GoTo Connect Review: The Best Small Business Phone System?

GoTo Connect is our top recommended VoIP phone system for small UK businesses. Its Phone System plan stands out by offering comprehensive call management, robust communication channels, and exceptional hardware compatibility to earn it a top spot in our research and testing.

GoTo has two further plans – Connect CX and Connect Contact Center – to bring advanced customer experience tools, deeper analytics, and even more robust multi-channel contact centre capabilities into the mix.

In this review, we’ll unpack all GoTo Connect’s strengths, point out areas for improvement, and compare it directly against major competitors such as RingCentral, 8×8 Work, and bOnline.

GoTo Connect Review: Key Features

GoTo Connect’s Phone System plan delivers an impressive range of internal communication features, scoring highest in our tests for small business needs. Its capabilities span robust team messaging, video conferencing with up to 250 participants, and practical tools like screen sharing and SMS/MMS support, creating an efficient and flexible environment for team collaboration.

We’ll be focusing on this plan in our review, since it’s the option we’ve researched, analysed, and tested most. However, we’ll be referring to all three plans throughout this review, so you know exactly what features are a part of each.

Call management

GoTo Connect’s Phone System plan performed expertly in our assessment of call management, achieving perfect scores across core features like virtual receptionist, call queues, ring groups, customisable hold music, call forwarding, and call flip. Notably, its customisable call routing capabilities were on par with RingCentral’s most advanced (and expensive) Ultimate plan, which is our top-ranked VoIP plan for medium-sized businesses. These tools are crucial for handling complex routing rules based on time, caller details, or department needs.

Training features and call analytics

While GoTo Connect Phone System includes reliable call recording, call monitoring, and basic analytics tools, it falls slightly short in live coaching functionalities.

Advanced training features like call barge and whisper, which competitors like RingCentral Ultimate and Vonage Max offer, aren’t available unless businesses upgrade to GoTo’s premium Contact Center plan (which, as we’ll detail in our pricing section, costs a lot more investment).

GoTo Connect Phone System also lacks the extensive analytics and advanced automated call screening found in RingCentral’s higher-tier plans. This is also available with GoTo, but only by upgrading to its Connect CX or Connect Contact Center plans.

Communication channels

GoTo Connect’s built-in communication tools cover all the key bases we looked for. It uniquely offers unlimited international calling to over 50 countries, a significant advantage for UK businesses with global reach. Its comprehensive suite includes:

• Unlimited voice calling
• Video conferencing (up to 250 participants)
• Team messaging with easy file sharing
• SMS and MMS
• Ring groups and advanced call routing
• Call forwarding and seamless call flip

This combination makes GoTo Connect one of the most versatile platforms available for small businesses needing robust communication tools without additional complexity or high costs. SMS/MMS and video conferencing are particularly worth highlighting, as often the former isn’t available at all or only to higher cost plans, while the latter typically has stricter limits on participants or functionality at the sorts of price GoTo Connect Phone System retails for.

Hardware compatibility

GoTo Connect also distinguishes itself from other systems as the best VoIP solution for businesses aiming to leverage existing hardware, according to our research. It supports an impressive array of phone brands, including Yealink, Polycom, Cisco, and Grandstream. That’s more extensive than any other provider we tested, including RingCentral and 8×8 Work.

This broad compatibility means businesses can significantly reduce costs by integrating their current equipment seamlessly, ideal for remote or hybrid teams with varied hardware setups.

GoTo Connect: Pricing Plans Explained

GoTo Connect offers three packages for UK businesses – Phone System, Connect CX, and Contact Center – each designed to cater to a different scale of requirements.

Pricing and feature comparison

At first glance, you’ll notice the difference between the Phone System plan (an all-rounder ideal for small to medium teams), the more advanced Connect CX and Connect Contact Center plans (built for larger businesses or contact-centre-style operations). Here’s what each plan brings to the table:

Pricing accurate as of April 2025. Note: GoTo regularly removes pricing from its plan webpage, requesting users to contact its sales team for bespoke pricing. For the most accurate price for your business, we suggest contacting GoTo for a quote or using our quote finder tool.

Does GoTo Connect have any hidden or extra costs?

There are three main additional costs that you should consider with GoTo,

• Hardware: While GoTo Connect supports a wide range of existing phones, purchasing new hardware (if required) is an extra cost.
• Additional numbers: Extra local or toll-free numbers can incur monthly fees, though typically nominal (around £3-£5 in many providers’ structures).
• SMS overages: For UK-based texting, you’ll need to check that your user allowance is sufficient. Overage pricing per text can add up for heavy use, especially if your marketing strategy relies on bulk SMS.

How does GoTo Connect’s pricing compare to other providers?

Value for money for low budgets: Priced at £18/user/month, GoTo Connect Phone System is marginally higher than ultra-budget VoIP options like bOnline (from around £13.95/month) but far more feature-rich, particularly regarding team messaging, SMS, and the 50+ international calling destinations included by default.

Cost-effectiveness for mid/large teams: While Connect CX (£25) and Connect Contact Center (£65) become pricier, both deliver capabilities often available only through separate add-ons in other providers (e.g. advanced analytics, integrated social media channels). For mid-sized teams wanting unified communications plus multi-channel customer engagement, £25 per user is competitive against similarly featured and priced plans from providers like Vonage Max or RingCentral Ultimate.

Less affordable for coaching tools: Albeit, if you specifically want live training tools like Barge or Whisper, you can get them for much cheaper with RingCentral Ultimate (between £22.99 and £29.99 depending on user numbers, versus £65 for Connect Contact Center).

GoTo Connect Review: Help & Support

GoTo Connect provides 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and chat, meaning you should be able to get assistance whenever you need it. During our testing of its chat functionality, we found that the chat is actually bot-led and doesn’t let you connect to a real person, which isn’t always the most helpful. Still, you can simply call to speak to a real agent instead, or write out your issue in an email/via its web-based contact forms, which is probably the best use of its support agent resources.

In addition to direct support channels, GoTo Connect offers a comprehensive online resource centre featuring detailed guides, tutorials, and FAQs. This self-help material is extensive, well-organised, and simple for troubleshooting common issues without direct support involvement.

However, GoTo Connect lacks some of the advanced support features found in higher-tier providers like RingCentral, such as dedicated technical account managers or premium support channels available to enterprise-level subscribers. Businesses requiring high-touch, highly responsive support might find GoTo’s service adequate but could consider RingCentral or 8×8 Work for more premium customer support experiences.

GoTo Connect Review: Competitor VoIP Phone Systems

Although GoTo Connect is an outstanding choice for small and medium-sized UK businesses, it isn’t the only solid player in the VoIP market. Our research, which included usability testing, pricing breakdowns, and hands-on feature comparisons, found several top-tier providers worth considering for those whose needs might differ slightly from GoTo’s typical use cases.

Here’s a quick comparison table of GoTo Connect’s Phone System plan – the tier we think is most competitive to others on the market in terms of balancing price and features – with other VoIP plans, before we analyse specific points of difference between them.

1. RingCentral Ultimate

A key competitor of GoTo Connect is what we consider the best phone system on the UK market for medium-sized businesses and above.

Key standouts:

• Extensive analytics suite with advanced reporting widgets and the ability to segment data by agent, call queue, or department.
• Hundreds of CRM, helpdesk, and productivity integrations (400+ native app integrations), including popular enterprise systems like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Zendesk. There’s also API integration for custom solutions.
• Advanced staff training tools (call barge, whisper, and advanced performance dashboards) make it a strong fit for contact centre-style environments where ongoing coaching is vital.

How does RingCentral compare to GoTo Connect?

In side-by-side usability tests, RingCentral Ultimate’s analytics and integration options consistently scored full marks, while GoTo Connect’s phone system plan missed out on advanced metrics without upgrading to its more expensive Connect CX or Contact Center packages.

• RingCentral is better if you need more powerful data analysis tools, deeper software integrations, or high-level training features for large sales/support teams.
• RingCentral is worse if you want wide hardware support at a lower cost. GoTo Connect generally outperforms RingCentral in hardware compatibility breadth and upfront cost savings.

2. 8×8 Work

Key standouts:

• Excellent global calling coverage, with unlimited calls to 48+ countries on certain tiers.
• Robust security and compliance frameworks (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2 Type II).
• Up to 500 video participants, outdoing GoTo Connect’s 250-participant capacity for larger-scale meetings.

How does 8×8 Work compare to GoTo Connect?

Our testing revealed 8×8 Work’s global minutes proposition is nearly unmatched at certain plan levels, whereas GoTo Connect’s phone system plan retains free international calls to 50+ countries but at a narrower scope compared to 8×8’s bigger plan tier. Moreover, 8×8’s 500-participant video limit is especially beneficial for webinar-like scenarios, which some medium-sized businesses might prefer.

• 8×8 Work is better if your team is internationally distributed or you require frequent overseas communication, plus advanced security credentials.
• 8×8 Work is worse if you rely on SMS for UK-based communications (8×8’s SMS coverage is limited to the US) or need extremely broad desk phone support without much IT overhead.

3. bOnline Unlimited Calling

Key standouts:

• Extremely competitive pricing for basic call handling and essential VoIP features.
• Simple interface suitable for very small businesses or sole traders seeking minimal complexity.
• Unlimited calling options at the budget end of the market.

How does bOnline compare to GoTo Connect?

While bOnline easily topped our value-for-money scores for smaller budgets, its limited integration range and a lack of robust training tools saw it trail behind GoTo Connect and RingCentral when tested for multi-channel features and custom routing.

• bOnline is better if you’re a microbusiness wanting cheap domestic calls, or prefer an ultra-streamlined, fuss-free phone system.
• bOnline is worse if you need multi-channel communication (including SMS, video, and chat), international calling, or advanced call management. bOnline’s emphasis is on core telephony rather than a unified communications approach (and there are add-on costs that won’t make it so cheap if you want extras like CRM integration).

How Did We Review GoTo Connect and Other VoIP Phone Systems?