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Astound Hosted Voice vs Grasshopper comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Astound Hosted Voice
Ranking in Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
8th
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Grasshopper
Ranking in Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP category, the mindshare of Astound Hosted Voice is 2.5%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Grasshopper is 2.5%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
 

Featured Reviews

BF
Admin features make it easy to customize and change, while Voicemail Transcription is fast and accurate
The most valuable feature is the admin platform that we work with. It allows us a very centralized approach for doing things and it allows us to manage and control everything right from the very top. We could do that before, but the features that we have with RCN seem more extensive than the previous company that we worked with. The Voicemail Transcription is more accurate than what we had with our previous company. Also, and I'm not sure if this is because it's a fiber line, we seem to get the responses and the transcription almost instantaneously, faster than what we had prior. We can do lots of things: We can do call groups, we can do work with our extensions, we can set up our account codes, we can take a look at call logs. There are a multiplicity of miscellaneous settings that are allowed for each user and for the Admin. There's a simplicity to it. It seems they use KISS principle, keep it simple, stupid. It works for everybody because, when I'm not here responding to it, my technicians are; sometimes my network guy is; sometimes our students are interacting with it. It creates a very easy flow for working through the product and the interface. The automatic upgrades are the best thing that ever happened, because we don't see them, we don't feel them, we just know that they happened, after the fact. What they've done, at least for us, is that we haven't had or felt a crash whatsoever, nor have we felt the disruption as a result of the updates. That tells me that work goes into them to get them done right, and that they really test the code and test the information in updates so that they work properly.
it_user662667 - PeerSpot reviewer
One of the features I enjoy the most is the capability in which you can get a number without having a physical office.
One of the features I enjoy the most is the capability in which you can get a number without having a physical office. Our company works virtually. We each have an extension and voicemail. You do not need new hardware. Just download the app to your mobile phone and you are ready. When calling back, you open the app and dial from there. This is a great software for start-ups, virtual offices and small businesses.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"One feature we leverage is that the phones can be programmed with a softbot, where you program it to dial a number. We have Vonage for international calling to reduce costs on international service. I program the Vonage number into that bot on the phone. Users call it, enter a PIN, and they can call anywhere in the world for lower costs."
"This solution is easy... Right now we have a 48-port switch, and at any point, if I want, I can throw in a larger switch, or add an additional switch, and I don't have to call anybody to install it. I can do it myself."
"The solution’s reliability and disaster recovery are amazing. Since their uptime is way over 90 percent, it builds my confidence. Secondly, since it's cloud-based, it's not my problem if the system's down."
"The uptime is excellent. We're always up. We don't have issues. The stability of it is spotless. It's rock solid. Everything works great. There's no need to tinker with it."
"This is what's cool about the RCN setup. RCN allows you to go to any web browser, at any time, and configure the phones... Our disaster recovery is: We log in to an RCN website... and we put in a new phone number for the incoming number. If you dial our number, it will actually go to that other number."
"We haven't had to face any disaster recovery... [But as] a smaller company, it's nice to be able to pay for somebody else to take care of that."
"We like the administrative features RCN has available. It is important that we can balance call loads through programming options, and have full control of our messaging, schedules, etc."
"The most valuable feature is the admin platform that we work with. It allows us a very centralized approach for doing things and it allows us to manage and control everything right from the very top."
"The product gives you a blank canvas in order to create, automate, and solve complex 2D and 3D tasks."
 

Cons

"Wireless needs improvement... We're still looking for the quintessential IP phone, the one phone that will actually be SIP-enabled and use the WiFi and be able to carry through three [different] buildings."
"If they could improve on their response times, making them even faster than they are right now, that would be great."
"In our old system, you just dialed the extension directly, With this system, you have to put a "one" in front of it to trigger it. A lot of clients didn't know that and they'd keep trying to dial the old extension number and would get nowhere... It's been a little confusing."
"One area for improvement is the Web Portal. It's not a full-view screen, it's more like a minimized screen. You don't get the full view of your desktop. It's more like a five-inch by five-inch view. I think they said the software was designed that way. I don't know if there's going to be a newer version coming out later."
"The analytic part of it, the control panel, those are their biggest areas where they have to improve. There are competitors out there where, when you open the control panel, they have tons of analytics, the ability to add lines, to see which people are on the phone.... RCN has a great product, but they could make it outstanding with the right analytics and control panel."
"It should be easier to set up new phone additions to the network."
"If they had better ongoing-training options, for example, if they put something out on YouTube where you could just go and look for individual things that you need by looking at a video, that would be very helpful."
"I use the voicemail transcription feature on my phone and I think all staff members do. We also have voicemails that we receive from our main number and that can be really confusing. It's something that I've recently had some problems with: The way that these calls are bounced around from line to line before they land in a specific voicemail box that we have to check."
"Interoperability with other programs and inability to file share and collaborate within a team or office."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is very fair. They have very good pricing."
"We felt that pricing was fair because we chose RCN over quotes from several companies. It was reasonable..."
"We're okay with the pricing and licensing... It's based on the number of extensions."
"RCN, as part of the deal, leased us phones at a reasonable price and each line was extremely reasonable as well."
"Pricing is great. If you're not careful enough, you might just order too many. For the service, the price is right. When you design it, if you mess up and you realize you really need then more lines, the price is negligible."
"We looked at about five or six other companies but when RCN came in, they beat everybody hands-down, on both the features and on the dollars side. It prompted our people to say they hadn't seen numbers so low for the services you get."
"For us, the monthly price was 38 percent lower. We were paying somewhere between $5,600 and $5,800 every month for voice and data. We got it down to about $4,000 with tax."
"The pricing is fairly fair... We had a really good rep and she did a great job of working out a contract and a pricing solution that was acceptable..."
"It's free."
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Comparisons

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Overview

 

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Find out what your peers are saying about Astound Hosted Voice vs. Grasshopper and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.