The 12 best business communication solutions in 2024

Picture this: your team members are sharing relevant updates in real time, then assigning and tracking their tasks. They know what needs to be done and who they can contact to get additional support.

Don’t pinch yourself — this doesn’t have to be a dream. Knowing how to leverage the right business communication solutions can help you streamline tasks and accomplish more work with your team. 

This guide provides the 12 best communication solutions for growing teams and businesses. It also explores the best business phone system for internal and external communication, along with five other categories of small business software.

The best business communication solutions

A suite of tools and platforms, a business communication solution helps you share information with team members and customers through different channels, like text, calls, and email.

But how do the best business communication solutions compare?

We broke it down into six distinct sections:

1. VoIP business phone systems
2. Customer relationship management software
3. Project management software
4. Video conferencing software
5. Unified communications software
6. Messaging apps

Let’s get started.

VoIP business phone systems

If you’re looking for an easier way to make and receive calls and texts, you can use VoIP phones to do so via the internet. This allows you and your team to take work on the go and still provide a great customer experience — all you need is your phone and an internet connection.

Let’s start with the #1 business phone solution in customer satisfaction on G2:

1. OpenPhone: Best phone solution for small businesses and growing teams

OpenPhone is a modern business phone solution that helps small business owners build a more effective communication system. We offer unlimited calling and texting to any phone number in the US and Canada. Plus, each new member on your account gets their own local or toll-free number to keep personal and professional calls separate.

With OpenPhone, you can set up a shared phone number so everyone on your team receives the same call and text notifications, ensuring customers always get a response. Then, you can use tools like internal threads and mentions to collaborate with team members and get feedback in real time.

Want to save previous phone calls for training or quality assurance? You can manually or automatically record calls of your choosing. Recorded calls are stored in your contact’s communication thread for an unlimited time so you can get the necessary context in the same single-view inbox.

OpenPhone’s integrations save you time on repetitive tasks, such as automatically logging calls and texts in your CRM. Our platform integrates with over 7,000 apps so you can build customized workflows for your communication needs.

See for yourself why thousands of businesses use OpenPhone by signing up for a seven-day free trial.

Key features of OpenPhone

• Free calls to any US or Canadian number
• SMS and MMS support
• One free Canadian, US, or toll-free number per user on your account
• Shared phone numbers
• VoIP call forwarding and call routing
• Texting automations (snippets, scheduled messages, auto-replies)
• Integrations with 7,000+ apps (including Salesforce, Slack, Zapier, and HubSpot)
• Customer support teams
• VoIP call recording tools (on-demand and automatic)
• Web app, desktop app, and mobile apps
• AI call transcriptions, summaries, and message recommendations
• Transparent international call and text rates

OpenPhone pricing

• Starter: $15 per user per month for shared phone numbers (up to 10 teammates), free phone calls and texts in the US and Canada, one free number per user on your account, voicemail transcriptions, and more
• Business: $23 per user per month for custom ring order, auto attendants, group calling, our Salesforce and HubSpot CRM integration, call transcriptions, phone menus, and more
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for dedicated account managers, audit logs, priority support, and more

Get a virtual phone number in minutes

How to get a virtual internet phone number

You can obtain a virtual phone number with OpenPhone in three simple steps:

1. Sign up for an account with OpenPhone — when you sign up, you can try out OpenPhone free for seven days.
2. During signup, select your city or area code in the US or Canada to pick your phone number or select a North American toll-free number.
3. Verify your account with an existing phone number and a credit card.

During the signup process, you’ll be asked for a credit card to help keep bad actors off the platform, but you can try calling from your computer for free to confirm it’s a great fit. And when your trial is set to expire, we’ll even email you a heads-up to the email address you used to sign up.

If you run into any issues during the signup process, fill out this form to reach our support team.

2. Dialpad: Best phone system for contact centers

Dialpad is an older VoIP phone system supporting web-based phone calls and text messages for contact centers and support teams. You can also tap into video conferencing tools with up to 10 participants on the base plan.

With Dialpad, you can make unlimited calls and texts in the US and Canada — provided you live in one of those countries. You can also enable real-time analytics so your reps can visually see if they’re speaking too fast or too slow during conversations with customers. To help customers feel more comfortable with your business, you can even change your caller ID in a few clicks.

Keep in mind that Dialpad has several limitations on the base plan. For one thing, you can only send 250 SMS messages per user per month for free. You also can’t purchase additional numbers unless you upgrade to the Pro plan ($25 per user per month).

The Pro plan, which unlocks features like integrations and international SMS, requires a three-seat minimum. Even if you’re a two-person team, be prepared to pay at least $75 per month.

Key features of Dialpad

• Unlimited calls and texts to the US and Canada (must be based in either country)
• Basic analytics for calls and texts
• Manual and automatic call recording

• Multi-level auto-attendants (IVR)
• Call and voicemail transcriptions

Dialpad pricing

• Standard: $15 per user per month for unlimited calls, unlimited AI Meetings (10 participants max), texting support, and instant messaging for internal teams
• Pro: $25 per user per month for CRM integrations (Salesforce, Zendesk, HubSpot, etc.), 24/7 live agent support, integration with Microsoft Teams, and more (requires a three-user minimum)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for 99.9% uptime, unlimited ring groups (departments), unlimited office locations, and more

Customer relationship management (CRM) software

CRM software keeps an eye on your customers by pushing mission-critical data from one platform to the next.

Here are the two best CRM platforms to consider for your business:

1. HubSpot: Best CRM for scaling businesses

HubSpot is an all-in-one customer relationship platform for managing sales, marketing, and customer service workflows. Want to store all your contacts in a single place? You can connect HubSpot with your business phone system to create a single source of truth for all customer interactions. 

The HubSpot CRM is easy to use and helps you track, organize, and build relationships with customers and leads. For example, you can use its contact management features to store, access, and share important information about your current and potential customers. This can help you simplify decision-making tasks and support reps in serving customers better.

HubSpot also offers a team email feature, which lets you collaborate with team members from a shared inbox. Unfortunately choosing one of HubSpot’s pricing plans can get confusing (and expensive). Plus, you may find yourself spending too much time trying to create a custom plan, known as a ”Bundle” that leaves you even more confused.

Key features of HubSpot

• Live chat software
• Contact deal and task management
• Meeting scheduler
• Email template builder
• AI email writer
• Data analysis and reporting

HubSpot pricing

Keep in mind that HubSpot splits its services into separate hubs that cover sales, content, operations, commerce, service, and marketing. Each hub offers different pricing plans, and you should choose the one that’s best for your business.

• Free Tools: $0 per user per month for all of HubSpot’s free tools — Marketing, Sales, Operations, and more (five users max)
• Sales Hub Starter: $15 per user per month for conversation routing, simple automations, e-signatures, and more
• Marketing Hub Starter: $15 per user per month for payments (US only), email and in-app chat support, simple automations, and more
• Starter Customer Platform: $15 per user per month for Sales Hub Starter plus four other Starters: Service Hub, Marketing Hub, Content Hub, and Operations Hub
• Sales Hub Professional: $90 per user per month for sequences, forecasting, coaching playlists, sales workspace, and more
• Marketing Hub Professional: $800 per month for social media tools, omni-channel automation, dynamic content, and more
  

2. Salesforce: Best CRM for large businesses that supports multiple departments

Salesforce is one of the most popular CRMs in the world, offering dozens of different products for business communication. This software allows you to store prospect information on a single platform, making it easy to find customer data without switching between tabs or tools.

The Salesforce Starter Suite brings sales, marketing, commerce, and service tools together in one place, which is ideal for businesses wanting an all-in-one solution. It also offers Chatter, so you can share files, collaborate on records, and create groups within Salesforce. You can even share files through Quip, which links your sales plans to live CRM data using a two-way sync.

Salesforce offers two native VoIP tools: Dialer for Essentials and Sales Dialer. Both of these solutions can help you make and receive calls via the internet, but they don’t offer enough features for small businesses to scale. 

For example, a Dialer for Essentials subscription costs $25 per user per month for outbound dialing capabilities, and you’ll still need to buy add-ons to get features like the ability to make inbound calls. The Sales Dialer ($5 per user per month) unlocks incoming calls, multiple phone numbers, and personal voicemail. However, you won’t be able to use contact requests, and call monitoring isn’t supported unless you upgrade.

The good news is Salesforce integrates with over 5,000 apps — including business telephone services like OpenPhone. With OpenPhone, you can automatically log calls and texts into Salesforce. You can also access features that Dialer for Essentials and Sales Dialer don’t offer, such as voicemail to text, call transcriptions, and free inbound calls.

Key features of Salesforce

• Reports and dashboards
• Mobile apps
• Lead management
• Sales forecasting
• File sync and shares

Salesforce pricing

• Starter Suite: $25 per user per month for dynamic email marketing, analytics, campaign templates, smart segmentation, deal management, case escalation, and more
• Pro Suite: $100 per user per month for sales quoting and forecasting, real-time chat, streamlined payments, price books, service automation, and more

Project management software

Project management software keeps everyone on your team on the same page. This will help you collaborate on problems, react quickly to roadblocks, and create a positive customer experience for customers at any stage.

Here are two of the best project management platforms to consider: 

1. Trello: Best project management tool for small teams on a budget 

Trello is a project management tool that helps teams collaborate and organize their projects on Kanban-style boards. It comes with easy-to-use templates for different departments that you can customize, like its New Hire Onboarding template and Employee Manual template.

You can also tap into some automation features, such as the ability to create recurring events. For example, you can set up a task to repeat every two months, which prevents routine projects from falling through the cracks.

Trello is a great option for small team task management, but for true project management, it may not be enough. Since there’s no chat feature available and you’re limited in how you communicate through tags and mentions, you may need another communication channel as your business grows.

Key features of Trello

• Kanban boards for tracking tasks
• Templates for building repeatable workflows
• Customizable task ‘cards’ with due dates and details
• Workspace commands (or automations) that trigger actions on your board
• Power-Ups (app integrations with popular tools such as Slack, Salesforce, and Gmail)

Trello pricing

• Free: $0 per user per month for unlimited cards, 10 boards per workspace, 10 MB per file, 250 Workspace command runs per month, assignee due dates, and more
• Standard: $5 per user per month for unlimited boards, 250 MB per file, 1,000 Workspace command runs per month, single board guests, and more
• Premium: $10 per user per month for unlimited board and card views, unlimited Workspace command runs, unlimited file storage size, Atlassian intelligence (AI), and more
• Enterprise: Starting at $17.50 per user per month for unlimited workspaces, multi-board guests, Power-Up administration, and more
  

2. Asana: Best project management system for enterprise companies

Asana is a complex task and project management app that works on your web browser and desktop. With it, you can manage entire workflows from start to finish by plugging into the tools you already use, like Google Drive and Zoom.

Unlike Trello, you can use Asana to record personalized videos and add them to tasks for team members to watch. Asana even automatically transcribes videos on your behalf, which means your team can save time and get clear on tasks from anywhere.

Asana offers more features for internal team communication than Trello, especially when it comes to video. However, it also comes with a steep learning curve — not to mention a higher price tag.

Key features of Asana

• Asana AI (such as Smart Status and Smart Rules)
• Project lists and Kanban boards for meetings, programs, and initiatives
• Track form submissions for work requests
• File sharing tools (including PDFs, images, Word docs, and more)
• Internal collaboration tools such as task comments, proofing, project messages, team pages, and more

Asana pricing

• Personal: $0 per user per month for unlimited projects, tasks, and storage (100 MB per file), three types of project views (list, board, and calendar), integration with basic work apps, basic reporting, and more
• Starter: $10.99 per user per month for 250 automations per month, five project views, automated workflows, Asana AI, unlimited free guests, and more
• Advanced: $24.99 per user per month for 25,000 automations per month, advanced reporting, resource management such as time tracking, and personalized customer success services

Video conferencing software

Most businesses use video conferencing software in one of two ways: to host live calls with team members or to record 1:1 calls with customers.

Let’s take a closer look at the two best video conferencing tools for businesses:

1. Zoom: Best video conferencing solution for large meetings

Zoom is a video conferencing platform that connects you with team members via audio, video, chat, and phone. You’re probably familiar with its free forever plan: you can host unlimited meetings for 40 minutes with up to 100 attendees.

You can access several useful features with Zoom, including noise reduction and light adjustment. This prevents your environment from negatively impacting your calls so you can chat with team members or customers when you’re away from your computer or office.

Zoom makes it easy for your teammates to join meetings, even if they’re unfamiliar with the platform or don’t have a Zoom account. And this means your customers don’t need to spend time learning the platform to jump on a call.

Zoom isn’t a perfect platform — upgrading for better features and more storage can get expensive fast. But if you’re comfortable with the basics and just looking for a place to begin, this is well-suited software for any small business.

Key features of Zoom

• Whiteboards for brainstorming
• Team chat
• Doc-sharing tools
• Third-party integrations (requires upgrade)
• Video clips (generate five video clips at two minutes each per month)

Zoom pricing

• Basic: $0 per user per month for 40 minutes per meeting, 100 attendees, three editable whiteboards, team chat, and more (one-user minimum)
• Pro: $13.32 per user per month for 30 hours per meeting, 100 attendees, unlimited doc storage, essential integrations, 5 GB of cloud storage, and more (nine users max)
• Business: $18.32 per user per month for 300 participants per meeting, unlimited whiteboards, single sign-on, and more (250-user minimum)

​​2. Google Meet: Best video conferencing app for Google Workspace users

Google Meet (formerly Google Hangouts) is a video conferencing platform that lets you meet with team members on your browser. If you have a Gmail account, you already have a Google Meet account. It’s 100% free for personal use.

Google Meet integrates with other G-Suite apps, such as Google Calendar and Google Sheets. It also comes with a built-in whiteboard feature so you can brainstorm ideas as a team.

Unfortunately, Google Meet wasn’t built for business use — you’re limited to hour-long meetings capped at 100 participants. Since you can’t run over an hour or record and transcribe your calls, it’s much better suited for personal use.

Google Meet’s best features cost extra. To access Google Meet’s premium features, you need to pay $6 per user per month for a Google Workspace subscription. If you want more than just 100 participants (or need call recording for your business), be prepared to pay double the price for a Google Workspace Business Standard plan ($12 per user per month).

Key features of Google Meet

• Voice and video calls
• Supports live calls and video messages
• Translated captions (15+ languages)
• Built-in whiteboard
• Integrations with the G-Suite (such as Calendar and Sheets)

Google Meet pricing

Google Meet is 100% free for anyone with a Google account. However, there are certain premium features locked behind paid bundles with Google Workspace:

• Business Starter: $6 per user per month for 100-participant video meetings, 30 GB pooled storage per user, a custom email, and more
• Business Standard: $12 per user per month to unlock 150-participant video meetings + recording, 2 TB pooled storage per user, advanced malware protection, and more
• Business Plus: $18 per user per month to unlock 500-participant video meetings + recording and attendance tracking, 5 TB pooled storage per user, and more
• Enterprise: Custom price for 1,000-participant video meetings + recording, attendance tracking, noise cancellation, in-domain live streaming, and more 

Unified communications (UC) platforms

Unified communications platforms — also called omnichannel tools — combine voice, video, and SMS functionality into a single platform.

Here are two of the most popular UC platforms for businesses:

1. Cisco Webex: Best platform for secure meetings 

Cisco Webex offers a suite of products that lets you host online meetings, send team messages, share files, and more. Its biggest claim to fame is its team messaging feature, which lets you mention reps in a message thread, forward, flag, and pin messages, and more.

Webex offers a robust free plan with features like a lobby, which prevents unwanted guests from joining your meetings uninvited. You can also access tools that let you pin videos and host meetings for up to 40 minutes with up to 100 people, making it a competitive alternative to Zoom.

If you upgrade to one of Webex’s paid plans, you can access more advanced features like post-meeting transcripts, the ability to transfer files during a meeting, and private and public chat. You can also purchase a business phone number — although it’s not competitive compared to modern VoIP solutions.

With Cisco’s Webex Suite plan, you’re spending double the price of most starter phone services ($22.50 per user per month). You’re also missing several key features, such as unlimited toll-free minutes, call transcription AI, SMS and MMS support, and more.

If you’re looking for unlimited free calls in the US and Canada or simply want more features at a more effective price point, you’re better off linking a dedicated VoIP phone service to your Cisco Webex account.

Key features of Cisco Webex

• Team messaging
• Online video meetings
• File sharing
• AI assistant (such as post-meeting transcripts)
• Call transfers (requires upgrade)

Cisco Webex pricing

• Webex Free: $0 per user per month for 40-minute video meetings, unlimited team messaging, screen sharing, video messaging, and more
• Webex Meet: $12 per user per month for 24-hour video meetings, 200 video attendees, AI Assistant, closed captions, 10 GB of cloud meeting recording storage, and more
• Webex Suite: $22.50 per user per month for a VoIP number, voicemail transcriptions, call forwarding, six-way conference calling, and more
• Webex Enterprise: Custom price for up to 1,000 attendees, unlimited meeting recording storage, FedRAMP authorized security, and more

2. Microsoft Teams: Best software for internal communication

Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based workspace that facilitates real-time collaboration and communication in one place. It’s also accessible to international team members, making it perfect for businesses with distributed teams.

With Microsoft Teams, you can host meetings, share files, send emojis to team members, and  indicate your status so they know when you’re out of the office. This platform also integrates with Microsoft 365 products such as Word and Excel, which means you don’t have to switch between multiple windows while collaborating live on projects.

Just be prepared for the learning curve: users say Microsoft Teams takes a while to set up. It also isn’t particularly flexible if you’re trying to build your own workflow, which could be a dealbreaker for businesses needing more customization.

Key features of Microsoft Teams

• Unlimited group meetings
• Unlimited internal chat
• Built-in file sharing
• Video call recordings
• Integrations with the Microsoft Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook)

Microsoft Teams pricing

• Microsoft Teams Essentials: $4 per user per month for unlimited group meetings (up to 30 hours with 300 participants), unlimited internal chat, file sharing, team meeting recordings, and more
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6 per user per month for custom business emails, access control for 300 employees, spam and malware filtering, mobile and web apps for Web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, 1 TB of cloud storage per employee, and 10+ integrations with Microsoft Bookings, Planner, Forms, and more
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 per user per month for collaborative workspaces, video editing tools, desktop access to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook, and access to an add-on for Microsoft Copilot (AI)

Messaging apps

If you need to communicate daily with multiple team members, a messaging app can help you stay in touch.

One of these two messaging apps might offer what you’re looking for:

1. Slack: Best messaging app for quick and informal communication

Slack is a popular messaging app that makes communication easier for businesses. With features such as channels, DMs, and internal threads, it’s similar to using a social media account.

It’s quick and easy to set up a Slack account and invite your team members to join a channel. Then, everyone on your team can tap into Slack’s AI features — like daily recaps, chat summaries, and Q&A searches — to shave time off repetitive tasks.

With Slack, it’s possible to make voice and video calls, but their features are limited. For example, you can only view files for the last 90 days unless you upgrade to a paid plan. Plus, you can’t collaborate on lists and documents unless you pay for the Pro plan ($7.25 per user per month).

If you want to use Slack with a business phone system, OpenPhone’s Slack integration can push calls and texts to a specific channel. This notifies members outside your phone workspace of incoming calls, texts, and voicemails so they can prioritize their work and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Key features of Slack

• Organize teams and work into channels
• Message team members 
• File sharing
• Slack AI (to instantly summarize unread conversations)
• 2,600+ integrations with apps

Slack pricing

• Free: $0 per user per month for 90 days of messaging history, 10 app integrations, 1:1 messaging with people outside your organization, and more
• Pro: $7.25 per user per month for unlimited messaging history, unlimited workflows, group messages with people outside your organization, and collaboration on lists and documents
• Business+: $12.50 per user per month for user provisioning/deprovisioning, secure sign-on, and data exports for messages
• Enterprise Grid: Custom price for unlimited workspaces, HIPAA-compliant messaging, built-in employee directory, and more

2. WhatsApp: Best messaging tool for calling with other WhatsApp users

WhatsApp is a cost-effective messaging app that started as an alternative to SMS. Instead of using traditional carriers to send texts to customers, you can rely on the internet to send messages at scale.

With a WhatsApp Business profile, you can message customers using your business name. Every business profile gets 1,000 free service conversations each month, which means you probably won’t pay extra for conversations until you’re a much larger business.

You get a few basic features with a WhatsApp account, including group conversations and video support with other Whatsapp users. You can also send more than just basic text messages, with support for stickers, voice notes, GIFs, and more.

However, WhatsApp is primarily for personal use, which means it lacks many of the features businesses need. There’s no way to buy additional phone numbers, record or forward incoming calls, or access shared numbers with the rest of your team. These can be major roadblocks as your business grows.

Key features of WhatsApp

• SMS and MMS support
• Business messaging
• Video calls
• Group conversations
• 1,000 free service conversations per month

WhatsApp pricing

WhatsApp is free for personal users. If you want to send business conversations, be prepared to pay per message.

Every business conversation on WhatsApp comes with its own pricing plan. You’ll pay a different price per text or phone call depending on the conversation category:

• Marketing
• Utility
• Authentication
• Service

There’s no way to calculate your monthly pricing up front. Instead, you’ll have to use the company’s conversation rate calculator and guestimate the number of interactions you expect per month.

OpenPhone: The best business communication solution

There are dozens of business communication solutions available — but only one VoIP phone solution is designed specifically for small businesses.

With OpenPhone, you can set up your entire business phone system in 15 minutes or less. Then, you can customize your workflow to get tasks done even faster, including tools like snippets, auto-replies, and AI message responses. No need to upgrade your plan before you’re ready: each member of your team will receive a US, Canadian, or toll-free number.

Plus, OpenPhone can connect you with thousands of apps so you can build the ultimate business communication network for your team. Whether you use Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zapier, we have everything you need to build better customer relationships.

Confirm OpenPhone is a fit for your team by signing up for a seven-day free trial.