Started in 1999, Vonage is an industry pioneer from the early days of voice over IP technology that provides internet phone services for residences and small businesses. While the growing popularity of VoIP has given rise to many competitors, Vonage remains one of the largest and most well known VOIP, and it’s a good option for affordable and feature-rich VoIP.
Vonage provides a wide range of residential and business plans. They vary in terms of price and offer minutes ranging from 400 to unlimited. As do most of the best Voice over IP providers we reviewed, Vonage allows calls to Canada and Puerto Rico, but calls to other countries cost extra unless you get the World Plan. All in-network calls are free, and you can keep your original number.
Vonage is a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) provider, which is to say, it lets you make and receive calls using your Internet connection rather than a telephone line. Vonage’s service requires a piece of physical hardware, the Vonage Phone Adapter—a sleek black box with two connection points for phone handsets, an Ethernet port that connects to your Internet service, and another Ethernet (LAN) port that connects to your computer or router. Included in the service price, you also get all the basic phone extras, like voicemail and call waiting. Once the equipment is set up, you can make and receive calls just as you would with a landline.
