The 5 Best Office Phone Systems for Small Business

We did the research and rated the best office phone systems for small business.

With the latest advances in technology, there has never been a better time for a new phone system for your small business! Whether you need a phone system for the opening of a new office or new business, need to support employees working from home, or need to replace an old phone system slowly dying, we have done all of the research and tested over 20 small business phone systems to prepare the list of the best, most reliable small business telephone systems near me.

The criteria we believe the best small business phone systems must meet:

1. The system has all the essentials such as Caller ID, voicemail, intercom & paging, call transfer, and automated attendant call routing menus.

2. The manufacturer is highly reliable, with a proven history and a trusted warranty.

3. The total purchase is affordable with easy-to-understand costs to add new employees later.

4. Technical support service included to keep the new system running well and deliver updated features for the best possible return on investment.

5. Saves money! Better technology has driven down the price to provide new ways to be more productive and less complicated.

When making an investment in a new phone system that needs to integrate with other systems, the Grandstream system offers a wide range of models to mix and match.  Regardless of how your business changes and grows, your initial investment is always protected.  You can easily connect your database and create steps to take your caller almost any direction you can dream without having to know anything about phones or phone system software!  For example, a school might offer parents a custom absentee line to quickly report student absences or a company may route new callers to sales people but existing clients are routed directly to a customer success team automatically based only on the Caller ID.  

And its built-in mobility features allow calls to be made and received on your smartphone exactly as if you were sitting in front of your desk phone — even hand off an active call from one phone to the other without placing the caller on hold!  With Grandstream, the possibilities are endless and the price is surprisingly affordable.

With Panasonic, it’s your choice to have your phone services hosted in the cloud or installed to traditional landline phone lines in your closet — whatever makes the best financial sense for your organization right now. Because of its exceptional DECT cordless handheld telephone capabilities, this system is also ideal for installations where mobility is essential such as retail, manufacturing, and warehouses.

With the ability to grow without the need for replacement hardware, Panasonic is an ideal solution for small businesses that desire an easily expandable solution. Easily connect multiple locations together for calling from store-to-store, corporate-to-retail, or country-to-country for example. Panasonic’s cordless telephone capabilities include your choice from a standard cordless model, a compact model with Bluetooth headset support, or ruggedized dust, shock, and splash-resistant IP54-complaint cordless model.

Panasonic business telephone systems branch exited the PBX business at the end of 2022. It’s sad to see Panasonic exiting the PBX business. They have been around for a long time and their products are solid.

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HP Polycom delivers high-definition sound like you’ve never heard before. As the first to truly lead the industry towards VoIP adoption, Polycom set a high expectation for audio fidelity beyond what any landline analog phone service provides.  Finally, “buzzing” and “scratchy” telephone calls are a thing of the past! The person on the other end of the phone call will clearly hear your voice – and only your voice – while Acoustic Fence automatically minimizes or eliminates background noise around.

Part of HP’s portfolio of hybrid work solutions, Poly creates premium audio and video products so you can have your best meeting一anywhere, anytime, every time. Poly and HP’s history of innovation in audio, video, and computing technology stretches back decades – together we put the first astronauts on the moon, put Silicon Valley on the map and pioneered modern business communications

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With German-engineered sound design, the new Snom series is designed to provide the small business market with the best sound quality and make it easier to add new people and integrate employees who use their mobile phone more than their desk phone. The new platform can start with just 2 lines and 2 phones, then easily grow up to 100 lines and up to 300 cordless, desk phones, and smartphone mobile users. And it’s your choice to have your phone services hosted in the cloud or installed to traditional landline phone lines in your closet — whatever makes the best financial sense for your organization right now.

With this new system, replacing the AT&T Synapse phone system also manufactured by VTech, you now have the ability for employees with smartphones to download an app to have an extension on the phone system for intercom and call transfer, even if they never set foot in the office! You can call clients back through the mobile app with the office Caller ID instead of the ID of their personal cell phone. And with the call recording option, you can monitor and review conversations at any time. Some phone models include built-in support to use a Bluetooth wireless earpiece headset or your favorite stereo noise-canceling headphones. Snom includes a standard 3-year warranty with the option for up to 5 years.

With the ability to grow to huge capacities, the Yealink is a great all-around solution for small businesses, churches, retail, manufacturing, and small or large schools that desire an affordable but highly expandable solution.  It offers the ability to connect multiple locations together for calling from store-to-store, for example.

For locations where a desk phone is required but no Ethernet cable is nearby, Yealink offers an option to use it’s reliable and secure DECT wireless extender or you can use your Wi-Fi if you prefer for quick and easy desk phone placement in places where no Ethernet cable is easily accessible — an ideal solution for installations that simply cannot run new Cat6 cabling everywhere.