What is the cheapest business phone service, and what do you give up?
Summary
For one person, the cheapest published plan among the 12 providers below is $13.99 a month at Vonage Business Communications Mobile, which lacks call recording and voicemail transcription. For five people it is $39 at Talkroute Basic, which lacks auto attendant and call recording. Prices are annual-billing where published, with required licenses and seat minimums counted, before taxes and fees.
There are four providers selling a $15 entry seat: Dialpad Connect, Nextiva, Phone.com and Quo. The price is the same; what is missing is not. Dialpad Connect Standard: no call queue; Nextiva Core: no call recording (add-on) or call queue; Phone.com Basic: no call recording (add-on) or voicemail transcription (call queue not shown by plan); Quo Starter: no auto attendant (call queue not shown by plan).
Among the twelve entry plans, the pricing page shows all four features on just one: Aircall Essentials ($90 for one person, $150 for five). Everything cheaper than that is cheaper because something is held back for a higher plan, hidden behind a seat minimum, or dependent on a license you buy separately.
So the honest answer has two parts. The cheapest service is whichever $14 to $17 plan lacks only the things you do not need. The cheapest service that does everything a small office usually asks for costs roughly twice that per seat, or comes with a minimum of two or three seats.
Twelve entry plans and what is not on them
| Cheapest plan | 1 user a month | 5 users a month | Auto attendant | Call recording | Call queue | Voicemail transcription | Minimums, caps, licenses | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vonage Business Communications Mobile | $13.99 | $62.95 | Yes | No, from Advanced | Not listed | No, from Advanced | priced in line bands (1–4, 5–19, 20–99 lines) | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Dialpad Connect Standard | $15 | $75 | Yes | Yes | No, from Pro | Yes | — | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Nextiva Core | $15 | $75 | Yes | Add-on; included from Engage | No, from Scale | Yes | up to 100 users | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Phone.com Basic | $15 | $75 | Yes | Add-on; included from Pro | Not listed | No, from Plus | — | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Quo Starter | $15 | $75 | No, from Business | Yes | Not listed | Yes | — | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Zoom Phone US & CA Unlimited | $16 | $80 | Yes | Yes | Not listed | Yes | — | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Google Voice Starter | $17 | $85 | No, from Standard | Yes | No, from Standard | Yes | up to 10 users; needs a $7 license per user | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Talkroute Basic | $19 | $39 | No, from Plus | No, from Pro | Not listed | Not listed | 1 user included, $5 each extra | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Ooma Office Essentials | $19.95 | $99.75 | Yes | No, from Pro | No, from Pro Plus | No, from Pro | — | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| RingCentral RingEX Core | $20 | $100 | Yes | Yes | Not listed | Yes | up to 100 users | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| JustCall Team | $58 | $145 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not listed | minimum 2 licenses | Check current plansUnpaid link |
| Aircall Essentials | $90 | $150 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | minimum 3 licenses | Check current plansUnpaid link |
Scroll sideways on a phone.
The four feature columns repeat what this site found on each pricing page for its separate articles on auto attendants, call recording, call queues and voicemail transcription. "No, from Pro" means the entry plan does not list the feature and Pro is the first plan that does. "Not listed" means the pricing page does not show the feature by plan at all, which is not the same as the provider lacking it; RingCentral, for example, sells a Call Queues Booster add-on without saying which plan the basic queue sits on.
How the $15 seats differ
Four providers charge $15 a user a month on annual billing for their entry plan, and a buyer choosing on price alone would treat them as interchangeable. They are not. Dialpad Standard lists an auto attendant, recording and voicemail transcription and holds back only hold queues, which start on Pro. Quo Starter transcribes voicemails and records calls by hand, but its phone menus start on Business, so a caller cannot press 1 for sales on the entry plan. Nextiva Core has the auto attendant and the transcription, lists recording as an add-on with no published price, and keeps its queue for Scale, the top plan. Phone.com Basic has the IVR, sells recording as an $8 add-on, and puts voicemail-to-text and desk-phone support on Plus.
If you need a phone menu, Quo's $15 is not your $15. If you need every call recorded automatically, none of the four does it on the entry plan without an add-on or a step up (Which business phone plans include call recording, and what does it cost to add? has the automatic-recording column).
The two plans under $15, and their conditions
Vonage Mobile is $13.99 a line and lists a virtual receptionist on every plan, but call recording and voicemail transcription sit two tiers up on Advanced, and Vonage's price depends on how many lines you buy. Google Voice Starter is $17 once the Google Workspace license every user needs is added; it has no auto attendant and no queue, and it stops at ten users, after which the next plan costs twice as much per seat (Can a small business use Google Voice without paying for Google Workspace? and How much does a business phone system cost for 10 to 20 people?). Both are good buys for exactly the business that does not need what they leave out.
Where "cheapest" stops being cheapest
Three things in the table change the order without changing a plan price. Seat minimums: Aircall Essentials is $30 a seat and lists all four features, but one person pays $90 because the minimum is three licenses, and JustCall Team needs two. Included users: Talkroute Basic is $19 for the account with one user included and $5 for each more, so it is cheap for one and ordinary for five. Required licenses: Google Voice's $10 is $17 in practice. Beyond the table, taxes and regulatory fees land unevenly (Why does the cheapest VoIP plan so often cost more than it looks?), monthly billing can cost more than the next plan up on annual billing (Is monthly Dialpad Standard more expensive than annual Pro?), and a second number is an extra line on most bills (How much does it cost to add another phone number to a business phone plan?).
Sources
Prices, seat minimums, caps and included users are from this site's dataset, with check dates on each provider's page. The four feature columns were read from each provider's pricing page on October 5, 2026 for the four articles linked above; those articles list the page URLs.
Related on this site
- Which business phone plans include an auto attendant, and what does the cheapest one cost?
- Which business phone plans include call recording, and what does it cost to add?
- Which business phone plans include call queues, and what does it cost to add?
- Which business phone plans include voicemail transcription?
- Why does the cheapest VoIP plan so often cost more than it looks?
- How far apart are business VoIP prices, from entry plans to the top tiers?
- How much does a business phone system cost for 2, 3 or 5 people?
- 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.