VoIP and SIP: What’s the Difference?

If you’re new to all things VoIP, then you’ll certainly be forgiven when it comes to understanding some of the more complex terms! However, boiling everything down, VoIP really couldn’t be much simpler. Is there anything easier than connecting to voice calls through the internet? While a lot of the jargon can seem complex to begin with, when you have the right team backing you up, there’s no reason why you won’t get a handle on things. That said – what on earth is SIP?

SIP is a term that comes up a lot when it comes to commissioning and running VoIP for businesses. Ultimately, it is a protocol through which you can run all of your VoIP based applications. But what do you really need to know about both VoIP and SIP before you get started?

Let’s take a look at what separates VoIP and SIP, and why understanding the differences is crucial to your business’ voice comms success.

VoIP: The Basics

Ok – so let’s focus on VoIP, first. Chances are, if you’ve already taken a look at what VoIPer has to offer, then you may well have a grasp on what the technology is, and how it can help you and your customers. The main thing to remember is that, unlike a standard telephone line or PSTN connection, voice calls through VoIP take place through data. That means you are effectively communicating via the internet.

There are many reasons why VoIP is so popular in the modern age. The first, of course, is cost. Traditional telephony and PSTN arrives with a number of different costs and charges, such as line rental, which simply don’t exist when you communicate through VoIP. What’s more, as your connection is data-based, there’s no risk of telephone poles or faulty wiring causing problems with your connection stability, or even the quality of your calls.

Beyond this, VoIP is flexible. It’s based off-site via the cloud, meaning that a service such as VoIPer will effectively manage your comms for you. There’s no need for you to have to fiddle around with the same old telephone lines and outdated hardware hour after hour. That’s going to cut down a fair bit of maintenance time.

Crucially, VoIP presents a direct link to customers that doesn’t revolve around outdated telephony. It really is the future!

So – Where Does SIP Come In?

SIP, or SIP trunking, is where things start to get a little more complex, though not to an unmanageable extent. In fact, SIP helps you to manage multiple applications and multiple connections through VoIP streams.

SIP is a protocol, whereas VoIP is the technology. Ultimately, it is a wrapper of sorts for you to manage and execute multiple programs at once. For example, you may want more than just a simple one-line approach, and may need video conferencing suites, IM integration and more besides. With SIP, you can have your cake and eat it, too!

SIP tends to be a great choice for those businesses that have complex communication needs, and that need more than a few simple channels. SIP tends to be a go-to option for larger, established businesses, though there is no reason why smaller firms can’t benefit from the protocol.

Which Option is Right For Me?

Understanding which method of connecting via VoIP is right for you can be a complex matter if you are completely new to the idea of data voice comms in the first place. However, providing you have a team of experts and VoIP provisioners working with you, there are no reasons why you won’t be able to find a bespoke solution to connect to the people that you need to work with.

At VoIPer, we are more than happy to support a wide array of different services and standards that will help you and your business reach out to more clients and more customers. Just getting started with VoIP? We’ll help you with basic connectivity. Want something fully-fledged and crammed full of features? We’ll help you find a bespoke SIP solution.

Why not take a look at the services and packages VoIPer has available right now to learn more? Call us if you need any specific help, too.