Best Virtual Landlines for Small Businesses

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The stats are clear: your customers want to be able to call you, and they don’t trust a mobile phone number. 

A study by the National Retail Federation found that 80% of consumers would rather call a business than use a chatbot or other digital means of communication, while one-third of consumers (35%) don’t trust SMEs that use only mobile numbers.

So, despite an increasing number of business-consumer interactions occurring digitally, whether that’s via a chatbot or enquiry form, offering a phone number for potential customers to call is still very important.

If you’re based at your family home, you probably don’t want to provide your home number or personal mobile. If you’re operating out of a small service office, you might be unsure of the ROI of investing in a dedicated landline.

Setting up a dedicated traditional landline for your business can be complicated and expensive. The good news? The best virtual landline services offer an easy and affordable way to build trust and deliver the customer experience your target market is looking for.

What is a virtual landline?

A virtual landline is a telephone number that looks and functions like a traditional landline, but isn’t tied to a fixed location or physical phone line. 

Incoming calls that are received by the virtual landline are redirected to a phone number of your choosing, meaning you can answer business calls from anywhere in the world while still presenting a professional, location-specific phone number to customers and suppliers.

This allows small businesses to present a more professional image, while also ensuring you don’t have to give out your personal mobile phone number. It also allows you to choose an area code relevant to your target market, whether that’s a local number to appeal to nearby customers or a prestigious city code to enhance your business’s credibility.

Businesses are increasingly moving away from traditional landlines because they’re less flexible and more expensive to maintain than a virtual office number. What’s more, the UK’s planned PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) switch-off at the start of 2027, businesses are being urged to migrate from the ageing PSTN to All-IP by the end of this year (2025).

How to choose a virtual landline for your business

Choosing the best virtual landline for your business is a three-step process:

1. Assess your business needs—while you might simply want a dedicated phone number for incoming and outgoing calls, other small business owners might require a more comprehensive virtual office solution, for example, virtual business addresses and virtual office mail forwarding.
2. Consider the costs—virtual phone numbers for business are typically much less expensive to set up and maintain than traditional landlines. When considering your options, make sure you look for transparent pricing so you can avoid unexpected charges.
3. Consider your growth plans—will the service you’re choosing be able to scale with you, for example, by adding extra phone numbers, extensions or other advanced features?

The best virtual landline providers for small businesses

Ready to get started? Let’s take a look at 7 of the best virtual landline services in the UK, including:

• Best for all-encompassing virtual office solutions - Hoxton Mix
• Best on a budget - Switchboard Free
• Best for advanced technical features - Sipgate
• Best for international calling - Zadarma

Some honourable mentions:

• Air Landline
• SOHO66
• AA Internet

In this guide, we’re going to look at how to get started with each service, how easy they are to use and what you can expect to pay.

Hoxton Mix: Best for all-encompassing virtual office solutions

Hoxton Mix (that’s us by the way!) offers a streamlined and cost-effective solution for managing business calls - our service allows you to choose your location-specific number and have calls forwarded to any number in the world. In addition to this, we also offer an all-encompassing virtual office solution, including a prestigious London address and mail forwarding, to complement our virtual phone number package. By buying both, you also get a bundle discount.

This sets us apart from some of the competitors in this list that specialise in virtual phone numbers, but that don’t additionally offer a comprehensive virtual office solution.

Hoxton Mix boasts a 4.8/5.0 star rating on Trustpilot, with users specifically citing the speed of setup, with one reviewer stating that the address was signed off instantly and the phone number was active before midday.

Setup

You can get started with Hoxton Mix’s virtual office solutions, including a UK virtual telephone number, within minutes. 

Our virtual office phone solution is available as a standalone product, but the power of Hoxton Mix is in combining your new virtual phone number with a virtual office address, allowing you to present your business as registered in London as well as having a London phone number, coupled with our industry-leading virtual office mail forwarding solution.

Once completed, you can publish your new virtual phone number on your website and share with your customers, and start using your new London-based virtual office as your trading and registered office address.

Ease of use

Using our virtual office phone solution is incredibly easy. Simply pick your London 020 number (or choose from a selection of popular UK codes), tell us where calls should be forwarded to and start answering business calls instantly. We don’t charge a premium for specific dialling codes either.

Our Customer Portal also makes it easy to manage your call forwarding. You’ll be able to update your forwarding settings anytime, monitor call logs and stay in control of your business communications from anywhere in the world.

Thinking of pairing your virtual office phone number with our complete registered office solution? Not only do you get a bundle discount, you’ll be able to view all of your business mail in a single easy-to-use dashboard, much like an email inbox, while our AI assistant HaiRoTM will even provide a summary of the mail to help you get through your inbox faster.

There’s also the Hoxton Mix Mobile app which offers all the features of the web customer portal on your phone, allowing you to access your business mail on-the-go.

Pricing tiers

Our virtual office phone plan is just £50 per year when selected alongside our registered office solutions, or £69.90 per year (£5.82 per month) when chosen as a standalone service.

We’re also transparent with our forwarding costs, with no hidden fees:

/ta

• Destination | Cost Per Minute
• UK Landline | £0.04
• UK Mobile | £0.07
• UK Premium Mobile | £0.64
• UK Personal Numbers | £0.90
• UK Special Services | From £0.07

Note that callers will be charged at the same rate as calling a standard UK landline (which are usually included in mobile and landline inclusive minutes), and they won’t be charged more if you’re abroad.

Ready to get started? Click the button below or take a Product Tour.

Switchboard Free: Best for budget-conscious businesses

Switchboard Free is a specialist provider of virtual phone numbers and VoIP phone systems for businesses, and you can secure a virtual UK city number from just £5 per month, making it one of the most affordable solutions on the market. This is ideal for startups or small businesses on a tighter budget.

Despite the low cost, the vast majority of Switchboard Free users have had a great experience using the service, with a 4.4* rating on Trustpilot.

However, this should be balanced against the fact that some users have reported billing issues, including some opaque terms and conditions and charging for the following month upon cancellation.

Setup

Switchboard Free’s range of options mean it takes a little longer to set up than some providers, but users have cited the technical support offered by the team ensures it’s still easy to launch.

Ease of use

Switchboard Free customers report finding the system easy to use, supported by a helpful customer service team.

Pricing tiers

Switchboard Free’s pricing is determined by the type of number you’re looking for. For example, an 0203 number is available from £8 per month/per user, while 0800 numbers are £15 per user/per month.

Sipgate: Best for technical users wanting advanced features

If you’re looking for more advanced virtual phone features, for example call queuing, interactive voice response (IVR) and conference room functionality, Sipgate might be worth taking a look at. There are also a number of integrations with existing business software like Salesforce, Zoho CRM and G-Suite.

However, while most Trustpilot reviewers have had a positive experience with the platform—citing reliable long-term service, responsive customer support and quick email and phone responses—others have expressed concerns about their accounts being terminated without notice, leading to an overall Trustpilot score of just 2.4*.

Setup

A number of Trustpilot reviews cite Sipgate’s easy set up as a positive, although the advanced functionality will require some technical expertise to get started with compared to a simple call forwarding solution.

However, in the event you do need some technical support, others have commented that calls to their support line are rarely answered.

Ease of use

The wider range of features included within Sipgate’s offering means it’s not as simple to use as some more basic solutions, which might make it less suitable for small businesses that lack in-house technical IT expertise, but Sipgate customers have been largely satisfied with their user experience.

Pricing tiers

Sipgate has four service packages to choose from: Business S, Business L, Business XL and Enterprise—the latter of which you need to contact them for pricing details.

Pricing starts from £12.95 per user, per month, rising to £17.95 and £22.95 for the Business L and Business XL plans, respectively. Note that each package allows for two devices per user, with additional devices available for an extra £4.95. A 30-day free trial is available with all plans.

Zadarma: Best for businesses needing international calling

If you’re looking for an international presence for your business, Zadarma offers virtual numbers in over 100 countries worldwide, alongside advanced functionality including speech analytics, call tracking and video conferencing.

Just over half of users (53%) have had a positive experience with the platform (3* reviews and above), with the ability to serve international audiences one of the most referenced factors. This includes their clients never having to worry about international dialling fees, enhancing customer trust and crystal clear phone call quality.

However, a number of Zadarma customers have expressed issues with customer service levels, including that support only responds with automated messages, that the document verification system is broken and that they don’t take responsibility for issues.

Overall, Zadarma has a Trustpilot review score of 3.1*.

Setup

It’s quick and easy to get started with a Zadarma business phone system, with the process for launching their PBX system advertised as taking just five minutes, while the ease of set up was specifically cited by Trustpilot reviewers.

Ease of use

Ease of use was highlighted frequently by Trustpilot reviewers—particularly the software interface.

Pricing tiers

Zadarma offers three pricing tiers, including a free plan that isn’t time-limited. Paid plans start from €18 per month for 10 users for ‘Office’, while their ‘Corporation’ package is €36 per month for 20 users.

Air Landline

If you’re looking for a virtual landline solution without any of the extra services offered by some of these other providers, you can’t do much better than Air Landline.

Scoring an impressive 4.7* on Trustpilot, Air Landline customers are impressed with the service’s ease of setup, value for money and reliability, while reviewers have also commented that the customer support team is helpful and responsive. 

Setup

Setup is free and incredibly fast, taking just a couple of minutes, with instant activation once you’ve selected your chosen area code

Ease of use

Air Landline customers frequently call out the service’s ease of use in reviews, specifically the option to flag a call from your business line before it connects.

Pricing tiers

Pricing for Air Landline is straightforward and affordable, with everything available for £9.99 per month—no contract required. For this price, you’ll get your local or national telephone number, branded voicemail including transcriptions, WhatsApp business integration and more.

A free trial is also available. 

Soho66: Best for teams requiring call centre functionality

Soho66’s simplicity and affordability of their VoIP phone system is a hit with their customers, with 91% rating them 5* on Trustpilot.

In particular, Soho66 users cited the quality of customer service, user experience and service price as major plus points.

For the price, Soho66 is also great if you need call centre functionality, such as voice menus, call recording and storage.

Setup

Getting started with Soho66 requires a 6-step process; however, some users have reported finding the outdated website process difficult to follow—although others have talked about how the support was helpful if they did run into any issues during setup.

Ease of use

Soho66 prides itself on simplicity, and many reviewers found the software easy to use once they’d gotten started.

Pricing tiers

Soho66 offers two no-contract packages: Single user available from £4.99 per month, and Multi user available from £7.99 per month, while ‘enterprise options are also available’.

A&A: Best for businesses wanting broadband, VoIP, & ethernet from one provider

A&A (Andrews & Arnold Ltd) is best known as a specialist high quality internet provider, but they’ve also developed a set of VoIP and mobile offerings, including virtual phone numbers in UK area codes and 07 mobile numbers which can be used as VoIP or routed to a SIM or eSIM. If you’re looking for a single provider of broadband, VoIP and ethernet services, A&A represent one of the best vendors around.

A&A are probably best suited to a business operating out of a rented commercial space, as they can provide you with everything you need to get online and connected with your customers and suppliers. By contrast, if you’re operating out of your home, you will probably already have broadband internet set up, which means A&A might be a bit too specialist for your needs.
A&A has a 4.8* rating on Trustpilot, which covers reviews of their full service offering beyond virtual office phone numbers, but reviews referencing VoIP are also overwhelmingly positive.

Reliability is a key factor here, particularly when combined with their broadband offerings.

However, note that A&A has not signed up for the OFCOM code of practice, which covers complaint handling and dispute resolution, as well as a voluntary code of practice for automatic compensation. This doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem, but is something we felt potential customers might want to know.

Setup

A&A charges a setup fee for their VoIP services, which makes it simple—if more expensive than providers that don’t charge for this.

Ease of use

VoIP is just one of A&A’s numerous internet-enabled solutions, and the complexity of using them is dependent on what service level you choose. However, numerous customers have cited their products as easy to use.

Pricing tiers

As mentioned above, A&A charges a setup fee for VoIP services from £12, while ongoing rental of a standard 01, 02, 03 or 07 number is £1.20 per number.

Calls will cost 1.5p per minute to UK landlines, 4p per minute to UK mobiles, and 3.6p per SMS within the UK.

Although pricing is transparent, the information is a little tricky to understand at first glance, so you may need to speak to them to get a more accurate quote.
A&A users have cited good value for money from the service.

Why Hoxton Mix is your best choice

We’ve looked at seven different providers of virtual landlines for small businesses in this article—so why is Hoxton Mix your best choice?

Ultimately, we believe it’s the best all-round product, focusing on a mix of value, simplified service, flexibility, dedicated customer service and reliability. It’s also really easy to set up.

So, whether you are a start-up or an SME we are a one-stop shop for your virtual landline solution, providing you with everything you need.  

If you are looking for quality service and customer support, let yourself be convinced by the many satisfied customers and our 4.8* Trustpilot rating.

We are also proud to have served over 60,000 clients all over the world, and we’re excited for you to join the community—so what are you waiting for?

Getting started with Hoxton Mix

It couldn’t be easier (or faster) to get started with Hoxton Mix.

Simply select the packages you need (remember, our virtual office phone solution is available as a standalone product) and go through the short checkout process.

You’ll need to provide us with some details about yourself and your business, such as business type and country of incorporation, and we can take care of the rest.
You’ll also be able to integrate your new virtual office with existing business operations and take advantage of our extensive marketplace.

Summary and next steps

Some of the companies reviewed in this article offer services beyond virtual office address and virtual office phone numbers, but if you’re looking for the best way to deal with incoming customer calls for your small business, then Hoxton Mix represents your best option.

Not only is it incredibly easy to get started, but we also represent the best value for money for small businesses.

Ready to get started with Hoxton Mix? Start building your virtual office right now and launch it within minutes.

At the time of writing this article, all information relating to pricing & reviews was correct. If you believe there is an error, please contact us and we’ll review and amend if appropriate.