What a business phone system costs
At ten seats, the published plans we hold work out at $5.50 to $89.00, median $24.50 per seat per month in the United States over three years, and £5.00 to £25.00, median £15.00 in the United Kingdom.
Those figures do not add taxes and regulatory fees. On taxes and regulatory fees, 2 of the 37 providers state that the price already carries them on at least one plan, 0 publish what they come to, 14 say they are extra without an amount, and 21 say nothing. Where a provider says the price is all-inclusive or includes them, the page says so beside the figure; everywhere else the invoice will be higher than the figure.
The published figures
| Market and type | Plans | Effective / seat at 10 seats |
|---|---|---|
| United States seat-priced phone system | 43 | $5.50 to $89.00, median $25.00 |
| United States virtual number and line plans | 4 | $5.90 to $7.99, median $7.40 |
| United States self-hosted license | 0 | — |
| United Kingdom seat-priced phone system | 16 | £5.00 to £25.00, median £15.00 |
| United Kingdom virtual number and line plans | 0 | — |
| United Kingdom self-hosted license | 0 | — |
A worked example
Take the cheapest published US plan and put ten seats on it for three years.
Grasshopper Small Business, from its published pricing page. checked 2026-09-05 This is an example, not a quote.
What the published figure leaves out
- Taxes and regulatory fees. Most providers either say they are extra or say nothing, and none publishes a percentage. A few state the opposite: Talkroute says its price is all-inclusive with no separate telecom taxes, USF or regulatory fees, and Microsoft says its Teams Phone calling plans include communication taxes and fees. Each provider's page here says which position it takes. In the United States these are recurring line items, not one-offs.
- The monthly-billing premium. Where both figures are published, monthly billing costs 1.34 times the advertised annual rate at the median.
- Seats you do not use: plans with a minimum bill the minimum.
- Handsets and porting: desk phones are a purchase, and no provider here publishes what porting numbers out involves.
What you can negotiate and what you cannot
Negotiable in practice: the seat price at any size worth a salesperson's time, which is exactly why so many providers publish nothing. Not negotiable: government taxes and mandated surcharges, which vary by location and are passed through. In between: a provider's own recovery or administrative fee. RingCentral, for one, describes its E911 Cost Recovery Fee as "not a government-mandated charge". A fee the provider sets is a price, and a price can be asked about.
Questions worth asking before you sign
- What is the per-seat price on monthly billing, in writing?
- What is the minimum number of seats billed?
- What do taxes and regulatory fees add, as a percentage of the invoice?
- What happens to my numbers if I leave?
Who this is not for
If you need a recommendation, this page will not give you one. It describes what the published numbers are and what they leave out. We have not used these providers and we do not rate them.
Sources
- Every figure above is computed from the rows in data.json, each carrying its own source URL and check date.
- The method page gives the formula in full and the three reasons a price can be missing.
Related
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.