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Searching for a business phone service sounds easy until the bill starts growing after signing up.
We’re talking about monthly add-ons, hardware costs, activation charges, and recurring taxes and fees that push the total above expectations.
And, the case is no different with Ooma pricing.
Ooma promotes itself as an affordable business phone system for small companies. Base pricing starts at $19.95 per user monthly. However, problems start once you compare feature access, texting limits, integrations, and long-term costs.
For instance, several important tools sit behind higher tiers like Ooma Office Pro and Ooma Office Pro Plus. In addition, other functions add recurring charges to the base subscription.
Meanwhile, iPlum, an Ooma alternative, offers HIPAA-ready communication, encrypted texting, and lower monthly pricing with fewer billing surprises.
In this article, we break down the Ooma cost, the extra charges attached to the platform, and why iPlum makes more financial sense.
Table of Contents
2. How Ooma pricing gets expensive quickly
4. What do you get from Ooma Office Essentials?
5. Ooma Office Pro: more features, more spending
6. Ooma Office Pro Plus pushes pricing even higher
7. Ooma Premier and Ooma Telo pricing concerns
8. Hidden fees that make Ooma expensive
9.Ooma still lacks several standard businesses features
10. iPlum: an affordable Ooma alternative
11.iPlum works better for regulated industries
13. Ooma customer support and communication limitations
14.Ooma pricing: is it worth it?
How much does Ooma cost?
Ooma offers three main business pricing plans:
- Ooma Office Essentials — $19.95 monthly per user
- Ooma Office Pro — $24.95 monthly per user
- Ooma Office Pro Plus — $29.95 monthly per user
Enterprise pricing requires a custom quote.
From a distance, those look like affordable plans. That said, cost escalates once feature segmentation comes into play.
For starters, the base tiers, the Essentials plan primarily targets small offices seeking basic phone service and standard calling.
Users get:
- Unlimited calling
- A phone number
- Caller ID
- Virtual receptionist
- Basic voicemail
- A mobile app
- Company directory
- Call forwarding
- Multiple lines
Ooma also advertises unlimited calling to the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Several references also mention Mexico and Puerto Rico, calling coverage.
The plan, however, does not offer the following features:
- Texting
- Desktop calling
- Call recording
- Voicemail transcription
Therefore, if you want those capabilities, you must upgrade from Ooma's Essentials plan to Ooma Office Pro or Ooma Office Pro Plus.
How Ooma pricing gets expensive quickly
Ooma adds recurring service charges, hardware purchases, usage overages, and extra feature costs.
In fact, users searching for a low-cost VoIP service report paying substantially more than the advertised monthly rate.
Here’s where Ooma’s pricing plans become expensive.
Additional phone numbers and business lines
Ooma gives one local number with a user extension. Extra local numbers cost extra monthly.
Therefore, a company with five employees and three additional numbers already pushes the monthly bill well above the advertised starting price. In addition, businesses that want dedicated sales, billing, and support departments usually require a separate business line for routing incoming traffic.
Toll-free charges and international calling
Ooma offers toll-free numbers, with usage limits.
Plans come with limited toll-free minutes and additional usage increases the monthly invoice. Thus, customer-facing businesses receiving large volumes of incoming calls can burn through those allowances quickly.
Ooma also markets international calling options for businesses serving overseas customers. The problem, however, is that competing VoIP providers bundle more international access into lower-cost plans.
Messaging limitations
Text messaging availability depends heavily on plan selection.
The base Ooma office essentials tier doesn’t include business texting. Thus, businesses wanting SMS access must upgrade.
The Pro plan adds limited messaging while the Pro Plus expands usage further. That said, additional messaging campaigns still require separate add-ons.
The point is, companies using text messages for appointment reminders, sales outreach, or customer communication may spend more than expected.
Activation and hardware costs
Ooma may charge a one-time fee during setup, depending on promotions and hardware selection.
Hardware spending also quickly enters the equation. Desk phones, adapters, and accessories cost extra. Therefore, businesses moving away from traditional phone lines may still need physical hardware purchases depending on their setup.
Worth noting, Ooma also promotes the Ooma Telo device heavily for residential customers. The Ooma Telo package advertises free home calling after recurring applicable taxes and fees. The problem is those recurring telecom charges still appear every month.
Ooma taxes and fees
Another issue with Ooma pricing plans comes from recurring telecom assessments.
Ooma openly references recurring applicable taxes and regulatory charges associated with telecom services. Business billing also involves regional telecom assessments depending on location and usage.
Those recurring charges increase the actual monthly cost beyond the advertised plan rate.
A $29.95 Pro Plus subscription can easily exceed $35 monthly after recurring fees and add-ons are added to the invoice. As a result, the advertised prices become very different from the real month taxes and fees businesses end up paying.
What do you get from Ooma Office Essentials?
The Ooma Office Essentials package mainly targets small offices searching for essential features and basic calling.
Features include:
- Virtual receptionist
- Ring groups
- Company directory
- Caller ID
- Business hours setup
- Call forwarding
- Mobile app access
- Multiple lines
- Hold music
- Inbound calls
- Outbound calls
- Voicemail
Users can also port an existing phone number into the service. In addition, Ooma gives users access to Ooma's mobile app for mobile communication.
While these users can receive calls from mobile devices on this plan, businesses using laptops heavily may still want desktop communication features unavailable on the Essentials tier.
Ooma Office Pro: more features, more spending
Moving from Ooma Office Essentials to Ooma Office Pro raises the price noticeably.
The Pro package adds:
- Call recording
- Voicemail transcription
- SMS messaging
- Analytics
- Shared inboxes
- Desktop app access
- Enhanced call blocking
Several missing tools from the lower tier suddenly appear once businesses pay more. Ooma markets these additions as premium advanced features. A major criticism appears here, though.
Several communication capabilities businesses expect from modern other VoIP providers already come standard elsewhere.
Texting, desktop calling, voicemail transcription, and mobile communication no longer count as premium-only tools in much of the VoIP market.
Ooma Office Pro Plus pushes pricing even higher
The highest-tier standard, Ooma Office Pro Plus, costs $29.95 per user per month.
Features added here include:
- Call queuing
- CRM integrations
- Hot desking
- Conference bridge
- Enhanced virtual receptionist
- Larger meetings
- Advanced communication tools
- Call deflection
Ooma positions Pro Plus as the complete communication package for growing companies.
Pricing becomes difficult to justify, though, once competitors offering similar functionality enter the comparison. Small companies using six or seven employees could easily spend more than $200 monthly before taxes, toll-free usage, or add-ons are added to the bill.
Ooma Premier and Ooma Telo pricing concerns
Residential customers also report concerns about Ooma Premier pricing.
For starters, the company markets Ooma Basic Home Calling aggressively through the Ooma Telo device. However, customers still pay recurring telecom charges and monthly taxes.
First, advanced residential functionality is only available under premium plans, including added voicemail transcription, spam blocking, and smart call routing. Furthermore, additional hardware purchases still apply in several cases.
Hidden fees that make Ooma expensive
The biggest criticism tied to Ooma Office pricing comes from recurring add-ons and hidden fees. With Ooma, you’ll pay more for:
- Extra phone numbers
- Toll-free minutes
- Texting campaigns
- Hardware
- Integrations
- Premium analytics
- Setup charges
Those recurring additional fees create a noticeable jump between advertised pricing and real-world spending. A business paying for Pro Plus, toll-free usage, texting campaigns, and extra numbers could spend substantially more than expected.
Ooma still lacks several standard businesses features
Ooma segments texting, desktop communication, and compliance functionality into lower tiers heavily.
That said, the platform still works reasonably well for:
- Retail stores
- Local offices
- Companies replacing traditional landlines
- Businesses needing basic call routing
However, the service drops the ball for encrypted communication, compliance archiving, or secure messaging.
iPlum: an affordable Ooma alternative
iPlum offers a lower-cost business phone platform with pricing that is easier to predict structured as follows:
- The Standard plan starts at $8.99 monthly.
- The Professional plan costs $14.99 monthly.
- The Enterprise package costs $25.99 monthly.
Even the highest iPlum plan still lands below Ooma Office Pro Plus pricing.
You also get access to advanced access without paying Premium for it/
The iPlum Professional, for instance already gives users:
- HIPAA compliance
- BAA access
- Encrypted texting
- Voicemail transcription
- Web calling
- Secure messaging
- Archiving
- Secure digital fax
With iPlum, you can also forward voicemails to email inboxes. Ooma pushes several comparable tools into higher subscription tiers.
iPlum works better for regulated industries
iPlum is one of the best Ooma alternatives for healthcare clinics, legal offices, insurance agencies, and financial firms that need:
- Secure communication
- Encrypted messaging
- Recording access
- Compliance archiving
- Mobile communication
- Separate business numbers
iPlum also lowers hardware dependence which makes it ideal for businesses moving from traditional landlines to a mobile-first setup.
The service primarily runs on smartphones and via web access and can operate business communication through existing cell phones and laptops.
Ooma pricing vs iPlum’s
When comparing Ooma against iPlum, pricing differences become noticeable quickly, as shown in the table below:
Pricing differences become more noticeable once real-world usage is factored in.
Five employees on Ooma Pro Plus could push monthly spending beyond $175 before recurring telecom charges and add-ons.
Meanwhile, five employees on iPlum Enterprise land much lower with compliance-focused communication already available.
Ooma customer support and communication limitations
Ooma still offers decent customer support through phone and online chat.
The platform also gives businesses:
- A virtual receptionist
- Mobile communication
- Voicemail
- Business routing
- Conference functionality
Problems appear once companies need more premium communication functionality. In such a scenario, you must pay premium add-ons.
Ooma pricing: is it worth it?
At first glance, Ooma office pricing appears affordable.
However, feature segmentation pushes businesses toward higher tiers quickly. Furthermore, messaging limits, add-ons, hardware purchases, telecom assessments, and recurring charges inflate the real bill.
iPlum, in comparison, offers a cleaner pricing model with lower monthly costs and stronger compliance positioning.
Therefore, users seeking secure mobile communication, encrypted texting, HIPAA-ready messaging, predictable pricing, and lower long-term spending will likely get better value from iPlum than from Ooma.
The iPlum’s phone system also offers:
- Reliable call management
- Mobile access on multiple devices
- Better handling of business calls
- More robust messaging tools
- Easier scaling for small businesses
Sure, Ooma still offers decent basic features for entry-level communication.
But if you’re in for premium communication tools, compliance access, secure messaging, and lower monthly pricing will find iPlum is more competitive over time.
The point is, if you’re using traditional landlines and seeking a cloud-based business phone system, it makes sense to evaluate costs before committing to Ooma’s higher-tier service plans.
Click the link below to get started with a more affordable and powerful Ooma alternative.
