7 Best Paid and Free Alternatives to Google Voice

Google Voice is a great VoIP platform for making international calls over the internet, and it’s also one of the cheapest VoIP providers on the market, with plans starting from as little as $10 per month. On the other hand, Google Voice’s calling features are limited compared to lots of alternatives, and some users also struggle to get a number for their desired area code.

If you’re interested in switching from Google Voice, there are plenty of worthy competitors. Our research and testing found the best alternative to Google Voice is Zoom’s starter plan, Zoom Unmetered, due to its impressive feature catalog and low price tag.

With plans starting from $10 per month, Zoom Unmetered is just as cheap as Google Voice – without the mandatory additional $7-per-month Workspace subscription.

In this article, we take a closer look at the best alternatives to Google Voice, prioritizing solutions that match the provider’s affordability and slick user experience. We even round up some free VoIP platforms to consider – although they may not be suitable for businesses.

In This Guide:

• Best Google Voice Alternatives Compared
• Best Free Alternatives to Google Voice
• Pros and Cons of Google Voice
• Should I Choose Google Voice Anyway?
• Google Voice vs Google Meet
• How to Switch From Google Voice
• Methodology: How We Rate Providers
• Verdict: Which Google Alternative Is Best?

Best Google Voice Alternatives Compared

Google Voice is one of the most secure calling tools we have tested, and comes as a low-cost add-on to the popular Google Workspace, which costs $7 per user, per month.

Google Voice prices start from $10 per user, per month, which puts it at the cheapest end of the VoIP market. However, we’ve found that Google Voice lacks the features, integrations, and customer support options offered by the industry’s best VoIP providers. Plus, you can get Zoom Phone’s Metered plan for a similar price to Google Voice – but you don’t have to pay for the Workspace subscription.

Our research found that Zoom, magicJack, and Dialpad are the best VoIP options overall. They have better features and will cater to both medium-sized and large businesses in a way that Google Voice can’t.

Note for reader: At Tech.co, we conduct independent research into all the products, software, and services we write about. This includes devising extensive market research frameworks that allow us to score products. For our VoIP research series, we scored providers against more than 80 different criteria. Find out more in our methodology section.

1. Zoom Metered – Best Google Phone alternative

Price: $10 per user, per month
Downside: Limited integrations
Key takeaway: Great for small businesses with high call volume

Why is Zoom Metered a good Google Voice alternative?

Zoom is one of the most popular and robust VoIP providers on the market today, for good reason: Its starter plan, Zoom Metered, is slick, streamlined, and inexpensive. In a nutshell, it can deliver all the basics that a small business needs to route a ton of incoming calls to any teams or individuals who need to take them.

At just $10 per user, per month, the Zoom Metered plan matches the Google Voice Standard starting price. However, Zoom Meter is actually cheaper than Google Voice, since it avoids the extra $7 per user, per month Google Workspace fee that’s required in order to access Google Voice at all.

Users will love Zoom Metered for its wealth of inbound communication functionality, which includes unlimited domestic minutes, automatic call distribution groups complete with call queueing, spam prevention, and post-call summaries. Once the relatively short learning curve is overcome, these tools combined can propel a small business team into a powerhouse of efficiency. As a result, it’s a top pick for customer service and retail teams in particular, since they handle more incoming calls on average.

It took me a couple of taps to check my voicemail with Zoom Phone. Source: Tech.co user testing 

Are there any downsides to Zoom Metered? That depends on your needs. Unlike inbound, outbound minutes are not inclusive, so teams that place a lot of calls to clients or leads won’t be well served. (Google Voice beats it in this area, since all Voice plans include unlimited outbound calls, if placed to the US)

In addition, We called Zoom Metered a “streamlined” plan earlier, and that’s not necessarily a good thing for everyone. In brief, the stripped-down platform doesn’t offer very many integrations. Users will be limited to this short (but popular) list: Outlook, Salesforce, Hubspot, Bullhorn, Zoho, Gmail, Teams, and Zendesk. If you need to integrate your software stack with any other CRMs or Helpdesk platforms, you’re up a creek.

However, Zoom Metered can’t be beat for call functionality, as we found that it offers all the core functions you’ll need, including caller ID, voicemail screening, call blocking, voicemail transcriptions, and customizable greetings, along with the previously mentioned call routing tools. You’ll also benefit from team messaging and video conferencing, two options that open up plenty of communication flexibility.

If you’re a fan of Gmail, you’ll likely be happy with the Google integration Zoom offers on all plans: During testing, we found it was great for streamlining workflows and reducing the need for multiple applications.

Finally, Zoom Metered has great training tools, including call monitoring, call barging, and call whisper, none of which are offered on any Google Voice plans.

Zoom Metered pricing

Zoom pricing for the Zoom Phone Metered plan comes in at $10 per user, per month, which is an affordable starting cost. Along with magicJack for Business, Zoom’s starter plan is among our most inexpensive options. In fact, it’s twice as cheap as many other starter plans in this guide.

Should you require an upgrade, Zoom Phone’s two additional plans remainly cost-effective: Regional Unlimited is $15 per user, per month, and Global Select is $20 per user, per month.

2. magicJack for Business – Best for Teams on a Budget

Price: $9.99 per user, per month
Downside: Basic functionality without complex features
Key takeaway: Great for microbusinesses that keep it simple

Why is magicJack a good Google Voice alternative?

The magicJack platform overlaps with Google Voice when it comes to one big benefit: It has a low starting price, $9.99 per user, per month, which just about matches Zoom Metered. Google Voice starts at $10 per user, per month, too, but requires that pesky additional $7 per user, per month Workspace subscription as well. If you’re on a tight budget and want to avoid getting locked into the Google Workspace suite, magicJack for Business is the cheapest option.

In another similarity with Zoom Metered, magicJack is best for tiny businesses. Unlike Zoom Metered, however, you’ll get unlimited outbound calls as well as unlimited inbound calls.

Your tradeoff is the platform’s somewhat limited functionality: magicJack lacks team messaging and video conferencing, and its simple call routing tools may do the job, but they don’t match up to Zoom Metered. Still, there’s no shame in a simple telephone system, and magicJack delivers a great value for the functions it provides.

magicJack’s Settings, as viewed on desktop, include a toggle for a “Do Not Disturb” function. Source: magicJack

Our independent research found magicJack users will get caller ID, call blocking, standard voicemail, custom hold music, call queueing, ring groups, and localized numbers. Users will not get custom call routing or call flipping – in comparison, all Google Voice plans include routing but lack flipping.

The platform has no training tools, either, since it lacks call recording, call monitoring, analytics, call barging, or call whisper functionality. In comparison, our top pick, Zoom Metered, offers all of those tools.

magicJack for Business pricing

magicJack just offers one paid plan, magicJack for Business, which costs $9.99 per user, per month. However, that’s not the whole story. You’ll also have the option to pay for three add-ons, each of which comes at a monthly fee that ultimately adds up pretty fast.

The paid add-ons include: An auto-attendant for $10 per month, virtual fax for $5 per month, and toll-free numbers for $5 per month. Together, you’ll be charged $35.99 per line per month, if those features are crucial for your business needs.

You can also check out our magicJack pricing and review guide for more information.

3. Zoom Regional Unlimited – Best Google Phone Upgrade

Price: $15 per user, per month
Downside: Limited integrations
Key takeaway: Unlimited outbound domestic calls

Why is Zoom Regional Unlimited a good Google Voice alternative?

If the Zoom Phone Metered starter plan doesn’t offer the full functionality that you need, it’s time to move up. Our top pick for the best VoIP platform that offers an upgrade over the tools you’ll get from Google Phone (or its equivalent starter option Zoom Metered) is the next Zoom plan, Regional Unlimited.

Regional Unlimited offers everything that Metered has, so just scroll up for a refresher on the expansive inbound call functionality. However, it adds one key benefit: Unlimited outbound domestic calls are now offered, alongside unlimited inbound calls. All Google Voice plans offer unlimited outbound calls, but only if they’re made to the US, so Regional Unlimited surpasses it, while Metered does not. Since the cost is a still-low $15 per user, per month, Regional Unlimited is a value-rich choice for a business that places just as many calls as it receives.

Many small businesses need a full VoIP platform to operate their sales and marketing team’s outbound calls and their customer service team’s inbound calls from the same system. At the same time, they need a little more functionality than the pared-down magicJack platform offers. Zoom Regional Unlimited is the best plan on the market for those businesses.

The dashboard in Zoom Phone lets users quickly navigate to areas including Messages, Team Chat, Phone, and more. Source: Tech.co testing

Like Zoom Metered, the Zoom Regional Unlimited has expansive training tools, easily beating any of Google Voice’s plans.

While the customer service options don’t include email (Google Voice does have this), Zoom Regional Unlimited does offer around-the-clock phone and live chat support alongside a user forum and online knowledge base, with a 99.9% uptime guarantee thrown in for good measure.

Zoom Regional Unlimited users will also receive the same limited set of integrations that Zoom Metered users get, however, so you won’t have any customer service live chat integrations or any video conferencing integrations – although video conferencing itself remains available, as do team messages.

Zoom Regional Unlimited pricing

Zoom Phone’s Regional Unlimited clocks in at a tidy $15 per user, per month. Plus, if your business expands into international calls down the road, users can always upgrade to the Global Select plan $20 per user, per month.

You can check out our Zoom Phone review for more information about this well-recommended VoIP solution.

4. Dialpad Standard – Best for Small Customer Service Teams

Price: $15 per user, per month
Downside: Lacks call queueing
Key takeaway: Balances unlimited outbound and inbound calls with good call features

Why is Dialpad Standard a good Google Voice alternative?

Dialpad Standard is a well-rounded small business VoIP plan: It works for small and medium-size operations alike, with the cost-effective cloud-based approach typical to the industry. We recomend it for customer service teams thanks to its unlimited outbound and inbound domestic calls, as well as a robust set of communication channels and call management tools.

Unlike Zoom, Dialpad Standard has limited training features, and fewer integrations. If those two areas aren’t huge concerns for your company, however, you’ll be well catered to with Dialpad Standard, which costs a relatively low $15 per user, per month when billed annually and delivers a top-of-the-market VoIP platform.

Dialpad can be operated from a mobile app, as seen here. Source: Dialpad

Dialpad Standard offers a lot: You’ll get custom greetings, call routing, voicemail transcriptions, caller ID, call blocking and automatic screening, voicemail screening, call forwarding, call flip, ring groups, and custom hold music. This all adds up to an inbound call functionality that rivals Zoom Metered, although Dialpad Standard lacks call queueing, which may be a dealbreaker for companies that constantly handle a large volume of calls. As a result, it’s better for small customer service teams than for large ones. Granted, no Google Voice plans offer queueing, either, while the pricier Dialpad plans do.

The platform supports team messaging, SMS messages, call conferencing, and video conferencing, although video calls are capped at 150 participants. Dialpad Standard has some training tools that include call recording and analytics. However, like Google Voice, the platform doesn’t have call monitoring, call barging, or call whispering.

Four major hardware options are supported for the platform: Obihai, Polycom, Yealink, and Cisco. The Standard plan has next to no integrations, however, as our research team only found a single Google Workspace Calendar integration, and no integrations for popular workplace software such as CRM, helpdesk, or customer service.

Dialpad Standard pricing

Dialpad Standard has two different, depending on how frequently you pay the bill. If you pay for the whole year at one time, you’ll get the best deal: It’s $15 per user, per month with an annual billing. In comparison to Google Voice, Dialpad Standard is a little under the total cost for the $17 per month you’d pay for a Workspace subscription and Voice starter plan combined.

That cost increases by a full $12 per user, per month to reach $27 per user, per month when billed monthly, however, so we recommend committing to a year at a time for the best savings.

5. Net2Phone Essentials – Best for Call Management Features

Price: From $19.99 per user, per month
Downside: Not the cheapest
Key takeaway: Great call features and support

Why is Net2Phone Essentials a good Google Voice alternative?

With its higher price tag, Net2Phone Essentials is a less attractive pick for small businesses, and it delivers the expanded call management functionality that larger businesses need. Another benefit for larger businesses is the pricing model itself, which lowers the per-user cost as the number of users increases.

You’ll get almost the entire suite of call managing capabilities with Net2Phone Essentials: custom greetings, call routing, voicemail transcriptions, caller ID, call blocking and automatic screening, voicemail screening, call forwarding, call flip, ring groups, and custom hold music are all included. You’ll need to pay for an add-on to access call queueing and localized numbers.

Net2Phone offers plenty of useful call management features including call routing and ring groups. Source: Net2Phone

Like Dialpad and Google Voice, Net2Phone’s training tools are limited to call recording and analytics, with no option for monitoring, call barge, or call whisper. Onboarding support is included, however, making this platform a top pick for any teams that are concerned about a learning curve for software adapatation.

At a mere 10 users, Net2Phone Essential’s cap on video conferencing participants the lowest we’ve seen. Pricier Net2Phone plans expand this cap to 100 users, but even that is well under the 150 cap that Dialpad Standard imposes.

Its range of integrations is limited as well: The platform bundles in a Google Calendar integration, but the Salesforce and Microsoft Teams integrations are available as add-ons. If your team regularly uses Salesforce or Microsoft Teams, staying connected to Net2Phone Essential will cost a little extra. More integrations are available with higher-priced plans, including custom API integrations.

That said, Net2Phone Essential beats Google Voice, which has no integrations at all across the priority areas that we researched.

Net2Phone Essentials pricing

The Net2Phone Essentials plan costs between $19.99 and $27.99 per user, per month. This price range will vary depending on how many users you are paying for, with a total of three tiers. Here’s how the price breakdown works:

• 1 to 9 users: $27.99 per user, per month
• 10 to 24 users: $21.99 per user, per month
• 25 to 99 users: $19.99 per user, per month

Companies with more than 99 users can get in touch with Net2Phone for a custom quote. Check out our full Net2Phone review for more in-depth information.

6. RingCentral Core – Best for Multi-Location Businesses

Price: $20 per user, per month
Downside: Limited training features
Key takeaway: Great 24/7 support

Why is RingCentral Core a good Google Voice alternative?

RingCentral Core delivers on the core tools needed for a good VoIP system, including the call queueing function that Net2Phone requires an add-on for and which Dialpad and Google Voice skip entirely. The platform is best for operations that need to streamline their communications at a large scale, thanks to a large number of integrations and features, as well as even more powerful higher-priced plans to move up to as your business grows.

Along with call forwarding, transfering, screening, and analytics, these features make RingCentral a good pick for businesses with multiple locations, since they can transfer and queue calls with ease. 

The many communication channels on offer is another reason why RingCentral can handle multiple locations: Users will get team messaging, video conferencing, SMS, and call conferencing, giving them four additional ways to get in touch in top of a normal phone call. It’s worth noting that Google Voice includes all of these channels as well, however.

RingCentral’s call pop-up appears on your screen when you’re receiving an incoming call. Source: Tech.co testing

RingCentral Core excels at one area in which nearly of the other brands in this guide, including Google Voice, come up short: Integrations for customer service live chat tools. Nextiva was the only other platform listed in this article that included any integrations, but RingCentral supports the most, including Whatsapp, Facebook, Apple Business Chat, and Google Business Messages.

RingCentral Core joins Dialpad and Net2Phone with a lack of call monitoring, barging, and whisper functionality, although all these features are included in Advanced, the next RingCentral plan. Core does include call recording.

Finally, RingCentral offers comprehensive support options. These include a user forum, online knowledge base, and 24/7 phone and live chat support (matching Google Voice), as well as email support within business hours. You’ll also get free onboarding support.

Ease of use may be a concern, however: We found it a little difficult to download video call meeting transcripts, and struggled to locate our call recordings.

RingCentral Core pricing

As with Dialpad, those who pay annually can save a bundle on their RingCentral Core bill: The plan costs $20 per user, per month when billed annually, and $30 per user, per month when billed monthly.

The platform offers two additional plans. When you’re ready to upgrade, you’ll pay $25 per user, per month for Advanced and $35 per user, per month for Ultra (with an additional $10 per user, per month for each plan for those billed monthly).

For more information, read our full RingCentral review.

7. Nextiva Core – Best for Omnichannel Communication

Price: $30 per user, per month
Downside: Most expensive platform
Key takeaway: Unmatchable omnichannel platform

Why is Nextiva a good Google Voice alternative?

Nextiva costs more than the other plans in this guide for a simple reason. It’s not just a small business VoIP system, it’s an entire omnichannel customer experience platform. It offers eCommerce and social media functionality as well as phone calling functions, and it’s designed to meet your customers wherever they are.

This makes it a poor fit for a business that’s just looking for an entry-level phone service similar to Google Voice – but the only true fit for a small business that needs an omnichannel communication platform. If that’s you, keep reading.

Nextiva’s interface is simple, making it easy to navigate. Source: Nextiva

Along with RingCentral, Nextiva Core is the only plan to include social media integrations for Facebook, and it supports Instagram as well. Users will also get unlimited inbound and outbound calls, and most core call functionality, including caller ID, voicemail transcription, call blocking, call forwarding, and ring groups. Not included? Call queueing.

When you’re connecting with customers on a range of different platforms, it’s essential to have the right internal communications tools to ensure your team stays on the same page. Nextiva Core packs in plenty of these: You’ll get team messaging, video conferencing, SMS, and call conferencing tools, although e-fax is only available as an add-on. Still, this does one-up Google Voice, which includes all the same channels but lacks the e-fax, even as an add-on.

Training options are very limited. Call barging is supported, but fairly common tools like call recording and analytics are only avilable as add-ons.

Ultimately, figuring out whether Nextiva Core is for your operation should be an easy call. If you want omnichannel support for your customer base, give it a try. If not, move on.

Nextiva Core pricing

Nextiva Core costs more than any other platform plan featured in this guide, including Google Voice: It’s $30 per user, per month when billed annually, and this already-high cost jumps up to $36 per user, per month when billed monthly.

Billed annually, the platform’s three other plans cost $20 per user, per month for the limited Digital plan, $40 per user, per month for the Engage plan, and $60 per user, per month for the Power Suite plan.

Read our full Nextiva review for more information.

What’s the Best Free Google Voice Alternative?

Now that we’ve looked at paid providers, it’s only logical to ask: is there a free alternative to Google Voice? Well, the best free alternative to Google Voice is Facebook Messenger, which offers a familiar interface and is incredibly simple to use. Other options include Line, Just Call, and WhatsApp, but their business features are limited.

WhatsApp

+ Free to use
+ WhatsApp for Business option

– Not built for business functionality
– Mobile app lacks analytics and menus
– No hold music
– Business-specific plan requires messy integration with dedicated API

Pros and Cons of Google Voice

We’ve spent quite a bit of time going through the merits and pitfalls of the best Google Voice alternatives – so it would only be fair if we did the same with Google Voice itself. Here’s a rundown of the key pros and cons of Google Voice:

Pros

• Excellent security features – Google Voice has industry-leading security safeguards, including compliance certifications, and features like user permissions and MFA to protect your company’s data.
• Cheaper than competitors – Google Voice is on the cheaper end of the VoIP market, and undercuts RingCentral, 8×8, GoTo Connect, and various other top VoIP systems.
• 24/7 live support available – If you’re experiencing technical issues, Google has staff on hand to help, whatever time of day.

Cons

• You have to have a Google Workspace Subscription – starting from $7 per month, purchasing this beforehand is the only way you’ll be able to access Google Voice.
• Not very scalable – Growing businesses may find Google Voice sufficient to start with, but there aren’t enough management and high-level comms features to scale up this software.
• No localized or toll-free numbers – Google Voice doesn’t offer this important feature, but all the VoIP providers we tested do.

Should I Still Choose Google Voice Anyway?

Google Voice will still be worth using for many businesses. The provider has excellent security options, a native integration with Google Workspace, and its starting plan is cheaper than pretty much every other provider’s starting plan, easily beating relatively cheap picks like Dialpad or Net2Phone.

For this reason, we’d recommend Google Voice if:

• Your business handles sensitive information like personal, financial, or medical data
• You want to get started with a VoIP system for as little as possible
• Your business makes a lot of international calls
• You’re already subscribed to Google Workspace

However, Google Voice isn’t perfect. It lacks some pretty basic call management features, and provides poor onboarding support for starters. Its entry price of $10 per month doesn’t factor in the cost of a Google Workspace subscription, either, making its value offering slightly poorer than it initially seems.

For this reason, we wouldn’t recommend Google Voice if:

• You make a high volume of outbound calls, since only outbound calls from another country to the US are free
• You don’t want to pay $7 per month extra for Google Workspace
• You want a VoIP platform that grows alongside your business
• You recruit new staff often, and want useful onboarding and training features to match

The voicemail interface in Google Voice includes an auto-transcription functionality. Source: Tech.co testing

Google Voice vs Google Meet

Communicating with Google services has become quite popular in recent years, particularly with the pandemic spurring the remote work boom that had everyone signing into video chats to stay in touch with their team. As a result, you may be thinking that Google Meet could be a good alternative to Google Voice, as it provides an affordable way to talk to others.

However, the reality is that Google Voice and Google Meet serve very different functions. Google Meet is a video conferencing platform at its core, which means you can’t really set it up to replace your business phone system. Yes, it’s a great way to stay in touch with people on your team, but you can’t set it up in a way that could accept outside calls for your business.

In summary, Google Meet is not a suitable Google Voice alternative, which means you’ll have to look at one of the aforementioned competitors above to get your business phone system set up today.

How To Switch From Google Voice

To switch from Google Voice, start by checking what type of account you have. Google Voice has a light version, but only a full account requires you to port or create a telephone number. If switching from a full account, you’ll either need to swap your Google Voice number to a new line or change your telephone number entirely, which a new provider can do for you.

You likely want to port your number to your new provider. First you’ll have to unlock the number, which is a simple process that is either free or a $3 charge, depending on how you first set up your number. If your new provider requests an account number to complete the porting process, just give them your Google Voice number.

Switch from Google Voice: Find the best provider for free today

Methodology: How We Test Google Voice Alternatives