9 Best Hosted PBX VoIP Systems

best pbx phone systems

A hosted PBX VoIP phone system could save you money and improve your business in many different ways.

For a start, you won’t need any equipment on site. A service provider manages and maintains your PBX (Private Branch Exchange) in the cloud for an affordable monthly fee. With a virtual PBX you eliminate upfront equipment and maintenance costs and, if your business grows, you just ask the provider to increase capacity. There’s no need for additional cabling.

A cloud PBX system is accessible from any location via the Internet, so your employees, contractors and mobile workers can use the same phone services wherever they are working. That’s great for home workers, branch offices and employees working in the field. With the different types of available, ensuring you find the best PBX phone system for your business can have a huge impact on the productivity and efficiency of your organizations communications processes.

With access to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), everyone in your organization can enjoy the benefits of advanced features and services. As our comparison of hosted VoIP service providers shows, these systems come with standard features such as call routing, transfer, call waiting, on-hold music. Many business VoIP providers also offer productivity features like Presence, which lets callers know when someone is available to take calls, Follow Me, which forwards calls to different phones, and conferencing tools to improve collaboration.

You can make significant savings on call costs by choosing the right hosted VoIP phone provider. As our comparison shows, many offer packages of unlimited calls. Calls between connected sites are free and long-distance rates are generally lower than those available from traditional phone providers. Add the savings on equipment and maintenance, and you’ve got a very attractive total cost for your phone operations.

So, check out our comparison of the top VoIP providers to find one that suits your business needs whatever sector you operate within whether you are looking for a hotel phone system, telecoms to benefit the education industry or virtual call center solutions for B2B operations.

9 Best Hosted VoIP Phone Systems:

1. RingCentral

RingCentral Logo

RingCentral is one of the most popular VoIP service providers for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a wide range of powerful features with advanced functionality like call recording and integration with Salesforce available on some of their plans. The system includes free set up and includes US-based customer support and implementation. RingCentral Inc. is a US company with more than 300,000 customers worldwide. It was named a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for Unified Communications as a Service. The company’s base plan for 2 – 19 users starts at $24.99 per month per user and includes unlimited calling to US and Canada.

Key features

    • • Unlimited conferencing, faxing and SMS
    • • Includes 1000 toll-free minutes on base plan
    • • Integration with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Google, Box and Dropbox standard
    • • Integration with other popular software and CRM platforms, including Outlook, Box and Salesforce on premium services
    • • Mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry devices
    • • Support for BYOD (Bring your own device)
    • Auto attendant, group calling and call queuing functions to improve call handling

2. Vonage Business Solutions

Vonage Business Logo

Vonage Business Solutions offers a flexible “build your own plan” service that incorporates more than 40 standard features, including local and toll free number, conference bridge, call recording and voicemail transcription. You can then add a wide range of optional features and services to tailor the plan to your business needs. The plan is ideal for growing businesses with diverse communication needs. Vonage is a US company with some 2.4 million customers worldwide. The company’s small business plan starts at $39.99 per month per user, which includes unlimited calling in US and Canada,

Key features

    • • Customizable call groups
    • • Paperless fax
    • • Voicemail
    • • Call recording
    • • Conference bridge
    • • Virtual receptionist
    • Unified inbox for all messages

3. Nextiva

Nextiva Logo

Nextiva offers three price plans – Office Pro, Office Pro Plus and Office Enterprise to meet your business needs. Standard features include unlimited calling, voicemail to text or email and advanced call management. Nextiva is focused on the small and medium business market, offering affordable solutions that include advanced features like HD voice and team presence. The company has won more than 30 independent telephone and technology awards and serves more than 100,000 customers worldwide. Small/medium plans include unlimited calling in US and Canada and start at $19.95, with Office Pro Plus at $22.95 per line per month.

Key features

    • • HD voice
    • • Unlimited virtual faxing
    • • Voicemail to email transcription
    • • Auto attendant
    • • Team presence on Office Pro Plus
    • • Mobile app on Office Pro Plus
    • Call recording option

4. Mitel

Mitel Logo

Mitel provides Mitel MiCloud Business, a complete hosted VoIP solution that includes phones, as well as the cloud hosting service. The company offers its service at five levels – Professional (for small businesses), Business Extension Only, Business Extension Only with Voicemail, Business Lite and Business Advanced to meet different needs. Mitel is a US company with more than 60 million users in 100 countries. Costs for price plans are available from the company.

Key features

    • • Mobile twinning
    • • Voicemail with email forwarding
    • • Call recording
    • • Auto attendant
    • • Unified Voice Messaging with email synchronisation
    • • Voice conferencing
    • Automatic call routing

5. GoTo Connect

GoTo Connect logo

GoTo Connect offers enterprise-grade VoIP at a tiered price plan based on the number of users. GoTo Connect systems are delivered on a proprietary, purpose-built cloud platform. This is a fully featured VoIP system across all price points and offers the same extensive solution to small businesses that corporates use. Standard features on all tiers include customisable greeting, spam prevention, call queue and ring groups. GoTo Connect is a US company that has  thousands of private and public sector customers. The monthly charges range from $24.00 and $39.00 for an unlimited number of users.

Key features

  • Set Caller ID
  • Integration with Salesforce, Zoho, Slack and Zendesk
  • Advanced analytics
  • Call conferencing
  • Document sharing
  • Customisable call routing

6. Digium

Digium LogoDigium has been in the telephone industry for over 20 years. In that time, its developed Switchvox – its flagship product – and its contributed to the development of two further open source products – Asterisk and FreePBX. While Switchvox is all about supplying self-hosted and cloud-based unified communications, Asterisk and FreePBX give developers free rein to create their own telephone system software.

Key features

• Unified communications
• Open source phone software
• Cloud-hosted and self-hosted solutions
• Integration with CRM systems
• Mobility application
• Voice messages to text

7. Corvisa

Corvisa Logo

Corvisa provides hosted VoIP and hosted contact center solutions. The company’s experience in contact center technology means that its hosted VoIP service contains a number of advanced features more commonly found in contact centers. The system is easy to manage and synchs call services across all fixed and mobile devices. Corvisa is a US company. The standard plan for small businesses costs from $25 per user per month.

Key features

        • • Visual voicemail
        • • 3-way conferencing
        • • Call handling facilities
        • • Contact center functionality
        • • Call recording
        • • Auto attendant
        • • Integration with business applications
      • • Queue-based routing

8. Five9

Five9 Logo

Five9 offers hosted cloud-based virtual contact center solutions. The solutions incorporate comprehensive contact center functions that can be run from a PC and broadband connection. Five 9 claims to be the only virtual contact center supplier that is 100% VoIP. This enables the company to offer sophisticated functionality in a simple to manage system at an affordable price. Five9 is a US company with more than 100,000 customers worldwide. Price plans for inbound, outbound and blended solutions are available from the company.

Key features

        • • Centralized management from a PC
        • • IVR, ACD and CRM functionality in a simple system
        • • Predictive Dialer
        • • Remote Agent Capabilities
        • • Skills-based Routing
        • • Call recording
      • • Real-time reporting

9. Phone.com

Phone.com Logo

Phone.com focuses on hosted VoIP services for small businesses and offers solutions that incorporate more than 50 configurable features including HD-quality voice. The services can be used on any fixed or mobile device. Phone.com is a US company with more than 25,000 customers. The standard plan for small businesses costs from $9 per user per month and includes a flat rate nationwide.

Key features

        • • Conference bridge
        • • Mobility
        • • Call handling rules
        • • Auto attendant
        • • Call notification
        • • IVR menu
        • • Optional call recording
      • • Optional voicemail transcription.

Further Information

If you are interested in hearing more about prices to buy or lease a telephone system for your business, simply fill out the short form at the top of this page and a select group of suppliers will get in touch. If you would like to read more you can find out what makes a top VoIP phone system or even other types of system including unified communications for business.

Written by:
Aimee profile image
Aimee is Expert Market’s resident telephone systems and point of sale go-to. If she’s not writing about business products, you’ll find her daydreaming about dog walking on Dorset beaches.
Reviewed by:
James thinks all businesses can improve if they use the right technology. At Expert Market, he utilises his 4+ years experience as a researcher to offer specialised advice on a wide range of categories from CRM to Fleet Management.