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Zoom Phone is a great VoIP provider with one of the lowest costs around, starting at just $10 per user, per month. That pricetag will get you all the common features needed for inbound and outbound calls along with a few less common communication tools, including call flip and call whisper.
Zoom isn't the absolute best VoIP provider — that would be RingCentral, which offers better security and more integrations. Still, Zoom is great for what most businesses need VoIP for most: Simple, painless communication with all your important clients or customers.
All plans include HD call quality that suppresses typing noises and auto-blocks echoes, and the international plan will let you offer customer support across over 40 countries. Read on for our review covering the features and support offered by each of Zoom Phone's three plans, or visit our Zoom pricing guide to see its costs compared directly with other leading VoIP providers.
The Best Zoom Phone Alternatives
- RingCentral – Best for hospitality, retail, healthcare, & customer service
- 8×8 – Best for sales teams (option of unlimited or global extensions)
- Vonage – Best for training features (improving staff on the job)
You can use our phone systems comparison tool to get completely free customized quotes in under a minute.
Pros
- Very low starting price ($10/user/month)
- Highly scalable, with features for growing businesses
- Echo and typing cancellation on all plans
- Accepts calls from 40+ countries
Cons
- Weak security features
- Limited customer support options
- Pricing starts at $10/user/month
- Unlimited plan from $15/user/month
- Select plan ($20/user/month) with unlimited calling to 40+ countries
Even though it is a rather new product, Zoom Phone quickly shot up in our ranking as one of the top three providers in our last round of VoIP research.
Zoom also launched Zoom One, a consolidated plan that includes Meetings, Team Chat, Whiteboard, and VoIP phone products. However, Zoom Phone is only available on the Zoom One Business Plus or the Zoom One Enterprise plans, with the latter providing a fully featured PBX. It is possible — and cheaper — to buy Zoom Phone as a standalone product, which is what we'll be discussing in this article.
Zoom Phone Features
Overall, our researchers found that Zoom Phone offers users a comprehensive range of inbound and outbound communication features, plus a number of useful integrations. However, it doesn't have the most robust security features.
Zoom scores 4.2/5 for features and offers users a host of basic outbound communication features include external video calling (Zoom Meeting subscription required), set caller ID, and call conferencing. It also has basic inbound communication features, including voicemail, a virtual receptionist, spam prevention, call queue, and customizable hold music. All plans offer HD call qualities, with active noise and echo cancellation along with keyboard typing suppression to ensure your voices are heard.
Zoom also has advanced conversation features like call forwarding, call flip, call whisper, and call barge on all of its plans. These features are less common for a VoIP provider, particularly one as affordable as Zoom Phone: Neither 8×8 or RingCentral offer call whisper or call flip on their first two plans, even though these are two of the best smartphone apps for businesses. Net2Phone, another VoIP provider we tested, does not offer this at all.
Zoom Phone lacks some collaboration features (no Zoom Phone plans support document sharing or task management), but it does have video conferencing with Zoom Meeting, and a team messaging function. There's also an omission of some security features offered by other providers, including multi-factor authentication or enforceable password rules. Considering Zoom's patchy security history, you'd have hoped they'd have upped their game by now.
If Zoom fits your budget and has the features you need, fill in this 60-second survey to get matched with the right plan.
Zoom Phone Integrations
Our researchers gave Zoom a score of 3.7/5 for external connections, since it offers some of the most widely used software solutions out there. These include:
- Salesforce CRM
- Zendesk Helpdesk CRM
- Zoom video conferencing service
- Gmail
- Microsoft Outlook
- Google Workspace
Zoom's score isn't as high as top picks 8×8 (4.2/5) and RingCentral (4.3/5). RingCentral has 96 CRM-related integrations, at least 57 analytics integrations, and external live chat options in the form of WhatsApp and Facebook. The caveat here is that RingCentral's pricing plans aren't nearly as affordable as Zoom's.
Since our last update:
In October 2023, Zoom Phone launched a significant update that saw a wide range of improvements to the platform, including advanced encryption for voicemails, concurrent calls for devices with a large number of lines, and the ability to opt in or out of SMS messages.
Zoom Phone Pricing
Zoom Phone has three pricing plans: the Metered plan ($10 per user, per month), the Unlimited plan ($15 per user, per month), and the Select plan ($20 per user, per month).
Zoom's Metered plan tied with Google Voice as the cheapest VoIP provider plan we tested. This is where their similarities end. While Google Voice excels at security (5/5) but not much else, Zoom Phone is let down by its poor security score (2/5). However, it does well in other areas, such as customer score and with its overall feature offering – especially when compared with other providers like MagicJack.
If you opt for a Zoom One package that includes Zoom Phone, you'll pay $25 per user, per month for the Zoom One Business Plus plan. The Zoom One Enterprise plan has no public pricing at present.
| Price | Users | Unlimited calls in US | Inclusive inbound calling | Inclusive outbound calling | SMS/chat | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | | |||||
| Metered | Unlimited | Pro Global Select | |||||
| $10/user/month | $15/user/month | $20/user/month | |||||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||
| | | | |||||
| Unlimited domestic minutes | Unlimited domestic minutes | Unlimited domestic minutes to 40+ countries | |||||
| | | | |||||
| | | |
Zoom Phone Customer Support
As with any software, if it's difficult to acquire support when things go wrong, you can end up with some serious periods of downtime that can significantly affect your bottom.
Overall, Zoom scores a respectable 3.3/5 for customer support, offering a user forum and an extensive online knowledge base for customers to refer to if they'd like to attempt to troubleshoot a problem themselves.
However, some of Zoom's customer support options are only available for an additional cost. The support channels that will cost you extra include live chat, email, and phone support. Plus, no onboarding support is offered on any of Zoom's plans.
8×8 and RingCentral both score 5/5 for customer support, since they offer all the features mentioned above at no extra cost, even the ones Zoom lacks or charges extra for. See if one of their plans is a better fit for your business with a free quote.
How Zoom Phone Compares With Other VoIP Providers
The best VoIP providers include plenty of worthy competitors to Zoom.
Our research team found RingCentral Office was the best overall softphone app for businesses, since it offers a large feature range for its price. RingCentral stands above Zoom when it comes to customer service, thanks to email support channels that Zoom doesn't offer, as well as onboarding aid.
The 8×8 softphone app is the best for sales teams, since it streamlines internal collaboration with functions like easy document sharing. 8×8 also has a perfect 5/5 score for security, offering perks that Zoom does not have, including user permissions and restrictions to push users towards more secure passwords.
Here are our picks for the best Zoom alternatives:
| Price from The typical lowest starting price. The lowest price available for your business will depend on your needs. | Our Rating Relative score out of 5 | Best For | Core Benefit | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | BEST Zoom Alternative  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Zoom Phone | RingCentral | 8×8 | Vonage | GoTo Connect | Ooma | Nextiva | Net2Phone | NUACOM | Dialpad | Google Voice |
| 4.4 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.4 |
| Value for money | Overall, hospitality, retail, healthcare & customer service | Sales teams | Training features | Great for scaling | Overall customer experience | Professional services | Great for international businesses | Great customer satisfaction | Startups on tight budgets | Small businesses that prioritize security |
| Affordable pricing | Very easy to set up and scale as necessary. | Option of unlimited or global extensions | Staff improve on the job | Available through a proprietary, purpose-built cloud | No contracts, keep your number, and work from anywhere. | Unlimited Calls in U.S. & Canada | Integrates with Microsoft Office, Google and others | Great automation and analytics tools. | High customer satisfaction at low prices | Integration with the Google platform |
That said, Zoom remains a top option: Our research determined that Zoom Phone has a high average customer satisfaction score (4.4/5) which is a testament to the quality of the platform, and its impressive range of inbound and outbound communication features for as little as $10 per user, per month.
Is Zoom Phone Right for Your Business?
This Zoom Phone review aims to give you a clearer picture of whether or not Zoom Phone is right for your business, so here are a few points to consider before you make a decision:
- Zoom Phone is the best value choice when it comes to VoIP software, starting at only $10 per user, per month.
- Zoom offers an all-in-one communication hub that includes Phone, Meetings, Whiteboard, Webinar, and Contact Center functionality.
- Zoom Phone integrates with major services like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Microsoft Teams, but is otherwise pretty limited.
- Zoom Phone provides mid-tier customer service, with no onboarding support and email support will cost you extra.
- Zoom Phone offers poor security, with no multi-factor authentication, password rules, or user permissions.
All in all, Zoom Phone is a solid choice, particularly for those on a strict budget. However, the low cost comes with a few shortcomings that could be a dealbreaker for certain businesses, so make sure you know the needs of your business before you sign up for Zoom Phone's monthly or yearly contracts.
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put ten VoIP systems to the test across 78 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established a VoIP system testing methodology that scores each product in seven main categories of investigation and 16 subcategories; this covers everything from the features and security options available to the product's value for money and customer score, as well as much more.
Our main testing categories for VoIP phone systems are:
Customer Score: the external customer opinion as to their satisfaction with the VoIP product; the feedback and ratings given by customers who have used a particular VoIP system, as well as the market poisiton and reputation a VoIP software holds.
Cost: the pricing structure associated with the VoIP service. It includes factors such as monthly subscription fees, call rates (especially for international calls), setup fees, hardware costs (if applicable), and any additional charges for add-on features or services.
Features: the functionalities and capabilities offered by the VoIP service. This can include basic features such as call forwarding, voicemail, call waiting, and caller ID, as well as advanced features like auto-attendant, conference calling, and call recording.
External Connections: the VoIP service's ability to connect and integrate with external systems or devices. This can include compatibility with existing phone systems, integration with mobile devices, and support for softphones or IP phones.
Customer Support: the assistance and resources provided by the VoIP service provider to customers. This can include technical support, documentation, online resources, knowledge bases, and access to customer support representatives.
Security Options: Security options refer to the measures and features implemented by the VoIP service to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and protection of voice communications and data. This can include encryption of voice calls, compliance, password ruels and user permissions.
Scalability: the ability of the VoIP service to accommodate the growth and changing needs of an organization. This includes factors such as the capacity to handle a growing number of users, support multiple locations or offices, and scale up or down according to the organisation's requirements.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are merely "nice to have." After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Verdict: Is Zoom Phone Worth It?
However, RingCentral was our top-rated provider overall — and the biggest gap between RingCentral and Zoom is actually integrations, with Zoom offering some widely used programs like Salesforce and MS Teams, but not the vast library that RingCentral does. RingCentral also offers superior security, an area where Zoom is noticeably lacking, and is more scalable for growing businesses.
Every business is different and Zoom or RingCentral might not suit yours — if you'd like to cut down your research time and get matched to a provider immediately based on your company's size, sector, and exact needs, use our VoIP quotes comparison tool.
Our content is funded in part by commercial partnerships, at no extra cost to you and without impact to our editorial impartiality. Click to Learn More