Free VoIP services

Are there free VoIP services & are they good enough for your business?

Get to know about free VoIP services, and how much more you can get with paid, business-focused alternatives like RingCentral RingEX.

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Written by Roman Tobe
Director, Product Marketing
Reviewed by Esther Yoon
VP, Product & Industry Marketing
Updated: 20 November 2024

The benefits of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are no longer a secret. Consumers and businesses alike are getting wise to the advantages of making and taking calls over the internet. You can even use VoIP free of charge via some apps and services. 

Free VoIP services, though, are best left for catching up with friends and family. They’re accessible and cost-efficient when used that way, but your business communication deserves more. Business-focused communications platforms like RingCentral RingEX give you more advanced features, greater security, and lots more benefits besides.

The best free VoIP software

There are free VoIP apps available which you can use to make and receive calls—even video calls— over the internet.

Some of the best VoIP apps on the market for free include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Voice.

You probably use one or more of those to check in with your friends and family. If you’re running a business, however, it’s unlikely that a free Voice over IP app is enough to meet your communication needs. You may well be better off with a VoIP service that brings more to the table, even if it requires a little investment.

What is a VoIP softphone?

This term is less commonly used, but the apps mentioned above are examples of VoIP softphones, which are basically programs that let you make calls over the internet. They essentially turn your computers into “real phones” you can use for calls from PC to phone, from phone to PC, and between VoIP-enabled devices.

Most of these softphones have mobile app versions, so you can use your mobile devices as VoIP phones.

What are the potential free VoIP benefits?

Even though they’re not designed for business use, a free VoIP service can offer some benefits—particularly over regular landlines:

1. Anyone can sign up

Getting a free VoIP phone service is so easy, anyone can do it.

For one thing, there are so many providers to choose from. You can simply Google them or search your app store (Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store) on your mobile app. From there, just download the app and register.

In most cases, you only need a valid email address (or a Facebook or Twitter account) to create an account. After registration and some general verification and validation steps, you’re ready to make free VoIP calls.

2. They include chat, group chat, and easy sharing options

Aside from letting you make VoIP calls, most free VoIP phone services have messaging options, too. You can even create group chats with multiple users. As a bonus, you can also use these applications to share links, photos, videos, and files to other people either individually or in those group chats.

3. You can make video calls

Sometimes, a free VoIP telephone service also lets you make video calls. Facebook Messenger and a few other free VoIP providers let you use your computer or mobile device’s camera, speaker, and mic to make video calls over the internet. That’s definitely something that you can’t do with regular landlines.

4. They can accommodate conference calling and video conferencing

If you need to host VoIP calls for multiple parties, there’s free VoIP software that lets you do that, too.

Just create a group and start a call from there. Voila! You’ve just started a conference call. You could even level it up by doing a video conference call instead of a regular group audio VoIP call. It’s super convenient for people who can’t be in the same room, but need to be on the same page.

What are the limitations of a free VoIP phone service?

Even with these advantages, there are still some things a free VoIP app isn’t able to do. For businesses, these limitations can be pretty significant. It means that while these apps may be realistic  substitutes for regular landline phones, and a free VoIP service for home use may work okay, they’re not viable choices for businesses.

For example, here are some of the biggest limitations of most free VoIP solutions:

1. Unless people are using the same VoIP app, they can’t talk to each other

One of the main limitations of these free VoIP apps is that they only work when the person calling and the person being called are both on the same app. For example, people on Viber can’t call WhatsApp users and vice versa (unless they have both apps downloaded).

That’s fine if all you want is a free VoIP home phone alternative—you can always tell friends and family members which apps they can connect with you on. It’s pretty limiting, though, if you’re a business that needs to call prospects or customers who aren’t using the same free VoIP services as you.

2. They can’t dial phone numbers (for free)

Most of these services are only able to make calls within the application, which means you can’t call phone numbers directly. Some free VoIP software does have that function,but you often need to buy call minutes to use them, which makes the service paid and not free anyhow.

3. You can’t get a phone number (for free)

Another big disadvantage of free VoIP apps is that you can’t really connect a phone number to the VoIP phone service. Remember how the app can’t call landlines?

Well there’s also no way to make calls from landlines to the free VoIP—unless you’re willing to pay, of course. A free VoIP service may be able to assign you a temporary telephone number from different countries but, again, it typically incurs an extra charge that negates the “free” aspect of the service.

4. Free VoIP features are very limited

With a free VoIP service, you typically get the ability to make and take audio and video calls (often only to others on the same app) and not a lot else. Perhaps, you might get in-call chat options, too, but not a great deal beyond that. 

Invest in an affordable business-focused VoIP service like RingEX and you get a lot more. That includes multiple VoIP numbers for your users, call forwarding, recording, and other management features, and loads more. 

5. They’re highly dependent on the quality of internet connection

All VoIP services, paid or not, need an internet connection to work. But the quality of the calls for free VoIP apps is more easily affected by the quality of internet connection used—by both the person calling and the person being called.

With paid versions, specifically the ones catering to businesses, the service requires less internet bandwidth to get a quality call. This is because it uses high-quality codecs to compress your voice.

Think of it like putting your documents into a zip file so it’s easier to send them through email. The codec converts your voice into a smaller file size so it can travel faster over the internet.

Before signing you on as a customer, VoIP providers for business usually test the speed and quality of your company’s internet connection to see if it can handle VoIP calls. They also use QoS (Quality of Service) routers that prioritize internet-based phone calls over other internet traffic. Even the best free VoIP phone service providers can’t claim the same.

6. There’s no VoIP E911 feature

The thing with VoIP is that it lets you communicate without the phone system being tied to a particular location or device. Unlike traditional landlines and even cell phones..

That’s why federal law requires business VoIP providers to register the address of the VoIP customer. This is so that first responders know where to send help during emergencies. Since free VoIP programs only work within the app’s network of users and have no business phone numbers, it won’t have the ability to call 911 during emergencies. That’s a pretty serious issue.

Do I need more than a free VoIP call service can offer?

That depends on what you plan to use VoIP for. If you only need an internet phone service that gives you VoIP calls to family and friends (a free VoIP landline alternative, if you will), then a free VoIP service is likely more than enough to help you keep connected.
If, however, you need a business phone system that can replace your traditional landline-based setup, then free VoIP services will typically not be adequate.

Instead, you should look into getting an advanced VoIP-based business phone system with advanced call management features, which makes sure that your business doesn’t miss any calls.

For example, this could include an auto-attendant that answers all your incoming calls and a PBX component that routes calls to the right department or extension. This would be on top of the VoIP service that allows your team to make and receive calls from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection.

Are there free VoIP services for business?

Enterprise VoIP services usually come with a subscription cost, which depends on the plan you choose. As to what these plans include, you get what you pay for.

Believe it or not, there are companies that offer free versions of their VoIP service—the only thing is that something that’s free typically isn’t good enough for the average business.

In fact, free business VoIP packages are usually meant to be trial runs for really small businesses, which means they cater to a very limited number of users. For example, here are a few scenarios where free business VoIP solutions might be missing communication and collaboration features:

What is the best VoIP service for business?

If you’ve decided that simple free VoIP calling isn’t enough for your business, you need to know how to pick the right cloud-based phone system instead. The best VoIP service for your business should be judged based on a few qualities:

  • Mobility – The main advantage of VoIP is that it can be used from anywhere as long as there is an internet connection. Check with your provider to see if they allow you to access the VoIP service through computers, mobile devices, and personal networks as well as a physical VoIP phone at the office.
  • Scalability – There should be options for your business to not only scale up as it grows, but also scale down when it streamlines. Check how easy it is to add, delete, or reassign phone numbers and extensions. See if the same business phone system can be used across multiple locations. Are there commitments and contracts within your current plan? Are you allowed to upgrade or downgrade your plan during a contract period? These are just a few of the questions it’s important to know the answers to.
  • Usability – How easy is it to manage, configure, and use your phone service? Today, VoIP phone systems are slowly but surely moving towards “unified communications.” This is where every type of communication, like voice, SMS, fax, voicemail, and video meetings, can be accessed from one dashboard or platform.
  • Security – Ask your provider about the security measures they use to protect their VoIP system. Look for a multi-faceted approach that combines high-level security measures like encryption (basically hiding information from unauthorized users) with best practices against cyberattacks and fraud.
  • Reliability – It’s all about redundancy when it comes to cloud-hosted business phone systems. Redundancy is when a service is hosted on multiple servers in data centers based in multiple locations. This way, when one server or data center goes down, others can take over. RingCentral, for example, is hosted in bicoastal data centers and delivers 99.999% availability, which means customers' phone systems are always up and running.

Get a free VoIP phone number and a whole lot more with RingCentral RingEX

your business chooses RingCentral RingEX instead of a free VoIP phone service, you get a whole lot of bang for your buck. Rather than just a simple way to call friends and family who have the same VoIP app, you get a full-featured communications solution to meet all your business’s needs.

That starts with a free VoIP number foreach RingEX user as part of the package. That solves the inter-connectivity issue of free VoIP services right off the bat. Your team members can call and receive calls from users of other VoIP services, as well as any customers or prospects who still use landlines.

What’s more, on top of free VoIP phone numbers, you also get unlimited calling in the USA and Canada. So, while the service itself has a monthly subscription charge, domestic calls are free of any additional charges.

It’s not just VoIP calling that you get with RingEX, either. It’s a truly unified communications solution that lets you bring your calling, video calling, messaging, and more onto one easy-to-use platform.

Interested in learning more about what a VoIP-based unified communications solution can do for your business? Check out the plans and pricing below:

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Free VoIP FAQs

Free VoIP calling is when you make or receive calls over the internet using an app that’s free to download and use. In order to connect with somebody via a free VoIP call, they typically also have to have downloaded the same app.
The underlying technology behind free VoIP apps is the same as for general internet telephony. Audio signals (your voice) are converted into digital data packets, which are then transported via an internet connection. They’re then converted back to audio at the other end of the call—all near-instantaneously.
One of the main limitations of using free VoIP phone services is that you can only communicate within the app in question. That means the best free VoIP software is typically that which most people have access to. As many professionals have a Google account that means Google Voice fits the bill. It’s a VoIP service, after all, that’s free to use (up to a point) for anyone with a Google account.
Learning how to set up free VoIP services is pretty straightforward—like the apps themselves. Typically, you just need to download the app and follow intuitive instructions to call someone else who has the same app. There’s not much setup beyond that as there’s not much else you can do with a free VoIP app.
There’s no definitive right or wrong answer to this question; it depends on your business needs. In general, however, free VoIP services are designed as consumer products—for connecting friends and family. If you need a comprehensive business phone system to streamline workflows and better connect your teams, a paid service like RingCentral RingEX is likely to be far more suitable.
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