- Online VoIP Comparisons since 2005
- 26.5+ Million page views: Testimonials
0
User Reviews
NR/5
Average Rating
-%
Recommended
Sideline is a product owned by Pinger, a California based company founded in 2005. Pinger has two products, Sideline and Textfree, and for the purpose of this review we will be focusing on the Sideline product.
The Sideline product is aimed at professionals and small businesses looking to add a second phone number to their cell phone, thus enabling one device for all of your personal and professional communications.
At a cost of just $9.99 per month, the Sideline App is a cost effective way to add a second phone number to your personal cell phone. Simply download the App, pick a new phone number with the area code of interest to you and start your business communications using your new business number's Caller ID. All of your calls use your cell phone minutes rather than data, which may be a major advantage to customers since most cell phone plans have unlimited calling these days. This will also likely improve your overall reliability for calls, since it is using your carrier grade phone network. WiFi calling is also an option should you have poor cell reception.
You also have access to voicemail for your new phone number, along with the ability to record multiple greetings and switch between them. All voicemails are transcribed so you can read your voicemails rather than listen to them.
The App also includes unlimited SMS text messaging along with MMS for picture and video messaging, all using your new business phone number. Group messaging is also supported.
An Auto Reply feature is a useful idea and can be enabled for any time you miss a call and it will send a text to the caller which can be customized accordingly. It can be used to tell people you are on vacation, provide store hours or anything else that helps customers know their call was important.
A Team Number feature lets you share one phone number across multiple devices so your entire team can text with customers from any device. This also works for calls, essentially acting like a ring group, whoever answers first wins the call. The team manager is the person who can invite other devices to share the main business phone number.
You can also brand your text messages with Company logos or images and you can provide a signature to your texts. It can also be used for reminders, promotions, coupons and more as a way to help market your business to customers.
Number porting is also provided by Sideline so if you have an existing phone number you can port it over and use that as your second number in the Sideline App.
Sideline is available for iOS and Android devices. A free 7-day trial is available if you supply your phone number or email on the Sideline Website. They will send you a link to download the App and begin your trial.
The Sideline support section contains a lot of useful articles and guides to help you get the most from your service. You can also submit tickets, email them or text them directly for additional support.
The terms and conditions imply that your outbound calling may be restricted if you are making more than 1000 minutes of outbound calls in a given month. Unlimited plans never are truly unlimited, but we have never seen terms as low as 1000 minutes so keep this in mind if you expect higher call volumes.
The cost for service is low and part of the reason for this is because it is subsidized by paid advertising. There is an add-on premium service available if you want to remove advertising, though no pricing is stated on the Website.
There appears to be no faxing capabilities in the App. In this day and age this is likely not an issue for most customers though it should be noted that certain competing products include Internet faxing as an add-on premium service.
Sideline is a very cost effective product for small businesses and other professionals looking to use their personal cell phone for both personal and business communications. The App provides a great way to separate your communications and includes unlimited calling and texting using your business Caller ID. If you have no need for a desk phone, it may be worth looking at Sideline for your business needs.
| Provider* | Highlights | Startup | Reviews | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Free Trial |
Read Reviews |
|
|
|
|
Cancel Anytime |
Read Reviews |
|
|
|
|
Free Trial |
Read Reviews |
|
© 2004-2024 WhichVoIP.com
