The 7 Best Virtual Phone Number Providers

As of 2024, statistics show that almost one-third of Canadians are employed by a remote-first company. These changes mean that the technology we use must keep up with the demands of a diverse workplace. One development is the shift to virtual phone numbers, assisted by VoIP and cloud-based telephone systems, which allow you to take calls from multiple devices and locations.

Based on our extensive research, we ranked the seven best virtual phone numbers based on three key decision factors: pricing, inbound and outbound communication features, and external connections and scalability.

We recommend you consider these criteria when searching for the right business phone system for your team, our research shows that 8×8, RingCentral and Ooma are the current frontrunners in the Canadian market.

Short on time? Use our free quote comparison tool to find tailored quotes from the best virtual business phone number providers, making it quick and easy to switch phone systems.

What is a Virtual Phone Number?

A virtual phone number, also known as a soft phone or virtual landline, is a number associated with an online account provided by a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) provider, rather than being tied to a specific physical location.

Traditional telephony systems typically use analog setups with desk phones, where numbers are linked to local exchanges and phone lines.

In contrast, you can get virtual business phone numbers from VoIP providers, which enable your business to make phone calls using any internet connection. With virtual business phone numbers, you can make and receive calls just like with regular telephone numbers, and callers won’t be able to distinguish any difference.

How Much Does a Virtual Phone Number Cost?

The cost of a virtual phone number typically ranges from about $20 per user, per month to $50+ per user, per month, depending on the price plan you choose, the number of lines and features you need, and whether you’re paying monthly or annually.

GoTo is the best value virtual phone number provider, with plans costing $35, $42, and $56 per user, per month, while making it easy for your business to add more systems as you grow. Meanwhile, 8×8 is the best overall virtual business phone number provider, but offers plans from $19 to $195 per user, per month.

What are the Benefits of Virtual Phone Numbers?

Switching to virtual phone numbers offers a variety of benefits for your business, including:

1. More flexibility: Virtual phone numbers allow your employees to make and receive business calls from anywhere, enabling greater mobility and flexibility in remote work scenarios. This is ideal for hybrid working models, or employees working from home.
2. Cost-effective: Using virtual phone numbers can significantly reduce phone-related expenses as they operate over the internet, removing the need for traditional phone lines and costly hardware.
3. Maintain a professional image: Virtual business phone numbers enable you to present a professional image to customers, as they appear no different from regular phone numbers, instilling confidence and trust in your brand.
4. Scalability: The best virtual phone services offer easy scalability for your business, meaning you can quickly add or remove phone lines as needed, accommodating changes in your workforce size or business expansion without the complexity of traditional phone systems.

How to Get a Virtual Phone Number

Getting a virtual phone number for your business is straightforward with the right Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider. When choosing a supplier, research the call quality, reliability, security, and features offered.

Ideal virtual phone number services enable you to:

• Effortlessly acquire new toll-free, or local numbers to suit your needs. International numbers can also be available.
• Quickly set up intelligent call routing to cell phones, landlines, call centers, or mailboxes as desired.
• Fully configure each number with customizable greetings, voicemail, call forwarding and more.
• Seamlessly receive and transfer calls between devices or locations to stay connected even when you’re on the move.
• Access useful call management features like logs, recording, video conferencing, and analytics reporting.
• Integrate your virtual numbers with existing CRM, help desk, marketing and other essential software.

Reputable services provide clear onboarding resources and dedicated account management support. Ensure you’re familiar with your any prospective provider’s subscription fees and contractual limitations before committing.

How to Switch Virtual Phone Number Providers

When your business outgrows its current phone service, you may want to consider switching providers. Ideally, you want to transfer your existing numbers to the new provider to maintain continuity for customers getting in touch. This process is called “porting” and might involve a small fee.

Reasons to switch providers include better reliability, improved customer support, more features, lower costs, or integration with new software tools. You should carefully assess if the benefits outweigh the effort of migrating and be on the lookout for providers who offer incentives to make switching more compelling.

The process of switching itself includes opening a new account, initiating the number porting, configuring your account settings/features, and finally, cancelling your old contract. You can expect minimal downtime, as long as the switch is properly coordinated. While switching is not overly complex, precise planning ensures you transfer all necessary numbers and configurations to the new system on the target date.

Top 7 Virtual Phone Number Providers

To find the seven best virtual business phone numbers, we tested eight different VoIP systems and handpicked the very best to include in this article. Check out our table below to see the shortlist…

1. 8×8: Best Overall Virtual Phone Number Provider

8×8 is the best virtual phone number in Canada, with an overall score of 4.7/5. From its first plan onwards, 8×8 provides unlimited domestic minutes, which gets upgraded to unlimited international calls to 14 countries on the X2 plan, which extends to 48 countries on the X4 plan.

8×8’s impressive call features include voicemail-to-text, a virtual receptionist, and localized toll-free numbers. The most noteworthy of which is its high-quality voice calling and analytics. Plus, many advanced features like power dialer and predictive dialing for an additional cost. Moreover, 8×8 ranked first in our customer support (5/5), security (5/5), and scalability (4.9/5) research categories.

During our testing, we spotted a 10-user limit on its cheapest (Express) plan, but this user limit quickly dissolves as you upgrade to the X2 plan, which enables an unlimited number of users. On the other hand, if you want to spend as little as you can while ensuring your growing team will be catered for, try GoTo Connect. GoTo allows unlimited users on its cheapest plan, which costs $35 to $56 per user, per month.

2. RingCentral: Best Virtual Phone Number for Small to Medium Businesses

RingCentral closely takes the second spot with top marks in external connections (4.3/5), customer support (5/5), and scalability (4.9/5) in our research. Hence, we recommend RingCentral as our top virtual phone number service for small to medium businesses in Canada. Not only is it reliable, but has a wide compatibility with software and flexible enough to adapt when your business starts to grow.

RingCentral offers unlimited domestic minutes and number porting across all plans. It also offers plenty of call features, including a virtual receptionist, customizable hold music, SMS, and a set caller ID. Best of all, RingCentral comes ready to integrate with up to 250 software platforms, such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Slack, and Hangouts Chat.

The drawback is, many outbound communication features, like auto dialer and custom call lists require RingCentral Engage, an add-on that comes at an additional cost. Apart from this, it has a user limit of 20 on its cheapest plan, unlike Ooma, which has no user limit on any of its plans. Luckily, RingCentral’s user limit gets taken down when you upgrade to its Standard plan.

3. Ooma: Best Virtual Phone Number Provider for Low-Cost 24/7 Support

Ooma is a virtual phone service that allows unlimited users and offers unlimited domestic minutes and number porting capability across all of its plans. If you opt for its pricier Enterprise plan, you’ll also get unlimited international minutes to US and Mexico. Ooma also offers a multitude of inbound communication features, including virtual receptionist, voicemail-to-text, and ring groups. Plus, it also allows number porting on every plan, so you don’t have to change numbers when you switch to Ooma.

What really makes Ooma stand out is its excellent customer service (4.5/5) at very affordable plans. For as low as $24.95 per user, per month, you’ll get 24/7 customer support, giving you fast, reliable assistance whenever you need it.

As we spotted during our testing, Ooma has a relative shortage of management and collaboration features. Unlike 8×8 and RingCentral, features like a call-flow designer, task management, and being able to create teams are unavailable on any of Ooma’s plans. Also, some advanced features, like video conferencing, team messaging, and call monitoring, are only available on its pricier Enterprise plan.

4. GoToConnect: Best Virtual Phone Number for Low-Cost Longevity

GoTo Connect is the virtual business phone number provider we recommend for low-price longevity. For one, it does have good value for money, scoring 4.3/5 in our pricing analysis. More importantly, of the providers that scored best for pricing, we found GoTo to be the most scalable (scoring 4.4/5 in this category in our research). This means GoTo is adaptable enough to partner with you if you’re just starting out, or you want to switch to a virtual phone number provider that can scale with you.

For only $31.20 per user per month, you’ll get unlimited users, unlimited domestic minutes, and number porting. What’s more noteworthy is, GoTo generously offers free international calling to more than 50 countries on its Standard and Premium plans (but not its cheapest Essentials plan). In addition to this, you’ll get a comprehensive list of inbound communication features, including a virtual receptionist, call queue, and ring groups. These call features, combined with high-security measures (scoring 4/5 in our security evaluation), give GoTo a good 4.4/5 scalability score.

If there’s one thing to watch out for, it’s the lack of external connections, seeing it earn a low 2.6/5 in integrability. That’s quite the opposite of RingCentral, which boasts up to 250 integrations. If you’re already using scores of different software, it’s more likely that RingCentral already has a built-in integration.

5. Dialpad: Best Virtual Phone Number Provider for Conversational AI

We rated Dialpad as the virtual phone number provider with the best conversational AI. Boasting a stellar list of inbound and outbound communication features across all plans, Dialpad scored 4.4/5 in features. Enjoy advanced features like customizable greetings, virtual receptionist, and voicemail-to-text from its lowest to highest pricing tiers. Most importantly, it has conversational AI enhanced by natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning features to help analyze your conversations. This means it can decipher your calls and provide tailored and actionable suggestions with Real Time Assist Cards to help you communicate with your team and clients more effectively.

Dialpad allows you to have unlimited users, and provides unlimited inbound and outbound domestic calls and number porting across all plans. Once you upgrade to its Pro plan, you’ll get localized, toll-free numbers in more than 50 countries.

However, we found that Dialpad falls short on external connections, earning a low integrability score of 2.4/5. Unlike 8×8’s ten live chat integrations, Dialpad only has Slack. Luckily, it has its own SMS/chat and team messaging, so you can still reach your team instantly.

6. Net2Phone Canada: Best Virtual Phone Number Provider for Low-Cost International Calling

Net2Phone is the best virtual business phone number brand to use for low-cost international calling. It’s the only virtual phone service that offers free international calling from Canada to more than 40 countries across all its plans. This enables you to freely speak and collaborate with your team across countries without being bounded by time and fees. On top of that, Net2Phone lets you set up virtual phone numbers in over 500 countries and 300 cities.

So if you plan to make waves in Europe, the Americas, or Asia, this virtual phone system will help you establish your presence without breaking the bank. This is why our researchers rated Net2Phone the best virtual phone system for low-cost international calling. So, if you want to operate your business globally without incurring too many fees, Net2Phone is an ideal VoIP for you.

Net2Phone also offers a bountiful set of inbound features, including customizable greetings and hold music, voicemail, and virtual receptionist. As for outbound communications, you’ll get a set caller ID, call and video conferencing, and SMS/chat across all plans.

During our product testing, we found that it’s missing a call flip, so you can’t switch from your deskphone to your cell phone while on a call. Also, voicemail-to-text is only available on its most expensive (Office Power) plan. Plus, it only has Slack for live messaging integrations, which is only available on its Office Power plan.

7. Google Voice: Best Virtual Phone Number Service for Security Features

While Google Voice only allows 10 users on its Starter plan, you can invite unlimited users when you upgrade to its Standard plan. Moreover, Google Voice offers unlimited domestic minutes, as well as free inbound and outbound minutes to the US. Google Voice also offers a decent amount of inbound communication features when you upgrade to its Standard plan, including virtual receptionist, spam prevention, and ring groups. Meanwhile, you can enjoy external video calls through Google Meet and create a custom call list with Google Contacts, both of which are a part of Google Workspace.

In our opinion, the reason users choose Google Voice is that it’s incredibly easy to use, especially for Google users. Likewise, Google Voice employs strong security features, including multi-factor authentication, password rules, and robust encryption. Rest assured, your information will be safe with multiple compliance certificates and garnering a perfect 5/5 in our security analysis.

During our extensive research, we also found that most of its software integrations are limited to Google apps, earning a low external connections score of 2.8/5. Because of its restricted integrability and lack of management and collaboration features, it scored a low 2.9/5 integrability score.

How Did We Compare the Best Virtual Phone Number Providers?