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

  • Unlimited calling
  • US-based support
  • No contracts
0¢/min $21.95 $0.00
4.59014

PBX Unlimited Extension

  • Unlimited local and long distance
  • Company Call Record, Voicemail to email transcription
  • No contracts, no setup or installation fees
0¢/min $24.99 $0.00
4.88485

RingCentral Office

  • Unlimited Calling and Faxing (US & Canada)
  • No Commitment, No Setup Fees, No Installation
  • Price for 20+ users
0¢/min $24.99 $0.00
4.372725

M5 Managed VoIP

  • Provisioned Internet for best quality
  • CRM interface integration
  • Stop working on your phone system!
0¢/min $40.00 $0.00
4.72

  • Unlimited calling and faxing
  • 50 Free features
  • No long term contracts
0¢/min $21.88 $0.00
4.711765

Jive PBX

  • Industry-leading reliability
  • Free Long Distance
  • No Contracts or Hidden Fees
0¢/min $21.95 $0.00
4.813335
Provider Plan Details Long Dist. Rate Monthly Fees Setup Fees User Rating*

Managed VoIP

  • Unlimited local and long distance
  • Disaster recovery and continuity
  • Unified messaging service
Login/signup view Specials
4¢/min $45.00 $0.00
4.4

WorldSmart Unified Communications

  • Free IP Phones $75 value/station
  • $75 rebate/station for existing VoIP phones
  • The Ultimate in Unified Communications
0¢/min $39.95 $0.00
4.5875

Virtual Office

  • No contract required.
  • Unlimited Calls (9 free countries)
  • Save 50% or more
0¢/min $24.99 $0.00
4.200595

EasyVoice Unlimited

  • FREE Polycom IP Phone - Limited Time
  • Unlimited Local and Long Distance
  • No phone system required
Login/signup view Specials
0¢/min $27.95 $0.00
3.75294

Hosted VoIP PBX Premium Calling

  • Unlimited local and long distance
  • Private direct dial number
  • 29 powerful features
0¢/min $29.99 $0.00
4.6

Best Residential VoIP

Provider Plan Long Dist. Monthly Fees Setup Fees User Rating

VoIP Phone Service

  • 2 months free, any plan
  • Phone adapter provided
  • No contracts, no cancellation fee
0¢/min $8.32 $0.00
4.404395

VT_Unlimited Plan

  • No Contracts, No Cancellation Fee
  • 60 Free International Minutes
  • Free Second Line
0¢/min $8.47 $0.00
4.557145

VoIP Service

  • Unlimited Calls
  • Over 40 Features
  • 60 Free International Minutes
0¢/min $5.38 $0.00
4.494735

  • No long-term contract
  • Voicemail transcription
  • Works with your mobile phone
0¢/min $9.88 $0.00
4.711765

Freedom 24-month

  • Virtually unlimited calls
  • Two lines
  • 60 international minutes
0¢/min $8.33 $0.00
4.300855

Premium Yearly

  • Free calling to the US and Canada
  • 1 hour international calls
  • 30-day satisfaction guarantee
0¢/min $8.33 $0.00
4.08
Provider Plan Long Dist. Monthly Fees Setup Fees User Rating

Freedom 24-month

  • Virtually unlimited calls
  • Two lines
  • 60 international minutes
0¢/min $8.33 $0.00
4.300855

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