Which business phone plans include an auto attendant, and what does the cheapest one cost?
Summary
9 of 12 providers include an auto attendant on their cheapest plan. The three that do not are Quo (phone menus start on Business), Google Voice (auto attendants start on Standard) and Talkroute (one menu on Plus, unlimited on Pro).
For five users, the cheapest plan with an auto attendant is $49 at Talkroute; the most expensive is $150 at Aircall, both per month on annual billing, from the plan prices in this site's dataset.
The step up costs $8 a user a month at Quo (Starter to Business, annual) and $10 at Google Voice (Starter to Standard), on top of the Google Workspace license Voice already requires.
Multi-level menus are spelled out by RingCentral, Dialpad, Zoom and Google Voice. Ooma and Vonage call theirs a "Virtual Receptionist" and do not say how many levels it has.
An auto attendant is a button menu, not a conversation. The AI receptionists that talk to callers are sold separately; their prices are in How much does an AI receptionist cost on a business phone plan?
Is it on the entry plan?
| Provider | Entry plan | Auto attendant on it? | First plan that has one | What the page calls it | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RingCentral RingEX | Core: $20 a user a month on annual billing, $30 monthly | Yes | Already on the entry plan | Multi-level auto attendant and IVR on every plan | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Nextiva | Core: $15 a user a month on annual billing, $23 monthly | Yes | Already on the entry plan | “Auto-attendant & call menus” on every plan; “smart call routing (simple IVR)” only with the call center add-on on Engage, included on Scale | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Quo | Starter: $15 a user a month on annual billing, $19 monthly | No | Business: $23 a user a month on annual billing, $33 monthly | “Phone menus” start on Business | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Dialpad Connect | Standard: $15 a user a month on annual billing, $27 monthly | Yes | Already on the entry plan | Multi-level auto attendant on every plan | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Zoom Phone | US & CA Unlimited: $16 a user a month on annual billing, $18 monthly | Yes | Already on the entry plan | Features page: “unlimited multi-level auto attendants”; the pricing page does not list it by plan | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Ooma Office | Essentials: $19.95 a user a month | Yes | Already on the entry plan | “Virtual Receptionist” on every plan; levels not stated | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Google Voice | Starter: $10 a user a month | No | Standard: $20 a user a month | Multi-level auto attendants from Standard; Starter has none | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Phone.com | Basic: $15 a user a month on annual billing, $18 monthly | Yes | Already on the entry plan | “Interactive Voice Response (IVR)” on every plan | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Talkroute | Basic: $19 a month for the account | No | Plus: $39 a month for the account | One menu on Plus, unlimited on Pro; the row is labelled “Multi-level Auto Attendant/IVR” | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Vonage Business Communications | Mobile (1–4 lines): $13.99 a user a month on annual billing, $19.99 monthly | Yes | Already on the entry plan | “Virtual Receptionist” on every plan; levels not stated | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| JustCall | Team: $29 a user a month on annual billing, $39 monthly | Yes | Already on the entry plan | “IVR & call menus setup” on every plan; minimum two licenses | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Aircall | Essentials: $30 a user a month on annual billing, $40 monthly | Yes | Already on the entry plan | “IVR and basic call flow” on every plan | Check current plansUnpaid link |
Scroll sideways on a phone.
Every provider has its own name for the same thing. RingCentral and Dialpad say "multi-level auto attendant", Phone.com, JustCall and Aircall say "IVR", Quo says "phone menus", Talkroute says "Menus", and Ooma and Vonage say "Virtual Receptionist". All of them mean a recorded greeting that routes the caller by the key they press. Nextiva splits it in two: "Auto-attendant & call menus" is on every plan, while "Smart call routing (simple IVR)", which routes on more than a keypress, is dashed out on Core, needs the call center add-on on Engage, and is included on Scale.
Zoom is the one row not read from a pricing table. Its Phone pricing page does not list the feature at all; the Phone features page says "define unlimited multi-level auto attendants" without naming a plan, so it is recorded that way.
The cheapest plan that has one, for one user and for five
| Cheapest plan with an auto attendant | 1 user | 5 users |
|---|---|---|
| Talkroute Plus | $39 | $49 |
| Vonage Business Communications Mobile (1–4 lines) | $13.99 | $62.95 |
| Nextiva Core | $15 | $75 |
| Dialpad Connect Standard | $15 | $75 |
| Phone.com Basic | $15 | $75 |
| Zoom Phone US & CA Unlimited | $16 | $80 |
| Ooma Office Essentials | $19.95 | $99.75 |
| RingCentral RingEX Core | $20 | $100 |
| Google Voice Standard | $20 | $100 |
| Quo Business | $23 | $115 |
| JustCall Team | $29 | $145 |
| Aircall Essentials | $30 | $150 |
Per-user plans are the annual seat price times the headcount. Talkroute is the exception: Plus is a flat $39 a month that includes three users, with $5 for each user beyond that, so five users is $49. Vonage prices its seats by band, and five users fall into the 5–19-line band rather than the 1–4 band shown in the first table. Google Voice Standard needs a Google Workspace license underneath, which the table does not include; Is Teams Phone or Google Voice still cheap once you count the license underneath? adds it back. JustCall sells a minimum of two Team licenses, so its one-user figure is a price you cannot actually pay.
For a solo owner the ranking barely matters, because the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive entry plan is the gap between the providers themselves; How much does a business phone system cost per user each month? is the fuller version of that comparison. The ranking matters when a menu is the one feature you need and the provider you like puts it a tier up. At Quo that is $8 a user a month, for every user, to get phone menus along with automatic recording and the CRM connections that come with Business. What does Quo (formerly OpenPhone) cost beyond the per-user price? lists the rest of that step.
A menu or a receptionist
A menu sends the caller where the button says. It handles after-hours messages, department routing and a dial-by-name directory without anyone answering. What it cannot do is take a message in the caller's own words, book an appointment or answer a question, which is what the AI receptionists in article 77 are sold for at $14.99 to $99 a month on top of the plan. If the entry plan already has a menu, start there; How does a business phone system decide who answers a call? shows how the menu, ring groups and voicemail fit together.
Sources
Plan inclusions read from each provider's pricing-page comparison table on October 5, 2026 (Zoom from its Phone features page). Plan prices are from this site's dataset and carry their own check dates on the provider pages.
- ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html
- nextiva.com/nextiva-pricing
- quo.com/pricing
- dialpad.com/pricing
- zoom.us/pricing/zoom-phone and zoom.com — Zoom Phone features
- ooma.com — Ooma Office plans
- workspace.google.com/products/voice
- phone.com/pricing
- talkroute.com/pricing
- vonage.com/unified-communications/pricing
- justcall.io/pricing
- aircall.io/pricing
Related on this site
- How much does a business phone system cost per user each month?
- Twelve entry plans and the four features they may lack
- Which plans turn voicemails into text
- Plans that add a call queue behind the menu
- How does a business phone system decide who answers a call?
- What does Quo (formerly OpenPhone) cost beyond the per-user price?
- Can a small business use Google Voice without paying for Google Workspace?
- How much does an AI receptionist cost on a business phone plan?
- Compare every US plan at your team size
- Seat cost calculator
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.