Technology

Review & Alternative to eVoice: what VoIP providers you can use for calls

Summary: Good option for «solopreneurs»

Reliability 5 Features 2.5 Support 3 Pricing 2

eVoice allows home and small businesses to route their calls through their online system, without any software or hardware to install. With plenty of standard features like a mobile app and call forwarding, as well as enticing premium features such as a live receptionist option, eVoice is a good option for “solopreneurs” on the go who want to give the impression that they’re running a bigger business than they really are. Still, some caveats stand in the way, including the inability to import contacts into their online interface, the low number of extensions available per plan, and vanity and toll-free numbers available only with premium plans.

Pros

  • Mobile app
  • Live receptionist
  • No install

Cons

  • A low number of extensions
  • Inability to import contacts

Reliability

Reviewers rate eVoice’s call quality as similar to most other VoIP systems, although the clarity and consistency of calling and receiving are dependent on the strength of the customer and their client’s servers.

TOP-10 Alternative VoIP phone systems:

1. Virtual Office by 8×8

2. RingCentral Office

3. Hottelecom

4. Business Voice

5. Dialpad

6. net2phone

7. Versature

8. Twilio Voice API

9. AVOXI Core Cloud PBX

10. Dial800

Features

eVoice comes with a host of useful standard features, including call management by way of blocking, forwarding, queuing, routing, and transfers. Few rocks are left unturned by eVoice, but they lose marks on additional costs: several popular features that are standard for many other VoIP providers are “premium” add-ons with eVoice. These include call recording (starting at $5.95/month), international numbers ($29.95/month) and vanity phone numbers, web and video conferencing (starting at $9.95/month), and outbound faxing (starting at $1.95/month).

feature toll-free local numbers call forwarding call screening custom greetings call flip call logs call recording

(PREMIUM) virtual fax menus conference calling

(PREMIUM) custom caller ID voicemail to email outgoing calls outgoing fax

(PREMIUM)

Support

Example For subtitle Voice offers 24/7 phone support for U.S. customers, as well as email support and live chat. While their website provides a detailed user guide and FAQ page, it misses out on a perfect score for their lack of an online customer forum.

Pricing

Unlike almost all VoIP providers we have reviewed, eVoice do not offer a quick view of their pricing plan, thus requiring potential customers to scan through lengthy descriptions of each of their plans with no real instant basis for comparison. This is irritating, especially as the plans come with plenty of footnotes and asteriks.

Their three plans are affordable, starting at $12.99/month for a single user “freelancer & consultant” plan that offers 2 extensions, 300 minutes/month, and their standard 30-day free trial. Their other two plans for “small business” and “mobile workforces” are slightly pricier, don’t offer unlimited extensions, and have a fairly low monthly minute threshold at 1000 and 2000 minutes respectively. This is problematic when you take into account that overtime minutes will cost you 3.9 cents/minute. Still, with no overhead costs and no activation fees, eVoice remains affordable in its most basic form.

All plans come with standard features like call forwarding and voice messaging, but each plan’s features differ slightly in relation to what the perceived use of the plan will be. While this may suit some businesses who see themselves fitting neatly into eVoice’s categories, others might be frustrated by their lack of pricing flexibility. Perhaps more problematically, many features that come standard with other providers come as costly “add-ons” with eVoice, meaning that a humble $12.99/month bill could easily double or triple by the end of the month, as several reviewers have commented on.