Does Grasshopper record calls? Plans, limits, & alternatives

Looking to find out if call recordings are available through Grasshopper? Yes, Grasshopper does offer call recording on its platform. However, you won’t be able to record your calls in all its plans. You won’t find it in the base Grasshopper pricing plan. It’s only available in the higher-tier Solo Plus and Small Business plans. 

Grasshopper’s call recording has two major drawbacks you should know. First, access to all recordings is limited to admin users. If you’re a member, not an admin, you can only access recordings in your specific extension. Second, call recordings on Grasshopper are deleted after 30 days. That’s a drawback that can affect liability if customers dispute what was discussed in a conversation.  

In this article, we’ll cover how Grasshopper’s call recording works and where it falls short. We’ll also present a Grasshopper alternative designed to help you capture every customer conversation and act on it instantly. 

Grasshopper call recording: What you should know

Grasshopper offers automatic call recording to businesses that upgrade to its Solo Plus and Small Business plans. The Solo Plus plan starts at $25 per month. The Small Business plan starts at $55 per month. Its call recording feature is allocated on a per-extension basis, so you can activate it only for specific extensions. 

Once you turn it on, you can play and manage recordings by signing in to the admin portal and navigating to Call recordings in the Account activity section. 

If you turn on call recording for Grasshopper extensions, you can also access Grasshopper AI features like AI call summaries and call transcriptions. Each summary and transcription is linked to its respective recording in your account. 

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to turn on call recording in Grasshopper:

1. Sign in to your Grasshopper admin portal.
2. Go to Call management and Call recording.
3. Select Enable call recording.
4. Choose the extensions, call types, and user access for the desired extension(s).
5. Optional: From Recording announcement for inbound calls, enable or disable the toggle.
6. Select Save.

Grasshopper call recording limitations

As we mentioned above, Grasshopper’s call recording feature comes with several limitations. Here’s a breakdown of each and how they might affect your operations:

1. 30-day recording storage. Grasshopper’s call recordings are automatically deleted from workspaces 30 days after they’re created. If you want these recordings handy in case a dispute comes up with a customer, this could be a deal breaker. For example, if you work at a law firm and want to keep track of your case details over several months, this storage limit makes that impossible. 
2. Limited access to recordings. Only admin users have access to recordings across multiple Grasshopper extensions. If an extension member wants to access a recording in another extension, they have to request a downloaded copy. By limiting access to recordings, Grasshopper forces your team to operate in silos as you grow. It’s harder to gather context if you need to wait for call recordings from a colleague. 
3. No outbound call recording notification. Grasshopper only offers an automated call recording announcement for incoming calls. For outbound calls, it relies on users verbally notifying their call recipients. This limitation could affect your call recording compliance if your team isn’t careful. 
4. No third-party integrations. Simply being able to record your calls isn’t useful if you can’t act on them. Unfortunately, you won’t find any Grasshopper integrations to share your recordings. You can’t share your recordings with your CRM to help you keep track of your customer activity over time. You can’t share your call transcriptions with AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT to surface recurring trends. 
5. Automatic recording only. Grasshopper only offers automatic call recording for each extension. You can’t selectively record certain calls with on-demand call recording while excluding recording for other calls. It limits your flexibility to record calls that matter to your team.

Pro tip: Is Grasshopper HIPAA compliant? Find out in our article. 

Why call recording matters for businesses

Call recording doesn’t just help you keep track of customer needs. It also helps you coach team members and resolve disputes that may arise. If you need to make a stronger case for call recording with your team, here are the reasons why you should get a business phone system that offers call recording:

• ‍Track sales and customer success conversations. As your business grows, so will your call volume. But your team can’t always stay on top of every detail. With call recording, your team can pay attention to customers with more focus. They don’t have to worry about taking accurate notes on every call. 
• Coach customer support staff. Train your team by reviewing your past recordings. Highlight where they’re doing well and where they can improve by playing back past conversations. 
• ‍Legal compliance and documentation. Recording your calls is useful when customers dispute what was said in a conversation. Having a recording where these terms are discussed and agreed to can help resolve legal challenges that might come up.

How Quo call recording compares to Grasshopper

If you’re looking for a virtual phone system with call recording features that don’t limit your growth, you should consider Quo, formerly OpenPhone. 

Quo is designed for fast-growing businesses to manage their business communications. You can make unlimited calls with US and Canadian local numbers or with North American toll-free numbers. Get access to all the features your business needs, including auto-attendants, business texting, and ring groups.

Quo offers business call recording on all of our plans. In our Starter plan, you get access to on-demand call recording. When you upgrade to our Business and Scale plans, you can take advantage of automatic call recording.

Here are the reasons why Quo call recording is a better option compared to Grasshopper:

• Call recording is available in every plan. You don’t need to upgrade to a higher-tier Quo plan to record your calls. Sign up for a free Quo trial and start making calls and recording them right away. 
• Unlimited call recording storage. Record as many calls as you like without worrying about your storage. All your calls are stored in your Quo account as long as you keep it active. Unlike VoIP providers like Grasshopper, we don’t have a time limit for your recordings. 
• Shared access. Anyone who has access to a shared virtual phone number can play back and download recordings. You don’t have to be an admin to access recordings in a shared number. 
• AI call summaries and transcriptions is available. For Business and Scale plan users, we offer AI summaries and transcriptions for your call recordings. You can even generate transcriptions and summaries for non-English language calls in 40+ languages. We’ll translate them into English so that everyone on your team is on the same page. 
• Inbound and outbound call recording notifications is available. Let callers and call recipients know you’re recording the call automatically with our notifications. You can choose the notification type you prefer, either voice or audio. Stay compliant with call recording laws in every state. 
• 9,000+ integrations. Share your recordings with your preferred tools. You can sync your call recordings, summaries, and transcripts with your CRM. Connect directly to Salesforce, HubSpot, Jobber, Pipedrive, and Zoho. Or integrate with thousands more tools using our Zapier and Make integrations. 

See how Quo’s call recording compares to Grasshopper in this table:

See why Quo is the better business phone

Quo isn’t just better than Grasshopper when you compare their AI features. It’s also a better overall business phone. Here are some of the features you get in Quo’s platform:

• 24/7 AI voice agent
• Call forwarding
• Business hours call routing
• Voicemail transcription
• Mobile and desktop apps
• Collaboration features, including task management

Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what past customers had to say in their Grasshopper reviews:

“I have tried multiple online phone companies, including Google Voice and Grasshopper. The very best one has been Quo due to how easy it is to use and how many features it has, including knowing who on my team has called or texted a client right on the conversation view.” – Hector Bilbao, Principal, Real Tax Advisors LLC

“Quo is head and shoulders above Grasshopper. So if you want an endorsement from somebody else, if you have someone else who’s on the fence with Grasshopper… I’ve told people we are just beyond thrilled about it. Much superior product.” – Laura Cooley, President, CarePatrol

See why Quo is the better virtual phone system. Check out our full analysis of Quo vs Grasshopper. 

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