Ooma Review

Why Ooma Is Best for Small Businesses

Ooma’s core focus is supporting microbusinesses and new businesses with its ease of use, customer support and speed of implementation. It does that and does it well, providing a business phone system with high usability, 24/7 customer support and almost instant implementation. Furthermore, we found that its extensive list of standard features in its lowest-tier plan exceeds those of other business phone systems we reviewed.

It’s rare, for instance, for VoIP providers to include both a main company number and toll-free number (with minutes included) with business entry-level plans. Plus, every user receives a direct dial number, and companies can configure extensions. For small businesses needing a few more advanced features, Ooma doesn’t disappoint. We loved the purpose-built tools that saved us time. Business owners can use messaging templates and scheduling automation capabilities to improve customer service response times and sales.  

Ooma’s roots as a consumer-focused product and software provider are most apparent in its intuitive interface. The dashboard makes setting up and using the phone system very easy for nontechnical business owners and employees. We appreciate how the helpful drop-down menus make it simple for anyone without phone system experience to learn how to manage call flows, change the receptionist’s greeting, set business and holiday hours, and use more advanced features such as hot desking and call queuing. 

We found Ooma to be the best business phone system for small businesses, but it’s worth noting that the company offers a separate three-tier enterprise product for larger businesses, including a package with call center functionality for $49.99 per user per month. (See our picks for the best contact center services.)

Employees can manage all communications from a single app on their smartphone or tablet. Source: Ooma 

Usability

Ooma was designed specifically for an intuitive user experience, using familiar icons and offering support when you explore new features for the first time. Part of what makes Ooma’s phone system so attractive to small and nontechnical business owners is its ease of use in terms of the setup process and making adjustments for day-to-day operations. Businesses on a budget that can’t pay for implementation support or additional training won’t have an issue getting started with Ooma.

We liked that business administrators can use the simple drop-down menu to record a custom greeting, create menu options for different languages, and set modes for business and after-hours calls with the virtual receptionist. We don’t expect you to need it often, but it’s reassuring to know Ooma provides 24/7 customer service in the event you get stuck with a phone system feature.

Ooma’s recently updated virtual receptionist can handle multiple schedules with different behaviors and menus. Source: Ooma

The iOS and Android mobile apps that are free with all Ooma small business plans keep the same look and feel as a standard operating system, making it especially easy to navigate for new users. Taking and making calls, flipping between devices, blocking robocalls and setting up automatic call recording feel intuitive and quick. With helpful tools, such as automatic voicemail transcription, available with most plans, you can prioritize your voicemails quickly and listen to them played back at 1.5 or 2 times the normal speed to gather pertinent information quickly and accurately. (You may also be interested in these free visual voicemail services.)

Users can select from 10 ringtones to distinguish among different types of calls in the system. Source: Ooma

Ooma Features

Ooma includes more than 50 essential calling features with all of its business phone plans. The platform doesn’t have AI-powered features and tools offered by some competitors, but it has excellent call-handling capabilities in a platform that’s much easier to use. Most features are available to use on the desktop and mobile app with most Ooma accounts.

Caller Info Match

This advanced feature, which is available through Ooma’s desktop app with the Pro and Pro Plus plans, goes beyond typical caller ID capabilities by pulling information from your CRM software as well as LinkedIn, Facebook and Google. We also liked that Ooma’s Caller Info Match can connect with Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM and ServiceNow to help identify callers you’ve contacted before, see their past interactions, review notes from your CRM and find other valuable information from search engines and social media profiles and posts. To learn more about CRM integrations, see our Salesforce review and our Zoho CRM review.

Business Texting

Although many business phone systems offer SMS messaging, not all services include rule-based automation, website widgets or one-to-many messaging tools. We found these features especially helpful for small teams that want to improve customer support and communications without installing additional software. Higher-tier plans let users send the same text message to 30 people simultaneously and even use a prewritten template to streamline the process. 

With scheduled messages, you can automate an SMS marketing campaign or appointment reminders. We also love that Ooma’s customer-care team helps small businesses customize their “contact us” forms for the website widget. When visitors fill out the form, you can view the message in your text inbox and reply almost instantly. 

See our review of RingEX for more text-messaging options, including AI-enhanced writing tools.

Small businesses can create text message templates to save time when running campaigns or handling frequently asked questions. Source: Ooma

Find Me Follow Me

For most businesses, the ability to stay connected with customers, clients and co-workers is the most critical feature of their phone system. We like that Ooma helps ensure you never miss an important call with the Find Me Follow Me function that’s available with the Pro Plus plan. The feature lets you set up multiple devices to ring at the same time or follow a sequential order of your choosing. 

You can, for example, set your office desk phone to ring two times, begin calling your mobile device on the third ring and finally the conference room phone on the fourth ring. Find Me Follow Me can be set to ring on any of your phones or mobile devices, guaranteeing important calls follow you wherever the day leads. 

Overhead Paging

For large retail stores, distribution centers and other businesses that use an overhead paging system, such tools often play a critical role in daily communications and important emergency announcements. We like that Ooma’s phone system works with your existing overhead paging system through an adapter that’s sold separately. Once connected through your dashboard, you can use the multicast paging button on your phone to initiate an overhead announcement that can be heard by everyone in your facility. The feature is included with all Ooma Office plans.

Admin Portal

Ooma’s consumer product origins show the simplicity of its administrator’s portal. We found that the ease with which you can set up and adjust your business phone system’s basic and advanced features is especially ideal for smaller organizations without any in-house information technology staff to troubleshoot systems. In the admin portal, business owners and managers can purchase IP phones, review call and fax logs, manage extensions, and review the phone system from any device with an internet connection.

Business owners and managers can easily navigate the admin portal to update tunes seasonally. Source: Ooma

Ooma Costs

As you find with most cloud-based business phone platforms, Ooma charges based on the number of user accounts you purchase. We found its pricing to be suitable for businesses on a budget, since they were among the more competitively priced in our review. The company does not advertise discounts for bulk purchases, but anyone planning to buy more than six phone lines should reach out to an Ooma sales representative to inquire about special rates.

Other expenses could include additional phone numbers at $9.95 per month and international calling rates that vary widely by location. In addition to the monthly fees noted below, Ooma may charge a one-time activation fee.

Ooma Setup

Ooma’s straightforward setup process is ideal for businesses that are setting up a phone system for the first time. It’s also a benefit for new businesses that have a lot to do before launching, because they can quickly get up and running with Ooma and move on to the next task. 

You can sign up for Ooma online and begin making calls in as few as five minutes after selecting a new number in almost any area code. Ooma’s user-friendly administration portal adds to the ease of use when setting up calling features such as ring groups and call routing to ensure calls are never missed during business hours. We love how simple it is for nontechnical users to start using the platform.

You can set your call menu to allow callers to initiate a text conversation instead of a voice call. Source: Ooma

For companies that need to purchase phone hardware, Ooma’s support staff can assist with setting up an extension and providing preactivated phones that work as soon as they’re plugged in. Of course, your total implementation time will depend in part on how long it takes to get the equipment and transfer an older number if needed.

Ooma Customer Service

Despite the rise of AI-powered chatbots in customer-service settings to lower costs, Ooma still offers the same 24/7 customer service to subscribers at every service level. Other providers we’ve reviewed don’t offer the same live agent with entry-level plans as they do with more expensive plans, as seen in our review of Dialpad, for example. We love that Ooma Essentials, Pro and Pro Plus subscribers can reach a support specialist anytime by phone through the app.

On Ooma’s website, you can find frequently asked questions, webinars, case studies, a blog and a company podcast, although the offerings aren’t as extensive as what some rivals provide. The lack of a larger online resource center may not be much of an issue given the Ooma platform’s high usability and the availability of 24/7 phone assistance. You’ll get more education tools with 8×8, however, which provides in-depth training courses for their users. Learn more in our 8×8 review.

Ooma Drawbacks

We like how Ooma tailors its business phone offerings and features for smaller companies and teams, but, in some areas, such as bulk discounting, it would be nice to see support for larger businesses. Many competitors, including RingEX and GoTo Connect, offer significant discounts for businesses purchasing dozens of user accounts. Of course, that isn’t a downside if your organization is small and plans to stay that way.

We found that Ooma falls short of its competitors in terms of its available software integrations. Ooma offers integrations with CRMs such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365, but even those connections are limited with some plans. Ooma’s Pro plan, for example, can integrate with NexHealth and Microsoft unified applications, but you’ll need the top-tier Pro Plus plan to integrate with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho, Freshsales CRM, Clio, AgencyZoom, HubSpot and Square. Most competitors in this category offer far more integration options with lower-level plans.

Methodology

To find the best business phone systems on the market, we researched and analyzed more than a dozen offerings. We used paid and trial accounts to test different solutions and conducted demos whenever possible. The factors we considered in our evaluations included features and tools, usability, the setup process, pricing, customer support availability, integrations and limitations. We identified Ooma as the best business phone system for small businesses because of its simple interface, advanced features and overall ease of use in a small business setting.

Overall Value

We recommend Ooma for…

• Small businesses in need of a simple, easy-to-use phone system.
• Businesses on a tight budget or those using mobile phones for most communications.
• Very small businesses looking for a phone solution without an annual commitment.

We don’t recommend Ooma for…

• Businesses with a complex tech stack in need of custom software integrations.
• Companies that want to use a fully featured desktop app with an entry-level plan.
• Large organizations that prioritize getting the most advanced features over ease of use and fast implementation.

Jessica Elliott contributed to this article.