Phone.com Review

Phone.com Pros

• Annual pre-payment discounts available on basic, mid-level and corporate plans
• Low cost per minute
• International numbers available
• 30-day free trial
• Free to port existing number into the service
• 24/7 customer support

Phone.com Cons

• Presently there are no cons for this service.

Phone.com's pricing plans are an excellent value, as they offer a substantial number of minutes and unlimited extensions for a low monthly fee. This service is recommended for heavy conference callers as Phone.com provides you with unlimited conference call minutes and allows you to have as many as 500 people on a call at once. Phone.com offers standard PBX features (i.e. auto attendant, conference calls and call handling rules), as well as a few unique ones (i.e. custom hold music, HD voice, unlimited conference call minutes, etc). However, they lack ACD Queues, which is a smart system for call-routing.  You can send faxes online with this plan, but you must pay an additional $4.99 for an additional phone line to receive faxes. Phone.com offers a 30-day free trial and includes the same number of minutes as your selected monthly plan.  Phone.com's phone, email and live chat support are high quality and available 24/7.

Pricing

Phone.com's basic, mid-level and corporate pricing plans are an excellent value. None of these plans require a fee to get started, and they include a local or 800, 888, 877, 866 toll-free number with a monthly subscription to any plan, which meets our Market Standard. Phone.com offers International numbers for an extra $4.88 or $12.88 a month, depending on the country. Phone.com also offers vanity numbers for free. Additionally, they will let you port in an already existing number for free. They offer a 30-day free trial with as many minutes as your plan includes.

Online Interface

Phone.com has a high quality online interface, and signing up for an account on their service is quick and easy. Their setup wizard lets you effortlessly arrange your extensions and set up call handling rules. You can upload contact lists or spreadsheets saved as CSV files into the interface or import CSV-formatted address books from MS Outlook.  Phone.com's online interface also allows you to set specific handling rules, create a block call list, access call logs, set voicemail alerts, upload your own recording, and customize hold music. The service also offers a mobile app that lets you access the control panel of your PBX system through a smartphone.

Call Management Features

Phone.com lets you create rules for individual numbers and/or groups of numbers to forward, hold, disconnect, go to menu, or send to a dial-by-name directory. You can also set up scheduling rules, where you select specific times of day at which incoming calls will ring your work phone, cell phone or send callers directly to voicemail, depending on your selection. You are able to hold, transfer, and forward individual calls, which meets our Market Standard. When you're on a call, you are able to transfer to voicemail, put on hold, or block the caller by using the phone's keypad.

Phone.com also offers Follow Me routing, which lets you set up an ordered list of extensions that will ring sequentially when you get incoming calls. Phone.com gives you the option to tag and screen calls before you answer them and the option to receive calls in HD Voice.  You can place outside calls through the online PBX interface using your monthly minutes, even if you are outside of the U.S.

PBX Features

Phone.com allows you to store voice messages online as well as receive them via email. They offer voice-to-text transcription at 25 cents per message for transcriptions written by actual people or $1.50 a month for automated transcriptions. You can opt to receive alerts as a text message or email when you receive a voicemail.  You can store an unlimited number of voicemails for 90 days.

Phone.com provides an unlimited number of extensions, which is well above our Market Standard of 10 extensions included in the cheapest plan.  Phone.com offers free conference calling with a maximum of 500 people on a call. The conference call features allows you to have multiple call-ins as well as multiple conference calls at once. Phone.com's virtual PBX service also lets you send Internet fax service for free, but you must purchase an additional phone line for $4.99 to receive faxes. They also let you set up an auto attendant that decides how to route incoming calls (e.g. Press 1 for sales, 2 for customer support, etc.) as well as a dial-by-name directory.

Customer Support

Phone.com has high quality customer support. They offer phone support 24/7, with short average hold times of one to two minutes. The provider also has email and live chat support all throughout the week.