Best Second Phone Number App for Business in 2026

The best second phone number app for business in 2026 is one of five: Phoner, Google Voice, OpenPhone, Grasshopper or Dialpad. Pick Phoner or OpenPhone if more than one person answers the line, Google Voice if you are solo and on a budget. All five put a separate work number on the phone you already carry; they differ on price, team features, and how far they scale beyond one person. What each of them is really selling is a virtual phone number: a line that lives in software instead of on a SIM.

We build one of these apps, so read the Phoner entry knowing that. We have kept the takes honest, and each entry says who should pick something else. Prices below are typical published rates as of mid-2026; check each vendor for current numbers. If you want the feature-by-feature grid rather than these narrative writeups, our business phone app comparison lines the same providers up side by side.

The comparison at a glance

1. Phoner for small teams that share numbers

Phoner is a full business phone number app rather than just a second line: you pick a local, toll-free, or vanity number, and the whole team can answer it from iOS, Android, desktop, or the browser. The visual IVR builder ("press 1 for sales, 2 for support") and ring groups are the standout: features that usually hide in enterprise tiers sit on the $17 Team plan, and the $9 Starter plan covers unlimited US and CA calling and voicemail-to-text. Prices are per user billed yearly, and every plan starts at 3 users ($27 a month on Starter), so a solo founder pays for a small team from day one.

Honest limits: no free tier, and if you need a full UCaaS suite with video conferencing and contact-center analytics, this is not that. Phoner is deliberately a phone system, not a communications platform.

Pick it if: 2 to 25 people need to share one professional number with real routing, month-to-month, without enterprise sales calls.

2. Google Voice as the free-ish option for one person

Google Voice gives one person a real US number with solid spam filtering and tight Gmail and Calendar integration. The personal tier is free, and paid tiers start around $10 per user per month, but they require Google Workspace, so budget for that too.

Honest limits: the IVR options are thin, shared numbers and team routing are weak, and support is community-grade. It behaves like what it is: a side feature of a much larger company.

Pick it if: you are one person, already pay for Workspace, and want the cheapest respectable second line.

3. OpenPhone for the best shared-inbox workflow

OpenPhone is the closest rival to Phoner in spirit: modern apps, clean design, per-user pricing from about $15. Its signature move is treating a phone number like a shared inbox where teammates see calls, texts, and internal comments in one thread. Contact notes and integrations are strong. We put the two head to head in more detail on our OpenPhone alternative page.

Honest limits: the IVR configuration is less visual, and some recording and transfer capabilities sit in higher tiers. Pricing has crept upward as the product matured.

Pick it if: your team lives in shared text threads with customers and wants collaboration features first, phone-menu depth second.

4. Grasshopper for a flat price as a solo owner

Grasshopper charges a flat rate for the whole account regardless of how many people use it: True Solo at $14 a month with one number and one extension, Solo Plus at $25 with three extensions, and Small Business at $55 with four numbers and unlimited extensions, all billed annually. For one or two people who dislike per-seat billing that is genuinely cheap. It publishes a phone menu and automatic call recording configurable per extension, which a lot of comparison articles still say it lacks. The costs that do not appear in the headline are the ones to plan for: additional numbers are $9 a month, extra extensions on Solo Plus are $3, and texting is not included at all, carrying a $19.50 registration fee plus $1.50 a month. Where the flat rate stops paying off is covered on our Grasshopper alternative comparison.

Honest limits: there is no real team routing or ring groups, the apps feel dated next to newer rivals, extra numbers cost extra, and the phone menu is shallow. It forwards calls; it does not orchestrate a team.

Pick it if: you are a solo operator or a two-person shop that just needs a professional front number forwarding to cell phones.

5. Dialpad if you want AI on every call

Dialpad starts around $15 per user per month and layers AI over everything: live transcription, call summaries, coaching hints for sales teams. Voice quality is strong and the platform scales well into contact-center territory. If the AI tier is more than a small team needs, our Dialpad alternative page lays out the trade.

Honest limits: the AI features that appear in the marketing often live in higher tiers, so read the plan matrix carefully. For a 4-person office that just wants calls answered by the right person, it can feel like buying a cockpit to drive to the grocery store.

Pick it if: call transcription and AI summaries are the point, not a nice-to-have.

What a second business number costs for two people

Per-user and flat pricing cross over quickly, so here is the yearly bill for an owner and one employee on the cheapest tier that gives both a menu and texting. Phoner Team is $17 per user billed yearly, so $34 a month and $408 a year. OpenPhone and Dialpad land between $30 and $54 a month for two seats depending on tier and billing term. Grasshopper's flat plans are cheaper on paper, but texting is a paid add-on, so check the final total. Google Voice is $10 to $20 per user on a paid plan, and the free personal tier is not allowed to send business texts. Confirm every figure on the vendor's pricing page before you buy.

If you only need a second line on one phone, read our walkthrough of a second phone line for business without a SIM before paying for a team plan.

How to choose in five minutes

• Solo, cheapest possible: Google Voice, then Grasshopper if you want a more business-shaped front.
• Solo, planning to hire: OpenPhone now, or Phoner once you are three people; both handle team routing without a migration.
• Team of 3 to 25 sharing numbers: Phoner for the visible IVR builder and consent-aware call recording; OpenPhone if shared text threads matter more.
• AI transcription is the priority: Dialpad.

Whichever you pick, insist on three things: month-to-month billing, free number porting in and out (your number is yours; see how porting works), and apps you actually enjoy opening. And before you sign up anywhere, decide whether a local or toll-free number fits your customers better; our toll-free vs local number guide settles that in a few minutes.