Talkroute Reviews 2025: Details, Pricing, & Features
Talkroute is an excellent virtual phone system for businesses of all sizes. Apart from making and receiving calls from your browser, desktop, and smartphone, it also lets you have video conferences with up to 100 participants.
Talkroute also sends you voicemail transcriptions through email and gives you customizable reports, all in an affordable package.
In this Talkroute review, we explore Talkroute’s features to determine whether this virtual phone system is worth investing in.
What We Think of Talkroute
Talkroute is a simple yet capable business phone solution that can run smoothly on any device. Although it handles calls and SMSs well, Talkroute goes beyond these basic functions.
With the ability to set custom greetings, create unlimited extensions, and collaborate on whiteboards during meetings, Talkroute stands out in the crowded market of software phones.
What is Talkroute?
Talkroute is a virtual phone system built to make it easy to manage business communication. Founded in 2013, Talkroute has grown from a small software phone system to a business phone solution used by thousands of businesses.
With many positive reviews from happy customers, Talkroute proves it’s one of the best virtual phone systems for small businesses.
Talkroute Features
Talkroute is an internet phone service for businesses full of remarkable features. Using it will lead to improvements in team collaboration and customer communication.
Here is a breakdown of its best features.
Calling
Being a virtual phone system, Talkroute’s main use is calling. The calling feature includes functionality that you won’t find in a traditional phone system.
From the ability to choose vanity numbers to stacking and transferring calls, there’s a lot you can do with Talkroute.
Phone numbers
Talkroute lets you choose different types of phone numbers for your business. These include local numbers, toll-free numbers, and vanity numbers.
Local numbers help you connect easily with customers in the areas where you do business. With Talkroute, you have over 400 area codes to choose from.
Talkroute is also one of the ways your business can get a toll-free 800 number instantly.
Or if you prefer vanity numbers, combine digits and words to create a custom phone number.
You can combine these numbers to give your business a presence locally and internationally. For instance, you can get a local number for customers in your area and a vanity number for customers from other regions.
Call Forwarding and Routing
Talkroute gives you the ability to forward calls to specific staff or devices. This makes it possible for team members to receive calls at home, on the road, or at the office.
While most phone systems can forward calls to landlines, Talkroute can forward calls to mobile phones, IP phones, and even satellite phones.
If you’re working with a remote team, you’ll be pleased to know that Talkroute can handle remote teams. You can set up your virtual phone system to forward calls to remote staff anywhere in the world.
For more flexibility, you can create call forwarding schedules to determine when each line can receive calls.
You can also set your devices to ring in a specific sequence, decide how long callers can be put on hold, and customize call flows using routing paths.
Live Call Transfer
Another key feature of Talkroute is its live call transfer functionality. This is great for situations where a caller needs to be connected to a specific team member.
To help with this, Talkroute lets you create transfer codes to as many team members or devices as necessary.
You can create transfer codes based on departments and transfer callers to the right team members. Here, you can set rules to ring phones in sequence or ring them all at the same time.
When transferring calls, you can choose from two options. With the blind transfer option, you just dial the appropriate transfer code and the call will be transferred.
If you however prefer to first speak with the person you’re transferring the call to, you’ll use the attended transfer option.
Call Stacking
For those moments when you receive multiple calls at the same time, the call stacking feature will ensure you don’t lose any of them. All incoming calls will stay on hold until you can receive them.
To keep your callers engaged, you can play hold music from the Talkroute library, upload your own, or even play a pre-recorded message about your products.
You can also set the system to automatically route calls to a different number or voice mailbox after a specified duration. This helps prevent your callers from waiting on hold for too long.
Call Recording
Your business may need to record phone conversations for various reasons.
For instance, you may want to find out how your sales reps are speaking with prospects to help them improve their performance. You can also use the recorded conversations to train new reps.
With Talkroute, recording your calls is easy.
You can record either incoming or outgoing calls, or both, and access them from anywhere since they’re saved in the cloud.
For admin or security purposes, you can assign permissions to authorized team members with rights such as viewing and deleting recordings.
Caller ID
Another useful functionality in the calling feature is the customizable caller ID. Normally, outgoing calls display your business phone number. While this is okay, imagine what it would be like if your calls display your business name instead.
This is possible with Talkroute and can help you create a lasting first impression and form a strong connection with prospects and customers.
Text Messaging
According to recent SMS marketing statistics, businesses attribute 11-20% of their revenue to SMS marketing.
To help you maximize the opportunity, Talkroute lets you send and receive business text messages from your phone and desktop apps.
Moreover, with this virtual phone solution, you don’t have to be limited to texting using local numbers only. Talkroute lets you send text messages from your toll-free numbers as well.
You also get notified via email whenever you receive a text message. These notifications don’t just tell you about a new message. They contain the sender’s number and a copy of the message too.
And just as it is with call recordings, you can also set permissions for access to text messages. You can decide who can only view the messages and who can have full access.
Meetings
While Talkroute is primarily a software phone system, it includes a powerful Meetings feature. With this feature, you can have video conferencing with up to 100 participants.
Talkroute lets you chat with meeting participants and share your screen. But unlike many of the best virtual meeting platforms, Talkroute goes beyond the basics to facilitate true collaboration.
During your meetings, you can launch a whiteboard and discuss ideas—complete with annotation features—giving you access to real-time collaboration.
You can also share files during your meetings with relative ease. But if sharing files is a big part of your business operations, you should use one of the best free file-sharing sites.
you need to share huge files
Extensions
Talkroute offers extensions that can be used to get your callers to specific team members. You can use both single-digit and double-digit extensions depending on your business setup.
Single-digit extensions, commonly referred to as menu options, are great for companies with multiple departments.
Double-digit extensions on the other hand are best for when you want to send callers to specific team members. These extensions can be set to ring phones or lead callers to voice mailboxes.
Another way to use extensions is playing automated messages to your callers. These messages can contain important business information that would otherwise have required an employee to provide.
For instance, you can use these to let callers know when they can visit your offices.
Voicemail
You can use the voicemail feature to avoid losing business opportunities. With a sleek interface for desktop and mobile apps, accessing and managing your voicemail messages will be a pleasant experience.
Using extensions, voice mailboxes can be set up for individual team members and departments. This way, anyone with access to the extension can read the messages and respond as needed.
If you’re not in the office, you’ll receive email notifications with details about the caller and a transcript of the message.
Voice Studio
If you want to give your callers a unique experience, you can work with Talkroute’s professional voiceovers.
This service is available as part of the Pro and Enterprise plans. While you can record your own messages, these professionals can help give your business a touch of professionalism and warmth.
Virtual Receptionist
Talkroute understands that achieving business efficiency requires more than using a virtual phone system. This is why they partnered with Smith.ai to provide you with virtual receptionists who can handle all your business-related phone calls.
These virtual receptionists can:
- Make calls: Do you spend time following up with leads, answering customer queries, or collecting payments? These virtual receptionists can handle that for you.
- Answer your calls 24/7: If you want to focus on the business, you can let virtual receptionists answer all your calls. Just specify which calls they should handle and that’s it.
- Handle data entry: When onboarding new customers, lots of data has to be keyed into your CRM. You can engage virtual receptionists to help with this.
- Manage your appointments: You can also get help scheduling appointments with clients and business partners.
Apart from handling phone calls, this Talkroute/Smith.ai partnership provides live agents who can respond to your customers’ chats and social messages.
As a Talkroute customer, you’ll get $100 off your first month of using Smith.ai.
Reporting
For tracking calls and measuring your team’s performance, you’ll need reports.
Talkroute’s reports come with lots of filtering options to help you get exactly what you’re looking for.
You can view call history, trace call paths to see how to improve customer journeys, and even export the reports in CSV format.
Talkroute Pricing
Talkroute has four plans, including a custom plan for enterprises. Here is a quick guide on how to choose the plan that will work best for you.
Basic plan is best for solo entrepreneurs who want unlimited calling using only one number.
Plus plan is best for teams that need unlimited text messaging and the ability to set their hours of operation.
Pro plan is for teams that need features like call recording, call analytics, and multi-digit extensions.
Enterprise plan is for large teams that need service-level agreements and a dedicated account manager.
Talkroute also lets you avoid some limitations by buying add-ons. You can get additional users, phone numbers, or voicemail inboxes by purchasing the relevant add-on for $5 per month.
Ease of Use
Talkroute is designed to be easy to use. Everything from sign-up to setting your preferences is simple.
When creating your account, you’re only required to provide an email address and password. There are no complicated forms asking for date of birth and account recovery details.
For setting your preferences, the settings window is also simple. You can test your audio devices, configure notifications, and set user controls.
Talkroute also works on desktop and mobile platforms. The desktop app is available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. On mobile, you have apps for both iOS and Android smartphones.
Talkroute also integrates with Zapier. This integration can come in handy when creating automated workflows.
Customer Support
Talkroute’s customer support team is active and helpful. They even offer a free setup consultation to help you get started. You can schedule a consultation from their website.
You can also contact customer support via call, chat, and email. Although support through calls and chat is only available during extended working hours, email support is available 24/7.
If you need to troubleshoot an issue quickly, you can visit the help center and search through the published FAQs and tutorials.
Pros and Cons
Below is a list of Talkroute’s pros and cons to help you quickly determine whether it’s suitable for your business.
Talkroute Pros
- Easy to use: Talkroute has a simple interface that’s easy to navigate even if you don’t have experience with virtual phones. But if you need assistance, you can contact customer support or read the tutorials in the help center.
- Excellent customer support: Talkroute’s customer support team is committed to ensuring that you benefit from using the app. You can reach them any time through email and during working hours for calls and chat.
- Advanced features: Talkroute offers advanced functionality including the ability to customize your caller ID and send text messages through toll-free numbers.
- Includes spam blocker: Talkroute knows that businesses receive spam calls. To save you the time and effort of dealing with these, Talkroute has a spam-blocking feature that you can use to keep spammers at bay.
Talkroute Cons
- Can be expensive for some: Although Talkroute is pretty affordable, it might still be costly if you don’t need all its features.
- Lacks faxing functionality: Faxing may sound outdated but businesses in industries such as legal, healthcare, and banking still use them. If you’re one of these businesses looking for an all-in-one solution, Talkroute isn’t for you.
FAQ
Yes, Talkroute is better than a traditional business line because it offers advanced features and flexibility. For instance, you can use Talkroute on mobile devices and create unlimited extensions for routing calls to specific departments and team members.
You can also get professional voiceovers to record greetings and promotional messages that your callers will listen to while waiting for someone to pick up their calls.
Talkroute is safe and reliable and is used by thousands of customers who require secure communications. Calls made over the network are clear and messages are delivered without hitches.
Talkroute is also HIPAA compliant and offers a service-level agreement for enterprise customers. If you need to send sensitive information and want extra security and reliability, you can use one of the best online fax services.
Setting up Talkroute is easy. You however have to ensure you’re not using a VPN or proxy server when signing up.
Talkroute guides you through the setup process and after that, you can visit the settings page to set your preferences.
Yes, you can transfer your existing phone number to Talkroute for free through number porting.
Since you’ll be moving your number to a different provider, check with your current provider to know whether they will charge you for this.
Talkroute is suitable for businesses of all sizes. With an affordable basic plan, small businesses can benefit from this virtual phone system while large businesses enjoy advanced features on the enterprise plan.
Bottomline: Is Talkroute Worth It?
Talkroute is worth it, considering its features and affordability. While some may see its starting price as high, unique features such as Meetings and Voice Studio make it a worthwhile investment.
If you need virtual receptionists to handle your business calls, then the $100 discount on Smith.ai adds to the benefits of being a Talkroute customer.
The discount aside, Talkroute is a feature-filled software-based phone system that lets you handle business calls from anywhere using any device.
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