- What are the updates to Google Voice?
- Capabilities Comparison: Google Voice for Business vs MightyCall
- Discover how we create exceptional value for our customers
- Conclusion
What are the updates to Google Voice?
The main reason historically why people used Google Voice was because it was free. It being a Google product helped with name recognition, but the “free” was what likely convinced most people to give it a try.
Google sandbox launched Calljoy, a paid VoIP service, in 2019, although that product shut down in the summer of 2020. Now that the titular Google Voice is adopting a paid model, it will be interesting to see how many current customers stick with it and if any new ones will join the service.
The new Google Voice for Business plan still has a solid offering, with these main selling points:
- Unlimited calls and messages within the U.S.
- Voice-to-text transcription of voicemails
- Easy Google integrations
The most recent update went live in the first quarter of 2021. The most obvious difference is that now the service is no longer free; the price for their tiers, named Starter, Standard, and Premier, are $10, $20, and $30 a month per user.
Overall, Google has again rebranded its office network. Previously it was called G Suite, but now it goes by Google Workplace. That distinction is important, as now you can only purchase Google Voice if you have Google Workplace.
Capabilities Comparison: Google Voice for Business vs MightyCall
MightyCall
Google Voice
The Premier plan ($30 per user/per month) on Google Voice has all of the features the preceding plans have with additional API opportunities. The Standard plan ($20 per user/per month) adds an auto-attendant, ring groups, desk phone support, and a search system, while removing limits on the number of users.
For the sake of a full view, we will look at the Starter plan. This plan features free and unlimited calling and texting within the U.S., voicemail transcription, 24/7 support, call forwarding, usage reports, and full integration with Google’s other business products.
Google Voice currently lacks these VoIP features that you’ll have access to if you choose MightyCall:
- Toll-free numbers to choose from
- Vanity numbers
- Business contact book
- CRM-functionality
- Business hours
- Call queues
- Music on hold
- A Webphone
But there’s more to the difference between our system and Google Voice than just the features. Google Voice has some serious limitations that dampen the good things it has going for itself.
- Google Voice still runs a small system in comparison
With MightyCall’s Contact Book PLUS feature, the system has basic CRM functionality. Google Voice is still yet to offer a feature-rich plan at market value, notably missing nearly a dozen VoIP features most other $50 a month plans include.
- You can only get 1 local number with Google Voice
This is bad for two reasons:
- first, if you have business in different parts of the country, not having access to a toll-free number could hurt your operation;
- second, even though you can set up to multiple devices to ring through Google Voice, you can only ever get 1 number, so if you have any employees there’s little chance for synchronization.
With MightyCall’s Business plan, you get 2 numbers to get better department coverage or to mix a local and toll-free number if needed. More numbers means more business opportunities and experiments to see what marketing works and what doesn’t.
- Little variety in how you answer business calls
As we mentioned above, Google Voice lacks a lot of features. One of the worst results of that is what it does to your call flow. A business needs to be flexible in how it handles calls, but VoIP features are often the tools that unlock that flexibility. Google Voice not even offering an auto-attendant in their entry-level plan is outrageous.
MightyCall offers fully customizable call flows thanks to numerous features that create additional options on how to answer incoming calls no matter what plan you choose. From business hours, to an auto attendant, to call queues, you have the power to pick and choose how and when calls come in.
- Business Contacts can’t be organized or shared
In Google Voice, Contacts is a very basic feature that boils down to storing your business contacts within your regular Google Account. This leads to no distinctions between personal and business contacts and no team-wide designated section for business contacts.
With MightyCall, the features you get with your package don’t have strings attached and don’t need to be purchased as extras—once you sign up, they’ll always work.
- Lack of calling flexibility
Because Google Voice is part of the new Google Workplace and deskphone support only starts at their Standard plan, that means you have limited options for making calls. Almost everything will go through the app, which is fine if you’re out of the office, but constraining if your company runs more than the most streamlined setups.
With MightyCall you can start calls from a plethora of places—any device connected to the system or the ultra-convenient webphone feature, which saves you money by not using your cell phone plan data.
Discover how we create exceptional value for our customers
Christine D.
Alberto O.
charge per user. You can also send text messages easily. The software is relatively easy to use. You can
use the mobile app or browser app simultaneously. Call routing works well. Support is quick to respond.
Paul A.
immediately! When the phone rings it can go to multiple employees at the same time as well. Love it!
John Y.
feature bloated, difficult to use and clunky to configure. We have been impressed with how much easier
MightyCall was to use across all these areas. It’s a good fit for us, and we saved a bundle. Review
collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Adrian D.
Service is always great and the telephony itself is amazing. compared with bigger more ‘sophisticated’ systems such as Fonality, I would choose Mightycall tenfold.
Luis S.
favorite feature is the Call Flow design tool. Very intuitive and easy to organize.
Conclusion
As you can see, if you’re serious about getting a virtual phone number to help run your business, MightyCall is a great bet. Google Voice is no longer free, but still maddeningly flawed.
Between Google Voice, Google Hangouts, and Google Allo, the company doesn’t have a clear direction on where it wants to go with the telephone market, so even if it is Google, these services don’t bring you the quality normally associated with the company.
Go with the proven VoIP provider—go with MightyCall. If you’re looking to make the switch to MightyCall and want to keep your number, we’ll port your current virtual number in for free!
