Vonage is one of the first and biggest names in VoIP, but does it still have what it takes to be on top? Find out in this in-depth review.
WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Editor & Senior Staff Writer
Last updated onUpdated
REVIEWED BY
Managing Editor
| Total Rating | 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Pricing3.7 | |
| Features4.0 | |
| Equipment3.6 | |
| Security5.0 | |
| Customer Service4.0 | |
| User Reviews3.6 | |
Table of Contents
Since the early 2000s, Vonage has been a pioneer of VoIP. In addition to household telephone service, the company offers Vonage Business Communications (VBC), a unified communications platform that connects businesses and customers through voice, messaging, and video.
Vonage offers a nice set of features suitable for small businesses—everything from standard call forwarding and call blocking to more advanced options like video conferencing and on-demand recording. Unfortunately, some of these features come at a price.
Vonage’s pricing is a little steep when compared to its competitors, and some features are only available as add-ons that come with an additional fee. The company’s customer service also leaves a lot to be desired.
However, Vonage still has a lot going for it. Find out if the pros outweigh the cons and see if this VoIP phone system is the best option for your business.
| Pricing3.7 |
|---|
| Monthly Plan Pricing 3.4 |
| Add-On Feature Pricing 3.5 |
| Pricing For Additional Users/Devices 5.0 |
Vonage business phone plans start at $19.99 per month per line.
| Vonage Plans | Price | When To Use |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | $19.99/month per line | You want to use a VoIP app on your phone or computer |
| Premium | $29.99/month per line | You need VoIP phones and features like video meetings |
| Advanced | $39.99/month per line | You want access to additional communication features |
Vonage also offers promotions for new customers. The current promotion provides you with 30% off any plan for the first 12 months. This is available only when you pay for an annual subscription upfront.
Discounts are also available if you have multiple lines. You can figure out your monthly or annual pricing with Vonage’s built-in calculator by simply entering your number of employees. For example, lines for 10 employees cost $17.99/month per line on the Mobile plan, while lines for 20 employees drop to $14.99/month per line.
There are also several add-ons that you can purchase that will increase your monthly bill. We’ll dive into the specifics of those in the next section.
Overall, Vonage’s pricing isn’t the most expensive we’ve seen, but it’s certainly not the cheapest. If you want to actually use VoIP phones, you have to upgrade to the more expensive Premium plan. We took all of this into consideration when giving Vonage a score of 3.7/5 for its pricing.
Vonage has plenty of add-on features — most of which will add to your monthly pricing.
| Vonage Extra Costs | Price |
|---|---|
| Flat Rate Toll-Free Number | $49.99/month |
| Local Company Number | $9.99/month |
| Voicemail Transcription | $4.99/month |
| Paperless Fax | $14.99/month |
| Business Number Inbox | $9.99/month |
| Call Recording | $4.99/month |
| Txt2Pay | $25/month |
| Call Group | $4.99/month |
| Call Queue | $14.99/month |
| Paging Group | $4.99/month |
| Vonage Support Plus | $9.99/month |
| Remote Go Live Support | $200/hour |
| Virtual Receptionist Recording | $29.99 |
| Integrations | $0 to $4.99/month |
Here’s a quick breakdown of Vonage’s available add-ons:
In addition to your monthly subscription and add-ons, taxes and fees will also be charged on your bill.
| Equipment3.6 |
|---|
| BYOD Compatibility 5.0 |
| Desktop Phone & Devices 2.1 |
One area where we feel Vonage falls a bit short is its equipment. If you want to use a VoIP phone, you’ll have to subscribe to the Premium plan. Then, if you want to purchase your hardware from Vonage, the options are pretty limited.
At the time of this review, Vonage has fewer than 20 advertised products from Yealink and Poly. While there’s a decent selection, no pricing is disclosed online. Instead, you have to contact sales for more details.
You can download Vonage’s apps to use your smartphone, laptop, or desktop. You may also be able to use any VoIP equipment you already own, provided it is session initiated protocol capable.
It’s disappointing to have so little information (such as pricing, financing options, etc.) disclosed by Vonage. For this reason, we had to lower its score in this category to 3.6/5.
| Features4.0 |
|---|
| Basic Features 4.2 |
| Advanced Features 3.0 |
| Third-Party Integrations 5.0 |
Vonage has a solid selection of features. Unfortunately, some of the features you would expect to come with your plan are add-ons, further driving up the cost of your monthly bill.
Compared to its competitors, Vonage isn’t the most robust in terms of features. Businesses with multiple locations or larger businesses may not find everything they need with Vonage. However, businesses that want a dependable VoIP system that isn’t overly complicated may find exactly what they’re looking for.
You can add to your system with one of Vonage’s many third-party integrations and add-ons, but this can get quite expensive.
Overall, we rate Vonage 4/5 for its features, which we’ll detail below.
| Security5.0 |
|---|
| Security Features 5.0 |
| Compliance 5.0 |
Vonage has plenty of security measures in place to ensure your privacy. The company uses encryption to protect data, uses firewalls and logical access control to protect its servers from unauthorized access, and minimizes the logging of sensitive data.
Vonage also holds compliance certifications for ISO 27001, the Cloud Security Alliance Security, Trust, and Assurance Registry, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, HITRUST, and more.
Vonage boasts a 99.999% uptime, providing customers with reliable, stable service.
Given the measures that Vonage takes to ensure security and compliance, we gave them a score of 5/5 for security.
| Customer Service4.0 |
|---|
| Personal Support 3.6 |
| Self-Service 5.0 |
Vonage offers several methods for getting in touch but noticeably lacks a few options.
| Vonage Support | Availability |
|---|---|
| Phone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| Support Tickets | |
| Live Chat | |
| Dedicated Support Representative | |
| Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
| Videos & Tutorials | |
| Company Blog | |
| Social Media |
Phone support is available seven days a week, although it is a bit disappointing that this isn’t available 24 hours a day. Users can submit a support ticket to get assistance. Unfortunately, there is no email support or live chat option.
Vonage does offer several additional resources, including a help center, how-tos, videos, and a company blog. A community forum is also available for sharing tips and tricks with other subscribers. Vonage also maintains social media profiles on Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
One of the areas where Vonage falls short is the quality of its customer support. While its self-service options are great, there are numerous reviews regarding the quality of support from customer service reps.
Some users have complained that it is difficult to reach a rep by phone. Others have stated that representatives are not always helpful. Still others have said that the quality of customer service has declined in recent months.
Taking all of this into account, we’ve rated Vonage a 3.6/5 for its customer support.
| User Reviews3.6 |
|---|
| User Feedback 4.0 |
| Review Site Aggregate 3.2 |
Vonage has a generally positive reputation with users, with hundreds of reviews across the internet. Vonage is rated 4.3/5 (based on 450+ reviews) on G2, 4.1/5 (based on 300+ reviews) on GetApp, and a shockingly low 1.1/5 (based on 2,400+ reviews) on Consumer Affairs.
We pored through these reviews and found that while many people were pleased with Vonage, there were several common complaints. Based on these scores and the quality of the reviews, we gave Vonage a rating of 3.6/5 for this category.
Although many complaints are positive, Vonage hasn’t escaped the criticism of some of its users. Users were most displeased with:
Though it isn’t without its flaws, many customers are still pleased with the service they receive from Vonage. Customers praise the company for:
Overall, Vonage is a solid choice for business VoIP. It has the basic features you need, it works with any device, the mobile apps work well, and it’s pretty easy to get up and running. We also like that there are numerous integrations to customize your phone system,
However, Vonage is more expensive than some other options out there. This is especially true when you consider that some features, such as call recording, are only available as add-ons with additional monthly fees.
We also found that the equipment options were a bit lacking, and it’s a little disappointing to see that pricing for VoIP phones isn’t disclosed up front.
While customer reviews are overall favorable, there are some criticisms of Vonage — especially when it comes to customer support. While there are many great self-support options, it’s difficult to reach a rep … and when you do, you may or may not get the answers you need.
Overall, we give Vonage four out of five stars. It’s a good option for smaller businesses that are looking for a basic business phone system. If you’re a larger business that needs advanced features, add-ons, and integrations, just know that it’s going to cost you if you go with Vonage.
Still comparison shopping? Start with the best VoIP business phone systems to see other options that may be a better fit.
We spend hours researching and evaluating each VoIP business phone provider that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing emphasis on key characteristics to generate our product ratings.
When rating VoIP phone systems and providers, we use a 25-point rubric that looks at pricing, features, equipment, security, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating.
Each section is further broken down into granular, weighted subsections, in which we look at specific attributes, such as plan availability, discounts for new customers, discounts for multiple users, the availability of advanced and basic features, security and compliance, and third-party integrations. Learn more about how we rate VoIP phone systems.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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