sipgate UKReviews 

Edited down to 2 stars after Sipgate stopped Starter accounts for new customers and effectively put us in Limbo:

Sipgate have never been good at answering their own phone but previously they did eventually respond to emails after a few days which was OK considering the cost.

In September 2022 Sipgate stopped selling Sipgate Starter to new customers and it was muted that they would put existing Sipgate Starter users onto a Sipgate Business Basic Account in 2023 at an additional cost of around £10.50 per month and nothing to show for the extra £10.50 fee.

Up to now we have not been notified about any of this so I emailed Sipgate for info. - No reply to my email after 2 weeks.

I checked what would happen to funds in the account if I cancelled and I discovered that they would charge up to £6.00 to return any funds and had lots of hoops to jump through.

I had set up automatic funding for the account and Sipgate had recently modified their system so that automatic funding can only be removed by them once it was set up but I did manage to contact them about that and have it removed. - This change was Really Whiffy.

Sipgate was my only VOIP phone but in response to all this I have now openned an account with Voipify who do answer emails and who answer the phone.

If Sipgate try to move my existing Sipgate Starter account from a none fee Sipgate Starter Account to Sipgate Business Account I will cancel my account with them.

If Sipgate keep existing Sipgate Starter Customers as they are I will probably stay but it is now demoted to a second account and I will drastically reduce the use of the Sipgate Starter Account if it stays in existence.

Sipgate advertise a phone number for customer service but I have tried all day and nothing but an automated message to say they are too busy to take my call!

This has been a great provision, simplistic, reliable and affordable. Works with most VoIP apps. However, recently the voicemail has had significant issues and the technical support has been woefully inadequate and sporadic at best. Summary- Great until you get an issue!

We moved from standard broadband (using Plus.net) to full fibre, this meant we no longer needed to have a phone line to get connected. Given that the phone package was costing us £20 a month for rental and calls we wanted to ditch the phone line but still keep our old telephone number.

I looked at a number of VOIP providers and Sipgate was the only one that could port our number and did not charge a monthly fee (most providers seems to charge £10 a month). The downside was that they charged £32 to port the number. The Ts&Cs of the number port were a bit unfriendly, basically if anything went wrong and the port failed you would have to pay the £32 again.

I was very careful to check everything on the form yet the port failed. I checked everything with Plus.net and then got on to Sipgate who confirmed that they could see no reason for the port to fail. Plus.net then got on to OpenReach to query why it had failed and said I should try again.

Sipgate tech support were really helpful and accepted that the details I had provided were correct and agreed to re submit the port request at no charge. This time it worked. I have to say that both Sipgate and plusnet worked hard to resolve the problem (which was caused by OpenReach) which impressed me.

We have had the service for a month now, the Grandstream VOIP box we bought was easy to set up and allows us to use our existing phones. Call quality is great and have had no issues with dropped calls, most of our outgoing calls we make on our mobiles so the cost of the first months phone use has dropped from £20 to 50p

If you are a heavy phone user Sipgate do have a number of bundles that give you unlimited calls but we have not needed them.

I definitely recomend this service.

As ex BT customer (£47pm)who was getting fleeced. I found with move to new Digital Voice , I couldn't PORT home phone numbers to like of NOW,plusenet Extra.
Finally out of desperation I approached Sipgate they said I can port my number to their Voip service.
We were free to shop around for cheapest home broadband provider Virgin offered £17.** pm along with their own line.
Let me be clear you don't need home broadband, just a mobile with good data plan will do.
You just downland a third party Voip App from App store. In my case 'Grand Stream lite'
There are few settings you need to enter like anything login, password,
It feels scary 😨 but it's not.
So if like us who had same home number for 30 years now you can take it with you wherever you are in the word with Internet/data

I've been using SIPGate for a few years on there Basic plain, which is pay as you go. I have to say I'm really impressed with the service quality. Also as is a open standard I can use any app I choose, on my mobile phone. Also they are very cheap compared to companies like Skype, who are now expensive.

After our community set up its own fibre network, most people moved to voip, many to sipgate. For the last couple of weeks, nearly all ported numbers have stopped working, including those for housebound and disabled residents. Sipgate have simply not responded to requests to sort this. Very poor service.

I have been a sipgate customer for a month. So far the process of onboarding has been super smooth with a fast response from rob at the porting team.

However I tried calling 111 and got routed to the London service. they re-routed me to Kent who asked me why I was contacting the service from an 020 number. They didn't believe me when I told them my caller ID. I explained I am using a VoIP phone and they told me to call back on a "real phone" so I had to hang up and use my mobile. I relayed this information to SIPGate but so far I haven't heard a response. In the email I did get I was told I wouldn't get a prompt response. I emailed sipgate on Sunday and it's now Wednesday and I haven't heard back. My number is being ported to sipgate and going live today and I am really concerned what I've got myself into. Please provide a better timescale of when you will respond back to customer requests.

I've only been with Sipgate for a short time and I'm already very impressed with their service! very professional too! I needed to change my number and the process couldn't have been any easier they were really friendly!

well done Sipgate! 5 stars to you!

I've been using Sipgate on & off for about a decade - always a pleasure and a great way to keep in touch with friends when you're abroad... Take a local number with you! I've just ported in my landline number because I've gone full fibre & entirely left the clutches of BT Group plc... I'm not sure I even need a landline in this day & age but this means I don't need to pay line rental while I decide.

One star knocked off because the porting in process seemed far more drawn out than any I've done at work. Ultimately successful though.

I have been with Sipgate For many years and have had no problems. Many new VoIP providers are now springing up and seem to charge for services which are included with Sipgate. A little technical knowledge Is needed to set the service up. I have two numbers with them.

Low cost and reliable provider. Highly recommend for residential use.

The basic service is OK but the greedy costs to set up, and then the forced payments and hurdles of getting your credit back when you leave mean you should avoid this company in favour of others that are CHEAPER, FREE to transfer in and RETURN YOUR CREDIT if you leave. The credit incidentally is YOUR MONEY. They are simply advance charging your card to give them a nice pot in the bank. Virtual Landlines are available from better companies.

I was skeptical at first, but it has now been over 5 years and Sipgate has been totally reliable. We don't use the landline that much, so we're on the Basic package and we average around £6 per month. The quality of the calls is very good, at least as good as a BT line would be. It did require some technical knowledge to set up and configure my VOIP adapter properly, but once that was done it has been rock solid. The Sipgate website has great technical documentation, and billing is straightforward and honest. I'm very pleased.

I have used Sipgate with Gigaset phones for near on 15 years with an installation in my UK Flat and a near identical installation in my Cyprus house. It just works - year after year after year. If someone rings me I just pick up the phone in whichever property I happen to be in!

Toob has just installed Full Fibre to the front door of my UK flat. It's an internet only contract, but even BT are trying to get rid of customers old analogue phones. When the BT contract ends I will be moving to Toob Full Fibre (at a very good price) and rely entirely on my Sipgate numbers - for historical reasons I have three!

Note to Sipgate: Toob alongside their service are selling a package from one of your competitors that is more expensive and less flexible. As alternatives to Open Reach become more available there are big opportunities for you, Sipgate.

Been a customer for over 5 years and not one problem plus no down time it just works plus £10 for unlimited uk call really cannot complain.

Thanks sipgate

I signed up with Sipgate 1 year ago and have been amazed at how good they are. Call quality is excellent and all the features that you would pay for with a BT line are all free. You can use pay as you go or for £10 call landlines and mobiles to your hearts content all with no contract. The only blip for me is you can't talk with anyone only messaging which is strange with them being a communications company.

Hey Sipgate why are you not advertising your company especially knowing how the world is now with more people working from home who could use the excellent services that you provide.

I was dreading moving to VoIP, almost certain I would lose my landline number and there would be hours of frustration.

None of that with Sipgate - simple application and the transfer and service implemented at exactly the time they told me. The number transfer was arranged by them.

I had the phones were working in a couple of minutes (including reading the phone manual).

All communication was by email, with quick and clear responses during the migration and afterwards.

Excellent

I have had a Sipgate Basic account for about a year, used for testing and for incoming calls.

Recently I needed to make a lot of outgoing calls and this was the cheapest way to do it. Topping-up was easy and the quality of calls is fine over my Internet. I did the first lot of calls via PAYG but, that having gone well and there being many more to make, I will be taking the £9.95 a month UK Call Package for a few months.

One of the best things is that you are not locked-in, like the big shyster telephone companies do. The need to make many calls will stop in a few months, after which I will stop the package. If I need it again when I can instantly re-start it, which might be the case next year.

Another reviewer talks about bureaucracy. Sending me a piece of paper via the post from Germany, as part of that, is very quaint. 20th Century. However, I suspect that this is at least as much due to UK bureaucracy as it is to German bureaucracy, probably more. I don't blame the company. In the UK the securocrats have been doing their best to grab information about who uses modern forms of communication for a long time and this will be part of that.

Overall I like the service. If you want hand-holding then other, more expensive, options are available. If you don't want hand-holding but want a reasonably-priced service then Sipgate are worth looking at. You can test it for free and, should your needs expand to multiple "lines" and the like, you can upgrade beyond the Basic service.

Brilliant service, saving me hundreds of pounds every year, can't fault them!