Best Small Business Phone Systems in 2025

Our research and testing of the best small office telephone systems found that Zoom Regional Unlimited is the top option, offering advanced call management features such as customizable routing and IVR for the reasonable price of $15 per user, per month.

However, Zoom won’t work for all businesses. For example, small businesses hoping to use a phone system for customer service might prefer Nextiva Core, since it offers integration with customer service live chat channels, such as Facebook. Zoom doesn’t offer this on any plans.

In total, we’ve picked five different phone systems that suit a variety of small business needs and budgets. But, if you need extra help finding a provider, you can also use our free quote form. We’ll match you with providers, who’ll reach out to you with custom quotes.

The Best Small Business Phone Systems: Overview

These are the best phone systems for your small office business compared at a glance before we dive into our mini-reviews of each provider.

1. Zoom Regional Unlimited: Best Value for Money

At $15 per user per month, Zoom Regional Unlimited is not only one of the cheapest small business phone systems I’ve come across, but it also offers a wider set of call management and training features than more expensive competitors, such as Net2Phone. This makes it an impressively functional and great-value tool for any small business looking to adopt a new unified communications system.

Why is Zoom Regional Unlimited a good fit for small businesses?

Here’s an overview of Zoom Regional Unlimited’s strong suites:

Advanced call management features

Besides unlimited calls within the US and Canada, the Zoom Regional Unlimited plan comes with more advanced call management features than a lot of providers out there, which is a surprise given its comparatively low cost.

For example, Zoom Phone also offers unlimited auto-attendants/IVR, and plenty of other useful tools from voicemail with transcription and call recording to distribution grouped queuing, and custom routing. Comparatively, Dialpad’s equally priced $15 per month Standard plan, and Nextiva’s more expensive $30 per month Core plan don’t come with call queues.

During testing, we found it very easy to navigate the Zoom platform, thanks to its clear signposting and smart use of icons. This makes it a great option for small businesses with no prior experience using a VoIP phone system.

Decent set of communication channels

With Zoom Regional Unlimited, small businesses will get access to internal team chat, SMS (both external and internal), and video conferencing through Zoom Meetings. These are essential tools for businesses with remote or hybrid work environments since they’ll keep your team connected across distances.

However, Zoom missing integrations with third-party video conferencing software, something offered on RingCentral Core, and customer service live chat integrations, offered on RingCentral Core and Nextiva Core. This last one could be an issue for some customer service teams, who might prefer paying more for more channels.

Full suite of training tools

Zoom Regional Unlimited’s strong suite are its training tools. While many providers lock away training features at higher price points or simply don’t offer them, Zoom offers call monitoring, recording, barge, and whisper on all its plans, even the $10 Metered plan.

To put this in perspective, the $20 per month RingCentral Core plan doesn’t include call monitoring, barge, or whisper, only offering them from the $25 Advanced plan. Dialpad, another budget option, doesn’t offer these tools on any of its plans.

This makes Zoom a great option for businesses that value improving their customer service through training and monitoring.

Extensive hardware integrations

Zoom Regional Unlimited is also a great option for small businesses with existing desk phones that want to avoid the expense of replacing all their hardware. That’s because Zoom software integrates with eight popular brands, including Mitel, Poly, and Yealink, increasing the chances your existing phones will be a match.

By contrast, Dialpad only integrates with four brands.

Does Zoom Regional Unlimited have any downsides?

All phone systems have their downsides, and Zoom’s main one is its somewhat limited software integrations. As we’ve noted earlier, Zoom doesn’t integrate with third-party video conferencing software. This isn’t an issue if you plan on only using Zoom Meetings, but it could cause issues if you want to keep your existing video meeting software. Zoom also doesn’t integrate with customer service channels, unlike RingCentral Core.

It also offers a limited range of CRM integrations, only working with very popular software such as Salesforce or Hubspot. If your small business uses more niche software RingCentral’s $25 Advanced plan might be a better option. We don’t recommend the $20 RingCentral Core plan, since it doesn’t offer CRM integrations.

Lastly, Zoom doesn’t offer e-fax for document sharing on any of its plans. Most other providers on this list offer e-fax as a paid add-on.

2. Nextiva Core: Best for Multi-channel Customer Service

The $30 per user, per month Nextiva Core plan is the most expensive phone system on this list, but I think it’s worth it for small businesses that need to run multi-channel customer service. That’s because besides offering call and SMS, Nextiva’s Core plan also includes integrations with social media customer service lines, and comes with email ticketing.

Why is Nextiva Core a good fit for small businesses?

Here’s an overview of Nextiva Core’s strong suites:

A vast network of communication channels

Nextiva Core offers a large suite of channels for external communication. This includes unlimited outbound call minutes, 100 SMS sends per month, and crucially, integration with several social media messaging apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter, for customer service live chat. Besides Nextiva, the only other phone plan to offer similar integrations is RingCentral Core, which integrates with WhatsApp and Facebook, fewer channels than Nextiva.

Small businesses will also get access to email communication, with the possibility of routing emails to a shared inbox and setting up automatic ticketing. This isn’t a feature offered by any competitors, making Nextiva a great all-in-one solution for customer service.

For inbound communication, like most competitors, Nextiva Core comes with collaboration channels like video conferencing for up to 45 participants, and team chat messaging with file sharing.

Decent call management features

Nextiva Core comes with quite a complete set of call management features, to ensure smooth handling of incoming calls. These include an auto attendant to direct calls, call forwarding and automatic routing to redirect them, and voicemail transcription, to ensure important messages get answered quickly.

The only feature missing from the Nextiva Core plan is call queues (offered by Zoom), which could be an issue for businesses that receive a high number of calls and have a limited number of agents. But, if your customers usually use other communication channels, it might not be a problem.

Almost universal hardware integration

Nextiva offers easy integrations with five desk phone brands, including Poly, Yealink, and Cisco. But, the provider also guarantees its software can work with almost any existing phone system through manual set up.

This makes it an even better option than Zoom for businesses that want to avoid expensive hardware upgrades.

Does Nextiva Core have any downsides?

Nextiva Core’s main downside is its price. At $30 per user, per month, it’s the most expensive option on this list. This won’t be an issue for all small businesses, but if you’re on a budget, I recommend Zoom Regional Unlimed or Dialpad Standard, which are half the price.

Training tools are also extremely limited on the Nextiva Core plan, despite the fact that it markets itself as a customer service platform. Only call barge is included as part of the basic package, and call recording and analytics are only available as paid add-ons. If you want a full set if training tools, Zoom Regional Unlimited is your best option.

3. Net2Phone Essentials: Best for Large Teams Looking for Discounted Pricing

Net2Phone is one of the few providers to offer discounted pricing for high numbers of users, and its Essentials plan goes down to $19.99 per user per month, from $27.99, for teams of over 25. Paired with excellent call management features, this makes Net2Phone an attractive option for small businesses with decently sized sales or customer service teams.

Why is Net2Phone Essential a good fit for small businesses?

Here’s an overview of Net2Phone Essentials’s strong suites:

Excellent call management tools

After Zoom, Net2Phone Essentials has the most comprehensive suite of call management tools. They include an auto attendant, customizable greetings and call routing, and ring groups, to name a few. Unlike Zoom Regional Unlimited, call queues are a paid add-on, but Net2Phone still offers this feature, giving it a leg up over Nextiva and Dialpad.

Like most competitors, Net2Phone Essentials also offers tools to manage unanswered calls, including voicemail transcriptions which get sent directly to email. This ensures voicemails don’t get lost in the myriad of notifications that might appear in Net2Phone’s VoIP app.

Net2Phone also makes some AI features available as optional add-ons on its Essentials plan. These include helpful features like call transcription during calls and summaries after you put down the phone. However, a welcome addition, competitors Zoom and Dialpad offer similar features at no extra cost, making them better value for money if you’re interested in AI tools.

Respectable suite of communication channels

Net2Phone Essentials has a decently sized suite of communication channels. For external communications, businesses get access to SMS on top of calling, however, unlike Nextiva, Net2Phone doesn’t offer integration with customer service live chat channels.

It does have a suite of tools to help with internal communication, including team messaging and video conferencing. However, its video call capacity limit is 10 on the Essentials plan, which can limit collaboration for remote teams. Dialpad has the most generous video conferencing capacity, allowing for up to 150 participants.

Attractive discounts for large teams

Net2Phone is the only provider we’ve researched to offer discounts for large teams, with its Essentials plan costing almost 30% less for teams of over 25. Teams of over 100 get access to custom pricing, which it’s safe to assume means another discount.

This makes Net2Phone an attractive option for small businesses that want to save money as they scale up their numbers.

Are there any downsides to Net2Phone Essentials?

One area that Net2Phone Essentials struggles with compared to other phone systems is software integration options. Essential CRM options like Zoho and Salesforce plus other popular options like Microsoft Teams, are only available as paid add-ons, and Net2Phone doesn’t specify how much these costs. By comparison, you can get much more included without extra spending with Zoom or Dialpad.

Net2Phone also has slightly limited training tools, with call barge, whisper, and monitoring not available on any of its plans. It does, however, offer call recording and analytics, but fails to live up to Zoom’s training features.

Lastly, since pricing for teams of under 25 is $27.99 per user, per month, it’s not an option we’d recommend to small businesses with very small teams. You can get more features for less with almost all competitors.

4. Dialpad Standard: Best for Managing High Call Volumes

At $15 per user, per month, Dialpad Standard is the joint cheapest option on this list, along with Zoom Regional Unlimited. Its low price, solid range of call management features, and smart incorporation of AI into call handling and analytics make it a great choice for small businesses that experience high call volumes.

Why is Dialpad Standard a good fit for small businesses?

Here’s an overview of Dialpad Standard’s strong suites:

Solid call management features:

Dialpad Standard has an almost complete set of call management tools to help businesses disperse calls between staff. This includes an IVR auto attendant, customized call routing, call forwarding, and ring groups. The only feature Dialpad Standard is missing compared to Zoom Regional Unlimited is call queues.

Thanks to its smart use of AI, with Dialpad Standard, small businesses will not only get access to voicemail transcription, provided by most competitors, but also real-time call transcriptions. This feature can help with call comprehension and isn’t offered on the equally priced Zoom Regional Unlimited plan. It is offered on RingCentral Core, but this plan costs $5 more per month than Dialpad Standard.

Real-time AI analytics

What sets Dialpad apart from competitors is that it provides AI-powered call analytics as standard on all its plans, even the $15 Standard.

Businesses will get access to real-time sentiment analysis, so agents can better understand and react to the caller’s needs. Supervised also get access to score-based call reports, that assess whether an agent has met the company policy during calls. This saves supervisors time since it avoids them having to listen back to each call.

These features aren’t offered by Zoom and are only available as a paid add-on with Nextiva, Net2Phone and RingCentral.

Range of communication features

If you choose to keep your operation remote, rather than in your small office business headquarters, Dialpad also offers a great range of tools for internal communication.

Like its competitors, Dialpad Standard comes with internal live chat and video conferencing. It has the largest video-conferencing participant limit of any plan on this, allowing for a maximum of 150 participants.

Are there any downsides to Dialpad Standard?

Dialpad Standard could offer more external integration connections.

It only integrates with three CRM software, Salesforce, Zendesk, and Hubspot, and there are no options for API integrations and many of the integrations come at extra cost (for example Zoho CRM costs $4.99 per month to integrate).

Like many providers on this list, Dialpad is also missing some key training features, such as call barge and whisper. That said, in my opinion, this is slightly offset by Dialpad Standard’s smart use of AI call scoring. If you want a full suite of training tools, then Zoom Regional Unlimited should be your go-to alternative, especially since it costs the same as Dialpad Standard.

5. RingCentral Core: Most Scalable Phone System

If you’re a business small with big ambitions for growth, RingCentral’s $20 per month Core plan is the best option. The Core plan offers great tools for managing calls, such as an auto attendant with 250 menus, and integration with social media customer service live chat channels while upgrading will give you access to one of the largest networks of integrations of any provider, and vital tools for large businesses such as cost management and AI translation.

Why is RingCentral Core a good fit for small businesses?

Here’s an overview of Dialpad Standard’s strong suites:

Solid call management tools

Even though RingCentral Core is RingCentral’s starter plan, it still comes with an almost complete set of call management tools. It even includes call queues, a feature missing from most competitor plans we’ve reviewed, besides Zoom. The only feature it doesn’t have is customizable call routing, which is only available from the $25 RingCentral Advanced plan.

That said, RingCentral Core still comes with a multi-level IVR auto attendant that has a handy drag-and-drop editor for menu creation. This design made it one of the easiest tools to use during our testing.

RingCentral Core is also the only phone system plan on this, besides Dialpad Standard, to provide real-time call transcriptions, on top of voicemail transcriptions. This can vastly improve agent comprehension.

Good network of communication channels

Besides Nextiva Core, RingCentral Core is the only provider on this to offer integration with social media customer service channels. Businesses can connect with Whatsapp, Facebook, but not Instagram and Twitter, which Nextiva offers.

On top of this, businesses will get access to standard tools for internal communication and team collaboration. These include SMS, team chat, and video conferencing with up to 100 participants, the second-highest limit after Dialpad Standard.

Scalability

While the RingCentral Core plan doesn’t include many integrations, upgrading to the $25 per month Advanced plan gives businesses access to a very large array of integrations. These include popular CRM and Helpdesk platforms, such as Salesforce, Hubspot, MS Dynamics, and Zendesk.

This, and the fact that the Advanced plan only costs $5 more than the Core plan is part of the reason RingCentral Core is one of my favorite small office phone systems for scalability. The price jump between plans is often $10, so this is a relatively small increase for a lot of extra features.

The more a business grows, the more software tools it’s likely to incorporate into its kit, so choosing a phone system that allows for easy integration is vital.

You’ll also get access to tools not available with competitors, such as cost center management, which allows businesses to create billing codes for expenses and assign them to departments. This a useful tool for large businesses that conduct client meetings across departments.

Are there any downsides to RingCentral Core?

Given there are plenty of cheaper options with similar features, such as Zoom Regional Unlimited, RingCentral may not be the best choice for small businesses that aren’t focused on rapid growth and are trying to keep costs low.

This is reinforced by the fact that RingCentral reserves some vital features, like training tools and integrations, for its more expensive plans. For example, call barge and call whisper are only available from the $25 per month RingCentral Advanced plan, but you can get them for $15 per month with Zoom.

What Small Businesses Should Consider When Changing Phone Systems

If you’re a small business that already uses a phone system and are looking to switch, you should consider these two factors:

Switch cost

Signing up with a VoIP provider for your office phone system, like the ones we featured on this list, is very straightforward. If your current contract is running out, you can dive right into your potential providers’ features and choose based on that.

However, if you’re thinking of leaving your current provider early, you do have to check if you’ll incur an early termination fee by doing that.

Take this cost and divide it by the number of months you still have left in your contract. If it’s more than the monthly cost of the provider you’re looking to sign up with, it’s cheaper to wait it out and switch later.

Business plan

You also need to consider your expectations for your next small business phone system and those go hand in hand with your company’s current business plan.

• If cost-cutting and rightsizing are your top priorities at the moment, go for economical providers like Zoom Phone and Dialpad, or Net2Phone if you have a large team
• If you’re aiming to scale up, then providers such as Nextiva and RingCentral will serve you better

The Best Features Of A Small Business Phone System

As a small business, there’s three main aspects and pain points that you’ll want to be addressed by your new small business phone system.

• Money: you’ll want to find a provider with low up-front monthly fees, inclusive domestic minutes, a provision of multiple communication channels like messenger and video, and solid customer support
• Integrability: at this stage of growth, your business will likely already have an existing IT infrastructure. As such, you’ll want a provider that can seamlessly integrate into your business’s operation like ready-made integrations for CRM, Workspace, email, web conferencing, internal messaging, external messaging, and onboarding support. You’ll also want a system that is compatible with multiple brands of desktop phones.
• Scalability: you want to avoid adopting a system you’ll outgrow with time so you’ll want to go for a provider that offers unlimited amount of users, call queue, ring groups, a solid set of management features to help organize business-wide communications, internal messaging, video conference, and good security features.

How Much Does A Telephone System For A Small Business Cost?

The price of a phone system can vary depending on several factors, but small businesses can generally expect the following costs:

Methodology: How Did We Compare The Best Phone Systems For Small Businesses?