Ooma and Vonage are both significant providers in the VoIP industry — and the 2 companies have been around for more than a decade. Aware of their top-notch service, these top VoIP providers have had a fierce competition as to who provides the best customer service.
Here I’ll help you decide which of the 2 VoIP providers is right for you — or at least tell you what I think. I’ll also focus on their features, pricing, terms of service, service reliability, and level of customer support.
Vonage gives you a wide array of call services depending on the scope and budget of your organization. The Mobile plan sells at $17.99 a month, tax inclusive and is an excellent option if you’re in a startup setting, or if you want to gain from it personally. The plan offers a suite of 40+ incredible features, including call logs, virtual receptionist, and an admin portal.
The Premium plan goes for $27.99 per month, tax inclusive. The plan offers all the perks of the mobile package, but includes video conferencing, chat, and file-sharing of up to 100 users. This includes CRM integrations with crucial apps, such as ZenDesk, GSuite, and more.
The Advanced Business plan goes for $37.99 per month, tax inclusive. The package is specific to medium-sized businesses, and ships with all the features and perks of the previous 2 plans. It also comes with additional features, such as call recording (of up to 15 hours a month), and allows for call forwarding to multiple extensions — allowing them to ring simultaneously — thereby, guaranteeing that you’ll never miss a client’s call.
Unlike Vonage, Ooma doesn’t sell multiple plans. Instead, they offer a one-size-fits-all package that goes for $19.95 per user — this is regardless of the number of users involved. Undoubtedly, this makes Ooma an excellent fit for both small and medium-sized organizations. Sadly, however, this doesn’t suit larger corporations — in which case they should go for the Enterprise package.
The Enterprise plan is more bespoke and is mostly designed to create a bundle that fits your business — and it is well priced. The plan also provides exciting features such as a call center platform, a messaging service, and video conferencing.
Ooma gives unbeatable features and perks, including virtual extensions, free number transfer, and the multi-level virtual receptionist that automatically routes calls. Ooma also offers a dedicated mobile app.
Here's how they compare:
Ooma gives a clear-cut pricing structure when compared to Vonage’s multi-plan structure. Although, I can't provide the pricing of the Enterprise plan since it’s only available on an organization-by-organization basis and varies according to the requirements of the company.
Startups will opt for the Vonage Mobile package, rather than the Ooma Small Business plan. However, a much closer look will give Ooma an edge over Vonage with a 5% difference — even though the real value can’t be overlooked. Since Ooma offers a single plan, it means that they don’t separate features for upgraded packages. This is not the case for Vonage, which provides more features to higher-priced plans in their range.
Ooma also wins in terms of the trial period — they offer a 30-day risk-free trial, while Vonage gives you up to 14 days only.
Winner: Ooma
Vonage wins in terms of features offered. The multiple packages imply that Vonage can give a wide range of advanced features like CRM integration for users who are ready to spend an extra dollar.
Ooma brings in considerable competition with its 35+ separate features, but it can’t beat Vonage’s exciting utilities such as video conferencing and online meetings — although some of these extra features, like call recording, will cost you extra.
Winner: Vonage
Both Ooma and Vonage provide you with a ton of support services and offer a variety of ways to get in touch, including live chat, email, and telephone.
However, the response you’ll get varies depending on what means of support you choose. For instance, users have often raised concerns about the quality of assistance they’ve received from live chat. This makes support through phone calls the best option.
While both VoIP providers still offer phone services, the hours of support are quite different. Ooma provides phone support from 5 am to 6 pm, while Vonage is available from 9 am to 12 am — an advantage that gels well with your varying business hours.
Winner: Vonage
Both Ooma and Vonage support international calls, but there’s a significant difference in the rates involved. Additionally, even though calls to domestic contacts in the US and Canada are included in the monthly cost, Ooma edges Vonage by adding both Mexico and Puerto Rico. Therefore, if you mostly do business with these countries, you stand to gain significantly, considering you’ll only pay $19.99 a month.
However, if most of your business contacts are overseas, then I highly recommend opting for Vonage. The devil is in the details: Calls to the UK cost an additional $0.02 per minute for Vonage, while Ooma costs an extra $0.028. Similarly, Vonage also charges an extra $0.02 for calls to India, while Ooma charges an additional $0.029.
If you’re a startup, a fraction of a cent might not seem like much, but your organization makes thousands of calls a month, and the cents always add up.
Winner: Vonage
Even though Ooma takes top spot for Best Value, Vonage pulls ahead in the other 3 categories of Best Business Features, Best Customer Support, and Best International Calling. At the end of the day, Ooma squeaks in at 1 for 4, while Vonage ranks 3 for 4. With those kind of stats, it’s pretty clear to me who is the real top dog in VoIP.