Managing business phone calls from your personal phone number can become very annoying, and it takes away your privacy. Not to mention it doesn’t scale as you hire more people.

This is why many new and established business owners use virtual business phone number apps to get a custom phone number for their business.

A virtual business phone number allows you to use the same number on laptops, mobile phone, desktop handsets, and more. You can easily answer calls, forward calls, record voice messages, and share the same number among employees.

You can quickly and easily set up a virtual business phone number without any technical knowledge. All you have to do is download the app on your phone or computer, and you can get started.

In this article, we’ll share our pick of the best virtual business phone number apps for small businesses (including free and unlimited options).

When Do You Need a Virtual Business Phone Number?

Whether you run a small business website or an eCommerce store, offering customers a fast way to contact you will help you grow your business.

Most businesses now have an online presence, and customers need multiple ways to reach out.

While communication tools like business email, live chat, or text messages (SMS) can be useful, nothing beats the personal human connection of hearing an actual human on the other end of the line.

Normally, businesses believe that having a landline number is quite enough. However, they soon realize how ineffective the traditional landlines are when it comes to handling business and customer calls.

And you definitely don’t want to make the mistake of using your personal phone number for business.

This is where a virtual business phone number app can help. It gives you the following benefits over the traditional landline phone and mobile phone numbers.

• You can use it on your personal cell phone with mobile apps, your laptop computer, existing desk phone, and other devices, instead of only relying on a physical phone line.
• One number can be shared by different employees at the same time. You can also assign a personal number or phone extensions for individual team members.
• Call routing, call recording, waiting, ringtones, vacation responses, business hours, caller id, and all other business communication functionality can all be managed via the app.
• Voice messages, text messaging, video conferencing, call to email transcription, and cheaper local/international phone calls are just the cherry on top.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best virtual business phone apps that you can use.

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Nextiva is the top virtual business phone number service provider on the market. They make it super easy to manage your virtual phone number using their app on your desktop / laptop computer, mobile phone, tablets, or a desk phone.

You can even keep your local phone number and use it with Nextiva to get HD voice calling over VoIP. They also allow you to get virtual business phone numbers for different geographic locations.

In other words, you can get local area code phone numbers for different US states to improve your local presence and better appeal to business owners and your target customers.

Nextiva has a powerful set of telephony features included in each plan like call forwarding/routing, auto attendant, receptionist, voicemail transcription, voice mail to email, call queuing, unlimited calls, and call analytics.

Nextiva also allows you to get vanity phone numbers for your business line, and they have an auto dialer feature to help you save time.

Their virtual phone system app works on both iPhone (iOS) and Android phones, so you can receive all inbound business calls on your personal mobile device.

Plus, Nextiva has integrations for apps like HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, and more.

For call centers and enterprise businesses, you can also use Nextiva to transition your Avaya private branch exchange (PBX system) into a powerful cloud phone system with SIP trunking.

Pricing: Starting from $18.95 per user each month.

RingCentral is a popular virtual phone service provider for small and enterprise businesses. With RingCentral, you can use your virtual business phone number from anywhere, on any device, using the RingCentral app. Aside from making HD voice calls, you can also send internet fax, SMS, or MMS from your computer or smartphone.

RingCentral offers toll-free numbers, local numbers, and international numbers for over 80 countries to help your business build a national or local presence.

It also comes with call forwarding, auto attendant features, call routing, voicemail-to-text, audio conferencing, video meetings, and much more.

RingCentral takes just a few minutes to set up and provides instant activation for multiple users and extensions.

Pricing: RingCentral starts at $19.99 per user/per month.

Ooma is another popular business VoIP phone provider that offers 1-800 toll free numbers at affordable prices. You can add a toll free virtual phone number to any Ooma office plan. By default, they will pre-select a toll-free phone number for you, but you also have the option to choose a new free business phone number.

Ooma office platform comes with all powerful features that you would expect from a VOIP service such as a virtual receptionist, extension dialing, music-on-hold, smart mobile phone apps, and more.

Best of all the setup is very easy, and you can do it within minutes.

Pricing: Their plan starts at $19.95 per month which comes with a free toll-free number and 35+ business phone features.

Grasshopper is an easy virtual phone number provider for startups and small businesses. It comes with a mobile app that allows you to manage your business phone system on any device and from any location.

They offer virtual business numbers, vanity numbers, local numbers for different regions, and 800 and 833 toll-free numbers to choose from.

You can keep business and personal calls separate with the same device and never miss a call. Grasshopper combines all essential features in one package with call forwarding, call transfer, voice mail, business texting, business VoIP and WiFi calling, automated greeting, and more.

A lot of small business owners use Grasshopper to receive incoming calls on their personal phone plans.

Pricing: Starting from $26 per month for 1 number and 3 extensions.

If you are looking for a free virtual business phone app, then Google Voice would be the best option for you. If you are already using G Suite, then you can integrate it with all other Google Apps you are already using for your business.

Individual users and solopreneurs can use the personal plan to get a virtual phone number and call anywhere in the US and Canada for free.

However, the personal plan does not give you access to many of the business phone features included in their business plan such as auto-attendant, desk phone support, etc.

Pricing: Free for personal use. Paid plans start from $10 per user/per month.

Phone.com is another great option to get a virtual business phone system. They offer affordable business phone services for startups, solopreneurs, and small businesses.

They also offer cheaper call rates to some European countries and Canada by counting those as local call minutes. From a features perspective, you get mobile apps, call forwarding/routing, virtual assistant, IVR menus, text messaging, fax, and more.

They offer pay-per-minute plans which allow you to pay less based on your usage. However, it can easily get very expensive as your business needs grow.

Pricing: Pay-per-minute plans start from $12.99 per month. Unlimited plans start from $29.99 / month per extension.

eVoice is a popular business phone company and VoIP provider offering international coverage, particularly in the United Kingdom. They offer a business phone system, virtual telephone numbers, toll-free numbers, and local numbers for different regions.

Their plans include call management tools, virtual receptionist, outbound calling app, conference calling and more. You can get custom phone numbers for UK, EU, Canada, USA, and many other countries.

You can choose from multiple plans each comes with a different number of users you can add, and set of call minutes. Call forwarding rates are different based on your location and the number you are forwarding to.

Pricing: Starting from £7.50 per month for 1 user.

We hope this article helped you find the best virtual business phone app for your business. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free business email address, and the best email marketing services for small business.

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