Alliance Phones Reviews

Alliance Phones

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Alliance Phones Review by WhichVoIP

Alliance Phones provide hosted VoIP phone service to small and medium sized businesses and are located just 5 minutes from San Francisco Airport in California. They are a relatively new comer to the business phone service market but have based their service around their own technology and proprietary platform. Having your own platform makes troubleshooting easier and the ability to perform upgrades and maintenance on your own schedule.

The Good

There is basically one calling plan but with pricing tiers based on the number of users. There are three (3) pricing tiers, with the highest cost being for the 1 to 3 user base and the lowest rate for the 21+ user base. The plan includes unlimited calling in the USA and Canada. There are no initial setup fees and service is month to month so no long term contracts are required.

Along with the standard PBX call management features and voicemail, they support various integrations (Microsoft Outlook, Filemaker, SugarCRM), have call recording capabilities and call logs, as well as the message/music on hold, auto-attendant and extension features.

You can sign up for a free demo of their service. You get a free temporary number and unlimited calling for 30 days. You can also provide feedback to them at the end.

A selection of IP phones can be bought directly from Alliance Phones at a rate of 30% off. The choices include 2 line, 3 line, 4 line and 5 line IP phones from Cisco and Polycom. They also have a conference phone, the Polycom IP6000 model. All the phones come pre-configured so you only need to plug them in to use them. This does save a little hassle with configuring each one yourself if you are buying many.

Customer service is USA based and available Monday through Friday between 7am and 7pm PST and on Saturdays between 8am to 1pm PST. You can phone support directly or email them. They also have a live chat option on their website.

The Bad

Their support page suggests that they are currently developing their own softphone but currently they recommend a 3rd party software called "X-Lite". This is not available for Android devices currently but is available for Apple iPhone/iPad and desktops.

There is very little knowledgebase support on their website except for some instructions on installing the X-Lite softphone application. This means that for even small issues you will need to contact them via phone, email or their live chat option. This may only be an issue for more technical savvy users who like to troubleshoot some stuff on their own before calling in to support.

There is no metered plan option. Not necessarily a bad thing as having a flat rate fee service can be easier for a business with a known monthly expense.

A fair use policy is included in the terms of service but no fixed limit is provided for number of minutes. It is based on calling patterns (inbound/outbound) when compared to other customer's average usage. This is to stop users trying to game the system by using this service for autodialing and call center type scenarios.

A disconnection fee of $50 will be charged if you terminate your service 45 days after and within one year of service activation.

The Bottom Line

  • Easy Plus Plan: For 1-3 users this plan is $29.97 per user per month and is the most expensive.
  • Simplicity Plus Plan: for 4-20 users and is $24.97 per user per month.
  • Effortless Plan: This is for 21+ users and the cost reduces to $19.97 per user per month which is their lowest rate.
  • Additional Fees: There is a $50 disconnection fee if you terminate your service after 45 days and within 1 year of activation. Additional local numbers and toll-free numbers are $5/month each. If you want to port your existing number then a onetime fee of $15 is charged per number and they estimate it will take 7-12 days. International calls are charged at their current per minute rates which can be found on their website. Shipping, handling and taxes may apply.

Overall Thoughts

Even though Alliance Phones are quite new to the market they do have one main focus and that is providing business phone service. This is shown in the simplicity of their available single plan. Tiered pricing is similar to other providers out there today so not a lot of differentiation there but some larger more established providers are ahead of them with features and available options. If you are looking for a simple business phone service and prefer working with smaller businesses or are in California and have a preference for working with a local company then they are worth considering.

Click on the link below to find out what some of their customers are saying by reading the user reviews or click on the company logo in the right column to visit their website for more information.

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