Comparison of Toll Free Number Providers
We offer a comparison of toll free number providers, showing features offered and prices for common toll free numbers. We selected a list of top toll free number providers and compiled a report from public-facing website offerings including their initial set up price, pay-as-you go services, tiered calling plans and features.
Comparison of Toll Free Number Providers
With many toll free number providers in the market today, it is hard to discern how each of them compare to others without a side by side comparison. With VoIP, small and medium-size businesses can now get access to features that were once only available to larger enterprises with deep pockets. Today, you can get a toll free number that is free for your customers to call with valuable features that give your business a professional image.
We’ve selected a few of the top toll free number providers and examined their latest web offerings. We compiled the results and present them in the sections following.
Nextiva Connect
Nextiva Connect offers tiered calling plans for US 8XX toll free numbers that start of at $8.95 a month with their 100 minute plan. A middle-tier plan offers 500 minutes at $19.95 per month. An Unlimited plan is available at $69.95. Nextiva plans offer eleven features with each number. These features include: local or toll free number, auto attendant, voicemail, flexible forwarding, choose your number, dial-by-name directory, online control panel, no hardware, unlimited extensions, IVR/auto attendant and voicemail to email.
Pros: No contact & no activation fee
Cons: When shopping the site, you won’t be sure of your actual price until you have submitted a credit card method of payment and your contact information. When you click on the “Monthly” button under $8.95 for the 100 minute plan, for example, the next page has “Local Number” pre-selected. So when you click on “Toll Free Number” instead, you aren’t sure if that changed your monthly price or not. You have to continue by filling out your contact information and give a credit card before you can finally see what you’ll actually be charged.
Sources:
http://www.nextiva.com http://business-voip-review.toptenreviews.com/nextiva-details.html
TollFreeForwarding.com
TollFreeForwarding offers calling plans in three different tiers: Starter, Business and Enterprise. Each calling plan offers bundled minutes billed annually or monthly, with the monthly calling plans costing slightly more. Their Starter plans start off at $14/month for 200 minutes and go up to $24/month for 500 minutes for a USA 8XX toll free number (like 855, 866, 877, or 888) terminating to a VoIP soft phone. If you are a larger company, TollFreeForwarding offers an Enterprise plan that has up to 20,000 minutes, that will cost you $448 a month. Tollfreeforwarding offers a significant discount if you are willing to pay for annual service instead of month to month. Below is an example of TollFreeForwarding’s Starter plan.
TollFreeForwarding phone numbers come with various call management capabilities. These features include: call forwarding, time/day schedule (time-of-day routing), Auto Attendant/IVR, call recording, voicemail to email, FAX to email and real-time reporting.
Pros: 30 day free trial & good call quality
Cons: Some rates may be higher than other providers. The virtual PBX has been difficult for customers to set-up.
Sources: http://voip.about.com/od/servicesandsolutions/fr/tollfreefwd-rvw.htm https://tollfreeforwarding.com
Ring Central
Ring Central’s plans for USA 8XX toll free numbers start off at 24.99/month for 1000 minutes. RingCentral’s Premium Plan is $34.99/month for 2,500 minutes. Finally, the Enterprise plan costs $44.99/month for 10,000 local and long distant toll free minutes. All of these rates are based on a full one-year commitment but a 30 day trail is offered. Like many providers, the amount of features increase with the amount of minutes you purchase.
Ring Central provides an array of toll free number features including: auto attendant, voicemail, call forwarding, online control panel, voicemail to email, real-time reports, voicemail to fax and sequential ringing.
Pros: Integrated faxing & mobile app. Plans include conferencing for 4, 25, and 50 persons per meeting.
Cons: Interface is complex & portal may be sluggish
Sources:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415347,00.asp https://tollfreeforwarding.com
CallForwarding.com
CallForwarding currently offers USA 8XX toll free calling plans that start at $22.00/month that include 500 minutes per month. The middle tier plan is $39.00/month for 1000 minutes and the largest plan is $99/month for 3000 minutes. Although these calling plans are offered only in the USA, CallForwarding offers numbers worldwide pay-as-you go numbers that have no long-term contract. For each country there is small monthly charge with a rate per minute that depends on the terminating country and device – laptop, landline, or mobile phone.
CallForwarding offers many features that are essential for managing your toll free number. These features are included with all pay-as-you numbers as well as calling plans. CallForwarding features include: 2 free extensions, call recording, time-of-day routing, IVR, auto attendant, user self-care portal, voicemail/web voicemail, fax to email and sequential ringing.
Pros: Standard calling features are included with every calling plan or pay-as-you go number & no long-term contract is required.
Cons: Tiered calling plans are currently only available in the USA.
Sources:
https://www.callforwarding.com/usa-toll-free-calling-plans/
EVoice
Evoice offers plans for businesses that use between 300 to 4000 minutes a month. Their most popular plan is a $29.99/month plan that offers 1000 minutes a month. Unlike other carriers, EVoice offers plans with as low as 300 minutes a month. An additional 100 minutes can be added for each extension you add.
EVoice toll free numbers come with several included features, such as: auto attendant, call forwarding, call forwarding, mobile app, sequential ringing, voicemail, voicemail to email, account management, extensions and conference calling.
Pros: Provides 24/7 customer service
Cons: The web site is a little hard to use. Unless you dig in and pop open every accordion panel, you’ll get the impression that EVoice offers fewer features than competitors. Actually they show quite a few features. EVoice however does not presently have any true USA 800 numbers in stock, at least when we sampled. Numbers available include US 8XX numbers (888, 877, 866, 855, and 844). Also, it’s not clear what is offered at first glance. For example, the $79.99 plan shows “15 extensions, 45 numbers”. Does that mean you get your choice of 45 toll free numbers?
Sources:
http://virtualphonesystemreviews.com/reviews/evoice-review/
http://www.evoice.com/plans-pricing
