Vonage Review

Sunday, May 18th

2025 VoIP Service Reviews

Vonage

• Cost: $9.99 to $14.99/month plus taxes and fees
• Month-to-month or annual contract with 30-day money-back guarantee
• Caller ID, call waiting, voicemail, Wi-Fi calling, call forwarding, voicemail-to-email, bandwidth saver, call hunting
• Special features: SimulRing, Boomerang, virtual numbers
• Mobile app for 3 devices, softphone for PC/Mac, desk phones
• "A" BBB rating

Vonage started out as a pioneer in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) back in 1998, and they've grown into a major player in cloud communications. While they started with residential services under the name Min-X, they've since expanded their focus to include business solutions, especially after the mid-2010s. (And while they've had some interesting encounters with the FTC that you might want to know about, we'll get to that later...)

Starts at $9.99/month

You've got two options with Vonage's home phone service. Their North America plan runs $9.99 monthly and includes unlimited calling across the US, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada. If you're chatting with family across the globe, you might prefer their World Prime plan at $14.99 monthly, which lets you call over 60 countries without limits. Both plans come with perks like being able to use your home number on up to three smartphones and access to over 20 calling features, including Wi-Fi calling and selective call blocking.

Watch for taxes and fees

While the base prices at Vonage look attractive, you'll want to watch out for a few extra costs. Both plans come with additional taxes and fees. If you're looking at add-ons, features like extra virtual numbers for 20 other countries (handy if you have folks calling from abroad) can tack on $4.99 to $9.99 monthly to your bill. Both plans include shipping and activation, though some month-to-month plans might charge for these. If things don't work out, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Core and specialized features like Boomerang

You'll get all the standard VoIP features you'd expect, including caller ID, call waiting, and three-way calling. But what's more interesting is Vonage's approach to call management - you can use their bandwidth saver to maintain call quality on slower connections and set up call hunting to ring up to five phones in sequence until someone answers. (Not bad for when you're trying to avoid missing that important call.) If you need more specialized features, Vonage offers SimulRing (which can make multiple phones ring simultaneously) and a Boomerang feature for automatic call connections with selected contacts.

Bring your home phone on the go

You can take your home phone service wherever you go with the Vonage Extensions app. The app lets you make and receive calls on up to three smartphones using your home phone number, and it works over both WiFi and cellular data. The app comes with some thoughtful features, like spam management that lets you block unwanted calls or send them straight to voicemail. Their Voicemail Plus system gives you flexible access to messages from any phone or online account. However, recent user reviews on both Android and iOS could be better - while some mentioned improvements on things like voice clarity, others report issues with call disconnections and unreliable message notifications.

Softphone option

If you're more of a desktop warrior, Vonage also offers a softphone service for your PC or Mac. For $9.99 plus taxes and fees, this softphone appears to include 500 minutes to call the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico, with additional minutes costing 3.9¢ each. There's also a "one-time activation fee” of $9.99 mentioned - which we think is a separate charge from the initial $9.99 in taxes and fees.

Vonage has a rocky history with customer service

Now, about their encounters with the FTC. In 2009, they paid $3 million to settle investigations in 32 states, and more recently in October 2023, they had to pay nearly $100 million in refunds after the FTC found they were making it difficult for customers to cancel and charging unauthorized fees.

Current state of affairs shows improvement, but watch out

While Vonage now maintains an "A" rating with the Better Business Bureau and a decent 3.8-star average on Trustpilot, some recent customer reviews still mention billing issues (though these complaints aren't as common as they used to be). The good news is that canceling your service should be more straightforward now - you can do it online through your account or by phone.

Good, but not great

You'll get some handy features with Vonage like SimulRing and a mobile app, but we think you should look elsewhere first for your home phone VoIP service. While they've improved their cancellation process and maintain an "A" BBB rating, their $100 million FTC settlement over billing issues is still a bit too recent to dismiss yet. The starter prices look good on paper, but watch out - those extra taxes and fees add up fast. We'd recommend Vonage as a backup if you don't find what you need with one of its higher-ranked rivals.