Do business phone providers charge by the user, the line, or the company?
Summary
All three, plus a fourth. Most cloud phone services bill per user, carriers such as Verizon and Spectrum bill per line, Grasshopper charges one flat price per company, and 3CX licenses a whole phone system by how many calls can run at once. Per-user and per-line bills grow with every hire; flat and per-system prices hold until you hit the plan's limit.
How each model scales
Per user is the default for cloud phone services. Quo Starter is $15 per user per month billed annually, Zoom Phone US & CA Unlimited is $16, and RingCentral RingEX Core is $20. Three people on a $15 plan pay $45 a month; ten pay $150.
Per line is how carriers sell. Verizon Business Digital Voice is $20 for the first line with Fios, $25 for each added line, or $35 a line without Fios. Spectrum's Charter-area price guide lists an unlimited line at a $50 standard rate.
Per company is Grasshopper's model: one flat price with no cap on users, starting at $14 a month billed annually. Grasshopper's own pricing post says the price stays the same whether two or ten people use the system.
Per system is 3CX. It charges an annual price for each phone system, set by how many calls, internal and external, happen at the same time. There's no per-user fee. Our flat-rate versus per-user guide finds the headcount where a flat price starts to win.
Metered calling
Most U.S. cloud plans include unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada and meter international calls; all three Zoom Phone plans do this. Microsoft goes further and meters outbound calling itself on one tier. Teams Phone Standard is $10, Teams Phone with Pay-as-you-go Calling is $13, and Teams Phone with Calling Plan, which includes 3,000 outbound domestic minutes in the U.S., is $17, all paid yearly. The $13 plan suits a team that rarely dials out, but its bill moves with usage.
Licenses you need first
You can't buy Google Voice or Teams Phone on their own. Google Voice's business plans ($10, $20, $30 per user) require paid Google Workspace, where Business Starter is $7 on an annual plan or $8.40 on the Flexible plan. Teams Phone requires a Teams license, and the cheapest, Teams Essentials, is $4 billed annually. If you don't already have the suite, a $10 phone license is really $17 per user, and a $17 one is $21.
Seat minimums and contract terms
Seat minimums hit small teams hardest. Aircall's Essentials plan is $30 per license per month billed annually, and both Essentials and Professional require at least three users. One person on Aircall pays for three, so $90 a month. At Vonage, the per-line price changes with the employee count you pick on its pricing page.
Terms vary just as much:
- Vonage requires a one-year minimum on new annual accounts, and early termination fees on an annual contract can reach the total contract price. Monthly contracts carry no termination fee, but there are no refunds.
- Verizon Business Digital Voice headlines a two-year contract; on that term the early termination fee is 35% of base monthly charges for the unexpired term.
- Ooma Office lists every plan as "No Contract Necessary."
Some providers don't publish a price. 8x8 shows none on its pricing page, and RingCentral's top bundle is "Contact us for pricing." Our list of which providers publish prices covers the rest.
Sources
- quo.com/pricing
- zoom.us/pricing/zoom-phone
- ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html
- verizon.com/business/products/voice-collaboration/voip/business-digital-voice
- spectrum.com/policies/charter-spectrum-business-voice-price-guide
- grasshopper.com/pricing
- grasshopper.com/blog/phone-system-pricing
- 3cx.com/ordering/pricing/pricelist
- 3cx.com/ordering/pricing/faq
- microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/microsoft-teams-phone
- microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/essentials
- knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/voice/compare-voice-subscriptions
- knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/billing/compare-flexible-and-annual-fixed-term-payment-plans
- aircall.io/pricing
- vonage.com/unified-communications/pricing
- ooma.com/small-business-phone-systems/plans
- 8x8.com/products/plans-and-pricing
Related on this site
- How many users does it take for a company-wide phone price to beat per-user pricing?
- Contract length: 5 of 37 providers say how long you are tied in
- Which providers publish a price, and which do not
- The seven providers that will not publish a price, one by one
- Is Teams Phone or Google Voice still cheap once you count the license underneath?
- Is 3CX actually cheaper than paying for a phone service per user?
- How far apart are business VoIP prices, from entry plans to the top tiers?
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.