7 Best Auto Attendant Phone Systems of 2024
The best auto attendant phone system offers a robust platform for designing your call routing strategy. Features like call queues, custom greetings, extensions, and a dial-by-name directory help modern businesses streamline their communication processes and improve the caller experience. Pricing varies among providers, but monthly fees typically range from $15 to $40 per user.
Here’s a list of the best auto attendant phone systems as well as their best use cases:
- RingCentral: Best overall for extensive call management tools
- Dialpad: Best for automated customer support
- Nextiva: Best for remote workforce integration
- Grasshopper: Best for virtual numbers and extensions
- 8×8: Best for unlimited international calling
- MightyCall: Best affordable, feature-rich phone system
- Talkroute: Best for business messaging
RingCentral: Best Overall for Extensive Call Management Tools
What We Liked
- It supports 300-plus third-party apps.
- It has a drag-and-drop phone tree editor.
- It offers 250 voice menus and submenus per account.
Where It Falls Behind
- It has relatively few SMS credits.
- It is expensive to scale up.
- Its unlimited storage for call recordings only unlocks at the highest plan.
RingCentral Monthly Pricing (per User)
- Core: $30 for one phone number, 100 toll-free minutes, unlimited local calls, 25 SMS, visual voicemail, call management, multilevel IVR, basic call queues, on-demand call recording, team chat, and 100 video attendees
- Advanced: $35 for 1,000 toll-free minutes, 100 SMS, advanced call routing and monitoring, automatic call recording, hot desking, unlimited efax, advanced integrations, and business analytics
- Ultra: $45 for 10,000 toll-free minutes, 200 SMS, unlimited storage, and device analytics
- Free trial: 14 days
RingCentral topped our list as the best call management systems, thanks to its rich call routing tools, such as IVR, custom business hours, call handling, and dial-by-name directory. This enables businesses to cope with any type of call volume, call flow, and self-service requirements. In addition to call routing solutions, its analytics tools record and analyze agent calls, providing insights into client sentiment and interactions.
With its multilevel auto attendant, you can create complex call flow configurations. With up to 250 menus, it’s scalable enough to meet your business needs. Its intuitive graphical editor also allows easier management of phone tree menus and customization of inbound call routing.
Despite its extensive features, RingCentral does not offer unlimited text messaging. In contrast, Talkroute offers metered and unmetered business messages along with generous call management and video conferencing tools. Grasshopper also offers unlimited business texting with all its plans but has a simpler feature set than Talkroute.
RingCentral Features
Get an overview of all your company extensions, including the assigned users, locations, and device types. (Source: RingCentral)
- Phone extensions: Assign extensions to connect distributed departments from different locations. Each employee gets their number with voicemail and answering rules.
- Heads-up display: Monitor the status of all your company’s extensions in one place. This allows you to transfer an incoming call or pick up a call on behalf of colleagues.
- Call delegation: Enable admins to assign assistants to answer calls on behalf of a line owner. A delegate can manage multiple incoming calls of up to 10 executives.
Dialpad: Best for Automated Customer Support
What We Liked
- It has artificial intelligence (AI)-powered voice features.
- It has a clean and uncluttered interface.
- It offers local number support in 70-plus countries.
Where It Falls Behind
- It limits video attendees to 10 people.
- It charges extra for toll-free numbers.
- Phone extensions are locked behind the highest-tier plan.
Dialpad Monthly Pricing (per User)
- Standard: $23 for one local number, unlimited calls to the US and Canada, multilevel auto attendant, visual voicemail, custom call routing, SMS/MMS, team chat, five-hour video calls, call transcriptions, and real-time analytics
- Pro: $35 for hold queues, 25 ring groups, international SMS, and customer relationship management (CRM) integrations
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for extensions and unlimited ring groups
- Free trial: 14 days
Dialpad leverages AI to enhance customer support efficiency and accuracy in client interactions. Its AI transcribes calls, providing instant, searchable transcripts that save time and reduce errors. Automated call summaries and actionable recommendations streamline workflow, allowing agents to focus on delivering quality service. Additionally, its built-in speech recognition tracks action items, sentiment, and keywords in calls or video meetings.
The platform’s auto attendant helps connect callers to the right person or department. This smart solution lets you define your system’s active hours, customize your queue prioritization rules, and record or upload custom greetings. Even with all these features, Dialpad offers limited video conferencing capabilities. For robust video conferencing, RingCentral supports up to 200 video participants for up to 24 hours.
Dialpad Features
Dialpad has different routing options to ensure calls reach the right destination. (Source: Dialpad)
- Call routing: Route calls based on skill level, fixed order, or the longest idle agent. You can also direct calls to voicemail or departments.
- Multilingual greetings: If your business caters to a global consumer base, you can set up different language preferences for your call routing system or IVR menu.
- International number: Dialpad provides local number support in over 70 countries, so you can establish a local presence in almost every country.
Nextiva: Best for Remote Workforce Integration
What We Liked
- It has a modern and intuitive interface.
- It has a wide range of collaboration tools.
- It integrates with top CRM apps.
Where It Falls Behind
- Discounts are reserved for larger teams.
- Its Essential plan lacks an SMS/MMS feature.
- The base tier only supports single-level auto attendant.
Nextiva Monthly Pricing (per User)
- Essential: $35.95 for one phone number, unlimited calls to the US and Canada, 1,500 toll-free minutes, unlimited efax, video recording, auto attendant, call log, hold music, team chat, and 45-minute video calls
- Professional: $40.95 for unlimited conference calls with up to 40 participants, no-limit video calling, 3,000 toll-free minutes, 1,000 SMS/MMS, and multilevel auto attendant
- Enterprise: $50.95 for unlimited conference call participants, 12,500 toll-free minutes, 2,000 SMS/MMS, voicemail transcription, call recording, and single sign-on
Nextiva is one of the best auto attendant platforms because this voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) service seamlessly connects call management with employee availability, performance, and customer relationship data. Being an experience management solution, employees working off-site can use the Nextiva mobile app and remote call management features to effectively manage calls from anywhere, allowing you to maintain professionalism and accessibility.
Like RingCentral, Nextiva has a multilevel auto attendant with intuitive menu options and submenus. It’s completely customizable, as it lets you use custom greetings, assign phone numbers, assign schedules, and configure call forwarding. It provides features that allow businesses to streamline customer communications, including call pop, automatic surveys, conversation analysis, and intelligent automation.
Unfortunately, scaling up with Nextiva can be expensive, with a base price higher than most auto attendant providers on this list. If your small business needs a budget-friendly phone system packed with essential features without unnecessary extra tools, try Grasshopper and Talkroute. Their monthly plans start at only $18 and $19, respectively, for one user.
Nextiva Features
The answer confirmation setting allows you to decide whether to use a passcode, a key, or no requirement at all to answer a call. (Source: Nextiva)
- Busy lamp field: It displays the real-time call status of up to 50 users in your company. Presence information includes idle, incoming call, on a call, or call on hold.
- Call Me Now: Enable website visitors to initiate a call to your company by clicking a web-based link or icon. Once they enter their phone number, a call will be placed from your phone to the number entered.
- Directed call pickup: Pick up an incoming call on another user’s extension using a feature access code. Use this feature if a teammate is away from their desk.
Grasshopper: Best for Virtual Numbers & Extensions
What We Liked
- It has a fixed monthly fee for unlimited users.
- Different kinds of virtual phone numbers are available.
- It offers separate business and personal calls.
Where It Falls Behind
- It has limited advanced call management features.
- It lacks video conferencing.
- It does not have any native integrations.
Grasshopper Monthly Pricing
- True Solo: $18 for one user, one phone number, and one extension
- Solo Plus: $32 for unlimited users, one phone number, and three extensions
- Small Business: $70 for unlimited users, four phone numbers, and unlimited extensions
- Free trial: 7 days
Independent business owners and small companies love Grasshopper because of its shared phone numbers with multiple extensions at an affordable price. Project a professional image with a single business number connected to different sales, support, and management extensions. These features eliminate the need for multiple phone lines, reducing costs while maintaining efficiency and organization.
Grasshopper’s auto attendant phone system is customizable and very easy to configure. Users can have live virtual receptionists answer their calls by adding Ruby Receptionist to their Grasshopper account. However, if you need a unified communications solution with extensive collaboration tools and video conferencing, you’re better off with Nextiva. It’s a powerful collaboration solution with voice, chat, video, and customer engagement tools.
Grasshopper Features
Grasshopper offers different types of reports to monitor various call activities across the organization. (Source: Grasshopper)
- Call blasting: This paid add-on ($10 monthly) rings up to 15 lines simultaneously, so you can avoid missed calls and lessen wait times.
- Reporting: Run different report types related to usage, activity, and call information. Each report includes call tracking metrics that deliver valuable insights into every aspect of your calls.
- Instant Response: Automatically send a text message to new callers when you miss their call. Showcase your brand by inserting images and website links.
8×8: Best for Unlimited International Calling
What We Liked
- It offers platform-wide 99.999% uptime guarantee service level agreement (SLA).
- It has a feature-rich entry-level plan, including hot desking and internet fax.
- It allows users to mix and match plans.
Where It Falls Behind
- Pricing is unpublished.
- Agent monitoring tools (barge, monitor, and whisper) are not available in the base-level plan.
- It has a fairly steep learning curve.
8×8 Monthly Pricing
- X2: Custom pricing for unlimited users, voicemail with transcription, unlimited internet fax, unmetered calls to 14 countries, multilevel auto attendant, team messaging with document sharing, HD audio and video conferencing with screen sharing for up to 500 active participants
- X4: Custom pricing for unlimited calls to 48 countries, 8×8 Frontdesk, supervisory analytics, call monitoring tools (barge, monitor, and whisper), and call center analytic
8×8 is one of the few VoIP providers offering unlimited calling to up to 48 countries, depending on your plan. Its Publicly Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) services—the infrastructure network that carries your voice calls worldwide—are available in over 55 countries. 8×8 provides round-the-clock customer support with 10 multilingual teams strategically located worldwide. This is great for companies expanding overseas without paying for costly call charges.
This solution has a multilevel auto attendant system for creating custom caller experiences with multiple menus. Set up multiple profiles for each auto attendant and design various call flows based on specific rules. However, not all small businesses require advanced call management tools like supervisory analytics and hot desking. Choose Grasshopper if you simply need a low-cost virtual phone system for managing moderate call volumes.
8×8 Features
Customize several elements of your multilevel auto attendant solution based on customer size, priority, and location. (Source: 8×8)
- Call center monitoring: Evaluate conversations between your agents and customers by listening in on calls. This helps identify areas for improvement, ensuring better call quality and agent performance. Alternatively, whisper private guidance or take over phone calls to offer real-time assistance.
- Hold music: Avoid dead air by filling silence with hold music or business announcements. When callers are put on hold, they will hear your preferred music or marketing message until the call is resumed.
- Script templates: Create inbound phone scripts and edit available voice prompt templates to suit your needs. Contact the sales team to access the script templates.
MightyCall: Best Affordable, Feature-rich Phone System
What We Liked
- Its base plan has multilevel IVR.
- Each plan comes with two phone numbers.
- CRM integration is a universal feature.
Where It Falls Behind
- All plans have a minimum user requirement.
- It only offers basic call reports on the base plan.
- It has no team chat or video meetings.
MightyCall Monthly Pricing Pricing is based on monthly billing. The Core, Pro, and Power plans have a three-user minimum.
- Core: $20 for two phone numbers, unlimited local calling, unlimited SMS/multimedia messaging service (MMS), call routing, voicemail, call queues, custom greetings, multilevel IVR, ring groups, basic reports, and call recording
- Pro: $30 for live call monitoring, call barging, real-time analytics, advanced reports, and supervisory workplace
- Power: $40 for auto dialers, scheduled campaigns, National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry, priority support, and dedicated account manager
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for volume discounts, session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking support, and custom integrations
- Free trial: Seven days and 100 minutes
MightyCall tops this list for affordability and value for money because while it has one of the lowest per-user rates, it comes with a long list of advanced telephony features in all plans. The base plan includes unlimited calling and messaging, two business phone numbers, custom greetings, voicemail to email and text, and multilevel IVR. It’s a low-cost, fully cloud-based system that doesn’t require expensive hardware, minimizing upfront and maintenance costs.
Using MightyCall’s mobile app boosts your flexibility because it lets you manage calls on the go. The system also has generous call routing and forwarding features that direct calls to a mobile phone, home office, or voicemail, ensuring that business owners never miss an important call. However, it lacks team chat. For team messaging, try Nextiva. Its team chat app has high-definition (HD) audio, screen sharing, and file sharing.
MightyCall Features
MightyCall’s multilevel auto attendant includes an advanced voice menu with up to 10 levels, also called “submenus.” (Source: MightyCall)
- Custom greetings: Create and customize voice greetings and hold music to sound more professional. Record tailored messages for your callers and place them strategically within the caller’s journey.
- Cold transfer: This involves passing an incoming call to another agent or department without informing the receiving party beforehand. It creates an efficient and seamless call management flow, optimizing resource utilization and the customer journey.
- Call notes: Allow agents to document calls and add comments or notes after a call. This makes it easier to capture and share important information with the team.
Talkroute: Best for Business Messaging
What We Liked
- It has unlimited inbound and outbound calling in the US and Canada.
- Call routing is available in all plans.
- It offers professional voice-over services thanks to the Voice Studio.
Where It Falls Behind
- Its base tier doesn’t include an auto attendant.
- It has very few integrations, with the exception of Zapier.
- Its entry-level plan is relatively short on features.
Talkroute Monthly Pricing*
- Basic: $19 for one user, one local or toll-free number, unlimited calling, 500 text messages, call stacking, custom greetings, 100-participant video meeting, and meeting chat
- Plus: $39 for three users, two phone numbers, three voice mailboxes, unlimited text messages, auto attendant, live call transfer, screen sharing, and simultaneous ring
- Pro: $59 for 10 users, three phone numbers, 10 accounts, multilevel auto attendant submenus, file sharing, unlimited multidigit extensions, and business associate agreement (BAA)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for 10-plus numbers, over 20 accounts and voice mailboxes, SLA, and dedicated account manager
- Free trial: 7 days
As your business expands, Talkroute’s metered and unmetered texting is perfect for small teams that rely on SMS to communicate with customers. Use your main business number to send and receive text messages, ensuring timely responses to customer inquiries. Whether it’s a quick question, feedback, or a service inquiry, Talkroute’s text messaging allows for rapid replies, resulting in better response times and higher customer satisfaction.
Its entry-level plan comes with unlimited incoming and outgoing calls and 500 text credits, typically sufficient for a small business. While Talkroute wins in the business messaging category, it falls short on third-party integrations. It doesn’t have native integrations and requires Zapier to establish connectivity. RingCentral features robust third-party integrations, connecting with over 300 software solutions, including CRM apps.
Talkroute Features
Send and receive text messages with your Talkroute phone number. (Source: Talkroute)
- Voice Studio: Use Talkroute’s voice talent services to get professional-sounding prompts for your phone system. Submit a script through a website form and receive your voice-over recording after three days.
- Call reporting and analytics: Access detailed historical reports and call information, including date, time, caller ID, and status. When retrieving information, use filter options to select the specific data you want to view.
- auto attendant submenus: Give your callers more options and provide them with up to 10 menu options. Talkroute lets users add more submenus to call menus, extensions, and after-hour destinations.
How We Evaluated the Best Auto Attendant Phone Systems
We looked at several VoIP phone systems with auto attendants in their subscription plans. From there, we chose the top seven providers by evaluating factors critical to small business owners, such as pricing, feature set, and ease of use. Learn how we assessed the top auto attendant phone systems by clicking on the tabs below:
10% of Overall Score
Cost is a significant factor when choosing an automated phone system for small businesses. We rated each provider based on the current cost of its plans and confirmed whether there is a free trial, annual billing, termination fees, and volume discounts.
30% of Overall Score
The small business phone system with auto attendant should include basic functionalities, such as menus, voicemail transcriptions, uptime SLA, and unlimited domestic calling. Providers who offer other standard tools like number porting, integrations, and mobile apps get higher scores.
20% of Overall Score
An automated phone call system should include advanced call management tools to ensure a smooth call routing experience. These include custom greetings, analytics, call handling capabilities, working hours configuration, and virtual numbers.
10% of Overall Score
Usability is crucial for businesses new to setting up automated phone systems. The system should be easy to set up and operate, particularly for small businesses with limited in-house technicians and IT experts. An intuitive interface is also essential, enhancing the overall user experience and boosting providers’ ratings.
15% of Overall Score
In our review, we assessed each provider’s support options and whether they included phone, live chat, and an email ticketing system. As we looked through several auto attendant phone systems for small businesses, we awarded extra points to those offering 24/7 support across all channels.
15% of Overall Score
To come up with our expert score, we considered each phone system’s standout features and overall value for the cost. Plus, we evaluated its interface and phone menu editors for usability. Finally, we looked at online reviews of real customers to measure each platform’s popularity and ease of use.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Several factors to consider include your budget, the type of features you need, and the daily call volume your business handles. Fundamentally, you want an auto attendant that’s easy to configure, especially when assigning extensions for different departments and setting up call routing for business hours.
An auto attendant enhances the overall caller experience by greeting callers, delivering company information, and directing incoming calls to the right destination. It facilitates streamlined self-service by removing the need to wait for human agents to answer a call and immediately giving callers the answers they need.
No. An auto attendant is a static voice menu system that relies on the caller’s key presses to answer and route calls. An IVR system, on the other hand, is more advanced. It uses speech recognition technology and connects to a database to interact with callers and process information.
Bottom Line
Auto attendant phone systems are valuable tools for businesses interested in streamlining their call management and improving customer service. Auto attendants are like virtual receptionists, directing calls to the appropriate departments, individuals, or extensions. This can reduce wait times, manage high call volumes, and provide a professional experience for callers.
RingCentral stands out among the various solutions available with its advanced features, such as IVR menus, custom greetings, and user extensions. With a 14-day free trial, businesses can experience the benefits of the automated phone system before committing, ensuring it meets their needs and elevates their communication capabilities. Sign up and give RingCentral a try today.
