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Line2 is a reliable VoIP solution, focused on smaller businesses rather than enterprises.

What makes Line2 unique?

Line2 is a cost-effective solution for small businesses. It offers great call quality and can be used on both desktop and mobile devices.

What is Line2 missing?

Line2 lacks various call center features, making it less than ideal for enterprises and outbound sales teams. For example, there are no shared numbers or search options included in its messaging feature, which users often point out. Automation features, such as sales dialers, are also missing.

How is Line2 priced?

While Line2 offers multiple packages, you can sign up for one option on their website.

The monthly subscription costs $15.99 per month, while the annual subscription costs $13.75 per month, billed annually.

Bear in mind, though, that this price doesn’t include taxes and other additional fees.

Line2 Conclusion

Line2 is a great solution for bootstrapped entrepreneurs and small businesses, but when it comes to larger businesses, their selection of features leaves much to be desired.

Notably, the solution is missing many essential features for sales teams that place a large number of daily outbound phone calls.

Aircall is a calling software primarily targeted at small businesses. It offers a wide range of features and integrations, and is available at several different pricing tiers.

How is Aircall priced?

Aircall’s most basic plan costs $30 per user per month.

Their intermediate plan costs $50 per user per month.

The most advanced plan requires prospective customers to contact one of their agents for pricing information. 

Aircall Conclusion

Aircall is a good alternative for small businesses, but certainly not all of them. Think about how frequently your team uses smart dialers. If they’re a core part of your day-to-day work, you might consider looking elsewhere. 

Grasshopper is often the go-to VoIP solution for smaller businesses looking for call center software to streamline their operations all around the world. But is their business model really as SMB-friendly? Let’s see.

What is Grasshopper missing?

There is a downside to Grasshopper’s simplicity, however, and it’s this: The solution lacks several core VoIP features users may expect, including:

• call recording
• power dialers
• and even click–to–call.

Furthermore, a fair few users complain that the app could benefit from some deeper reporting features.

How is Grasshopper priced?

Grasshopper offers users 3 pricing options for monthly and annual payments, respectively.

1. The Solo plan starts at $29, paid monthly or $26 annually.
2. The Partner plan starts at $49 monthly and $43 annually.
3. Finally, the Small Business option will cost you $89 per month or $80 per year.

Grasshopper Conclusion

Grasshopper is a perfectly viable VoIP call center solution for smaller businesses, with most of its utility coming from its easy-to-navigate interface and a fair selection of key features. However, the trade-off is that you miss out on many more advanced VoIP features, and at a potentially higher price too.

If you’re not new to the VoIP telephony market, you surely heard of Dialpad. It’s a reliable, unified telephony solution with simple built-in AI, and advanced analytics. A live chat, phone hotline, and knowledge base makes it a great deal for customer support teams. 

Dialpad’s scalability fits both small and large businesses.

What is Dialpad missing?

While offering a Power dialer, it lacks a Smart dialer and a Predictive dialer. The power dialer just works in Salesforce. Unlike the CloudTalk app, the Dialpad app only allows users to only dial manually. 

The Preferred agent feature only works through API. 

Dialpad also lacks a visual flow editor for Call flow designer. Sending SMS outside of the US and Canada isn’t possible, although this feature is soon coming to the UK.

The provider offers a limited integration stack, and Voicemail drop just comes with Dialpad Sell.

How is Dialpad priced?

Paid plans start at just $15 per user per month for the Standard Plan, and you can mix and match different packages. 

The Pro plan is $35 per user per month. 

Pricing for the Enterprise plan is determined on a case-by-case basis. 

Dialpad Conclusion

While having some great calling, performance tracking, and productivity tools, Dialpad only offers one auto dialer. It also has its gaps in sending SMS, which you can only do in the US and Canada. The integration portfolio is not too rich.

Dialpad even offers a free unlimited video calling pack for personal use.

Vonage is among the best-known virtual phone providers in the world. They’ve been in the business for over 20 years and have established an enviable reputation as a market leader

What makes Vonage unique?

With Vonage, you know what you’re getting when you sign up. As arguably the most well-established player in the VoIP space, Vonage offers its customers stability and reliability in business communication.

A lot of great features come standard with Vonage, including phone calls, messages, an auto-attendant, CRM integrations, voice and video conferencing, and call forwarding services. 

What is Vonage missing?

Unfortunately for customers, Vonage has capitalized on its reputation by charging much more for its services than other comparable virtual phone software providers. 

Vonage pricing also includes many hidden fees that make the service far more expensive than expected.

This can be a real downside for small businesses that need to be more discerning about how and where they expend their resources.

How is Vonage priced?

All of Vonage’s plans require prospective customers to contact a Vonage representative in order to receive a pricing quote. 

Vonage Conclusion 

Vonage has achieved legacy status in the virtual phone software industry, and their platform is reliable, easy to use, and effective. However, the company’s basic plans come with limited features, and adding more features to your plan often incurs significant additional costs. 

 However, unless you’re willing to invest a significant amount of resources into your virtual phone software setup, we’d recommend looking elsewhere. 

3CX is a PBX phone system for office-based teams. It runs exclusively with Microsoft Windows or Linux, so MacBook users are out of luck. 

It’s a relatively basic phone system, with simple features such as Live Chat and Call Recording. It does not however feature smart capabilities such as AI or real-time transcriptions.

What makes 3CX unique?

3CX’s biggest strength is its affordability.

It’s a bare-bones system, but one that can get the job done for small teams who aren’t interested in the bells and whistles that come with most smart calling software.

What is 3CX missing?

3CX lacks some of the features and integrations most businesses have come to expect when hunting for virtual phone software. For example, users cannot integrate 3CX with Pipedrive or Zapier, two of the most popular business software on the market.

3CX also doesn’t have any direct sales. It is only sold through distributors which can make the sales process, as well as the support process lengthy and costly.

How is 3CX priced?

3CX’s most basic plan is free.

Their first paid plan comes in at 175 euros per user per month, and their more advanced plans cost 296 euros and 330 euros per user per month, respectively.

3CX Conclusion

As we’ve mentioned, 3CX is a virtual phone software for businesses who are only interested in the basics. It leaves a lot to be desired in a lot of areas, so we recommend thinking about whether or not you might need something it lacks — like integrations with Pipedrive and Zapier — at a later date. 

JustCall is a modern call center solution that provides all the basics for small businesses. MMS messaging; SMS automation; call tracking, recording, and monitoring; and integrations with several CRMs and helpdesks come standard with their lowest-tier, $20-per-user-per-month subscription plan.

What makes JustCall unique?

JustCall stands out amongst its competitors in 3 specific areas:

• Auto and predictive dialing,
• telemarketing management,
• apps for desktop and mobile devices.

What is JustCall missing?

Although many useful basic features are available with JustCall’s entry-level package, there are some important ones that are kept behind a paywall. Even if you shell out for their highest-tiered plan, you’ll still have to pay additional fees for the use of call routing and voice transcriptions.

Furthermore, JustCall’s country coverage is quite lacking. They only offer local numbers in 70 countries worldwide, while many of their competitors offer numbers in over 100 — including CloudTalk, which offers numbers in over 160 countries worldwide.

How is JustCall priced?

Justcall’s most basic plan costs $24 per user per month. 

Their intermediate plan costs $48 per user per month, and their most advanced plan requires prospective customers to contact one of their agents for pricing information.

JustCall Conclusion

JustCall is a fine VoIP service for those who are just starting out. Bear in mind, though, that many useful features are kept locked behind a paywall. We recommend having your checkbook at the ready if you decide to use this service.