8 Best Small Business Cell Phone Plans for 2022 (with Free Option)

Are you looking for a small business cell phone plan to stay in touch with your customers and team members?

A business cell phone plan gives you the freedom and flexibility to answer calls, communicate with your team, and attend meetings while on the go. It helps you stay connected from anywhere in the world.

In this article, we’ll share the best small business cell phone plans with pros and cons, so you can pick the best solution for your needs.

Why Do You Need a Business Cell Phone Plan?

A business cell phone plan is important for many small business owners, so they can keep their business phone separate from their personal phone and easily coordinate with other team members.

With the right cell phone plan, your customer support staff will be able to help out customers and respond to their questions while on the go. This way you can improve retention and create a long-term relationship with your customers.

Similarly, if you have a remote team spread across different locations, then a cell phone plan can improve business communication since you can hold webinars and meetings to keep everyone connected.

As a business owner, you have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting a cell phone plan for your company. There are traditional wireless carriers, business VoIP services, and virtual calling systems that provide a business cell phone service.

That said, let’s look at some of the best small business cell phone plans in the market.

1. Nextiva

Nextiva is the best VoIP and virtual business phone service in the market. It’s a cloud-based business phone system that offers a powerful set of features, and it’s super easy to set up.

This is what we use for our business here at WPBeginner.

Nextiva is often referred to as a UCaaS (unified communication as a service) because it brings separate communication channels like video, text message chat, voice, and collaboration tools together in one place.

There are Nextiva apps for mobile phones, tablets, desktop, and even desk phones, so your team can use a separate business phone number or extension without needing two separate devices which helps reduce cost.

Some of the features you get include an auto-attendant feature, HD video conferencing option, nationwide unlimited calling and SMS messages, free number porting, voicemail to email notifications, toll-free numbers, a cloud-based VoIP call center, cloud PBX, call pop with caller ID details, and more.

The VoIP service also helps your team improve communication and automate different workflows. For example, you can set up email automation and create automated replies to quickly respond to business customer queries that come in through your WordPress website.

Another benefit of using Nextiva is that it easily integrates with other communication tools and CRMs like Salesforce, Google Contacts, Zendesk, Oracle Sales Cloud, Zoho, and more.

Nextiva offers 3 business cell phone plans that you can choose from.

• Essential – The prices start from $18.95 per user per month, and you get unlimited voice and video calling, toll-free numbers, Outlook and Google contacts integrations, and more.
• Professional – Starting at $22.95 per user per month. In addition to the features in the Essential plan, you also get unlimited conference calls, a screen sharing option, mobile and desktop SMS/MMS feature, auto-attendant, and more.
• Enterprise – In this plan, you get all the features that Nextiva offers, and it will cost $32.95 per user per month. Plus, you get a call recording option, Microsoft Teams integration, voicemail transcription, and more.

If you’re looking for a small business cell phone plan that doesn’t require getting a separate device and allows for sharing the business phone number with multiple team members, then Nextiva is the way to go.

This is what we use for our business, and many other top organizations like UnitedWay, TacoBell, YMCA, Stanford University, and others also use Nextiva for their business phone.

2. RingCentral

RingCentral is also one of the best business cell phone services that you can use for your website. The VoIP phone service provider allows your support team to handle customer support from anywhere using its Android and iOS mobile app and desktop app.

This way, you can also implement a bring your own device (BYOD) policy and allow your team members to use their own devices to handle work-related tasks from any place at any time.

With RingCentral, you get unlimited phone calls within the US and Canada, voice-to-text features, video conferences, business SMS, internet fax, toll-free number, and more.

There’s also an auto attend feature in RingCentral and advanced call handling features where support agents can see the caller’s interaction history, get real-time analytics, and allow managers or another team member to take over a call.

RingCentral offers 4 business cell phone plans that you can use, and the best part is that you get a 14-day free trial.

• Essentials – Starting from $19.99 per user per month, you get up to 20 users, a toll-free number, unlimited calls in the US/Canada, team messaging, and more.
• Standard – In this plan, RingCentral offers an unlimited number of users, business phone numbers in 100 countries, unlimited internet fax, video meetings, 24/7 support, and more for $27.99 per user per month.
• Premium – It will cost you $34.99 per user per month. You get more features like automatic call recording, hot desking, advanced call handling features, real-time analytics, CRM integrations, etc.
• Ultimate – This plan is for $49.99 per user per month, and it includes all the features along with device status reports, status alerts, and unlimited storage.

3. Ooma

Ooma is an all-in-one virtual phone service for small businesses. With Ooma, you get amazing features to keep you connected with your customers and remote team members.

The phone service offers HD audio, video conferencing, messaging, virtual receptionists, free 1-800 toll-free numbers, and free local phone numbers. The best, you get mobile apps that let you receive calls and answer your customers’ queries on the go.

Besides that, there’s also an Ooma Office suite that works out of the box and is very easy to set up. With Ooma Office, you can attend meetings and video conferences to keep your team connected with each other.

Other features offered by Ooma include voicemail transcription, online fax, enhanced call blocking, call recording, call forwarding, unlimited calling in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, affordable international call rates, and more.

Ooma offers 2 pricing plans for small business cell phones.

• Ooma Office – It will cost you $19.95 per month per user and you get a lot of features like a mobile app, virtual receptionist, call transfer, call logs, and more.
• Ooma Office Pro – This plan will cost you $24.95 per month per user and you get additional features like a desktop app, call recording, enhanced call blocking, caller info match, and more.

4. Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a top virtual phone service for small businesses that’s affordable and packed with valuable features.

Using Grasshopper, you can get a toll-free number, a local number, a vanity number, and transfer users to an existing virtual number easily. The cloud-based phone service offers a desktop and mobile phone app, so you can take calls and respond to messages from anywhere.

Other than that, you can set up custom greetings to welcome callers and ensure that you never miss a call by routing customers to another phone or team member. The service also offers virtual fax, voicemail, incoming call controls, analytics, and more.

The only downside is that Grasshopper is only available in the USA and Canada. That said, you get a 7-day free trial with 3 premium plans.

• Solo – It will cost you $26 per month. You get to choose 1 phone number and 3 extensions.
• Partner – This plan costs $44 per month and offers up to 3 types of phone numbers and 6 extensions.
• Small Business – You can use unlimited extensions and up to 5 phone numbers for $80 per month.

5. Phone.com

Phone.com is a versatile virtual phone service that’s great for small businesses and startups. It offers affordable pricing plans and lets you mix and match plans based on your business needs.

The VoIP service offers business mobile and desktop apps so that you can handle customer support from an office or on the move.

With Phone.com, you get additional functionality like audio conferencing, call analytics, call recording and screening, call forwarding, text messaging, fax-from-phone option, and much more.

Phone.com offers 3 pricing plans with a monthly billing cycle, and you can combine these plans according to what you need. Plus, each plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• Basic Users – Starting from $10.39 per month per user, you get 300 minutes and 1000 text messages. It also includes video conferencing up to 10 participants, document sharing, fax from phone feature, and more.
• Plus Users – It will cost you $15.99 per month per user and includes everything in the basic user package along with unlimited minutes and business text messages.
• Pro Users – This plan will cost you $23.99 per month per user, and you get all the features that Phone.com has to offer. Plus, you get advanced call management features like call recording, call analytics, and CRM integrations.

6. AT&T

AT&T is one of the largest wireless carriers in the United States, and it offers unlimited domestic mobile data usage, talk minutes, and text messages. It’s a great alternative to VoIP business cell phone plans and you get exceptional call quality.

With AT&T, you get no roaming charges along with unlimited talk time and instant messaging for Mexico and Canada. There are also shared data plans where you can make the data shareable for up to 25 phones, tablets, and other devices.

There is also an international addon that lets you make calls and send messages to over 210 countries. Each mobile plan also comes with 5G and 5G+ access, so you won’t worry about slow internet speeds.

Other than that, AT&T offers a video streaming feature, but the video quality will depend on your plan. It also offers powerful security measures to protect your business. For instance, you get spam and fraud call blocking, identity monitoring, safe browsing, and more.

There are the 3 business cell phone plans offered by AT&T, and you get to choose up to 10 lines per plan. However, the prices go down if you select 6 to 10 lines per plan. Also if you exceed the data limit, then your internet speeds are slowed down to 128 Kbps.

We’ll show you prices for 6 – 10 lines.

• Business Unlimited Starter – Priced at $30 per month per line, you get basic security features, 5G/5G+, standard definition video streaming quality, 5GB mobile hotspot data per line, and more.
• Business Unlimited Performance – It will cost $35 per month per line, and you get HD video streaming, 40GB of mobile hotspot data per line, and advanced security features.
• Business Unlimited Elite – This plan is for $40 per month per line. It offers advanced security features, business fast track, HD and 4K video streaming, and 100GB of mobile hotspot data per line.

7. Verizon

Verizon is another wireless carrier that you can use for your business cell phone needs. It also offers some of the best cell phone plans and features like unlimited calling, texting, and data plans within the US.

With Verizon, you get extended high-speed data coverage across the USA and selected international countries. It even offers flexible plans for adding unlimited data for tablets. However, you’ll need compatible devices and ensure that 5G coverage is available in your area.

Besides, the wireless carrier offers different security measures. For instance, you can use its call filter to block spam, protect your device against phishing and web risks, Wi-Fi protection notice, and more.

Verizon offers 3 different pricing plans, and you can choose the number of lines you require. The more lines you add, the lower will be the overall prices.

• Business Unlimited Start 2.0 – It will cost you $30 per line per month, and you get unlimited talk, text, and data. It also includes 5G/4G LTE, an unlimited mobile hotspot, and a call filter spam blocker. You can also save $5 per month for paper-free billing and autopay.
• Business Unlimited Plus 2.0 – You can select this plan for $35 per line per month. It includes a 5G ultra-wideband, 100GB of data, and more security features.
• Business Unlimited Pro 2.0 – This unlimited plan is priced at $45 per line per month. In addition to everything in Start and Plus plan, you get unlimited premium network access and more perks. Since you get unlimited data, there are no overage charges.

8. Google Voice

Google Voice is the last business cell phone plan on our list, and it’s a virtual phone service that you can use for your business. With Google Voice, you can work from anywhere, as it works on your mobile device, laptop, and supported desktop phones.

Google Voice also offers ease of use with a simple interface that helps manage your workflows, assignments, and billing from a single platform.

Currently, the cell phone service is only available in the US. However, you get free calling to the US from any country, free calling to Canada from the US and unlimited SMS in the US.

A few other features offered by Google Voice include spam call blocks, voicemail transcriptions, and integration with Google Workspace. You can easily use Google Voice with Google Meet and Calendar.

You can choose from 3 monthly plans for Google Voice.

• Starter – It will cost you $10 per user per month, and up to 10 users can use the service in 10 domestic locations. However, you cannot use Google Voice internationally if you use this plan.
• Standard – You can get this plan for $20 per user per month. It includes an unlimited number of users and domestic locations along with all the basic features. You also get auto attendant, Ring Groups, desk phone support, and eDiscovery for calls, voicemails, and SMS records.
• Premier – Priced at $30 per user per month, this plan offers unlimited users, domestic and international locations, and advanced features like advanced reporting.

Which Small Business Cell Phone Plan is the Best?

If you’re looking for a VoIP business phone service that offers lots of flexibility and features, then we recommend Nextiva.

It’s simple to use, and you can stay connected with your customers and team from anywhere. Plus, it offers mobile, desktop, and tablet apps, so you handle calls, take meetings, organize workflows, and provide a great customer experience while on the go.

RingCentral and Ooma are great alternatives for Nextiva, and they round out the top 3 providers in our list.

On the other hand, if you want to use a traditional wireless carrier, then you can consider using AT&T. It offers unlimited text, talk, and data, along with an addon to include international calling and messaging. Plus, if you’re an Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy phone user, then are no limits to 5G wireless service when using traditional carriers.

We hope that this article helped you find the best small business cell phone plans. You may also want to see our comparison of the best email marketing services and best push notification software for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 8 Best Small Business Cell Phone Plans for 2022 (with Free Option) first appeared on WPBeginner.

May 20, 2022 at 04:00PM

How to Add a Blog Post Checklist to the WordPress Editor

Do you want to add a blog checklist to the WordPress editor?

A checklist can help you to make your posts the best they can possibly be. If you’ve added multiple authors to your site, then a checklist can also help everyone write in the same style and remember all the details.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add a blog post checklist to the WordPress editor.

Why Add a Blog Post Checklist to the WordPress Editor

Writing a good blog post for your WordPress website is only the first step.

Once you’ve finished writing, you’ll want to edit, proofread, add categories and tags, optimize the post for search engines, and more.

This is where a checklist can help. Checklists show a list of tasks you need to do before publishing your post, such as adding internal links or alt text.

Some WordPress plugins such as AIOSEO use checklists to help site owners with search engine optimization.

Checklists typically monitor your post as you’re writing and then check off each task as you finish it. This makes it easy to see what you’ve done well, and what you still need to work on.

But what if you wanted to create your own custom checklist in WordPress?

Perhaps you have a multi-author blog where you want to ensure a certain quality standard for your content. That’s where checklists come in handy.

With that in mind, let’s see how you can add a blog post checklist to the WordPress editor.

How to Add a Blog Post Checklist to the WordPress Editor

The easiest way to add a blog post checklist to the WordPress editor is by using PublishPress Checklists. This plugin adds a checklist to the right-hand menu of the WordPress editor.

PublishPress has a list of default tasks that you can add to your checklists. It also lets you create custom checklist tasks for your WordPress blog.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the plugin. If you need more instructions, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to Checklists » Settings.

Here you can choose where WordPress will show your checklist. To add a blog checklist to the WordPress editor, you’ll want to check the ‘Posts’ checkbox.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

You can then build your checklist by going to Checklists » Checklists.

Here you’ll see all of the default tasks that you can add to your blog post checklist. PublishPress is able to detect when these tasks are completed and check them off for you.

All these tasks are disabled by default.

To add a task to your blog post checklist, simply open the ‘Disabled, Recommended or Required’ dropdown menu.

You can now choose between ‘Required’ or ‘Recommended.’

If you click on ‘Required,’ then authors won’t be able to publish their blog post without checking off this task first.

If the user clicks on the ‘Publish’ button without completing all ‘Required’ tasks, then WordPress will show a ‘Please complete the following tasks before publishing’ message.

If you choose ‘Recommended’ instead, then the editor will show a message encouraging authors to complete any outstanding ‘Recommended’ tasks before publishing.

However, authors will be able to publish their post without completing these tasks.

After choosing between ‘Recommended’ and ‘Required,’ you can move onto ‘Who can ignore the task?’

Here, you can let certain user roles publish a post without completing the task, even if that task is ‘Required.’ For example, you may trust your site’s admins or editors to skip this task if they think it’s for the best.

To add a user role to your ‘ignore’ list, click on the ‘Who can ignore the task?’ box.

This opens a dropdown showing all of the different user roles on your site.

You can now simply click on a role to add those users to your ‘ignore’ list.

For some tasks, you may need to set a maximum and minimum value. For example, you can set a minimum number of categories that authors must add to a post. To learn more, please see our guide on how to add categories and subcategories in WordPress.

If the task has a ‘Min’ and ‘Max’ section, then you can type in the numbers you want to use.

To add more tasks to your checklist simply repeat the process described above.

You can also add custom tasks to your blog post checklist.

The drawback is that PublishPress can’t check whether the author has completed custom tasks. This means the author will need to do this check manually.

For more information about custom tasks you may want to add, please see our guide on how to optimize your blog posts for SEO like a pro.

To create a custom task, simply scroll to the very bottom of your screen and then click on ‘Add custom task.’

This adds a new task ready for you to customize.

To start, type the task’s name into the ‘Enter name of custom task’ field. This text will be shown in your checklist, so make sure it lets authors know exactly what they need to do.

You can now make this task ‘Recommended’ or ‘Required,’ and give some users the option to ignore this task by following the process described above.

For custom tasks, you can specify the users who can mark this task as a complete. For example, you might use custom tasks to create a special ‘Editing’ checklist for users who have the Editor role.

To do this, click on the ‘Which roles can mark this task as complete’ box. This opens a dropdown where you can click to select any of your user roles.

Once you’ve added all the tasks to your checklist, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button. Now, you can visit the WordPress editor to see your blog post checklist live.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a blog checklist to the WordPress editor. You may also want to check out our guide on how to create an email newsletter, and our expert pick of the best WordPress SEO plugins and tools you should use to improve your rankings.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add a Blog Post Checklist to the WordPress Editor first appeared on WPBeginner.

May 19, 2022 at 04:00PM

How to Accept Google Pay in WordPress (The Easy Way)

Would you like to accept Google Pay on your WordPress site?

When you allow your customers to choose their preferred payment method, you’ll build trust and increase conversions on your website.

In this article, we’ll show you how to accept Google Pay in WordPress.

Why Accept Google Pay in WordPress?

If you’re selling products or services on your WordPress website or asking for donations, then it’s important to let your visitors pay using their preferred method.

Often they will want to pay by credit card or PayPal, but newer methods like Google Pay and Apple Pay are becoming more popular.

Google Pay is available in 40 countries around the world and makes online payments simple. However, your customers can only use it if they’re on an Android device running version Lollipop 5.0 or higher, so you’ll probably want to include additional payment options for people using other devices.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to accept Google Pay in your online store.

Note: We’ll cover how to add a Google Pay option in WordPress without adding a full eCommerce cart, but we will leave other helpful resources at the end of this article for those looking for full eCommerce solutions.

How to Accept Google Pay in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Simple Pay plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WP Simple Pay is a simple yet powerful WordPress invoicing and payments plugin. The best part is that WP Simple Pay does not charge you any additional transaction fees, and you can set it up without the complexity of a cart system.

It lets you add Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit card as well as ACH bank payments, so you can give users multiple payment options which improves conversion.

While there is a free version of the plugin, you need the Pro plugin to accept Google Pay, create on-site payment forms, and more.

Upon activation, the WP Simple Pay setup wizard will start automatically. You simply need to click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button to continue.

On the first page, you’ll be asked to enter your license key. You can find this information from your account on the WP Simple Pay website.

After that, you need to click the ‘Activate and Continue’ button to move to the next step.

On the second page, you will need to connect WP Simple Pay to Stripe. Stripe is a popular payment gateway, and it’s the easiest way to add Google Pay to your website. It also supports all top credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, ACH payments, and more.

Simply click the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button, and from there you can log in to your Stripe account or create a new one. Anyone with a legitimate business can create a Stripe account and accept payments online.

Note: Stripe requires your site to be using SSL/HTTPS encryption. If you don’t already have an SSL certificate for your website, then please see our step by step guide on how to add SSL in WordPress.

Once you’ve connected to Stripe, you’ll be asked to configure your WP Simple Pay emails.

The options for payment and invoice emails to your customers have already been enabled for you. So is the option for sending payment notification emails.

You just need to enter the email address where the notifications should be sent.

Once you’ve done that, you need to click the ‘Save and Continue’ button to complete your setup of WP Simple Pay.

Google Pay is enabled by default when using Stripe Checkout, and will be automatically offered to Android users in participating countries.

If you decide to disable Google Pay in the future, then you will need to change the payment method settings in the Stripe Dashboard.

Creating a Payment Form in WordPress

Next, you need to create a payment form.

You can do that by clicking the ‘Create a Payment Form’ button on the last page of the setup wizard.

This will automatically take you to the WP Simple Pay » Add New page.

You’ll be shown a list of payment form templates. You need to scroll down until you locate the Apple Pay / Google Pay template.

Simply hover over the template and click the ‘Use Template’ button when it appears.

This will take you to the payment form editor.

If you like, you can rename the form and give it a description.

After that, you need to select the ‘Stripe Checkout’ option under Form Type.

After you’ve done that, we’ll move on to the Payment tab.

Here you can set the payment mode to either live or testing. Testing mode will let you make payments that are not actually charged so you can make sure your form is working properly and emails are being sent.

Don’t forget to change this to ‘Live’ when you’ve finished testing and are ready to start receiving payments from your customers.

You can also add the products or services that you offer, along with their prices and whether they are a one-time payment or a subscription.

Simply click the ‘Add Price’ button until you have added as many prices as you need. After that, you will need to add a label and price for each one. You can also select other options, such as recurring payments, or the user can determine the price, as in a donation.

You can show or hide a price by clicking the small arrow on the right.

Next, we’ll move on to the ‘Form Fields’ tab. Notice that the essential fields have already been added to the form, including an ‘Apple Pay / Google Pay’ button, credit card details, and a checkout button.

Using the ‘Form Fields’ drop down, you can choose additional fields and add them by clicking the ‘Add Field’ button. Options include name, phone number, address, and much more.

Finally, the ‘Stripe Checkout’ tab allows you to select additional payment methods and tweak the checkout form that is displayed after the user clicks the ‘Pay’ button.

For this tutorial, we’ll leave those settings as they are.

When you are happy with your payment form, click on the ‘Publish’ button to store your settings and push the form live.

Now we can add the form to a post or page on your website.

Adding the Payment Form to Your Website

WP Simple Pay makes it super easy to add forms anywhere on your website.

Simply create a new post or page, or edit an existing one. Then, click on the plus (+) sign at the top and add a WP Simple Pay block in the WordPress block editor.

After that, select your order form from the dropdown menu in the WP Simple Pay block.

Once you’re finished, you can update or publish the post or page, and then click on the preview button to see your form in action.

When your users click the Pay button, the Stripe checkout form will be displayed.

If they are using an Android device running Lollipop 5.0 or higher, then the Google Pay option will be displayed at the top of the form. Otherwise, the Google Pay option will be hidden, and your customers can pay using a credit card.

If you’re looking for other ways to add Google Pay in WordPress, then you can use full eCommerce solutions like Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce. Both of them have support for Apple Pay and Google Pay options.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to accept Google Pay in WordPress. You may also want to learn the right way to create an email newsletter, or check out our expert pick of the best contact form plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Accept Google Pay in WordPress (The Easy Way) first appeared on WPBeginner.

May 18, 2022 at 04:00PM