Google Voice Review 2024

We’ve compared eight of the best small business phone systems in the UK, and our researchers hail Google Voice as the best for security features. This is because Google Voice offers robust security measures so you can enjoy its services without worrying about your privacy.

Our researchers measured Google Voice’s functionalities against its competitors using four key factors: inbound and outbound communications features, integrability (external connections), scalability, pricing, and customer support. Find out exactly how we rate it in our full Google Voice review below.

Expert Market’s team of experienced researchers has been reviewing the top business services and products in the market for years. So if you want to find out which business phone system best fits your organisation’s needs, try our free quote comparison tool.

Google Voice’s pros and cons

Pro – Reinforced security features

You won’t be disappointed with Google Voice’s security! Of the business phone system providers we tested, our independent researchers gave Google Voice the highest points for security features: a perfect 5/5.

Google Voice has doubled down on security measures, starting with complete compliance certificates to conform to various information security and data privacy laws. This means your phone system won’t collect, use, or share information without your consent.

Moreover, Google Voice employs multi-factor authentication, strict password rules, and user permissions, protecting your organisation’s personal, intellectual, and operational information. Likewise, it provides robust TLS/SRTP (Transport Layer Security/Secure Real-time Transport Protocol) encryption, securing your calls and protecting you from potential hackers and eavesdropping.

Pro – Terrific customer satisfaction rate

Real customer experience and insights help pace your expectations and help reduce your risk when making buying decisions. An overall 4.4/5 score across G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and TrustRadius tells us Google Voice is doing a lot of things right! Scroll down below to see reviews from actual clients.

Pro – An affordable choice

With prices starting at $10 per user, per month, Google Voice is definitely on the low-cost side of the spectrum, and is a lot more affordable than many other business phone system providers. Read our pricing section below for more information.

Con – Limited features

That said, there’s a reason why Google Voice is much more affordable than the other providers. Google Voice has limited capabilities when compared with its competitors, earning a low feature score of 2.6/5. For example, it doesn’t have customisable hold music and call queue features.

You can only get localised and toll-free numbers with a Premier price, and Google Voice requires you to have a genuine presence in that location. In comparison, other business phone systems, such as 8×8 and RingCentral, let you set up a local number whether you’re based in that location or not.

Read our 8×8 review and RingCentral review for more information.

Google Voice also doesn’t have call flip, barge, and whisper features, but it does have call forwarding across all pricing plans. The only management feature it offers, besides analytics/reporting, is customisable call routing, which you can only get on its Standard and Premier plans.

Con – Few external connections

Unlike some phone business providers, Google Voice doesn’t come with a desk phone. However, you can still connect third-party handsets from Poly, Cisco, Yealink, and Unify to maximise its services. Likewise, you can access Google Voice on your smartphone using the Google Voice app.

As for software integrations, Google Voice can’t integrate with chat and analytics platforms outside Google. But the biggest letdown would be Google Voice’s closed API. This means you can’t customise its software to integrate external applications, pulling its score for integrability down to 2.8/5.

However, Google Voice has the smoothest integrations with Google’s broad list of products, including Google Meet, Google Chat, and Google Workspace. Moreover, Google Voice has a ready-made Zoho Desk integration and various CRM integrations (Zoho CRM, Copper, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Freshsales, Agile CRM, Hubspot, MiniCRM, Apptivo) to help you gain and manage clients.

Con – Low scalability

Unfortunately, the absence of advanced features sees Google Voice score a below-average 2.9/5 score for scalability in our research. It doesn’t include call queueing, ring groups, local numbers, call barge, call whisper, and major management and collaborative features. This takes a toll on its ability to scale alongside a growing organisation.

However, it does offer some inbound and outbound communication features, management and collaboration capabilities, and software integrations, as well as security features.

How much does Google Voice cost?

Google Voice will be a good fit for your business if you want something easy on the budget and gets the job done.

Before we start discussing the cost, you should note that Google Voice is only available to Google Workspace users. Currently, Google Voice’s pricing is only presented in US dollars, with its cheapest plan costing $10 per user, per month. While this is very affordable, it has to be said that Google Voice doesn’t offer a great deal of features in return. For example, Dialpad may be a little more expensive, but it offers a more comprehensive list of features, and better customer support, thus offering better value for money. Read more in our Dialpad review.

At $10 per user, per month, Google Voice’s Starter plan includes a limit of ten users, unlimited domestic minutes, and free outbound calls to the US. On the other hand, Dialpad’s Standard plan costs $20 per user, per month and with unlimited users and unlimited domestic calls.

Now, when you upgrade to Google Voice’s Standard plan for $20 per user, per month, you’ll add call queue, ring groups, and customisable call routing to your features list. Moreover, you can sync Polycom desk phones to your system. Likewise, Dialpad’s Pro plan offers software integrations such as Salesforce, Slack, and Office 365 for $30 per user, per month.

Lastly, we have Google Voice’s Premier plan at $30 per user, per month, which allows you to set a localised toll-free number. Meanwhile, Dialpad’s Enterprise plan’s prices are bespoke and include a 100% uptime guarantee.

Google Voice’s standout features

Google optimised

Google Voice is offered as part of Google Workspace, that’s why it perfectly integrates with its apps and features. Since Google Workspace is one of the most used platforms for cloud computing, productivity, and collaboration tools, you’ll get to make the most of these features to boost your team’s productivity. Connect and collaborate with your team, clients, and suppliers with Gmail and Google Chat. Share important files through Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Sheets. You can even make calls straight from Gmail. It also integrates smoothly with Google Meet, which means you can easily jump into a meeting on the go.

BigQuery

Get advanced reporting with BigQuery when you upgrade to Google Voice’s Premium plan. BigQuery is Google’s serverless multi-cloud enterprise data warehouse. With built-in machine learning and business intelligence (BI), BigQuery will analyse your data and make insightful reports in real time. This includes user information, call logs, and features, making it highly valuable for collecting information from your large number of callers. In other words, BigQuery allows you to manage complex data and run interactive queries quickly. This is most useful for large businesses with high call volume, storing extensive and detailed information about their clients.

What kind of business is Google Voice best for?

The best part about Google Voice is its top-of-the-line security system, making it the best business phone system for security features. Hence, we recommend Google Voice to businesses that prioritise security, particularly those that deal with a lot of sensitive information.

Google Voice offers all the basic features you need from a phone system, making it an affordable choice for small start-ups and businesses, especially for those that already use Google’s platforms. With affordable plans and user-friendly features, you’ll get a phone system with limited capital. Because it has the smoothest integration with Google Workspace, it’s the best business phone system for Google users.

If you have an international presence, Google Voice allows you to make calls from anywhere. In addition to this, Google Voice can route all calls from your team using a single number, making it practical for remote and hybrid teams. If you want to scale internationally, upgrading to the Premier plan for $30 per user, per month will allow you to make affordable international calls. This makes reaching out to your global clients and team much easier.

On the other hand, Google Voice will not be a good fit for organisations that require advanced call features. Its limited call features and software integrations will block your team from incorporating helpful business solutions outside Google.

How does Google Voice compare with other phone systems?

Our researchers compared Google Voice with its top competitors: 8×8, RingCentral, Vonage, GoToConnect, Nuacom, Dialpad, and bOnline. We rated these eight business phone system providers using four key factors: inbound and outbound communications features, integrability and scalability, pricing, and customer support.

Read more:

• GoToConnect Review
• Nuacom Review
• Vonage Review

1. Google Voice’s inbound and outbound communication features

When rating business phone systems’ communication features, Google Voice earned a low 2.6/5 features score. Google Voice lacks some features that many of its competitors provide, such as 8×8, which scores 4.6/5 for features in our research. It offers customisable greetings, a virtual receptionist, company hours, and local toll-free numbers across all of its plans, whereas Google Voice only provides these features on its Standard and Premier plans. Moreover, you can only set up localised and toll-free numbers on Google Voice’s most expensive plan, which also requires you to have a genuine presence in that location. Google Voice does not offer inbound communication features, including customisable hold music and call queues, which are offered by 8×8. These nifty additions will help you manage high call volumes.

Concerning outbound communication features, Google Voice also lacks 8×8’s power dialer, predictive dialling, auto dialers, and e-fax. Even call conferencing, a highly-useful feature all seven competitors offer, is missing across all Google Voice plans.

2. Google Voice integrability’s and scalability

Another drawback is Google Voice’s inability to integrate software and scale, seeing it score a low 2.8/5 for integrability in our research. Google Voice relies solely on Google Workspace for most of its features. While Google Workspace offers a wide variety of functionalities, most companies still use other collaborative and management applications to work.

Having a closed API makes it difficult for Google Voice to integrate with other software. It’s a good thing it has ready-made integrations with CRM systems Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, MS Dynamics, Oracle SalesCloud, Sugar CRM, Act!, Goldmine, and Workbooks.

If you run your business with various apps and software, consider RingCentral because it has the most ready-made integrations of all eight providers, with up to 97 CRM and 57 analytics platform integrations. Like Google Voice, RingCentral also connects with your helpdesk software, such as SalesForce, Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Hubspot. For team collaborations, 8×8 is another great option as it integrates with Microsoft Teams, Whatsapp, and Facebook.

Although Google Voice offers the best security out of all eight competitors, its scalability score is only 2.9/5, ranking eighth against eight competitors. Its low scores for integrability and its lack of call queues, ring groups, and several management features affect its ability to scale. If you want scalability in your phone system, 8×8 and RingCentral score the highest, with 4.9/5, respectively. Both providers have an extensive list of features, allowing them to handle high call volumes, manage a team, and foster collaborations.

3. Google Voice’s customer support channel

When it comes to customer support channels, Google Voice earns a mediocre score of 3.1/5. While it has 24/7 live support, a user forum and knowledge-base, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee, it doesn’t have email and live chat functions. This means you can only reach its customer support team through a phone line. It also lacks onboarding support, making it quite tricky to configure Google Voice’s system to match your business processes.

If you’re looking for better customer support, 8×8 and RingCentral both provide top-notch customer service, scoring 5/5 in our customer support research. Both provide 24/7 customer support through various channels, such as live chat, email, and phone. Like Google Voice, 8×8 and RingCentral have a 99.9% uptime guarantee, so you know you’ll be using a reliable system. Best of all, they can provide onboarding support to help you go live with your phone system.

Does Google Voice have good customer reviews?

Customer reviews help you hear honest insights from real-world users. An overall score of 4.4/5 across G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and TrustRadius, shows that Google Voice’s customers have had great experiences with it.

How We Reviewed Google Voice