Unless your voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) provider offers unlimited international calling, calling out-of-country can make your phone bill unpredictable and expensive. The best phone systems offer plans with unlimited VoIP international calls and features to support your business globally, like international numbers and call forwarding. We compared various providers offering cheap or free international VoIP calling to find the best options for small businesses.
Based on feature set, ease of use, cost, and overall value, here are the best providers for international VoIP calling:
- 8×8: Best overall and best for companies wanting free VoIP international calls and high-capacity video conferencing tools
- Phone.com: Best service for small businesses needing cheap international phone numbers and metered and unlimited international calling minutes
- RingCentral MVP: Best for mid-size and large teams looking for international phone numbers and features to support a global workforce
- Nextiva: Best for medium-sized organizations with a U.S.-based workforce wanting metered international calling, toll-free minutes, and professional greetings
- Ooma: Best for solopreneurs wanting unlimited international calling and basic phone services
- GoTo Connect: Best for U.S.-based small to mid-sized teams looking for inexpensive VoIP plans with add-ons for unlimited international calling
International calling costs can add up quickly with per-minute rates offered by most providers. However, 8×8 X series plans include unlimited calling to 14 or 48 countries, depending on the subscription tier. If you purchase a global direct inward dial (DID) number with X2 or X4 plans, your remote agents can make unlimited calls within their country as well as unmetered international calls to 14 or 48 countries.
Contact center subscriptions (X6, X7, and X8) provide 4,000 total inbound and outbound call minutes per user, per month and allow unlimited international VoIP calls to 48 countries. Although this is less than the 52 regions supported with GoTo Connect, 8×8 is the only service with unmetered international calling and global workforce support.
Additionally, 8×8 performs very well for businesses in need of international numbers. This is a service neither GoTo Connect nor Ooma, which both have more unlimited international calling options than 8×8, offer.
If your outbound call volume doesn’t warrant an unlimited international calling subscription, consider RingCentral MVP. Its multi-lingual interactive voice response (IVR) supports 16 languages compared to 8×8’s nine and offers international standard and toll-free numbers in more than 100 global locations. Check out our guide to learn how RingCentral and 8×8 compare.
RingCentral MVP: Best Provider for Global Workforces
If your workforce lives or travels worldwide, RingCentral MVP is the best way to keep them connected. It’s a top business phone system, offering the most features for a global workforce, including 11 languages on the mobile app, PBX services in over 40 countries, and international dial-in numbers for 55 regions. RingCentral is the only provider that has international inbound and outbound texting.
RingCentral MVP also supports your customers worldwide with international numbers in more than 100 locations, including toll-free numbers in 85 countries. The IVR offers 16 user languages, and international employees can select their preferred language on their browser-based portal or mobile app.
Out-of-the-box integrations and team collaboration tools work internationally, whereas Phone.com and Nextiva services only support U.S.-based staff. Although RingCentral doesn’t have unlimited VoIP international calling services, it provides free global extension-to-extension calling.
Nextiva: Best Provider for Toll-free Minutes & Professional Greetings
Nextiva offers U.S.-based and some Canadian phone numbers (like Ontario and Quebec), and unlimited calling includes calls to Canada. Nextiva’s subscriptions also come with the most toll-free minutes, ranging from 1,500 to 12,500. In contrast, RingCentral MVP provides 100 to 10,000 and GoTo Connect offers 1,000 to 5,000.
In addition, Nextiva is the only service for VoIP international calling that gives one to three complimentary greetings for your virtual receptionist menu or voicemail boxes. Nextiva is suitable for U.S.-based teams that make occasional international VoIP calls but don’t need global phone numbers.
In some cases, Nextiva supplies cheaper international rates. For instance, Nextiva’s U.K. rates start at 1 cent per minute versus 3.9 cents with RingCentral MVP and 3.47 cents with 8×8. Discover more features and pricing details in our Nextiva review.
