Virtual Phone Review - OpenPhone

Hi guys!

I used to use Grasshopper, but for a variety of reasons I decided to leave their service. My wife stumbled on OpenPhone for her business she is opening and had me look them up. Needless to say, I was impressed with their service and switched over.

The reasons I like OpenPhone over Grasshopper is mostly related to their desktop application (I do a lot of work on my desktop PC), so being able to send text messages to tenants, contractors, on-site manager, etc is critical. Grasshopper failed me in this regard, but OpenPhone seems to be designed around a sleek interface that works exceptionally well. If you have a larger team, it also has a team messaging system to allow easy communication with team members. I’m a one-person shop, so I haven’t tested that, but it looks good.

On top of this, it looks like their pricing is also better than grasshopper… so it was a win for me all around.

Anyway, I know people talk about VOIP systems, and lots of the podcasts I listened to recommend Grasshopper. It was ok, but I strong suggest that if you are in the market for a VOIP system, you should check out OpenPhone. I’ll also answer questions if anyone has any. I’ve only used it for a few months, but I’m totally sold on the service.

While they are not paying me to post this review, they do provide a referral link that will give me an account credit (and you, if you use it to sign up). I just think they are a really good service, so I wanted to share if anyone is in the market.
My referral link is here: OpenPhone | Modern Business Phone for Startups and Small Businesses

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Thanks for sharing. I’m not that impressed with Grasshopper either. I think it would be a pain to switch though since I have a several numbers through them. Do you know if existing numbers can be transferred to OpenPhone?

Yes, I specifically transferred my number from Grasshopper to OpenPhone.
You’ll need to keep both services running for a period of time to make sure you don’t miss anything (the voice part transfers over about a day before the SMS part does) but other than that it wasn’t a problem.

Just make sure you save all the import details from your text messages though, as you don’t get to check them again once you cancel your grasshopper service.

Thank you for sharing this info. It seems very interesting.

We are currently using Google Voice, but somebody suggested to us to switch to Grasshopper.

You’re very welcome! I think it depends on what you “need” from a VOIP provider. Google Voice has the fantastic benefit of being free… but, you get what you pay for.

Grasshopper was really heavily promoted when I first started doing my learning over a year ago, but I simply did not care for their tools. As a software develop (of sorts), having a quality application is very important to me and Grasshopper just felt like it was coasting on its original success without much in terms of innovation.

The “straw that broke the camel’s back” for me was actually a software fluke in which it sent text messages to the WRONG phone number. This only happened with their desktop software (not the phone application, which worked flawlessly), but I do a lot of work at my desk, and this was beyond frustrating for me.

Thank you and i could not agree more with your statement: you get what you pay for.

Sending text to wrong # is definitely unacceptable. We are heavily relying on desktops as well. Thank you again

I don’t know that everyone would run into the issue… but I will say that it happened with my on-site manager and my main maintenance person. Both of whom I text regularly and have lengthy text logs for.
Grasshopper would “buffer” the text log. So, clicking on the conversation on their PC app caused the application to hang. When I sent them a text message, it would send to the person I had PREVIOUSLY selected, not the person I was currently on.
I called the support team, and they could see that the problem was occurring, but they were not able to provide me a fix. I was not happy. :smiley:

Anyway, give it a look. The price point is also saving me money, so I’ve no regrets at this point.

curious how OpenPhone is still treating you?

Overall, I’m mostly happy. There is a single hiccup that annoys me, and that is that sometimes the visual display doesn’t seem to update correctly for the text messages. Closing down the application and opening it up again fixes the issue. I’ve reported it as a bug, but it is one of those things that seems to be hard to replicate on their end.

Either way, the price and feature set still put this system to the top for me.

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Thanks so much for the great insight. I’ve been using NumberBarn/NumberGarage, but found that their calls often have delays that make it awkward to have real phone conversations - incredibly frustrating. Have you had any issues with call quality or connectivity? I believe OpenPhone is dependent on WiFi/data, right?

Any VOIP phone system is going to be dependent on Data (either cellular or Wi-Fi). The only way to avoid using that connection is to get an actual phone number from one of the big providers.
I don’t normally have any call problems or call quality issues… but that isn’t to say I haven’t had any. That has always boiled down to a local problem with my internet, or if I start the call from home (wi-fi) and then I start to drive somewhere while still on the phone. The point where my phone “Loses” wi-fi and has to switch to cellular usually results in voice loss. The call stays connected, but we can’t hear each other.

Hopefully that helps!

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