Vonage Business Communications Review | PCMag

Vonage has long been a leader in business voice-over-IP (VoIP), in addition to its residential VoIP offerings. Over the years, we’ve tested Vonage Business Communications (VBC), its cloud-based VoIP service for SMBs, as it continued to add new features. Its current incarnation is no different.

Since last we reviewed VBC, it further evolved from a basic VoIP service to a full unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) platform. This is a strategy it shares with several prominent players in the market, including 8×8 XCaaS and our two Editors’ Choice picks, Intermedia Unite and RingCentral MVP. 

New features, including an AI-based virtual assistant, add value and keep pace with the competition. In addition, Vonage continues to add partners and integrate with other services, including Microsoft Teams. A complete list of optional add-on features provided by its partners can be found on the new Vonage Marketplace page. 

(Credit: Vonage)

Vonage Business Communications Pricing and Plans

Like many of its competitors, Vonage offers VBC at multiple price tiers. The entry-level package is called Mobile (even though it includes support for both the mobile and desktop softphone apps), and costs $19.99 per user per month. This includes unlimited calls and SMS messages, unlimited team messaging, and a collection of 20 third-party app integrations.

Next up is the Premium tier, priced at $29.99 per user per month. This includes everything in the Mobile tier, and adds support for desktop IP phones, integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) software, unlimited meetings for up to 100 attendees, and a multi-level auto attendant.

Finally, the Advanced edition includes all of the above plus call recording on demand, call groups, and visual voicemail. This tier will set you back $39.99 per user per month.

Note, however, that this may not be where your monthly bill ends. One of Vonage’s strengths is its wide range of add-on features, both from Vonage itself and from its Vonage Marketplace partners, which are available at additional cost. 

Basic service add-ons from Vonage are mostly calling-related features. For example, local phone numbers in additional markets cost $4.99 per month each, while a toll-free company number costs $39.99 per month. A virtual extension that forwards to a staffer’s mobile phone costs $14.99 per month. 

Vonage sells yet other add-on capabilities through the Vonage Marketplace, along with those of its partners. These third-party vendors typically set their own prices for their offerings, so it can be hard to know just what your total monthly cost will be until you negotiate with them, separate from Vonage.

We’ve dinged Vonage for this lack of pricing transparency in past reviews, and our opinion hasn’t changed this time around. Although it’s useful to plug into partners’ products, Vonage’s Marketplace model means you might need to work with external vendors and calculate your own cost estimates, which is less straightforward than some competitors. It also means your monthly bill could end up being higher than you expected when you first evaluated VBC.

Getting Started With Vonage Business Communications

We’ve long been impressed with the ease with which you can get up and running with VBC, which sets it apart from Microsoft Teams Phone, Ooma Office, and other complex solutions. Crucially, the guided setup experience is thorough enough that even smaller businesses with limited IT knowledge can stand it up quickly. Vonage also offers an excellent library of documentation and how-to videos.

Vonage’s desktop softphone apps for macOS and Windows compare favorably with the category’s best offering, including those from Dialpad and RingCentral. For example, in keeping with its UCaaS ambitions, VBC has a team messaging feature in the desktop and mobile apps, but it lacks some features, such as using channels for Slack-like messaging.

By default, the program remembers your credentials, so you don’t have to log in each time. Vonage uses a web-based authentication method, even from the desktop app. You’re taken to the Vonage website each time you log in, where you must enter a username and password. Vonage does provide single sign-on (SSO) support for corporate accounts using the SAML and SCIM standards. The latter lets you log in to Vonage using your Microsoft Azure, Okta, or OneLogin credentials.

Importing contacts requires you to first export contacts from a source application, such as your email program. Vonage expects a Microsoft Outlook-formatted CSV file containing the contact information. Google Contacts also lets you export to CSV, but we had to make some corrections to get the file to import correctly. The import process proceeds smoothly once you have a file in the correct format. Note, though, that this initial setup is a one-way import. There is no two-way syncing of contacts between Vonage and the source application using this method.

Vonage Administration

Vonage makes it simple to connect to the administration portal, which gives you access to an Admin Dashboard with information detailing system status, users, and extensions. The Phone System menu item includes things like the Virtual Receptionist (more on that later), Call and Paging groups, Call Queues, Recordings, Call Blocking and Monitoring, and Faxes.

A recent redesign of the admin portal adds a set of quick action buttons across the page’s top. Unfortunately, these buttons are not modifiable by an administrator, so you’re stuck with what they give you. It is possible to favorite frequently used administrative pages, which show up on the main Admin Dashboard, giving you quick access. 

A comprehensive list of reporting options continues to be a strong area for Vonage. Basic reporting includes detailed lists of all calls, call queues, groups, and users. A Call Quality report shows a summary of information, including graphs and a chart displaying items like packet loss, jitter, and Mean Opinion Score. Filters let you narrow the scope of some reports, such as by a selection of users or call groups. It’s also possible to save any report with a filter should you wish to reuse that selection in the future. 

(Credit: Vonage)

Once generated, reports can be downloaded, emailed, printed, or saved. Saved reports show up under the Saved Reports tab for later retrieval, which is useful for comparing month-to-month usage and other historical information. However, we would have liked the ability to export data into a separate business intelligence engine, like Microsoft Power BI, so that we could build our own reports.

Key Features

One important feature of a business VoIP phone system is the ability to integrate with other, third-party business software. Vonage integrates with a good selection of software, including Google Workspace, Hubspot CRM, Microsoft Teams, and Salesforce. 

In addition, Vonage offers a Marketplace where third-party vendors offer their own add-ons and integrations with the service. Mixing and matching these add-on features from Vonage and its partners lets you create your own à la carte VoIP offering, but each extra adds to the total price tag.

For example, one new feature, Business Inbox, connects with incoming messages via SMS and Facebook messenger. You can give specific users access to this company inbox to monitor and respond to customer messages for $9.99 per month. Another add-on feature, the enhanced Receptionist Console, is designed to help designated users manage large volumes of incoming calls. It’s available for $29.99 per month per receptionist.

One of Vonage’s most significant features is the ability to deploy a Virtual Receptionist, which is a multi-level auto attendant that automatically answers calls and routes them to the right person or department. Vonage says it has fully redesigned the Virtual Receptionist in its latest iteration based on customer feedback.

(Credit: Vonage)

In addition to having callers answer scripted questions and selecting extensions based on their responses, the Virtual Assistant has been enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI). However, creating an AI-based assistant is a lot trickier than the classic approach. Vonage typically works directly with customers to build an AI-based assistant, although it can also grant access to its AI Studio tool if you’d prefer to develop a custom call handler yourself.

Vonage has also upped its game when it comes to training and help resources. A new training center landing page provides access to tutorials, guides, and webinars to help users quickly get up to speed. Front and top center of this page is a search box where you can type in your question to search their knowledge base. Vonage also offers live training sessions with a link where users can sign up on the same page.

Comprehensive, But Potentially Costly

Vonage has long prided itself on being all things to all levels of VoIP customers, from residential phone lines to enterprise-grade call centers. So it should come as no surprise that Vonage Business Communications ranks as one of the most mature products in our roundup. 

The company has also continued to innovate its offerings to keep pace with the competition. Since last we reviewed it, updates to some of VBC’s reports, and the new AI-based call-handling capability in its Virtual Receptionist, have added considerable value to the service. 

Although we’re impressed by Vonage’s technology, what holds us back from giving it our Editors’ Choice nod is its pricing schedule. Vonage’s a la carte pricing means it’s possible to run up your bill by adding features not included in the basic package, making it hard to predict just what you can expect from your monthly bill. If you have specific needs, then Vonage’s flexibility might outweigh the potential for sticker shock. Still, you may find your needs are just as adequately met by one of our Editors’ Choice picks, including Intermedia Unite and RingCentral MVP.

About Paul Ferrill

Read the latest from Paul Ferrill