Phone People Conclusion

Phone People is recommended for people who want to make phone calls with their virtual PBX number but not receive calls. Phone People lacks call management features to properly handle incoming calls, such as setting rules, transferring a call, placing a call on hold, blocking a call, recording phone calls. Phone People's plans have standard monthly pricing. Phone People lacks standard PBX features, such as free voicemail to email (costs $3 per month per extension), conference calls and Internet fax service. Some other PBX providers offer these features for the same price or lower.  Phone People offers phone, email and live chat support that is available 24/7.

Pricing

Phone People's basic and mid-level pricing plans offer an excellent value, and their corporate plan meets our Market Standard. Phone People charges you an additional fee: "a monthly cost-recovery fee equal to $0.94 per number that is held in your account to help cover the costs of the internal management of inventory."  You cannot get a local number with Phone People, but you can select an 866, 877, or 888 toll-free number for free with your monthly fee. You can get an 800 toll-free number for a $29 setup fee. Phone People does not offer international numbers, but you can select a vanity number for a $35 setup fee. You can also port in a number for a $5 one-time fee.  Phone People does not offer a free trial, but they offer a 30-day money back guarantee if you do not use more 30 call minutes.

Online Interface

Phone People's online interface is below average. Signing up for an account does not take much time and they offer a setup wizard which is relatively helpful compared to the rest of the interface. You can store contacts in Phone People's online interface, but the only way to upload them is by manually entering each entry separately.  You can access call logs, set up voicemail alerts, record a custom greeting, and customize your hold music through the interface. Phone People does not offer a mobile application to access their interface.

Call Management Features

Phone People does not allow you to set up specific handling rules based on a contact or group, but you can set up rules based on time of call. Phone People does not allow you to forward, transfer or place a call on hold, which does not meet our Market Standard. Additionally, you cannot block a call using your phone's keypad.  

Phone People offers Follow Me call handling, but you cannot record your phone calls. They offer call screening but not call tagging. Phone People lets you make outgoing calls through their cardless calling card system, which uses your included monthly minutes. They also allow you to make calls while outside of the country, charging you based on international forwarding rates.

PBX Features

Phone People stores your voicemails online, and you can receive an alert through email whenever you receive a message or have voicemails emailed directly to you for $3 per month per extension. Phone People offers voicemail-to-text transcription services for $9.99 per month per extension. You can store up to 200 voicemails for up to 14 days.  

Phone People's basic plan offers five extensions, which is half of our Market Standard of 10 extensions.  Adding an additional extension costs $3.95 per extension per month. Phone People does not offer conference calls or Internet fax service, which does not meet our Market Standard. Phone People allows you to set up auto attendant menus, but they don't offer dial-by-name directories.

Customer Support

Phone People offers phone, email, and live chat customer support. Phone support is available 24/7.  During testing, we experienced no significant hold times.