have to upgrade, but the Standard and Premier plans are still affordable, especially compared to other mobile VoIP service providers. All plans include unlimited domestic calling, unlimited SMS texts in the U.S. and voicemail transcription.
A multilevel auto attendant is considered an advanced feature on Google Voice—you won’t get it unless you upgrade to the Standard plan. You’ll also get a ring groups feature, which lets incoming calls ring on multiple phones (through one number) until they’re answered. Google’s eDiscovery feature lets you view transcripts and logs of calls, voicemails and SMS texts.
Who should use it:
When all you need are unlimited calls and texts in the U.S. for your team, it’s hard to beat Google Voice’s low prices.
We compared multiple VoIP services to find the best mobile VoIP apps. At Forbes Advisor, we understand how important pricing and feature balance is for small businesses, so we ranked each mobile VoIP service provider for offering affordable plans, general features that every provider should offer, advanced features that can benefit users, customer reviews on third-party review websites and a final review by our experts. Our methodology looked at several metrics that were weighted to favor features that small business owners find valuable in a provider.
Pricing
For pricing, we considered several factors, focusing on the costs of a provider’s entry-level plan and its highest-tier plan and the benefits a user received by choosing to go with a higher-priced plan. We also gave bonus points to services that offered lower monthly pricing when an annual plan was purchased. Finally, a provider also fared well on our list if it offered a free trial or free version of its VoIP cell phone services. Pricing accounted for 20% of our weighted scoring.
Features
While our reviews mention a variety of features attractive to small businesses, we maintained consistency in our ratings by looking for these general features for each provider and whether they were included automatically as part of a plan or were only included as part of a paid add-on. The features we expected all providers to include were unlimited domestic calling, SMS text messaging, offering both a desktop and a mobile app and having access to an auto attendant.
Then, there are many advanced features that we considered optional but nice-to-have options for users of VoIP cell phone services. These included team messaging, toll-free numbers, call recording, voicemail transcription and unlimited international calling. Again, those that were included with the plan automatically fared better than those that required an additional fee. Features accounted for 50% of our total score.
Third-party Reviews
We wanted to gauge the opinions of real users of VoIP cell phone services, so we turned to third-party review websites VoIPReview, Trustpilot and the BBB. We looked at reviews of providers that scored at least 3.5 out of 5 to get the best view of each provider. These reviews accounted for 10% of the total score.
Expert Analysis
Our experts handled the final scoring section. Looking at customer reviews, we gave points for ease of use, stand-out features, popularity and value for the money. Altogether, this final review made up 20% of the total score.
Learn more about how we review VoIP products and services.
What Else You Need To Know About Mobile VoIP Services
Using a mobile VoIP app extends the functionality of your mobile device—whether it’s an iOS phone or tablet or an Android. You can make and receive calls when away from your desk regardless of your working arrangement (remotely, at the office or a hybrid of the two). Additionally, you’ll be able to keep your personal phone number private because business calls come through your VoIP business number.
Common features of VoIP apps include multilevel auto attendants, visual voicemail and call management. If you’ve not used these features before, you may not know if you need them. Here’s a breakdown of what they are, so you can decide which mobile VoIP app is best for you and your small business.
Multilevel Auto Attendant
An auto attendant makes it easier to handle an onslaught of incoming calls when you don’t have a live operator or assistant to answer the phone. An auto attendant acts as a virtual receptionist, so callers can get to sales, support or other teams for their needs.
Visual Voicemail
This feature is also known as voicemail-to-text transcription. You may not want to take the time to listen to a voicemail, or you might miss a name or phone number in a recorded voicemail. A transcription can be helpful for grabbing important details.
Call Management
With advanced call management features, you can screen, block and forward incoming calls, as needed. In some cases, you can also hold or route calls to get a customer or lead to the right person or team.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can I use my cell phone as a VoIP phone?
A mobile VoIP app works on most smartphones. It uses your Wi-Fi or cellular data to send and receive calls through a VoIP phone number.
Which app is best for VoIP calling?
The answer to this question depends on your budget and which features you want. RingCentral offers a good balance between affordability and advanced features for small businesses, so employees can use their own devices to make and receive calls, business short message service (SMS) texts and use videoconferencing.
Can VoIP replace cell phones?
It can, but you need to have constant and reliable Wi-Fi. Keeping a cell phone plan is a good idea in case you need to use cellular data if Wi-Fi goes down.
Are VoIP systems like Grasshopper cheaper than regular phones?
They can be. Most small businesses require internet in their offices and VoIP takes advantage of this technology so you can make and receive phone calls over that internet connection. VoIP phone services tend to be more affordable because of this. Hardware is also more affordable—you don’t even need to invest in desk phones—you can use VoIP softphones with a headset to make calls from your PC or use VoIP on your smartphone via an app.
Is there a free VoIP service?
There are a handful of free VoIP phone services available, but not all work for both iOS and Android. You may want to consider using a free videoconferencing app, such as Zoom, to make business communication easy and affordable.
Are VoIP cell phones secure?
In general, using a VoIP cell phone is very secure. However, there are steps that you can take to increase the security levels even more. These include verifying that your VoIP provider offers an encrypted connection, implementing a session initiation protocol (SIP)-capable firewall that filters all incoming calls for any content that puts your system at risk and having your information technology (IT) staff create a virtual local area network (VLAN) for all of your internal calls to take place, keeping them from being put at risk from outside sources. Make sure that your staff remains diligent when using their VoIP phones so that they can avoid risks like voice phishing, also known as vishing.
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Amy Nichol Smith spent more than 20 years working as a journalist for TV and newspapers before transitioning to software and hardware product reviews for consumers and small businesses. She has been featured in publications such as L.A. Times, Tom's Guide, Investopedia and various newspapers across the U.S.
Kelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content. She is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and she holds an MSc in International Marketing from Edinburgh Napier University. Additionally, she is a Columnist at Inc. Magazine.
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