VoIP for 5 Users: What It Costs & What You Get in 2026

Last updated: April 2026

Five users is one of the most common starting points we see. A small office with a handful of staff, maybe a founder plus four team members, or a branch location that needs its own phone system. At this size, VoIP is straightforward to set up, affordable to run, and packed with features that would have cost thousands on a traditional phone system just a few years ago.

We have helped over 2,000 UK businesses move to VoIP since 2008, and a good chunk of those started at exactly this size. This guide breaks down everything you need to know about running VoIP for five users: the real monthly costs, what hardware you actually need, which features matter at this scale, and how the main providers compare on price and quality.

If you are still running traditional landlines, the PSTN switch-off completing in January 2027 means you will need to move to VoIP regardless. Better to do it now on your own terms than scramble at the last minute.

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What Does VoIP for 5 Users Actually Cost?

Let us start with the question everyone asks first. The honest answer is that it depends on which tier of service you choose, but we can give you real numbers.

Per User Monthly Costs

VoIP pricing falls into three broad tiers across most providers:

Total Monthly Cost for 5 Users

Here is what your total monthly bill looks like at each tier:

For most five-user businesses, the Standard tier hits the sweet spot. You get call recording (useful for training and dispute resolution), an auto-attendant so callers hear a professional greeting, and a mobile app so your team can make and receive calls on their business number from anywhere. The Basic tier works if you genuinely just need phones that ring, but most businesses outgrow it quickly.

How That Compares to Traditional Phone Lines

A traditional phone setup for five users would typically cost:

• 5 x ISDN lines at £15-20 each: £75-100/mo
• Call charges on top (2-10p/min UK, 15-50p/min mobile): £50-200/mo depending on usage
• PBX hardware purchase or lease: £2,000-5,000 upfront or £80-150/mo
• Maintenance contract: £40-80/mo

Total traditional cost: roughly £245-530/mo, plus a large upfront hardware spend. Compare that to £60+VAT/mo for five users on a Standard VoIP plan with no upfront costs, and the savings are obvious.

Get a free VoIP quote for your 5-user setup

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What Hardware Do You Need?

This is where a lot of businesses overthink things. At five users, your hardware decisions are simple.

Option 1: Desk Phones

If your team works from fixed desks and prefers a physical handset, IP desk phones from manufacturers like Yealink, Snom, Fanvil, Grandstream, Cisco, Polycom, Panasonic, or Gigaset are the way to go. For a five-user office, entry-level to mid-range phones are more than sufficient.

For five users, you might put a mid-range phone on each desk and a premium model at reception. Total hardware cost: around £370-500 purchased outright, or £17-23/mo leased across all five.

Option 2: Softphones Only

A softphone is an app that runs on your computer or mobile phone. It does everything a desk phone does, just without the physical handset. You use a headset (wired or Bluetooth) and your laptop or desktop handles the rest.

For businesses where staff are frequently away from their desks, working from home part of the week, or generally prefer not to have a physical phone cluttering their workspace, softphones are the smarter choice. Most VoIP providers include a softphone app with every licence at no extra cost.

Going softphone-only for five users means your hardware cost is essentially zero (assuming everyone already has a computer or smartphone). You might want to budget £20-50 per person for a decent headset, but that is about it.

Option 3: A Mix of Both

This is actually what most of our five-user customers end up choosing. The receptionist or office manager gets a desk phone because they handle the most calls. Everyone else uses the mobile app and a headset. It keeps costs down and gives flexibility.

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Features That Matter at 5 Users

At five users, you do not need enterprise-level contact centre features. But there are several features that make a real difference to how professional your business sounds and how efficiently your team handles calls.

Must-Have Features

Auto-attendant (IVR): A recorded greeting that routes callers ("Press 1 for Sales, 2 for Support"). Even with just five people, this makes your business sound established and gets callers to the right person without someone having to manually transfer every call.

Call groups / ring groups: Set up groups so when someone calls your main number, all five phones ring simultaneously, or ring in sequence until someone answers. No more missed calls because the one person who usually answers was away from their desk.

Voicemail to email: When someone leaves a voicemail, it lands in the relevant person's email inbox as an audio file. Much faster than dialling into a voicemail box and listening through messages.

Mobile app: Your team can make and receive calls on their business number from their personal mobile. The caller sees your business number, not your staff member's personal one. Essential for anyone who works remotely or travels.

Call transfer: Sounds basic, but being able to smoothly transfer a call (announced or blind) to a colleague is something traditional systems often handled badly. VoIP makes it seamless.

Nice-to-Have Features

Call recording: Record all calls automatically. Useful for training, resolving disputes, and compliance. At five users, this is worth having on at least your sales and customer-facing lines.

Music on hold: Upload your own hold music or use a professional message. Small thing, but it makes a noticeable difference to caller experience.

Call statistics: See how many calls each person handles, average call duration, and missed call rates. Even at five users, this data helps you spot problems early.

Presence / BLF (Busy Lamp Field): See at a glance whether a colleague is on a call, available, or away. Saves the awkward blind transfer to someone who is already on the phone.

For a deeper look at VoIP features and how they work, our complete hosted VoIP guide covers everything in detail.

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Provider Comparison for 5 Users

We work with multiple VoIP providers, so we can give you an honest comparison. Here is how the main options stack up for a five-user business:

At five users, we most often recommend 3CX. It gives you the best balance of features, flexibility, and value. The admin portal is straightforward once it is set up, and because it works with any SIP trunk provider, you are not locked into one carrier's call rates. We handle the initial setup and configuration, so the complexity argument does not really apply when you are working with us.

Compare VoIP providers for your business, get a free quote in under 2 minutes

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Broadband Requirements

VoIP calls use your internet connection, so your broadband needs to be up to the job. The good news is that for five users, the requirements are modest.

How Much Bandwidth Does VoIP Use?

Each concurrent VoIP call uses approximately 100kbps (0.1Mbps) of bandwidth in each direction. So if all five of your users are on calls simultaneously, you need about 0.5Mbps upload and 0.5Mbps download dedicated to voice traffic.

That is a tiny fraction of what even basic broadband provides. A standard FTTC connection (typically 80Mbps down / 20Mbps up) gives you more than enough headroom for five simultaneous calls plus all your normal internet usage.

What Actually Matters: Connection Quality

Bandwidth is rarely the issue. What matters more is:

Latency: The delay between you speaking and the other person hearing you. Anything under 150ms is fine. Most UK broadband connections sit between 10-30ms, so this is almost never a problem.

Jitter: Variation in latency. High jitter causes choppy, robotic-sounding audio. A stable connection with consistent latency keeps calls crystal clear.

Packet loss: Data packets getting lost in transit. Even 1% packet loss can make calls sound terrible. Quality broadband connections have essentially zero packet loss.

Our Recommendation for 5 Users

For a five-user office, a standard FTTC broadband connection (80/20) is perfectly adequate. We offer Sky SOGEA broadband at £35+VAT/mo which handles VoIP beautifully alongside normal office internet usage.

You do not need a dedicated voice line at this size. If you wanted belt-and-braces reliability, you could add a 4G/5G backup connection for around £15-25/mo, but most five-user businesses find a single good broadband connection does the job.

If you are experiencing call quality issues on VoIP, our VoIP problems and solutions guide is worth bookmarking for reference.

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Setup Timeline: How Long Does It Take?

One of the best things about VoIP at the five-user level is how quick the whole process is compared to getting traditional phone lines installed.

Typical Timeline

From the point you say "yes, let us do it" to having working phones, you are typically looking at one to two weeks. The longest part is usually number porting, which is controlled by the losing provider's processes rather than anything on our side.

If you need phones working immediately (perhaps your current system has failed), we can set you up with temporary numbers on the same day while the port goes through in the background. Your callers dial the old number, it rings as normal once porting completes, and in the meantime you have a working phone system.

What We Handle

At Compare The Networks, we do not just sell you a VoIP system and wave goodbye. For a five-user setup, our process includes:

• Recommending the right plan and hardware based on how your team actually works
• Configuring the system (auto-attendant recordings, call groups, voicemail, user permissions)
• Setting up desk phones if you have ordered them (pre-configured, plug in and they work)
• Porting your existing numbers
• Testing everything before go-live
• Training your team on the basics (usually takes 15-20 minutes, it really is that simple)

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Do You Need Desk Phones or Just Softphones?

This is one of the most common questions we get from five-user businesses, and there is no single right answer. It depends on how your team works.

Choose Desk Phones If:

• Your team works from the same desks every day
• You have a receptionist or front-of-house role that handles high call volumes
• Your staff prefer the feel and reliability of a physical handset
• You want a dedicated device that is always ready (no opening an app first)

Choose Softphones If:

• Your team works from home some or all of the time
• People move between desks or locations regularly
• You want to keep costs as low as possible
• Your team is comfortable using apps and headsets
• You value the flexibility of taking calls from any device

The Hybrid Approach

As we mentioned earlier, most of our five-user customers end up with a mix. One or two desk phones for the people who handle the most calls, and softphones for everyone else. This typically saves £200-300 on upfront hardware costs compared to putting a desk phone on every desk, while giving the team that handles the bulk of incoming calls a dedicated, always-ready device.

Not sure what setup is right for your team? Get a personalised recommendation with a free quote

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3CX: Why We Recommend It for Small Teams

We sell and support multiple VoIP platforms, but for five-user businesses, 3CX is our most popular recommendation. Here is why.

3CX is a software-based phone system that runs in the cloud. Unlike some providers that lock you into their own calling plans and hardware, 3CX separates the phone system from the call carrier. You get the 3CX platform for its features and admin tools, then pair it with whichever SIP trunk provider offers the best call rates. This flexibility often saves money and means you are never locked into a single supplier.

What 3CX Gives You at 5 Users

• Full auto-attendant with custom recordings
• Call groups and ring strategies
• Call recording on all or selected extensions
• Mobile and desktop apps for every user
• Video calling and web conferencing
• Live chat from your website routed to your phone system
• Voicemail to email
• Call reporting and analytics
• CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others)

For a five-user business, that feature set is frankly overkill in the best possible way. You get enterprise-grade tools at a fraction of enterprise pricing. And the admin portal is web-based, so you can manage everything yourself or let us handle it.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

After helping thousands of businesses move to VoIP, we have seen the same mistakes crop up repeatedly. Here are the ones that matter most at the five-user level.

Choosing on price alone: The cheapest VoIP plan might save you £20/mo, but if it comes with poor call quality, limited support, or missing features you need six months down the line, the savings evaporate quickly. Focus on value, not just the headline number.

Ignoring your broadband: VoIP is only as good as the internet connection carrying it. If your broadband is unreliable, fix that first. A £35/mo broadband connection that is rock solid will give you better call quality than a £100/mo VoIP plan running over flaky internet.

Not porting your numbers: Some businesses get new VoIP numbers and just change their number everywhere. This is almost always a mistake. Your existing phone number has value, it is printed on business cards, listed in directories, and known to your customers. Port it across. It takes a bit longer but it is worth it.

Over-specifying hardware: Five users do not need top-of-the-range desk phones with colour touchscreens and 20 line keys. A solid mid-range phone does everything most people need. Save the premium hardware budget for the receptionist if anyone.

Skipping the auto-attendant: Even at five users, having an auto-attendant makes your business sound more professional and routes calls more efficiently. "Thank you for calling [Business Name], press 1 for Sales, 2 for Accounts, or hold for the next available person" takes five minutes to set up and makes a real difference.

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Scaling Beyond 5 Users

One of VoIP's biggest advantages is how easily it scales. If your business grows from five to ten, fifteen, or twenty users, adding new extensions takes minutes and there is no new hardware to install (beyond desk phones if you want them).

Most providers offer volume discounts that kick in at ten users, so your per-user cost actually drops as you grow. Your auto-attendant, call groups, and system configuration all carry forward. You are building on what you already have rather than starting from scratch.

If you are planning for growth, it is worth choosing a VoIP platform that scales well from the start. 3CX, for example, handles everything from 5 users to 500+ without needing a platform change. For more on scaling up, see our guide to VoIP for 10 users.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I keep my existing phone number when switching to VoIP?

Yes, absolutely. Number porting is standard practice and we handle it as part of every VoIP setup. The process typically takes 5-10 working days. During the transition, your current phones keep working as normal, and once the port completes, calls to your existing number automatically route through your new VoIP system. There is no downtime.

What happens if my internet goes down?

If your broadband drops, your VoIP phones will not work. However, there are several failsafes built into any properly configured system. Calls can automatically divert to mobile numbers, so your team still receives calls on their phones. Voicemail continues to capture messages. And if you have the mobile app installed, it works over 4G/5G independently of your office broadband. For businesses that cannot afford any downtime, we recommend adding a 4G backup connection that kicks in automatically.

Is VoIP call quality as good as a traditional landline?

On a decent broadband connection, VoIP call quality is actually better than a traditional landline. Modern VoIP uses HD audio codecs that deliver wider frequency range and clearer sound than copper phone lines ever could. The caveat is that your broadband needs to be stable. On a good FTTC or FTTP connection, which covers the vast majority of UK business premises, call quality is excellent.

Do I need any special equipment beyond phones?

No special equipment is needed for five users. Your existing broadband router handles VoIP traffic perfectly well at this scale. You do not need a dedicated voice VLAN, QoS configuration on your network, or any specialist networking hardware. Plug the IP phones into your existing network (or install the softphone apps) and they just work.

How long does the contract last?

Most VoIP contracts run for 12 months, though some providers offer monthly rolling contracts at a slightly higher per-user price. We recommend 12-month contracts for the best value. If a provider is pushing you toward 24 or 36 months at the five-user level, that is usually more about locking you in than offering genuine value.

Can staff work from home on the same system?

Yes, and this is one of VoIP's strongest selling points. Every user gets access to a mobile app and desktop softphone that connects to the same system as the office phones. Remote workers make and receive calls on the business number, see colleague availability, transfer calls, and access voicemail exactly as if they were sitting in the office. For businesses with hybrid or remote working policies, VoIP eliminates the "two systems" problem entirely.

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Next Steps

If you are running a five-user business and considering VoIP, the best starting point is a quick conversation about how your team works, what features you need, and what budget you are working with. We will give you a clear recommendation with real pricing, no obligation, and no pressure.

As an OFCOM-regulated comparison service with a 4.3/5 Trustpilot rating from over 1,000 reviews, we have been helping UK businesses find the right telecoms solutions since 2008. We are not tied to a single provider, so our advice is genuinely impartial.

For more background on VoIP, our complete hosted VoIP guide covers the technology in depth, and our VoIP problems and solutions guide is worth bookmarking for reference.

Get your free VoIP quote for 5 users, it takes less than 2 minutes