Best Google Voice Alternatives

Zoom’s Regional Unlimited plan is the best alternative to Google Voice. At $15 per user, per month, it’s the next most affordable provider to offer unlimited calling. Plus, Zoom offers far more call management and training features than Google Voice, making it one of the best VoIP systems for small businesses.

If you’re looking at Google Voice alternatives because you’re scaling up, and price isn’t as much of an issue, Nextiva is another great option that’s best for businesses that communicate with customers across multiple channels, including social media and SMS.

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1. Zoom Regional Unlimited: Most Affordable Alternative

With a price range of $10 to $20 per user, per month, Zoom is just as affordable as Google Voice, whose pricing also starts at $10. This makes it a great alternative for price-conscious small businesses.

Why we recommend Zoom Regional Unlimited

We recommend Zoom’s $15 per user per month Regional Unlimited plan over its starter plan (the $10 Metered plan) since it gives you access to free unlimited outbound calls, which you don’t get on the starter plan.

Besides being cheap, Zoom Regional Unlimited comes with better call management features than Google Voice plans. These features include customizable hold music, call queues, and ring groups, features Google Voice doesn’t have, making Zoom a better choice for small businesses that experience high call volumes.

You’ll also get access to far more training features with Zoom Regional Unlimited than you would with Google Voice, making it the better option for businesses operating a customer service channel. Features Zoom has that Google Voice lacks include call monitoring, call whisper, and call barge.

When we tested Zoom, we we impressed by the platform’s overall design. It was nice to look at, and core call functions were laid out clearly and highlighted by icons.

Lastly, Zoom’s VoIP software integrates with a far wider range of desk phones than Google Voice, making it a better option for businesses that want to avoid having to upgrade their hardware. Brands Zoom works with include Poly, Mitel, Cisco, and Yealink, whereas Google Voice only works with select Poly phones.

Where Zoom Regional Unlimited could improve

Zoom Regional Unlimited is a better option than Google Voice overall, but that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect software plan. For example, its CRM integrations are limited to popular providers such as Salesforce and Zoho. Google Voice, on the other hand, doesn’t integrate with CRM software.

If your business uses a more niche CRM system, we recommend RingCentral instead, since it integrates with a very wide range of providers.

Zoom Regional Unlimited also doesn’t allow for e-faxing. It’s not the only provider to be missing this tool, with Google Voice not offering it either. Providers such as Dialpad and Nextiva only offer e-fax as an add-on, so our better options for businesses that require this tool.

2. Nextiva Core: Best for Using Multiple Communication Channels

With a price range between $20 and $60 per user, per month, Nextiva is a more expensive option than Google Voice, whose prices range from $10 to $30. That said, Nextiva offers something that Google Voice doesn’t, an integrated multi-channel communication platform, making it a great option for customer service teams.

Why we recommend Nextiva Core

Nextiva’s $30 per month Core plan strikes the right balance between features and price, which is why we recommend it to small businesses over Nextiva’s more premium plans.

It’s a much better option than Google Voice for businesses that need a VoIP system for running customer service since it offers integrations with other communication channels, something Google Voice doesn’t.

These include customer-to-team SMS messaging (available as an add-on on the Core plan), integration with social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, X (Formerly Twitter), and TikTok, and integration with popular review websites, such as Amazon and Yelp. The team will be able to answer messages from various channels directly from the VoIP software, streamlining communications.

Besides its software integration, what sets Nextiva apart from Google Voice is its wide range of hardware integrations. Google Voice only works with select Poly phones, while Nextiva is compatible with Poly, Cisco, Yealink, and VTech phones. This is great news if your business already has hardware setup, since it’s more likely to be a match for Nexitva’s software than Google Voice’s.

When it comes to the all-important call management features, Nextiva Core isn’t miles ahead of Google Voice, but it does have a few more call management features. Nextiva Core allows for call flip and customizable hold music, although like Google Voice it’s missing call queues, which are only available starting from the $40 Engage plan.

Where Nextiva Core could improve

One thing stopping Nextiva Core from reaching the top of our list is its slightly limited training tools. Like Google Voice, it’s missing call monitoring and call whisper, although it does offer call barge, a feature not available with Google Voice. For a full suite of training and monitoring tools, we recommend Zoom.

Nextiva also comes at quite a high price point, with its cheapest plan, the $20 Digital, costing almost the same as Google Voice’s mid-tier plan. If you’re on a budget, and your business doesn’t require multi-channel integration, we recommend Google Voice or Zoom over Nextiva.

3. Net2Phone Essentials: Best Value for Large Teams

If you need a VoIP solution for a team of over 25 users, you’ll actually pay less for more features with Net2Phone’s $19.99 Essentials plan compared to Google Voice’s $30 Premier plan. That’s because Net2Phone discounts its pricing as users increase, making it great value for large teams.

Why we recommend Net2Phone Essentials

Net2Phone can get expensive, especially for small teams, but if you run a large team of over 25 users, the Essentials plan offers the best value for money, costing $19.99 per user per month, compared to $27.99 for under 10 users.

Like Zoom, Net2Phone Essential offers a much wider range of call management features than Google Voice, including customizable hold music, call flip, and call queues, although these are a paid add-on. It also offers e-fax as an add-on tool, giving businesses more flexibility over how they share documents.

Net2Phone is also slightly better than Google Voice when it comes to integrations, also this isn’t a hard feat to achieve, since Google Voice has very limited integrations. Net2Phone Essential can integrate with popular CRM Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams for video conferencing. However, these integrations are a paid add-on.

Where Net2Phone shines is when it comes to hardware integrations. It offers easy integration with Polycom and Yealink phones, although the system can integrate with most phones through manual set up. This makes it a great choice for businesses that have an existing phone system from a brand that most other VoIP providers don’t work with.

Where Net2Phone Essentials could improve

Like Nextiva, Net2Phone comes with slightly limited training features, especially when compared to rival Zoom. It only offers call recording and analytics, the same features Google Voice offers, with call whisper and barge, and call monitoring absent from Ney2Phone’s toolkit. For a full suite of training features, we recommend Zoom or RingCentral.

Net2Phone is also an expensive option, especially for small teams. If you have less than 10 users, the cheapest you’ll pay with Net2Phone is $27.99 per user, per month, which is more than even RingCentral’s starter plan, one of the most expensive providers. Small teams can get better value for money with Dialpad or Zoom.

4. Dialpad Standard: Great for Small Businesses with High Call Volumes

With plans starting at $15 per user per month, Dialpad is almost as affordable as Google Voice, which starts at $10. But, it packs a few more call management features than Google Voice and boasts some neat AI tools that help make Dialpad a great solution for small businesses with a tight budget but high call volumes.

Why we recommend Dialpad Standard

The $15 Standard plan comes with a great set of call management features, bolstered by AI tools, making it an affordable yet functional option for small businesses.

Like many of the Google Voice competitors on this list, Dialpad Standard packs more advanced call management features, including customizable hold music, ring groups, and call flip. The only downside is that call queues aren’t available on the Standard plan, you’ll have to upgrade to the $25 Pro plan for that.

What really makes Dialpad stand out is its smart use of AI tools to help teams manage calls. On the Standard plan, you’ll get access to AI-powered call and voicemail transcriptions and summaries, as well as scorecards that rate customer conversations, for easy analytics.

Dialpad’s AI-assisted call management tools can help small teams easily sift through a large number of calls, which is another thing that sets its offering apart from Google Voice’s. While Google Voice offers transcriptions, it hasn’t yet fully rolled out AI tools, despite these being available with other Google products.

Where Dialpad Standard could improve

There are two main areas where Dialpad Standard could improve: integrations and training tools.

On the Dialpad Standard plan, you’ll only be able to integrate with Google Workspace, with CRM and video conferencing integrations only available on Dialpad’s more expensive plans. While it’s not uncommon for providers to restrict integrations on their starter plans, competitor Zoom doesn’t do this and is cheaper than Dialpad. Google Voice, as we’ve noted before, doesn’t offer integrations, except with other Google products.

Training tools are also quite limited, not just on the Dialpad Standard plan, but on all Dialpad plans. Like Google Voice, the only training tools Dialpad offers are call recording and analytics, with no call barge, whisper, or monitoring available. This makes Dialpad less suited for customer service purposes, with Zoom being the only affordable alternative that offers these tools.

5. RingCentral Core: Best for Scaling Up Your Operation

If you’re looking for Google Voice alternatives because you need to scale up your operations, the best option is RingCentral. It boasts advanced call management and training features, and integration with other communication tools, but these do come at a premium.

Why we recommend RingCentral Core

At $20 per user, per month, RingCentral’s Core plan is one of the most expensive options on this list, but it’s a good option for easing you into using RingCentral. We recommend it to small businesses that are scaling up and plan to upgrade to RingCentral’s more premium plans in the future.

With RingCentral Core, businesses will get access to call management features missing from Google Voice, such as call flip and customizable hold music. However, you’ll have to upgrade to the $25 Advanced plan for customizable call routing. That said, the Core plan gives you access to an IVR (interactive voice response) call menu, which can transfer customers where they need to go quickly.

Additionally, we were impressed by the platform’s extensive reporting tools, and could see call metrics reports being particularly useful for sales or customer service teams.

The Core plan also includes integrations with social media channels, such as WhatsApp and Facebook for customer live chat. Besides Nextiva, RingCentral is the only provider to offer this, making it well-suited to customer service teams.

RingCentral’s integration library is bigger than all its competitors, but unfortunately, you can only get access to integrations with CRM and Helpdesk software from the $25 Advanced plan. That said, if you plan to scale up with RingCentral, it’s very likely your software will paired with RingCentral.

Where RingCentral Core could improve

RingCentral’s Core plan’s main disadvantage is the price. At $20 per user, per month it’s more expensive than almost all the providers on this list and is missing some call features and software integrations available for a cheaper price with Zoom.

That said, all these downsides disappear when you upgrade to the $25 per month Advanced plan, which opens the door to more advanced call management features and a bigger library of integrations than you’d get with almost all competitors.

In this sense, the RingCentral Core plan is a useful stepping stool for businesses looking to scale up to more advanced RingCentral plans. However, for businesses looking for an affordable VoIP solution, Zoom or Dialpad are functional alternatives.

Should You Still Choose Google Voice?

Google Voice is still a viable option for small businesses that already use Google Workspace since the two tools integrate perfectly, and are affordable. However, if your business doesn’t already use Google tools, or needs to run a customer service operation, Google Voice isn’t a great choice, owing to its limited call management tools.

Another thing Google Voice has going for it is a low price point. Starting at $10 per user, per month, businesses get access to unlimited domestic inbound and outbound calls, something not even Zoom can match (Zoom’s $10 Metred plan charges per call).

This makes Google Voice a great option for budget-conscious businesses that just need a simple business phone system.

However, Google Voice’s lack of advanced call management tools, such as call queues, or training tools means it’s not well suited to businesses with high call volumes, or customer service operations. It also doesn’t integrate with CRM software, so it’s not a solution we recommend to sales teams.

Google Voice vs Google Fi Wireless: What’s the Difference?

Beyond Google Voice, Google also offers Google Fi Wireless. Here’s what each product is:

• Google Fi Wireless: A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) provided by Google that provides calls, SMS, and broadband by making use of cell phone organizations and WiFi. It offers pay-as-you-go data or two unlimited plans. Just like any other telecommunications provider, you’ll need a SIM card to use Google Fi and, overall, will end up being slightly more expensive than Google Voice. If you want to compare it to something similar, you can think of Google Fi as Google’s equivalent of AT&T or Verizon.
• Google Voice: A telephone utility service provided on a US telephone number to Google Account users. Essentially, it gives you a phone number with which you can make and receive calls from different devices for free – as long as you have a stable internet connection. Since Google Voice is a Voice over Internet Protocol system (VoIP), it also allows you to wield features like call forwarding.

You can use Google Fi Wireless alongside Google Voice since Google allows you to have a Google Fi and a Google Voice number on the same account. This could be a good option for businesses that offer employee cell phones.

However, if what you’re looking for is a system to sync your business communications and integrate Google Workspace, then Google Voice is a better avenue to go through.

How Did We Find the Best Google Voice Alternatives?