By: Mitch | Last updated August 21, 2021 
VoIP is a great technology that allows you to call from anywhere in the world with the use of the internet. It can work on multiple devices such as computers, mobile phones, and more. The service carries over voice signals through the internet, allowing calls to be transferred between two different platforms. This allows you to gain access to multiple calling features that can enhance the whole process and make it more convenient and secure. There are a lot of companies that offer this. This article is a quick guide on the best companies for residential VoIP.
Being mainly used for home calls, the best VoIP service should have very good pricing rates that bases it on the number of minutes used, local and international calls, and more. The best services offer a lot of flexibility and can accommodate those who want to be priced by the minute while also providing unlimited minutes. The best companies also have almost no downtime for their services to always be available. The best companies that we will list below show exemplary performance in features, calling quality, and more.
RingCentral is one of the best choices for residential, small business, and corporate usage. The service allows you to transfer an existing number, be assigned with a new one, or create a toll-free and local number. The service has a unique feature called DigitalLine that is responsible for their service that allows calls through the internet. It is compatible with all computers and most mobile phones. The service is greatly compatible with users regardless of their knowledge about VoIP that can be seen with its countless guides and videos available in their website. Here, users can get familiar with calling features. They also have one of the most simple user interfaces that lets users simply insert the number to be called without much hassle.
RingCentral has a user-friendly portal page where you can easily add new numbers to your contacts, add extensions, and adjust the settings of your phone. Nextiva allows you to add hardphones which stand for analog landline phones or conference phones and also softphones which are any devices where its application can be downloaded to. You can create and receive calls through both of these devices.
Nextiva is another excellent choice for all users. With them, users are given affordable pricing plans for a lot of features. They have a very setup process that only requires you to download the application to the device of your choice such as your phone or computer. The service has a reliable uptime of 99.999% which means that it is available for almost all time. They have been in the business since 2006 and have continued to be complimented for the excellent quality of calls.
The service is also scalable in case you want to expand your plan from residential to a small business service. They also have a unique platform called NextOS. Through this, you can easily manage calls, add or remove contacts, and create blacklists. The interface of the platform is designed very simply and is very easy to get familiar with. Here, you can manage and make calls through your mobile phone and tablet too. The platform is highly responsive, secure, and simple to use. Nextiva offers multiple pricing plans depending on the length of your contract but always ensures full features for users with all of these.
Phone.com is another great option because it is very affordable and comes with a lot of choices for numbers, allowing local, toll-free, or a specific vanity number. They can accept softphones, hardphones, and computers as platforms for calling which makes it more convenient to use. To make it more accessible for residential users, the service has two plans namely the Pay per minute plan and the Unlimited plan. They also allow the addition of SMS, user extensions, and more.
Included in their features are voice to email, online faxing, calling international numbers, audio conferencing, call queuing and more. For additional fees, users can also add transcriptions of voicemails and more.
Vonage is another VoIP staple. It has one of the lowest prices for unlimited calling to countries like Mexico, Canada, and Puerto Rico. They also have short lock-in contracts that lessen commitments to their service. They have excellent features such as voicemails, call blocking, call forwarding, and more. The service has a lot of advanced features both free and available for additional fees through the Vonage Extensions mobile application. The service is also good for those who plan to use it for home business through its features like VoiceMail Plus and Caller Display.
The best home VoIP services are affordable and come with a lot of features to ensure a good balance for users. Our best choice for this is RingCentral because of its user-friendliness, the quality of calls, and their integration to many devices. Next is Nextiva which is notable because of its use of the NextOS platform that is very easy to use and comes with a lot of features. These are closely followed by Phone.com and Vonage Home.
