The Guide To magicJack Alternatives: The Top Competitors
MagicJack is one of the most popular VoIP providers around, but it only offers a basic phone system with only a few essential features. Chances are, if your company is growing, you’re in the market for magicJack alternatives to handle your more complex communication needs.
There are a lot of magicJack competitors on the market, but not all of them are the same. Finding a VoIP provider that caters to your specific needs can be tricky. That’s why we’ve put together this essential guide on magicJack alternatives.
We’ll talk about some of the pros (and cons) of magicJack before launching into the top magicJack competitors for you to consider. By the end, you should have a pretty good idea of which provider may work best for you. We’re based in Atlanta but we serve the entire US including Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, and more!
Why magicJack is a Good VoIP Provider
MagicJack has been around since 2007, which is almost as long as VoIP service has existed. As such, it’s one of the more popular providers. What magicJack does well is offer essential business phone service at an affordable price.
When magicJack first started out, it provided a piece of hardware to plug into your computer. The USB device would enable you to use your internet connection to make and receive phone calls, saving you tons of money compared to traditional landline service.
Today, magicJack offers their service in a more modernized format. Like other magicJack alternatives, magicJack for Business is a VoIP service that lets you make phone calls over the internet. Although you don’t need the magicJack hardware anymore, magicJack for Business does require that you rent desk phones from them.
MagicJack has become a popular VoIP provider for several reasons, including:
- Cost: MagicJack offers low-cost plans compared to traditional phone service. The affordability makes magicJack particularly attractive for startups and small businesses looking to create a professional image.
- Ease of use: The setup process is simple and user-friendly.
- Unlimited calling: MagicJack comes with unlimited calling within the US, Puerto Rico, and Canada.
- No contracts: With no contract, magicJack gives you the flexibility to use their service for as long as you need without any fees for canceling.
- Features: MagicJack comes with basic phone system features, like call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, and conference calling.
Features
MagicJack isn’t exactly what you might call “feature rich.” Still, it’s a solid VoIP phone system that’s affordable for those with a tight budget. MagicJack services comes with the following features:
- Unlimited calling in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico
- Voicemail service with notifications sent to your email
- Caller ID on incoming calls
- Call waiting
- Call forwarding to another number.
- 911 emergency service
- Access to magicApp (magicJack’s companion app)
- Free magicJack-to-magicJack calling, no matter the location
- Number porting (for a one-time fee of $19.95)
- Conference bridge
- Call blocking, call queue, and call transfer
- Auto attendant (for an additional fee of $10/month)
Pricing
MagicJack has one pricing plan available. For $9.99/line/month, you get unlimited calling in the US and Canada, as well as all the basic phone system features. However, if you want auto attendant, virtual faxing, and toll-free numbers, you’ll have to pay add-on fees for each: $10/month for auto attendant, $5/month for virtual faxing, and $5/month for a toll-free number.
Cons of magicJack
MagicJack is an easy-to-use VoIP service that offers unlimited calling in the US, Puerto Rico, and Canada. It’s popular for small businesses and startups for its affordability. However, magicJack has a number of disadvantages that might make you consider some of the magicJack competitors. Here are some of the cons of magicJack:
- Customer support: Some users have reported issues with customer support, including difficulty reaching representatives and resolving problems promptly.
- Lacking in features: Compared to many magicJack alternatives, magicJack is lacking in essential business phone system features.
- Lacking in channels: MagicJack only provides phone service. While that may have been fine in the past, today’s business climate requires multiple ways for your customers to reach you. You may be ready for a magicJack alternative if you need more channels like texting, instant messaging, and video calling.
Best US Virtual Phone Number Providers
Top Alternatives to magicJack
Now that we’ve explained how magicJack works as well as some of its disadvantages, let’s take a look at the top magicJack alternatives, comparing features and pricing.
Nextiva
As our number one pick for top magicJack alternatives, Nextiva is the platform that does it all. With tons of advanced features and unified communications capabilities, Nextiva will help you take your business to the next level. Aside from voice calling, Nextiva offers video conferencing, business texting, customer live chat, and social media management.
Nextiva bills itself as a “Unified Customer Experience Management” platform. It enables you to connect with customers in their preferred channels and keep track of those interactions, all in one place. Nextiva also offers third-party integration with top CRM apps and collaboration features that make working as a team easier and more efficient.
Why Nextiva Is a Good MagicJack Alternative
- Nextiva offers all the business telecommunication features you could need under one easy-to-use platform.
- Nextiva has some of the industry’s best customer service. When you have a problem, you can count on Nextiva to help you sort it out.
- Nextiva provides advanced features like auto attendant, call routing, call forwarding, call recording, and screen sharing.
Pricing
As of this month, Nextiva offers four pricing plans. Pricing is on a subscription model, charged per user.
- Digital:
- Pricing: $20/user/month.
- Features: The Digital plan comes with website live chat, messaging apps, social media channels, review management, and digital helpdesk.
- Core:
- Pricing: $30/user/month.
- Features: The Core plan comes with everything in the Digital plan, plus voice calling, business SMS, video meeting, screen share, file share, and call routing.
- Engage:
- Pricing: $40/user/month.
- Features: The Engage plan comes with everything in the Core plan, plus call center and queuing, toll-free number and minutes, advanced reporting, Microsoft Teams integration, and website chatbot.
- Power Suite:
- Pricing: $60/user/month.
- Features: The Power Suite comes with everything in the Engage plan, plus advanced IVR (interactive voice response), intelligent routing, unified team interface, supervisor dashboard, and AI-powered transcribe and summarize.
Vonage
One of the magicJack alternatives that’s been around for a while, Vonage is a unified communications provider with over 50 phone system features, advanced call management, and team collaboration tools. While other magicJack competitors prioritize omnichannel support, Vonage is excellent for companies that rely mainly on voice communication.
Vonage integrates with over twenty third-party integrations like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho. Vonage also makes it easy to add on or remove features you don’t need, letting you customize your service as you need.
Why Vonage Is a Good magicJack Alternative
- With more advanced features, better scalability, and integration capabilities, Vonage offers tools that growing businesses need to succeed.
- Vonage offers a more extensive feature set, including advanced call handling and management features, team chat, and video conferencing.
- Vonage is one of the most customizable magicJack alternatives. With API access, more technically skilled teams can customize essential integrations.
Pricing
- Mobile:
- Pricing: $13.99/month/line (when billed annually)
- Features: The Mobile plan comes with access to desktop and mobile apps, unlimited domestic calling, business texting, and voicemail.
- Premium:
- Pricing: $20.99/month/line (when billed annually)
- Features: The Premium plan comes with everything in the Mobile plan, plus support for desk phones, unlimited video meetings with up to 200 participants, team messaging, access to third-party integrations, and single sign-on.
- Advanced:
- Pricing: $27.99/month/line (when bullied annually).
- Features: The Advanced plan comes with everything in the Premium plan, plus 15 hours/month of on-demand call recording, voicemail transcription, and call groups.
Ringblaze
Ringblaze is one of the simpler magicJack alternatives on this list, and yet, it’s a major step up from magicJack. Ringblaze is especially good for customer service teams looking to engage with their customers. It comes with voice calling and business texting, so while it’s not as robust as Nextiva or Vonage, it certainly has more features than magicJack.
Why Ringblaze Is a Good magicJack Alternative
- Ringblaze comes with a shared customer service dashboard that allows even remote teams to work together to manage incoming calls and call queues.
- Ringblaze offers excellent customer support, with a dedicated account manager, one-on-one onboarding, and email and chat support.
- Ringblaze is fast and easy to set up, with no additional apps or hardware required.
Pricing
- Ringblaze:
- Pricing: $15/user/month (when billed annually).
- Features: Ringblaze’s one and only plan comes with unlimited calling to the US and Canada, free local number, call history, call recording, call forwarding, custom voicemail greeting, and more.
Dialpad
Dialpad is a unified communications platform and business phone system with a heavy emphasis on AI. Built-in AI can transcribe voice calls, analyze customer sentiments, and create automatic call summaries. Other notable features of Dialpad include integration with CRM software, advanced call handling and management, and file sharing.
Why Dialpad Is a Good MagicJack Alternative
- Dialpad is quick and easy to set up. Its user interface is intuitive so that even the least technically skilled among your team will be able to adopt it quickly.
- Dialpad offers voice, video, team messaging, and business texting.
- Dialpad’s feature set is more extensive than magicJack while still being easy to manage.
Pricing
- Standard:
- Pricing: $15/user/month (when billed annually).
- Features: The Standard plan comes with unlimited calling, unlimited AI meetings with up to 10 participants, business texting, team messaging, AI-powered call and voicemail transcriptions, integrations with Google and Microsoft, real-time analytics and reporting, and web and chat support.
- Pro:
- Pricing: $25/user/month (when billed annually).
- Features: The Pro plan comes with everything in the Standard plan, plus 24/7 live agent support, CRM integrations, Microsoft Teams integrations, 10 office locations, multiple phone numbers/account, open APIs and webhooks, global SMS, and 25 ring groups.
- Enterprise:
- Pricing: Quote based
- Features: The Enterprise plan comes with everything in the Pro plan, plus 99.9% uptime, unlimited office locations and ring groups, dial-by-extension, integrations with single sign-on providers, data retention policies, and priority with live support.
OpenPhone
OpenPhone is a basic, virtual phone system that lets you make and receive calls and text messages over the internet. OpenPhone provides you with a dedicated business phone number, multiple numbers on the same device, and shared voicemail inboxes for teams. Plus, it comes with some advanced call management features like call forwarding, call routing, and auto-attendant.
Why OpenPhone Is a Good magicJack Alternative
- OpenPhone offers more features than magicJack, such as business texting, CRM integrations, mobile and desktop support, and auto attendant.
- OpenPhone has reliable service and excellent customer support, both things that magicJack tends to struggle with.
- Although it’s one of the more basic magicJack competitors, OpenPhone does offer AI features, such as voicemail transcription, call summaries, and reply suggestions.
Pricing
- Starter:
- Pricing: $15/user/month when billed annually.
- Features: The Starter plan comes with 1 new local or toll-free number/user, calling and messaging to US and Canadian numbers, and voicemail transcripts.
- Business:
- Pricing: $23/user/month when billed annually.
- Features: The Business plan comes with everything in the Starter plan, plus OpenPhone AI, group calling, custom ring orders, call transfers, integrations with HubSpot and Salesforce, phone menus, analytics and reporting, and automatic call recording.
Grasshopper
Grasshopper is another of the magicJack alternatives that is perfect for small businesses and startups. While it doesn’t have as many features as some of the magicJack alternatives, Grasshopper does have more than magicJack. Some of the features include business texting, extensions, and custom greetings. It’s a basic virtual phone system, but if that’s all you need, Grasshopper is a great way to create a professional image for your small company.
Grasshopper offers the same telephony features on all of its plans. The difference in pricing is the number of users and extensions. That means that even those with a small budget get all of the Grasshopper features.
Why Grasshopper Is a Good magicJack Alternative
- Grasshopper has a number of useful features that can help you create a more professional image, such as business texting, automatic response, custom greetings, call forwarding, call transfers, and more.
- Grasshopper offers both annual and monthly pricing, which gives you more flexibility than magicJack.
Pricing
- True Solo:
- Pricing: $14/month when billed annually.
- Features: The True Solo plan is meant for solopreneurs and comes with all the Grasshopper features for 1 user, 1 phone number, and 1 extension.
- Solo Plus:
- Pricing: $25/month when billed annually.
- Features: The Solo Plus plan comes with unlimited users, 1 phone number, and 3 extensions.
- Small Business:
- Pricing: $55/month when billed annually.
- Features: The Small Business plan comes with unlimited users, 4 phone numbers, and unlimited extensions.
MightyCall
MightyCall offers affordable VoIP service for small to medium businesses. MightyCall has tons of call management and phone system features in an easy-to-use platform. Although it doesn’t have video calling or team messaging, MightyCall does come with unlimited voice calls and business texting.
Why MightyCall Is a Good magicJack Alternative
- Although it’s not a unified communications solution, MightyCall does come with tons of virtual phone system features that magicJack lacks or only offers with upgrades, such as multi-level auto attendant, business texting, and call flow designer.
- The Pro level and higher come with analytics and reporting that can help your team make data-driven decisions for improvement.
- MightyCall offers integrations with some of the top CRM and business software apps, such as Salesforce and Zapier.
Pricing
- Core:
- Pricing: $15/user/month when billed annually.
- Features: The Core plan comes with all advanced telephony features, unlimited calling and messages, 2 business phone numbers, and integration/API access.
- Pro:
- Pricing: $23/user/month when billed annually.
- Features: The Pro plan comes with everything in the Core plan, plus supervisor workspace, live call monitoring, and analytics and reporting.
- Power:
- Pricing: $30/user/month when billed annually.
- Features: The Power plan comes with everything in the Pro plan, plus preview dialer, progressive dialer, and a dedicated account manager.
- Enterprise:
- Pricing: $50/user/month when billed annually (10 user minimum).
- Features: The Enterprise plan comes with everything in the Power plan, plus predictive dialer, SIP trunking support, and custom integrations.
How to Pick the Best Alternative for Your Business
There are a lot of VoIP providers on the market, which means choosing the best magicJack alternative for your business can be difficult. The best way to pick from all the magicJack competitors is to carefully consider your budget and needs.
Here’s some tips on how to pick the right VoIP provider for you:
- Assess your business needs: You’ll want to determine your expected call volume, the features that are crucial to your organization, your plans for future growth, as well as whether you will need to make international calls.
- Consider your budget: How much are you able to spend on VoIP? Look at the prices for each provider, calculating what service would cost with all your employees included. Include any setup fees, hardware costs, and add-on fees.
- Evaluate call quality: Not every VoIP provider offers the same high-quality calls or reliability. If the provider offers a trial or demo, this is a good time to evaluate call quality. Additionally, look at whether or not they offer a Service Level Agreement.
- Customer support: Another area you’ll want to evaluate is customer support. Are they available when you need it? Do they offer support through the channel you need? Look for reviews on the responsiveness and effectiveness of the support team on sites like Trustpilot and Capterra.
- Integrations: Many of the magicJack alternatives on this list come with third-party integrations. If these integrations are important to you, look for providers that offer what you need.
- Ease of use: Some of the magicJack competitors are easier to use than others. Consider the complexity of the initial setup, required training, and intuitiveness of the user interface.
- Security: Another important area to evaluate is how secure the platform is. Do they offer encryption for calls and data to protect your business communications? Are they compliant with relevant industry standards and regulations?
Choosing between all the top magicJack alternatives can be difficult, but you don’t have to do it alone. OneStop Communications will put together price quotes from the top VoIP providers to help you find the right one. We’ll help you consider your budget and communication needs to find a provider that works for your needs.
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