Nextiva

Plans and pricing

It fits a business where a few people all need to answer the same main number, and where you would rather pay one bill than pay separately for a phone line, a texting tool, and a video service. It is our first pick in phone systems.

This article is part of our resources directory of honest reviews. Our team did the research and checked every number against Nextiva's own pages, we used AI to help organize what needed covering, and every opinion here is ours.

Three plans for small business, priced per user per month. One thing before the numbers: every advertised price is the annual price and requires a 12-month agreement. Everything below is from Nextiva's pricing page as of September 2026.

Core: $15 per user per month annually, $23 month to month. Calls in and out, unlimited calling and video meetings, 100 texts per user per month, team chat, screen and file sharing, call routing, an auto attendant with call menus, voicemail transcription, and the desktop and mobile apps. Not in it: the toll-free number, call recording, live chat, chatbot, Microsoft Teams, and inbound customer texting are all add-ons. You can send texts on Core, but receiving them into a shared team thread costs extra.

Engage: $25 per user per month annually, $50 month to month. Nextiva marks this one most popular. It adds 500 texts per user, a toll-free number with up to 2,000 minutes, customer-to-team texting, live chat and chatbot, call and video recording, online fax, Microsoft Teams, and advanced reporting. The built-in call center is still an add-on here.

Scale: $75 per user per month annually. Unlimited texting, up to 10,000 toll-free minutes, smart call routing, the built-in call center, skills-based routing, supervisor tools, and the AI features most people assume they are buying at $15. More on that below.

Above those sit contact center plans for a room full of agents: Essential from $75 per agent per month, with Professional and Premium quote-only.

The AI receptionist is sold separately. XBert is $99 a month for up to 100 resolutions, meaning calls, texts, or chats, then $0.99 each after. Nextiva counts a conversation once a call passes 30 seconds or a chat draws three AI responses. No contract, and it works on any plan.

What is not in the sticker price, all confirmed on Nextiva's own pages:

• Taxes and regulatory fees are excluded and billed separately. On phone service those are not rounding errors.

• CRM integrations cost extra at every tier. Salesforce, HubSpot, and the rest are an add-on on Core, Engage, and Scale alike.

• International calling is in no base plan.

• The annual price has eligibility rules: new small business customers with 1 to 100 employees signing a paid 12-month or longer term agreement.

• Past about 100 employees it becomes a quote. Nextiva says rates are tiered by team size with volume discounts, but does not publish the brackets.

Two findings in Nextiva's favor. There is no setup fee, and onboarding help is included on all three tiers. There is no free trial either, only a demo with no credit card. A banner offering up to 12 months free was running when we checked, with an asterisk whose terms are not on the page. Ask what it means before you sign.

Why consider it

Your 312 or 773 number comes with you, free. Porting works on all plans, and Nextiva's porting guide states there is "no charge to port your number to Nextiva." Simple ports run 5 to 10 business days, toll-free and complicated ones two to four weeks. You will need a letter of agency and a recent bill matching your carrier's records exactly, your old carrier may charge to release the number, and you keep the old service running until the port completes. That number is on your truck and in your Google listing, and reprinting all of it costs more than a year of Core.

Everyone answers the main number without handing out personal cell numbers. A contractor with two people in the field and one at a desk can have all three phones ring the business line through the app, with the menu catching overflow. No lead dies because the one person who knew the password was on a roof.

The reliability and support claims hold up on their own pages. Nextiva claims 99.999% uptime across eight points of presence, which its own explanation puts at roughly six minutes of unavailability a year. That is their claim, not an audited result. Support is 24/7 by phone, email, and chat on all three tiers, not just the expensive one, and SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are listed for every plan.

Where it falls short

The AI is not on every tier. Voicemail transcription is included on all three plans, and that is the honest extent of it at the bottom. AI call notes and summaries, real-time transcription, and AI Answer Assist appear only on Scale at $75 per user per month, five times the price of Core. Nextiva sells transcription as an add-on for Core and Engage, but summaries and answer assist stay on Scale. If AI call notes are why you are shopping, two paths exist and neither costs $15: Scale at $75 per user, or XBert at $99 a month. Our own listing here used to say AI was built into every call and meeting. It is not.

The $15 comes with conditions. New customer, 1 to 100 employees, annual billing, 12-month agreement. And the pricing page says "cancel anytime" on the same screen as that 12-month minimum term while publishing no early-termination fee. Get the cancellation terms in writing before you sign.

The app rates lower than the company. Nextiva averages 4.4 out of 5 across 23,547 reviews, and the web review sites are strong: 4.6 on Trustpilot across 8,618, plus 4.5 on G2 and 4.6 on Capterra. The NextivaONE app is the weak spot at 4.2 across roughly 7,100 App Store ratings and about 4.0 on Google Play. People rate the service higher than the software they open every morning, so put the app on two real phones during the demo.

Who should buy something else. Two or three people who want a business number and texting with nothing to administer should look at OpenPhone, lighter and cheaper at that size and now trading as Quo. A staffed office with departments, call queues, and a supervisor watching a dashboard should look at RingCentral, built for that scale, though its review record is far more mixed. Nextiva sits in the middle, which is why it is our first pick for most Chicago small businesses and the wrong pick at either end.

A note from Lobi Space management

Management here has spent more than twenty years dealing with technology, hiring people, and using remote employees and live reception services, and phones are where owners make the most expensive small mistakes. Two pieces of advice. Always interview whoever is going to pick up your phone, and if that is a live reception service, get on the phone with the actual person. Then ask whether you need one at all yet, because an auto attendant and a bit of AI can carry you further than people admit, and nobody answers a business call better than the owner. Second, do not buy this because a neighbor told you to. People always ask each other what they use, but not every business is designed the same. Write down every process your business needs to succeed, then decide which tier answers which. Software shopping takes a long time and switching later is painful. If your calls need somewhere real to land, our virtual office options and plans are the other half of that list.

The short version

Nextiva is $15, $25, and $75 per user per month, all on annual billing with a 12-month agreement, and month to month costs half again as much on Core and double on Engage. Engage at $25 is the tier most small businesses actually want, adding inbound customer texting, a toll-free number with 2,000 minutes, call recording, and live chat. The AI call notes live on Scale at $75 or in the $99 XBert receptionist, not on the cheap plans. Porting your 312 or 773 number is free. No setup fee, no free trial, 24/7 support on every tier, taxes on top. Under three people look at OpenPhone, and past a staffed front desk look at RingCentral. And know this: tools, software, and services are all great, but without a road map, a goal, and a plan, you are shooting in the dark or chasing a dream.

Blunt questions, straight answers

Is it actually $15, or is that a fake number? Real, and conditional. That price needs annual billing on a 12-month agreement, as a new customer with 1 to 100 employees. Month to month, Core is $23, and taxes are extra either way. A three-person shop on Core is $45 a month before tax, or $69 month to month.

Will I lose my number if I switch? No, and Nextiva does not charge to bring it over. You will need a letter of agency and a recent bill matching your carrier's records exactly, which is where most ports stall. Budget 5 to 10 business days for a simple local number and two to four weeks for toll-free.

Do I get the AI call notes on the $15 plan? No. Core and Engage include voicemail transcription and stop there. Call notes, summaries, and answer assist are on Scale at $75 per user per month. The cheaper route to something similar is XBert at $99 a month for 100 conversations, then $0.99 each.

Can I try it before I pay? Not on a free trial, because Nextiva does not offer one. You get a personalized demo with no credit card required. XBert carries a 30-day money-back guarantee and no contract, which is the closest thing to a trial here.

I am one person. Do I need this? Probably not yet. One person with one number does not need a phone system. They need an auto attendant so calls stop dying in voicemail, and maybe a second number so work stops following them home. That is a lighter product, which is why OpenPhone is in our directory. Nextiva makes sense the day a second person answers the same number you do.

Plans and pricing

Annual plans shown. Month to month runs higher. Ask us for the current Lobi Space referral offer.

Who this is good for

What people say

Aggregated from public reviews and community threads. Scores move, so treat these as direction, not gospel.

How to set it up

1. 1

   Pick the plan by feature, not by seat count

   Start on the tier that includes the auto attendant and texting. You can add seats later. Ask us for the Lobi Space referral before you check out.

2. 2

   Port your existing number first

   Submit the port before you cancel anything. Keep your current line running until the port completes so no client hits a dead number.

3. 3

   Set business hours and an after hours path

   Route daytime calls to a ring group and evenings to voicemail with transcription. This one setting saves more calls than any other.

4. 4

   Match the number to your address

   Put the same Chicago number and your Lobi Space address on Google, your filings and your invoices. Consistency is what local search rewards.

5. 5

   Turn on call summaries

   Let the AI write the recap and the follow up draft. Review it, send it, move on.

Why it made our list

• Porting your existing 312 or 773 number is included, so you keep the number clients already have while everything else changes underneath it.
• Voicemail transcription is on every tier, but the AI call notes and summaries people buy Nextiva for sit on the top Scale plan at $75 per user, five times the entry price.
• For roughly the price of a cell line you get 99.999% uptime and 24/7 support from people who will actually debug your call routing with you.

Questions owners ask