How To › Email & Messaging VoIP Equipment and Solution Vendors Share Pin Email Print E+ / Getty Images Email & Messaging VoIP Basics Guides & Tutorials Installing & Upgrading Tips & Tricks Key Concepts by Nadeem Unuth Specializes in information and communication technology with a focus on VoIP. Updated December 10, 2018 Whether you are a corporate or residential VoIP user, at one time or another, you have to give some attention to what equipment you are using, since they have a bearing on your VoIP experience. As the VoIP market has grown over the last decade, so has the number of vendors. There are dozens of these hardware manufacturers and solution vendors around, meaning better prices through competition, but also better quality and features. We have shortlisted some of the most popular and most evaluated vendors below. Avaya brendangates/Flikr/CC BY 2.0 Avaya is the leader in the VoIP market. It has a vast variety of equipment and solutions including IP phones, media gateways, routers, communication servers, PBXs, wireless phones, voice application etc. Its hottest product is the IP Office platform and communications system. What We Like Superior for call centers. Well-known name in the industry. Good documentation. What We Don't Like Requires use of only Avaya brand phones. Difficult technical support. Poor customer service. Cisco Before VoIP, Cisco has been around as a networking vendor giant. Now, it is a leading player in the VoIP equipment arena, with good IP Phones, routers, and other devices and solutions. Cisco owns Linksys, which is also well known on the market. What We Like Reliable VoIP system. Easy to setup. Easy to use interface. What We Don't Like Pricier VoIP system than most. May require certified technician to set up. Shoretel Shoretel is a fast-growing vendor providing complete IP telephony solutions and PBXs. ShoreTel's strong points are performance and ease of installation and use. What We Like Less expensive than other vendors. Excellent call quality on smaller systems. Includes mobile integration. What We Don't Like Customers report occasional unreliable systems. Poor customer support. System is not intuitive. Siemens Siemens is another giant in technology which has extended its reach to VoIP and unified communications. It provides phones, PBXs and ... just anything concerning communication. What We Like Reliable service. Stable VoIP system. Excellent call quality. What We Don't Like Basic user interface. Slow web interface. Phones lack headset jack. Mitel Mitel is a global provider of communications solutions for enterprises and small business. It aims at blending good human interface with powerful infrastructure. Mitel brands include SX and ICP series. What We Like Good variety of phones. Scalable for any sized business. What We Don't Like Poor customer service. Complicated setup. More expensive than many other vendors. Unreliable systems. Asterisk Asterisk is not hardware, but a software PBX that can run on Linux, Unix, MacOS and some other operating systems. It is open source (meaning free) and is extremely flexible and very robust. What We Like Integrates with computer systems. Stable VoIP system. Less expensive solution. What We Don't Like Difficult to troubleshoot. Outdated web interface. Taridium Taridium is a fast growing open standards VoIP solution provider. Taridium's offering ranges from managed VoIP services for small and medium-sized businesses through to high capacity telephony solutions for large enterprises and service providers. What We Like Suitable for small to large companies. 24/7 technical support. Inexpensive solution. Incorporates multiple vendors. What We Don't Like New provider in the industry. Other Providers Talkswitch Toshiba Fonality 3Com Polycom Alcatel Lucent (owned by Avaya) Linksys (owned by Cisco) D-Link Sipura (owned by Cisco) Grandstream Snom NetGear ZyXEL Belkin Continue Reading