The 7 Best Auto Attendant Phone Systems

RingCentral, one of the UK's top business phone system providers, receives an overall score of 4.5/5  in our extensive research. It's our favourite auto attendant phone system for UK businesses because it offers the best value virtual receptionist feature, which is available on RingCentral's Essentials plan from just £7.99 per user, per month. But RingCentral is also our top pick for customer service teams.

The services that RingCentral offers are superior, especially when you upgrade to its Premium (£19.99 per user, per month) and Ultimate (£24.99 per user, per month) plans. A multi-level auto attendant will only be accessible on RingCentral's Standard plan (£14.99 per user, per month) and above. This multi-level auto attendant comes with Interactive Voice Response (IVR), offering submenus with advanced features, such as a dial-by-name directory and live operator, which is perfect for businesses that are focused on providing exceptional customer service. Meanwhile, GoToConnect’s least expensive plan costs £8.95, but its auto attendant’s functions only include basic call routing, a customizable greeting, and the ability to share business information.

RingCentral’s auto attendant feature is bundled with a good range of inbound communication features, including voicemail, a customizable greeting, and spam prevention. 8x8, on the other hand, only includes a spam prevention feature on a couple of its plans (X2 and X4).

GoTo Connect gets an overall score of 4.2/5. Our in-depth research shows that it’s the best for value for money because its plans offer great value for money for the reason that its plans are packed with features that are focused on scalable solutions. Starting at only £10 per user, per month, GoTo Connect includes all the inbound communication features on every plan. It’s one of the only two phone system providers to offer all the necessary inbound communication features across all of its plans and this includes call queue, ring groups and auto attendant. In addition to that, it doesn’t limit the number of users you can have. Its auto attendant feature allows you to customise your messages, set up advanced flows for calls to be routed efficiently, and allows you to share important updates. Meanwhile, RingCentral’s auto attendant feature can only be accessed when you upgrade to its Standard plan for £21 per user, per month and doesn’t include call queue and ring groups features on its Essentials and Standard plans.

Based on our in-depth research, 8x8 bags the title of best overall phone system as it hits the trifecta: easy management, affordability, and is bundled with important inbound communication features. This is why it gets an overall score of 4.7/5, the highest among the top UK business VoIP providers.

Auto attendant is included in the Express Package for only £10 per user, per month. Aside from its key functions, you are also able to customise auto attendant profiles, allowing you to set up auto attendant schedules, define time zones, and select a language for voice prompts. The plus is that you get the multi-level auto attendant feature when you upgrade to the X2 and X4 plans, where the prices are still very affordable when compared with other top providers on this list. Meanwhile, GoTo Connect’s least expensive plan, which starts at £8.95 per user, per month, only offers the basic auto attendant features, such as customizable greeting, call queue, and call router.

To offer a better call experience, you’ll need more than just an automated attendant. All the 8x8 plans offer useful inbound communication features, such as a customizable greeting, hold music, and voicemail.

DialPad is our top choice when it comes to innovative solutions. Based on our in-depth research, DialPad is the best when it comes to conversational AI, earning a 3.8/5 overall score. Its AI technology is powered by natural language processing (NLP) and has machine learning features. This tool can be used to help agents by transcribing conversations in real time, analysing the sentiment of the call based on the flow of the conversation and can provide post-call summaries that highlight action items so you can easily follow up.

DialPad’s auto attendant feature makes sure that spam calls are blocked. Not only that, its custom call routing feature makes use of AI tools that can help route calls to a live agent when a call needs to be escalated. For as little as £12 per user, per month, you get access to the multi-level auto attendant feature where all calls are AI-powered and unlimited. Meanwhile, 8x8’s cheapest plan also costs £10 per user, per month but it doesn’t come with spam prevention or conversational AI.

The auto attendant feature comes with useful inbound communication features, such as customizable greeting, voicemail, and ring groups. Vonage, however, doesn’t include customizable greeting or ring groups in its cheapest plan, which costs £9 per user, per month.

Vonage earns an overall score of 4.4/5 because of its effective and scalable business solutions. Its plans offer key communication features, including call barge and call whisper, as well as  important software integration tools that make it easy for any business to scale.

For only £9 per user, per month, Vonage’s auto attendant feature is a customizable and reliable piece of call routing technology. You also have the option to prioritise schedules and share settings between schedules, allowing your business to address calls at any time. In addition to this, its customer support uses an AI virtual assistant to ensure that all calls are addressed during peak business hours, resulting in better customer engagement. This feature is best for call centre phone systems as it allows easy management of high call volumes. However, 8x8, our top provider on this list, doesn’t offer this feature on its cheapest plan at £10 per user, per month. It only becomes available when you purchase the X2 plan for £19 per user, per month.

What’s great about Vonage is that its automated phone system feature comes with other important inbound communication features, including voicemail, spam prevention, and customisable hold music. Meanwhile, spam prevention is not included on 8x8’s Express plan.

bOnline is the best business phone system for desk phone compatibility because its software can be used with numerous handheld devices and hardware including Gigaset, Panasonic or Polycom, earning a 3.5/5 overall score. This comes handy with small businesses looking to integrate analog and digital devices. Besides, a lot of businesses still use desk phones because, aside from the fact that there’s no need for them to learn the basics of a new technology, a desk phone comes in handy in the event of a power outage. However, its software doesn’t come with desk phone compatibility when you purchase the Starter plan which costs £6 per user, per month. It becomes compatible with desk phones when you upgrade to Unlimited Calling and Unlimited Calling with Phone plans.

Its auto attendant feature allows you to easily direct callers to the right place, personalise greetings and even set business hours. However, it becomes accessible only when you upgrade to the Unlimited Calling (£13.95 per user, per month) and Unlimited Calling and Phone plans (£15.50 per user, per month). Just like Vonage, its auto attendant feature also isn’t available in its most basic plan and becomes accessible when you upgrade to the Professional plan. However, Vonage’s Professional plan is cheaper than bOnline’s because it only costs £12.50 per user, per month. But, unlike bOnline, Vonage’s software is only compatible with a few third-party desk phones such as Polycom and Panasonic.

Our researchers gathered consumer reviews across business review sites such as TrustRadius, G2, Trustpilot and Capterra. Real-world users stated that they are happy with the phone service’s simplicity and reliability. This is why Nuacom gets an impressive 4.6/5 score in customer satisfaction.

Its Unlimited plan, which is the cheapest plan, costs £14.99 per user, per month but the auto attendant isn’t included in this package. This feature is offered in its Call Centre (£29.99 per user, per month) and Enterprise plans where its functions are just the basic greet and transfer callers to an extension without an operator or receptionist. bOnline also doesn’t offer the auto attendant feature in its lowest plan and like Nuacom, offers this feature when you upgrade except bOnline costs way cheaper than Nuacom.