Freepbx.org
Ask HN: What phone systems do you use for your business?
21–25 of 25 posts
Re: Ask HN: What phone systems do you use for your business?
#22We have been using Ringcentral with a total head count of 6 people. It was a breeze to setup (web interface) and you can route calls and extensions to different numbers, etc. I've suggested their service to my friends. Pros: Easy setup: allocate extensions, routing, voice mail boxes, etc. Cost effective, in other words, cheap! Cons: None that have caught my attention so far. We needed something quick that would work…
Agreed.
We switched to Ringcentral from Vonage and the difference has been fantastic. Vonage was really unreliable, but the Ringcentral hosted service has been great.
I'll add a couple pros:
* no noticable downtime in over a year
* iPhone app (visual voicemail, call out from the app as if you were sitting at your desk, preview faxes, etc)
* you can have various voicemail or auto-attendant messages for different times - after hours, holidays, etc
* 800-number usage counts as normal minutes - not an upcharge
* easy fax usage - incoming/outgoing
Cons:
* Customer support is outsourced so they do the standard process of running through a checklist of questions. (However, I have only needed to call twice and they did answer my question one time. The second time I figured it out before they responded via email.)
Re: Ask HN: What phone systems do you use for your business?
#23What about for a mostly Mac-based small business? RingCentral looks good, but seems heavily Windows-centric.
I was a bit worried about this as well, but it has been fine for my Mac-based business. The iPhone app is basic, but extremely helpful as far as what it does.
There are some Mac-specific answers in the knowledge-base and the forums, but really I mostly interact with RingCentral via a browser (not a problem on Safari or Firefox), the iPhone app or the VOIP handset itself.
If you have specific questions, I would be happy to see if I can do whatever you're concerned you'll not be able to do and let you know.
edit: I don't really use the SoftPhone or fax from within applications. Some of the finer details of this stuff may end up being PC-only.
Re: Ask HN: What phone systems do you use for your business?
#24I use Asterisk, managed via FreePBX. It works pretty well if you don't have that many users. I use a SIP trunking service with a DID. Siphon (SIP client) for my iPhone, Telephone on OS X, and also forwarding to my normal cell.
I've heard really good things about Shoretel, but I know its very expensive.
Re: Ask HN: What phone systems do you use for your business?
#25We have been using Ringcentral with a total head count of 6 people. It was a breeze to setup (web interface) and you can route calls and extensions to different numbers, etc. I've suggested their service to my friends. Pros: Easy setup: allocate extensions, routing, voice mail boxes, etc. Cost effective, in other words, cheap! Cons: None that have caught my attention so far. We needed something quick that would work…
Agreed. Very easy to setup. Easy to use. Call quality seems pretty good. Would recommend.