Ooma Office (opens in a new tab) Business VoIP was designed for small businesses with few employees. It's extremely easy to use, which is a huge plus if you're new to VoIP phone service.
On the other hand, Ooma Office doesn't have all the advanced features you might expect as your business grows. So it may not be the best VoIP service (opens in a new tab) if you plan to expand your operations and expand your staff pool.
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 VoIP: plans and prices
- Ooma Office subscription options:
- 12 month plan - €19.95 per month (€239.40 total cost) (opens in a new tab)
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 (opens in a new tab), which costs €24.95 per user per month. This plan also adds video conferencing via the desktop app and enhanced robocall blocking, plus Google and Office 365 integrations. For a lot more features and not a lot more money, we think this mid-tier plan represents the best value. -price.
At the top is Pro Plus, which costs €29.95 per user per month. Although it's refreshing to see a fairly small price difference between Ooma's cheapest and most expensive plans (compared to other VoIP rivals where you can expect to pay twice as much for the most expensive), it's not the most feature-rich option. Pro Plus highlights include call queue, hot desking support, and sales force integration.
For these features, you'll need the Ooma Office Pro plan (opens in a new tab), which costs €24.95 per user per month. This plan also adds video conferencing via the desktop app and enhanced robocall blocking.
Ooma Office VoIP: features
All users have access to the Ooma Office phone service through an Ooma-enabled 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.
One of the key features of Ooma Office is the ability to create caller groups. These are useful if you have multiple employees who could answer a specific call. For example, your sales team and customer support team might each have their own calling pool.
When someone calls a number associated with a call group, all the phones in the group can ring simultaneously, so anyone can answer immediately. You can also set the call group so that one phone rings first and then the call switches to another phone if no one answers. This kind of customization in a relatively cheap service for small businesses is quite remarkable.
Ooma's virtual office receptionist is a perfect fit for Ring Groups. With the virtual receptionist, you can play a recorded message for customers when they call your business and present options for dialing different extensions.
Virtual Receptionist allows customers to dial a specific extension number if they know your business and want to skip a group of calls. Useful, you can play different messages depending on whether a call comes in during or after office hours.
Unfortunately, some features that many small businesses would consider essential are reserved 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 play your voicemail transcripts. Perhaps the luckiest thing, as we mentioned before, is the fact that upgrading between the three subscription levels only costs an extra €5 each, which is pretty low.
Ooma Office falls short when it comes to reporting and integration. 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 call group. For a small business or startup, this may not be a key priority, but as things start to grow, collecting analytics will prove vital.
In previous versions of this review, we complained about the lack of third-party integrations. This time, Ooma has solved that problem with the introduction of Office 365 and Google integrations for Pro, and Salesforce integration for Pro Plus, but that still leaves Ooma behind some key rivals that offer much more in terms of tools. additional.
Ooma Office VoIP: interface and use
What we like the most 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 like call groups and virtual receptionist is also quick and easy.
We found that most of the Ooma Office settings were customizable. For example, when setting up call groups, you can choose how long a phone should ring before the call goes to the next extension in the group. You can also create an unlimited number of personalized recordings 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's also an option to host a company-wide speed dial, though this becomes less useful as the number of people in your company increases.
Ooma Office VoIP: support
Ooma offers 24/7 support for business users via phone, email, and live chat.
The company also has a comprehensive online support center. You'll find step-by-step tutorials on how to set up your phone network, as well as videos that show you how to use key features like call groups and the virtual receptionist.
Ooma Office VoIP: Security
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 does not offer two-factor authentication, so there is very little protection for your phone network if your password is stolen. Also, you can password protect video meetings, but you can't lock a meeting room so new users can't get in without first being approved.
As more and more VoIP companies venture into the video conferencing market, Ooma seems to be falling behind in this regard.
Competition
At €24.95 per user per month, Ooma Office Pro isn't particularly cheap or expensive, and because of that, it has a lot of competition. We think there are plenty of more robust VoIP services for small businesses out there for a similar price.
For example, the Nextiva Essential plan (opens in a new tab) for SMB teams ages 5-19 is much cheaper at €21.95 per user per month (when paid annually). Of course, it comes with fewer service features than the Nextiva Professional package, which costs $25.95 per user per month on an annual basis.
But the price is not everything. Another competitor known for its quality service is GoToConnect (opens in a new tab) which also costs a bit more at €27 per user per month if you have at least five 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 these 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 doesn't offer. Management and reporting tools are minimal, and integrations with common office applications are also far from extensive.
Overall, we believe that competing VoIP services offer more value for growing small businesses than Ooma Office.
Office Offers Ooma
(opens in a new tab)