What a business phone number actually costs in 2026

A business phone number costs anywhere from £6 to £35 per user per month. It depends on the route you take: VoIP app, business SIM, or a traditional landline. The sticker price rarely matches what lands on your invoice. Seat minimums, per-number add-ons and one-time registration fees stack on top.

This post lays out the real numbers for July 2026, across UK and US options. It works through the arithmetic for a 3-person and a 6-person team.

The three routes to a business number

Most small teams pick between three setups. A VoIP app (Quo, Aircall, CircleLoop, wlur) gives you a dedicated business number inside a phone or desktop app. A business SIM from a mobile carrier gives you a second physical number on a phone you already carry. A landline, still sold by BT and similar carriers in the UK, gives you a fixed number tied to a physical line.

Each has a different cost shape. VoIP is priced per user per month, with the number often bundled in. SIM is priced per line, with data and minutes bundled. Landline is priced per line, flat, with call charges frequently unbundled.

VoIP pricing, provider by provider (US, verified July 2026)

Provider	Entry price	Seat minimum	What’s not included
Quo (formerly OpenPhone)	$15/user/mo (annual)	1	Extra numbers $5/mo, $19.50 one-time A2P registration, $1.50-3/mo campaign fee
Dialpad	$15/user/mo (annual)	1	AI features on higher tiers only
CloudTalk	$19/user/mo (annual)	1	Add-ons (analytics, integrations) stack per user
JustCall	$29/user/mo	2	2-seat floor means a solo founder pays for a seat they don’t use
Aircall	$30/user/mo (annual)	3 ($90 floor)	AI add-on $9-15/user/mo, extra numbers $6/mo
RingCentral	$20-30/user/mo	1	Complex tier structure, enterprise features gated high

The seat minimum is the number that catches people out. Aircall’s 3-seat floor means a 2-person team pays for a phantom third seat: $90/month minimum regardless of headcount. JustCall’s 2-seat floor does the same to solo founders.

VoIP pricing, UK (verified July 2026)

CircleLoop prices from £5/user/month plus usage, or £15/user/month for an unlimited-minutes plan, with no fixed-term contract. That usage-based entry tier looks cheap until you total a month of calls. A team member making 200 minutes of outbound calls at a typical 2-3p/minute rate adds another £4-6 on top of the £5 base. That’s why most CircleLoop customers end up on the £15 unlimited tier in practice.

SIM-only business mobile (UK)

Business SIM-only tariffs run from about £6-8/month for a basic 10GB plan (Three Business, EE, BT Business Mobile). Unlimited data plans run up to £21-24/month. A SIM gives you calls and texts on a real mobile number. But it’s tied to a handset, doesn’t support team call routing, and doesn’t log calls anywhere your team can see them.

Landline (UK)

BT Business landline pricing starts around £24.27/month on a minimum 12-month contract, before call charges. Openreach has scheduled further price rises on copper lines through 2026 (April, July, October) ahead of the UK’s PSTN switch-off in January 2027. That makes landline a shrinking, more expensive option this year, not a stable one.

Worked example: a 3-person team, US

Three people, each needing a business number that rings on their phone and logs calls centrally.

• Quo, annual billing: 3 x $15 = $45/month, plus a one-time $19.50 texting registration and roughly $2/month campaign fee per number. First month: about $70.50. Ongoing: about $51/month.
• Aircall: hits the 3-seat floor exactly, so $90/month before any add-ons. Add AI call summaries at $9/user and you’re at $117/month.
• JustCall: 3 seats clears the 2-seat minimum, so $87/month, no phantom seats.

For this team, Quo is roughly 45% cheaper than Aircall once the seat floor and add-ons are counted. That’s not the 2x the raw per-seat prices imply.

Worked example: a 6-person team, UK

Six people sharing one main number with individual extensions, typical for a trades or agency setup.

• CircleLoop unlimited: 6 x £15 = £90/month, no contract, no seat floor to worry about.
• A landline plus SIMs approach: one BT Business landline (£24.27) plus 5 SIM-only lines at £8 each (£40) plus one shared answering setup. That’s roughly £64.27/month before call charges. Cheaper on paper, but nobody’s calls are logged centrally and there’s no shared number for the team.

The landline-plus-SIMs route looks like the budget option until you price in the coordination cost. Someone has to physically forward calls, and there’s no call log to check who spoke to which customer.

The hidden cost of switching later

There’s a fifth cost that rarely shows up in a pricing comparison: the cost of moving providers once you’ve picked one. Porting a number between VoIP providers is usually free or low-cost and takes a few days, provided the losing carrier cooperates. Moving off a landline is slower, often 2-4 weeks. Carrier-to-carrier porting for fixed lines involves more manual steps than mobile-to-mobile or VoIP-to-VoIP moves.

This matters most for teams choosing between a cheap SIM-only setup and a proper VoIP plan. A SIM number is portable in principle. But moving it into a system with shared numbers and routing later usually means going through number porting as a business number for the first time, rather than a simple carrier switch.

Factor that friction in before picking the cheapest option today if you expect to outgrow it within a year.

Why the sticker price is never the real price

Three things reliably move the number up from what’s advertised: seat minimums (Aircall, JustCall) and per-number add-on fees ($5-6/month per extra number, industry-wide). There’s also a one-time carrier registration fee for texting ($19.50 is the current US carrier rate via The Campaign Registry, charged once per business).

Annual billing typically saves 20-25% over monthly across every VoIP provider in this table. That’s worth factoring in before comparing month-to-month quotes.

wlur’s pricing sits at the low end of this range: $15 / £12.50 / €14 per user per month. One plan, no seat minimums, 20% off annual, extra numbers at $5/month.

FAQ

Is a business SIM cheaper than a VoIP number?

The SIM itself is often cheaper per month (£6-8 vs £15+). But it doesn’t include call routing, shared numbers or a call log. Compare against what a VoIP plan bundles in, not just the base price.

Why do seat minimums matter so much?

A seat minimum charges you for seats you don’t have. A 2-person team on a 3-seat-floor plan pays 50% more than the advertised per-seat price implies. Always divide the floor price by your actual headcount, not the plan’s headcount.

Are landlines being phased out in the UK?

Yes. Openreach is retiring the copper PSTN network in January 2027. Price rises are scheduled through 2026 as carriers migrate customers to VoIP-based alternatives ahead of that date.

Does annual billing always save money?

Nearly always, by 20-25% across the providers in this table. The exception is if you expect headcount to shrink, since annual contracts typically lock in the seat count for the term.

What one-time fees should I expect in the US?

A one-time A2P 10DLC texting registration fee (around $19.50, set by The Campaign Registry), plus a small monthly campaign fee ($1.50-3) per business. This is on top of any per-seat pricing.