Cloud Phone System Cost in 2023

How much does a cloud phone system cost, for a medium-large business in 2023?

In the video below, Mike gives you the 4 core pricing structures that vendors offer for cloud phone system solutions, and exact price ranges your organization can expect to pay. Bonus – He also tells you how to know which pricing structure is the best fit!

Ever wonder which vendors Mike thinks your company should quote? Click the button below and ask him today. He’ll respond.

About Mike

Mike Smith has been helping companies select the best telecom, WAN, security, and cloud services since 1999. He founded AeroCom in 2003, and has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards, including being recognized as one of the top 40 business people in tech-heavy Orange County, CA. Follow Mike on YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and SpiceWorks.

Transcript

Your large company is looking for a new phone system and you want to know, hey, how much do cloud phone systems cost these days in 2023?

So say, for instance, you have over 100 employees. This is definitely a good question to ask, because pricing varies quite a bit for a company that’s a little bit larger. For small companies, it’s pretty similar. Most of the cost is about the same. But as you start to get into the larger companies, medium and large size companies, there are different pricing options that fit different types of businesses.

So I wanted to make a quick video and give you some information on what you should be looking for, based on the requirements your business has.

Make it Easier

But before I get too deep into the topic, just a quick plug, if you’d like my recommendation on the best cloud phone system service providers that your company should be quoting, absolutely reach out, give me a call (714.593.0011), send me an email. I’m happy to help, and it won’t cost you anything. It will save you a lot of time. More information on that at the end of the video. Also, don’t forget to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. That would be great.

Unlimited (bundled) Pricing

Okay, so you have or you work for a large company. So you have over 100 employees, which you consider medium or large, and you’re looking for a new cloud phone system service provider. And you want to know, hey, how much should I expect that this is going to cost in terms of budget-wise? Well, there’s a few different types of pricing structures that you want to be aware of, and each really plays to a different type of requirement. So the first type of pricing that you’re going to see that’s the most common out there is unlimited pricing. So this is what most cloud phone system service providers offer, and it usually ranges between $15 a month per user or per extension, to $25 per month per user or per extension.

And with that, each user gets unlimited outbound domestic calls. So they can make as many outbound domestic long distance calls, local calls as they want. It’s unlimited.

Why the large price range?

And the reason I’m giving you a large range, $15 to $25 per month, that’s a $10 difference, obviously, is because number one, every service provider is a little different in their pricing. Number two, quantity is going to make a big difference. So if you have 100 employees using the phone system versus 1,000 or 10,000 employees using the phone system or 100,00 employees using the phone system, you’re going to get some quantity discount there as well. So there’s that factored in. Also, the number of features that your company’s users need.

And some users might need a lot of features and some cool stuff with call recording and all types of different things, call center features, that type of thing, and so they might be in the $20-plus range and you might have other users who barely use the phone, and they might be in the $15 or maybe even a little bit less per month per user range. So that’s the range there for unlimited calling that you’re going to see out there.

Call Path (unbundled)

The second type of pricing that you’re going to see out there is what I call “call path pricing” or “unbundled” pricing. And so what that is that is the service provider will charge you, say, around $20 per month per simultaneous call path that your company has active at your busiest time of day. So say, for instance, you have 1,000 employees, but you’ve noticed that no more than 100 people are ever on the phone simultaneously, even at the busiest time. Well, that would be what I would call 100 call paths. So the service provider would say, charge you $20 per month for 100 call paths. And then for users, they charge a lot less.

So they charge maybe $5 per month per extension or per user on the phone system. And if you do the math on that, comparing that to the unlimited plan that I discussed earlier, the more employees you have and the larger that difference is between the number of phone system extensions you have and the number of simultaneous call paths that you need, the bigger that difference is, the better your pricing is going to be with a call path model. So if your company has a lot of employees or a lot of phone system extensions period, but you’re not on the phone a whole lot, the call path pricing model is going to save you a lot of money, as opposed to the unlimited calling pricing model. So that’s something that you might want to think of.

Do all vendors offer this?

Not all cloud PBX service providers offer that call path pricing model. In fact, I’d say a small handful of them do that are reputable. So not all of them offer that, so if you go in there just asking, hey, do you have a call path pricing model, a lot of them are going to say no. A lot of them only offer unlimited. But it’s definitely something that you want to search for and compare. Not saying it’s absolutely the best fit, but you definitely want to compare it, if you’re looking at a cloud phone system and you have a lot of employees and you don’t use the phone a whole lot.

Call-Path-Only

Okay, the third type of pricing that you want to think about is what I call path only pricing. Now, only a small group of cloud phone system service providers offer this one. This one’s pretty rare. But what they do, is they charge you only for simultaneous call paths. So similar to the call path pricing I just described, it’s the same, except maybe they charge a little bit more per call path, so let’s just say $30 per month per simultaneous call path, and they allow you to have unlimited user or phone system extensions, so you can have as many users as you want. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that they charge you for are the unlimited call paths. And by the way, you get same thing with the other call path pricing I just spoke about and this call path pricing, you get unlimited calling on those call paths, so there isn’t any meter charge or things like that.

So again, another pricing model that you want to think about if you have a lot of users or a lot of extensions, but you are barely on the phone, you don’t use that many simultaneous call paths, compared to the number of extensions your company needs for the phone system.

Metered

And the last type of pricing that you’re going to see out there for a cloud phone system solution for a large company is what I would call a metered plan. What that means is that you’re charged a minimal amount per user or per extension, and the service provider’s going to charge you per minute for the calls that you make. Some charge you only for outbound calls. Some charge you per minute for outbound and incoming calls to your local phone numbers, so you want to ask if they do that. This is a very rare pricing plan these days, and it’s just because not very many companies want this. They don’t want the old school way of having to look through a phone bill every single month and have a variable phone cost every single month. Most companies want a stable, fixed phone system cost that they can predict, and they know this is going to be their cost every single month.

So it’s pretty rare that companies will be willing to do a metered plan, but it is out there. There’s some service providers who offer it. It’s pretty rare, but they do offer it. And yeah, so I’d say maybe expect to pay $5 per month per user, and then expect to pay around a penny to two pennies per minute per outbound phone call that you make.

Just ask me

So I hope that helps a little bit. That’s the different type of pricing that you can expect to find from a cloud phone system company in 2023.

Again, if you’d like my recommendations on the best cloud phone system service providers for your company specifically, and you have over 100 users, do not scour the internet. You’ll be on there forever. You probably end up with the wrong service providers. There’s literally thousands out there to choose from. Just contact me via email or by phone (714.593.0011).

I’m a broker for these service providers, and won’t cost you a thing. Within a few questions, I’ll be able to narrow down which service providers your company should be quoting, which have the best reputation, which have the features and functionality that your company needs. And I’ll actually also introduce you to the right salespeople at those service providers to make sure you get great people. Again, don’t forget to hit the like and subscribe button if you like the video, and I will catch you on the next one.