· 9 min read
The Best Virtual Phone Number Services in 2026
The best virtual phone number service depends on which of three products you're actually shopping for, because "virtual phone number" covers three markets that barely overlap. Personal services give you a free or cheap second line for everyday life. Business services sell numbers wrapped in team features, and their pricing reflects that you're buying a phone system. Privacy services sell numbers designed to be anonymous, plural, or disposable. Roundups that rank all three on one list produce nonsense like a free ad-supported app "beating" a business phone system, so this one keeps the tiers explicit.
A quick definition for anyone arriving cold: a virtual number is a real, dialable phone number that lives with a service provider instead of a SIM card, reachable through apps, browsers, or forwarding to a phone you already own. Everything below sells some version of that; what differs is who pays, how, and what happens around the number.
How we picked
Every service here had to clear four bars. The number has to be a real, dialable number that can both make and receive calls and texts, which excludes receive-only code-catching sites. The service has to be established and actively maintained, because a virtual number accumulates account logins and contacts that make dead services expensive to leave. Pricing has to be knowable before signup. And each entry has to be the strong pick for at least one concrete use case, since a list of seven near-identical apps helps nobody. We have no product in this market and no affiliate stake in the ranking; the evaluation criteria are the ones we apply across all our comparisons, which is exactly why we can say plainly where each service is weak.
The personal tier
1. Google Voice
For a free personal US number, Google Voice remains the benchmark. Calls and texts to the US and Canada cost nothing, voicemail is transcribed, the web app is excellent, and there are no ads. Its constraints are equally famous: signup is US-only and requires an existing US number, unused numbers get reclaimed after roughly six months, and support is effectively absent. As a free second line for a US resident it's very hard to beat; as anything else it's the wrong tool, and the full list of escape routes lives in our guide to Google Voice alternatives.
Where it wins: free, ad-free, transcribed voicemail, first-class browser experience.
Where it hurts: US-only signup with a US number required, inactivity reclamation, no international numbers, no real support.
Pricing: free for personal US use; metered international calling.
Best for: a free personal second line for anyone in the US.
2. TextNow
TextNow is the free option for people Google Voice turns away, since it requires no existing number to sign up. You get a US number with unlimited US and Canada calling and texting, funded by ads, with a small subscription to remove them and lock your number against recycling. The ads are a real presence and the VoIP number gets rejected by some verification systems, but as a zero-cost entry point to a working second line, it's the most accessible thing on this list. The wider free landscape, including its limits, is mapped in our guide to getting a free virtual phone number.
Where it wins: free with no signup wall, unlimited US and Canada calls and texts, apps plus a usable web version.
Where it hurts: persistent ads, number recycling on inactivity, VoIP verification rejections.
Pricing: free with ads; small subscription for ad removal and number lock.
Best for: a free number when you can't clear Google Voice's signup requirements.
The business tier
3. OpenPhone
OpenPhone is the default recommendation for small businesses, and it earns that position with one idea executed well: the phone number as a shared team inbox. Numbers can belong to multiple people, conversations carry internal threads and mentions, texting supports snippets, scheduled sends, and automation, and the apps are clean on every platform. Solo founders run it happily, and it scales to small teams without the configuration burden of a full phone system. There's no free tier, and heavy international calling gets metered on top of the seat price.
Where it wins: shared numbers with team inboxes, the best texting feature set in the tier, fast setup, clean apps.
Where it hurts: no free tier, US and Canada numbers only, metered international calls.
Pricing: per-seat subscription.
Best for: small businesses that want a professional shared line without running a phone system.
4. Dialpad
Dialpad is the step up when a team stops needing a shared number and starts needing infrastructure: IVR menus, ring groups, analytics, CRM integrations, and AI transcription with call summaries that managers actually read. It's priced and designed per seat for organizations, which makes it overkill for individuals, and its trial-to-deployment path assumes somebody owns phone administration as part of their job. Within its lane it's excellent, and its lane is teams.
Where it wins: AI transcription and summaries, real admin controls, integrations, support with an SLA.
Where it hurts: feature depth an individual will never use, per-seat cost, setup that expects an administrator.
Pricing: per-seat subscription, tiered.
Best for: teams that need a phone system with modern AI features.
5. Sonetel
Sonetel covers the business case the North American tools ignore: local presence abroad. It sells virtual numbers in a large set of countries, so a small business can list a local number in the markets it sells to and forward calls anywhere, at prices aimed at small companies rather than enterprises. The apps and polish trail OpenPhone and Dialpad noticeably, and its texting support varies by country, so it wins on geographic reach rather than product feel. If you're deciding which countries even matter for your customers, our country dialing guides are a useful companion.
Where it wins: local numbers in far more countries than anyone else in this list, cheap entry pricing, call forwarding to anywhere.
Where it hurts: less polished apps, uneven SMS support across countries, and regulatory paperwork for numbers in some markets.
Pricing: low monthly fee per number; calls metered or bundled.
Best for: businesses that need local numbers in multiple countries.
The privacy tier
6. Hushed
Hushed is the privacy pick for numbers you intend to keep for a while. It sells US, Canada, and UK numbers on prepaid plans with minimal identity requirements, supports several numbers in parallel, and has no ads because the product is the product. Plans range from short-term to annual, so it stretches from semi-disposable use into permanent-second-line territory. Nothing is free, lapsed plans surrender the number, and like all VoIP services its numbers face rejection from some verification systems.
Where it wins: minimal identity at signup, UK numbers, multiple parallel numbers, prepaid flexibility with no subscription lock-in.
Where it hurts: no free tier, numbers die with lapsed plans, VoIP verification limits.
Pricing: prepaid per-number plans; credit for international calling.
Best for: privacy-conscious users who want a lasting number without a subscription.
7. Burner
Burner is the privacy pick for numbers you intend to destroy. Create a line for a marketplace sale, a dating profile, or a short project, and when it's done, burn it: the number and its history are severed permanently. That model, and the calm of a paid ad-free app, is the entire pitch, and for its use case nothing else is as clean. For long-term numbers it's the weaker choice against Hushed, and it serves the US and Canada only. If your need is even more fleeting than Burner's model, receive-only options exist and are compared in our guide to temporary phone numbers.
Where it wins: disposable numbers as a first-class concept, multiple parallel lines, quick setup.
Where it hurts: US and Canada only, subscription cost for occasional needs, burned numbers are unrecoverable.
Pricing: subscription tiers by number count, with a trial.
Best for: short-lived numbers for selling, dating, and projects.
The best virtual phone number services at a glance
| Service | Tier | Free option | Countries | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Voice | Personal | Yes | US only | Free US second line |
| TextNow | Personal | Yes, with ads | US only | Free line, no signup wall |
| OpenPhone | Business | No | US, Canada | Small business shared line |
| Dialpad | Business | No | Many, business tiers | Teams and phone systems |
| Sonetel | Business | No | Very many | International local presence |
| Hushed | Privacy | No | US, CA, UK | Lasting private numbers |
| Burner | Privacy | Trial | US, Canada | Disposable numbers |
How to actually choose
Decide your tier first and the shortlist collapses to two. Personal and free means Google Voice if you're in the US with a number to verify, TextNow if you're not or don't. Business means OpenPhone until you have a team that needs IVR, analytics, and transcription, at which point Dialpad, unless your defining need is local numbers abroad, which hands the decision to Sonetel. Privacy means Hushed for numbers you'll keep and Burner for numbers you'll burn.
Two cross-tier warnings apply everywhere. Verification systems distrust VoIP numbers regardless of brand, so if receiving codes from banks and apps is a primary use, test your critical services during a trial before committing to any of these. And free numbers are lent, never owned: both free services recycle inactive numbers, so anything that matters long-term belongs on a paid number, a theme our deeper dive into the best second phone number apps returns to with a full pre-commitment checklist.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best virtual phone number service overall? There's no single answer because the market splits into tiers: Google Voice leads for free personal US use, OpenPhone for small businesses, Dialpad for teams, Hushed for privacy, and Sonetel for international local numbers. Any service claiming to be best at all of those is best at none of them.
Are virtual phone numbers really free? Some are, with strings attached. Google Voice is free but US-gated and reclaims idle numbers; TextNow is free but ad-funded with number recycling. Every other credible service charges, because numbers carry real carrier costs. Free tiers are fine for casual use and wrong for numbers you can't afford to lose.
Can I use a virtual number for WhatsApp, banks, and app verifications? Sometimes. Verification systems check whether a number is VoIP and many reject those ranges, so success varies by service and changes over time. Google Voice tends to pass more often than app-store VoIP numbers, and no virtual number passes everywhere. Test your specific services before relying on one.
Can I get a virtual number for another country? Yes. Sonetel covers the widest set of countries on this list, Hushed adds UK numbers to North America, and SIP providers rent numbers in dozens of countries for the technically inclined. Google Voice, TextNow, OpenPhone, and Burner are North America only.
Do virtual numbers work for calls from a computer? Mostly yes, and it's one of their best features. Google Voice, OpenPhone, and Dialpad all offer full browser or desktop calling, TextNow has a web version, while Burner and Hushed are phone-first. If browser calling is the point, that decision has its own considerations, covered in our guide to calling from your browser.