scalable + flexible
Small business VoIP
If you’re a small business owner looking to upgrade your existing legacy or VoIP phone solution, Dialpad can help. Dialpad’s unified communications platform lets you make phone calls, hold video meetings, and send SMS/MMS and team messages from one sleek and simple app.
Try it free for 14 days!
What is small business VoIP?
Small business VoIP is generally used as a term to describe a particular type of phone system. Those systems allow teams and businesses to conduct voice calls via the internet, instead of using an old-school on-premises landline.
Unified communications providers such as Dialpad offer a step up again from VoIP phone systems. As well as making VoIP calls, you can enjoy other communication channels like video conferencing and team messaging, too, all from one platform.
Small business VoIP phone features... And a lot more
With Dialpad, you get all the VoIP-based features of a virtual phone system, plus a whole lot more, in one sleek, intuitively designed platform.
Truly unified communications
With Dialpad, you can handle all your internal and external communications in one easy-to-use platform. Make outbound calls, hold video meetings, send SMS/MMS text messages, and more from the desktop or mobile app.
An integrated contact centre if you need it
If you have a support, sales, or any other type of call centre team, Dialpad’s contact centre platform lets your agents take inbound and incoming calls and messages. It’s fully integrated, too, which means agents can handle external communications and call management and internal communications with teammates in one app, all on their phone.
Easy setup
Manage all your day-to-day account settings with a few clicks from your online dashboard. Add another business phone number, change your hold music or call waiting settings, and more—no IT help needed.
Plays nice with any device
Dialpad has a desktop app and mobile phone app, and they work across iOS, Android, PC, and Mac. Or, just log in on the web browser to make calls—no downloads needed, and perfect for small business use. Your clients and prospects don’t need to download anything to join your conference calls or video meetings.
Built-in AI
One unique thing about Dialpad is its proprietary AI, which is built right into the platform. It gives you automatic call transcriptions that you can turn on and off (if you want a record of online meetings or conference calls) and even sends you an automated post-call summary email with follow-up items!
Voicemail transcriptions
Dialpad doesn’t just transcribe voice calls; it transcribes your voicemail messages too (in real-time). In back-to-back meetings and can’t listen to your voicemail messages? Just open up the app to read them instead.
Looking for a small business VoIP solution?
Why not try a unified communications platform instead? Try Dialpad for free with a 14-day trial! It takes just a few minutes, and you'll even be set up with a virtual phone number. Or, take a self-guided interactive tour of the app!
Excellent call quality
A good VoIP service should give you crystal clear calls. That's exactly what Dialpad's unique dual-cloud architecture and global voice network are designed to do—provide HD audio and video calls, around the world.
Customisable caller ID
Using Dialpad’s customisable caller ID feature, you can make business calls from your personal mobile—while still shielding your personal phone number. You can choose between different business phone numbers or even block your caller ID display if you need to.
Easy call recordings
With Dialpad, unlimited call recording comes as part of the package. Use call recordings to train support agents to deliver the best customer support. Dialpad also has AI functionality that helps contact centre agents stay compliant by automatically pausing recordings when agents are discussing sensitive customer information.
Call forwarding
Never miss a call again. Dialpad allows your small business to set up a maximum of five numbers for call forwarding, right from your online dashboard with a few clicks. Forward calls to your mobile phone, a colleague, whoever you want!
Call routing
With Dialpad, you can automatically distribute incoming calls according to your preferences, such as by agent skill level, availability, or idle time. You can even send some calls straight to voicemail, all with a few clicks!
Integrations with tools you’re using
Using a CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce, or everyday tools like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365? Dialpad has a wide range of CRM integrations and integrations with other business solutions to automate data entry and let you dial from, say, Salesforce or Zendesk directly without toggling between different windows. (Plus there’s an API if you want to build a custom integration.)
How to set up a VoIP phone system (or better still, a UCaaS solution) for your small business
It’s super-easy to get set up with a VoIP phone system. Especially if you choose Dialpad instead of a standard small business VoIP provider.
Step 1. Know how many licences and phone lines you’ll need
The first thing you need to know when setting up your UCaaS platform is the number of users you’ll have on the system. This will dictate the cost of the service and which plans you might want to opt for. You may decide you don’t need as many users as there are people in your business.
Step 2. Make sure you have a fast and stable internet connection
The second thing to make sure of is that you have a fast and stable internet connection, as you'll need it for making phone calls and doing video conferencing.
If you’ll be working remotely or outside of the office for any reason, you’ll need a reliable data plan so your service works well in all circumstances.
Step 3. Set a budget
You’ll also need to set a budget that works for your company. You can choose a monthly or annual subscription (the latter typically being cheaper than the former). These are a little like mobile phone plans—however, they contain a lot more handy business communications features.
When deciding what service to use, check whether things like customer support are included in the fee and whether there’s a limit to calling minutes. Dialpad offers unlimited calling for a set price, but this is not a given with every service provider.
Step 4. Determine the functionality you need
Next, decide what functions your business needs. This will depend partly on your industry and business layout. Do your team members mostly work remotely or in the office? Do they have allocated work phones or do they use personal mobiles?
If your business is still small and you don’t have a lot of requirements yet, you might be able to settle for using a cheaper, basic VoIP system with features such as voice calling and desk phone support.
If your business is small but growing, however, you might require functionalities that allow you to easily communicate with colleagues, customers, and prospective clients. This might include caller ID, voicemail-to-email, video conferencing, text messaging, and so on.
Small business-friendly pricing:
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Find the right plan for you
All the value of the Standard plan, plus:
All the value of the Pro plan, plus:
Why small businesses in the UK choose Dialpad over standard VoIP providers
It’s more cost-effective
A lot of VoIP service platforms offer a monthly fee per user instead of a yearly or minutes-based fee. This makes them more accessible for small businesses and easier to use than many legacy telephony systems.
Dialpad takes things one step further. Our UCaaS plans start at only £12 per user, per month and all offer unlimited calls, unlimited video meetings, and more.
If you require an international conference call feature, Dialpad offers low rates for that as well.
It gives you more flexibility
Business VoIP services offer a lot more flexibility than traditional landlines and office phones. If much of your work is remote, meanwhile, UCaaS solutions like those offered by Dialpad are the way to go.
Video calling, web and chat support that you can access from anywhere, and call transcriptions and summaries are all musts for hybrid and remote businesses, and are included in the monthly cost.
It’s easy to set up
Dialpad is quick and easy to set up, even if you’re wanting to get a team member on the other side of the world up and running. There’s no need to ship them hardware such as a desk phone or even a company mobile. Your new recruits can get set up in a few clicks from anywhere, as long as they have an internet connection.
They can start calling, messaging, and attending virtual meetings, as soon as they have a licence. Setting up your new hires’ voicemail, call routing, and any other settings can all also be done online, so your hybrid team can be independent and hit the ground running.
Is it time to rethink your small business communications?
If you’re hovering on the fence between different business communication options, it might be time to weigh up what your business needs are. You might find they’ve changed since you first started, and that as your company grows, your communication needs are evolving.
Perhaps you’ve gone from a hyper-local business to having a global team, and you need to be able to communicate easily with your remote workers. Whatever your situation, it could be time to switch to VoIP—or, better still, a UCaaS platform—so you’re not reliant on more old-school landline options.
Perhaps you need unlimited video conferencing with advanced features, or the ability to easily route and forward calls. Perhaps you want to cut your reliance on an IT team and have a handy dashboard at your fingertips where you can control all of the settings. Dialpad could be the answer.
FAQs about small business VoIP
What's the difference between traditional landlines vs. making calls over the internet with business VoIP?
There are a few differences. For one, landlines work via circuit switching. This means whenever a call is placed, your telephone carrier routes it through a switch to the number you’re calling. The connection is established between the two parties via several switches along the way. When the phone is answered at the other end of the line, this opens the circuit.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) encodes the analogue signals of the caller’s voice into a digital format, which is then transmitted over the internet. On the receiving end, the encoded signal is decoded so the recipient can hear the sender’s voice.
In terms of cost, VoIP can offer much more competitive pricing than traditional landlines and doesn’t require a lot of hardware that you don’t already own. And finally, VoIP has the benefit of offering calls from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet signal, whereas landlines are often much more static and inflexible.
VoIP can also allow for more sophisticated call routing, more easily accessible call recording, and other call management features. VoIP systems can also integrate more easily with other cloud-based software.