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Astound Hosted Voice vs Grasshopper comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Astound Hosted Voice
Ranking in Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
3rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Grasshopper
Ranking in Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP category, the mindshare of Astound Hosted Voice is 5.4%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Grasshopper is 6.5%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Astound Hosted Voice5.4%
Grasshopper6.5%
Other88.1%
Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
 

Featured Reviews

BF
IT Director at a university with 201-500 employees
Admin features make it easy to customize and change, while Voicemail Transcription is fast and accurate
The most valuable feature is the admin platform that we work with. It allows us a very centralized approach for doing things and it allows us to manage and control everything right from the very top. We could do that before, but the features that we have with RCN seem more extensive than the previous company that we worked with. The Voicemail Transcription is more accurate than what we had with our previous company. Also, and I'm not sure if this is because it's a fiber line, we seem to get the responses and the transcription almost instantaneously, faster than what we had prior. We can do lots of things: We can do call groups, we can do work with our extensions, we can set up our account codes, we can take a look at call logs. There are a multiplicity of miscellaneous settings that are allowed for each user and for the Admin. There's a simplicity to it. It seems they use KISS principle, keep it simple, stupid. It works for everybody because, when I'm not here responding to it, my technicians are; sometimes my network guy is; sometimes our students are interacting with it. It creates a very easy flow for working through the product and the interface. The automatic upgrades are the best thing that ever happened, because we don't see them, we don't feel them, we just know that they happened, after the fact. What they've done, at least for us, is that we haven't had or felt a crash whatsoever, nor have we felt the disruption as a result of the updates. That tells me that work goes into them to get them done right, and that they really test the code and test the information in updates so that they work properly.
it_user719805 - PeerSpot reviewer
Facade Consultant at a construction company
Gives A Blank Canvas In Order To Create, Automate, And Solve Complex 2D And 3D Tasks
The product gives you a blank canvas in order to create, automate, and solve complex 2D and 3D tasks Interoperability with other programs and inability to file share and collaborate within a team or office. Three to four years. The program can crash when solving complex tasks, however overall…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We use call recording. It's important to us because there's information that's passed from the customer to us... It's very important that we get the right information and if there's ever a dispute, we've got that recorded phone call to know if we've done something incorrectly or if the customer misordered."
"This solution is easy... Right now we have a 48-port switch, and at any point, if I want, I can throw in a larger switch, or add an additional switch, and I don't have to call anybody to install it. I can do it myself."
"We like the administrative features RCN has available, as it is important that we can balance call loads through programming options and have full control of our messaging, schedules, and other settings."
"I really like the portal. It makes listening to your messages so much easier as well as changing your voice mail."
"The Hunt Group, is the most valuable feature... You can choose round-robin, you can choose priority-for-agents, you can choose the order of agents. There are all kinds of different mechanisms for the next operator to take a call."
"We're very happy with it."
"As soon as we switched over to the RCN VoIP phone system, the clarity and quality of our calls improved and there has been no downtime."
"With the clarity and the reliability of the calls, it increased our sales; it doubled our sales."
"The product gives you a blank canvas in order to create, automate, and solve complex 2D and 3D tasks."
"One of the features I enjoy the most is the capability in which you can get a number without having a physical office."
 

Cons

"One area for improvement is the Web Portal. It's not a full-view screen, it's more like a minimized screen. You don't get the full view of your desktop. It's more like a five-inch by five-inch view. I think they said the software was designed that way. I don't know if there's going to be a newer version coming out later."
"I use the voicemail transcription feature but I'm not sure about the security of the voicemail system, as you can only use numbers for a password, and your direct-dial number is your username. That's kind of vulnerable to brute-force attacks. The passwords are limited to six digits, so I'd be a little concerned about security on that end..."
"We had a lot of problems with the install, with the initial rolling out and using of the system."
"Wireless needs improvement. We have a manufacturing facility and the majority of the managers walk around with 2.4 gigahertz cordless phones and they have to walk, sometimes, throughout three different buildings."
"In our old system, you just dialed the extension directly, With this system, you have to put a "one" in front of it to trigger it. A lot of clients didn't know that and they'd keep trying to dial the old extension number and would get nowhere... It's been a little confusing."
"The way that you listen to your voicemail messages through the receiver so that you can't fast forward or rewind - I don't like that at all."
"If they had better ongoing-training options, for example, if they put something out on YouTube where you could just go and look for individual things that you need by looking at a video, that would be very helpful."
"The analytic part of it, the control panel, those are their biggest areas where they have to improve. There are competitors out there where, when you open the control panel, they have tons of analytics, the ability to add lines, to see which people are on the phone.... RCN has a great product, but they could make it outstanding with the right analytics and control panel."
"An area that needs immediate improvement will be the monthly minutes."
"Interoperability with other programs and inability to file share and collaborate within a team or office."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We're okay with the pricing and licensing... It's based on the number of extensions."
"We looked at about five or six other companies but when RCN came in, they beat everybody hands-down, on both the features and on the dollars side. It prompted our people to say they hadn't seen numbers so low for the services you get."
"The pricing is very fair. They have very good pricing."
"It's very affordable. We're very happy with the pricing."
"Pricing is great. If you're not careful enough, you might just order too many. For the service, the price is right. When you design it, if you mess up and you realize you really need then more lines, the price is negligible."
"RCN, as part of the deal, leased us phones at a reasonable price and each line was extremely reasonable as well."
"For us, the monthly price was 38 percent lower. We were paying somewhere between $5,600 and $5,800 every month for voice and data. We got it down to about $4,000 with tax."
"The solution is saving our company money, based on the initial, up-front cost that would normally be required. The monthly ongoing cost is comparable to prior solutions."
"It's free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
19%
Outsourcing Company
16%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Citi Open Tournament
360clean, Batchbook, Brimtech, Collabo, Everything Happy, FillASeat, Globalme, HomeStars, MOVE Systems, Municibid, Ocasomedia, Rentity, SkinOwl, SoundBetter, Titan PPC, TeamGantt
Find out what your peers are saying about Astound Hosted Voice vs. Grasshopper and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.