Best VoIP | Best VoIP Services - User Rated
Which VoIP provider is the best? And which offers the best VoIP?
Those are two important questions. We'll try to help you answer them so you can pick the best VoIP.
Criteria for picking the best VoIP
Reviews are important. Prices are important. Legal terms and conditions are important. The VoIP provider's offer is really important. Finally, what you need from the VoIP provider is really important when it comes to determining which is the best VoIP.
For you, be you a business or a consumer looking for the best VoIP, the most important factors in your decisision are each provider's VoIP offer and what you need from your VoIP provider. Vocalocity might be the best for you and a bad choice for another consumer.
Obviously, a business needs and gets a different type of 'best voip' compared to the best voip for a residential customer. A multinational corporation needs a different type of best voip compared to a mom-and-pop restaurant.
For example, look at the best business VoIP offers, compared to the best residential VoIP offers.
Best Business VoIP
| Provider | Plan Details | Long Dist. Rate | Monthly Fees | Setup Fees | User Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nextiva Office
|
0¢/min | $21.95 | $0.00 | ||
PBX Unlimited Extension
|
0¢/min | $24.99 | $0.00 | ||
RingCentral Office
|
0¢/min | $24.99 | $0.00 | ||
M5 Managed VoIP
|
0¢/min | $40.00 | $0.00 | ||
|
0¢/min | $21.88 | $0.00 | ||
Jive PBX
|
0¢/min | $21.95 | $0.00 |
| Provider | Plan Details | Long Dist. Rate | Monthly Fees | Setup Fees | User Rating* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Managed VoIP
|
4¢/min | $45.00 | $0.00 | ||
WorldSmart Unified Communications
|
0¢/min | $39.95 | $0.00 | ||
Virtual Office
|
0¢/min | $24.99 | $0.00 | ||
EasyVoice Unlimited
|
0¢/min | $27.95 | $0.00 | ||
Hosted VoIP PBX Premium Calling
|
0¢/min | $29.99 | $0.00 |
Best Residential VoIP
| Provider | Plan | Long Dist. | Monthly Fees | Setup Fees | User Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
VoIP Phone Service
|
0¢/min | $8.32 | $0.00 | ||
VT_Unlimited Plan
|
0¢/min | $8.47 | $0.00 | ||
VoIP Service
|
0¢/min | $5.38 | $0.00 | ||
|
0¢/min | $9.88 | $0.00 | ||
Freedom 24-month
|
0¢/min | $8.33 | $0.00 | ||
Premium Yearly
|
0¢/min | $8.33 | $0.00 |
| Provider | Plan | Long Dist. | Monthly Fees | Setup Fees | User Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Freedom 24-month
|
0¢/min | $8.33 | $0.00 |
The best business VoIP providers average around $25 a month for unlimited calling; the best residential VoIP providers average around $10 a month for unlimited calling. If you're only looking at price (which we don't recommend you do), it seems like a residential VoIP provider is the best deal for business and residential use, right?
Price is important when it comes to picking the best VoIP – someone that charges you $50 a month for an unlimited phone plan is not giving you the best deal – but it’s not the only consideration.
Terms and Conditions
Legally, when you sign up for VoIP service, you agree to the VoIP service provider's terms and conditions for service. Frequently, residential VoIP providers don't let you use their service for business use.
That's because business make many more calls than residential customers. And too many, unexpected calls can crash a VoIP providers network. And that network outage will take the best VoIP provider to the bottom of the pack. So, most VoIP providers will change your plan or cancel your service if you use their VoIP service in a manner that they're not prepared for.
Also, business VoIP providers also offer a large amount of useful features that are really only practical for businesses (things like auto attendants and extensions and hunt groups and softphones for travelers, etc.). Check out business VoIP pages for more details.
To get the best VoIP, figure out what type of plan you need. Business or residential? If business, hosted pbx or equipment-based SIP trunking and an IP PBX business phone system or wholesale VoIP and an Asterisk box and SIP trunking? (There isn't very much difference between residential plans; they vary based on price and minutes included, not in the delivery technology).
Once you've figured out what type of technology you need, what do you need your phones to do? Do you need unlimited minutes or can you use a metered plan and pay a few cents per minute?
Now that you've narrowed down what you need, you've looked at the terms and conditions, it's time to look at price and quality.
Price is easy enough. But quality, that's a different thing all together.
Obviously, you can't go and try each VoIP provider and wait to see how they respond in a crisis, how they respond to a customer service request, how they respond to cancellation, how they respond to disputes.
So read our voip reviews. We have hundreds of user reviews from happy users and sad users. We compile them into an aggregate ranking but you actually need to read the reviews. Don't just take the aggregate scores without context.
Also look at the number of reviews - the more reviews, the more likely that you'll be able to see the gamut of emotions. And then, and only then, will you be able to choose the best VoIP.
Last Updated: 02/03/2012 06:02 PM