Ready to switch your business phone provider or set up a dedicated business number? A virtual phone number can offer the flexibility and features your growing team needs. If you’re looking to save time and have the tools to deliver a great customer experience, read on as we cover the 10 best virtual phone number providers.
How the best virtual phone number providers compare
Here’s a quick overview of key features in different VoIP phone systems:
| OpenPhone | Grasshopper | Nextiva | RingCentral | Google Voice | Phone.com | CallHippo | eVoice | GoTo Connect | Vonage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Starts at $15 per user per month | Starts at $28 per month | Starts at $23.95 per user per month | Starts at $19.99 per user per month | Starts at $10 per user per month | Starts at $11.99 per user per month | Starts at $30 per user per month | Starts at $12 per user per month | Starts at $24 per user per month | Starts at $19.99 per line per month |
| Unlimited calling to US & Canada | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Unlimited calls to Canada from US only | Requires upgrade | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| SMS/MMS to US & Canada | ✓ | Local numbers only | Requires upgrade | ✓ | US customers only | ✓ | SMS only | SMS only | For US & Canadian customers only | Local US and Canadian numbers only |
| Voicemail transcriptions | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Requires upgrade | x | ✓ | ✓ | Requires upgrade |
| Set business hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Additional phone numbers | $5 per number per month | $10 per number per month | x | $4.99 per number per month | x | $4.99 per number per month | x | ✓ | $5 per number per month | $4.99 per extension per month |
| Call recording | ✓ | x | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | Available as an add-on | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade |
| Shared phone numbers | ✓ | x | ✓ | Up to 20 users | Requires upgrade (ring groups only) | $5 per month | ✓ | x | ✓ (up to 8 phones) | x |
| Auto-attendant (virtual receptionist) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 1 included; requires upgrade for more | Requires upgrade |
| Auto-replies | ✓ | ✓ | x | x | x | x | x | x | ✓ | x |
| Slack integration | ✓ | x | x | Requires upgrade | x | x | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zapier integration | ✓ | x | x | Requires upgrade | x | ✓ | ✓ | x | ✓ | Requires upgrade |
| CRM integration | Requires upgrade | x | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | x | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade | x | Requires upgrade | Requires upgrade |
| iOS and Android apps | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Browser app | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Desktop app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ | x | ✓ | ✓ |
10 best virtual phone number providers
The best virtual phone number providers help you streamline your business communication, and we’ll highlight the types of features most helpful to teams. With that in mind, here are the 10 best virtual phone number providers for 2023.
1. OpenPhone: The best virtual number service for small businesses and growing teams
OpenPhone is the modern business phone system for startups and small businesses. Using OpenPhone, you can build stronger relationships with your customers — all while saving more time than you would with most other phone solutions.
With OpenPhone, you can make free calls and texts to US and Canadian numbers. Need to offer overseas clients a way to call you for free? Get a toll-free number from OpenPhone.
How to get a virtual number with OpenPhone
Getting a new phone number from almost anywhere in the world is a simple process when you choose OpenPhone as your virtual phone number provider. Follow these three steps:
- Create an account with OpenPhone (when you sign up, you get a free, seven-day trial).
- During signup, choose your city or area code in the US to select your preferred phone number.
- Once the signup process is complete, you’re all set to use your new virtual phone number!
OpenPhone integrates with all the popular business apps, including HubSpot, Zapier, Salesforce, and Slack to streamline your communications. With tools like auto-replies and snippets, your team can save time when responding to client texts, improving productivity.
Plus, our pricing page lets you easily anticipate what you’ll pay as you grow without hidden fees, which is a major problem with some VoIP systems.
Key features
- Local US, Canadian, and toll-free number options
- Free calling and texting (SMS and MMS) to US and Canadian numbers
- Auto-replies, snippets, and scheduled texts
- Voicemail transcription
- Call routing
- Call recording
- Free phone number porting
- Auto-attendant (IVR)
- Custom business hours
Pricing
- Starter: $15 per user per month
- Business: $23 per user per month to access call transfer, analytics, CRM integrations, and more
- Enterprise: Contact for custom pricing
Sign up for OpenPhone’s free, seven-day trial to test out for yourself.
2. Grasshopper
Grasshopper is an older virtual phone system that started in 2003. Their business phone solution for small businesses offers phone menus, call forwarding, and other features you’d expect.
However, there are some areas where it lacks. For example, Grasshopper’s service doesn’t offer basic features like call recording. Grasshopper also only integrates with apps like Skype or Google Voice to forward calls.
Grasshopper also doesn’t have shared phone numbers — a feature allowing team members to collaborate on client communications via a single number. It does offer the option to ring your team simultaneously, but you’ll have to pay $10 extra per month for call blasting.
One thing unique to Grasshopper is pricing: this is based on the number of phone numbers and extensions you need — and it’s expensive. The mid-tier plan costs $46 per month and provides three phone numbers and six extensions, but is only recommended for up to three employees. You also pay $10 per business phone number if you need more virtual numbers than your plan offers.
Key features
- Unlimited calling in the US and Canada
- Voicemail transcription
- Multi-level auto-attendant (IVR)
- Custom greetings
- Call forwarding
- Integrations for Skype and Google Voice
- Desktop and mobile apps
Pricing
- Solo: $28 per month (1 phone number, 3 extensions)
- Partner: $46 per month (3 phone numbers, 6 extensions)
- Small Business: $80 per month (5 phone numbers, unlimited extensions)
3. Nextiva
Nextiva is a virtual phone system more popular among enterprise-level businesses. The reason? Nextiva integrates with Outlook but not Gmail, which is popular among small businesses. It also doesn’t integrate with Slack, but you can integrate it with Microsoft Teams with an upgrade.
Another catch: basics like mobile SMS/MMS and multi-level auto-attendant are only available in the mid-tier plan. If you need to record business calls or integrate with Microsoft Teams, you’ll need to upgrade to the highest-tier plan at $37.95 per user per month.
The pricing for Nextiva’s three tiers (Essential, Professional, and Enterprise) can be confusing. The cost for all tiers changes based on your team’s size and whether you pay monthly or annually.
Key features
- Unlimited calling to US and Canada
- Shared phone numbers
- Auto-attendant
- Call routing
- Integrations for CRM, Zapier, and more (Requires upgrade)
Pricing
As mentioned above, keep in mind Nextiva’s pricing depends on your team’s size and costs more per user for smaller teams. For a team of up to 4 members:
- Essential: $23.95 per user per month
- Professional: $27.95 per user per month to access texting, CRM integrations, and conference calling
- Enterprise: $37.95 per user per month to access call recordings and video conference recordings
4. RingCentral
You’ve probably heard of RingCentral. The virtual number service has been around for a long time and is popular among enterprise users. It offers some advanced functionalities like real-time analytics and APIs.
If you’re a small business or growing team, using RingCentral might mean paying for a lot of features you don’t need, like call parking, while the features you do need (like call recording) are unavailable unless you upgrade.
Like Nextiva, RingCentral’s pricing is complex. It has four pricing tiers, and the price for all tiers changes based on your team’s size and whether you pay monthly or annually.
The basic plan only allows up to 20 users — any more and you have to upgrade. Also, the basic plan only lets each user send up to 25 text messages per month before they charge you extra.
Key features
- Unlimited calls within US and Canada
- Team messaging
- Screen sharing
- Call log reports for inbound and outbound calls
- Call analytics (requires upgrade)
- Desktop, Android, and iOS apps
Pricing
For a team of up to 20 members:
- Essentials: $19.99 per user per month
- Standard: $27.99 per user per month to access phone menus, on-demand call recordings, and integrations to Slack, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and more
- Premium: $34.99 per user per month to access automatic call recordings, analytics, call whisper, CRM integrations, and RingCentral APIs (requires a minimum of 3 users)
- Ultimate: $49.99 per user per month to access unlimited storage, device monitoring, and device status reports
5. Google Voice
Google Voice is popular for its free plan. However, the free version isn’t a great option for businesses because of limited functionality and limited availability (Google’s free version is available in the US only). If you need a phone system to offer your clients excellent customer support or collaborate with your team, Google Voice’s free plan isn’t the best choice.
Google Voice for Google Workspace is more suited for business use, though it only offers a handful of advanced features.
With Google Voice, you can forward phone calls, transcribe voicemails, or integrate with Google Meet and Google Calendar. But you’ll need to upgrade if you want to set up a virtual receptionist or use ring groups (simultaneous ringing for incoming calls).
Google Voice for Google Workspace’s Starter plan costs $10 per user per month. But it forces you to upgrade when the number of users grows beyond 10. You also don’t just pay the price for Google Voice services. You also need a Google Workspace subscription, which costs $6 per user per month.
Key features
- Unlimited calling to US numbers
- Voicemail transcription
- Web and mobile apps
- Call forwarding
- Call recording (requires upgrade)
Pricing
- Starter: $10 per user per month
- Standard: $20 per user per month to access on-demand call recordings, ring groups, and phone menus
- Premier: $30 per user per month to access automatic call recordings and advanced reporting
Plus $6 per user per month for Google Workspace, bringing your total to a minimum of $16 per month.
6. Phone.com
Phone.com is a low-cost virtual number platform. With Phone.com, you can quickly purchase local numbers, video conference with your team, or send text messages with an easy-to-use mobile app.
A part of the reason why it costs less is its limited feature set. For example, the basic plan only offers 500 pooled minutes per user for calling and 1,000 pooled text segments (each segment is a text message of up to 160 characters).
Voicemail transcription, call recording, and CRM integration are only available with an upgrade. And unless you pick a more expensive plan, Phone.com limits you to one phone number per account.
Key features
- Unlimited calling to US and Canada (requires upgrade)
- Voicemail transcription (requires upgrade)
- Auto-attendant
- Zapier integration
- Apps for browser and mobile
Pricing
- Basic: $11.99 per user per month
- Plus: $15.99 per user per month to access unlimited calling, voicemail transcriptions, HIPAA-compliant video conferencing, and desk phone compatibility
- Pro: $23.99 per user per month to access CRM integrations, call analytics, and free call recording
7. CallHippo
CallHippo is a softphone that offers an office phone system and a call center solution. However, the office phone system has fewer features at a pretty hefty price tag. For example, features like voicemail-to-email notifications, call recording, and analytics are only available with an upgrade ($38 per user per month).
Bottom line: CallHippo services cost more than many other premium services on the market, with its basic plan at $30 per user per month.
Key features
- Unlimited calling within US and Canada
- Set business hours
- Ring groups
- Interactive voice response (IVR)
- Call recording (requires upgrade)
- 24/7 support (available on the top-tier plan)
Pricing
- Starter: $30 per user per month
- Professional: $38 per user per month to access call recordings, voicemail to email notifications, and call tagging
- Ultimate: $42 per user per month to access webhooks, integrations, and audit logs
8. eVoice
eVoice is a virtual phone number app that works differently than other VoIP providers on the list.
Sure, eVoice lets you buy a toll-free or local phone number, but it requires you to own a working device (like a mobile phone or desk phone). It then forwards calls and texts to your device, so you can only make and receive calls as long as you have that phone.
The basic plan offers auto-attendants, conference calling, and virtual voicemail. Need vanity numbers, call recording, and international numbers? You’ll need to add these features to your plan for an extra monthly charge. eVoice also doesn’t offer a trial, so you have no way to determine how it fits your needs without buying a plan.
Key features
- Local phone numbers
- Call routing
- Caller ID
- International forwarding
- Voicemail to email, text, and mobile
- Simultaneous ring
Pricing
- Elite Annual: $12 per user month
- Custom: Contact for pricing
9. GoTo Connect
GoTo Connect, formerly Jive, offers a solid feature set. The cloud-based phone system includes almost all the basics, such as unlimited extensions, call forwarding, and vanity numbers.
The catch is GoTo Connect’s pricing. The service charges more than most services on the market.
The basic plan is significantly limited in features too. You can only video conference with up to four participants and meetings are capped at 40 minutes. You’re also forced to upgrade from the basic plan once your team grows to over 20 employees. Texting is also only available to US and Canadian customers.
The pricing also differs based on your team’s size. And unfortunately, smaller teams using GoTo Connect pay more per user.
Key features
- Unlimited extensions
- Smart call routing
- Local, toll-free, and vanity numbers
- Auto-attendant recorded greetings
- Ring groups
- Call queues
Pricing
For teams with 2 to 10 members:
- Basic: $24 per user per month
- Standard: $29 per user per month to access call recordings, paging, 1,000 toll-free minutes, and free international calling to 50+ countries
10. Vonage
Vonage is a popular VoIP service provider. The basic plan offers just the bare minimum, including unlimited calls and SMS, unlimited team messaging, and mobile and desktop apps.
CRM integrations, multi-level auto-attendants, and on-demand call recording are all locked behind higher-tier plans. Toll-free numbers are available as an add-on service and cost $39.99 per month (and only available to US customers), while virtual phone extensions cost $24.99 per month.
Bottom line: When you’re already paying $19.99 per line per month for the basic plan, spending on expensive add-ons may not make a lot of business sense.
Key features
- Unlimited calls and SMS in US and Canada
- Unlimited team messaging
- Multi-level auto-attendant (requires upgrade)
- CRM integration (requires upgrade)
- Call recording (requires upgrade)
- Visual voicemail (requires upgrade)
Pricing
For teams of up to 4 members:
- Mobile: $19.99 per line per month
- Premium: $29.99 per line per month to access phone menus, CRM integrations, and desk phone compatibility
- Advanced: $39.99 per line per month to access voicemail transcriptions, call groups, and on-demand call recordings
How we ranked the best virtual phone number services for business
We considered multiple factors before ranking the best VoIP service providers. Here are the aspects we looked at:
- Price: While you don’t want to pick the cheapest option, price is still an important factor, especially when you’re starting a business. Options that deliver the most value ranked higher.
- Call management: Call management is crucial to keep your team productive. Features like VoIP call forwarding, IVR, and call screening help manage inbound calls more effectively.
- Integrations: Integrating your phone system with your business app stack makes it easier to move information between them. For example, integrating your phone system with your CRM helps sync contacts and log calls to your CRM.
- Customer support: When you run into a problem or can’t figure out how something works, you need help fast. Businesses can’t wait, so you need a VoIP service provider with great customer support.
- User experience: The VoIP system’s interface, uptime, and call quality, among other things, are the primary factors impacting user experience. User experience can also translate to a poor calling experience for clients. You don’t want to be stuck with a system that makes you look unprofessional when interacting with clients.
- Advanced features: Advanced features help the phone system scale as your business grows. While you might not use many advanced features right away, phone systems that offer them are better positioned as your needs change.
Why you need a virtual phone number for your business
Ditching your landline and cell phones in favor of a virtual business number is a great decision. Here are the benefits you can expect once you start using a virtual number:
- Communicate using any device, from anywhere: You can keep in touch with your team or clients using any device — a computer, smartphone, or tablet — as long as you have access to a solid internet connection.
- Share access to phone numbers: Your teammates can work with you to build customer relationships and ensure no conversations slip through the cracks when you’re unavailable. For example, here’s how you can share numbers on OpenPhone:
- Scalable: Virtual phone systems are scalable. You can add team members as the business grows without spending a significant amount.
- Additional numbers: You can get as many numbers as you need. Teams can get a different number for each location or department, or direct numbers for individuals.
The best virtual phone number provider: OpenPhone
Virtual phone numbers are critical for modern businesses, especially remote teams. With a virtual number, you can collaborate with your team and keep communicating with clients from any device with an internet connection.
OpenPhone helps streamline your communications with a comprehensive feature set tailored to growing teams. And as you scale, OpenPhone scales with you.
Sign up for a free, seven-day trial of OpenPhone today.
