Ooma’s quick detailsBeginning worth: $19.95 per consumer monthly Key options:
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Ooma is a small enterprise cellphone system that features dozens of ordinary options with each plan. It’s an incredible alternative for smaller in-person workplace environments that want desk telephones to smartphones or desktop apps.
The draw back? Options that might usually be thought of customary from different suppliers, like texting, video conferencing, and the Ooma desktop app, are solely out there on greater tiers.
Ooma’s pricing
- Necessities: $19.95 per consumer monthly for voice, faxing, and customary options.
- Professional: $24.95 per consumer monthly for video conferencing, texting, name recording, analytics, and calling by way of the desktop app.
- Professional Plus: $29.95 per consumer monthly for queues, CRM integration, bigger video conferences, staff chat, auto dialers, and sizzling desking.
Each Ooma Workplace plan comes with 50 customary options and limitless calling within the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Whereas this will sound like so much, most of them are baseline options you’d anticipate to have, like forwarding, extensions, voicemail, and name transfers.
The Necessities plan is nice if all you want is voice, faxing, and primary cellphone capabilities. I recognize that Ooma offers you the choice of a no-frills, easy cellphone system if that’s all you want.
For full enterprise communications, you’ll must be on the Professional Plus plan, which is the one tier that features staff chat.
Ooma’s key options
Each Ooma Workplace plan comes with an ordinary set of options. Most of those are pretty primary, however we’ll break down a number of the most helpful choices in higher element under.
Digital receptionist
Ooma’s digital receptionist simplifies inbound name routing for small companies. Callers can hear vital details about your corporation, similar to your hours and handle, after which use their dial pad to pick out a division or extension.
This instrument permits you to create totally different ring teams to your staff and in addition helps dial-by-name extension routing. You possibly can even create a number of menu choices in numerous languages.
Because the identify implies, this function goals to get rid of the necessity for an in-person receptionist to deal with your incoming calls.
Free toll-free quantity
If you join Ooma, you will have the choice to get a toll-free cellphone quantity without cost. These are numbers with prefixes like 800, 888, 877, 866, and so forth.
With a toll-free quantity, the particular person calling that quantity received’t should pay in the event that they’re dialing from a landline — even when it’s not an area name.
That is nice for customer support functions, and may even assist you monitor the success of particular campaigns tied to that quantity.
By default, you get 500 toll-free minutes included along with your plan each month. It’s undoubtedly not one of the best deal we’ve seen available on the market, but it surely must be tremendous for smaller companies with principally native prospects. Extra toll-free minutes may be bought if needed.
Digital faxing
Each Ooma Workplace plan comes with digital faxing capabilities, serving to corporations ditch the clunky and outdated bodily machine for a extra trendy strategy to ship and obtain faxes.
An attention-grabbing element of Ooma’s fax system is that every quantity has its personal line for direct entry that may be linked to a particular consumer’s extension. When arrange, all incoming faxes will mechanically be despatched to the recipient’s electronic mail as a PDF file. This eliminates bodily faxes from piling up in a shared room with out info privateness.
Cellular app
It is a actually vital providing for Ooma as a result of their desktop app shouldn’t be an ordinary function and is simply out there on choose plans.
For those who’re signing up for Ooma’s entry-level Necessities plan, which means you’ll should depend on the cellular app to entry most options and handle calls while you’re away out of your desk cellphone.
The cellular app is obtainable for iOS and Android, and you’ll set it up for simultaneous ringing. Which means that your workplace cellphone and cell phone will each ring any time you get an incoming name, which helps guarantee you will have protection whereas away out of your desk.
Accessing voicemails, dealing with faxes, and dialing extensions are additionally customary in-app options.
Relying on the plan you will have, with the higher tiers you’ll additionally be capable of file calls, ship texts, and flip calls from the cellular app to the desktop app.
Intercom and overhead paging
These are technically two totally different options, however they go hand-in-hand and each align with Ooma’s capacity to accommodate in-person workplace environments.
With the intercom function, somebody in your workplace can dial an inner extension and the receiving cellphone will mechanically decide up on speakerphone. It may be used to inform a supervisor that somebody is ready for them within the reception space, and will also be used for collaborative work functions with out having to dial and decide up the cellphone.
The overhead paging system works for bigger places and workplaces the place persons are in a number of rooms or totally different elements of the constructing. Ooma seamlessly integrates with current overhead paging programs, so that you simply want to put in an adapter and it’s prepared to make use of.
From there, you possibly can shortly make bulletins for your complete workplace to listen to, share vital information, and even challenge emergency alerts. It’s additionally useful for connecting the entrance of a retail area with the again workplace, for one thing like paging a supervisor to talk with a buyer.
Ooma professionals
- Straightforward strategy to improve to the cloud.
- Problem-free DIY setup.
- Full implementation information.
- Free quantity porting.
- No contracts.
- Contains faxing on each plan.
- SRTP and end-to-end encryption.
- 24/7 cellphone and reside chat help.
Ooma cons
- No desktop app on the most cost effective plan.
- Costly for what you get.
- Very primary video conferencing.
- Restricted integrations.
- Bigger companies will really feel constricted.
Alternate options to Ooma
Nextiva and RingCentral are two of one of the best Ooma alternate options, however for various causes. Nextiva is extra reasonably priced, simpler to make use of, and has a greater general worth for small companies — particularly for distant and hybrid workforces.
RingCentral is extra superior than Nextiva and Ooma, making it a bit harder to arrange, but it surely’s a stable general alternative for midsize to bigger organizations.
See how Ooma compares to Nextiva, RingCentral, and different rivals under.
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Nextiva
Nextiva presents extra worth per greenback than Ooma as a result of its least expensive plan contains video conferences, staff chat, and stronger name routing options. It’s an incredible alternative if you’d like a well-rounded cellphone system that’s straightforward to arrange and presents loads of room to develop. Learn my Nextiva assessment.
RingCentral
For those who want a bit extra energy, RingCentral is the best way to go. It’s probably the most superior cellphone programs available on the market, making it an incredible match for midsize or giant groups. Learn my RingCentral assessment.
8×8
Ooma permits you to deal with worldwide calls, however you’ll pay per minute. 8×8 presents limitless calling to 14 nations, a bigger convention name capability, and each communication channel on its least expensive plan. You possibly can improve to the following tier for limitless calling to 48 nations, too. Learn my 8×8 assessment.
Dialpad
Dialpad presents a number of the finest AI options we’ve seen, together with real-time name and voicemail transcriptions. On greater tiers, you’ll additionally get a spread of AI capabilities for gross sales groups and phone facilities, like AI scorecards, CSAT scores, and in-call agent help. Learn my Dialpad assessment.
Methodology
I’ve examined and reviewed nearly each enterprise cellphone system on the market and have bought a number of of them for my groups through the years. I thought of my expertise and the next set of things when placing this assessment collectively:
Commonplace vs superior options
I checked out key options together with video conferencing, voicemail, SMS messaging, digital receptionist, name transfers between gadgets, name forwarding, desktop apps, and cellular apps and in contrast their availability at totally different plan tiers.
Buyer help
I researched the hours of availability for buyer help, every service’s help channels, and any buyer opinions associated to the supplier’s degree and velocity of service.
Third-party integrations
With the intention to evaluate performance at an enterprise degree, I checked every platform’s capacity to sync with frequently-used enterprise software program, like CRM, cloud storage, fax, ERP, SMS, and extra.
Safety and privateness
Encryption, account administration, redundancy structure, knowledge middle audits, multi-factor authentication, and a number of servers and knowledge facilities in numerous places have been all thought of.
Uptime share
I checked for any studies of unplanned outages, infrastructure issues, or technical points that might result in uptime issues, delays, or service interruptions.
Demo or free trial
This metric contains each the flexibility to check the service utilizing a trial or demo earlier than committing to a subscription in addition to the size of time offered for that free trial.
Total price
This contains all the associated charges, together with free trials, reductions, month-to-month pricing versus annual pricing, price per set up, and worth per consumer. It additionally components in whether or not current or new gear is required to make use of the decision middle cellphone system.