Last Updated On January 07
OpenPhone Review (2024): Business Phone Must-Have or Overhyped? Pros, Cons & Pricing Revealed!
Seamlessly manage all your business calls and texts from one simple app. No more hassle of carrying around multiple devices or giving out personal numbers to clients.
Tired of juggling multiple phone numbers and devices for your business?
With OpenPhone, you can finally say goodbye to the hassle of carrying around multiple phones or handing out personal numbers. Manage all your business calls and messages in one place, right from your smartphone.
In this OpenPhone review, we will delve into the characteristics, pros, cons and OpenPhone pricing to assess whether it meets your business needs.
So sit back, relax, and let's find out if OpenPhone is the one for you!
What is OpenPhone?
OpenPhone is a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service that provides a modern and flexible phone system for businesses. It allows users to make and receive calls using the internet, eliminating the need for traditional phone lines.
OpenPhone offers a range of features, such as call forwarding, call routing, voicemail-to-text transcription, conference calling, and AI text messaging.
These features enhance communication efficiency, improve customer relationships, and streamline business operations.
Ease of Use
4.4
Customer Service
4.3
Features
4.5
Value for Money
4.6
Image Source: OpenPhone
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What is OpenPhone used for?
OpenPhone is like a modern phone system made for businesses. It gives you a special phone number just for your business, and you can use it on any device—like your phone or computer—using the OpenPhone app or website.
With OpenPhone, you can do lots of stuff all in one place. You can make and get calls, send and get text messages, set up voicemail, and keep your contacts organized, all from the same place.
Plus, OpenPhone has extra features like call forwarding, a virtual receptionist, call recording, and it works with other business tools like Slack and Zapier.
Imagine you have a little online shop where you sell handmade crafts. Right now, you're using your personal phone number to talk to customers, but it's getting hard to keep track of all the business calls, texts, and voicemails mixed in with your personal stuff.
Plus, you want to look more professional and give your customers better service as your shop grows.
In this situation, OpenPhone would work really well. You can get a special business phone number from OpenPhone, which helps you keep your personal and business calls separate. With the OpenPhone app on your phone, you can handle all your business calls and texts easily, without mixing them up with your personal stuff.
OpenPhone has cool features like call forwarding and a virtual receptionist, which help you deal with incoming calls quickly. This means you can make sure every customer question gets answered fast.
You can also make personalized voicemail messages for your business and get them sent to your email or the OpenPhone app, so you never miss an important message.
OpenPhone's Key Features
OpenPhone has a range of key features that make phone calls simpler and enhance communication for individuals and teams.
In this OpenPhone review section, we will delve into the essential features and determine if they align with your needs.
OpenPhone's Phone Numbers
OpenPhone provides phone numbers that make it easy for you to distinguish between work and personal calls.
With customizable features and collaboration tools, businesses can efficiently handle their phone communications.
Image Source: OpenPhone
Phone Numbers Core Features
Here are the core features:
Separate Numbers
OpenPhone lets you easily get a dedicated number for your work or business communication.
This ensures clear boundaries between professional and personal contacts, keeping work-related calls and texts separate from your personal interactions.
Free Number Porting
You can port your existing work numbers to OpenPhone for free.
This allows businesses to retain their established contact information while benefiting from OpenPhone's advanced features and functionality.
Extensive Number Selection
Choose from thousands of available phone numbers during the setup process.
Whether you're looking for local numbers in specific areas or toll-free numbers, OpenPhone provides a wide range of options to meet your requirements.
Unlimited Numbers
With OpenPhone, there are no limitations on the number of phone numbers you can have.
This flexibility allows you to allocate different numbers for various purposes, such as specific departments, campaigns, or partner collaborations.
Customized Numbers
OpenPhone offers customization options for your chosen numbers.
You can create vanity numbers that align with your brand or personalize digits based on patterns, making it easier for customers to recognize and remember your contact information.
Team Collaboration
OpenPhone facilitates smooth team collaboration by offering shared numbers.
Team members can use a single shared number to make and receive calls or texts, promoting consistent customer communication and boosting teamwork efficiency.
Shared Call History & Inbox
Keep track of all conversations through a shared call history and inbox feature within OpenPhone's interface.
This facilitates transparency among team members by providing visibility into previous interactions with customers or clients.
Call Routing & Voicemail
Customize how incoming calls are handled by setting up call routing rules in OpenPhone.
You can redirect calls based on time of day, availability, or specific criteria.
Additionally, voicemail features allow you to capture missed calls and ensure prompt follow-ups.
OpenPhone's Teams
OpenPhone is designed to support the growth of your business and improve team communication and collaboration.
It enables teams to streamline communication, provide customers with a seamless experience, and eliminate busy phone lines.
With OpenPhone, teammates can use one number simultaneously for calling and texting, presenting a unified voice to contacts.
Image Source: OpenPhone
Internal threads remain private to team members, allowing them to work behind the scenes while keeping all conversations in context.
The platform also provides complete visibility into team activity across shared numbers, ensuring alignment and making it easy to track conversations and never miss important threads.
Additionally, OpenPhone allows you to manage your team and numbers by providing insights into their usage through data-driven decision-making.
OpenPhone's Calling
OpenPhone offers seamless calling experiences with powerful configuration features that can elevate your team's communication.
With the ability to easily configure your team's business hours for each number, you can ensure calls are routed based on the time of day, helping maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Additionally, you can customize your notification preferences to mute activity from specific numbers, allowing you to focus on what matters most.
Image Source: Notion
OpenPhone also allows for easy call routing, keeping everyone in sync through group calls or enabling warm transfers by bringing a coworker onto the call.
Furthermore, the platform automatically records calls, providing a valuable resource for reference and training purposes.
With OpenPhone, you have the freedom to call anyone, anywhere in the world, expanding your reach and facilitating global communication.
OpenPhone's Messaging
OpenPhone offers a range of features that enhance your team's messaging capabilities. With group messaging, you can simultaneously communicate with multiple team members, ensuring everyone stays connected and informed.
Take advantage of auto-replies to streamline your response process.
Set up automatic text replies based on different triggers, such as receiving a text, missed call, or voicemail. This allows for quick and efficient responses, even when you're unavailable.
Save time by using message templates. Create reusable snippets for messages that you frequently send, eliminating the need to type them out repeatedly.
This helps speed up your response time and ensures consistency in your communication.
Image Source: OpenPhone
With OpenPhone's scheduled messages feature, you can plan and send messages at specific times, accommodating different time zones or scheduling reminders for important events or follow-ups.
OpenPhone enables you to message anyone, anywhere in the world. Whether it's a local or international contact, you can conveniently reach out to anyone through text messaging on the platform.
OpenPhone's Contacts
Organize and enhance your team's address book with OpenPhone. Add custom properties and notes to keep important information on hand and ensure you stay on top of your relationships.
Syncing your Google Contacts is a breeze, as OpenPhone seamlessly integrates with the platform. You can also import contacts instantly via CSV or connect to any CRM and data source using the Zapier integration, allowing for effortless data transfer.
Collaborate with your team by sharing contacts. This enables everyone to access and update contact information, ensuring consistency in customer interactions.
Capture valuable information about your customers using custom properties. These customizable fields allow you to store specific details relevant to your business, ensuring you have all the necessary information at your fingertips when communicating with customers.
Image Source: OpenPhone
Additionally, you can mention teammates in private notes associated with individual contacts, fostering collaboration and enabling efficient management of each customer.
This feature allows for easy communication among team members regarding specific customer interactions and strategies.
With these capabilities, OpenPhone helps you improve customer engagement by providing a comprehensive view of your contacts and facilitating teamwork when managing and nurturing those relationships.
OpenPhone's Integrations
Boost your productivity and gain valuable insights into your business with the help of OpenPhone's integration ecosystem.
OpenPhone supports popular integrations such as Google Contacts, Zapier, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Slack. Integrations allow you to automate tasks and make your communication workflows smoother.
For example, with Zapier integration, you can create custom "Zaps" that automatically perform actions between OpenPhone and other supported apps based on specific triggers and conditions.
Integrations make it easy to share information between OpenPhone and other apps or platforms.
For instance, if you integrate OpenPhone with HubSpot or Salesforce CRM, call logs and text message history can automatically be logged as activities in your CRM system.
This helps improve customer relationship management by keeping all the important interactions in one place.
Image Source: OpenPhone
Some integrations provide real-time event notifications from OpenPhone to the integrated app or platform using webhooks.
This means you can receive instant updates about important events in your communication workflow with another tool of your choice. With this feature enabled, you can send event notifications to any app or platform of your choice.
By connecting OpenPhone to other third-party applications, you can streamline your workflows and maximize the capabilities of your existing tools.
These integrations allow you to consolidate communication data, automate tasks, and gain valuable insights to optimize your business operations.
OpenPhone's VoIP
OpenPhone is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that allows you to make and receive phone calls over the internet. When you use OpenPhone, your voice data is transmitted as digital packets over the internet rather than traditional phone lines.
This means you can make calls from any location with an internet connection, including your computer, smartphone, or tablet.
When someone calls your OpenPhone number, their voice data is transmitted over the internet and delivered to your device, allowing you to answer the call just like a regular phone call.
OpenPhone's VoIP service provides a wide range of features that meet your business's communication needs and help you build better relationships with customers.
With OpenPhone, you can easily forward calls or route them to the appropriate team members or departments, ensuring efficient communication. You can also use business SMS and MMS to send text messages to customers, making communication quick and convenient.
Image Source: OpenPhone
Furthermore, OpenPhone's VoIP service includes a helpful voicemail-to-text feature. This technology converts voicemails into text messages, making it easier and faster for you to read and respond to important messages.
Additionally, OpenPhone offers three-way calling, allowing you to have productive conference calls with both internal team members and external parties.
OpenPhone also offers call transcriptions to automatically create written records of your phone conversations. This feature ensures that you have easy access to important details and can review discussions at any time.
Additionally, OpenPhone's AI text messages enhance your business communication by automating responses to common questions and providing instant support.
OpenPhone's Pricing
OpenPhone pricing plans are flexible and transparent to meet the communication needs of individuals, small businesses, and larger teams, with straightforward pricing and a range of features included in each plan.
Let's explore the pricing options offered by OpenPhone.
| Plan | Starting Price | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 per user/per month | One new local or toll-free phone number per user, Calling and messaging to US and Canadian numbers, Voicemail transcripts |
| Business | $33 per user/per month | Everything from Starter, plus: Group calling, Custom ring orders, Call transfers, AI call summaries and transcripts, HubSpot and Salesforce integrations, Phone menus, Analytics and reporting, Auto call recording |
| Enterprice | Custom Price | Everything from Business, plus: Custom contract and pricing, Dedicated account manager, Priority support, Audit log |
Image Source: OpenPhone
OpenPhone also provides a 7-day free trial so that you can test out its features before committing to a paid plan.
OpenPhone has a pricing structure that includes discounts for yearly subscriptions.
When you choose the annual subscription, you can save money compared to the monthly plan. This helps you and your businesses budget better while enjoying all the features and benefits of OpenPhone.
OpenPhone's PROS and CONS
As we emphasized in this OpenPhone review, it provides a range of benefits for individuals and businesses seeking an efficient and affordable phone solution. However, as with any service, there are advantages and disadvantages to using OpenPhone.
Let's now examine some of the pros and cons in more detail.
PROS
Making calls using OpenPhone is as easy as using my normal daily phone.
OpenPhone features a user-friendly interface that is modern and intuitive, allowing users to access it seamlessly on both desktop and mobile devices. This versatility makes it convenient for individuals and businesses to use regardless of their preferred platform. With its straightforward design, OpenPhone is easy to learn and navigate, ensuring a smooth user experience for all.
OpenPhone eliminates the burden of international roaming fees, allowing users to make and receive calls without incurring additional charges while traveling abroad. This cost-saving feature makes OpenPhone a cost-effective solution for individuals and businesses with global communication needs.
OpenPhone offers an extremely cost-effective virtual phone system solution that provides a wide range of integrated features, including call recording. This means users can enjoy the benefits of a professional phone system without breaking the bank.
CONS
OpenPhone phone numbers are limited to the United States and Canada. This means that users can only obtain and use phone numbers within these two countries when using the OpenPhone service.
Unlike traditional phone systems, OpenPhone does not have fax support integrated into its platform. This could be a significant drawback for businesses relying heavily on fax communication.
OpenPhone offers live chat support in addition to email support. Some users may prefer direct phone support or find that the available support options are not sufficient for their needs.
As a VoIP service, OpenPhone relies on an internet connection to make and receive calls. This means that if the internet is down or unreliable, users may experience issues with call quality or access to their phone service.
Choosing the right VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) tool is all about finding a balance between what you need and what different software can offer.
It's important to think about your priorities and decide if OpenPhone meets your expectations or if there might be another tool that suits you better.
OpenPhone's Users Testimonials
When determining if OpenPhone is the right tool for you, reading reviews and testimonials from other users can be helpful.
These firsthand accounts provide insights into what people liked and didn't like about OpenPhone and their overall satisfaction with the tool.
By reading about others' experiences, you can get a better idea and form your own OpenPhone review or opinion of whether or not OpenPhone will meet your needs.
It's important to keep in mind that everyone's experience may be different, so it's a good idea to consider multiple perspectives before making a decision.
“I own and manage two small businesses and was finding giving out my personal number unmanageable as I didn't know who was calling me and for what purpose. Having a dedicated local number that I can tie to my business in google maps, facebook, and my websites was a huge piece of my business toolkit. Openphone has been amazing.”
“Separate contacts lists, windows desktop app, many features with new ones constantly being rolled out, and all for a very reasonable monthly charge are why I love Openphone, but what truly separates them from others I've tried has been the support I received during implementation and porting my number.”
“Quick and easy setup. Excellent customer support including new feature requests. Works very well on a daily basis.”
“There is only one con. Once in a while, I run into a glitch where I want to enter this number into documents, but the phone number is not recognized as real phone number, so I have to put my personal number.... so it's great as the forward facing phone number for customers for my business, but I have to use my personal number for certain administrative accounts.”
“Core features don't work. They have a bug in their call routing that kept calls from coming to my team until I figured out a way to work around it. There is a bug "upstream at a carrier" that is preventing us from sending sms/mms from our core phone number. They failed to mention this prior to us porting our number into their system. Now we're stuck, but it's been weeks with no movement.”
“I love many things; it works wonderfully, hardly ever a glitch! Customer service is great. Love that I can see texts, phone calls and voice mails from customers all in one spot!Anyone on my team can log into open phone from their device and make a call/respond to the customer from the app.”
“Whenever an update occurs, there is usually a minor inconvenience that comes along with it. Something like call logs not getting updated, or the app itself taken too long to update.”
If you have a genuine interest in using OpenPhone, I recommend trying the app yourself to determine if it aligns with your needs.
By gaining firsthand experience, you can form your own opinion and make an informed decision about whether or not OpenPhone is the right tool for you.
OpenPhone's Customer Support
OpenPhone provides support through email; it also offers live chat as a customer support option.
Their customer support team is knowledgeable and helpful in addressing any questions or issues users may have.
Availability of both email and live chat options available provides users with flexibility in choosing the method that suits their needs best. Whether it's sending an email for less urgent inquiries or using live chat for immediate assistance, OpenPhone aims to provide a comprehensive support experience.
Image Source: OpenPhone
OpenPhone also has a comprehensive Help Center on their website, which includes articles and guides to help you find answers to commonly asked questions.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
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OpenPhone is a cloud-based phone system that is primarily used for business communication. OpenPhone offers features such as call forwarding, voicemail, automated greetings, and integration with popular productivity tools like Slack and Zapier.
It enables businesses to streamline communication processes, manage and track calls effectively, and maintain professional interactions with customers and clients.
OpenPhone provides an all-in-one solution for business communication needs by offering features like flexible calling options, voicemail management, automation capabilities, integration with productivity tools, team collaboration features, and valuable analytics.
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OpenPhone is not completely free to use, but it does offer a free trial for users to test out its features. After the trial period, you will need to subscribe to one of OpenPhone's paid plans to continue using the service.
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With OpenPhone, you can make and receive calls internationally; however, you can only do so using a US or Canadian phone number.
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OpenPhone can be used outside of the US. While it primarily uses US and Canadian phone numbers, you can make and receive calls internationally using the OpenPhone app, regardless of your location.
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OpenPhone is known for its reliability. It provides a high-quality and stable phone service, ensuring that you can make and receive calls without any issues.
The platform has a strong infrastructure to support seamless communication, making it a reliable choice for individuals and businesses alike.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, OpenPhone is a cost-effective VoIP service that offers mobile flexibility and professional features. It provides multiple phone numbers and is easy to set up. However, it may have limitations with traditional phone line connectivity and limited customer support options.
If you are genuinely interested in OpenPhone, I recommend taking advantage of their free trial to personally experience the service. This hands-on experience will allow you to evaluate its features, functionality, and usability based on your specific business needs and preferences.
The suitability of OpenPhone as a VoIP service will depend on individual business needs and preferences, so it is important to carefully consider factors such as budget, desired features, customer support requirements, and any specific integration or international calling needs before making a decision.
Ultimately, for businesses seeking an affordable yet robust mobile-friendly solution with advanced call management features, as discussed in this OpenPhone review, OpenPhone it is a suitable option.
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