Ooma vs Vonage — Which is the best for you?
Update after 2 years: We’ve been very happy with Ooma overall. The service has only gone down once in that time period and that may have just been our internet — I don’t remember exactly.
We would have spent ~$600 with our old home phone service over that period vs paying a little under $200 up front for Ooma, so we’ve saved ~$400. Now, we do actually pay $3/month in order to be able to dial 911 from our phones (worth it), so our savings is more like $350. Plus, the voice quality is faaaar better than our old traditional land line, so I think we came out ahead.
Traditional home phones are far too expensive nowadays. That is where Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) comes into play. You can get phone service for a big discount through your internet. In my case, it is even more reliable and higher quality than the home phone service I used to have.
Two of the biggest VOIP players are Ooma and Vonage. How do they stack up against each other? Here is Ooma vs Vonage:
Ooma Advantages:
- Ooma is much cheaper in the long-run for most people. Ooma does have a significant upfront cost of about
$200now ~$150, but the monthly bills are little to nothing. - The call quality is perfect. I’ve never experienced clearer calls.
- Basically unlimited minutes. Its really 5,000 minutes to make sure you’re not using the low cost service for a call center. To go over this amount you would have to talk for over 166 minutes a day on your home phone. However, I bet they wouldn’t stop you.
- From their FAQ: “we do have a limit of 5000 minutes per month (for outbound calling) that we can enforce on a case by case basis in the event that a subscriber is clearly abusing the service (i.e. call centers, commercial purposes, etc.). We have never terminated a customer that has used the service for residential purposes.”
- Good customer service. I was surprised how quickly they responded to and solved the only issue I’ve ever had. It took them less than 48 hours.
- Nice website where you can view your missed calls and listen to voice mail from anywhere.
Vonage Advantages:
- No setup costs
- More cost effective if you are calling internationally frequently.
What Vonage and Ooma both have:
- You can make 911 calls. This is rarely used, if ever hopefully, but is nice to know that you can pick up the nearest phone and dial for an emergency.
- No contracts for either service. You used to need to do a contract with Vonage, but not anymore.
- Both require a fast and reliable internet connection. This is a must. Fortunately, most people already have this. I prefer cable over DSL — it seems more reliable and is capable of faster speeds.
- Neither require a computer to work.
- Neither require special phones to work. You can use any old normal phone you have.
Ooma Disadvantages:
- Significant upfront cost. Again, you will probably need about $200 to get started. However, you make this money back over Vonage pretty quickly.
Vonage Disdvantages:
- Cheapest plans limit your minutes like a cell phone. $9.99/month for 200 minutes. To get unlimited minutes, you are looking at $25.99/month.
- Worse call quality than Ooma.
- Their unlimited plans don’t save you much over traditional phone service.
Cost comparisons:
- If you get the older version of Ooma (with no 911 and slightly less features), it can be $200 upfront and $0 from here to infinity.
- I recommend, if you decide on Ooma, to get the newer version with 911 and some additional features. This is about $200 upfront and $3/month for 911 taxes and fees.
- If you compare the new Ooma to the cheapest Vonage, you will break even and start saving $84/year with Ooma after about 2 years.
- If you compare the new Ooma to the most common Vonage plan — $26/month for unlimited calls — you will break even after about 10 months and start saving $275/year with Ooma.
The Other Guy:
Skype is the 3rd competitor here. They don’t offer a service that is quite like Vonage and Ooma. It requires a computer to work. You can’t connect old school phones to it. You will need a headset or a special phone to use Skype. It is difficult to receive phone calls. It drops calls sometimes. It is difficult and annoying to check voice mails.
Why would anyone get Skype? It is very cheap if you’re looking to make some outgoing calls on your computer. For $30/year you can make unlimited outgoing calls. However, a phone number does not show up on the person’s caller ID when you call unless you pay the additional $30/year for an incoming phone number. This is about $5/month and eventually is more expensive than Ooma.
Conclusions:
Ooma is a better deal for 90% of people that live in the U.S. In the long-run you will save money over Vonage and Skype. However, I believe about 5% of people who make a ton of international calls and Vonage would be a more cost effective option. There are another 5% of people out there who don’t need to receive calls and aren’t phased by the multiple inconveniences of Skype.
Ultimately, it comes down to saving money with Ooma. However, the call quality and dependability is better with Ooma as well. So, I think it is a win-win.
It should be noted that Ooma is also the only phone service my wife has ever liked. She hated Skype becuase of the inconveniences. Its good to make the wife happy and save money =) Again, a win-win.
March 15th, 2011 at 8:29 pm
i agree better deal for 90% of people that live in the U.S. how about google talk? or google voice?
March 17th, 2011 at 2:48 am
Google Talk, as far as I understand it, is only for instant messaging. Google Voice is a good product that is closer to a Skype with some extra features that is also compatible with any other phone service. My wife uses Google Voice to give herself a business number for people to call that goes to her regular cell number.
July 21st, 2011 at 10:36 pm
I tried Magic Jack (terrible) and believe you had to leave your PC on all the time. Is this the same with OOMA, or can you shut down your PC and still have the VOIP working? THX.
July 21st, 2011 at 11:37 pm
Rich,
No, you do not need your PC. You don’t even need to own a PC. Ooma plugs directly into your router or cable modem.
August 10th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Can you send & receive Sfax with ooma.
September 9th, 2011 at 6:55 am
Great Review , I’m sick of vonage, I will try Oomma. Thank you. :0)
September 16th, 2011 at 6:38 pm
I read one review that said he had problems with Ooma with having voice delay…anybody know about this?
September 24th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
is ooma a bad bet using satellite transmission?
October 10th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I understand that with Ooma I can use my existing phone. How many phones can I have? I currently have 4 cordless phones scattered around my house and one corded landline.
June 6th, 2012 at 12:42 am
I travel with my vonage anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. Is it the same with Ooma?
December 15th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Can I keep my current phone number with ooma?
December 25th, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Yes. You can. They charge a small one-time fee to transfer it over.
December 25th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Yip
December 25th, 2012 at 8:40 pm
You can use them all. I don’t use it, but I think Ooma has something that connects into the wall, so your other phone outlets connect directly to your Ooma service. We have one cordless phone system with multiple bases.
December 25th, 2012 at 8:41 pm
If your internet is already slow, then yes. If it is plenty fast, then no.
December 25th, 2012 at 8:43 pm
Officially, yes, but I have heard that it doesn’t work very well.