Whether you call it a digital phone system, a virtual PBX, or simply voice over IP (VoIP), the service that keeps an office talking is essential. It has to be reliable and provide excellent voice quality and extras such as mobile support and fax capabilities make it even more useful. Each year, we conduct our Business Choice survey to find out which VoIP services the readers of PCMag prefer. Providers range from those aimed toward at-home users or single-PC sole proprietors all the way up to systems that can handle thousands of users. If you're in the market for a new phone service, we have recommendations, though one company stands out, having won our award for the 10th straight year.
Business Choice: Voice Over IP (VoIP) Systems 2023
To be considered for our award, a brand must receive a minimum number of ratings in our survey. The number of services that make the cut every year fluctuates: Last year, it dropped to only nine. But this year, we hit a new high number with 18 services, thanks in part to survey outreach assistance from our sister company Spiceworks and its Aberdeen Strategy & Research division.
With more vendors in the survey results, we thought perhaps this year's story would feature company names we hadn’t been able to include in the past, or scores that would change what we typically see for VoIP leaders. While we do see some services that are new to our list, and some companies earn more-than-respectable overall scores (especially 8x8, GoTo Connect, and Microsoft Teams), none of them topple the leader: Ooma is the top-rated VoIP vendor with our readers—for the 10th year in a row. For a closer look at how our providers stack up on factors like call quality, ease of use, and tech support, tab through the table below.
Although Ooma’s overall score dips a little from last year's (and from the company’s all-time high score in 2018), 8.6 out of 10 is still over half a point ahead of the next-highest rating, which is earned by 8x8. The other category we consider most when picking a winner from the numbers is the likelihood to recommend, meaning someone endorsing a service to a colleague; Ooma has the lead there as well.
In fact, Ooma tops all but three of the sub-categories in the survey, displaying strong numbers in particular for installation, reliability, mobile support, security features, and fax features.
The only areas in which Ooma stumbles—just slightly, with scores a mere 10th of a point behind the highest scores—are price (the free Google Voice wins that), ease of use (8x8 is the leader in this area), and softphone support, which allows your PC to act as your telephone (Microsoft Teams and 8x8 have the highest ratings).
It's worth noting that most survey respondents who rate Ooma say they use it for small offices, either as sole proprietors or for micro-businesses of two to 10 people. Jim Rapoza, VP & Principal Analyst at Aberdeen, notes that the winner could vary, based on business size; according to our data, Ooma appears to be little used by larger businesses.
For small businesses with a staff of 11 to 200 people, AT&T and RingCentral have the top ratings. Cisco dominates in midsize businesses (200 to 2,000 employees) and enterprises (2,000-plus), but it's also the only vendor that makes the cut in our survey for those business sizes—all the companies mentioned by respondents have overall scores below 8.0 when narrowed down by business size, so we aren't singling any of them out this year.
Rapoza also notes "how much more satisfied the really small businesses are. Larger businesses are much less likely to show high levels of satisfaction in any area.” A higher percentage of survey respondents in smaller offices grant their VoIP service of choice a score of 10 out of 10 in almost every category, compared with those in offices of 10 or more employees.
For our top-rated reviews, read The Best Business VoIP Providers and Phone Services for 2023The Best Business VoIP Providers and Phone Services for 2023.
Full Results
The 2023 Business Choice survey for VoIP Services was in the field from January 30 to February 19, 2023. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read the survey methodologysurvey methodology.