10 Best Grasshopper Alternatives

Grasshopper is a virtual-phone-number service that solopreneurs and very small businesses use as a simple second business line — $14/mo Solo, $25/mo Partner, $32/mo Small Business. It hits its niche cleanly: a professional-sounding phone number, voicemail transcription, basic SMS, and a mobile app, without any of the cost or complexity of a full business phone system.

The catch is that “without complexity” also means “without a ceiling.” Grasshopper does not ship native video meetings, team chat, AI features, a real contact-center workflow, or HIPAA BAA per the open 13-provider SMB VoIP Pricing Research 2026 dataset. The product is owned by GoTo (since 2018) and sits intentionally below GoTo Connect in the same portfolio.

This roundup compares ten Grasshopper alternatives across pricing, team features, AI maturity, and the customer profile each one fits best. The switch trigger is almost always the same: the team outgrew “phone numbers only” and needs actual collaboration features without paying enterprise prices. Pricing verified from each vendor’s public pricing page on May 19, 2026. Prices and features change; we re-verify every 90 days. For current vendor pricing, check each linked source directly.

What changed in 2026 (May refresh)

• Grasshopper kept its Solo / Partner / Small Business tiers at $14 / $25 / $32 (annual) but still has not added native video meetings, AI features, or HIPAA BAA — the product positioning has not changed since the GoTo acquisition in 2018.
• DialPhone added HIPAA BAA on every plan tier (Core $24, Advanced $34, Ultra $54) at no surcharge in April 2026, plus EHR integrations for Epic, Athenahealth, Kareo/Tebra, Dentrix, and eClinicalWorks.
• OpenPhone added a Business tier at $33/user/mo with AI summaries and CRM-integration features previously absent — the closest direct competitor to Grasshopper’s positioning, now with more AI.
• Google Voice for Workspace kept Starter/Standard/Premier at $10/$20/$30 per user but added Gemini-powered voicemail summarization on Standard and above.
• Zoom Phone metered tier stayed at $10/user/mo but per-minute charges on the metered plan now exceed unlimited tier costs above ~600 minutes/user/month.
• Phone.com consolidated its older Basic/Plus/Pro tiers; Basic is now $15/user/mo.

If your last evaluation of Grasshopper alternatives was before March 2026, the AI-feature comparison in particular has shifted materially.

Quick comparison table

The ten vendors most often compared against Grasshopper, with two columns most teams ask us to add: pricing transparency (scored 1–5 in the open 13-provider pricing dataset — higher is better) and whether a published free trial is available without a sales call.

Vendor	Starting price	Team features	AI	Video meetings	Pricing transparency	Best for
DialPhone AI Pro	$24/user/mo	Yes	Native AI	Yes (200 ppl)	5/5	Solo scaling to team
Grasshopper	$14/mo (Solo)	No	None	No	4/5	Solo virtual number only
OpenPhone	$19/user/mo	Yes	Basic summaries	No	4/5	2–10 person teams
Google Voice	$10/user/mo	Yes (Workspace)	Basic (Gemini)	Via Meet	3/5	Google Workspace users
RingCentral	$20/user/mo	Yes	RingSense (add-on)	Yes	2/5	Growing teams to enterprise
Nextiva	$18/user/mo	Yes	Newer AI	Enterprise-only	3/5	Mid-market CX
Sideline	$10/mo	Minimal	None	No	3/5	Individual second line
eVoice	$14/mo	Minimal	None	No	3/5	Virtual-number-only
Phone.com	$15/user/mo	Basic	Minimal	Limited	3/5	Affordable small-business VoIP
Vonage	$20/user/mo	Yes	Basic	Yes	2/5	Developer APIs
Zoom Phone	$10/user/mo	Yes (w/ Zoom)	AI Companion	Yes (w/ Zoom)	3/5	Zoom-standardized teams

Grasshopper’s transparency score of 4/5 in the dataset reflects published per-plan pricing and no hidden minimums — credit where it’s due. The score does not reflect feature breadth. Grasshopper ships fewer capabilities than any other vendor in this table; the price reflects that scope, not a discount.

If you’d rather plug your own seat count and call volume into a model, the open 13-provider VoIP cost calculator covers the same vendors profiled below with three-year TCO modeling.

1. DialPhone AI Pro: best for solo scaling to team

Starting price: $24/user/mo (Core, billed annually) Best for: solopreneurs and small businesses that want a phone system they will not outgrow Check current pricing: dialphone.com/pricing

Key features

• HD video meetings for 200 participants included on every tier
• AI live captions, summaries, and post-call transcripts native to the platform
• Business SMS with 10DLC registration support and TCPA-aware templates
• Team chat, shared inbox, and skills-based routing
• HIPAA BAA on every plan (Core, Advanced, Ultra) at no surcharge
• 500+ integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot, MS Teams, Zendesk
• Smart Virtual Concierge add-on at $59/mo — a HIPAA-eligible AI Receptionist
• Free porting; 14-day published free trial; no sales call required

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically

• Video and SMS are native, not absent. Grasshopper ships zero video and bare-bones SMS. DialPhone Core includes HD meetings for 200 participants and 10DLC-aware business SMS in the base seat.
• AI is included, not missing. Grasshopper has no AI features. DialPhone includes AI captions, summaries, and call transcripts on every tier.
• Scales without migration. Grasshopper tops out at Small Business ($32/mo) with no real team features. DialPhone uses the same seat license from 1 user to 2,000 — no migration when you hire.
• HIPAA BAA on entry tier. Grasshopper does not sign a BAA per the dataset. DialPhone signs one on Core ($24).

See DialPhone pricing · Browse all alternatives guides · DialPhone business phone product page

2. OpenPhone: best for modern 2–10 person teams

Starting price: $19/user/mo (Standard); $33/user/mo (Business) Best for: small teams that liked Grasshopper’s simplicity but need shared inboxes and basic AI Check current pricing: openphone.com/pricing

OpenPhone is the closest spiritual successor to Grasshopper’s positioning — “the phone for small teams” — but with a 2026-era app, shared SMS inbox, and the new Business tier ($33) that adds AI summaries and CRM integrations. The iOS/Android/Mac/Windows apps are genuinely best-in-class for teams under ~25 seats.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: shared SMS inbox, round-robin call routing, basic CRM integration, and AI summaries on Business — all features Grasshopper does not ship at any price. For a 2-to-10 person team that has outgrown Grasshopper’s single-user model, OpenPhone is the lowest-friction upgrade.

Where DialPhone wins over OpenPhone: OpenPhone has no real contact-center product, no HIPAA BAA per the dataset, no native video meetings, and a feature ceiling around 25 seats. DialPhone scales past that without a platform change and includes BAA on every tier.

Cons: Business tier ($33) is required for AI; no real video; no CCaaS; not HIPAA-eligible per the 13-provider dataset.

3. Google Voice for Workspace: for Google Workspace users

Starting price: $10/user/mo (Starter, requires Workspace seat) Best for: teams already paying for Google Workspace that want a bundled PSTN line Check current pricing: workspace.google.com/products/voice/

Google Voice for Workspace is the cheapest credible alternative to Grasshopper if — and only if — your team is already on Google Workspace. The Starter tier at $10/user/mo bundles voicemail transcription, basic call routing, and Gemini-powered voicemail summarization (added in 2026). Video happens via Google Meet, which is part of every Workspace plan.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: bundles into a tool you already pay for, includes Google Meet for video, and ships Gemini AI for voicemail summarization at the same price as Grasshopper Solo. For a Workspace-native solo operator, this is functionally a free upgrade.

Where DialPhone wins over Google Voice: Google Voice has narrow international coverage, no native contact-center workflow, basic IVR, and no HIPAA BAA on Starter (Standard and Premier are required). DialPhone is purpose-built as a phone system rather than a bundled add-on, and BAA is on every tier.

Cons: requires a Workspace seat; international calling is narrow; admin is split between Workspace Admin and Voice admin; not a fit for non-Google shops.

4. RingCentral: for growing teams needing enterprise

Starting price: $20/user/mo (Core, annual) Best for: teams planning to grow past 25 seats and into multi-region telephony Check current pricing: ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html

RingCentral has been the UCaaS category leader for two decades and ships the deepest global telephony footprint in this list — local DIDs in 40+ countries, multi-tenant carrier interconnects, FedRAMP Moderate, HITRUST, and PCI-DSS Level 1. For a team migrating off Grasshopper because they outgrew the entire SMB category and need enterprise compliance posture, RingCentral is purpose-built for that scenario.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: every dimension where Grasshopper is thin — global telephony, IVRs, queues, integrations, compliance certifications — RingCentral is mature.

Where DialPhone wins over RingCentral: AI is included in DialPhone’s base plan; RingSense is a separate $25/user/mo add-on, pushing the effective AI-included price past $45/user/mo. CCaaS is unified with UCaaS on DialPhone’s platform; RingCentral splits them into RingEX and RingCX. Pricing transparency in the dataset: DialPhone 5/5, RingCentral 2/5.

Cons: overkill for solo or 1–5 seat teams; AI is a paid bolt-on; renewal increases of 7–10% per cycle are typical; aggressive multi-year contracts.

5. Nextiva: for mid-market with built-in CRM

Starting price: $18/user/mo (Essential, annual) Best for: mid-market teams that want comms and a built-in CRM on one bill Check current pricing: nextiva.com/pricing

Nextiva repositioned itself as a customer-experience platform in 2024, bundling voice, SMS, and a native customer-relationship suite. For a Grasshopper user whose business has grown to include lead pipeline, deal tracking, and customer records, Nextiva offers a one-stop alternative.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: built-in CRM, mature SMS, IVR builder, and a CX workflow Grasshopper does not attempt at any tier.

Where DialPhone wins over Nextiva: AI breadth and maturity (DialPhone is AI-native; Nextiva added AI recently and ships it as a layer), HIPAA BAA on every tier (Nextiva gates BAA to Enterprise at $30), and a 22% hidden-fee share in the dataset vs DialPhone’s 13%. Video conferencing is also Enterprise-only on Nextiva.

Cons: no published free trial; BAA gated to Enterprise; video gated to Enterprise; 22% hidden-fee share — the highest among the verified tier-1 providers in the 13-provider dataset.

6. Sideline: for individual second-line users

Starting price: $10/mo (Standard); $15/mo (Pro) Best for: individuals who want a second number on their personal phone without a second SIM Check current pricing: sideline.com/pricing

Sideline is a consumer-grade second-number app. It adds a business-feeling number to an existing personal phone without porting, without a separate device, and without a contract. For a freelancer who only needs to separate work calls from personal calls, Sideline is the cheapest option in this list.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: cheaper than Grasshopper Solo ($10 vs $14), simpler onboarding (no porting required for new numbers), and a cleaner mobile-first UX for the one-person use case.

Where DialPhone wins over Sideline: Sideline is intentionally a single-user app — no team features, no real IVR, no CRM, no AI, no BAA. The moment a freelancer hires a contractor, Sideline runs out of runway. DialPhone is the same platform that handles 1 user and 200 users.

Cons: not a team tool; basic IVR only; no AI; no compliance posture; not appropriate for any business with employees.

7. eVoice: virtual-number-only

Starting price: $14/mo (Elite); higher tiers up to $44/mo Best for: solo operators wanting a virtual number with a basic auto-attendant Check current pricing: evoice.com/plans-pricing

eVoice is Grasshopper’s most direct competitor — same positioning (virtual numbers for solopreneurs), same price point ($14/mo entry), same feature scope. Owned by J2 Global / Consensus Cloud Solutions, the product has been around for more than 20 years and has a stable feature set.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: same scope at the same price, with slightly better international calling rates and a more flexible auto-attendant builder.

Where DialPhone wins over eVoice: eVoice has the same ceiling as Grasshopper — no real team features, no native video, no AI, no contact center, no BAA. The product is fine for the use case it’s built for, and out of runway for anything beyond it.

Cons: dated admin UX; no AI; no video; no team features beyond a basic ring group; no published HIPAA BAA per the dataset’s pending_research flag for the broader vendor.

8. Phone.com: affordable small-business VoIP

Starting price: $15/user/mo (Basic) Best for: small businesses that want VoIP with multiple lines without enterprise pricing Check current pricing: phone.com/pricing/

Phone.com is positioned as the budget VoIP option for 2–20 person businesses. Basic at $15/user/mo gets you voice, SMS, mobile app, and a basic auto-attendant. The Plus and Pro tiers ($18–$27) add video meetings, more SMS, and call recording.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: real per-user pricing means you can add seats individually instead of jumping from Solo (1 user) to Partner (3 users) to Small Business (5 users) in tiers. Phone.com also includes video meetings on the Plus tier and basic CRM integration that Grasshopper does not match.

Where DialPhone wins over Phone.com: AI features (Phone.com ships none meaningful), CCaaS upgrade path (Phone.com has no contact-center product), HIPAA BAA (Phone.com signs none per the dataset’s pending_research flag), and integration depth.

Cons: dated admin; thin AI story; no real contact center; meeting quality on Plus is workable but not best-in-class.

9. Vonage: developer APIs + business phone

Starting price: $13/user/mo (Mobile); $21 Premium; $27 Advanced Best for: teams with developer capacity wanting programmable voice/SMS APIs Check current pricing: vonage.com/unified-communications/plans/

Vonage has bifurcated into Vonage Business Communications (UCaaS seat product) and Vonage Communications APIs (the developer platform). For a Grasshopper user whose business is actually a software product needing voice/SMS embedded into their app, the APIs side is the real fit.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: programmable voice and SMS APIs that Grasshopper does not offer at all. Premium and Advanced UCaaS tiers also include video meetings and CRM integration Grasshopper does not match.

Where DialPhone wins over Vonage: clarity. Vonage’s two product lines overlap and confuse buyers regularly. DialPhone is one product with published tiers. Pricing transparency in the dataset: DialPhone 5/5, Vonage 2/5. DialPhone’s AI is also more mature and bundled.

Cons: product-line confusion; AI is undifferentiated; pricing transparency low (2/5); contact-center less mature.

10. Zoom Phone: for Zoom-using small teams

Starting price: $10/user/mo (US & Canada metered); $20/user/mo (unlimited) Best for: solo operators and small teams already standardized on Zoom Meetings Check current pricing: zoom.us/pricing/zoom-phone

Zoom Phone is the PSTN layer for Zoom Meetings. Lowest published entry price in this list, frictionless single sign-on for orgs already on Zoom, and an admin that inherits Zoom’s familiar UI. For a solopreneur who already runs every client meeting on Zoom, adding a Zoom Phone seat for $10/mo metered is the lowest-friction path off Grasshopper.

Why it beats Grasshopper specifically: native HD video via Zoom Meetings (Grasshopper has none), AI Companion option for transcription and summaries, and same-vendor billing for teams already paying Zoom.

Where DialPhone wins over Zoom Phone: Zoom Phone is voice-only by design — SMS is basic, AI Companion is a separate license, and Zoom Contact Center is a wholly separate product. DialPhone ships unified voice + SMS + meetings + CCaaS + AI on one seat license.

Cons: metered tier has per-minute surprises above 600 minutes/user/mo; SMS is basic; AI Companion is a separate license; Contact Center is separate; no published free trial.

Grasshopper’s ceiling: when virtual numbers aren’t enough

Grasshopper does one thing well — it provides a professional-sounding business phone number to a solopreneur for $14/mo. The product was built for that use case in 2003, was acquired by GoTo in 2018, and has not meaningfully expanded its scope since.

The 13-provider SMB VoIP Pricing Research 2026 dataset flags Grasshopper as signs_baa: false, blocks_automated_scraper: false, and no free trial — and the empty cells for video_conferencing, ai_receptionist_included, and sms reflect that Grasshopper either does not ship the capability or ships only a token version. The product gaps are not bugs; they are intentional positioning below GoTo Connect in the same portfolio.

The trouble is that “virtual phone number” stops being enough at predictable inflection points. The first inflection is the second hire: Grasshopper Partner at $25/mo notionally adds users, but there is no shared SMS inbox, no skills-based routing, no team chat, and no way for two people to actually collaborate on customer conversations. The second inflection is the first video-required meeting: every modern client expects a video link, and Grasshopper has none — solo operators end up paying for Zoom or Google Meet on top of Grasshopper, which makes the “$14/mo” headline meaningless.

The third inflection is SMS marketing: as soon as a business wants to text customers at scale, Grasshopper’s barebones SMS hits 10DLC registration walls and TCPA exposure that the product does not help you navigate. The fourth inflection is AI: every alternative in this list except Sideline and eVoice ships at least basic AI transcription or summaries by 2026 — Grasshopper ships none, which means manual notes after every customer call.

The fifth and final inflection is compliance. Grasshopper does not sign a HIPAA BAA per the dataset, which rules it out for any healthcare-adjacent practice — clinics, therapists, dental offices, telehealth — the moment they grow past a single solo provider. None of these inflections is a problem if the business genuinely stays at one person, no video, no SMS marketing, no AI, no healthcare adjacency. But most small businesses hit at least two of these inflections within 18 months. That is the ceiling — and the trigger to switch.

When Grasshopper is fine

Honest framing: not every Grasshopper user should switch. There are real scenarios where Grasshopper is the correct answer and any alternative in this list is overkill.

The clearest fit is the side-business or extra-line use case. A consultant with a day job who takes occasional client calls on a separate number, a real-estate agent who wants a dedicated listing line, a freelance contractor who routes work calls away from their personal phone — for these users, Grasshopper Solo at $14/mo is hard to beat. The feature set matches the need exactly: professional-sounding number, voicemail transcription, basic call forwarding, mobile app. Nothing more is required, and paying for AI or video or CCaaS would be waste.

The second fit is the true solopreneur with no growth plans. Some businesses are deliberately one-person operations — an independent therapist, a solo law practice, a one-person bookkeeping firm — and have explicitly decided not to hire. If video happens in-person or on a free Zoom seat, and SMS is rare, Grasshopper covers the actual workload at the lowest price point that still feels professional. Switching to a $24/mo platform for AI features you won’t use is not an upgrade — it is overspend.

The third fit is the bridge use case. A founder testing a new business idea who wants a real number before committing to a full phone system can park on Grasshopper for 90 days, then migrate via standard LNP porting once the business is validated. Grasshopper’s $14/mo Solo tier is cheaper than the trial-period overhead of larger systems for that exploratory phase.

Migrating from Grasshopper

Migrating off Grasshopper is straightforward because the product surface is narrow. There are no IVRs to recreate, no skills-based routing to map, no CRM integrations to migrate, no recorded calls to export — the migration is essentially porting the number and re-recording the voicemail greeting.

The mechanical steps: (1) confirm the destination provider has your DID range covered (every vendor in this list ports US and Canada numbers); (2) submit a port-in request with the new provider — DialPhone porting is free and takes 2–10 business days; (3) keep Grasshopper active until the port completes to avoid missed calls; (4) update voicemail greetings, business cards, and Google Business Profile after the port lands; (5) cancel Grasshopper after the port confirms, not before.

Total elapsed time: 5–10 business days for solo operators, with zero service interruption if you keep Grasshopper paid until cutover.

See DialPhone pricing · Browse all alternatives guides

How to choose the right Grasshopper alternative

1. How many users?

• 1 user, virtual number only, no growth plans: Sideline, eVoice, Google Voice, Phone.com, or stay on Grasshopper
• 1 user but planning to grow: DialPhone Core, OpenPhone
• 2–10 users: DialPhone, OpenPhone, Phone.com
• 10–50 users: DialPhone Advanced, RingCentral, Nextiva
• 50+ users: DialPhone, RingCentral, 8x8

2. Do you need real SMS, video meetings, or a contact center? Grasshopper offers none of these meaningfully. DialPhone bundles all three on Core. OpenPhone offers basic SMS and shared inbox. Zoom Phone delivers video via Zoom. Nextiva delivers CX workflow with built-in CRM.

3. Do you need AI features? DialPhone for native AI included in base. Zoom Phone + AI Companion for Zoom-centric. Google Voice Standard for Gemini voicemail summarization. Grasshopper ships none.

4. Is HIPAA BAA required? DialPhone signs a BAA on every tier (Core, Advanced, Ultra) at no surcharge. Grasshopper does not sign a BAA per the dataset. Nextiva requires Enterprise. RingCentral signs on all tiers.

5. What’s your budget per user per month?

• Under $15: Sideline, Google Voice Starter, Zoom Phone metered, Phone.com Basic, Grasshopper Solo, eVoice
• $15–$25: DialPhone Core, OpenPhone Standard, Nextiva Essential, RingCentral Core
• $25–$40: DialPhone Advanced, OpenPhone Business, Nextiva Enterprise, RingCentral Advanced

For a side-by-side cost model across the same providers profiled in the dataset, see the VoIP cost calculator with three-year TCO modeling.

Why growing businesses switch from Grasshopper to DialPhone

Three patterns we hear repeatedly:

1. “We hit our second hire and Grasshopper ran out of runway.” Team features, shared SMS inbox, skills-based routing, and team chat — DialPhone has them on Core. Grasshopper does not ship them at any tier.

2. “We added customer SMS and got blocked by 10DLC.” DialPhone SMS includes 10DLC registration support, TCPA-aware templates, and shared-inbox workflows. Grasshopper SMS is bare-bones with no compliance guidance.

3. “We wanted AI transcription and an after-hours receptionist.” DialPhone includes AI captions, summaries, and post-call transcripts on every tier. The Smart Virtual Concierge add-on at $59/mo handles after-hours intake — for a solo operator losing calls to voicemail, the ROI math is decisive.

Start a free 14-day DialPhone trial · See DialPhone pricing · DialPhone business phone product page · Browse all alternatives guides