Compare Free and Paid Calling Apps for Personal and Business Use

You might only want a number you can give to people without handing over your personal mobile number. Then you open a comparison article and find yourself reading about sales dashboards and software subscriptions for an entire office.

That's the trouble with shopping for Google Voice alternatives. A free texting app and a business phone system can end up on the same list, with very little explanation of who should pay for what.

For occasional personal calls, TextNow is a reasonable place to start, subject to its location restrictions. If colleagues need to answer the same customers, look more closely at Quo or Grasshopper. Dialpad and Zoom Phone deserve a look when phone calls are a regular part of your working day.

The comparisons below use official product pages and help documents. They aren't based on firsthand call-quality tests. Prices are in US dollars and were checked on September 8, 2026.

Compare the options at a glance

Start with the row that matches how you'll use the number. The lowest advertised price won't always be the lowest bill once you add colleagues or extra features.

Before you leave Google Voice

Write down what's bothering you about the service. Be specific. “I need my assistant to answer when I'm unavailable” gives you something useful to compare. “I want something better” leaves you at the mercy of whichever provider has the longest feature list.

Check your current plan, too. Google sells paid Voice plans alongside its consumer service. Its Workspace Standard plan already offers ring groups and auto attendants, which help route incoming calls. If that's all you're missing, an upgrade belongs in the comparison. Google Voice plan details

Paying for Google Voice alternatives makes sense when they fix a problem you'll actually notice. A spare personal number doesn't need the same setup as a phone line published on a business website.

TextNow, if keeping the bill at zero comes first

Start here if you want a free Google Voice alternative for everyday calls and texts. TextNow gives you a number through its ad-supported service. The app works over Wi-Fi or an existing mobile data connection, and its help page lists free North American calling and texting, with exceptions for some remote destinations. How TextNow works

The ads are part of the bargain.

Before getting attached to the idea, check eligibility. TextNow currently says you must be within North America to register and use the service. If you're elsewhere, don't plan around it just because the app appears in an article about internet calling. TextNow's country restrictions

Free Google Voice alternatives also deserve a closer look at what happens when you stop using them. TextNow says it recycles inactive numbers on its free Wi-Fi service. It puts conditions on receiving verification codes, and some outside services won't accept its numbers even if you pay for a qualifying subscription. Number retention and verification codes

For casual calls, those limits may be manageable. For a number tied to accounts you depend on, read the rules before signing up. Losing access months later would be an unpleasant way to discover an inactivity policy.

Quo, when someone else needs to pick up the conversation

A shared business number becomes useful the moment a customer calls back and reaches a different person. That person needs enough context to help without asking the customer to repeat everything.

Quo includes shared numbers and internal threads. Among Google Voice alternatives, that makes it an option to examine if several colleagues handle the same customers. Its Starter plan costs $15 per user per month on annual billing, or $19 on monthly billing. Quo's pricing and feature comparison

Do the arithmetic for your whole team. Three Starter users on the annual rate work out to $540 a year before additional charges. That's a different decision from buying one spare number.

You should also check the next tier before settling on the advertised starting price. Quo places call transfers and HubSpot or Salesforce integrations in its Business plan. If you need either, Starter isn't the price to build your budget around.

During the trial, ask a colleague to continue a sample customer conversation. You'll learn more from that small task than from reading another page of feature descriptions.

Grasshopper has a pricing difference worth noticing

Grasshopper's True Solo plan costs $168 annually, equivalent to $14 a month. It covers one person with one phone number and an extension. The service offers business calling and texting. Grasshopper plans

The more interesting comparison for a small team is Solo Plus: $300 annually for unlimited users sharing one number, with three extensions. When you compare Google Voice alternatives, per-user pricing can change the bill considerably. Grasshopper's approach is worth checking if several people need access but you don't need a separate number for each of them.

A Grasshopper vs Google Voice comparison still needs to go beyond the bill. Work through what happens when you're already on a call, or when a customer texts after closing time. Confirm that the plan handles those situations the way you expect.

I'd put Grasshopper on the list for a small business that wants to keep work calls separate without buying more software than it needs.

Dialpad, if you're always going back through call notes

Suppose a customer changes the delivery address halfway through a conversation. You remember the street, but you're less certain about the building number. Having a transcript gives you somewhere to look.

Dialpad Connect includes live transcription and call summaries. That's a specific reason to consider it when comparing Google Voice alternatives, especially if reviewing customer calls already takes up time in your week. Dialpad Connect features

Still, check important details. Automated notes can be useful without being perfect.

Dialpad's published Standard price is $15 per user per month with annual billing, or $27 if you pay monthly. The difference is large enough to notice, but I'd try the service before committing for a year. Confirm the integrations and regional features you need as well. Dialpad's published pricing

If you're browsing free apps like Google Voice just to make an occasional call, this is probably more subscription than you were looking for.

Zoom Phone, particularly if your business already uses Zoom

Zoom Phone offers a US & Canada Unlimited package with Workplace Basic for $16 per user per month, billed annually. It includes a domestic number, call recording, and domestic SMS and MMS. International calls are metered separately. Zoom Phone plans

For an existing Zoom customer, this is one of the Google Voice alternatives worth putting through a normal working day. Let the person who answers the phone try it. They may notice an awkward step that never comes up in a sales demonstration.

And check your calling destinations. If customers are outside the US and Canada, use their countries to estimate the bill. The word “unlimited” only helps when it covers the calls you make.

Narrow the list before starting trials

You don't need five accounts to choose a replacement for Google Voice. Eliminate anything that doesn't support your country or the type of number you need. Then calculate the cost for everyone who will use it.

For a Google Voice alternative for business, I'd check shared access before getting excited about extras. Someone needs to answer the next call when you're busy. For personal use, number retention and the cost of staying active deserve more attention.

The remaining Google Voice alternatives should be easy to compare against a short list of real tasks. Make an incoming call while the app is closed. Send a text and reply from the device you normally use. If you're buying for a team, have a colleague take over a conversation.

Write down anything that gets in the way. A minor annoyance during a ten-minute trial can become tiresome when you repeat it every afternoon.

Keep your old number until you're ready

Before transferring a number, ask the receiving provider to confirm it can accept it.

For consumer Google Voice, Google's instructions say to unlock the number and then arrange the port with your new carrier. Unlocking costs $3 unless you originally ported that number into Google Voice, in which case there's no charge. Google specifically says not to delete the number after the transfer has been initiated. Google's number-transfer instructions

Give yourself a little room here. If that number is on business cards or saved in customers' phones, there's no reason to rush a transfer for the sake of finishing the setup today.

My advice on Google Voice alternatives is to try your preferred service with a temporary number first. Once you've made the calls you normally make and worked through the messages you normally receive, you'll have a much better reason to pay for it.