The small business guide to Grasshopper call forwarding

You’re finally taking a well-deserved vacation. You’re poolside, drink in hand, fully committed to not checking emails. But then your business number rings — again. And again.

You sigh, swipe to answer, and realize it’s just a sales inquiry that could’ve easily gone to your teammate. If only you had a phone system that could do that on your behalf.

If you’re currently using (or considering) Grasshopper for tasks like call forwarding, extensions, and voicemail, you should know its features aren’t the best for growing teams. The bigger you grow, the harder its limitations are to ignore, and the more you might need a Grasshopper competitor.

This guide breaks down everything you should know about Grasshopper call forwarding, including other limitations that might hold your team back (plus a Grasshopper alternative that offers both conditional and unconditional call forwarding).

Does Grasshopper let you forward calls? 

Grasshopper offers call forwarding on every plan, including its free trial. You have the option to forward calls to one of four destinations: cell phones or landlines, toll-free numbers, international numbers (requires a $500 minimum deposit), and extensions to team members or departments within Grasshopper.

You can also customize the following call forwarding settings:

• During and after business hours: You can forward calls based on a set schedule (like on weekdays between 9 AM and 6 PM), or send calls through 24/7, with no conditions.
• Caller ID: Choose what your team sees when a call comes in. You can display either the caller’s number or the Grasshopper number they dialed.
• Forwarding announcements: You can choose to hear which number or extension the caller dialed, ask the caller to say their name before connecting, or simply connect calls right away.
• Audio for callers: When you forward a call, you can play audio for callers. This could be a ringing tone, standard hold music, or a custom greeting letting them know they’re getting transferred.
• Ring order: Choose how Grasshopper rings your forwarding numbers and in what order. You can set it to call your mobile first, then your office line, then your colleague — either one at a time, all at once, or in rotation until someone picks up.
• Ring duration: Set how long Grasshopper should ring each number before trying the next. The recommended time is 25–40 seconds. If call announcements are on, the minimum is 40 seconds.

You can see how Grasshopper’s call forwarding helps with the basics, but if you want more advanced features, you’ll need to pay extra.

For example, if you want to forward calls to multiple numbers at once, you’ll need Grasshopper’s call blasting add-on. This costs an extra $9 per month. Even then, it only supports up to 15 simultaneous call forwarding numbers. There’s a good chance you’ll outgrow this as your business scales.

Plus, there’s no way to forward calls to an external backup number or answering service. If no one picks up, the call goes to voicemail (and the caller will likely dial a competitor instead).

This isn’t the case with other VoIP providers. Most Grasshopper alternatives, like Quo, offer ways to automatically answer missed calls.

What Grasshopper users say about its call forwarding feature

Is Grasshopper’s call forwarding worth the price?

These Grasshopper reviews speak for themselves:

“I am based in Hawaii. Which apparently is not part of the United States. In order to call people in Hawaii and forward calls to phone numbers in Hawaii, I need to activate international calling, and then I get charged international calling for calling someone down the street in Hawaii, and get charged international calling when someone down the street calls me. I dislike that very much.”  — G2

“I noticed a forwarding to cell phone number delay when using Grasshopper. The call will ring for a while before the cell phone starts ringing. Sometimes the cell phone never rings and it’s a missed [call] and more importantly a missed sale.” — Reddit

While call forwarding with Grasshopper is frustrating, it’s just one part of what makes the phone system hard to use.

What happens when you need to collaborate on texts? Or when your team grows? A phone system should support how you actually work, not make you jump through hoops to stay connected.

8 limitations you should know about Grasshopper

Here are eight other reasons why Grasshopper isn’t a fit for most growing businesses.

1. Only one user can be on the base plan

Grasshopper was mostly designed for micro-businesses — and it shows. The base plan only allows a single user, which means you’ll need to upgrade  if you want to bring a +1.

2. Extra extensions require a more expensive plan

Grasshopper’s internal call forwarding feature works well with phone extensions, but you won’t get many unless you upgrade your plan.

The base plan only offers one phone extension, with no way to add more. The Solo Plus plan costs $25 per month and comes with three extensions — additional ones are $3 per month each. The only way to get unlimited extensions is to upgrade to the Small Business plan, which costs $55 per month.

3. International calling has a long list of restrictions

Got customers overseas? You’ll have to wait two months to call them with Grasshopper. International calling is only unlocked after your Grasshopper account has been active for 60 days.

You’ll also need to pay a $500 deposit on top of Grasshopper’s pricing to make or receive international calls.

Even after you pay the deposit, Grasshopper doesn’t let you send or receive texts from international numbers.

4. No integrations with CRMs or other tools

Grasshopper integrations no longer exist. Like Google Voice, it doesn’t integrate with any third-party apps. 

This means connecting your business phone system with your current tech stack is off the table. You won’t be able to automatically log all call activity into your CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce. Or set up automations that let you automatically send customer texts once a client fills out a form or books an appointment.

5. You can’t use one number for all types of messages

You can purchase as many toll-free Grasshopper phone numbers as you want. But you can’t use them to send or receive MMS messages like images, files, and videos. This means your team won’t be able to text customers attachments like receipts, photos, or PDFs. You’d have to switch to a different number or provider just to send what the customer needs — slowing your team down and making communication feel clunky. 

6. You won’t be able to automate your team’s texts

Unlike other VoIP phone systems, Grasshopper SMS doesn’t support text message automations.

This means you can’t create message templates (aka snippets) to answer common questions faster. There’s also no way to schedule texts for your customers, so your team has to type (and send) every message manually.

7. Add-ons quickly drive up your monthly cost

Grasshopper’s add-ons are surprisingly expensive. For example, recording voicemail greetings via the Voice Studio costs an extra $75 — which you can do for free with most business phone systems.

Even basic tools like simultaneous ring (call blasting) cost $9 extra per month on top of your plan. 

You also have to consider the cost of upgrading your bandwidth:

• Additional Grasshopper numbers cost $9 each per month
• Extensions require an upgrade plus $3 per extension per month

Considering that other business phone systems offer these at much lower prices, Grasshopper might get expensive as your small business grows.

8. The user interface feels outdated

Grasshopper looks fine for a 2003 phone system — but compared to modern platforms, the interface leaves much to be desired. Users say the Grasshopper portal and messaging interface are clunky to navigate, which makes for a steep learning curve for your team.

Why Quo is the best call forwarding alternative to Grasshopper

Grasshopper does offer call forwarding features. They’re just not what you’d call “robust.” 

The good news is there is a Grasshopper alternative that offers better call forwarding and business phone services — Quo (formerly OpenPhone). You’ll get unlimited calling and text messaging to US and Canadian phone numbers, plus shared phone numbers to handle call forwarding as a team.

Quo also supports conditional and unconditional call forwarding, so you can customize your phone system to your small business’s needs.

Keep reading for a breakdown of both settings, plus a step-by-step guide to each one.

Conditional call forwarding in Quo

Conditional call forwarding in Quo can help redirect calls based on custom schedules or business hours. For example, if a call comes in and your coworker is out to lunch, it will ring the next available team member.

You can also use conditional call routing to forward calls to an external number, like your personal mobile device. If no one picks up, you can route the call to Quo’s AI agent, Sona. It can answer FAQs, take callback information, and help callers know that they’ve reached the right place.

Quo also offers time-of-day routing to automatically forward calls after business hours, on weekends, or during holidays. That way, phones don’t ring outside of work hours, and you don’t have to manually turn call forwarding on or off whenever you leave the office.

How to set up conditional call forwarding on Quo

Here’s how to set up conditional call forwarding on Quo:

1. Log in to Quo on the desktop app.
2. In the left-hand menu, tap Settings.
3. In your Workspace, tap Phone numbers and select the number you wish to add conditional call forwarding to.
4. Add your business hours.
5. Under the Call flow header, tap edit Call flow.
6. Drag and drop the call flow steps that should occur during and after business hours. For example, you can drop a Forward call step after hours to only forward calls after business hours.

Unconditional call forwarding in Quo

Quo’s unconditional call forwarding automatically redirects all incoming calls to another number, regardless of the date or time. Calls won’t ring your Quo number at all — they’ll go straight to the US or Canadian number(s) you choose.

Unconditional call forwarding can be helpful when you’re off the grid, traveling, or unavailable. It can also be useful if you want every call to reach someone else (like a teammate or a backup number) for a certain period of time. It stays on until you switch it off, so you have full control over when and how it works.

How to set up unconditional call forwarding on Quo 

Here’s how to set up unconditional call forwarding in Quo:

1. Log in to the Quo desktop or web app.
2. Under Workspace, tap Settings, then Phone numbers.
3. Select the number you wish to enable call forwarding on.
4. Tap Edit call flow, then Default call flow.

5. Select Forward all calls from the drop-down menu.
6. In the text box, type the phone number that should receive your forwarded calls. This can be any US, Canadian, or toll-free number you have access to. When you’re done, tap Forward.
7. You’ll be redirected to your new Forward all calls call flow. Tap Enable this call flow to activate unconditional call forwarding.

Keep in mind that you can’t add additional steps here. After all, it’s called an unconditional call flow.

Quo: The best Grasshopper alternative

Quo is trusted by 60,000+ businesses to build better relationships with customers — and make much-needed vacations a reality.

But you should know we’re much more than a call forwarding app. You can:

• Save time with texting automations that queue up messages in advance, automatically respond when you’re unavailable to pick up, or respond quickly to customers with saved message templates.
• Chat with customers as long as you need with unlimited calls and texts to US and Canadian numbers.
• Set up automated workflows with over 7,000 integrations with apps like Zapier and Make.
• Never miss a call by greeting customers, capturing messages, and summarizing calls with Sona, Quo’s AI agent.
• Prioritize follow-ups and look for trends in topics or sentiments by letting AI call tags automatically organize calls for you.
• Keep records of all conversations (or as needed) with on-demand and automatic call recording.
• Delegate unnecessary tasks to AI — think AI-suggested messages, contacts, and AI call summaries and transcripts — so you can spend more time on human-centric tasks.

Sign up for a demo or test Quo for yourself by signing up for a seven-day free trial.

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