8 best apps for a second phone number in 2025

If you’ve ever used your personal phone number to run a business, you’ve probably thought it was a mistake at least once or twice. Spam calls, privacy concerns, and work-life balance issues are all common in such situations.

The thought of getting an extra phone to fix these problems has undoubtedly crossed your mind, and yet, there’s a much simpler solution – second phone number apps.

These dedicated tools provide an extra line to your existing phone without requiring a SIM card or an additional device. Whether you need a second number for business, registering on sketchy one-time-use sites, or just better personal organization, apps for a second phone number are a flexible and convenient solution.

To help you find the best second phone number apps, the Cybernews research team and I have thoroughly evaluated the top tools available today. Below are our findings and detailed insights into each app’s ideal use case, pricing, and features.

Our top picks for second phone number apps in 2025

1. Surfshark's Alternative Number – best second phone number app, hands down
2. Dialpad – best second-number app for businesses in the sales industry
3. OpenPhone – best second phone number app for teams and collaboration
4. Google Voice – best free 2nd phone number app for personal use
5. TextNow – best free phone plan carrier with nationwide coverage
6. Hushed – best alternative phone number app for multiple numbers
7. Nextiva – best second phone number app for businesses of all sizes
8. Burner – best 2nd number app for temporary and disposable phone numbers

Best second phone number apps compared

If you’re unsure about the type of alternate phone number app you’re looking for, the following comparison table can help you quickly identify the best service for your specific needs:

Second-number apps	Best for	Starting price	Free trial	Key features
Surfshark's Alternative Number	Privacy, security, and anonymity	$18.44–$20.44/month	7-day free trial	Multiple numbers, international calling, auto-fill for quick sign-ups
Dialpad	Sales teams, call centers, and businesses	$27/month per user	14-day free trial	VoIP services, call forwarding, customizable call routing, multiple numbers, international calling, local phone numbers, toll-free numbers
OpenPhone	Small businesses and startups	$19/month per user	7-day free trial	VoIP services, call forwarding, call routing, voicemail to text with transcripts, multiple numbers, call recording, group calling, toll-free numbers
Google Voice	Freelancers and solopreneurs	Free ($16.30/month per user for businesses)	14-day free trial	Call forwarding, voicemail transcription and greetings, automatic call recording
TextNow	Free calling and texting	Free (one-time fee of $4.99 for the SIM card)	No	Unlimited calling and texting, international calling, voicemail transcriptions
Hushed	Multiple private numbers and anonymity	$3.99 (prepaid) / $4.99/month subscription	Occasional 3-day free trials	Multiple numbers, international calling, voicemails
Nextiva	Startups, SMBs, and enterprises	$30/month per user	7-day free trial	Automatic call forwarding, voicemail transcription, call routing, cloud call recording, multiple numbers, toll-free numbers
Burner	Disposable phone numbers	$4.99/month	7-day free trial	Multiple numbers, spam blocking, voicemails

The best apps for a second phone number – detailed review

With the quick comparison out of the way, it’s time to dive deeper and thoroughly explore the different phone number apps we picked for you. Below is a full breakdown of their features, prices, strengths, and weaknesses.

1. Surfshark's Alternative Number – best 2nd phone number app overall

Key features	International calling, multiple numbers
Local numbers	USA
Starting price	$18.44–$20.44/month ($15.45/month for Surfshark + $2.99–$4.99/month for Alternative Number; cost varies depending on subscription length)
Free trial	Yes – 7 days

Try Surfshark’s Alternative Number

If you somehow missed its eye-catching advertising campaign and don’t know what Surfshark is, it’s a privacy-focused cybersecurity company famous for its VPN service.

Surfshark’s Alternative Number is part of its Alternative ID add-on. The service itself costs between $2.99/month and $4.99/month, depending on how long you’ve been a Surfshark customer. However, you can only get it on top of your existing Surfshark VPN subscription (hence the confusing pricing).

With Surfshark’s Alternative ID, you can quickly generate a new online persona, including a name, an email, and a phone number. This way, you can mask your real name and contact info, use generated data on suspicious sites, and avoid spam, data leaks, and stalking. The second number can be used just like your personal one, as long as you have internet access.

2. Dialpad – best 2nd number app for call centers and sales businesses

Key features	VoIP services, customizable call routing, local and toll-free phone numbers
Local numbers	USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America
Starting price	$27/month per user
Free trial	Yes – 14 days

Try Dialpad

Dialpad is an all-in-one AI-powered customer communication platform focused on helping businesses streamline calls and enhance customer interactions. As such, it’s one of the best apps for a second phone number for sales teams, call centers, and other similar businesses.

Featuring AI-driven notes, automation, and 70+ integrations with third-party apps like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Kustomer, Dialpad can take your business calls to another level. With it, teams can message, meet, make and transfer calls, and move conversations, all by using a single app.

This extra number app goes beyond simple voice calling, though, as it offers video conferencing, messaging, and voicemail transcription, which make it indispensable for business communication. Meanwhile, Dialpad’s AI-powered insights empower your managers by providing a real-time overview of your business’ performance and customer service quality.

3. OpenPhone – best second-line app for smaller teams and startups

Key features	Call routing, automatic call recording, toll-free North American numbers
Local numbers	USA, Canada
Starting price	$19/month per user
Free trial	Yes – 7 days

Try OpenPhone

Designed with smaller teams in mind, OpenPhone brings your calls, texts, and contacts into one intuitive app that works across all your devices. A single conversation within the app holds all call logs, messages, and voicemails, while call recording ensures that what’s been said is preserved.

With OpenPhone, teams can create custom phone menus for each number to ensure calls are routed to the right person. Similarly, pre-written auto-replies take care of your business conversations during off hours.

While OpenPhone natively syncs with only seven apps like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Slack, you can connect this extra phone number app to Zapier and access 7,000+ integrations. This way, you can easily automate specific workflows and improve your team’s productivity.

4. Google Voice – best free second phone number app for individuals

Key features	Personalized voicemail greetings, spam blocking, voicemail transcription
Local numbers	Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US
Starting price	Free ($10/month per user for businesses on top of Google Workspace subscription, which starts at $6.30/month per user)
Free trial	Yes –14 days (Free trial is for Google Workspace, while Google Voice functions as an add-on)

Whether you’re a solopreneur who wants to mask a personal number or a casual user who would prefer to manage personal calls and texts, Google Voice is for you. It’s free, easy to set up, and effortless to use, which makes it an ideal choice for a solo user.

Google Voice is also available for business users but requires two separate subscriptions – one for Google Workspace and one for Google Voice. Here, the entry-level plan sets you up with unlimited texting in the US and call forwarding. In contrast, higher-tier plans for unlimited users provide automatic call recording and voicemail transcription.

5. TextNow – best free phone service provider with unlimited talk and text

Key features	Conference calling, voicemail-to-text transcription, international calls
Local numbers	USA, Canada
Starting price	Free (SIM card requires a one-time purchase of $4.99)
Free trial	No

Want a second phone number app free of charge? Look no further than TextNow, a carrier offering a free phone plan.

With TextNow, you choose whether to keep your existing phone number or pick a new one. Getting started with the service requires a $4.99 SIM purchase, which arrives via mail. Then, you can activate TextNow on your phone. In addition, TextNow only works with unlocked devices.

Also, keep in mind that data caps are pretty limited, and you’re essentially getting unlimited talk and text in exchange for seeing ads all over the app. If you need more data or faster speeds, TextNow offers three paid options with hourly, daily, and monthly data passes. Depending on the plan, these provide between 350MB and 10GB of data at speeds of 10–200Mbps for downloads and 1–5Mbps for uploads.

6. Hushed – best app for managing multiple private numbers

Key features	Multiple numbers, private texting, anonymous setup
Local numbers	US, Canada, UK
Starting price	$3.99 (credits for prepaid) or $4.99/month for unlimited calls and text
Free trial	No (occasional 3-day free trial)

Featuring anonymous calling, secure SMS and MMS texting, call forwarding, call routing, auto-replies, and custom voicemail greetings, Hushed offers a lot for the price. While it’s not a free second-number app, it comes with three affordable plans.

In fact, one of Hushed’s standout features is its pricing flexibility. You can get the app with prepaid credits for just $3.99, a monthly subscription with unlimited calls and texts for $4.99, and a pay-as-you-go plan starting at $6.99.

All features are available in all three plans, with the only difference being in the number of calls you can make and texts you can send. Moreover, the first two plans are for local calls and texts only, which means you’ll need the pay-as-you-go option for international communication.

7. Nextiva – best 2nd phone number app for businesses of all types

Key features	VoIP services, integrations, analytics
Local numbers	US, Canada, Puerto Rico, UK
Starting price	$30/month per user
Free trial	Yes – 7 days

Built with teams in mind, Nextiva is one of the best business-focused apps for a second phone number. The phone service provider simplifies business communication and makes managing inbound and outbound calls seamless. It also offers multi-channel communication, with everything accessible from a single app.

Its cloud-based contact center gives you access to detailed customer data whenever they call, helping you provide the best possible service and support. Meanwhile, the tool’s automated feedback collection gathers insights and creates customer habits and expectations, so every new interaction goes better than the last one.

Nextiva will also let you set personalized and professional greetings, while call forwarding and routing features make reaching the right people effortless. In addition, the tool integrates with countless CRMs, ERPs, and productivity apps, including Zoho, Zendesk, Salesforce, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Teams.

8. Burner – best second-number app for temporary personal numbers

Key features	Effortless number deletion, spam filters, multiple numbers
Local numbers	US, Canada
Starting price	$4.99/month
Free trial	Yes – 7 days

Developed by Ad Hoc Labs, Inc., Burner is one of the best anonymity-focused apps for a second phone number. This individual-focused, mobile-first app for Android and iOS lets you purchase up to 200 temporary, disposable numbers at once.

You can use them for calling, texting, online shopping, dating, contests, giveaways, registering on one-time-use sites, and whatever else you have in mind. It’s fantastic for maintaining anonymity, as you can quickly switch between the purchased numbers and easily delete the ones that have been “burned.”

While you won’t find any business features here like shared numbers, VoIP services, third-party app integrations, or call recording, Burner is jam-packed with privacy-focused tools. Its spam-blocking filters are excellent, and you can also customize your do-not-disturb settings.

Methodology – how I tested these apps for a second phone number

Finding the best apps for phone numbers required a deep dive, and the Cybernews team and I took the time to do it properly. We read hundreds of comments from real users, looked into expert reviews, and compared the tools’ pricing and features.

Here’s a rundown of everything we considered before we ranked the best apps for a second phone number:

• User reviews (25%). Users who have already tried the apps were an abundant source of valuable insights into each tool’s strengths and weaknesses. The team and I scoured multiple review platforms and forums to find feedback from such clients. I also read dozens of expert reviews on tech-focused sites.
• Ease of use (20%). Whether it’s a free 2nd phone number app for individuals or a paid tool for businesses, it should be effortless to use. I tested each tool’s setup process and call and text functionality and tried it on both desktops and mobile devices to ensure everyone could easily navigate the app.
• Cost (30%). The cost of an app is often the determining factor. With this in mind, I compared subscription plans, explored the pay-as-you-go options, and looked for hidden fees. When ranking the apps, I prioritized the ones that balanced affordability and functionality.
• Additional features (25%). Modern 2nd number apps go beyond calling and texting and offer an abundance of additional functions, which I believe is worth exploring. That said, I assessed the apps’ voicemail, call forwarding, spam filtering, auto-replies, and even integrations, as they’re vital for some business users.

Why use a second phone number?

Most of us have two, three, or even more email addresses. One is usually for personal matters, and another is for business, while we use the rest for registering on suspicious-looking one-time-use sites, for dating apps, and for giveaways. Well, it’s the same thing with numbers, and there’s more than one reason to get a dedicated app that would allow you to use a different one than you do on a daily basis.

Just remember how many purchases you’ve made, services you’ve signed up for, and contests you’ve entered with your personal phone number. Now think about how many spam calls and texts you’ve received because of it. A secondary phone number would easily fix this. Not only does it protect your privacy, but it also prevents spam from flooding your personal line.

Safety is another major benefit of using a second number. For example, having a temporary, disposable, or secondary phone number in online dating could prevent various unwanted situations. If things work out, you can easily share your personal line, but if they don’t, you can just get rid of the number without worrying about messy follow-ups.

Another obvious example involves separating your private life from work; in that sense, a dedicated work number is a must-have whether you’re a freelancer or a business owner. Meanwhile, features like call forwarding, voicemail transcription, and auto-replies make managing business calls seamless.

Key features to look for in a second phone number app

While different phone number apps were built for different purposes, there are certain features that a top-rated 2nd phone number app simply must have. Here’s what to look for:

• Call forwarding. Whether you’re routing business calls to your personal number or directing them elsewhere, call forwarding is a must-have for a 2nd number app.
• SMS capabilities. Texting is just as important as calling. So, whether it’s a free second-number app or a paid option, such a tool should support SMS messaging, media sharing, and auto-replies.
• App availability. A top-tier second-number app should work across all your devices. Such a tool must either provide a seamless web interface that works across different operating systems or dedicated apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS.
• Affordable pricing. While there are free second phone number apps for personal use, most business tools require a monthly subscription. To be among the best apps for phone numbers, these tools must offer a good balance of affordability and features.
• Straightforward user interface. Whether it’s a cloud-based tool or a mobile application, an alternative phone number app should have an easy-to-use interface. The more difficult it is to use, the less valuable a tool.

How to choose the right app for you

The best individual-focused apps for different phone numbers aren’t necessarily the best for business users, and vice versa. While I’ve narrowed it down to the eight best apps for second phone numbers, you’ll need to take this a step further and think about what you need precisely.

Here are a few factors you should consider to reach a decision:

• Call quality. An app for different phone numbers won’t do much if your calls lag or drop. Whatever your specific needs, you should look for a tool that offers high-quality VoIP services with minimal latency.
• Features. Are you looking for a free phone number app or a privacy-focused tool with disposable numbers? Are you a business user in need of call routing and integrations? These are only a handful of questions you’ll need to answer to understand the features you’re looking for in a different number app.
• Cost. Going for the cheapest second phone number app might be tempting, but these might not have what you need. Getting all the features you want will probably require a subscription, and checking and comparing the competition’s pricing will help you find an option that doesn’t break the bank.
• Reliability. An app to use a different phone number is only usable if it’s reliable. It’s highly recommended to go online and check the provider’s reviews, customer support quality, and uptime.

Conclusion

Apps for a second phone number are indispensable for more than one reason. They provide enhanced privacy, improve your personal organization, and are crucial for business needs. But what is the best app for a second phone number?

To find one that’s right for you, you’ll need to consider the new number app’s call quality, features, price, and reliability before you opt for any tool. This way, you’ll narrow down your choices, and you’ll be able to pick a service that offers the best combination of features and value.

For individuals and solopreneurs, that’ll likely be a free second-number app like Google Voice or TextNow. For businesses, Dialpad, OpenPhone, and Nextiva offer dedicated communication platforms, which makes them a great choice.

However, most users will find that the best app for a second phone number is Surfshark’s Alternative Number. It offers a perfect blend of features, privacy, and price, and that’s why it’s my top pick in this category.

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