Best Grasshopper Alternatives in 2020: Compare Competitor Pricing
So you're looking for a new virtual phone system? Chances are, Grasshopper has appeared in some of your searches. We get it. Finding a new virtual phone system can be a daunting task, but we are here to help. While we are sure Grasshopper puts out a great product, such as ourselves, we realize neither of us is perfect. We thrive off helping other people feel confident in their decision making, even if that means suggesting another provider. So if you're a current Grasshopper customer looking for some top alternatives, or simply looking for a detailed and honest Grasshopper review, you've come to the right place.
For this article, we assume you are looking for a reliable provider that delivers great call quality, flexible and advanced business features, and takes care of your needs for the most reasonable price possible. For each use-case where Grasshopper's pricing or offer may not be the best for you, we've included a shortlist of some top alternatives to ensure your needs are met.
Our Grasshopper competitor comparison will include:
- A review of Grasshopper's top features and service plans
- An explanation of Grasshopper's pricing structure
- In-depth Grasshopper pricing comparisons with some top alternatives and competitors
- The top Grasshopper alternatives for several different use-cases
Though we're confident that AVOXI’s virtual number services deliver exceptional value at the most competitive rates on the market, there are also many other great options available, and we want you to pick what is right for your business.
In this article, you will learn about:
How Does Grasshopper Work?
Grasshopper is a virtual phone service provider that offers toll free, vanity, and local numbers to small businesses and entrepreneurs in the US and Canada. Grasshopper offers virtual number plans that vary based on the number of extensions, or users. Each Grasshopper plan offers unlimited minutes, the option to upgrade at any time, and the choice between a monthly or annual contract.
To start, customers will visit the website and select a number type and plan, put in their billing info, and create an account. Grasshopper will walk new customers through account set up and follow up in a few days to make sure they're all set.
Review of Grasshopper VoIP Features
The following features are included in each Grasshopper virtual phone service plan:
- Business Texting (between US & Canada)
- Call Forwarding
- Custom Greetings ($75 for a professional recording by Grasshopper)
- Read Your Voicemail (send to up to 15 email addresses)
- Desktop + Mobile Apps
- Inbound Fax
- Voicemail (1 voicemail box per extension)
- Wifi Calls
Some additional features that users can add to optimize their plans include:
- Simultaneous Call Handling (up to 15 numbers per extension)
- Reporting (up to 90 days)
- Virtual Fax (inbound only)
- Call Blasting ($10/mo)
- Hold Music
Grasshopper's features may not be as extensive as some other providers, but their features are refined and work very well to help you manage your business's communications. Offering unlimited calling and texting within the US and Canada can make them a very attractive provider for those doing business in those countries.
Grasshopper Pricing
Grasshopper offers three packages: Solo, Partner, and Small Business. Grasshopper is focused on companies in the US and Canada, and international calling is not included in their plan. You can use Grasshopper for international calls by request after being a customer for 60 days. Grasshopper currently allows international dialing to about 50 countries.
Solo:
- $29/mo (billed monthly)
- 1 Number
- 3 Extensions
- Unlimited Minutes*
Partner: (Most Popular)
- $49/mo (billed monthly)
- 3 Numbers
- 6 Extensions
- Unlimited Minutes*
Small Business:
- $89/mo (billed monthly)
- 5 Numbers
- Unlimited Extensions
- Unlimited Minutes*
*Customers' use of unlimited minutes is subject to review at any time based on Grasshopper's "Use of Service," which can be found in their Service Descriptions--if you consistently exceed 50,000 minutes per month or 50 concurrent calls at any time, Grasshopper reserves the right to disconnect or suspend your service.
Best Grasshopper Toll Free and Local Number Alternatives
*Phone.com offers unlimited and pay-as-you-go plans. All of these providers also offer toll free and local numbers, with no difference in pricing (with the exception of vanity numbers).
AVOXI
AVOXI offers toll free, local US phone numbers in every major city, and international phone numbers in 160+ countries! They offer 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, 833, and vanity toll free numbers. Plans start as low as $4.49/month!
Mightycall
Mightycall offers a set amount of toll free and local numbers with their plans, much like Grasshopper does:
- Basic: $19.99/month, 2 toll free or local numbers
- Standard: $39.99/month, 5 toll free or local numbers
- Ultimate: $99.99/month, 10 toll free or local numbers
Mightycall offers 1000 minutes in their basic plan, and unlimited minutes in their standard and ultimate plan, making them a good option for businesses who need a lot of numbers and unlimited calling.
Phone.com
Phone.com offers toll free, local, and international phone numbers, and offer per minute as well as unlimited plans! They offer 3 different unlimited plans:
- Base: $29.99/month, 1 local or toll free number
- Plus: $37.99/month, 2 local or toll free numbers
- Pro: $59.99/month, 3 local or toll free numbers
Phone.com also offers bonus minutes for extensions that are not a part of their unlimited number plans. They also offer bulk discounts if you decide to buy phone lines for your whole business.
| Monthly Plans Start at | Inbound Rates Start at | |
|---|---|---|
| Grasshopper | $29 / month | Unlimited Included |
| AVOXI | $4.49 / month | $0.009 - $0.041 / min |
| MightyCall | $19.99 / month | Unlimited Included |
| Phone.com | $12.99 / month* | $0.039 / minute |
Comparing Grasshopper to Top Competitors
Now that you know a little bit about Grasshopper and their offering, let's dive into some of their top competitors and see how they stack up against the competition! Below, we will go over some top competitors, including GlobalCallForwarding, Ninja Number, and AVOXI.
GlobalCallForwarding
Global Call Forwarding has toll-free and local numbers available in 150+ countries, and makes a great choice for businesses that want a plan based on number of minutes needed rather than number of users as well as SMS capabilities.
True 800 Number
- 293 Minutes: $18.95 per month / $0.052 per additional minute
- 896 Minutes: $38.95 per month / $0.047 per additional minute
- 2,127 Minutes: $79.95 per month / $0.042 per additional minute
- 5,095 Minutes: $158.95 per month / $0.037 per additional minute
- 10,505 Minutes: $248.95 per month / $0.032 per additional minute
Standard 1800 Number
- 200 Minutes: $12.95 per month / $0.052 per additional minute
- 551 Minutes: $23.95 per month / $0.047 per additional minute
- 2,100 Minutes: $78.95 per month / $0.042 per additional minute
- 5,095 Minutes: $158.95 per month / $0.037 per additional minute
- 10,505 Minutes: $248.95 per month / $0.032 per additional minute
USA Local Numbers
- 100 Minutes: $7.95 per month / $0.052 per additional minute
- 551 Minutes: $23.95 per month / $0.047 per additional minute
- 2,100 Minutes: $78.95 per month / $0.042 per additional minute
- 5,095 Minutes: $158.95 per month / $0.037 per additional minute
- 10,505 Minutes: $248.95 per month / $0.032 per additional minute
Standard Features:
- IVR
- Enterprise API
- Custom Greeting
- Time of day routing
- Voicemail to Email
- Fax to Email
- Simultaneous Ringing
- Call Transfer
Add-on Features:
- SMS Forwarding
- Outbound Calling: Starts at $25 per month
- Rollover Minutes: $15 per month
Ninja Number
Ninja Number has toll-free numbers and local U.S. numbers and makes a great choice for entrepreneurs within the United States, especially those that will communicate frequently through SMS. They have low usage plans for those who need a phone but won’t use it a lot. However, Ninja Number does not support international calling.
Low Usage Plans
- Flex: $9.95 per month: 1 number, 3 extensions
- Multi PBX $49.95 per month: 1 number, unlimited extensions
Standard Features
- Voicemail
- Call Forwarding (Ring up to 5 Devices at Once)
- Call Logs and Reporting
- SMS (Text Messaging)
- Call Screening
AVOXI
AVOXI has toll-free and local numbers available in over 160 countries and 2,500 cities worldwide. Customers can choose from six unique virtual phone number plans, starting as low as $4.49/mo. New business numbers are activated instantly, and can be managed and customized at any time from the easy to use online portal. AVOXI makes a great alternative to Grasshopper for small to large companies that need a lower price point, international calling, and call recording.
USA Toll Free
- $4.49 - $70.99/month
- 0 - 7522 minutes/month
- $0.014 - $0.041 per additional minute
US Toll Free True 800 Number
- $7.99 - $70.99/month
- 0 - 7522 minutes/month
- $0.014 - $0.041 per additional minute
US Local Number
- $4.49 - $70.99/month
- 0 - 8976 minutes/month
- $0.013 - $0.040 per additional minute
Every virtual number service plan from AVOXI includes 20+VoIP features at no extra cost, including:
- Call Forwarding to Multiple Devices
- IVR (Virtual Attendant)
- Custom Caller ID
- Call Recording
- Time of Day Routing
- Global Call Conferencing
- Call Groups
While these are some of the top competitors, they are by no means the only options you have to choose from! There are many alternatives on the market today, but we felt these were some of the most similar to Grasshopper. Below, we will take a look at some of Grasshopper's specific features and which competitor we believe is best for each feature.
| Plans Starting at | Incoming Calls | Setup Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ninja Number | $9.95 | $0.02 - $0.33 / min | $0 |
| AVOXI | $4.49 | $0.009 - $0.041 / min | $0 |
| GlobalCallForwarding | $12.95 | $0.019 - $0.042 / min | $0 |
| GrassHopper | $29 | Incl. in subscription | $0 |
Best Grasshopper International Calling Alternatives
AVOXI
When it comes to international country coverage and international calling, not many people cover as many countries as AVOXI. You can get a toll free, local, national, or any combination of those in 160+ countries, with plans starting as low as $4.49/month.
GlobalCallForwarding
GlobalCallForwarding, like AVOXI, has a huge amount of countries they service - over 150 of them. They offer a wide range of plans with an abundance of talk minutes, with some plans reaching over 10,000 minutes per month. However, you will have to pay extra for outbound calling.
Best Grasshopper Call Recording Alternatives
CallRail
CallRail offers a very robust call recording feature, including advanced features such as CallScore, which can be used to better qualify leads and convert them into sales. You can highlight certain words in order to gain deeper insight into the conversations your agents are having with prospective customers. They offer 2 plans that offer call recording:
- Call Tracking: $45/month, 10 local numbers, 500 minutes
- Analytics Suite: $95/month, 10 local numbers, 500 minutes, 1,000 form submissions
AVOXI
AVOXI offers free 15 day call recording with their virtual number plans as well as their cloud contact center software, AVOXI Genius. AVOXI Genius pricing starts as low as $4.99 per user.
Nectar Desk
Nectar Desk offers free call recording on their plans, starting at $29 per month, and can be used for both inbound and outbound calling.
| Plans Starting at | Call Storage | Additional Fees | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CallRail | $45 per month | Stored indefinitely | None |
| AVOXI | $4.49 per month | 15 days free | Extended plans available |
| NectarDesk | $29 per month | Not available on site | None |
Best Grasshopper SMS Alternatives
RingCentral
RingCentral offers both business SMS and MMS (multimedia messages), allowing you to seamlessly integrate your voice, fax, text, and MMS into one platform. They offer unlimited texting, where you can send and receive messages with up to 1,000 characters. Additionally, there are 20+ international countries where you can send and receive SMS messages from your customers. They offer business SMS and MMS in all of their plans:
- Essentials: $29.99/month
- Standard: $34.99/month
- Premium: $44.99/month
- Ultimate: $59.99/month
They also offer discounts if you have more users, as they are a mostly enterprise-focused company.
Twilio
If you are looking for a highly programmable SMS software, Twilio is going to be a good option to look at. Claiming to offer SMS built for developers, you can create extremely customized messages to send to your customers, using their powerful API's. They also offer shortcode and bulk SMS messaging (up to 100 messages per second with higher volumes possible). Their pricing looks like this:
- Local and toll free
- SMS: $0.0075/send and receive
- MMS: $0.02/send, $0.01/receive
- Short Code
- $0.0075/send and receive
- MMS: $0.02/send, $0.01/receive
This pricing only scratches the surface of what Twilio can offer. They have discounts for high volumes, including a discount if you send over 1 billion messages a month, so it is best to reach out to Twilio directly if you have more questions on SMS and MMS business texting.
AVOXI
Newly released, AVOXI is now offering business SMS in the USA and Canada, with international SMS soon to follow. Learn more about business SMS.
| SMS Plans Starting at | Supports MMS? | Maximum messages per month | |
|---|---|---|---|
| RingCentral | $29.99 per month | SMS and MMS (US/Canada only) | Unlimited |
| Twilio | Varies | Yes | Unlimited* |
| AVOXI | $1.99 per month | MMS Coming in 2020 | 5000** |
| GrassHopper | $29 | Yes | Unlimited |
*Twilio doesn't offer an "unlimited plan" but offers extremely deep discounts, and the capability to send 1 billion + messages per month.
**AVOXI's SMS plans offer bundles up to 5000 messages per month, and charges $0.03 per additional SMS after that.
Best Grasshopper Small Business Phone System Alternatives
Jive
Jive offers affordable small business phone systems that are on par with what Grasshopper offers. With features such as call analytics, recording, local and toll free numbers, auto attendants, and call forwarding, Jive is sure to have the features you need. They also offer affordable pricing for their small business phone systems:
- 50+ users: $19.95/user per month
- 25 - 49 users: $21.95/user per month
- 10 - 24 users: $23.95/user per month
- 5 - 9 users: $25.95/user per month
- 1 - 4 users: $29.95/user per month
Nextiva
Nextiva offers some more advanced features in their small business phone system plans, with features such as customer journey mapping, experience score, customer sentiment, analytics and reporting, SMS (on certain plans), unlimited calling, auto-attendant, and much more! Plans start at:
- Basic: $20/month
- Pro: $25/month
- Enterprise: $30/month
AVOXI
AVOXI offers both virtual phone numbers in 160+ countries and small business cloud call center software to help you grow your business. With features such as call recording, outbound calling, virtual attendants, and call forwarding coming standard, AVOXI's feature set is a strong one. Features such as call queuing are available on their Genius Contact plan. Their pricing is as follows:
- Genius Essential: $4.99/user per month
- Genius Contact: $24.99/user per month
Who Should Use Grasshopper?
Grasshopper is best for: Small businesses or entrepreneurs that need a fairly simple phone system, will be doing business almost exclusively in the US and Canada, and have SMS needs.
An alternative to Grasshopper is best for: Mid to large-size businesses, businesses that will need more international calling reach, businesses that need call recording, and businesses that want to start small and test the product due to its high starting price point compared to other alternatives.
Which Virtual Phone Service Competitor is Right for Your Business?
We hope that this review of Grasshopper and information on Grasshopper alternatives was useful in your search for a virtual phone service. If you didn’t find what you were looking for, send us feedback and let us know how we can improve the information! Be sure to check back with us regularly as we create new reviews with other top phone service providers.
If you're interested in AVOXI's services, let us know! Set up is simple and affordable. Try out your new virtual phone number with 20+ VoIP features for 30 days risk-free. Every plan includes:
- No set up fee or contracts
- 20+ VoIP features included at no cost
- 15 days of free call recording with extended storage plans available
- Failover routing and custom routing rules
- A support team who's ready whenever you are, 24/7
Try out AVOXI risk free today!
