Before the era of VoIP phones came the era of second phone numbers. That’s what Sideline was created to do — give you a way to take incoming calls without using your personal cell phone number.
These days, basic second phone number apps pale in comparison to business virtual phone systems. And if you need something more than a Craigslist burner number, Sideline’s limited features may come up short.
We’re breaking down all of Sideline’s pricing and plans so you can decide whether or not it fits your needs. We’ll also explain its features and limitations, then offer an alternative with more capabilities at half the cost.
What is Sideline?
Sideline is not a traditional VoIP-based business phone system. Instead, it offers a second phone number and voicemail via its mobile app, relying on your current cell service for making and receiving business calls and texts.
Sideline pricing and plans at a glance
You can find Sideline’s pricing in its support and help docs to get a general idea of what you’ll pay per month.
Standard plan
The Standard plan comes with three different pricing options, depending on how often you want to pay.
- Monthly: $14.49 per month
- Half Yearly (six-month plan): $69.99 upfront
- Yearly (12-month plan): $129.99 upfront
There’s also a seven-day free trial available if you want to test the software for yourself.
Sideline’s plans come with a few basic features, including SMS and MMS, auto-replies, and voicemail to text. Keep in mind it’s not a true VoIP that works with WiFi — you need an existing phone plan to sign up for an account.
| Key features | What's missing |
|---|---|
| One user/second number per account | Auto-attendant |
| Customer support (email, text, and chat) | International calling |
| Free calls and texts in the US (with carrier minutes) | Multiple numbers per account |
| Group messaging (10 recipients total) | |
| Voicemail to text | |
| Auto-replies | |
| Number porting to Sideline |
Enterprise plan
The Enterprise plan doesn’t offer annual pricing — just month-to-month pricing at $14.49 per number per month. With it, you can add up to 200 phone numbers ($14.49 each) to a single Sideline account. You also unlock its two gated features: auto-attendants and international calling.
Unfortunately, you only unlock these features with an Enterprise plan — you’ll need to pay extra if you want to activate them. If you add auto-attendants and international calling to a single number, be prepared to pay $43.97 per month.
| Key features | What's missing |
|---|---|
| Up to 200 numbers per account ($14.49 per number per month) | Shared numbers |
| Auto-attendant ($14.49 per number per month) | International calling |
| International calling ($14.99 per number per month) | Multiple numbers per account |
You can’t create shared numbers with the Enterprise plan, but you can assign specific phone numbers to users. If you unassign a number and make it inactive, it gets stored in your library for future use. You’ll pay $14.49 per inactive number in your account — just as much as an active number.
💡 Related: GoDaddy Smartline vs. Sideline: The ultimate comparison guide
Sideline’s basic pricing plans are confusing enough.
Unfortunately, you’ll find even more confusing prices hidden in Sideline support docs:
- Location-based taxes: You may need to pay state-specific usage fees, depending on where you live in the US. If you live in a state like Iowa, Alabama, or Texas, your fees may be higher due to sales tax.
- Auto-attendant add-on: It takes three costly upgrades to get an auto-attendant with Sideline. First, you need to purchase an Enterprise account, which costs $14.49 per month. Then, you have to buy the add-on for auto-attendants, which costs an additional $14.49 per month. Finally, you’ll need to pay $14.49 per month for a new line to forward calls to. So it costs over $40 per month to set up an auto-attendant with one forwarding line, not to mention an additional $14.49 per month if you want multiple lines to forward calls to.
- Porting fee: Want to port your Sideline number to another business phone service? If you port a number to Sideline, you can port it out at any time, free of charge. But if you purchased a number through Sideline, you’ll need to pay a one-time fee of $19.99 to port it out. If you’re currently stuck with a Sideline plan, here’s how to port your number away from Sideline.
- International calling fee: International calling costs $14.99 per line per month. And since Sideline doesn’t offer shared team numbers, you’ll have to purchase the international calling add-on for every team member who speaks with long-distance clients.
5 things to keep in mind before committing to Sideline
Here are a few more reasons to consider Sideline alternatives:
1. Business phone features are limited
Sideline offers the bare-bones features you might expect from a traditional cell phone carrier. Unfortunately, that’s about all the functionality you get — which is likely not enough for growing small business owners.
No matter how much you upgrade with Sideline, you’ll never have access to:
- Shared numbers or shared inboxes
- Call recording
- Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, or APIs
- Analytics
- Automations aside from auto reply – there are no call transcription and summary features and no ability to log data in your CRM
- Toll-free numbers (local numbers available only)
If you need a business phone system rather than a burner phone number, you should look for a Sideline alternative.
💡 Related: Sideline vs. Line2: Which is best for business?
2. Communicating with international clients is complicated
It’s not easy to make phone calls overseas with Sideline.
First, you need to purchase an international calling plan, which costs $14.99 per line per month. This is only available for Enterprise accounts, which already start high at $14.49 per number per month.
Once upgraded, you can contact ~146 countries with Sideline’s international calling plan. However, 37 of these countries come with limitations and may not be reachable, depending on your carrier. You’ll also notice key areas missing from the list since Sideline doesn’t support outgoing calls to:
- Hawaii
- Alaska
- Jamaica
- Mexico (mobile numbers)
- China
Want to try sending a text message instead? No dice: you can’t send texts to international numbers.
And even if you do decide to pay for this upgrade, keep in mind Sideline publicly states that it cannot guarantee you’ll receive all incoming calls coming from abroad.
3. Relies on your mobile service
Unlike most other VoIP services, Sideline works best with a traditional phone plan. The company strongly recommends you have an active carrier plan when registering because if not, your call quality may be poor at best. According to documents hidden on its help desk, the system can be unreliable when used as a VoIP only.
You’re also required to have a US number to register, and it must be from the contiguous US ( not Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico). Plus, you may be charged texts and minutes on your regular cell plan if you don’t have unlimited calling and texting on your carrier plan.
Want to rely on WiFi to call and text customers? Then Sideline isn’t your best option.
4. Separating your personal number from your second number can be tricky
Most people purchase a second phone number to keep their personal and professional lives separate. But since Sideline works on your phone’s carrier service, there may be issues with your business calls going to your regular voicemail.
You might have to jump through hoops to keep your voicemails separate, especially if you’ve updated to iOS 17. Either way, this isn’t ideal for business owners who need a simple phone system to keep work and home apart.
💡Related: Google Voice vs. Sideline: Which is better for your business?
5. May be complicated to cancel
Ready to move away from Sideline? According to the help desk, it might be trickier than you think.
To stop future charges, you need to cancel your subscription through the App Store and the Sideline app. You also can’t request a refund directly from Sideline — you have to go through Apple or the Google Play Store, instead.
OpenPhone: A more effective alternative to Sideline
For personal users who need a second number, Sideline provides a decent service. But if you’re a growing small business owner needing a true virtual phone system, their high prices and limited features may not be a fit.
A better solution is a scalable business phone system that allows you to upgrade (or downgrade) as your business expands. This is why thousands of users choose OpenPhone over Sideline — because for $15 per user per month, you get all the features needed to grow your business.
Here’s what OpenPhone vs. Sideline looks like up close:
| Features | OpenPhone | Sideline |
|---|---|---|
| Price per month | $15 per user per month | $14.49 per number per month |
| Unlimited calling | ✓ | Requires carrier minutes |
| Unlimited SMS, MMS to US & Canada | ✓ | ✓ |
| Voicemail to text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Toll-free numbers | ✓ | X |
| Additional phone numbers | $5 per number | $14.49 per number per month |
| Number porting | ✓ | Porting out requires fee |
| Call recording | ✓ | X |
| Shared phone numbers | ✓ | Discontinued |
| Group text messaging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shared contacts | ✓ | X |
| Auto-replies | ✓ | ✓ |
| Snippets | ✓ | X |
| Slack integration | ✓ | X |
| AI features | ✓ | X |
| Gmail integration | ✓ | X |
| Zapier integration | ✓ | X |
| iOS and Android apps | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web-based apps | ✓ | For messaging only |
1. Transparent pricing
OpenPhone’s pricing starts at $15 per user per month, which is just pennies more than a Sideline plan. But unlike Sideline, you don’t need to go hunting for prices — all three plans are listed on our pricing page.
You don’t have to worry about hidden fees with OpenPhone, and you don’t have to pay add-on fees for mission-critical features like auto-attendants. Even on the Starter plan, you can add as many users as you need and share your business number with them.
2. Easy to set up and implement
It takes 15 minutes to get set up with OpenPhone, no matter how much experience you have with VoIP systems. Since we’ve designed our platform to look like your cell phone, it’s quick and intuitive to get up and running.
But that doesn’t mean you can only use your cell phone — OpenPhone also works on laptops, tablets, and desktops. And the best part is you don’t need a pre-existing phone plan. We run 100% on your internet connection.
3. Business-friendly features
You can use Sideline to make basic calls and texts, but even with upgrades, that’s about the extent of their services.
OpenPhone was built specifically for small business owners. As a result, we offer dozens more features at the same competitive price.
For example, you can use:
- Snippets to respond to common questions or comments
- Scheduled text messages that automatically reach customers in their time zone
- Auto-replies that instantly set expectations after missed calls, texts, and voicemails
- AI-generated responses to brainstorm ideas for texting clients back
- AI-generated call transcripts to easily get context on past conversations
- Analytics to measure call and message metrics
Ready to automate even more of your day? We offer direct integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot. This makes it easy to push data to your CRM and keep everyone updated as your customers’ needs change.
And if you need to build even more customized workflows, you can tap into webhooks and our Zapier integration. Let’s say you want to send a text to customers after they fill out a form on your website. All you need to do is set up a three-step Zapier automation, and you can enable the workflow in under 10 minutes.
4. Team up on communication
With Sideline, there’s no way to communicate or manage daily tasks with your team. But with OpenPhone, you can split responsibility for incoming calls on every plan.
First, you can tap into shared phone numbers (which Sideline discontinued in 2023). With shared phone numbers, everyone on your team receives the same call and text notifications. You can even create custom ring groups to prioritize which team members should hear notifications first.
[add shared numbers product image]
Need to delegate tasks or follow up on conversations? You can do this in OpenPhone without ever leaving the app. First, you can use internal threads and mentions to leave comments in specific customer conversations. You can also use warm transfer and custom contact properties to ensure customers never repeat the same information twice.
5. Freedom to work from anywhere
Sideline was built to run on your cell phone. OpenPhone lets you work from anywhere (and on any device) with a solid WiFi connection.
Plus, you can get as many US and Canadian numbers as you need — whether they’re local phone numbers or toll-free numbers.
Pros and cons of Sideline pricing plans
Sideline may be a decent option for keeping personal conversations private, but it might not offer the features you need for professional calls.
Pros:
- Competitive pricing: Sideline’s plans compete with other VoIP providers on a purely financial comparison.
- International calls available: Just keep in mind you can’t make outbound calls to Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, or China.
- Includes basic calling and texting: As long as your carrier plan includes text messaging and calling minutes, you won’t have to pay extra when using Sideline.
Cons:
- Expensive to scale: Sideline comes with lots of hidden fees, including monthly costs for features like auto-attendants.
- Only one number per account: With Sideline, you can only have a single number per account unless you upgrade to the Enterprise plan.
- Uses minutes from your plan: Since Sideline isn’t a true VoIP, it typically relies on minutes from your existing cell phone plan — which may or may not generate extra fees from your carrier.
- Limited business features: You’ll never have access to mission-critical features like analytics, integrations, and call recording.
See why OpenPhone is the best virtual phone service provider
Sideline was designed to be a second phone number app — not a virtual business phone service. That’s why platforms like OpenPhone make more sense for growing brands and why dozens of Sideline users migrate to our platform every year.
Unlike Sideline, OpenPhone offers true VoIP capabilities, toll-free numbers, and automations. We also offer unlimited calls in the US and Canada, with one free number per user on your account.
It’s easy to see why OpenPhone customers voted us the #1 business phone solution on G2. No need to take our word for it, though — try OpenPhone free for seven days.
