Best PBX Phone System for Small Business (2024)

A private branch exchange (PBX) is an internal telephone network handling inbound and outbound call management using private lines. The best small business PBX solutions offer features like call recording and artificial intelligence (AI), allowing teams to improve communications while managing costs.  PBX phone systems suit small businesses because they’re flexible, feature-rich, and affordable. 

The best PBX phone system for small businesses offers features like business hours, call forwarding, call recording, and international and local lines. Based on our evaluation, here’s a list of our recommended software solutions to help you decide which is best for your business:

• RingCentral: Best for call management capabilities
• GoTo Connect: Best for remote and hybrid work arrangements
• Zoom Phone: Best for low-cost international calling
• Nextiva: Best for toll-free calls
• Vonage: Best for customization
• Dialpad: Best for artificial intelligence

RingCentral: Best for call management capabilities

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Pros

• Includes team messaging and file sharing
• Includes unlimited audio conferencing
• Provides up to 10,000 toll-free minutes
• Plans come with visual voicemail
• Offers 99.999% uptime and enterprise-grade security

Cons

• Only the Ultra plan comes with device analytics
• Live reporting for real-time queue management is an add-on option

Our Rating: 4.58/5

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Key features

• Call recording: There are two ways to record calls on RingCentral, on-demand (manual) and automatic. Administrators can set up automatic phone recordings, or if they opt for on-demand call recording, teams can select which incoming and outgoing calls will be captured.
• Team Huddle: Call for spur-of-the-moment discussion in collaborative meeting rooms where participants can jump in and out of the session as they please. 
• Multi-level auto attendant: Customize your call answering system and efficiently route incoming calls to the correct person or department. 
• AI meeting insights: Extract insights from conversations and calls and get a quick summary of all key information covered. 
• Internet fax: Send and receive online faxes from anywhere, using a mobile, laptop, desktop, or tablet.

Pricing

The pricing below is for one to 50 users on a monthly billing cycle. Save up to 33% by paying annually; volume discounts are available for 50-plus users. 

Core plan: $30/user/month

Includes:

• Business phone number or toll-free number
• 100 toll-free minutes
• Unlimited domestic calling in U.S. and Canada
• 25 business short message service (SMS) per user
• Basic call queues
• Up to 100 video meetings and participants
• Call log reports

Advanced: $35/user/month

Includes:

• 1,000 toll-free minutes
• 100 business SMS per user
• Advanced rules and routing call queues
• Automatic and on-demand call recording
• Advanced call monitoring (whisper, barge, and monitor)
• Unlimited internet fax
• Custom roles and permissions

Ultra: $45/user/month

Includes:

• Up to 10,000 toll-free minutes
• 200 business SMS per user
• Unlimited storage for team messaging, file sharing, and recordings
• Up to 200 video meeting participants 
• Device analytics and alerts

Why we chose RingCentral

RingCentral holds the top spot in our list of best small business PBX systems because of its extensive UC call management tools like voicemail, auto-attendant, and call queues with advanced rules and routing. Call management tools give teams flexibility and control that simplifies business communications. These capabilities enhance team performance, and real-time omnichannel analytics provide insights for better business decisions. 

It offers the most comprehensive cloud phone system, and UC features compared to other vendors on this list, especially on its base plan. For example, when comparing RingCentral with Vonage, RingCentral’s base plan has on-demand call recording, which is locked behind Vonage’s highest plan. RingCentral features essential calling tools like voicemail, caller ID, and call queues, and advanced tools, such as multi-level auto attendant and real-time analytics, are included in all plans. 

RingCentral also integrates with over 300 third-party apps, ending tedious app switching and making work more efficient.

RingCentral is a leading unified communications (UC) platform that offers an all-inclusive, easy-to-use, and mobile-ready voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) software with voice, fax, messaging, and video conferencing. All its plans come with unlimited domestic calling, interactive voice response (IVR), analytics, and a business phone number, ideal for small businesses looking for a phone service. This solution favors different types of businesses, from startups to enterprises with a sizable employee base. 

RingCentral’s contact center solution uses AI to manage customer interactions across voice, chat, and instant messaging channels. The platform provides business owners and management with actionable insights that reflect customer feedback and overall team performance.

GoTo Connect: Best for remote & hybrid work arrangements

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Pros

• Up to 250 meeting participants
• Users get real-time analytics
• Includes international calling to 50-plus countries
• Record unlimited auto attendant recorded greetings
• Provides a smart notes feature
• Comes with paging and intercom

Cons

• SMS credits are limited to only 80
• Entry-level subscription only includes one ring group

Our Rating: 4.5/5

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Key features

• Instant response: When you miss a call from a new customer, automatically send a customized message to ensure you touch base with first-time callers. 
• Custom dial plans: Using the visual dial plan editor, map out your inbound call routing system. Determine whether calls go to an extension, department, or voicemail based on your schedule and queuing preferences. 
• Paging: Instantly contact one or several team members using this two-way speakerphone feature. 
• Video meetings: Host meetings for up to 250 participants for unlimited minutes and use interactive tools like pointers and highlighters. 
• Mobile screen sharing: Present easily, even with a smartphone, and control what participants can see during your discussion.

Pricing

The two subscription plans listed below are on a monthly billing cycle. 

Basic plan: $32/user/month

Includes:

• Up to 20 users
• Free number porting
• Smart call routing
• Local, toll-free, and vanity numbers
• 50 simultaneous webcams
• Team messaging
• One call queue
• Up to 150 meeting participants 

Standard: $43/user/month

Includes:

• Unlimited users
• Up to 250 video meeting participants 
• Unlimited auto-attendant recorded greetings
• Unlimited custom dial plans
• Unlimited ring groups
• Hot desking
• eFax

Why we chose GoTo Connect

GoTo Connect offers a comprehensive suite of VoIP phone business features that are available and functional through its mobile applications. The GoTo Connect app lets team members join meetings and calls from a smartphone, desk, or computer — great for employees on the go. Employees outside the office can choose from over 180 desk phone models, providing team members with many ways to stay connected. 

This solution offers one of the highest video conferencing participant capacities of all the vendors on this list. GoTo Connect lets users host unlimited meetings with up to 250 participants, the same as Nextiva and more than RingCentral’s 200-person limit. Only Zoom beats GoTo Connect with a higher 500 participant limit on its enterprise plan. Zoom users also have the option to expand to 1,000 participants for an additional fee. 

It also offers team messaging and one-click video conference tools, so teams can quickly jump in and out of virtual meetings for maximum productivity. Real-time analytics make it easy for managers to monitor micro and macro phone traffic patterns and employee performance. It also keeps remote communications secure with secure end-to-end encryption.

GoTo Connect is a scalable, cloud phone and meeting solution with integrated video conferencing, team chat, and contact center functionality. The platform is easy to use and can be set up in minutes, making it a great VoIP solution for small businesses and non-tech-savvy teams. 

The enterprise-grade solution offers users over 100 communication features, such as unlimited recorded greetings, smart call routing, and unmetered meeting durations. GoTo Connect efficiently manages inbound calls and your overall call flow, thanks to its visual dial plan editor. The editor tool allows teams to set up wait times or determine whether calls are forwarded to voicemail, ring groups, or auto attendants.

Zoom Phone: Best for low-cost international calling

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Pros

• Unlimited domestic calling
• Metered international calling
• Toll-free numbers
• Voicemail with transcription
• Unlimited auto-attendants and IVR
• Presence, 1:1, and team messaging
• Plug-and-play VoIP phones

Cons

• Lacks toll-free numbers in the entry-level plan
• Unlimited calling to 19 countries is a paid add-on

Our Rating: 4.52/5

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Key features

• Hot desking: Log in to any phone within your phone system and access your personalized settings. 
• Music on hold: Customize the call waiting experience by playing a pre-recorded message or music every time an incoming call is placed on hold.
• Data encryption: Protect your data and ensure your phone call privacy is intact by enabling end-to-end encryption.
• Dashboards: Monitor your overall call quality and system performance to troubleshoot any identified network issue. 
• Call lock and unlock: Prevent team members within a shared line group from accessing a live call, ensuring confidential calls remain secure.

Pricing

Choose from three types of subscriptions, including a pay-as-you-go plan. Opt for annual billing and gain significant savings. 

U.S. and Canada Metered: $10/user/month

Includes:

• Metered domestic calling within the U.S. and Canada 
• Metered international calling
• Domestic SMS and multimedia messaging services (MMS)
• Holiday and business house routing 
• Number porting
• Dial by name directory
• 24/7 live chat and phone support
• High-definition call quality

U.S. and Canada Unlimited: $15/user/month

Includes:

• Unlimited domestic calling within the U.S. and Canada 
• Toll-free numbers
• Option for unlimited calling to 19 countries

Global Select: $20/user/month

Includes:

• Unlimited calling in selected countries
• One number in selected country
• Direct dial number

Why we chose Zoom Phone

Zoom is a cloud-communications platform offering a scalable cloud PBX phone for domestic and global calling. Its Global Select subscription package includes unlimited regional calling in one of the 48 countries and territories. If you have teams in multiple locations, Zoom’s unlimited domestic select plan can help lower costs by letting you mix and match plans to align with regional or global needs. 

The Global Select plan has one phone number and unlimited domestic calling within the country. Teams making frequent calls outside the country can add the unlimited calling option to 19 countries, including New Zealand, Spain, and Japan, for an additional $10 monthly. All VoIP providers on this list offer unlimited domestic calling within the U.S. and Canada, but unmetered international calling is not a universal feature.

In addition to affordable VoIP software and phone services, a Zoom Phone subscription comes with Zoom Meetings, which allows users to elevate a call to a video conference. Moreover, the built-in video option will enable agents to deliver prompt and personalized customer interactions using tools like screen sharing, chat, and file uploads.

Zoom Phone is a modern VoIP communications system with phone, virtual conferencing, webinar, and contact center functionality. This cloud-based business phone system offers a streamlined solution with unlimited domestic calls, SMS messaging, call recording, and seamless app integrations. Zoom Phone’s features are accessible via the web portal and mobile and web apps.

Nextiva: Best for toll-free calls

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Pros

• Lets users host conference calls with unlimited participants
• Up to 12,500 minutes and 2,000 SMS/MMS messages
• All plans include unlimited internet fax
• Offers a team collaboration app with chat messaging
• Provides users with 24/7 customer support through email, chat, and phone

Cons

• Maximum meeting duration is only 45 minutes
• Single sign-on (SSO) is an Enterprise plan feature

Our Rating: 4.4/5

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Key features

• Call recording: Document customer interactions for historical reference, training purposes, or performance evaluations. Select if Nextiva will record “always,” “always with a pause and resume,” or “on demand.”
• Voicemail forwarding: Share information by sending a voicemail message to another extension’s mailbox. This helps ensure everyone involved in a task or project is looped in and updated. 
• Advanced IVR: This feature is powered by conversational AI and promotes self-service and prompt issue resolution among callers. IVR systems are great for answering frequently asked questions, checking account information, and facilitating payments.
• Priority alerts: Set a specific ring tone for important callers like management or high-value customers. Users can add up to 12 phone numbers to a priority alert list.
• Team chat: This feature allows users to communicate instantly with team members, partners, and customers. Nextiva’s team chat app includes screen sharing, message history, and instant messaging.

Pricing

Below are Nextiva’s pricing packages based on one to four users on a monthly billing arrangement. 

Essential plan: $30.95/user/month

Includes:

• Free local and toll-free number
• Unlimited video and voice calling
• Up to 45 minutes per video call or meeting
• Up to 1,500 toll-free minutes
• Voicemail to email notifications
• Auto-attendant
• Up to three active team collaboration rooms on the Nextiva ONE app

Professional: $35.95/user/month

Includes:

• Unlimited conference calls for up to 40 participants
• Up to 3,000 toll-free minutes
• Up to 1,000 messages sent and received per user
• Voicemail to SMS notifications
• Advanced customer relationship management (CRM) integrations
• Multi-level auto attendant

Enterprise: $45.95/user/month

Includes:

• Unlimited conference call participants
• Up to 12,500 toll-free minutes
• Up to 2,000 messages sent and received per user
• Enterprise integrations with CRM apps
• Call recording
• Voicemail transcription 
• SSO

Why we chose Nextiva

Nextiva shines as the best PBX phone system for small businesses looking for a solution with a high toll-free minute allotment. All its subscription plans come with a toll-free and local number, along with toll-free minutes ranging from 1,500 to 12,500, depending on your plan. A toll-free number directly links customers to you, reflecting your business’s commitment to providing excellent customer support. Other providers like RingCentral only offer up to 10,000 minutes for enterprise users.

Growing businesses appreciate Nextiva’s scalable business solution because of enterprise-level capabilities like unlimited video conference recording and voicemail transcription. Nextiva provides the gold standard for service reliability, offering a 99.999% uptime guarantee, a transparent network status page, and continuous 24/7 network monitoring. Other large-scale business features include rapid expert training, SSO, and detailed analytics for improving call quality and customer satisfaction.

Nextiva is a VoIP service provider with unlimited domestic calling within the U.S. and Canada and comprehensive collaboration and call management tools. This solution is one of the most versatile platforms in the market, and it comes complete with video, team chat, conferencing, and faxing. Users can use their existing VoIP phones or buy or lease from Nextiva. All purchases or rented phones are pre-configured and ready for use. 

Nextiva has a powerful mobile app for cell phones and desktops, thanks to Cospace, a remote workforce management tool that integrates communication channels. Its apps are available for iPhone and Android and are designed for remote collaboration. Cospace includes tools like team messages and video conferences, enabling teams to stay connected. Other key features include 24/7 customer support, quality onboarding training, and a 99.999% uptime guarantee.

Vonage: Best for customization

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Pros

• Accommodates video conferencing with up to 25 participants
• Offers fully functional mobile and desktop apps
• Has a 99.999% uptime guarantee
• Provides 50+ business phone features across all plans
• All plans come with team messaging
• Includes on-demand call recording

Cons

• SMS is not available in Mexico
• Third-party integrations are limited to 20-plus apps only

Our Rating: 4.29/5

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Key features

• Call announce: This feature gives receivers a heads-up about the incoming call. The call announcement shows the caller’s custom tag and gives your agents the details they need to communicate better with callers.
• Call queues: Put incoming calls in a virtual waiting line until an agent can speak with them. Agents can click the “View Status” option to see how many callers are in the queue. Play music or a prerecorded message while callers are on hold. 
• Click-to-dial: This browser-based plugin activates the phone system’s auto-dial when you click a phone number on your web-based CRM tool. Connect with customers with less manual work.
• Spam Shield: Vonage automatically checks the number of incoming calls against a known spam/robocall number database. If a number is suspected of being a spammer, you’ll see a “Suspected Spam” message on your screen. 
• Call park: This places customers on hold in a virtual communal parking system, and agents will retrieve the call once they’re available. 
• Call groups: Group people by departments or teams and send specific calls to agents with the skill sets to address customer concerns.

Pricing

Vonage offers three subscription packages, and the prices below are based on monthly billing. All new accounts have a minimum one-year contract. 

Basic plan: $19.99/user/month

Includes:

• Supports desktop and mobile apps
• Unlimited domestic calling
• SMS and MMS
• Voicemail

Premium: $29.99/user/month

Includes:

• Supports VoIP desk phones
• Unlimited video meetings (up to 200 participants)
• Team Messaging
• VBC App Center
• SSO

Advanced: $39.99/user/month

Includes:

• On-demand call recording (15 hours per month)
• Visual Voicemail (with transcription)
• Call groups

Why we chose Vonage

Vonage provides companies with the flexibility to pick and choose add-on features to create a package suited to each business’ specific needs. With a base plan that starts at an affordable $19.99 per user each month, pick and choose from the 18 optional tools and avoid paying for features you don’t need.

For example, add voicemail transcription and on-demand call recording, but skip the virtual mailbox, all priced at $4.99 monthly. This means that Vonage allows businesses to add features only as needed, while providers like RingCentral and Nextiva include extensive features in all their plans. 

As a cloud PBX phone system for small businesses, Vonage is known for its application programming interface (API), enabling users to customize communications across online platforms. Additionally, all plans have unlimited calling and text messaging, which is helpful for teams constantly out of the office.

Vonage Business Communications is a VoIP and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) provider offering basic phone features with video and messaging tools. All plans come with 24/7 customer support and over 50 standard tools like call conferencing and hold music. 

Vonage has grown from a basic VoIP phone service to a full-blown UC platform with an AI virtual assistant equipped to handle high-volume calls and capture customer insights. While it does not have the most extensive list of third-party integrations, anything it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. Its native integrations include Google Workspace, Office 365, and Zendesk.

Dialpad: Best for artificial intelligence

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Pros

• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)/Business Associates Agreement (BAA) compliance
• 24/7 live support and multilingual web-based support
• Google Workspace integration for all plans
• Quality-of-service reports
• Real-time analytics and reporting

Cons

• No international SMS on the base plan
• Only accommodates 10 video meeting participants

Our Rating: 4.53/5

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Key features

• Simultaneous ring: Automatically forwarding inbound calls to multiple numbers, ring groups, or several devices at the same time. 
• Business text messaging: Communicate with colleagues, clients, and partners using different messaging options, such as SMS, MMS, and group messaging. 
• Conference calling: Hosted unlimited conference calls where participants can join calls using any device, anytime. 
• Automatic spam call detection: Dialpad screens incoming calls and blocks those suspected of being spam calls. 
• Switch calls between devices: Use call flip tools to move active calls between devices without anyone knowing.

Pricing

The pricing below is for one to five users on a monthly billing arrangement. Save up to 33% by paying annually.

Standard: $23/user/month

Includes:

• Unlimited calling
• Executive assistant pairing
• One business phone number
• Call recording
• Three ring groups
• Real-time call transcriptions
• SSO

Pro: $35/user/month

Includes:

• Local or international additional numbers
• 25 ring groups
• Hold queues
• Three seat minimum
• International SMS
• Quality-of-service reports
• Phone support

Enterprise: Quote-based pricing

Includes:

• Extensions
• Unlimited ring groups
• 100-seat minimum
• SSO (Okta, Azure, and OneLogin)

Why we chose Dialpad

Dialpad is the best PBX system for small businesses when it comes to robust AI integrations. The solution provides real-time call transcriptions, post-call summaries, and voicemail transcriptions, improving business communications. Dialpad AI detects customer sentiment and displays the appropriate label in the live Calls view. This allows supervisors to assist agents in live calls or take over when necessary. 

Another key AI feature is Dialpad’s AI recap, which automatically generates call summaries with an outline of action points. This helps agents focus on the actual conversation without worrying about note-taking. The summaries allow team members to get cracking on tasks immediately after the call, contributing to overall productivity.

Unfortunately, Dialpad’s virtual meetings are limited to 10 participants for a maximum of five hours. Other providers on this list, like Zoom Phone, offer a much larger participant capacity set at 500 participants. 

Lastly, Dialpad’s AI features are available across devices; desktop and Chrome web apps run on desktops and laptops, including Windows, MacOS, and ChromeOS. The Dialpad App is available on both iOS and Android, as well.

Dialpad is a leading UC platform combining voice calling, messaging, meetings, and video features. As a business phone system, users get a feature-rich solution offering local and international phone numbers, custom call routing, and unlimited ring groups. 

It also has robust messaging tools, which include international SMS, topic-based team messaging, and file sharing. There are multiple ways to use Dialpad’s software, from logging on using the web app to mobile access through Android and iOS phones. Dialpad offers contact center capabilities with AI-enabled sentiment analysis and transcription to enhance customer outcomes.

Key components of PBX systems

Simply put, a PBX system allows in-house calling between extensions and enables routing for outside calls through private lines. Businesses benefit from this phone system because it’s scalable and efficiently manages high call volumes, lowering operational costs. Companies can share common resources like phone lines rather than install separate lines for each desk or employee. A PBX generally includes:

• Exchange: This switching station acts as the system’s brain responsible for connecting and routing internal and external calls. Depending on the system and network size, this unit can be as small as a cabinet or as large as a whole room. 
• Gateway: This connects the internal network to the outside world. Specifically, the exchange unit to the local public switched telephone network (PTSN) lines. When the PBX system needs to connect to an outside line, the gateway connects the internal extension to the outside line to complete the call. 
• Handsets: These are specialized units designed to enhance the functionality of a PBX system. They enable users to dial outside extensions, utilize paging and intercom tools, and connect to outside lines. 

Top features of PBX systems

Many small businesses use PBX systems because they’re affordable, feature-rich, secure, and require minimal maintenance costs. Below are some of the best PBX features leading providers offer:

• Auto-attendant: Many PBX systems offer auto-attendant or IVR, which acts like a switchboard that routes incoming calls. IVRs answer incoming calls using a call menu and efficiently route customers to the appropriate person or department based on the caller’s answers. 
• Call recording: This feature documents two-way phone conversation audio in the cloud and is particularly useful for high-volume calls. Some providers charge extra for this feature or impose a limit on the number or size of recordings. 
• Call routing: Direct incoming calls to the next available agent, helping reduce wait times and improve customer communications.
• Voicemail transcription: Pulling out your phone and listening to messages may not always be possible; this convenient feature puts voicemail messages into text format. Voicemail to text sends messages through SMS or email so that you can read the messages when you can. 
• Call analytics: Track and measure metrics related to your calls, including call volume, outcome, duration, and ratings. Generate reports and graphs to visualize data and use this information to identify patterns and take appropriate action. 
• Music on hold: Fill the silence by playing music or prerecorded messages to keep callers on the line, improve their mood, and promote products and services. 
• Call conferencing: Talk to multiple people simultaneously via video or audio for better collaboration and productivity. 

Benefits of using PBX systems

PBX phone systems for small businesses enable teams to run an internal phone system with fewer phone lines. A PBX IVR allows you to automate the call routing process, resulting in quicker call management, less angry customers, and lower labor costs. Similarly, using advanced features like auto attendants and directories increases a company’s reputation by fostering a sense of professionalism. 

PBX systems help small businesses manage and complete calls using mobile devices, desk phones, and laptop or desktop computers. The technology also improves security with built-in encryption to protect data and conversations. When you choose a cloud-based hosted PBX service, you only pay a monthly usage fee, which lowers the overall installation and additional costs like maintenance teams. 

Choosing the best PBX system

PBX phone systems are advanced telephone systems that harness the best communication features so you can provide customers with high-quality services. As you explore PBX systems and cloud-based VoIP technology, consider how your company operates and its communication needs to find the best phone system solution for your business. 

If your company needs robust call management tools, choose RingCentral for its feature-rich offering and scalability. For teams with flexible work arrangements, check out GoTo Connect and capitalize on its user-friendly interface and integrated video conferencing tools. Zoom Phone is a must for teams making frequent overseas calls since it offers unlimited domestic and international calling at affordable rates. 

For companies that manage high-volume calls, Nextiva is an excellent PBX system option for small businesses, as its plans come with generous toll-free minute allocations. Choose Vonage if you’re looking for a straightforward solution with a la carte options to tailor your phone system as you see fit. Last but not least, Dialpad is your best bet if you want to introduce more automation and AI to your phone system.

If these providers aren’t what you want, check out our best VoIP phone services and software options to browse other solutions.

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