The cheapest Business Phone service that you can take with you anywhere (compatible with small office phone systems and cell phones), is Grasshopper Phone Service. You can easily add as many extensions as you want, get local or toll free 800 numbers, and even get the iphone app for free. Plans start at just $12/mo with this free activation, and you can add as many lines as you want to your account thereafter. The cloud based control panel makes changing your custom greeting or hold music a snap, and all phone system options are easy to use and customize in your online account. Perfect for small office phone solutions, contractors and service businesses, and even solo entrepreneurs.

Best Business Phone Service For Mobile Offices

What makes Grasshopper so affordable for all types of businesses, is it’s flexibility and low cost. Numbers can have unlimited extensions, and they have a pay as you go as well as monthly block packages of minutes. The only thing grasshopper can’t do is record calls. Easy mobile integration makes it a snap to make it work with any business cell phone plan, and the app is free.

Other Affordable Phone Solutions For Small Businesses

• Ring Central
• Onebox
• Phone.com
• Freedom 800
• Vonage
• Kall8
• Freedom Voice
• Evoice
• Virtual PBX
• Mighty Call
• Com Voice

Cheapest Business Phone Line For Small Offices (single line with multiple extensions)

If you look at the comparison chart below, you’ll see that Phone.com is actually the cheapest option that includes 1 line. But, what you don’t see, is that there are more add on charges for additional features that most businesses need, where they’re included with Grasshopper making them the most affordable phone solution. Also note that most all businesses will burn through the 100 minutes that Phone.com gives you in their basic plan as well.

Adding extensions doesn’t cost anything either with an unlimited plan, so you won’t have to buy additional numbers for any new staff or divisions you add in the near future. If employees already have a cell phone, simply forward their extension to that number. (solves a lot of headaches if they travel, are out in the field giving estimates, etc…)

Best Business Voip Service Providers Comparison

Here are the top VOIP business providers compared:

VOIP Business Phone Lines & Service In Your Area By City, State, & Zip Code (area codes from gh.com)

if you’re in the US and looking to get a local area code number from your city, you can click the graphic below and search Grasshopper’s database for available number combinations. You can also easily add vanity and toll free 1-800 number to your account as well if you need both. You will be able to search the popular city page, which also has available numbers by state listed as well, in case you’re not sure of your area code options.

Cheap Landline Business Phone Service Providers

I’ve removed these at this time, as I stopped using these myself altogether. It just doesn’t make sense for me or clients to use these anymore, especially for new lines. It’s one thing if an office is already equipment with a particular setup… By all means, make use of it. But to buy phone system equipment that’s only going to be outdated in a year or too and immediately depreciates, is only going to become less and less popular. (not to mention, every year the tech gets better and better, so we don’t know what next year’s unveiling will provide)

Any pros to landlines?

The upside is the reliability if there is some kind of outage, but unless you run an emergency type business, connectivity is only going to improve in the future. The downside of landline Business Phone system in my opinion, are the costs involved. Not really the cost of the lines or service, but every few years you’ll want to upgrade your office p[hones or self hosted PBX equipment, and it’s just too costly unless you have sales reps who need that type of environment in the office.

What about call quality?

In the old days a lot of VOIP providers had staticky crackling phone lines, since the connections weren’t what they are today. As long as you stay away from lower quality providers (I wouldn’t advise using companies like Twilio, etc… for your main business line) you should be fine. I recommend Grasshopper to pretty much everyone.

Related Reading:

• How To get A Custom Vanity Phone Number For Your Business (local, 800, & toll free)
• The 5 Best 800 Phone Service Providers For Small Business

The 5 Best 800 Number Phone Services For Small Businesses (especially for advertising!)

Inexpensive Toll Free 1-800 Number Providers

I have another section that goes into more detail for toll free 800 numbers, mostly because a lot of small business owners like to use additional lines for certain types of advertising and such. When it comes to call tracking, or adding toll free numbers for billboard advertising for instance, certain providers work much better if you want to do specific things (like monitor how the receptionist answers the phone during one of your promotions) compared to what you’d look for in a main business line provider. You’ll probably be more concerned with included minutes, overall cost, and portability in case you want to change providers and keep the number after the promotion is over.

That’s just scratching the surface of two feature sets you might need, and there’s a ton more depending on the industry/business. So it doesn’t get confusing, I’ve separated a lot of the info regarding these various providers and systems, but you can easily find them below:

• How To Get An 800 Number For Your Small Business (In 10 Minutes Or Less)
• How To Get A Custom Vanity Number For Your Business
• The 5 Best 800 Number Providers For Small Businesses With Call Tracking (especially for advertising!)
• How To Get A (main business line) Business Phone Number In Under 30 Minutes Flat (local & 800 toll free)
• Are Orlando FL Business Phone Service Providers Ripping You Off?

The Truth About The Business Phone Service Providers In Your Area

Most local business phone service providers offer what seem to be affordable bundle plans these days, and it’s one of the only ways to compete with straight VOIP provider competitors. Your perceived value is higher because you ONLY have to spend $99/mo for phone and internet services. But until they up the ante with a few control panel features, it’s not as easy to route your calls, setup custom greetings, enable automated answering, and on and on. Now the companies that do offer unlimited minutes… that can sure be a benefit depending on your setup, But for sales and marketing, which is mostly what my background and experience with using most of these systems entails, they don’t even come close. (and you’re normally wasting about $75/mo on things you don’t need, since most ISP providers make you buy business class internet if you’re in a retail location anyway)

Is Grasshopper Really Cheapest Business Phone Service You Can Take With You Anywhere?

Once you factor in the up-sells and additional fees from other companies, Grasshopper offers the most bang for your buck that’s for sure! Many people I know have used Grasshopper and loved them as well, and they continue to make the system better and better each year. The only reason I would recommend Phone.com over Grasshopper, is if you want to record your calls. But for everything else, Grasshopper is the way to go!

I love the fact that there’s NO need for an additional business cell phone service either – use your personal cell with the Grasshopper IVR app to receive and call out from your business line right from your personal cell phone. Gone are the days of having to carry around two devices!

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