Ooma Office Review and Plan Costs in 2024

Why We Chose Ooma for Ease of Use

Ooma is featured on our list of the best business phone systems because people without technical experience can configure and use Ooma Office’s attractive VoIP phones, apps and key features with little to no learning curve. In recent years, this vendor has evolved from the go-to provider for companies switching from a landline to VoIP to a major player in the VoIP market for small businesses, rivaling competitors like Nextiva and RingCentral. Even among that evolution, we like how Ooma has stayed true to its roots. The company still provides a simple small business phone system that’s easy to run and use. 

The brand’s latest updates have improved the user experience (UX) further. The expanded virtual receptionist phone system was a pleasure to work with and let us create schedules for weekends, peak hours and holidays. We loved how the desktop client and mobile apps centralized all video meetings through calendar integrations. With one click, we could enter Ooma conferences or other online meeting sessions like Zoom.

Most staff can complete tasks, such as answering incoming calls or sending a digital fax, without additional training. Even so, Ooma provides easy-to-understand documentation for advanced features, such as call queuing and call parking. The vendor also assists with custom solutions. SMBs can find worry-free plain old telephone service replacement or hybrid environment solutions and economical plans. Overall, Ooma shines significantly brighter than its rivals when it comes to usability.

The revamped Ooma Office desktop interface separates your company, shared and personal contacts. Source: Ooma

Ease of Use

Given that Ooma stands out for ease of use, it’s no surprise the phone system software is straightforward across all devices. The redesigned desktop apps for Mac and Windows computers have intuitive interfaces with clear icons and easy-to-read fonts. We love that Ooma’s left-side menu collapses and a gear icon provides easier access to user settings. Employees can tap on the cog to see and update their profiles or call handling rules. 

Desktop Ooma users can change settings or get help by clicking the gear icon. Source: Ooma

Ooma’s Android and iOS softphone apps display icons for incoming calls to differentiate them from personal contacts. They can also show which ring group a customer called, such as sales or service, ideal for small teams answering multiple lines. 

Another highlight: The admin dashboard, Ooma Office Manager, is far less complex than those of other cloud-based phone systems we reviewed. It works in a browser, with tabs for viewing call and fax logs, managing extensions and numbers and accessing account information. All options appear in a drop-down list when building call flows for your virtual receptionist. This makes it clear how your VoIP service handles inbound calls. 

Ooma Office Features

Ooma’s business phone service boasts more than 50 features in its base plan, Office Essentials, while the Office Pro and Pro Plus packages provide even more valuable tools, rivaling peers like Vonage and RingCentral. Learn about the functions we tested and their user-friendliness below.

Virtual Receptionist

Ooma’s virtual receptionist feature allows users to establish a dial-by-name directory and create custom messages for incoming calls. While other vendors provide sophisticated editors for intricate routing rules, Ooma offers an easy-to-navigate tool with tabs for business and after-hours actions, basic information and settings. We appreciate that Ooma Pro subscriptions add multilevel auto attendant support and liked that the Pro Plus plan lets us configure up to five schedules.

When setting up Ooma’s virtual receptionist, you can choose options from drop-down menus or click on tabs to view schedules, settings and essential information. Source: Ooma

Ring Groups

Many multiline phone systems let users set up ring groups, allowing several users to answer calls coming into one line or extension. We like that with Ooma Office, you can select from 10 distinctive ring tones, record a custom ring group greeting and choose from simultaneous or sequential options. Pro and Pro Plus plans support subgroups, which we found valuable for ensuring peak-hour coverage. If calls to your sales extension go unanswered, you can route them to additional departments.

You’ll see the ring group name before the caller ID to instantly know how to greet them. Source: Ooma 

Call Queues

Call queues began as a core call center feature but now come with many upper-tier VoIP plans as well, including Ooma Pro Plus. These are ideal for managing high call volumes. Each account can have 15 queues, each holding up to 25 calls at a time. The virtual receptionist greets callers and default or custom music plays while they wait. 

We found the Ooma call queue’s live statistics especially helpful for business owners and managers. They display average and maximum wait times, the number of calls in the queue and staff availability.

You can enable Ooma’s call queues on the fly and see real-time stats when every minute counts. Source: Ooma

Analog and Virtual Fax

Ooma’s newest enhancements to its faxing functionality have improved an already excellent UX. Plus, the VoIP provider includes internet faxing capabilities with all plans while competitors such as GoTo Connect and RingCentral don’t offer it with base subscriptions. The platform supports analog fax machines connected to Ooma’s base station or a Linx device via a phone cable and is also compatible with most traditional fax machines. It should be noted that Nextiva has virtual faxing as well — see how these VoIP services differ in our Nextiva vs. Ooma comparison and our full Nextiva review. 

Ooma Office users can send faxes from iOS and Android devices with Ooma’s mobile apps. Source: Ooma

SMS Templates

This time-saving feature caught our eye as it sets Ooma Office apart from competitors. Like all of Ooma’s tools, these text messaging templates are easy to set up and use. Enter the text and your team can click to use it whenever they’re replying to a customer. You might want to create templated messages with your business hours, address or any frequently asked questions (FAQs).

Ooma users can select a template by clicking the paper icon within the messaging field. Source: Ooma 

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing features are becoming standard in today’s VoIP systems. Ooma’s online meeting platform supports 25 to 100 participants for four- to 12-hour conferences. These time limits are higher than Nextiva’s and Ooma allows more users than Dialpad. Like its peers, Ooma Meetings doesn’t require plug-ins or downloads to use.

That said, Ooma’s video conferencing features fall behind RingCentral and Zoom services, but we appreciate the clean interface and recent updates. Each user has a personal meeting room and you can create spaces for recurring events. During sessions, Ooma supports one-on-one and group chat, hand raising and screen sharing. 

Concise labels and icons make Ooma Meetings easy to navigate for employees who rarely meet via video. Source: Ooma 

Integrations

We were very pleased with Ooma’s new calendar and customer relationship management (CRM) integrations. Specifically, the Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace integrations enable the bespoke online bookings feature. Leads and clients can schedule appointments and receive reminders from customizable online booking pages. 

You can use Ooma Office to send booking links by email and text or add them to your website. Source: Ooma

CRM integrations include Clio, Salesforce, Freshdesk, HubSpot and Zoho. Syncing your CRM application with Ooma Office allows employees to view a preview window with known caller information before accepting the call. It also records call activity to the CRM contact database. While Ooma’s number of integrations falls behind those mentioned in our review of RingCentral, the integration process went smoothly and functioned well when we tried it.    

Ooma Pricing Plans and Subscription Costs 

Ooma Office is an affordable on-premises VoIP phone system with monthly service plans starting at $19.95 per user. The company doesn’t require a contract and offers the most transparent pricing and explicit service language out of any vendor we reviewed. With Ooma, you know exactly what you’re paying for without unexpected fees.

Just as impressively, the base plan costs less than fellow top-rated VoIP services, like RingCentral, Nextiva and 8×8. Whether you use an IP phone or a desktop app, you can make unlimited calls in the United States, Canada and Mexico. All packages support conference calling; you get a free conference bridge and number. Ooma Office Pro adds video conferencing and call recording while Ooma Office Pro Plus also has call queuing and CRM integrations. 

Compare Ooma’s subscription options with the chart below.

Ooma offers add-ons for toll-free numbers and minutes, international calling and high-volume texting. Like RingCentral and Nextiva, Ooma doesn’t provide unlimited SMS. These restrictions help with anti-spam regulations. Our pricing analysis found that buying additional monthly messages from Ooma was cheaper than RingCentral. Meanwhile, if your company regularly makes international calls, you might want to check out our 8×8 review instead; this rival has unlimited global calling options.

SMBs with higher call volumes should also consider Ooma Enterprise. This tailored offering has sophisticated contact center features at economical prices. [Do you need more flexibility due to call volume seasonality? Check out our review of Vonage, our top pick for plan customization.]

Implementation and Onboarding

The Ooma implementation and onboarding process is much simpler than other business phone solutions we tested, lending to its high ease of use. Most users can set up their system in 15 to 20 minutes. Ooma’s setup wizard, the Express Setup Assistant, walks you through three steps to add your employees as users and configure their accounts.

The preconfigured IP phones are a big help for small teams. Use Ooma’s comma-separated values file template to enter details for up to 20 VoIP phones and import the file to your Ooma Office Portal. Ooma can configure hardware and ship it within 24 hours of purchase. Alternatively, your team can download softphone apps for cell phones and desktop devices. 

Based on our experience with the installation, we think most noninformation technology teams can install this phone system easily without help from customer service. However, if you have many locations and require complex user permissions, our review of GoTo Connect explains why this Ooma alternative is better for multiple sites.

Although Ooma lacks the expansive selection of online webinars and training sessions offered by 8×8 and RingCentral, Ooma’s features are simple and require less training in most cases. We also like Ooma’s user-friendly how-to guides for admins and users, some of which include step-by-step tutorials with screenshots.

Customer Support

We love that Ooma provides 24/7 live customer service with all subscriptions. Users and admins can reach the customer care team through online chat in the Ooma Office Manager portal or via a toll-free phone number. Ooma’s customer support agents can help with billing and installation questions or refer users to the right training resources. Enterprise users have access to a dedicated support team and white glove onboarding. 

Our communications with Ooma were positive. The company’s agents responded quickly to our online chat requests. They could answer questions adequately about how the system works and explain the features of each service plan.

Like the resources from competing vendors, Ooma’s knowledge base is comprehensive. The setup and use are intuitive in most cases, so little instruction is needed. However, we prefer seeing more visuals in tutorials and guides. Also, while Ooma has a community forum, the business section could be more active.

Limitations

Hands down, Ooma is the best business phone system for businesses most concerned about usability and we commend the provider for continually improving the UX and feature set. Still, this solution is not best suited for teams that want an all-in-one collaboration platform or require generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. 

The systems from RingCentral and Dialpad both possess valuable AI-powered capabilities. Recent updates give RingCentral the edge for remote collaboration and video conferencing, while our Dialpad review describes how sales and recruiters can leverage DialpadGPT to gain insights from voice calls.  

Methodology

For our Ooma Office review and our evaluation of its business phone system competitors, we participated in live demos, interacted with customer support agents and tested the applications. We examined each solution’s feature set, implementation process, integration options and customer service resources while also diving into each plan’s costs and limitations. Find out more about our editorial process.

As we weighed which phone system had the best ease of use, we looked closely at overall usability, from initial configuration to regular updates, such as adding or removing employees. Our product testing also involved setup from an end-user standpoint and factored in ease of use when switching devices, answering lines or transferring calls. 

To learn what your team should consider when comparing products, see our comprehensive guide to choosing a business phone system.

Bottom Line

We recommend Ooma Office for …

• Retail and service providers that need paging and faxing.
• Businesses that want lower administrative and deployment costs.
• Companies that are transitioning to VoIP from landlines.

We don’t recommend Ooma Office for …

• Organizations that want voice or video intelligence tools.
• Businesses that prefer unlimited international calling.
• Companies with complex call routing needs.