Zadarma and Vonage: comparison of top VoIP providers

Let’s start by taking a moment to understand the term VoIP. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It’s smart functionality and scalability has empowered small to medium enterprises to grow rapidly and painlessly by removing the upfront costs of telephony infrastructure.

VoIP providers have varied offerings, so it’s important to select the right solution for your business situation and maximise the benefit of this exciting accessible technology.

But what questions should you ask when selecting your VoIP software?

Here’s some questions to consider:

• What is the cost and is there a contract?
• How easy is the set up and use?
• Can you expand and add a phone at any time?
• Are there any hidden costs when expanding and adding more phones?
• Will the VoIP service cover all global locations?
• Does it cover mobile VoIP?
• Do they have an API for integration?

When considering Zadarma, it's important to review its benefits against another leading VoIP software provider. Let’s compare Zadarma Vs Vonage and review how they differ.

Both Zadarma and Vonage are popular options for businesses of today, providing high-quality VoIP based phone solutions. To provide a fair comparison you should explore the most common features and price points but ensure you marry these back to your business’ specific needs to help determine your selection.

Zadarma is ideal for individuals, small businesses and medium enterprises. It is an excellent example of a trusted cloud-based phone system. Offering virtual numbers from over 90 countries, Zadarma can establish both a local and global presence for your business. Zadarma is reliable, easy to set up, and extendable by adding extensions and numbers. With active users in 160 countries, it offers a world-wide range of virtual phone numbers, 24/7 customer support team and a raft of extended features including CRM, video conferencing and call tracking beyond the core standard VoIP offering.

Zadarma’s key features:

• Simple, quick and easy in set up and use
• Toll free numbers
• Call tracking
• Voice menu and voicemail system
• Free to set up cloud PBX customisable to needs
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) backed by features including call pickup, transfer, recording, conditional and unconditional forwarding and call waiting.
• Answer machine
• Call centre solution
• Call back widgets
• SMS
• Video conferencing
• Free API integration with your CRM and messaging ie: Slack, Salesforce, Facebook Messenger and HubSpot, Zoho, Zendesk
• Variety of languages such as English, Spanish, Russian & Polish.

Zadarma’s pricing:

• Three VoIP price plans. Two of which are enterprise pay monthly subscriptions while the other is a free software offering with calls priced per minute.
• Numbers start from an affordable $2 per month
• VoIP calls claim a 90% cost saving on traditional international call charges
• 30,000 virtual numbers including toll-free are available across 100 countries worldwide.
• Annual subscription
• Free trial software
• Free API integration

If we take a look at Vonage now; Vonage offers a business phone system perhaps more suited to medium to larger businesses. Vonage has only two significant plans for customers, with the Vonage Business Cloud and Enterprise plans. Vonage Business Cloud (VBC) is the most popular plan for Vonage. However, if a company purchases more lines, the cost scales but at a decreasing rate. If you are scaling quickly this could be a real advantage. Unlike Zadarma, Vonage separates particular features from the standard package plans and treats them as add-on options. This allows a company to acquire a specific feature per line to create a solution with the exact features needed by the team. Vonage has toll-free numbers and calling in separate solutions. The phone system provides a video conferencing solution that includes collaboration tools, mobile integration and screen sharing. Call out features include its network optimisation and customisation functionalities. Vonage offers video conferencing solutions that include mobile integration, screen sharing and built-in collaboration tools with Amazon Chime Pro. Vonage has a sales team and technical professionals on hand to support their customers.

Vonage’s Key Features:

• Plug & play service with additional costed add on features
• Activation is remote, no onsite installation
• Month to month contracts available
• Virtual receptionist
• Call centre solution
• Customisable call routing
• WAN optimisation
• Traffic prioritisation
• Webinars
• Toll-free numbers
• Customisation functionalities
• Video conferencing
• Call monitoring
• Mobile integration screen sharing
• Collaboration tools
• Chat
• Phone number verification
• Language - English only

Vonage’s pricing:

• Pricing starts at $19.99/month/user
• VBC currently starts at $24.99 per line. With additional lines the cost scales but at a decreasing rate.
• Vonage’s SMB and enterprise pricing is available by quote.
• Month to month are available contracts
• Extra monthly fee for a local main business number, integration with Salesforce and a conference bridge Free trial software

In summary, both Vonage and Zadarma provide unlimited calling each month and both allow for easy installation. Zadarma is a business phone system that removes the need for heavy hardware and wiring to set up, giving SMB's access to a wholly cloud-based office telephone system that is versatile, easy to use and can be set up in minutes. Zadarma is also much cheaper than Vonage. In comparison, Vonage offers a hardware VoIP solution which can be connected via phone, call forwarding & call transfer to a UK mobile or landline. The Vonage solution is highly scalable, but perhaps more suitable to the larger company due to the extra features and costs.

When deciding on which VoIP software is right for your business it's important to weigh up a variety of features specific to your business's needs. Cost, set up and ease of use should always be front of mind.