Nextiva Business VoIP Review 2021 | Business.org

The name may sound like an off-brand artificial sweetener, but there’s nothing phony about Nextiva’s VoIP reputation. It’s one of the most popular services available in the US and Canada, with plans that offer a boatload of business features for relatively little money. A small business on a narrow budget could get up and running easily with the service, but it’s mid-sized companies with an eye on growth that would really benefit from Nextiva’s expansive applications.

Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Nextiva has been in the Voice over Internet Protocol business since 2008. The majority of online customer reviews feature positive comments about Nextiva’s service, though there is some negative feedback that seems to stem from users' general unfamiliarity with how VoIP systems work (for which we’d suggest reading Business.org’s handy VoIP guide).

One of the few downsides we found during our review was Nextiva’s less-than-transparent pricing. The Essential plan is $17.95 a month only if you have 100 or more users and sign a three-year contract. For four employees or fewer with no contract, it climbs to $30.95 a month.

Likewise, the Professional plan starts at $21.95 for 100+ employees on a prepaid three-year contract, then jumps to $35.95 a month with a smaller employee stable and a monthly agreement. The same pattern applies to the fully loaded Enterprise plan: the cost is $31.95 a month with the 100-user count and contract, but it inflates to $45.95 for one to four employees without a contract. And the Ultimate plan can get as expensive as $75.95 per month.

We should also note that Nextiva offers multiple price points based on the length of your contract and the number of users on your plan. To see the exact prices for your business size and preferred contract length, be sure to select the tiny question mark icon next to the displayed price on the Nextiva website.

Each of Nextiva’s three VoIP plans include these features:

• Free local number
• Free toll-free number
• 1,000 toll-free minutes
• Nextiva desktop and mobile apps
• HD video calling (up to four participants)
• Caller AI with Nextiva CRM
• Unlimited multi-level auto attendant
• Team Presence
• MS Outlook, Lotus Notes, and Google Contacts integrations
• Cloud PBX
• Free phone number porting
• Mobile call management
• Unlimited calling in the US and Canada
• Voicemail to email
• Unlimited virtual faxing
• Shared call appearance (multiple phones on one line)
• Customizable HD hold music
• Dial by name directory\
• Call controls (transfer, hold, mute, etc.)
• Call continuity
• Simultaneous ring
• Call forwarding
• Call waiting
• Do Not Disturb
• Voicemail to text ($2.95 per line)
• Barge In (manager monitoring)

The Enterprise plan also includes these features:

• 10,000 toll-free minutes
• Unlimited videoconferencing (unlimited participants)
• HD video calling (unlimited participants)
• Salesforce Lightning UI, Salesforce Service Cloud, and ServiceNow integrations
• Three professionally recorded greetings
• Voicemail transcription
• Nextiva Anywhere
• An extensive suite of customer relationship management (CRM) features

Nextiva’s Basic plan covers the basics and does even more than a small business with only a handful of employees might need. As mentioned before, Nextiva’s pricing model doesn’t exactly favor limited lines, but the service is solid enough to help you expand to the next (cheaper) level.

Nextiva calls the Pro plan its “most popular,” and it’s easy to see why: the list of features is impressive and nearly equal to the next tier’s assortment (minus the heavy-duty CRM elements). If your small business can’t function with the Pro plan, it may no longer be a “small” business.

You may not consider the term “control freak” derogatory—and why should you? Nextiva’s feature-flush Enterprise plan should cater to your every detail-hungry whim. The Enterprise plan’s attention to CRM minutiae is so all-encompassing that it might qualify for its own Black Mirror episode.

If your business is operating a call center, two Nextiva plans can facilitate connecting support staff and inbound sales personnel to customers seamlessly. While it costs half as much as its premium call center plan, Nextiva’s Office Pro plan still has plenty of features at $50 a month. On the other hand, if you want every last bell and whistle you could imagine (and some you may have never considered), Nextiva’s Enterprise plan is luxuriously loaded.

Call center plans Pro and Enterprise include these features:

• Call queue visibility
• Unlimited call queues
• Enhanced greeting and call queue announcements
• Free auto-attendant recording
• Intelligent ACD (automated call distribution)
• Queue-based routing
• Skills-based routing (weighted call distribution)
• Remote agent support
• Voicemail to email
• Dedicated onboarding service
• Real-time agent management
• Historical or scheduled metrics reports
• Call recording
• Estimated wait messaging
• Click/drag & drop transferring

Call center plan Enterprise includes these additional features:

• Configurable call handling and forced delivery of phone calls
• Night and holiday service
• Agent whisper messaging
• Queue management
• Flexible disposition codes
• Flexible unavailable codes
• Options to promote, retrieve, or transfer queued calls
• Queued call management
• Silent monitor
• Barge In
• Dialed number identification service (DNIS) support
• Disposition code status
• Priority queue routing
• Outgoing call control

Nextiva’s Call Center Pro plan handles all of the essentials for a nominal $50 a month. This is a great deal for a smaller company that’s just getting its business legs and expecting future growth.

For $100, Nextiva’s Call Center Enterprise plan offers a dozen important additions to the Pro plan that would give a company the muscle and flexibility to set it apart from a startup shop.

A Private Branch Exchange (PBX) is the self-contained telephone network within an office that employees share for outbound, inbound, and interoffice phone calls. VoIP systems manage PBXs off-site through cloud hosting, phasing out the need for on-premise equipment and maintenance.

A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk carries voice, data, and video through a “trunk” in place of copper telephone connections through the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PTSN), consolidating phone and internet service into a single digital line. Reminder: VoIP requires a reliable internet connection with adequate bandwidth and, unlike traditional telephone connections, is vulnerable to power outages.

When switching to a VoIP system, it’s possible to keep your current phone number. Most VoIP services offer number porting, which lets you transfer, or port, your number over. Check for number porting in VoIP service features; some charge an extra fee for porting, while others apply it for free (as Nextiva does).

Bring your own device (BYOD) refers to employees conducting company business on personal laptops, tablets, and phones instead of on company equipment. Most VoIP companies offer BYOD features in their plans, either included or at additional cost. Nextiva supports BYOD in its Office plans. For more information on bring-your-own-device solutions, check out Business.org’s guide to BYOD.

Nextiva business VoIP offers plenty of bang for your buck—just be sure to pay attention to the pricing details, especially if you’re a smaller business with few employees to cover. Even the most basic package has an impressive array of features, while the upper tiers offer almost overwhelming functionality and CRM possibilities.

If you’re switching from a traditional phone system to VoIP, you should expect a bit of a learning curve, but Nextiva is a strong contender for making the transition painless and (relatively) inexpensive.

Want to know more about the other VoIP options on the market? Check out our top picks for business VoIP service.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.