Many companies provide virtual phone systems to people across the world. Such services are associated with cloud computing. These phone services are very beneficial to call worldwide.
Google Voice and Grasshopper are two such virtual phone systems that facilitate users in many ways. Both provide specific facilities in particular countries.
Key Takeaways
- Google Voice is free to use, while Grasshopper requires a subscription fee.
- Google Voice has more features than Grasshopper, such as voicemail transcription and integration with other Google services.
- Grasshopper is more business-oriented than Google Voice, offering virtual phone numbers and call routing features.
Google Voice vs Grasshopper
Google Voice, which was introduced by Google in 2009, is a telephony service that enables users to make and receive calls and messages through a sole phone number and utilizes a prepaid billing system. Grasshopper is a virtual phone system that allows businesses to have multiple phone numbers and extensions.
Google Voice is a telephonic service offered by Google in the US. It facilitates the user to have a phone number for a Google account.
Google Voice service comes under the jurisdiction of Google LLC. Google provides this service in Canada, Denmark, Portugal, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, etc. It supports multiple platforms such as Android and iOS.
Grasshopper is considered to be a phone service based on small businesses. This service has been admitted by users to be way better than mobile and landline services.
An application is provided by Grasshopper to its users so that they can make calls like many other telephonic systems. It also provides a business number for the consumers.
Comparison Table
| Parameters Of Comparison | Google Voice | Grasshopper |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Google Voice is a virtual phone system offered to users across many countries by Google LLC. | Grasshopper is also a virtual phone system offered to users worldwide by Citrix Systems. |
| Free version | Google voice provides a free version for the users to get a hint of features. | There is no facility such as a free version offered by Grasshopper to the consumers. |
| Simplicity | Google Voice is a bit complex to be operated by an individual because it provides many features. | Grasshopper is known to be a user-friendly service that comes with an easily operated interface. |
| Call forwarding | Google Voice doesn’t offer a call forwarding feature to its user which is kind of necessary in some cases. | Grasshopper has extra professional levels and it does offer a call forwarding feature to the users. |
| Phone number | When it comes to purchasing a Google Voice subscription, a person has unlimited choices to choose from. | Grasshopper is a phone service that provides a maximum of 5 Phone numbers per user to avoid unnecessary problems. |
What is Google Voice?
Google Voice is one of the major parts of Google Workspace that provides a telephone number to the users. This number can be used to make calls, send text messages, and voicemail, just like an ordinary phone number.
The user has to pay for buying the subscription of voice which can vary from country to country depending on various factors.
Google voice can make international calls as well as domestic. There is a web portal that is given in Voice for the configuration of the calls. Google Voice is a web-based service that maintains the calling logs.
The PC to phone calling feature of Google Voice is only available in the United States and Canada while PC to PC is worldwide.
When a person makes an international call, it is charged based on the schedule available on the Google Voice website.
There are many noticeable features Google Voice offers to its users such as call screening, voice transcription to a voicemail message. Blocking, free massaging, voicemail, etc.
Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet founded GrandCentral in 2005 which was later purchased by Google. After making many modifications, Google launched it with the new name Voice.
The fundamental function was similar to GrandCentral and Google also added many new features as well.
What is Grasshopper?
Grasshopper helps its consumers to attend calls in a professional manner by its mobile functionality. For this reason, Grasshopper is considered to be a business phone service that is entirely based on VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).
VoIP Services are very beneficial providing multiple types of facilities such as no limitations over the use of devices, which means a business owner can make and receive calls from any device, it also helps to receive faxes.
To use all these features a person is required to sign up in Grasshopper.
Some of the prime features of Grasshopper are simple and easy to operate setup and interface, convenient mobile functionality, etc.
But some users also reported facing problems related to audio quality and voicemail transcription lacking in many ways. By setting up VoIP Services on Grasshopper, a person can forward calls to any device and have a toll-free number.
By having Grasshopper services, a person does not have to buy a business-oriented smartphone or stick to the desktop phone. Grasshopper allows making calls from anywhere to anywhere.
People like to choose Grasshopper over other similar services because it provides many facilities. A person can choose a number for himself from vanity numbers, toll-free numbers, local numbers, based on the plan he paid for.
Main Differences Between Google Voice and Grasshopper
- Google Voice lacks the feature known as call screening. On the other hand, Grasshopper provides call screening features to the users.
- Google Voice is for every person and is very affordable when it comes to buying plans. While Grasshopper can be a bit more expensive than Voice.
- Google Voice comes with the video conferencing facility included in the plan. On the other hand, Grasshopper does not provide video conferencing.
- The user of Google Voice is able to record an ongoing call. Grasshopper, on the other hand, does not offer a call recording feature.
- Google Voice is used for domestic purposes and connecting to friends and family. While Grasshopper is used for business calls.
- https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ887127
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965997816305646
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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Sandeep Bhandari holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computers from Thapar University (2006). He has 20 years of experience in the technology field. He has a keen interest in various technical fields, including database systems, computer networks, and programming. You can read more about him on his bio page.
