The 5 best business telephone line providers

Following extensive analysis, conducted by our research team across eight providers, we’ve selected bOnline (specifically its Unlimited Calling package) as the best business phone line provider. It’s the most cost effective package we evaluated, offering unlimited minutes with a decent range of calling features.

Traditional landlines are now being phased out, to be completely replaced by Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) by 2027. Essentially, all calls will be made via virtual landlines instead of traditional copper wire lines, so there’s no better time to switch to a VoIP-based provider.

bOnline is our top choice overall, but there might well be a provider that’s more aligned to your specific needs. Read on for our full roundup of the five best business telephone line providers and what each of them can offer you.

The best business phone line providers: comparison table

Swipe right to see more

0 out of 0

• backward
• forward

BEST OVERALL
Provider bOnline Unlimited Calling	Provider RingCentral Standard	Provider Dialpad Pro	Provider GoTo Connect Phone System	Provider Google Voice Standard
Pricing from £13.95 + VAT per month (currently running a 6-month promo for £9.95 + VAT per user, on a 12-month contract)	Pricing from £19.99 per user, per month	Pricing from £20 per user, per month	Pricing from Quote-based	Pricing from $16 per user, per month (Google Voice is only priced in US dollars)
Inclusive minutes Unlimited inbound calls Unlimited UK landline & mobile calls	Inclusive minutes 250 inbound minutes and 750 outbound minutes per month	Inclusive minutes Unlimited calling	Inclusive minutes 1,000 minutes shared across account	Inclusive minutes Unlimited domestic minutes and free calls to the US from any country
Get Quotes	Get Quotes	Get Quotes	Get Quotes	Get Quotes

Video: what you need to know about the best business phone lines

Short on time? Watch our Reviews Writer explain what you need to know about our favourite options in under two-and-a-half minutes:

Loading

1. bOnline Unlimited Calling: best for your first VoIP telephone line

bOnline Unlimited Calling

Get Quotes

• Price from: £9.95, per user, per month (six-month promo)

• Good for startups doing lots of cold calling
• Lots of features for a small cost
• Quick to set up

Summary bOnline is a UK-based telecommunications company that specializes in providing solutions specifically with a small business marketplace in mind. With a focus in low-cost, easy solutions, bOnline make the claim to be "the most awarded business VoIP phone for UK businesses with 1-5 employees".

Show moreless

Why should I choose bOnline as my telephone line provider?

Here are three reasons to consider bOnline:

1. Great for first time users

bOnline Unlimited Calling makes an ideal first VoIP system, not just because it’s good value, but because it’s fast and easy to set up. It takes about two minutes to get set up, and there are no installation fees or technical know-how needed.

2. Lots of options to chat

bOnline provides a diverse range of communication methods you can use internally, or to contact your customers. With the Unlimited Calling plan you get a text-based team messaging function, video conferencing, and call conferencing.

3. Control over your calls

You’ll also get the features you’d hope to expect from a business-grade phone system, like call queue, caller ID and call blocking, and you’ll also get customisable routing. This lets you set your own rules, and give you control, over how incoming calls are managed.

How much does it cost?

bOnline Unlimited Calling emerged as the best VoIP telephone line provider because of its great value for money. You’ll get unlimited calls and a host of great calling features built into the price.

What are the downsides?

It does lack some of the more advanced features that other providers include (such as call flip). We’d recommend RingCentral as a more suitable option for businesses that are scaling upwards.

Read more: if you’re looking for a fully-equipped business telephone system including handsets, check out our guide to the best small business phone systems.

2. RingCentral Standard: best for giving customers a smooth experience

RingCentral Standard

Get Quotes

• Starting price from: £12.99, per user, per month

• Good for growing businesses that need streamlined internal communications
• Great for customer-service focused businesses
• A range of plans that can support scalability

Summary Based in California, RingCentral provides cloud-based communication and collaboration products and services, including a cloud-based business phone system. Founded in 1999, it has grown to now serve over 400,000 customers worldwide and is available in 46 countries.

Show moreless

Why should I choose RingCentral as my telephone line provider?

Here are three reasons to consider RingCentral Standard:

1. Give your customers a positive call experience

With the standard plan you get tools like multi-level auto attendant; meaning all your calls will be answered automatically with a customised greeting. This helps every caller successfully get to the right person or department.

2. Smoother internal communications

RingCentral will also help improve your communications between colleagues with options for calendar sharing, team messaging, and video meetings (with up to 100 participants). This can all be done intuitively from the single RingCentral interface.

3. Support your “bring your own device” policy

Companies are more frequently asking their staff to use their smartphones for work, to avoid paying for expensive handsets. RingCentral has an excellent mobile app which means your employees can take the VoIP system on the move.

How much does it cost?

At first glance, RingCentral’s pricing is roughly about average. Though a benefit of RingCentral’s pricing structure is that the individual per user cost gets cheaper depending on the amount of users you add to the plan.

What are the downsides?

The limited number of included minutes is definitely the weak link with RingCentral. If you’re looking for a package that includes unlimited calling at no extra cost, consider either bOnline or Dialpad instead.

3. Dialpad Pro: best for managing high call volumes

Dialpad Pro

Get Quotes

• Starting price from: £20 per user, per month

• Good for small businesses who need help managing high call volumes
• Compatibility with four types of desk phone
• Can intregrate with Salesforce, Hubspot, and Zendesk

Summary Dialpad is aimed at both small and large companies, and is using communications AI to provide unified products. They have a global reach, with 11 offices around the world, and serve 30,000 customers including big names like Xero.

Show moreless

Why should I choose Dialpad as my telephone line provider?

Here are three reasons to consider Dialpad Pro:

1. Expertly manage high call volumes

We consider Dialpad Pro to have the most impressive range of call management tools on the roundup. This is great if you’re running a small but busy customer service team, and you can also use the built-in AI and analytics tools for real-time transcriptions.

2. Keep in contact with your customers and clients with SMS

Dialpad also provides a range of methods for communicating beyond just voice calling, with a multimedia messaging service, team messaging and even SMS. So you have some great options for directly messaging co-workers, customers, and clients.

3. Supports four types of desk phones

Dialpad Pro supports selected Obihai, Polycom, Yealink, and Cisco brand phones, and it can offer support supplying and setting them up if you need it.

How much does it cost?

Dialpad Pro’s excellent features do come with a slightly higher price tag than some competitors. But if you need top-class call management tools, it could be worth the cost.

What are the downsides?

Dialpad lacks some more sophisticated training features, especially compared to a provider like GoTo Connect. There’s also no uptime guarantee at the Pro level, so you’ll need to pay for Enterprise, the most expensive tier.

4. GoTo Connect Phone System: best for keeping communication simple

GoTo Connect Phone System

Get Quotes

• Starting price from: Quote-based

• Good for medium-sized businesses to unify their communications
• Helps communication between businesses in different locations
• Compatible with over five brands of desk phone

Summary Based in Boston, Massachusetts, GoTo is a software as a service company that launched its cloud-based phone system and customer engagement software GoTo Connect in 2022.

Show moreless

Why should I choose GoTo Connect as my telephone line provider?

Here are three reasons to consider GoTo Connect:

1. Help your colleagues find each other, wherever they’re based

GoTo Connect allows your staff to contact each other from anywhere thanks to the web, desktop and mobile apps. The call routing and ring group tools also help direct your staff to the right person, even in different locations.

2. AI-powered assistance

GoTo Connect provides several AI tools to help you stay on top of your business communications. You’ll get access to AI meeting summaries, text-to-speech sound clips, and Admin GoPilot (that’s AI assistance with your system configuration).

3. Options for international calling

GoTo Connect provides an excellent feature for businesses making overseas sales: free international calling that includes over 50 countries. Just be aware this is only included with selected plans.

How much does it cost?

GoTo Connect doesn’t have set pricing, instead they’ll provide you with a bespoke quote. Our recommendation is to compare the quote against the pricing of its competitors, to help provide some context for how much you should pay.

What are the downsides?

GoTo Connect doesn’t include unlimited calling. Dialpad Pro is a better option for this, while those who want a more beginner friendly telephone line provider would prefer bOnline.

5. Google Voice Standard: best if you use Google Workspace

Google Voice Standard

Get Quotes

• Starting price from: $16, per user, per month (Google Voice pricing is only provided in US dollars)

• A low-cost option for Google Workspace users
• Solid spam prevention tools
• Free calls to the US

Summary Google Voice is a VoIP solution provided by Google that was previously only available in the US. Now businesses in the UK can access Google Voice as a paid add-on to Google Workspace.

Show moreless

Why should I choose Google Voice as my telephone line provider?

Here are three reasons to consider Google Voice:

1. Protects against spam callers

Google Voice can help put a stop to bad-faith callers and bots thanks to some strong spam filtering tech, to help your business defend against annoying scam calls.

2. Free calls to the States

Google Voice allows for free calls to the United States from anywhere in the world. This could end up saving you a tonne if you’re already making frequent calls to the US.

3. Strong security

Google Voice has a large range of compliance certifications, provides password rules (so your staff have to create strong passwords), user-permissions and multi-factor authentication to give you peace of mind.

How much does it cost?

You need Google Workspace to access Google Voice, which is a paid add-on. So it’s a simple choice if your business already has a Workspace account, but less appealing for those that don’t (as you’ll have two separate outgoings).

These are the costs of a Google Workspace subscription:

What are the downsides?

Google Voice isn’t particularly well-equipped for dealing with high volumes of calls. Dialpad has a stronger set of features for dealing with call volumes, which is a better fit for call centres.

Upgrading your telephone line to a VoIP based provider is a non-negotiable for all current small business owners thanks to the big PSTN switch off. Overall, this will only improve your daily operations, as you’ll be able to bring all your communication channels under one (digital) roof.

It can make choosing a provider a little confusing though, but don’t worry, we’re here to help you. Here are the top eight most important areas to think about when choosing a telephone line provider:

• 1. Audio quality: look for providers that have an uptime guarantee. This is an SLA (service level agreement) that promises a certain standard of connection. A feature worth keeping an eye out for on slightly higher priced tiers is call quality monitoring.
• 2. Minutes: almost all major VoIP telephone line providers will have an inclusive amount of inbound and outbound minutes in your plan. If you exceed these you will be charged usage costs, so make sure your plan includes the amount of minutes you think your users will need. You should also keep in mind that international calls will have higher rates.
• 3. Communication methods: with your VoIP plan you should also get access to channels like team messaging, video conferencing and SMS. Keep this in mind when choosing a provider, as some offer wider ranges of communication options than others.
• 4. Basic calling features: the absolute basic calling features your VoIP package should include are voicemail, call handling, call forwarding, and call screening.
• 5. Advanced calling features: there are also more sophisticated features that you should be hoping to get from a business grade telephone line provider, such as a virtual receptionist (which is comprised of customisable greeting and call routing functions), ring groups, call queue, and call flip.
• 6. Contract length: running an SME can be an unpredictable affair, especially in the current economy, so our recommendation is to choose a short contract if you can, as you don’t wait to be liable for a contract you’re not going to end up needing.
• 7. Scalability: look for plans that can support more users being added and provide advanced features (like analytics and reporting) so you’re not just locked into a basic system.
• 8. Help and support: make sure you have a telephone line provider that has strong help and support, and prioritise those that offer 24/7 assistance. This will be critical if you run an all-hours business yourself, like a helpdesk.

Our methodology

Our research department surveyed UK small businesses about their communication methods and preferences, specifically with the aim of better understanding their needs, wants, and pain points.

We used the results of this survey to refine and enhance our methodology, identifying the eight most important criteria for business telephone line providers.

We then gave each criteria an appropriate weighting to make sure our scores and rankings reflect what’s truly important to you.

These eight criteria are:

• Call management features
• Pricing
• Handset and desk phone compatibility 
• What third-party software it can connect with
• The range of communication channels provided
• Training features to help onboard your staff and teach phone etiquette
• The security in place to protect sensitive information
• Help and support options

In summary

We ranked bOnline’s Unlimited Calling as our number one business phone line package, the major reasoning being its unlimited calling and wide range of calling features at an affordable price point. It’s also fast and easy to set up.

Other providers could boast niche benefits for your business, though. For example, Google Workspace users will find Google Voice to be a cost-effective, easier fit.

Whichever business phone service you’re looking at, though, remember to consider the key factors: the number of minutes provided, audio quality, the calling features, contract length, support options, and the other communication channels provided.