Whether your business is big or small, the trend toward hybrid work means you’ll likely need a VoIP phone system sooner rather than later. Hosted or Cloud PBX providers offer a wide range of business communication and collaboration tools that will revolutionize your phone system and the way you do business.
Here in this article, we have listed some of the most popular cloud PBX providers to see which ones offer the most features while saving you money compared to a traditional PBX.
List Of Best Cloud PBX Providers
Grasshopper Recommended
Grasshopper is ideal for solopreneurs and small teams of no more than 15 people.
It can be accessed from any mobile device.
Platform supported are Cloud, SaaS, web, iOS, Android, desk phones.
RingCentral Top Rated
Provides features like video voicemail, video conferencing, and screen sharing.
Platform supported are Cloud, SaaS, web, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac.
Nextiva Best Values
Call quality, system reliability, and its array of features are all top of the line.
Provides non-stop exceptional customer care.
Platform supported are Cloud, SaaS, web, iOS, Android.
8X8 Expert Choice
Offers an advanced set of call-handling features that satisfy the needs of small businesses.
Unlimited calling to 48 countries with a top-tier plan.
Platform supported are Cloud, SaaS, web, iOS, Android, desk phones.
CloudTalk
Call Recording features are available.
You can port your number.
Allows you to mask your call.
Conference Calls option available.
Britix24
Chat And Video Conferencing features are available.
Virtual Presence Indicator
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Employee Polling
Freshdesk Contact Center (Formerly Freshcaller)
Deflect Calls with Voicebots
Automate Your Call Routing
Freshcaller mobile app
3CX
Integrated Call Center Solution
Business Text Message
Integrated Video Conferencing
JustCall
Call Analytics Dashboard
GDRP Compliant
Call Queue
Record Phone Calls
Best Cloud Hosted PBX Providers of 2022 [Experts Pick]
- Grasshopper – Overall Best Cloud PBX Provider
- RingCentral – One of the Best Hosted PBX Providers for Medium Businesses
- Nextiva – One of the Best Cloud Hosted PBX Providers for Small Businesses.
- 8X8 – Best Cloud PBX For Both Small and Medium Businesses.
What Is Hosted PBX?
The term PBX refers to a private branch exchange (PBX). It’s a phone system with enterprise-level features like call conferencing, extensions, greetings, and caller waiting queues, among others.
A hosted PBX, in particular, is a cloud-based virtual PBX telephony network that provides calling platform features within a business. Because the solution is cloud-based, rather than using an analog connection, the cloud phone system service provider hosts and manages the private branch exchange functionality.
Hosted PBX solutions offer advanced cloud telephone systems at a low cost to small, medium, and even enterprise businesses. This virtual phone system is safe, easy to use, and dependable, making it an excellent choice for businesses. It’s also easier to scale by quickly adding new extensions and business lines because no physical hardware is required, which is especially beneficial for remote workers.
Hosted PBX providers deliver the same standard of service, features, and functionality through the cloud. Cloud PBX providers maintain their own data centers to offer services to a massive number of businesses. Providers typically have multiple data centers in different locations to ensure service all around the world.
How Does A Hosted PBX Works?
The same principles apply to hosted PBX provider systems as they do to on-premise PBX solutions. Rather than handling routing and management on-site, the provider handles it behind the scenes in their data centers.
The provider manages and maintains the entire phone system, including backup redundancy. Your calls will simply be routed out of another data center if one goes down, so you won’t miss a beat.
These companies have a team of IT professionals and engineers on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep your system up and running. The goal of a hosted PBX provider is to provide efficiency, call quality, and security.
Users do not need to configure or deal with hardware installations as long as they are a subscriber to the service. They simply log in to an online account management portal with their provided information. Once logged in, they can hook up desk phones and make calls directly from the web.
Essential PBX Features That A Best Cloud PBX Provider Must Offer
1. Auto Attendent
Your receptionist will have more time to work with an auto-attendant because they will spend less time routing and re-routing callers to get them to the right place. By guiding callers through a simple set of recorded options, the service directs them to the correct extension or person. As a result, fewer inbound calls require the assistance of a live operator, saving the company both time and money.
2. Active Call Controls
When selecting the Best VoIP providers for a new phone system, having the ability to control calls is one of the most powerful features. Monitoring, whispering, barging, and recording options allow you to tailor your calls to your preferences.
- Monitoring: This feature enables you to simply listen in on a call.
- Whispering: This feature allows you to listen in on conversations and break in when necessary.
- Barging: This allows you to join a call at any time.
- Recording: This feature allows you to record an entire call for later use.
3. Interactive Voice Response
An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) works similarly to an auto-attendant, except instead of dialing numbers, you simply say which department you want to be directed to.
There are two types of interactive voice response (IVR). Basic IVR, such as the one described above, as well as advanced IVR based on conversational AI. For businesses with a high volume of inbound calls, either option is appropriate.
IVR is a great way to keep your company’s communications policy consistent. It also allows you to provide customers with self-service options.
4. Audio and video conferencing
A cloud PBX system is capable of much more than just making and receiving phone calls. You can hold video and audio conference calls with your team with some providers.
This works by creating a virtual meeting room, known as a conference bridge, that your team can join using a passcode. They can join the conference using any internet-connected device, such as their softphone, VoIP headset, or mobile phone. Each person can listen in on the conversation, participate as needed, and even take turns sharing their screens for better collaboration.
What’s the best part? When you’re in a conference, call quality doesn’t suffer. Because VoIP calls are made over the internet, all you’ll need for conference calls is a lot of bandwidth.
5. Voicemail to email
The voicemail system on most business phones is cluttered and disorganized. With a cloud PBX phone system, that doesn’t have to be the case.
Voicemail to email is a feature that allows you to receive your voicemail recordings via email. Each time a voicemail is left on your VoIP number, you’ll receive a notification and an email with the MP3 file. You can then listen to it on your computer and take action whenever you want.
Voicemail transcription is also available from some providers. It’ll deliver the same voicemail, but instead of hearing it, you’ll see a plain-text transcription of it. This makes it more convenient for you to return calls, take notes, and share call information with your colleagues.
Conclusion On Best Cloud PBX Providers
There are clearly numerous extremely valuable and profitable reasons to consider switching to a virtual business phone system, and cloud PBX providers are one of the best solutions for a variety of businesses of all shapes and sizes. Cloud-based phone systems enable you to conduct business from wherever you are.
Best of all, the majority of it occurs within your browser. Calls can still be recorded, employees can be managed, and some of the solutions on this list go out of their way to provide the best possible client communication experience.
Hope this article was helpful for you. If you have any queries, feel free to ask us. You can leave your question in our comment section below. And don’t forget to mention your favorite PBX provider.
