Ooma Office is a VoIP company designed for small businesses with few employees. It is extremely easy to use, which is a huge advantage if you are using VoIP phone service for the first time. On the other hand, Ooma Office does not have all the advanced features that you can expect as your business grows. So it might not be the best VoIP service if you plan to increase your staff next year. In our Ooma office review, we'll cover everything you need to know to decide if this VoIP service is right for your business.
Ooma Office offers two pricing options (Image credit: Ooma Office)
Plans and prices
Ooma Office starts at €19.95 per user per month. For that price, you get a wide variety of VoIP features including call routing, digital voicemail, multi-device ringing, and more. However, the basic plan does not include the Ooma Office desktop app, call recording, or voicemail transcription. For these features, you'll need the Ooma Office Pro plan, which costs $24.95 per user per month. This plan also adds video conferencing via the desktop app and enhanced robocall blocking.
(Image credit: Ooma Office) You can bring your own desk phones to Ooma or buy preconfigured phones from the company. Basic models start at €69,99, but conference room phones can cost as much as €399,99 each.
Features
All users have access to Ooma Office phone service through an Ooma-compatible desk phone. You can also make and receive calls using your smartphone with the Ooma Office mobile app. The service also supports SMS text messages.
Ooma Office allows you to set up ring groups that include multiple phones and employees (Image credit: Ooma Office) One of the key features of Ooma Office is the ability to create ring groups. They are useful if you have multiple employees who could answer a specific call. For example, your sales team and customer service team might each have their own calling pool. When someone calls a number associated with a ring group, all phones in the group can ring simultaneously, so everyone can answer immediately. You can also set the ring group to ring one phone first, and then the call switches to another phone's ring if no one answers. Ooma Office Virtual Receptionist works well with group calls. With the virtual receptionist, you can read a recorded message to customers when they call your business and present options for different extensions to dial. Virtual Receptionist allows customers to dial a specific extension if they know your business and want to skip a group of calls. To help you, you can play different messages depending on whether a call is received during or after business hours. Unfortunately, there are some features that many small businesses would consider essential that are only for Pro users. For example, you can't make calls from your computer without the desktop app, which is only available with a Pro subscription. You also need a Pro subscription to record calls or read transcripts of your voicemail messages. Ooma Office is well below its reporting and integration goals. This VoIP service does not have a dedicated admin panel and there is no way to track call volume or duration. In fact, you can't easily see how many calls have been made to a specific employee or ring group. The platform also has no integration with popular desktop software like Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, Slack, or Salesforce.
Interface and in use
What we liked best about Ooma Office is that it is incredibly easy to use. You can configure your account settings online and it only takes a few minutes to add all your company users and extensions. Setting up more complex options, such as caller groups and virtual receptionist, is also quick and easy.
Ooma Office gives you great flexibility in managing and routing calls, and the desktop app is extremely easy to navigate (Image credit: Ooma Office) We found that most Ooma Office settings can be customized. For example, when setting up ring groups, you can choose how long a phone rings before the call goes to the next extension in the group. You can also create an unlimited number of custom records for the virtual receptionist. Ooma Office Pro users will be very happy with the desktop application. It supports a centralized company directory and you can start an audio or video conference with colleagues with just a few clicks. There is also the option of hosting a company-wide speed dial number, although this becomes less useful as the number of people in your company increases.
Ooma Office has a very detailed online support center with tutorials and video tutorials (Image credit: Ooma Office)
Support
Ooma offers 24/7 support for business users via phone, email, and live chat. The company also has a very comprehensive online support center. You'll find step-by-step tutorials on how to set up your phone's network, as well as videos that show you how to use key features like ring groups and the virtual receptionist.
You can password protect a video conference using Ooma Office, but you cannot lock a meeting once it has started (Image credit: Ooma Office)
fullfilment of security requirements
All calls between two devices using Ooma Office are fully encrypted. The service also encrypts video calls. However, we believe that Ooma Office could do more to protect your account and communications. The platform doesn't offer two-factor authentication, so there isn't much to protect your phone network if your password is stolen. Also, you can password protect video conferences, but you can't lock a meeting room so that new users can't enter without first being approved.
Competition
Ooma Office isn't cheap, and we think there are many more robust VoIP services out there for small businesses. For example, GoToConnect costs $25.95 per user per month if you have five or more users, which is slightly cheaper than Ooma Office Pro if you have 10 or more users. GoToConnect offers call recording, video conferencing, an incredibly flexible call routing system, and integrations for business software like Salesforce. In addition, administrators can access detailed reports on the volume of calls received by their company and the origin of those calls.
Final verdict
Ooma Office is a simple VoIP service that can be good for small businesses with just a handful of employees. It offers a virtual receptionist for incoming calls, supports video conferencing, and is very easy to use. However, since Ooma Office is not a cheap VoIP service, we were disappointed in what it didn't offer. Management and reporting tools are minimal, and integrations with popular office applications are non-existent. Overall, we believe that competing VoIP services provide more value for growing small businesses than Ooma Office.