Google Voice vs Vonage: Price and Features Comparison 2023

We’ve put plenty of VoIP providers through their paces, and our research found that Vonage is the best overall, when compared to Google Voice. Vonage has a better range of business features and customer support options than Google Voice and is far more scalable. Plus, multiple training features make Vonage great for retail, healthcare, and professional services teams.

Google Voice rated highly for VoIP security out of the providers we tested, and has a low entry cost, which makes it a good option for small teams handling sensitive data. It’s not very scalable, however, so it’s only really an option for smaller teams who plan to stay small.

Be sure to use our dedicated VoIP price comparison tool to find out if Vonage is the best deal for your team specifically.

In this guide, you’ll find:

• Google Voice vs Vonage: Key Differences
• Google Voice vs Vonage Pricing Plans
• Google Voice vs Vonage: What Are They Best For?
• How did we compare Vonage to Google Voice?
• Verdict: Vonage is Better Than Google Voice
• FAQs

Before you buy Google Voice, it’s important to note that Google Voice is exclusively available to existing Google Workspace customers.

Google Workspace packages start from $6 per user, per month for a business starter plan, which includes video meetings with Google Meet, cloud storage, and management controls for your organization.

On top of this, there’s a Business Standard plan ($12 per user, per month) with 2TB of storage, a Business Plus plan ($18 per user, per month) with high-level security features, and an Enterprise Plan (Bespoke) for larger businesses.

Google Voice vs Vonage: Key Differences

On our latest round of VoIP software testing, our research team awarded Vonage a 4.3/5 – the third highest out of any provider we tested – whilst Google Voice achieved an overall score of 3.4/5.

We did find that Google Voice excelled when it came to security (5/5), whereas Vonage only scored 3/5 – so when it comes to Vonage vs Google Voice in the context of security, Google Voice wins.

Vonage really stood out, however, when it came to useful features (4.4/5) and scalability (4.5) where Google Voice performed noticeably poorly in these areas, achieving only 2.6/5 for features and 2.9/5 for scalability. This is one of the reasons Google Voice will only really suit smaller teams, whereas Vonage has wider applications with a broader range of companies.

Unlike Google Voice, teams of all shapes and sizes will find Vonage a useful piece of kit. It has more capacity for external connections and better customer support options for when you get stuck – and with downtime being a disaster for so many businesses, this gives it another edge over Google Voice.

Google Voice

As mentioned previously, Google Voice is only available to existing Google WorkSpace customers, whereas Vonage requires no pre-existing accounts.

Whilst Vonage has one of the most expensive starting plans, Google Voice has the cheapest starting plan out of all the providers we tested and is excellent value for money – you get quite a decent set of features for the price, and you won’t find a cheaper product that still achieves the same purpose.

Google Workspace plans start from $6 per user, per month for a business starter package. This plus each Google Voice plan is still cheaper than Vonage’s comparable plans as well as many alternatives to Vonage. However, the Business Standard plan ($12 per user, per month) and the Business Plus plan ($18 per user, per month) make it more expensive than Vonage’s plans. But if you opt for the cheapest workspace plan or you already use Google Workspace, it’ll be cheaper.

As mentioned above, Google Voice stands out when it comes to VoIP security (which we’ll go into in more detail later on in this article). Its compliance certificate list is vast (as is Vonage’s) and there are even handy features like password rules and multi-factor authentication to ensure that data is secure down to the endpoints on your network, which is absent from Vonage.

Who is Google Voice Best for?

Healthcare providers are likely to be speaking and communicating with colleagues and patients a lot, meaning Google’s WorkSpace applications like Gmail and file-sharing capabilities will come in handy. Google Voice is a good choice for healthcare teams, simply because it’s one of the best for security, and healthcare teams have to handle sensitive data and comply with high standards for data collection.

For the same reasons, small Professional Services teams handling sensitive data will find Google Voice a good option, because the safety of client data will be of utmost importance to businesses. Of course, it’s not the only secure VoIP solution out there though, and there are plenty of alternatives to Google Voice that also have strong security features.

Google Voice is also well-suited to small teams that make a lot of international calls, as it’s easy to use, with good rates — see our guide on how to make international calls with Google Voice for more info.

The best way to know which provider is best suited to your needs is to compare providers and quotes using our VoIP comparison tool, as different VoIP software is better suited (and priced) for some industries and teams than others.

Vonage

As well as having good customer support options in general (3.4/5) – much better than Google Voice (3.1/5) – Vonage is great for onboarding. In fact, it provided the best onboarding experience out of any of the providers we tested.

The same goes for staff training (more on this just below) – meaning Vonage will genuinely help your workforce, whereas Google Voice doesn’t have many tools that can help with that.

A lot of businesses may worry when investing in software as to whether it can grow with them, especially in times of economic uncertainty where it’s hard to tell whether you’ll exceed or miss your growth targets for the next few years. Vonage performed really well when assessed for its capacity to scale (4.5/5), coming second only to RingCentral, and putting it in stark contrast to Google Voice (2.9/5).

Who is Vonage Best for?

Retail teams deal with a higher-than-average number of inbound calls when compared to other industries, so Vonage’s wealth of features for dealing with incoming customer calls will be incredibly useful.

Upskilling employees is also very important for retail businesses, which often have lower-skilled workforces, some of which will be young or working part-time. This means things like call transcripts and recordings and other features that can be utilized for training purposes are important, and this is one of the key areas where Google Voice falls down, yet Vonage does well.

For the same reasons, any Customer Service teams, or customer-focused businesses will also benefit from Vonage’s package.

Although Vonage is not as good as Google Voice for security, it still performed sufficiently with a score of 3/5, and is a better choice on balance for healthcare teams because it has a bunch more useful features that would aid teams in that sector and is more suited to larger numbers of staff.

To get the clearest idea of which VoIP provider best suits your needs, use our bespoke price quote matching tool.

Google Voice vs Vonage Pricing and Plans

Google Voice vs Vonage is actually an easy comparison to make in terms of costs, because both have three pricing plans. Overall, Google Voice’s plans are cheaper than Vonage plans (if you opt for Google’s cheapest Workspace plan, which is $6 per user, per month on top and required to use Google Voice) – but you get a lot more features included with Vonage.

Google Voice pricing

On all of Google’s Voice plans, calls to the US from other countries are free, and there’s free calling to Canada from the US, as well as unlimited domestic minutes. However, international call rates apply when you’re phoning out from the US.

• Starter ($10 per user, per month): Google’s first plan is only for very small businesses, with a maximum of 10 users and 10 domestic locations, but you’ll still get 24/7 support and a phone line to contact. You’ll also be able to set up voicemails, and there’s a spam prevention service, as well as some reporting tools.
• Standard ($20 per user, per month): The Standard plan offers everything on the starter plan but the limits on users and locations are removed. There are customizable greetings, multi-level auto attendant/virtual receptionist, and desk phone support capabilities too.
• Premier ($30 per user, per month): This plan isn’t all that different from Google’s second plan, but it’s what you’ll need if you want advanced reporting tools and localized, toll-free numbers (providing you have a presence in a location).

Again, all the above prices are what you’ll pay in addition to the required baseline cost of buying Google Workspace which starts at $6 per user, per month. Therefore, the minimum cost would be $16 per user, per month.

Vonage pricing

On all of Vonage’s plans, you’ll have unlimited domestic minutes (both inbound and outbound), and there’s no limit to how many users you can have using the software either.

A wealth of integrations is available on all plans too, with everything from CRM systems to Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho projects, HubSpot, and Zendesk (Vonage’s Contact Center for Zendesk is pictured below). The uptime guarantee of 99.999% on all plans is actually slightly higher than Google’s (99.90%) but in reality, this is negligible.

• Mobile (US) ($19.99 per user, per month): Vonage’s first plan includes a large collection of inbound communication features like spam prevention, customizable hold music, company hours, localized + toll-free numbers, as well as external video and conference calling. You’ll be able to record calls, create transcripts and use analytics and reporting tools. There are CRM and Helpdesk integrations too.
• Premium (US) ($29.99 per user, per month): Vonage’s second paid plan has a virtual receptionist option and a customizable greeting feature, as well as custom call routing.
• Advanced (US): $39.99 per user, per month): This is the first US plan that ring groups are available on, although they’re available in Australia and the UK on the previous plan. Aside from that, there’s not all that much difference between this plan and the prior one.

Best for Business Features: Vonage

Vonage scored 4.4/5 for features, the same as RingCentral, which was the software we rated most highly out of all the packages offered by providers we’ve compared. Google Voice, on the other hand, only scored 2.6/5 for features – simply put, it just doesn’t have as many functions that are useful for businesses.

With Vonage, in the US, you’ll have a ton of features, including customizable hold music, voicemail-to-text, voicemail, company hours, localized and toll-free numbers, ring groups, and also the ability to set caller IDs. There are in-conversation features like call forwarding and flipping available on all plans.

Vonage also has many extra features that come at an additional cost, such as SMS/chat, E-fax, and a Call whisper function that allows another user to ‘sit in’ on a call.

Google Voice does have some valuable features like voicemails, customizable greetings, spam prevention, call forwarding, and ring groups – but Vonage offers all of these and more.

Best for Security Features: Google Voice

Google Voice scored 5/5 for security – the joint best score with 8×8 and much better than other VoIP providers we tested. With Google Voice, you’ll be able to activate multi-factor authentication on your accounts and set password rules for staff.

These are really crucial for ensuring that no user creates a weak point in your network, especially considering the average cost of a data breach is now $4.24 million.

There are user permissions you can set with Google Voice that can stop users from accessing certain aspects of your system, which are equally as important.

Included in all of Google’s plans are the same compliance certifications, multi-factor authentication, password rules, and TLS/RTP encryption to ensure no one is eavesdropping on your calls.

Vonage scored a commendable but less impressive 3/5, losing marks for not including advanced password rules or multi-factor authentication.

Vonage’s Compliance certificates, on the other hand, are vast and, just like Google Voice, it’s secured with TLS/RTP encryption.

Best for Customer Support: Vonage

Neither Google Voice nor Vonage scored particularly highly for customer support. Vonage scored 3.4/5 whilst Google Voice scored 3.1/5.

Both providers have a user forum and knowledge base, as well as a phone line (of course). Whilst Google has 24/7 live support, Vonage has live chat and email support whilst Google Voice does not, so Vonage takes the cake here.

Vonage also provides onboarding support (for an additional cost), but Google Voice doesn’t offer this. Both providers offer stronger help and support options than MagicJack, however.

Check out our MagicJack vs Vonage guide to see how the two providers compare in full.

Best for Scalability: Vonage

Google Voice isn’t really built for big teams – they can use it, but the bigger your team, the more features you’re going to need – and Google Voice doesn’t have many when compared to providers like Vonage.

Our Scalability scoring assesses a product’s ability to scale with business growth, in multiple use cases. The scores are arrived at based on the presence and function of features like user limits, call queues, call barges, call whispers, and local numbers, as well as the overall capability of management, collaboration, software integrations, and security.

Google Voice only scored a 2.9/5, making it the joint-least scalable product we tested, and therefore one of the least suitable for businesses that are forecast to grow rapidly. Vonage, on the other hand, scored an impressive 4.5/5 – so if scalability is what you’re looking for, there’s one clear winner here.

Best for Customer Satisfaction: Google Voice

Customer opinions regarding the trustworthiness of these two vendors have been compiled by our research team, and Google Voice actually comes out on top in this case.

Overall, the team awarded Google Voice a 4.4/5 based on customer opinions, slightly higher than Vonage’s 4/5.  Interestingly, both of these telephone systems scored higher than our top-rated providers RingCentral and 8×8 (both 3.5/5) – which illustrates that they’re both good scores for customer satisfaction, though perhaps stemming from lower expectations.

Only NUACOM (4.6/5) scored higher than Google Voice on our last round of testing, so although it might not have as many features as Vonage, customers using the platform definitely enjoy it.

How Did We Compare Vonage to Google Voice?

Here at Tech.co, we’re lucky enough to have a dedicated internal team that conducts extensive research and testing on all of the products we write about, from VoIP software to project management tools.

They create research frameworks with highly specific criteria in order to put products through their paces. After the data is collected, they collaborate with our team of expert writers to produce our reviews.

Our one rule is this: if we don’t have the research, we can’t write about it. That’s the only way to ensure that we’re providing you and other readers with accurate information.

Our VoIP Software Research

When we looked at business telephone systems, our research team identified 6 overarching criteria upon which to assess specific providers. These were:

• Pricing – how affordable are the phone systems, and are they good value for money?
• External Connections – how compatible is the phone system with existing infrastructure or systems, as well as other popular software often used with such systems?
• Features – how many features do the product have, and how do they function?
• Customer Support – what avenues for contacting support are there, and how do they work?
• Security – how secure are the phone systems, and what security features do they offer?
• Customer Score – how do real-world customers rate the phone systems?
• Scalability – how easy was this product to scale up/how easily can it grow with a business?

There are often subcategories or excellent in a certain feature category that we use to arrive at overall scores for a certain criterion.

Google Voice vs Vonage FAQs