If you’re on the hunt for a business phone system, you’ve likely seen the acronym PBX quite a lot. PBX is short for Private Branch Exchange. Unlike a public phone network, PBX enables businesses to operate their phone network by themselves.
Traditionally, PBX systems were available only as on-premise solutions. This meant rigorous self-management, high cost of maintenance, and high-level complexity.
And although still available as on-premise solutions, modern-day PBX users are encouraged to host their phone system over the Cloud.
Not only because it’s much more affordable, but also because it’s easier to manage and you can benefit from unique features. To illustrate, here are some of those features:
- Off-Site Hosting. Your phone system is run and maintained by your provider, which means the data centers are off-site. This alleviates the need for regular hardware maintenance.
- IP Phones. Cloud-based PBX systems run entirely over Ethernet. This means your entire company can use VoIP phones and/or mobile phones from anywhere where there is an Internet connection.
- Simple Management. Cloud-based PBX solutions integrate all essential features within an online dashboard. This means you can route, allocate permissions, manage phone configurations, etc. from your browser directly.
- Flexibility. Whether you’re on a business trip or out of office, Cloud PBX ensures that your clients and team can reach you whenever.
- No Additional Costs. Solutions shown in this post are solely built on a plan-based model. You only pay for the features you need, no more and no less.
And lastly, going digital ensures that you can integrate your Cloud PBX platform of choice with your favorite customer relationship management tools, too. The likes of Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, Freshdesk, and many others.
At one point, going digital with your business phone system was all about cost-effectiveness. These days, you can benefit from increased productivity, ease of scaling, and hundreds of integrations with tools that your business is already using.
So, let’s take a closer look at the choices you have for some of the best Cloud PBX solutions on the market.
JustCall
JustCall is a cloud-based PBX system that provides business owners with telephone numbers in more than 70 countries. The phone numbers created by JustCall appear as local numbers whenever you’re contacting your clients, which provides a thorough level of transparency.
A local number eliminates the need for clients to worry about the legitimacy of the calls they’re receiving. Shortly after signing up as a JustCall customer, you’ll have the option to generate new phone numbers in whichever country you prefer.
Best of all, it’s not just about a streamlined set of telephone numbers. JustCall’s list of features reaches far and wide when it comes to ensuring that you and your clients are always in touch. And here’s how.
- Call Forwarding. Out on vacation? Not a problem. JustCall can forward or distribute calls to a number of your choice even when you’re out of office.
- Team Distribution. No call should go unanswered. JustCall’s team features let you assign multiple employees to a single number.
- Appointments. Use one of the provided website widgets to add an appointment form to your website. This way, clients can schedule call appointments at a time convenient to them.
- Integrations. JustCall supports more than 30 integrations with your favorite CRM and Helpdesk platforms.
- Monitoring. Planning to train a new batch of call support center employees? In-built monitoring features let you quickly identify potential mistakes that trainees are making and amend them on the go.
The company is constantly updating its platform with new features and tools to help you make the most of your phone system. As for pricing, it’s both fair and flexible. With the most affordable plan starting at just $25 per month per number.
Aircall
Are you looking for a business phone solution that can scale as your business grows? Look no further than Aircall. A perfect choice for business owners who are looking to start their own call center and expand it alongside business growth.
So, how hard is it to use Aircall in practice? The good news is that everything from signing up to creating your first phone number is pretty much automated. Once you set up your team structure, you can start adding phone numbers from more than 50 countries.
Each number you create can be customized for country requirements by you, and additionally, you can assign a number to a specific team member. For example, someone who works from within a region where you’re choosing the number to be located.
But that’s not all. In order to make your call center as complete as possible, you’re going to need support for third-party integrations. Chances are, you already manage your client list using helpdesk software or otherwise.
And even in this department, Aircall is extremely forthcoming with the support they provide. The current list of integrations includes more than 100 tools and platforms that modern business owners use. The likes of Zoho, Shopify, SnapCall, Pipedrive, and many others.
RingCentral
RingCentral is the primary telephone system choice for more than 400,000 business owners worldwide. Whether you’re a small business or a growing enterprise – RingCentral provides plenty of features to meet your needs.
As a cloud-based VoIP platform, RingCentral stands out with features for voice calls, mobile texting, but also conference options for video and audio.
One of the most sought after features for RingCentral is their unified Mobile and Desktop experience. This ensures that employees can always access important calls (missed or not) whether they’re on-the-go or in office.
Through distribution, you can allocate different teams for a variety of different branches across your business. E.g. Customers who need technical or financial help.
Pricing starts at $20 per month for the Essentials plan, with Ultimate (all-inclusive) starting at $50 per month. Keep in mind, these subscription costs do not cover individual phone numbers which start at about $5 for one international number.
8×8
8×8 is focused on helping small-to-medium business owners to create a dynamic phone system across the entire business structure. Through world-class technology – 8×8 is able to provide high-speed PBX services using nothing but an internet connection.
As an all-in-one platform, 8×8 is able to provide more than just a traditional phone management system. To illustrate, here’s a rundown for the 3 core products that 8×8 provides to its customers:
- Virtual Office. A traditional cloud-oriented phone service using VoIP. Perfect for small business owners who need a reliable phone number to reach customers with.
- Virtual Office Pro. The pro version of the same plan includes additional features like fax, conferencing, and the ability to record calls. Ideal if your business is growing and you’re looking to conclude business in a remote work environment.
- Virtual Contact Center. A full-fledged contact center experience over the cloud. This includes tools for generating reports, analyzing data over-time, and much more. Suitable for established businesses who are dealing with thousands of clients on a daily basis.
One of the features that 8×8 stands out with is their Employer Dashboard. This dashboard helps you to bring together all of your employees in one singular system. Employees can chat with each other, assign calls, or manage a backlog of voice messages.
Last but not least, if you decide to go with 8×8 – one of their PBX specialists will give you an introductory tour of the product that lasts for an up to an hour. This will ensure that you’re fully familiar with all of their core features and how those features can benefit your business.
RingOver
RingOver is a French-based telecommunications platform that helps you set up your own digital call center in less than 5 minutes. From not having a call center to a phone number and your first client call. All thanks to a thoroughly optimized infrastructure to help you achieve your goals.
To further understand how RingOver is superior to traditional in-house PBX systems, let’s take a look at the main features.
- Create a phone number in more than 60 countries, with no limits to outgoing or incoming calls.
- Use your cloud-based call center to send texts, chat with clients, send a fax, or receive voice-messages.
- Works with Desktop and Mobile – accept your client’s calls from any location where there is Internet access.
- The dynamic switchboard which you can use to structure interactive navigation experiences for your clients. E.g. Press 1 or 2 to access a specific department.
- Fully detailed reports for incoming/outgoing calls, employee history, and more.
- Easy integration with your favorite Customer Relations Management platform.
Best of all, there’s nothing you have to do outside of the RingOver installation process. The dashboard you get after signing up is all-inclusive. This means you can start adding new numbers and team members right after you finish signing up.
The most popular plan (Power) starts at roughly $60 per month. This includes unlimited calls to more than 100 countries across the globe. Further, you’ll have an option to integrate your call center with more than 15 of the most popular CRM platforms on the market.
Individual reviews show that RingOver has a strong rating for technical support. In other words, if you have never used a Cloud PBX solution before – the fine folk at RingOver will gladly assist to help you get started as quickly as possible.
Nextiva
Nextiva is one of the oldest and arguably most popular cloud-based PBX solutions on the market. The company boasts more than 15 years of experience in the digital phone system space. And, has survived multiple shifts in general VoIP technology we see on the web today.
The crown jewel behind Nextiva’s success has been its continuous work on the NextOS platform. NextOS encapsulates all aspects of communication associated with a business environment. Specifically, Nextiva is dedicated to bringing together the team and client communications in one singular dashboard. This, in turn, provides a seamless digital call center experience.
From basic features like voice calls, call forwarding, and call queues, to more complex tools like customer information and business details.
In the long-term, Nextiva will help you accumulate enough information about your customers so that you can better understand their needs.
This is done with the help of A.I. that helps Nextiva to gather critical client information in real-time. And since it’s a rather unique approach, it would best suit medium-sized businesses who are looking to grow exponentially within a foreseeable timeframe.
CloudTalk
CloudTalk is a consolidated cloud-based phone system with an integrated call center platform. It’s built to work with modern business tools, helpdesk and eCommerce stores, which helps to streamline client-to-business communication. The most popular monthly plan starts at $20 and can be upgraded depending on your needs.
Unlike tedious in-house PBX systems – CloudTalk works entirely from the browser. This ensures that setting up your call center takes only a handful of moments, and you can start receiving calls on day one.
You and your employees have the option to record each individual call and take notes in real-time. As such, you have the freedom to make long-term decisions that will impact your business in a positive way. And if you aren’t convinced, you can always try CloudTalk with a 14-day free trial period.
HubSpot is one of the partners CloudTalk works with closely, so if you have an existing HubSpot infrastructure – you can combine both platforms for a far smoother customer interaction experience than ever before.
Conclusion
More and more businesses are embracing the digital environment. And, as older systems become more expensive to maintain – it only makes sense to look for reliable alternatives. Cloud-based phone systems offer the flexibility to conclude business from wherever you are.
Best of all, most of it happens from within your browser. Calls can still be recorded, you can manage employees, and some of the solutions in this list go out of their way to provide the best client communication experience possible.
