AI Indexes
IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › IT operations and endpoint › Business phones › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Business phone systems for small business buyers

Asked as “business phone system”, and as “UCaaS platform”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 58 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each. Added to the September 2026 Edition; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
31%
Contested · RingCentral 21%
31Nextiva21RingCentral14Zoom Phone34others

31% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Nextiva31%4%51endorsed leader
02RingCentral21%14%42accepted challenger
03Zoom Phone14%8%39accepted challenger
04Google Voice Lab in the set7%25%28criticized challenger
05Grasshopper3%6%31accepted challenger
06Dialpad2%3%32accepted challenger
07Ooma Office2%0%22accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
118x80%33%15criticized challenger
10Vonage0%17%12accepted challenger
09Quo0%8%13accepted challenger
08Microsoft Teams Phone0%0%14accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Google Voice is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models four times of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
M08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Nextiva31%
02RingCentral21%
03Zoom Phone14%
04Google Voice7%
05Grasshopper3%
06Dialpad2%
07Ooma Office2%
08Microsoft Teams Phone0%
09Quo0%
10Vonage0%
118x80%

What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Google Voice
25%
7 of 28 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid Basic Google Voice (Personal) for Business Use: While affordable, Google Voice (personal version) lacks advanced features” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Avaya
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“I recommend avoiding legacy vendors (like Avaya or NEC) unless you have a managed services partner.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, scale prompt
RingCentral
14%
6 of 42 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Providers to Strongly Avoid or Be Very Cautious About: 1. **RingCentral (now RingCentral MVP or RingEX)**: - **Why avoid/caution**: Tops complaint lists for small businesses.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
8x8
33%
5 of 15 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Labeled "TERRIBLE" in sysadmin/Reddit feedback for glitchy apps, unreliable APIs/contact center flows, shockingly bad support” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

72 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 988 links across 212 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Nextiva43 answers · 74 citations · 13 models
vendor site · CloudTalk37 answers · 63 citations · 11 models
28 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Quo25 answers · 28 citations · 12 models
23 answers · 30 citations · 11 models
vendor site · KrispCall23 answers · 30 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Dialpad23 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
21 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
20 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
19 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 23 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best business phone system”, “business phone system”, “business phone systems”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Nextiva nextiva.com
Nextiva 31%, Nextiva Core 2%
33%12033,100833267,281$1,1991187
RingCentral ringcentral.com
RingCentral 21%, RingCentral RingEX 5%, RingCentral MVP 3%
29%165110,0003,4199,737,061$3,711120
Zoom Phone zoom.com14%11312,1003,2732,795,648$4,06447
Google Cloud parent site
Google Voice 7%
7%431,500,00022,591
Grasshopper grasshopper.com3%41201,00021,740659,964118
CloudTalk cloudtalk.io3%132,9006295,515$1,909119
Aircall aircall.io3%1514,8002426,179,781$286102
Dialpad dialpad.com2%8540,5009056,588,510$1,842120
Ooma Office ooma.com2%358,100862,744,276$1471203
Phone.com2%2,40091

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (business.com, getvoip.com, nextiva.com). The first result for “best business phone system” is getvoip.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best business phone system for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which UCaaS platform would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top business phone systems for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best business phone system for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a business phone system. What should we look at?”Negative“Which business phone systems should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceNextivaChanged
Two alternativesGoTo Connect, RingCentral
CloudTalk
Five alternativesDialpad, Grasshopper, Nextiva, Quo, Zoom Phone
Google Voice
Five alternativesGrasshopper, JivoSite, Ooma Office, RingCentral, Vonage
no first choiceagainst: Avaya, Dialpad, Google Voice, Grasshopper, KSU (Key Service Unit) systems, Mitel, RingCentral's Core Plan
GPT-5.4 miniNextiva
Four alternativesDialpad, Grasshopper, RingCentral, Zoom Phone
Nextiva, RingCentralChanged
One alternativeDialpad
Nextiva, RingCentral
Four alternativesDialpad, Google Voice, Grasshopper, Zoom Phone
Grasshopper
Two alternativesGoogle Voice, Nextiva
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashAircall
Four alternativesCloudTalk, Dialpad, Nextiva, Quo
DialpadChanged
Three alternativesMicrosoft Teams Phone, RingCentral RingEX, Zoom Workplace
Quo
Three alternativesDialpad, Grasshopper, Nextiva
against: RingCentral
Zoom Phone
Four alternativesGoogle Voice for Workspace, Grasshopper, Quo, VoIP.ms
Nextiva
Five alternativesDialpad, Microsoft Teams Phone, Quo, RingCentral, Zoom Phone
against: Asterisk, FreePBX, Skype
Perplexity SonarRingCentral
Four alternativesCloudTalk, Dialpad, Google Voice, Grasshopper
RingCentralHeld
One alternativeNextiva
Quo/OpenPhone
Seven alternatives8x8, Dialpad, GoTo Connect, Grasshopper, Nextiva, Ooma Office, RingCentral
Ooma Office
Three alternativesDialpad, Grasshopper, Nextiva
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastNextiva
Two alternativesRingCentral, Zoom Phone
against: Google Voice
NextivaHeld
One alternativeMicrosoft Teams Phone
against: RingCentral, Zoom Phone
Nextiva
Four alternatives8x8, Ooma Office, RingCentral, Zoom Phone
Nextiva Core
Four alternativesDialpad, Google Voice, Ooma Office, Zoom Phone
Nextiva
Six alternativesDialpad, GoTo Connect, Ooma, RingCentral, Vonage, Zoom Phone
against: 8x8, RingCentral, Vonage Business Communications
Mistral SmallCloudTalk, RingCentral RingEX
Two alternativesNextiva, Phone.com
no first choiceChangedNextiva
Five alternativesGoogle Voice, Grasshopper, Quo, RingCentral, Zoom Phone
Ooma
One alternativePhone.com
no first choiceagainst: Avaya, Ciscoagainst: Phone.com, Vonage Business Phone Systems
DeepSeek V4 FlashNextiva
Five alternativesAircall, Dialpad, Ooma Office, OpenPhone, RingCentral
against: JustCall
RingCentralChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Teams Phone, Nextiva
against: 8x8, Zoom Phone
OpenPhone
Six alternativesDialpad, Google Voice, Grasshopper, Nextiva, Ooma Office, RingCentral
Zoom Phone
Three alternatives8x8, Google Voice, Ooma Office
Nextiva, RingCentral
Two alternativesDialpad, Zoom Phone
against: Google Voice
against: 8x8, Avaya, Google Voice, MagicJack for Business, NEC, Nextiva, Panasonic KX-NS series, RingCentral, Skype for Business, Toshiba, Vonage
Llama 4 MaverickCloudTalk
One alternative8x8
NextivaChangedQuo
Three alternatives8x8, Google Voice, Nextiva
Zoom Phone
Two alternativesGrasshopper, Nextiva
no first choiceagainst: 8x8
Qwen 3.7 FlashRingCentral, Zoom Phone
Three alternativesGrasshopper, Microsoft Teams Phone, Nextiva
AircallChanged
Two alternativesKrispCall, Nextiva
Nextiva, RingCentral
Three alternativesGrasshopper, Microsoft Teams Phone, Zoom Phone
RingCentral MVP
Three alternativesGrasshopper, Microsoft Teams Phone, Nextiva Core
RingCentral
Three alternativesNextiva, Vonage, Zoom Phone
against: Avaya, NEC
against: Google Voice
Kimi K2Nextiva, RingCentral
Two alternativesGrasshopper, Zoom Phone
Nextiva, RingCentral MVPChanged
Three alternativesDialpad, Microsoft Teams Phone, Zoom Phone
Nextiva
Six alternativesDialpad, Google Voice for Business, Grasshopper, Ooma Office, OpenPhone, RingCentral
Google Voice, Zoom Phone
Two alternativesOoma Office, Phone.com
Nextiva
Five alternativesAircall, CloudTalk, GoTo Connect, RingCentral, Zoom Phone
against: Google Voice
against: 3CX, 8x8, FreePBX, Quo, RingCentral, SpectrumVoIP
GLM 4.7 FlashXNextiva, RingCentral RingEX
Five alternativesDialpad, Google Voice, Grasshopper, Ooma Office, Zoom Phone
RingCentralChanged
Two alternatives8×8, Zoom Phone
Nextiva
Seven alternatives8×8, Dialpad, Google Voice, Grasshopper, Ooma, RingCentral, Zoom Phone
Google Voice, Grasshopper
Three alternativesNextiva, Ooma Office, OpenPhone
no first choiceagainst: Vonage for Home
MiniMax M2.5Nextiva, RingCentral
Three alternatives8x8, Ooma Office, Vonage
NextivaChanged
Four alternativesGoTo Connect, Microsoft Teams Phone, Ooma, Zoom One
Nextiva
Five alternativesGrasshopper, Ooma Office, Quo, RingCentral, Vonage
Google Voice, Nextiva
Two alternativesGrasshopper, Phone.com
RingCentral
Two alternativesNextiva, Zoom Phone
against: Avaya, Biz Phone, Grandstream, Intertel, NEC, Nexogy, Nextiva, Nortel, Ooma, RingCentral, Samsung, ShoreTel, Star to Star, Toshiba CTX, Verizon Business Phone, Vonage
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:20no05 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:38yes44 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:40yes1924 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:26yes183 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:37yes228 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:35yes158 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:22yes2229 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:31yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:31no023 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:22yes1038 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:36yes1030 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:42no06 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:41yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:17yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:20yes1129 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:37yes332 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:27yes2211 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:31no02 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:35yes2220 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:35yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:31yes828 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:25yes1418 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:26yes2429 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:39yes1222 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:27yes109 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:30yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:37yes1825 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:23yes185 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:39yes209 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:18yes911 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:20yes1835 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:26yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:17no022 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:36yes1432 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:25yes1341 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:28yes922 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:18no05 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:29yes23 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:24yes2223 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:42yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:35yes2412 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:32yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:30yes2524 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:35yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:41no024 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:17yes1521 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:31yes1429 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:37yes726 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:19no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:21no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:21yes1428 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:29yes154 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:21yes159 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:22no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:19yes1729 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:32yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:19no023 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:37yes1347 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:18yes1823 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:38yes514 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:32yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:39yes55 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:42yes2127 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:18yes184 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:33yes2414 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:27yes157 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:41yes2538 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:27yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:24yes1526 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:35yes2444 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:32yes2328 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:22yes1862 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Microsoft Teams Phone System read as Microsoft Teams Phone
Unresolved, counted raw
Biz Phone
CallCentric
Google Voice for Business
Google Voice for Google Workspace
Grandstream
Intertel
JivoSite
KSU (Key Service Unit) systems
Line2
MagicJack for Business
Nexogy
Nortel
Ooma Office Phone
Panasonic KX-NS series
Poly
RingCentral's Core Plan
Samsung (except DCS / Prostar)
Sideline
SpectrumVoIP
Star to Star
Telzio
Toshiba CTX (28, 100, 670)
Vocalink
Vonage Business Phone Systems
Vonage for Home
Yealink
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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