Have you been considering Vonage as your VoIP provider? There are plenty of great options on the market. But when it comes to an affordable and flexible voice over internet protocol or VoIP calling system you can rely on, Vonage stacks up as a top contender in the field—especially as a global calling solution. With plenty of features and payment options, Vonage molds to your business’s needs while providing you with quality calling solutions.
Here’s a closer look at what it offers, how it stacks up, and any pros and cons worth considering before making any real decisions.
Vonage Pros and Cons
As a cloud communications platform, Vonage offers plenty of solutions for video conferencing, call centers, video calls, or personal calling plans. With over 50 calling features, there are some pros and cons to consider if you’re a business owner in need of an array of calling solutions.
It’s always a good idea to walk through any calling solution software’s strengths and weaknesses since your business’s needs will be different according to the industry you operate in and your team’s size and overall business goals and budget.
Pros
Social platform reach: With Vonage, you can reach your customers through Viber, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more for a more convenient and intimate experience with your customers.
APIs for enterprise: Once upon a time, Vonage didn’t offer reliable enterprise solutions. But that changed once it acquired Nexmo. Now you can add communications functionality into your business globally, no matter your team’s size.
Ecommerce features: Vonage allows you to embed custom messaging, fraud detection, and voice verification, among other APIs, to ensure a better customer shopping experience. You can also interact with customers in real-time as they shop through messaging and chat features.
99.9 percent uptime: Vonage’s average uptime over a six month period is pretty close to 100 percent. This adds to its reliability factor regardless of the call solution you’re implementing.
Dropped connection solutions: If you happen to make a call and your internet connection drops, Vonage has a fail-safe feature that reroutes your call so that you don’t lose connection with your customers.
Month-to-month contracts: When you sign up for a Vonage business calling plan, you aren’t locked into costly and lengthy contracts. You can go with a month-to-month plan that allows you to make changes if you aren’t satisfied with the service.
Call without desk phones: You don’t need a desk phone when you sign up with Vonage to make calls. You can seamlessly make calls through your laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone with its online portal.
Enables remote work: With Vonage, your team no longer has to work from one central location. They can take work home and stay connected through desktop and mobile apps.
Programmable solutions: You can develop your own calling applications with Vonage APIs with plenty of code snippets, guides, and tutorials on its site.
App integration: Easily connect and integrate with the apps your or your team are already using for enhanced productivity and flexibility.
Call routing: Vonage is set up so you can have more than one device connected to your calling dashboard. So if you can’t pick up a call or need to reroute it, you can easily do that.
Create automations: Whether you want specific calls to go to voicemail, want to play a pre-recorded message, or customize greetings, you can do that with Vonage.
Call monitoring: With Vonage, you can easily monitor team calls, advise them as they’re on a call, or reroute their call in real-time on their behalf. This is an especially useful feature for call centers.
Plenty of integrations: You can easily integrate Vonage with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Bullhorn, Zendesk, Soho, GSuite, and Zapier.
AI tools: If you need advanced calling features like self-service or post-call analysis, Vonage offers AI tools that go beyond the basics of call management for enterprise-level call center needs.
Small business solutions: Vonage makes it easy to set up and manage a call management system without a pricey IT team or the need to code anything. Click-to-dial and auto-dial features built into its CRM quickens the calling cycle.
Cons
Customer support: It’s been said that Vonage’s customer service isn’t always the most efficient or timely. While it does have call or chat support for troubleshooting whenever you need it, it can be time-consuming to connect to the right person.
Cost for services: Depending on the features you’re looking for, other voice over internet providers offer some of the same features Vonage does for a lot less or even free. This is where you must weigh the upsides of having a potentially more dependable calling feature you pay for versus using an alright one for free that gets the job done but lags in quality.
Phone number loss: While there are many instances when people transfer existing phone numbers to Vonage successfully without any fees, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to, as some numbers won’t be compatible. If it is transferable, this process can take up to 20 business days.
How Vonage Compares to Top VoIP Phone Services
As I mentioned before, there are a ton of other voice over internet solutions out you can use just as easily. But when it comes down to it, how does Vonage really stack up?
After much research, comparison, and overall consideration, Vonage’s strengths lie in international calling features for either business or personal plans. Vonage offers an all-in-one solution that provides text messaging, voice calls, team collaboration calls, conference calls, and call center solutions for enterprise businesses that need to get a reliable handle on their calls’ quality.
Other VoIP call and video options that come close are Nextiva or RingCentral. Nextiva because of the reliable voice over internet services it provides for small and enterprise customers and its CRM features.
On the other hand, RingCentral is great if you want access to free video and team messaging solutions, and it doesn’t fall short as far as reliable calling solutions go. With it, you don’t have to invest in new calling equipment. You can use the same number and phone equipment once you’re onboarded to keep making your calls. You can see our full list of top picks here.
Vonage Hardware Requirements
As you use Vonage, you’ll likely need to invest in equipment depending on your business’s size and needs.
First, you’ll want to ensure you’re using a compatible certified router, which currently includes Linksys and Netgear models you can verify on its site. Otherwise, you might experience problems with call audio and dropped calls.
Vonage offers certified IP phones and accessories that come in handy if, for example, you handle high volumes of incoming calls and need calling equipment that is compatible with its system.
For equipment to be compatible with Vonage, it needs to be SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) capable. If you’re unsure about your equipment’s compatibility, a Vonage technician can walk you through the process.
This is an extra cost to consider and make space for in your budget when you’re signing up for Vonage since it doesn’t include equipment cost in its plans.
Vonage Pricing
For the sake of simplicity, here are how Vonage’s pricing plans work for a smaller team of 20:
Mobile – $14.99 per month per line plus taxes and fees
- Unlimited calls
- Unlimited SMS
- Access to the Vonage App Center
- Unlimited team messaging
Premium – $24.99 per month per line plus taxes and fees
- Unlimited video for up to 100
- Multi-level auto attendant
- CRM integration
- IP desk phone capability
Advanced – $34.99 per month per line plus taxes and fees
- 15 hours of on-demand call recording
- Call group
- Visual voicemail
- White-glove set-up
Prices for plans at Vonage differ depending on the number of employees. The good news is all plans come with unlimited phone calls and SMS.
Any calling plans for 100 employees or more will require you to contact the sales team for a more personalized package.
Vonage Setup
To start using Vonage once you’ve signed up to one of its business plans, you’ll have to sign in first to set up features, manage user permissions and roles, and manage all your extensions.
Vonage offers interactive guides through its Learning Center once you’re signed in to help you make the setup process easier. Not only that, Vonage offers customer training sessions that cover features, equipment, and user accounts.
Once you’ve added your information, you can get started immediately. Or, you can also schedule a service delay of up to 45 days, so it’s there ready to be used whenever you need it.
Vonage Features
Vonage offers an exhaustive list of features—over 50 of them. Not all of them will apply to your business, but it’s good to know they’re available as your business grows.
Here’s a quick list of some of its more popular features:
- Vonage Extensions
- Boomerang
- Selective Call Block
- Vonage Voicemail Plus
- Enhanced Call Forwarding
- SimulRing
- Add-on Calling Features
Vonage Offerings
What solutions does Vonage offer? This depends on if you’re looking for home or business call plans. Since we’re focusing on business solutions for this review, they fall into three general categories. Here’s a closer look at each.
Communications APIs
Vonage APIs allow you to integrate effective calling solutions for startups and enterprises that are looking to scale. Vonage’s communications APIs include video, in-app voice, SMS, sip trunking, email, dispatch, and more.
You can easily verify user accounts as well as prevent fraud with its safe two-step authentication feature. It also allows you to create sub-accounts to configure the reporting and billing of different projects.
Unified Communications
Vonage’s unified communications offerings include solutions that let business work from anywhere with more than 50 features to choose from. Some of the features include paperless fax, call monitoring, virtual receptionist, click-to-dial, call flips, and local or geographic numbers.
Vonage’s unified communications make it easy to collaborate with colleagues no matter where you are with tools available for desktop or mobile, meeting scheduling functions, as well as the ability to easily record and share meetings.
Contact Centers
Vonage offers cloud contact center software to create a better overall sales experience. It brings easy to manage omnichannel features that include voice, digital channels, and even video.
Powerful routing features allow you to use customer details so you can reroute them to the best agent equipped to help them with their specific needs. You can auto-log calls and recordings and use its click-to-dial or auto-dial tools within its CRM.
Ai powered features allow you to collect post-call analysis, enable self-service tools, and leverage dynamic routing.
Summary
When you take a broad look at Vonage and all it has to offer, the question isn’t “will they cover all the call features I need?” The question becomes, “will I be satisfied with its level of service once it’s integrated into my business?”
Why? Vonage is a comprehensive all-in-one voice over internet service provider that provides tools for its users from onboarding to equipment and beyond.
This makes it a solid option for small businesses counting on growth who need a reliable VoIP to help them get there—whether they work with at-home employees or otherwise. Yet, it doesn’t leave out the more complex needs of enterprise customers who need features like AI and advanced automations to successfully take care of their various types of call needs both within the organization and customer-facing.
If you’re ready to take the plunge, check out its plans and get started with Vonage here.