What Is a VoIP Number and How Does It Work?

What is a VoIP number?

A VoIP number is a real phone number that is assigned to a user instead of to a specific phone. This creates the possibility to call others with that phone number using multiple devices, such as a computer, cellphone, work phone, ipad, etc. With a VoIP telephone number, you can also check your voicemails from any of these devices in order to use the number and continue work on the go. 

If you would like to keep the existing phone number you already have, the VoIP provider will typically give you the option to port your existing phone number to the VoIP number. Some providers may charge you a small fee for this service. 

How does the VoIP number work?

Getting a phone number through VoIP, means that the providers will use the internet instead of traditional phone providers. Your VoIP number can also be used for other forms of communication, such as text messaging.

What are the best VoIP companies?

Here at BestCompany, we have hundreds of real customer reviews for dozens of VoIP companies. We have used a ranking algorithm to determine which of the companies rank the highest. 

Top VoIP providers

How do I get VoIP?

VoIP benefits with quotes from real users and experts

Cost

“VoIP is far cheaper! One of our clients had 200 numbers for their business and their traditional phone bill was over $2,000 a month. With VoIP, they still have those 200 numbers, plus 20 more, and their current monthly bill is $300. This is less than 25 percent of the cost for the same services and more.”

— Kale Bullen, CEO of the VoIP Company Wiree

“The benefits of having VoIP are noticeable. First and foremost, we receive unlimited calling to the United States and Canada. For our international locations and clients, international calls are charged at a very low per-minute rate, which has reduced expenses.”

— Mac Fadra, VoIP user and CEO of MAXiM Hair Restoration

"You will save a HUGE, VAST amount of money. Long distance calls are often free, all kinds of functions and features that the land-line telcos charge for are free with VOIP. You also get functions and features for free that many telephone companies don't even offer, at any price."

— Mike Arman, VoIP phone user of over 15 years

Mobility

“With a VoIP you can effectively be anywhere with cell signal and receive calls. This is especially useful for business when you are travelling and critically in the situation we find ourselves in today with most offices closed due to coronavirus.“

— Ahmed Mir, VoIP user and founder of Nature & Bloom

“VoIP numbers are easy to configure and you can use the number anywhere in the world by simply logging into your account. For instance, I use a VoIP number on Skype, and can use it regardless of where I go.”

— Muhammad Hamze Shahid, an online privacy/security analysts at BestVPN.co

“VoIP allows you to have a number for one purpose and another for a separate purpose so that you can easily filter and increase productivity and flexibility.”

— Justin Grau, VoIP user and founder of BizDig

“VoIP calls can be placed from any connected mobile phone, handset, laptop, or desktop, making it the more versatile option than the regular phone.”

— Unyime Etim, tech blogger at Cruch Phone

"VoIP is cloud-based, which means all our team members don't require new phone systems and can perform their job functions from their workstation computer. For those team members that have more fluid roles and might be on the move more often, there are mobile app options for most of these platforms that essentially work like WhatsApp or Telegram for text, but with calls. They simply require an internet connection."

— Fadra

Increased functionality

"Most VoIP softwares contain more advanced features than the traditional phone like auto attendants, call forwarding, Interactive Voice Response, call recording, and speech-to-email functionality, etc.”

— Etim

“Our dialer allows us to track the performance of our agents, as well as the quality of our leads. This means we can constantly optimize who to call and when to call them.”

— Ata, VoIP user and growth manager at L3 Funding

“With VOIP you can do hot transfers, ringless voicemail drops, choose a local number even when you're calling overseas, auto recording, and can even use triple dialers if you are calling lots of numbers at the same time. The possibilities are (almost) endless!”

— Karla Singson, VoIP user, and Country Manager at Scalewind

Scalable

“VoIP numbers are easily scalable, which makes it easier to conduct conference calls with multiple users.”

— Shahid

Little physical infrastructure required

“Traditionally, each phone number needed a different pair of wires to connect the phone line to the onsite PABX (private analogue branch exchange). With VoIP, however, businesses can choose between an onsite digital PBX or a hosted PBX. Hosted PBX allows for the phone system to operate through the cloud whereas a digital PBX still has onsite infrastructure but with greater capabilities.”

— Bullen

“You save on the cost of investment to install and maintain expensive equipment for traditional phone lines.”

— David Morneau, VoIP user and founder of In Beat

Integration

"Cloud synchronization is an important aspect of VoIP. Landlines aren't connected to the internet so they can't interact with the internet. This is extremely important in today's connected world. A Voip/Cloud phone system can sync with anything you can imagine on the web. For example, you can automatically sync call data and contact data from and to any source or CRM. Data is extremely important to businesses and most of that data was lost or offline with landlines. Now your data can sync across all of your existing web services."

— Brian Peterson, VP of Engineering at Dialpad

“We can integrate it seamlessly with our marketing team so we can see where each call comes from what marketing channels and better understand ROI.”

— Todd Spodek, VoIP user and managing partner at Spodek Law Group

“VoIP integrates extremely well with CRMs and other other business systems your employees use for customer management.”

— Adem Selita, VoIP user and CEO at the Debt Relief Company