Best Phone System for Small Business – 2018 Review

Let’s start by saying that choosing a new phone system for your business isn’t an easy task. There are many phone system vendors in the world and this can make the task of buying a new phone system a bit of a challenge. Many global vendors trade in the UK and some do not, therefore this is the first step in narrowing down your search. It’s probably worth mentioning at this stage what a small business is. Within the phone systems market here’s roughly how they categorise phone systems:

Micro Business = 1-10 users
SMB (small to medium size business) = 11-250 users
Mid-Market = 250 to 1000 users
Enterprise = 1000+ users

Most phone systems capabilities nowadays are primarily software controlled and therefore scalability over the years has dramatically increased due to improvements in the hardware they reside on. For example, you can now buy a phone system the size of a shoe box that will easily support 100 users or more. If you have a virtual server (e.g Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware) a single host can support potentially hundreds if not thousands of users.

Small Business Phone System Reviews

Here’s a list of small business phone system reviews that we have carried as part of our 2017 IP-PBX Technology Track, which was created to help buyers navigate the decision making process. Bear in mind that all these fall under the banner of Unified Communications which means they offer more than just Voice. Other unified apps include video, messaging and team collaboration which many of these systems offer. (alphabetical order, the reviews without links are not published yet however will be very soon)

On-Premises hardware based phone systems

These are conventional PBX systems that are typically hosted in your office, hence the term ‘on-premises’.

Alcatel Lucent Enterprise OXO Connect
Mitel MiVoice Office 250
Mitel MiVoice Office 400
Mitel MiVoice Business
NEC Univerge SV9100
Panasonic KX-NS700
Samsung OfficeServ 7030
Samsung OfficeServ 7200
ShoreTel Connect On-Site
Unify OpenScape Business

Virtualised phone systems (on-premise or cloud PBX)

These are software based systems that can be hosted in your office or in the cloud.

3CX Phone System
Microsoft Skype for Business
Mitel MiVoice Business
ShoreTel Connect ON-SITE
Unify OpenScape Business

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)

Subscription based UC platforms, commonly known as UCaaS.

8×8 Virtual Office (multi-tenant)
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Rainbow (multi-tenant)
Avaya OnAvaya (dedicated IP Office)
Cisco Spark (multi-tenant)
IPCortex
Microsoft Skype for Business Online (multi-tenant)
Mitel MiCloud Office (multi-tenant)
Mitel MiCloud Business (dedicated)
RingCentral Office (multi-tenant)
ShoreTel Connect CLOUD
Unify Circuit (multi-tenant)

Cloud Communications APIs

Cloud Communications APIs, also known as Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS)

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Rainbow
Avaya Zang
Twilio
ShoreTel Summit
Vonage Nexmo

Full CPaaS Providers list here

Which Phone System for Small Business then?

There is no right or wrong in terms of brand, each vendor endeavours to have feature parity with the other. However, what is important is you choose the ‘best fit’ solution for your small business. Read our Phone System Buyers Guide to help get up to speed what modern phone systems offer. Once you have an understanding of which features you’d like, read our PBX comparison chart to view the manufacturers that have the features you require.