Best Cloud Hosted PBX Providers for 2024

What is Hosted PBX?

A hosted PBX is a provider-hosted virtual phone system that provides users with VoIP telephony, call center features, and more. Popular among businesses of all sizes, cloud-based hosted PBX systems frequently include not just VoIP calling but unified communications and collaboration tools, available to users via mobile and desktop app or web browser.

Hosted private branch exchange (PBX) solutions provide small, medium-sized, and even enterprise organizations with an affordable and user-friendly phone system. A Hosted PBX platform is housed in a remote data center, which offers geographical flexibility. Employees can access the software from anywhere they have an internet connection, with no landline necessary.

The software’s user dashboard provides access to features like IVR menus, call queues, analytics, and multiple communication channels. With subscription-based pricing, companies can easily scale their phone system alongside business needs. Make domestic and international VoIP calls, and purchase virtual phone numbers from area codes globally.

How Does a Hosted PBX Work?

With a hosted PBX system, the VoIP providers manage everything remotely–hardware, software, and servers. The PBX provider manages their global network of data centers, which transmit VoIP audio packets and unified communications data over the internet, enabling phone calls.

These providers have a team of IT professionals and engineers working around the clock to ensure your system is up and running. Hosted PBX providers are responsible for efficiency, call quality, and security. The provider also manages the software, ensuring that it’s up-to-date with all the latest features. VoIP providers continually revamp the solution’s interface and user dashboard, the available communication channels, the routing features and customization portals, and more.

From the end user’s perspective, you access hosted PBX through the provider’s hosted application–a web app, desktop app, or mobile app. This app unifies all the features and channels you need–including the phone system and collaboration tools. Users make and receive phone calls, send SMS, and participate in team chat through the hosted PBX app. Companies can opt for softphone functionality, or connect physical VoIP desk phones to each user’s computer.

What Makes Hosted PBX Services Different?

Hosted PBX service provides businesses of any size with a customizable, scalable phone system that’s easy to set up and manage. Cloud-based solutions provide advanced features, intricate routing options, and easy accessibility for all users through a web-based app.

Compared to a traditional phone system, hosted PBX solutions offer more advanced business and collaboration features:

• Auto-attendants and IVR
• Intelligent routing systems and ACD
• Call center analytics and insights
• Call monitoring
• Triggers and workflow automations
• AI support tools
• Call queuing
• Call recording
• Conference calling

With hosted PBX, the cloud-based structure means that users can access their phone number via any internet-connected device. Companies can add new users in minutes and get them set up with an email link. Employees can do their jobs in-person or remotely, and companies can buy business phone numbers from area codes around the world.

Why Use a Hosted PBX Over On-Premise Solutions?

PBX services are more flexible, scalable, and low-maintenance than landline-based phone systems. On-premise solutions require cables and provider-installed phone jacks, limiting users to phone numbers assigned to the business’s physical address. Further, on-premise phone users have to remain in the office to use the business phone system.

Hosted PBX systems are much more flexible than on-premise solutions, allowing users to make calls from anywhere they have an internet connection. This supports hybrid and remote teams–even those spread throughout the globe. Users can make calls on the go, or on vacation. Companies can set up hosted PBX systems in minutes by simply downloading and installing the app on a mobile device or computer. This convenience is part of the reason that cloud-based VoIP telephony is expected to maintain a 21.1% annual growth rate through 2031.

Hosted PBX also provides more intricate routing and call-management tools than an on-premise setup. Design a virtual IVR call flow that handles inbound calls and distributes them to the right agent or department.

How to Choose the Right Hosted PBX Provider

When choosing a VoIP provider for your phone system, it’s important to compare your options and consider your business goals. Look at the pricing, features, channels, and app interface. Keeping all this in mind will help you choose the hosted PBX provider with the best value.

Use these guidelines to help you pick the right hosted PBX provider for your company:

1. Determine the Features You Want

Considering your business goals, list the features you want from a business phone system.

Consider the following features:

• Routing and queueing: Do you want to route calls to multiple departments or users? If your customers call for a wide variety of use cases, or if you have several departments, you may want to prioritize a phone system with routing tools like IVR and call queueing.
• Communication channels: Does your company only want VoIP calling? Or, would you also like to text customers, chat internally with teammates, and host video meetings? You can find an affordable plan with any combination of these channels.
• Collaboration needs: Do you want your phone system for customer-facing communications only, or do you want internal team collaboration? Video meetings, team chat, and file sharing can effectively replace some of the team collaboration software you may already use.
• Analytics and monitoring: Do your supervisors and managers want better oversight of the company’s communication trends? High-tier VoIP phone systems include call monitoring and advanced analytics that provide a real-time view of channel usage and agent performance.
• Phone numbers: Do you want local phone numbers only, or virtual numbers from around the country and globe? Do you want toll-free or vanity numbers? Depending on where your customers are based and if you plan to scale your business presence, you want DID phone numbers beyond your local area code.
• Accessibility: Will your users access the software from desktop, mobile, or from a desk phone? Ensure that the provider offers the appropriate application and device support.

2. Compare Providers and Plans

Knowing what features you want, compare at least five or six VoIP providers to find the best value. Examine the plans that each provider offers, noting which plans offer all the “must-have” features you’ve outlined.

Look for the most affordable plans that offer the communication channels, analytics, and routing that will support your business needs. Aim to narrow your search down to two or three providers that offer the best value.

3. Use Free Trials or Web Demos

Most hosted PBX providers offer a one-week free trial period or provide web demos on their website or YouTube channel. Use these resources to get a feel for each product’s agent dashboard and interface.

Specifically, use the free trials and demos to evaluate the following:

• Agent dashboard: Compare each provider’s interface and agent portal, looking for how user-friendly and intuitive the controls feel. Does the interface feel spacious and modern, making it easy for agents to access their live-call controls?
• Task management: How do agents stay on top of their inbound tasks and activities? Does the app make it easy for agents to stay organized?
• Channel usage: How easy is it for agents to balance multiple communication channels?
• IVR setup: How intuitive is the IVR call flow setup? Does the provider offer a drag-and-drop design tool?
• Analytics and supervisor portal: Does the application offer a supervisor dashboard for call monitoring or analytics tools? Do the analytics feel user-friendly and easy to understand? Can you create custom reports?

What to Look for in a Hosted PBX Provider

It’s important to choose a hosted PBX provider that offers the channels and features that meet your business needs, without providing too many extra features you won’t use.

Here’s what to consider when choosing a hosted PBX provider:

• Communication channels
• Routing features
• Collaboration features
• Analytics
• Cost and Value

Communication Channels

Many hosted PBX providers offer more than VoIP calling. In addition to phone, providers often include SMS texting, internal team chat, and video conferencing. Some hosted PBX providers offer just a few of these channels, while some offer channel access that varies by pricing tier.

If your team only needs to connect with customers via phone, you can save money by choosing a provider that only offers VoIP. However, if your team wants to collaborate internally via voice or video, opt for a provider and plan that offers all those channels at an affordable rate. Many providers provide all 4 core channels for less than $25 monthly per user.

Routing Features

Routing features enable you to handle incoming calls efficiently, helping callers reach the right agent and organizing calls in queues.

Key routing features:

• IVR menus: Provide callers with a self-service vice menu they can navigate to reach the right department or user within your phone system
• Ring groups: Link multiple agents together to share inbound call responsibility in case one is busy.
• Automatic call distribution (ACD): Automatic call distribution uses intelligent routing rules–even skills-based routing–to determine where inbound calls should go.
• Call queues: Distinguish agent groups with different specialties or departments, to meet specific caller needs. Route calls to departments or queues, rather than particular agents.

Check out a provider’s pricing page to learn about their routing features.

Collaboration Features

If a hosted PBX provider offers video and team-chat messaging, they likely also offer collaboration features. Alongside team chat, some providers offer file sharing and team threads, where users can tag each other and even assign tasks on some platforms.

In video meetings, providers offer real-time collaborative features like breakout rooms, whiteboards, screen sharing, team chat, and polls. Remote, hybrid, and international teams may especially benefit from these tools, as they mimic the immediacy of face-to-face interactions.

Analytics

A cloud-based phone system’s analytics are invaluable in helping administrators evaluate agent performance, gain insights about call activity and usage, and make informed business decisions. While some providers merely offer call logs that record call history, many hosted PBX providers offer highly intelligent analytics platforms with real-time and historical data metrics and KPIs.

Popular KPIs include the following:

• Call and message volume, sorted by time of day
• Channel usage statistics
• Customer sentiment scores
• Queue statistics, like wait time and queue length
• Average call length

Advanced analytics platforms also include trends with this data, enabling you to see how it varies by hour, day, week, month, or season. You can sort this data by department or user, to focus on how particular agents are performing. Some providers also include real-time call monitoring, enabling supervisors to listen or barge in on live calls.

While many providers reserve advanced and real-time analytics for their higher-tier plans, some providers include advanced analytics on all plans.

Cost and Value

Pricing of hosted PBX solutions varies widely between providers. Ultimately, you want to choose a plan that offers the widest range of features at the lowest cost.

Some providers offer plans as affordable as $10 monthly per user, while high-tier and feature-rich plans can often reach above $30 per month. Each provider offers multiple pricing tiers, with unique suites of communication channels and features.

When comparing providers, examine each tier’s cost and features to find one that offers the features and channels you want, without too many extras you won’t use.

Benefits of Hosted PBX Solutions

Below are the main benefits of using a hosted PBX phone system, instead of an on-premise or legacy PBX system.

Advanced Features

Compared to a legacy PBX system, hosted PBX offers a much wider and more dynamic suite of features that support many use cases.

Hosted PBX systems include many types of features:

• Collaboration tools like file-sharing and video meetings
• Analytics that drive evaluation and monitoring
• Automations that save users time
• Communication channels that enable you to connect with customers on their terms, through their preferred methods
• Routing tools that organize calls and help your inbound callers connect with the right agents

Cost Savings

A legacy PBX system can rack up costs with its initial setup, ongoing hardware maintenance, and upgrade expenses. Since hosted PBX providers handle each step of this process, they generally save a company hundreds of dollars per month. These savings are part of the reason the Hosted PBX market is expected to continue growing at a yearly rate of 15% for the next decade.

Further, hosted PBX systems often unify features like video conferencing, team chat, and analytics. These capabilities would cost substantially more if you added them to your phone service individually, from separate apps. This is why 82% of companies that move to the cloud end up saving money, and companies average savings of 50-75% with the switch.

Setup and Ease of Use

A hosted PBX system makes it easy and quick to add new users, phone numbers, channels, and other features. Adding users or changing features is as simple as logging into the online account management portal and making a few clicks.

To add new users or employees, simply purchase a new phone number and invite the user via email code. They can get set up on a desktop or mobile device and begin handling calls instantly.

Purchasing new phone numbers around the world is just as quick and painless–requiring only a few clicks.

Local Presence Around the Globe

Hosted PBX providers offer a nearly limitless library of phone numbers from area codes around the country and globe. Companies can purchase virtual numbers including toll-free numbers, vanity numbers, or regular local DID numbers.

Your business can keep its local presence with virtual numbers in your area code or establish familiarity in new areas by selecting numbers based in other states or countries. No matter where your employees live, they can make and receive calls from your business numbers.

Location Flexibility

With desktop softphone applications and even mobile phone applications, your workers can access your phone system from anywhere. They’re no longer tied down to a desk phone, and the Simultaneous Ring feature links multiple devices to ring together.

Users can work remotely, from a coffee shop, and even on vacation. Since VoIP apps utilize only the internet, users can handle business even when traveling internationally.

Scalability

Hosted PBX providers offer tiered subscription packages, often with the ability to mix and match plans for various users. When you sign up for a new subscription, you can purchase and assign a phone number to the new user to have them up and running in minutes. All the new user has to do is log into the application portal.

Since softphone functionality enables staff to make calls from their phone or desktop, you don’t need to purchase new hardware or office space to expand staff size.

Credibility

When you use hosted PBX, your business projects your professional image with a robust fail-proof phone system. It will come packaged with features normally reserved for large enterprise systems, like multiple communication channels, an auto-attendant, and call queues. These robust features can make even a small operation look like an established, experienced enterprise.

Integrations

On-premise PBX systems limit your ability to integrate your hardware with third-party software systems like CRM platforms, analytics tools, and collaboration apps. Hosted solutions, on the other hand, let you streamline your workflow by integrating the SaaS tools that are already in your stack.

Popular hosted PBX integrations:

• CRM systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, Sugar CRM and more
• Contact Centers like Zendesk, ServiceNow, Zoho, and more
• Collaboration apps like Asana, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and more

Security

Any service provider worth their subscription price will ensure top-notch security on all their cloud-based solutions. Telecom providers offer protection like encrypted data, user authentication, password-protected meetings, and more.

This will ensure that both your information, as well as the data of your customers, remains safe at all times.

Reliability

Most of the popular PBX providers guarantee 99% uptime or greater in their SLA, which ensures customers can always reach you. Furthermore, this also eliminates the need for preventative maintenance or costly repairs that on-premise PBX systems require.

Hosted PBX Use Cases

A hosted PBX phone system supports nearly all business communication needs, both external and internal. Companies use cloud-based VoIP systems for customer service, sales, marketing, call centers, technical support, and internal collaboration. All types of industries–including health, education, retail, hotels, and more–can benefit from a Hosted PBX system.

Here’s a closer look at some of the top use cases for hosted PBX:

• General phone communication
• Customer support
• Sales
• Internal collaboration and unified communications
• Call center

General Phone Communication

A hosted PBX system is an all-purpose phone system. It does everything that a landline phone system can do and more. Any company, of any size, that has a business phone system can use hosted PBX to accomplish their needs.

Hosted PBX makes it easy for small or large companies to make and receive calls for any purpose. The phone system includes all the basic features and call controls, often with some more advanced features too.

Customer Support

Hosted PBX enables your company to provide customer support through voice, with the option for SMS or video communication if you select a multichannel plan. IVR menus provide self-service for customers to reach the right department, and call queues organize callers so agents can serve them more easily.

Analytics track data about handle time and call volume, to help supervisors make decisions that optimize customer service.

Sales

VoIP telephony itself enables sales use cases, but Hosted PBX systems support sales with other features too.

Create bulk SMS messages to inform customers about new products or updates. CRM integrations lead to dynamic customer profiles that inform agents about each contact’s lead status and website interaction history. Call controls like transfer and call parking help agents transfer calls to teammates when necessary.

Internal Collaboration and Unified Communications

Many Hosted PBX providers offer business phone systems that double as UCaaS platforms, enabling team collaboration via phone, SMS, video, and team chat.

Team chat lets users see teammate availability in the left-hand menu, with the option to chat. Users can create chat rooms with file sharing, image sharing, and buttons to hop into “team huddle” meetings.

Video meetings typically include interactive features like chat, screen sharing, whiteboards,a nd breakout rooms.

Call Center

Some hosted PBX providers offer call center software, while some offer business phone systems with call center features. Call center software often comes hosted in a desktop app, with advanced features like call monitoring, workforce management tools, auto-dialers, and more.

Teams seeking a dialed-down call center can opt for a unified communications platform with extra features and channels, while teams seeking a full contact center can find a provider offering call center software.

Setting Up Your Hosted PBX System

To set up your hosted PBX system, begin by purchasing numbers, adding users, and assigning each user a number. Then, get the dial plan and routing options set up. At this point, agents can begin making calls and using your channels. Continually monitor agent performance through any metrics or analytics you have available, refining customer service and communication efforts.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of how to set up your hosted PBX system:

1. Prepare for a new number
2. Assign a subscription plan to each user
3. Configure your dial plan
4. Evaluate performance
5. Review your bill

Step 1: Prepare For a New Number

Once you sign up with a provider, the first step is to purchase and set up your phone numbers. You have the option to buy new virtual numbers from your provider or port the business numbers you already use. You can port in any number, including mobile and landline numbers.

If you are porting over your existing number, consult your new VoIP provider and previous telephony provider to ensure a smooth transition. The porting process can take several weeks and requires paperwork.

If you purchase a new number, make sure to update public profiles and let your customers know. The process takes just minutes, and you can select the area code and number type: regular, toll-free, or vanity.

Step 2: Assign a Subscription Plan to Each User

Hosted PBX providers typically offer two to four pricing plans, each with a distinct suite of features. As you port and purchase numbers for your company’s users, you also must select a subscription plan for each user.

Many providers allow you to mix and match plans, but some providers require that each person on your account uses the same plan tier. Before choosing, carefully review each plan’s routing options and channel offerings, selecting an option that provides each user with the right capabilities and channels.

Step 3: Configure Your Dial Plan

To provide optimal customer support, you must first set up your call distribution system and routing.

• Set up queueing: Build ring groups and call queues in the administrative portal. Managers can sort agents into departments or categories for call handline.
• Routing system: Set up any extensions and configure an IVR menu in the administrative portal, to determine which inbound calls reach which queues or users. Many providers offer a drag-and-drop menu, while some use dropdown menus.
• Business hours: Create a plan for which hours your desk phones or user applications will ring. Each user should set up a voicemail inbox or automated forwarding to handle inbound calls during non-business hours. The phone system will also need rules to handle simultaneous and sequential ringing.

Step 4: Evaluate Performance

Establish a weekly or monthly routine for evaluating your phone system’s performance using analytics and reports in the Administrator portal. Periodically check the quality of service (QoS) reports to make sure that call quality is good, and keep an eye on queue wait times to make sure that customers are being routed effectively.

Finally, review customer sentiment scores to ensure that your support strategy is continually improving.

Step 5: Review Your Bill

Once you get up and running, review the first and second month’s bill to ensure you have all the services you paid for–without paying for any extras. Be on the lookout for any setup fees, taxes, activation fees, and number porting fees.

If there’s something you don’t understand about your bill, consult with your provider.