Vonage Review 2022

Vonage is a famous Voice-over-IP (VoIP) that serves small, medium and enterprise-level businesses. The company pitches the best rates starting at $9.99 a month for the first year and offers extra mobile apps that can convert your device into a virtual extension that doesn’t exhaust talking minutes. As such, Vonage is a welcoming option for both smartphone and landline users. However, Vonage sells rates that are considered pricey, something we can attribute to its high profile in the industry. Thankfully, Vonage makes up with a ton of benefits like premium voice clarity and multiple business integrations as well as unified communication features.

Vonage Business Cloud for SMBs

Vonage retails three business cloud packages for small and medium-size business. Each of the three plans offers industry standard features that will improve telecommunication abilities without costing you more. You get features like 99.999% uptime reliability, premium voice clarity, as well as unlimited bandwidth, calls and SMS messages. You also get a free VonageFlow team messaging feature that lets you share files and have group video calls/chats with employees.

Vonage’s base plan costs $9.99 per month, and offers unlimited calls to mobile and landlines in US, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico for the first year only.

We’ve looked at the three packages and here’s how they compare:

Note: all Vonage prices listed are per month, per line plus taxes and fees. With every plan, as the number of lines go up, the price per line goes down.

Mobile Plan

Entry-level mobile plan starts at $19.99 a month per user. Worth mentioning, Vonage currently has a limited offer that gives you 30% off for new customers. The Mobile plan gives you unlimited calls and SMS messages, VonageFlow team messaging, as well as mobile and desktop apps. We reckon the mobile plan works well with a small business that doesn’t need advanced features like auto-attendant or video conferencing which work well with enterprise-level companies.

Premium Plan

The premium plan starts at 29.99 per month, per line. This is an excellent choice for businesses using 1 to 4 lines only. The premium plan is pricier but get additional features like an auto attendant and video conferencing. The package also enables you to use all Vonage business software like G-Suite and Microsoft Dynamics.

Advanced Plan

The advanced plan costs you an extra $10 bring it to $39.99 per month per line. The plans suits e-commerce businesses with its AI-powered chat support bot. This means that you can rely on the chat bot to interact with visiting customers and give them information that will help them make purchases. The Advanced plan also offers features like call groups that lets you send calls to multiple groups of customers at once. You also get visual voicemail, a service that transcribes voicemails to text before emailing them to you. Lastly, the package provides call recording, an on-demand feature that lets you record important calls from customers and partners. The beauty of this is that you can revisit the calls later for transparency.

Vonage Enterprise

Bigger, enterprise-level companies can opt for feature-packed packages. For instance, part from video conferencing you’ll also get several unified communication tools that enables larger operations to model the right telecommunication platforms.

Here are some of Vonage’s Enterprise VoIP plans:

Enterprise Basic

The basic plan has several features, including:

• Local telephone number
• Unlimited calls & SMS
• Authentication
• Call return
• Call forwarding
• 3-way call
• Basic call logs
• Call trace
• Privacy
• Call number delivery
• Unlimited team messaging
• Vonage app center

Enterprise UC

This plan has all features in the basic package, but also offers these additional features:

• Unlimited video conferencing (100 members max)
• Advanced auto attendant
• CRM integrations like, G-Suite, Hubspot, Office 365, , Zendesk, Clio, Connectwise, JobDiva, Microsoft Dynamics, and Zoho, Bullhorn, Salesforce, Sugar CRM
• IP-capable desk phone

Enterprise Plus

This is the most expensive Vonage Enterprise plan. Thankfully, you also get a ton features to use. The plan includes all enterprise UC features, but also offers a very long list of advanced features like:

• Busy lamp field
• Hoteling guest
• Hoteling host
• Portal call management
• Push to talk
• Last number redial
• Sequential ring
• Remote office
• Shared call appearance
• Simultaneous ring
• Call recording on-demand (15 hours)
• Visual voicemail
• Anonymous call rejection
• Automatic call back
• Call forwarding selective
• Customer admin portal
• Directed call pickup
• Unified messaging
• User portal
• Virtual numbers
• Vonage “Anywhere”

Note: Vonage cautions that additional fees may apply for multiple auto-attendants and hunt groups for the Enterprise Plus plan only.

Set up and Ease of use

Getting started with Vonage is pretty straightforward. For instance, if you purchase the Vonage pre-programmed phones, you can apply an easy plug-and-play set up and get started right away. Vonage also encourages you to schedule a remote setup session with one of their technician who walks you through the on-boarding processing. Before you can talk to an agent, Vonage asks for information about the network you’re using, a factor to smoothen the process. As such, if you’re using a Vonage-supporting handset but don’t have the Vonage brand on, the process is stalled as it calls for a technician to reconfigure the phone to accept the setup. The moment the reconfiguration stage is successful, the network of your lines is now manageable via the admin portal (only accessible by Vonage cloud admins). Thankfully, you can still adjust basic settings like default call forwarding and more.

Boomerang

Boomerang is a recent addition to all Vonage subscribers. The feature is designed to improve the experience of international calls by giving you a “Boomerang list” of up to 10 contacts. Boomerang reduces the confusion that oversea missed calls might bring by automatically connecting you with your caller using the Vonage’s customer’s number. Thereby, the feature saves you and your caller money when it utilizes the customer’s cheaper calling rates to place make the call.

To demonstrate how Boomerang works, the overseas party calls the Vonage customer’s line and immediately gets a message, “Please hang up and I’ll call you right back.” Once the Boomerang contact disconnects the call, Vonage automatically makes a call between its subscriber and the overseas caller using a Vonage number. The Vonage subscriber harbors the option to answer the call or direct it to voicemail. What’s more, Boomerang calls have a special ringtone that will notify your phone and the extension app as well.

Noteworthy, Vonage never charges your Boomerang caller. You’re free to add or remove Boomerang contacts via the Extension app. The feature is also available for Vonage customers in the US, UK, and Canada.

Selective Call Block

Selective Call Block is another Vonage Extension app that you can program to block unwanted calls. You can block or unblock calls by navigating the blocked call list and swap the slider next to a contact to block its future incoming calls. As a result, incoming blocked calls are automatically muted when SimulRing or call forwarding. The feature is a clear indication that Vonage has made big steps in the industry, considering it was previously offered by RingCentral only.

Customer Support

Vonage offer an unbeatable 24/7 customer service via a reputable US-based customer service system. You can contact them via phone, email or an impressive ticket system. There’s also a live chat tool readily equipped with a bot that can provide basic assistance. However, if you need to chat with an agent, the bot asks some questions before it connect you to the right support agent. The company’s support agents are well trained and very friendly when they you engage them. Alternatively, Vonage offers an extensive knowledgebase system with tons of articles and video clips that can you get started with their service.

Pros

• $9.99 per month per user on the first year for business cloud customers
• Premium voice clarity
• Easy to setup
• 24/7 customer service
• Toll-free line
• Enhanced 911 call service
• Boomerang feature for international contact management.
• On-demand call recording

Cons

• Some desktop apps cost extra
• Call recording limited to 15 hours only.

Bottom Line

Vonage targets growing businesses starting from small businesses, to enterprise-level companies. Small businesses get top quality phone services, affordable international call rates, and a suit of 40+ business-compatible features. Vonage’s monthly payment plans are an excellent bet if you don’t want to risk investing long-term. Having the resources to also serve enterprise-level companies, Vonage qualifies as an industry leader in the VoIP industry. The company also has a wealth of industry awards to show for their impeccable service.