The monthly licence fee is only the starting point. A business phone system involves a surprisingly long list of costs that many suppliers gloss over in their headline pricing — hardware, cabling, switches, add-on features, integrations and ongoing running costs all add up. This guide covers every cost you need to consider before you commit.
Step 1 — The licence cost
Every hosted VoIP system is priced per user per month. This is the core recurring cost and covers the software platform, your phone number, and a bundle of included minutes.
| Platform | Softphone only | With desk phone | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoYap | £8.95/user/mo* | From £13.95/user/mo | 24-month or rolling |
| Microsoft Teams Phone | From £6.60/user/mo | Teams + hardware | Annual |
| Gamma Horizon | £9.95/user/mo | From £12.95/user/mo | 12-month |
| eve — Enterprise UCaaS | £9.75/user/mo | From £12.25/user/mo | 12–60 month |
| Altos | £10.49/user/mo | From £12.84/user/mo | 12-month |
| BT Cloud Voice | £9.52/user/mo† | From £11.87/user/mo† | 60-month |
* GoYap introductory rate for first 6 months on 24-month contract, then £9.99/user/mo. † BT Cloud Voice increases by £1/user/month every April.
The softphone-only licence covers an app on your smartphone, tablet or computer — no desk phone hardware needed. The desk phone price includes handset rental. Both include generous call bundles — typically 2,000–2,500 landline and mobile minutes per user per month.
Step 2 — Hardware costs
This is where the hidden costs start. If you want desk phones, or if you want to keep your existing analogue handsets, there are infrastructure costs beyond the licence that many suppliers don't mention upfront.
Desk phones and headsets
If your licence includes a desk phone, the handset rental is included in the per-user price. If you're using a softphone (app on laptop or PC), you'll want a quality headset — and this is a cost that catches many businesses out.
Headsets for softphone users
A good quality headset starts at around £60 and goes well over £250 for premium noise-cancelling models. Using laptop speakers and a built-in microphone for business calls is not acceptable quality — a decent headset is essential. If you have 10 staff using softphones, budget £600–£1,500+ for headsets alone.
PoE switches — powering your desk phones
This is one of the most commonly missed costs when budgeting for a phone system. Desk phones (IP handsets) need two things to work: a network connection and power. They get both from a single ethernet cable — but only if your network switch supports PoE (Power over Ethernet).
Most standard office switches do not support PoE. If yours doesn't, you have two options: add a PoE switch, or use phones with separate power supplies (which means an extra mains socket per phone).
PoE network switches
Typical costs by port count:
- 4-port PoE switch (typically 8 ports total, 4 PoE) — £50 to £120 depending on model and brand
- 8-port PoE switch — £80 to £180
- 24-port PoE switch — from £250 for a basic model, rising significantly for managed switches with more features
PoE switches can be put into standby outside office hours to save electricity — a worthwhile configuration for any business running more than a handful of phones.
Wi-Fi phones — avoiding cabling altogether
If running ethernet cables to every desk is impractical or too expensive, Wi-Fi IP phones are worth considering. These connect to your wireless network instead of a wired connection and include their own power supply — so no PoE switch is needed and no cabling is required.
Wi-Fi phones typically cost around £15/user/month rather than £13.95 for a wired handset — a small premium for the convenience of no cabling. Make sure your Wi-Fi coverage is solid throughout the office before going this route, as patchy Wi-Fi causes call quality issues.
Data points and cabling
Each wired desk phone needs an ethernet port at the desk. If your office doesn't have enough data points, you have options:
- Run new ethernet cables — cost depends on the number of drops and how accessible the ceiling/floor voids are. Budget £50–£150 per data point installed.
- Use a phone with a passthrough port — many IP desk phones have two ethernet ports: one connects to the wall socket, the other connects your PC. This means one cable serves both phone and computer, so you don't need additional data points.
- Switch to Wi-Fi phones — avoids cabling entirely as above.
Step 3 — Add-on feature costs
The base licence covers calls, voicemail and basic features. Many of the features businesses actually need are charged as monthly add-ons. These vary significantly between platforms — some include the first instance free, others charge from day one.
| Feature | Typical monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-attendant | £5–£10/month | Some platforms include the first one free |
| Multi-level IVR menus | £5–£15/month | Additional menus beyond the first may be charged |
| Call queuing / hunt groups | £5–£15/month per queue | Per queue or group, not per user |
| Call recording | £3–£8/user/month | Storage charges may apply on top |
| Call recording storage | Variable | Usually per GB or per month retention period |
| Call reporting / analytics | £5–£20/month | Basic or advanced tiers |
| Call logging | Often included | Check what's in the base licence |
| ACD agents | £5–£15/agent/month | Contact centre routing |
| ACD supervisors | £10–£20/supervisor/month | Real-time monitoring and intervention |
| Wallboards | £10–£30/month | Per wallboard or per user depending on platform |
| CRM / click-to-dial integration | £1.99–£25/user/month | Varies enormously by CRM and platform |
Step 4 — Running costs people forget
Desk phones and PoE switches consume electricity — not a lot individually, but across a full office it adds up and it is a cost that almost nobody includes when budgeting for a phone system.
A typical IP desk phone uses 3–5 watts when idle and 5–7 watts on a call. A PoE switch serving 8 phones might draw 30–60 watts continuously. Across a 10-phone office running 8 hours a day, 250 days a year, that is a meaningful electricity cost.
Two things worth doing from day one:
- Enable screen sleep on all phones — most IP phones have a screen timeout setting. Set screens to turn off after 1–2 minutes of inactivity. Screen backlights are the single biggest power draw on a desk phone.
- Configure PoE switch standby outside office hours — managed PoE switches can be configured to cut power to phone ports outside of defined hours, typically overnight and at weekends. This effectively turns the phones off when nobody is in the office, eliminating idle power draw entirely for those periods.
What does it actually cost in total?
To illustrate how costs accumulate, here are two realistic examples for a 10-user office:
Scenario A — Softphone only, minimal setup
- 10 × GoYap softphone licence: £89.50/month (first 6 months), then £99.90
- 10 × quality headsets: £800 one-off (£80 average)
- Auto-attendant: £5/month
- Monthly total: ~£95–£110/month + £800 one-off
Scenario B — Desk phones, call recording, CRM integration
- 10 × GoYap with desk phone: £139.50/month
- PoE switch (24-port): £280 one-off
- Cabling (if needed): £500–£1,500 one-off
- Auto-attendant: £7/month
- Call recording: £5/user/month = £50/month
- CRM integration: £5/user/month = £50/month
- Call reporting: £10/month
- Monthly total: ~£257/month + £780–£1,780 one-off
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