Ooma Office vs. Grasshopper: A VoIP Comparison of Price, Features, and Service

Your business needs reliable phone service that’s both easy to use and affordable. We all know that traditional phone companies such as AT&T typically have higher base prices than VoIP phones, and they charge extra fees at every turn.

For startups and growing companies, these charges can add up quickly. That’s why many businesses are turning to VoIP and digital phone service providers as alternative solutions.

Small business systems like Ooma Office and Grasshopper have both been on the scene for more than a decade. However, there are differences in the service offered by the two companies.

To help make your decision about business phone service easier, we compared the pricing, features, and phone service offered by our company, Ooma, and our competitor, Grasshopper. Here’s what we found out.

Ooma Office vs. Grasshopper – Service

The primary difference between Ooma Office and Grasshopper is that Grasshopper doesn’t replace your phone service. Whereas Ooma is a comprehensive and all-inclusive phone service, Grasshopper is just an add-on to your existing phone service.

While Grasshopper does add value by providing a digital PBX to network your phone lines, you’ll have two phone services to manage, two sets of monthly bills, and two sets of features and settings. With Grasshopper, you’ll be complicating your business phone setup instead of simplifying, streamlining, and reducing costs.

Comparatively, Ooma Office is a streamlined and affordable business phone solution. A standalone service, it doesn’t depend on you also having service through a traditional phone company. It’s a simplified plan with a flat rate for each user, and all users get complete access to the complete set of more than 50 business phone features.

In a comparison of VoIP phone services in the annual PC Magazine Business Choice Awards, PCMag readers ranked Ooma as the #1 VoIP Business Phone Service for nine years in a row in 2022. Ooma Office received the top scores for reliability, install, call quality and customer satisfaction. 

Ooma Office vs. Grasshopper – Features

As Grasshopper is a virtual phone service without the comprehensive service offered by a VoIP provider such as Ooma Office, many features are included with Ooma that aren’t available to Grasshopper users. Yet, Grasshopper isn’t without its own set of features

Both Grasshopper and Ooma Office offer features such as a virtual receptionist, caller ID, music on hold, and a mobile app for phone service beyond your main office location.

However, when comparing the two companies, we see that only Ooma offers features such as HD calling, free number transfer, widespread protection against spam callers, and 911 services. Plus, Grasshopper only provides phone service for incoming calls. All outgoing calls will use the phone number from your alternate service, which can create confusion for customers and clients.

Ooma Office vs. Grasshopper – Plans and Costs

Because Grasshopper’s phone service is not a comprehensive phone replacement and is instead an add-on to traditional phone service, it makes sense that its costs would be lower than Ooma Office. However, because Grasshopper users need to keep their other phone plan, the total service costs for your business would remain high. Not only would you need to keep paying your phone carrier bill, but you’d now also be paying Grasshopper.

Grasshopper’s introductory rates are $24 for the first three extensions and $49 for six extensions. You can expect to pay additional fees for add-on services. For example, it’s $30 to transfer your phone number to Grasshopper, and it’s $10 per month for simultaneous call forwarding.

In order to place international or offshore calls, such as to Hawaii or Puerto Rico, you need to make a deposit of $500.

On the other hand, Ooma Office does have a higher monthly rate. It’s $19.95 per user per month. However, Ooma replaces your other phone service, which will reduce your monthly costs. Additionally, users have access to international rates that cost just pennies per minute. Ooma is reliable and easy to use. In fact, only 15% of our users report needing tech support, a lower rate than many other companies, which can be as high as 45% of users needing tech support.

However, if there are any questions or concerns, Ooma is here to help, We provide 24/7 chat support and phone support from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET on weekends.

Conclusion

While both Ooma and Grasshopper are in the business phone service market, Grasshopper’s positioning as an add-on service to your existing phone plan, plus the additional charges for some features, mean that you’ll pay more overall for business phone service.

PC Magazine says that Grasshopper is only suited to “companies that intend to remain very small. Those needing more advanced features or those whose businesses are likely to grow significantly will likely need to keep looking.”

On the other hand, Ooma offers easy-to-use business phone replacements that are all-inclusive and low-cost. Ooma provides high-quality service that’s consistent, reliable, and flexible. In the end, Ooma is a better value for your business telephone. PC Magazine’s Michael Muchmore said, “Ooma is distinguished by super-easy setup, a spiffy tabletop adapter with a speaker, a user-friendly Web interface, clear voice quality and low cost — just about everything you’d want from an Internet-based landline replacement service.”

Prices, offers and comparisons as of May 2018.