eVoice looks like a decent business VoIP at first. But when you start digging into the details and reading through reviews, you might be underwhelmed by what you see.
Thankfully, eVoice isn’t the only VoIP for growing small businesses. We’re evaluating eight of the best eVoice alternatives here, as well as their price points, features, and things you need to consider.
But before we dive in, let’s talk about why eVoice isn’t a good fit for small businesses.
What you need to know about eVoice
eVoice is a legacy virtual phone system designed specifically for small businesses. Launched in 1999, it provides calling, texting, and video conferencing software for users via their browser and mobile apps.
But eVoice isn’t a true VoIP. Although you can buy local and toll-free numbers through their platform, you must own a working phone and telephone number (i.e., a cell phone, office phone, etc.) to make or receive calls. All incoming calls and texts will forward to an existing device, and won’t work apart from your existing hardware. This means you’ll need to pay for a traditional phone service plus eVoice’s services just to reach your customers.
eVoice advertises a single plan to customers, starting at $14 per user per month for:
- Conference calling
- Auto attendants
- Call routing
- Call queues
- Virtual voicemail
These features are extremely bare bones, even for small businesses. But if you want something more practical, you’ll need to pay eVoice’s premium add-on features:
- Vanity phone numbers
- International phone numbers ($29.95 per number per month)
- Online faxing
- Web conferencing
- Call recording
- Voicemail transcriptions
- Business SMS
Keep in mind you’ll need to contact eVoice to get any pricing upfront as they provide custom quotes to access all of their premium upgrades.
You also won’t be able to try out eVoice’s features before buying a plan — there’s no free trial period offered. You do have access to a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee, which claims you can cancel at any time and receive a full refund for your trouble. However, customer reviews cite poor service and slow response times, which could make it difficult to receive a refund quickly.
But this isn’t eVoice’s most glaring limitation.
Unlike many other VoIP providers, eVoice doesn’t allow you to port out local numbers you’ve purchased on their platform. You don’t technically ‘own’ your chosen number; you’re simply renting it until you close your account. If you try to port the number anyway and it falls outside one of the conditions in the customer agreement you sign after signing up for eVoice, you may be automatically charged $500.
eVoice pricing
There’s only one pricing plan on the eVoice website:
Elite Monthly
- $14 per user per month
- Unlimited calls, after hours call forwarding, and IVR
Despite its presentation, the Elite Annual isn’t a plan; just a cost savings measure. You can get $2 off per user and two free months of service in exchange for an upfront payment ($144 per user per year). It doesn’t offer any additional features.
Why businesses turn to eVoice alternatives
Most of eVoice’s utility is trapped behind expensive add-on costs. Even if you do pay for additional features, you won’t be able to access third-party integrations or MMS messaging at all. Plus, if you buy a local number from their platform, you may not be able to port out when you’re ready to scale up. This could trap your team in an inefficient business phone system n.
Fortunately, there are plenty of eVoice competitors that offer all the flexibility you need to thrive.
8 eVoice alternatives
A great VoIP should be reliable, efficient, and cost-effective. If eVoice isn’t providing that for you or doesn’t seem like a great fit, let’s look at some providers that can.
And don’t worry — we’re starting with the best:
- OpenPhone
- RingCentral
- Grasshopper
- Google Voice for Google Workspace
- Nextiva
- Vonage
- Ooma
- Phone.com
Switch to OpenPhone: The best eVoice alternative
If you’re looking to see how these eVoice alternatives compare at a glance:
| OpenPhone | eVoice | RingCentral | Grasshopper | Google Voice | Nextiva | Vonage | Ooma | Phone.com | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Starts at $15 per month per user | Starts at $14 per month per user | Starts at $19.99 per month per user | Starts at $28 per month per user | Starts at $10 per month per user | Starts at $23.95 per month per user | Starts at $19.99 per month per line | Starts at $19.95 per line per month | Starts at $11.99 per user per month |
| Unlimited calling to US & Canada | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ | Unlimited calls to Canada from US only | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Requires upgrade |
| SMS, MMS | ✓ | No MMS support | x | Canadian phone numbers do not support MMS | Unlimited text in US only | Upgrade required; mobile only | MMS requires API | ✓ | Requires upgrade |
| Voicemail transcriptions | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade |
| Set business hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | x | x | ✓ |
| Additional phone numbers | $5 per month per number | ✓ | $4.99 per month per number | $10 per month per number | Varies | $4.95 per month | $14.99 per month per extension | $9.95 per month per number | $4.99 per month per number |
| Call recording | ✓ | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | x | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade; 15 hours max | Requires upgrade | $5 per month |
| Shared phone numbers | ✓ | x | Up to 20 users | x | Requires upgrade | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Auto-attendant (virtual receptionist) | ✓ | ✓ | Requires upgrade | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | x |
| Auto-replies | ✓ | x | x | ✓ | x | x | x | x | x |
| Slack integration | ✓ | x | Requires upgrade | x | x | x | ✓ | x | ✓ |
| Zapier integration | ✓ | x | Requires upgrade | x | x | x | ✓ | x | x |
| CRM integration | Requires upgrade | x | Requires upgrade | x | x | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | ✓ | Requires upgrade |
| iOS and Android apps | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Browser app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | x | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Desktop apps | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ | Requires upgrade | ✓ |
Keep reading to learn more about how the best alternatives stack up in detail.
1. OpenPhone: The top eVoice alternative
OpenPhone is a cloud-based phone system made to help businesses easily call and text from anywhere. Using OpenPhone, you can access free calls and texts (MMS and SMS) in the US and Canada — all on your favorite devices. We’re a true VoIP provider, which means you don’t need a preexisting phone service to route calls. All you need is WiFi to use OpenPhone from your computer, smartphone, or tablet.
With OpenPhone, you can:
- Get one free local (US or Canadian) or toll-free with each user on your plan
- Share a team number to balance the workload, or assign individual numbers that route callers to the right person
- Access features eVoice doesn’t support, including MMS and integrations with Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, and more
- Record specific calls or enable automatic recording on all calls
With OpenPhone’s customer support, you can reach support reps when you need them. We’re consistently rated #1 on G2 for speed, support, and quality, and our reviews more than speak for themselves:
“I was so impressed by the customer support. I went through several rounds of support requests before configuring the service to my liking. The support is over email, but prompt and effective.” – G2
“So far, I have not experienced any issues. I am very pleased with my service and confident that should I do have a concern, their support staff will listen and provide feedback in a professional manner.” – G2
“Without even touching the features of OpenPhone, customer support. I never, ever have to wait. Real people with real emotions. I’ve had a handful of small issues that I created when starting the transition to OpenPhone, and they treated my small business like we were worth millions.” – G2
Plus, you won’t get any surprises with your business phone bill using OpenPhone. What you see is what you get! And once you grow out of one plan, you can scale up to the next — you won’t ever be forced to upgrade.
OpenPhone can also save you time in dozens of ways:
- Send Auto-replies to encourage missed callers to reach out through text and automatically send texts outside of business hours
- Save and share snippets based on messages your team frequently sends
- Schedule text messages based on your contact’s time zone
- Review all call recordings, voice messages, and texts with a contact in a single view so you can catch up on conversations faster
Even though OpenPhone has a lot to offer, we’re not done making our platform the best it can be. We’re always working on new features to provide more value to teams.
And unlike eVoice, porting into OpenPhone is always totally free. Whether you’re coming in or heading out, you own your business number — and you can move it around however you please.
OpenPhone pricing
All our pricing plans and add-on costs are listed directly on-site, so you’ll always know what the price is before getting started.
We offer three plans:
Starter
- $15 per user per month
- Access free calls and texts, voicemail to text transcription, and call recording
Business
- $23 per user per month
- Unlock call transfers, call analytics, CRM integrations (Salesforce and HubSpot), and phone menus (IVR)
Enterprise
- Custom price for a custom plan
- Enjoy audit logs, priority support, and a dedicated account manager
How to switch and port your number from eVoice
As long as you didn’t purchase a local number through eVoice, you can port any local US or Canadian or North American toll-free number to OpenPhone for free.
Here’s how it works:
- Sign up for an OpenPhone account.
- Complete the porting request form via the OpenPhone web or desktop app.
- We’ll let you know if we need anything else.
If you did buy a local number from eVoice, no worries. OpenPhone lets you pick a new local or toll-free number for every user on your plan, so you can get up and running in minutes.
The bottom line for OpenPhone
OpenPhone is the smartest way to give your team all the context they need to build relationships with your customers. Manage incoming calls as a team with shared numbers, pair up with third-party integrations like Zapier to automate your workflows, and take business calls and texts on the go with any device — no existing phone plans required.
You can start a seven-day free trial at any time.
2. RingCentral
Established in 1999, RingCentral is one of the oldest names in VoIP. This legacy platform offers some of what you would expect from a virtual phone number, including features like:
- Business SMS
- Voicemail to text
- Unlimited calls in the US and Canada
Unfortunately, RingCentral shares many limitations with eVoice. Toll-free MMS is not supported, which means you won’t be able to send pictures, GIFs, or other multimedia through texting. Call recording and auto attendants are closed behind a paywall, putting you in the same predicament as before. What’s more, only 20 users at a time can access the basic plan. More than that, and you’ll be forced to upgrade — and pay more per user as well.
Additionally, on RingCentral’s Essentials plan, users can only send 25 messages per user per month unless you upgrade or pay extra per message.
RingCentral pricing
There are four established plans:
Essentials
- $19.99 per user per month (20-user limit)
- Get team messaging and document sharing
Standard
- $27.99 per user per month
- Access on-demand call recording, international phone numbers, and integrations with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Slack
Premium
- $34.99 per user per month
- Access automatic call recording, analytics, and CRM integrations
Ultimate
- $49.99 per user per month
- Enjoy unlimited storage, device alerts, and status reports
The bottom line on RingCentral
RingCentral is another legacy VoIP that fails to compete with modern solutions. While it may be a good starting place for micro-brands, it doesn’t offer much room to grow or easily scale over time compared to other eVoice alternatives.
3. Grasshopper
Another legacy platform that has spent decades in the industry, Grasshopper offers virtual phone numbers that serve thousands of customers per year. You can download their mobile or desktop app and access:
- Custom greetings
- Phone line extensions
- Voicemail transcriptions
But Grasshopper was built for solopreneurs rather than small businesses — and it shows. Compared to other eVoice alternatives, Grasshopper doesn’t offer any integrations so you won’t be able to automate any tasks or have any context of phone communication in your CRM. Their first plan only provides space for a single user, while the second tier includes one to three users. You’ll need to pay for the highest tier just to access unlimited extensions and five phone numbers, which is a whopping $80 per month.
Grasshopper pricing
Grasshopper’s price plans don’t charge per user. Instead, they charge based on the amount of phone lines and extensions you want.
Solo
- $28 per month
- One phone number and three extensions
Partner
- $46 per month
- Three phone numbers and six extensions
Small Business
- $80 per month
- Five phone numbers and unlimited extensions
The bottom line on Grasshopper
Ultra-small businesses may get some utility out of Grasshopper, but compared with other providers, it’s more expensive, less flexible, and much lighter on basic features and integrations.
Learn more about how eVoice vs Grasshopper compare.
4. Google Voice for Google Workspace
Nearly every small business owner has seen ads for Google Voice. The platform is well-known, well-advertised, and seemingly well-used by customers all over the world.
But contrary to popular belief, Google Voice isn’t free. It costs $10 per user per month to access the basic plan, plus an additional $6 per month to access Google Workspace ($16 per user per month total).
Keep in mind that most of its features cater to the Google suite:
- Google Fi compatibility
- Google Calendar integration
- Google Meet integration
Additionally, you’ll be forced to upgrade from the basic plan if you want to add more than 20 users.
Also, there are no toll-free numbers or auto-reply options with this eVoice alternative. You also can’t get call recordings on the basic plan, and you’ll have to work around separate inboxes for all calls and texts. When these limitations are combined together, you’ll see that Google Voice can make it difficult to keep everyone on the same page.
Google Voice for Google Workspace pricing
You have three basic plans to pick from:
Starter
- $10 per user per month
- Up to 10 users only, and only within domestic locations
Standard
- $20 per user per month
- Get on-demand call recording, multi-level auto attendant, ring groups, and desk phone support
Premier
- $30 per user per month
- Unlock automatic call recording, advanced reporting, and automatic ad-hoc user call recording
Keep in mind these prices don’t include the cost of Google Workspace ($6 per month).
The bottom line for Google Voice for Google Workspace
Google Voice may be extremely well-known, but that doesn’t make it a great fit for every business. With so many number, user, and integration limitations, this VoIP might not offer enough flexibility for your growing brand.
5. Nextiva
Nextiva is an older legacy platform that caters to small businesses and enterprises. VoIP is just a small part of their product line — they also sell hardware like desk phones and headsets to larger call centers.
Predictably, many of Nextiva’s features focus on enterprise customers:
- Desk and conference phone support
- Video calling and conferences
- Unlimited internet faxing
If these features seem a little on the lighter side, you’re not alone. Plus, some of them won’t matter to you at all if you don’t have a physical business location. Many of Nextiva’s key features (text messages, integrations, and Voicemail to SMS notifications) are only available on their second-tier plan or higher. So if you want practical features, be ready to pay up.
Nextiva pricing
Nextiva’s prices scale according to the number of users on your team. The fewer you have, the higher your costs will be, and vice versa.
Here’s what each plan costs for teams of one to four users:
Essential
- $23.95 per user per month
- Access unlimited voice calling, 500 contacts, and toll-free numbers (up to 1,500 toll-free minutes per month)
Professional
- $27.95 per user per month
- Get multi-level auto attendants and 1,000 SMS or MMS messages per user
Enterprise
- $37.95 per user per month
- Record calls and integrate with Microsoft Teams
The bottom line on Nextiva
Because Nextiva focuses so much on larger businesses, it hasn’t spent much time upgrading its features for SMBs. If you’re looking for a platform that offers more integrations or better versatility on the basic plan, you may want to look elsewhere.
6. Vonage
Vonage is another enterprise-oriented phone provider founded pre-1999. This eVoice alternative is nearly identical to Nextiva in terms of price scaling and basic features, with some of the most notable including:
- Unlimited calls and SMS
- Unlimited team messaging
- The Vonage App Center
These features are extremely lean — probably too lean for your growing business. You’ll have to pay for add-ons if you want anything substantive, including call recording, visual voicemail, and toll-free numbers.
Just don’t expect to get anything more modern than that. Vonage doesn’t offer MMS support, auto-replies, and many other features that other providers offer.
Vonage pricing
Like Nextiva, Vonage’s prices scale according to your business size. However, plans are charged by the line rather than by the user. Here’s what you’ll pay as a team of four or fewer:
Mobile
- $19.99 per month per line
- Access mobile and desktop apps with unlimited calls in the US
Premium
- $29.99 per month per line
- Use multi-level auto attendants and CRM integrations
Advanced
- $39.99 per month per line
- Get 15 hours of call recording and visual voicemail
The bottom line for Vonage
Small businesses will be hard-pressed to grow with Vonage’s limited features. And with such a high price point and expensive add-ons, the value for your dollar may be hard to see.
7. Ooma
As a multipurpose VoIP solution for homeowners and SMBs, Ooma presents itself as an advanced communications partner. You can purchase both local and toll-free numbers on their platform, either of which you can use in place of your personal number.
But in spite of its presentation, Ooma’s features are anything but cutting-edge:
- Digital fax
- Email audio attachments
- Music on hold
What’s more, most of Ooma’s basic features don’t apply to distributed businesses without a physical office. You’re not likely to use analog fax machine support or an intercom system anytime soon.
And you’ll need to upgrade to the next tier just to access Ooma’s desktop app to use their phone solution from your computer. Another potential dealbreaker: texting is also unavailable on their base plan.
Ooma pricing
There are now three Ooma pricing plans available:
Ooma Office
- $19.95 per user per month
- Unlocks unlimited calling in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico
Ooma Office Pro
- $24.95 per user per month
- Access the desktop app, text messaging, and call recording
Ooma Pro Plus
- $29.95 per user per month
- Get call queuing, hot desking, and a Salesforce integration
The bottom line for Ooma
Ooma might be a decent provider for residential users, but it’s not a sustainable alternative to eVoice for growing brands. Without access to the desktop app, SMS, call analytics, and integrations on the first tier, you’re better off with a cheaper provider that offers more robust features.
8. Phone.com
As the name implies, Phone.com is a legacy VoIP with many years in the industry. The basic service comes with mobile and web apps, as well as some decent features:
- SMS support
- Caller ID
- Call logs
Notice unlimited calls and texts aren’t listed here. Phone.com only offers 500 pooled minutes and 1,000 pooled text segments per user per month — not enough for a growing brand. Plus, you only get one number per account rather than one number per user, which could be problematic.
If you want to get around both of these limitations, you’ll have to upgrade to the second-highest plan. Just know that you can’t access features like call recordings and voicemail transcriptions until you buy the highest tier.
Phone.com pricing
Phone.com charges by user type rather than account type. You can mix and match as you go to save money, and assign different user types to coworkers with different responsibilities.
In all, there are three user types:
Basic users
- $11.99 per month per user
- Get 500 pooled minutes, 1,000 pooled text segments, and one phone number per account
Plus users
- $15.99 per month per user
- Unlock unlimited minutes and one phone number per user
Pro users
- $23.99 per month per user
- Enjoy call recording, CRM integrations, call analytics, and voicemail transcriptions
The bottom line for Phone.com
While Phone.com may be cheaper than its competitors, limitations on minutes and text segments can be a major obstacle to growth. It’s worth paying extra for a more comprehensive provider that offers unlimited minutes and free numbers per user.
How we ranked eVoice alternatives
We ranked eight of the best eVoice alternatives using these six considerations:
- Cost: As a small business, you need to know where every dollar is going. How much can you expect to pay for your VoIP solution?
- Value: The price you pay for a virtual phone number should match its functionality. Are your costs commensurate with your features?
- Reliability: You can’t afford to wait on outages. Does the platform have a reliable uptime?
- Support: Get the answers you need when you need them, and all in real-time. How helpful are the platform’s customer support reps, and do they solve tickets fast?
- Simplicity: VoIP should be easy and intuitive to use. Is the UX and customer experience easy to navigate?
- Integrations: Phone calls are only the beginning. How else can the VoIP platform serve your business needs?
OpenPhone: the best eVoice alternative
OpenPhone remains the best eVoice alternative for businesses ready to grow.
If you’re looking for ways to save your team time on routine communication tasks and enable your team to work together, OpenPhone is the solution you’ve been looking for. Sign up for a seven-day free trial to try out our shared numbers, seamless call quality, and text message support today.
