Vonage Pricing: Is It Worth It for Small Businesses?

For businesses, Vonage offers a cloud-based phone system that integrates calling, messaging, video conferencing, and other features.

Vonage is likely on the radar for small business owners and managers evaluating business phone systems. Known for its developer-focused APIs and unified communications platform, Vonage offers advanced functionality for companies needing customizable tools.

But with its wide array of plans and add-ons, is Vonage cost-effective for budget-conscious small businesses? Or does its pricing ultimately call its value into question?

We’ll analyze its pricing structure and core features to determine if Vonage is a good fit for SMBs. We’ll also compare it to Nextiva, an industry leader Vonage alternative known for affordable pricing and stellar customer and tech support.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a clear sense of whether Vonage is worth the investment for your small business needs.

Vonage Pricing & Plans

Vonage offers three main plans for small businesses: Mobile, Premium, and Advanced.

Pricing scales based on the number of users. For companies with 20–99 users:

• The Mobile plan starts at $10.49 per user/month. This plan only includes unlimited domestic calling, SMS/MMS, and support for desktop and mobile apps. These features are limited compared to other providers.
• The Premium plan is $17.49 per user/month. It adds unlimited video meetings, a virtual receptionist, app integrations, analytics, and VoIP desk phone support. 
• The Advanced plan, which includes call recording, voicemail transcription, call groups, and single sign-on, is $24.49 per user/month. However, the features are still limited compared to more advanced systems.

Here’s a table outlining the core features and estimated monthly costs per user (based on tiers with 20-99 users):

Additional Monthly Costs of Vonage Business

While the base Vonage plans seem attractively priced, many desired business communication features come with extra fees. These add-ons can substantially increase your total monthly costs. They are priced as follows:

With essential functionality such as call forwarding, call queuing, call recording, and advanced call routing requiring add-ons, Vonage’s total monthly cost rises quickly.

Contract length and per-minute rates

Vonage typically requires a one-year contract for new accounts. While base plans offer unlimited domestic calling, international calls and exceeding included minutes (if applicable) may incur per-minute charges. Be sure to check Vonage’s rate sheet for specific international rates.

Free trial/guarantee

While Vonage doesn’t currently advertise a free trial, they may offer promotional trials from time to time. It’s best to check their website or contact sales for current offers.

Vonage Business Pricing vs. Competitors

When evaluating Vonage Business, it’s helpful to consider its competitors in the business phone system market. Here’s a brief comparison with Nextiva, one of Vonage’s top competitors to give you a perspective and alternatives to Vonage.

Comparing Vonage and Nextiva side by side reveals that Nextiva offers a similar plan for $30 per user/month, with a broader range of capabilities like intelligent call routing, CRM integrations, and customizable analytics.

Let’s take a closer look at Nextiva’s pricing:

Nextiva pricing & plans

Nextiva is a cloud-based VoIP alternative to Vonage, offering different plans that scale to meet growing business needs:

Nextiva provides greater value compared to similarly priced Vonage plans:

• Digital ($20/month): Designed for online customer engagement, featuring website chat integration, social media messaging tools, and review management capabilities.
• Core ($30/month): Expands on the Digital plan by adding voice calls, video conferencing, and SMS text messaging functionality.
• Engage ($40/month): Builds upon Core with advanced features like call center queue management, intelligent call routing, and an AI-powered chatbot for round-the-clock customer support.
• Power Suite ($60/month): The most comprehensive option, including all lower-tier features plus intelligent routing algorithms, CRM/CDP integrations, and detailed supervisor dashboards for performance analysis.

Nextiva delivers more comprehensive features, enterprise-grade reliability, and greater long-term value at each plan level compared to Vonage’s offerings. Plus, Nextiva is better equipped to support business growth than Vonage’s limited plans.

Core UCaaS Features of Vonage & Nextiva

Let’s compare the two platforms’ core unified communications capabilities:

Expanded comparison table

Of particular note is the number of customer reviews for each platform, with Nextiva garnering more than double the number of reviews with similar customer satisfaction ratings. 

Which Provider Is Right for Your Business?

Choosing between Vonage and Nextiva depends on your company’s specific needs and priorities.

Vonage is a strong fit for:

• Software development companies: The ability to integrate communications with internal platforms through Vonage APIs makes it ideal for software firms and innovative startups building custom tools.
• International businesses: Vonage provides competitive international calling plans to many countries. For companies with offshore teams or lots of international clients, these rates are a major perk.
• Collaboration-focused teams: Vonage equips distributed teams with full-featured messaging, video conferencing, screen sharing, and other collaborative capabilities (for an added price).
• Healthcare organizations: Vonage ensures healthcare compliance and can integrate with EHR/EMR systems. Features such as two-way SMS and call recording help meet industry regulations like HIPAA.
• Customization needs : Developers can tap into Vonage APIs to create customized communications solutions tailored to unique needs, but Vonage is not ideal for out-of-the-box users.

Nextiva is best for:

• Sales-driven companies: With its expansive CRM integrations, call routing features, and analytics, Nextiva optimizes sales processes and agent productivity.
• Support and service teams: Nextiva combines call handling, omnichannel queues, and digital service channels to streamline exceptional customer service.
• Relationship-based businesses: Smart call routing, detailed analytics, omnichannel queues, and CRM integrations keep client relationships seamless and productive.
• Distributed or remote teams: Nextiva’s unified communications platform uses video meetings, team chat, document collaboration, and more to connect remote teams.
• Rapidly scaling companies: Nextiva scales gracefully from startups to large enterprises. Scaling plans is easy without major platform overhauls.
• Out-of-the-box simplicity: For non-technical users, Nextiva provides an intuitive platform with less need for costly custom development or a large IT department.

The Verdict

When choosing a business phone system, you want a solution that’s easy to set up, packed with essential features, and ready to scale as your company grows.

Nextiva delivers on all counts.

Right out of the box, Nextiva’s base plans come loaded with must-have capabilities, including intelligent call routing, CRM integrations, and mobile apps. You don’t have to pay extra for add-ons just to get started. And Nextiva’s award-winning customer support makes setup and management simple for non-technical users.

Take a peek at the top features that Nextiva provides in this exclusive interview with Prince Rich:

Vonage charges businesses extra for otherwise standard features. Nextiva gives you complete unified communications from day one. As your team expands, Nextiva grows smoothly with your needs without requiring major system overhauls.

For most small and mid-sized businesses, Nextiva provides the ideal combination of affordability, ease of use, and enterprise-grade power. The transparent pricing and robust features included from the start allow your team to perform at their best across voice, video, messaging, and more.

FAQs about Vonage Business Pricing