The best second phone number apps in 2026 are Phoner, Google Voice, OpenPhone, Grasshopper, and Dialpad. 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
| App | Typical price | IVR phone menu | Team routing | Texting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoner | $15 to $29/user/mo | Yes, visual builder | Yes, ring groups | Yes | Small teams, 2 to 25 people |
| Google Voice | Free to $20/user/mo | Limited | Basic | Yes | One person in Google Workspace |
| OpenPhone | $15 to $23/user/mo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Startups wanting shared inboxes |
| Grasshopper | $28 to $80/mo flat | Shallow | No real routing | Yes | Solo owners who dislike per-user billing |
| Dialpad | $15 to $27/user/mo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Teams that want AI call features |
1. Phoner: best 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 $29 Team plan, and the $15 Starter plan covers a solo founder with unlimited US and CA calling and voicemail-to-text.
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: best 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: 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: best flat price for solo owners
Grasshopper charges a flat $28 to $80 a month regardless of how many extensions you set up, which can be genuinely cheap for one or two people who hate per-seat billing. Setup is simple and the brand has been around since 2003. 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: best 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.
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: Phoner or OpenPhone; both grow into team routing without a migration.
- Team of 2 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.
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Phoner is a business phone system with mobile app built in: a local or toll-free number your whole team can answer, with an IVR menu, voicemail-to-text, and routing from $15 per user per month. No hardware, no contracts.