Quo (formerly OpenPhone), Aircall, Grasshopper and RingCentral all sell "a business phone", but they bill for it in four different ways: per user with a number included, per license with almost no numbers included, flat per account, and per user with small call and text allowances. This guide compares the phone systems themselves — seats, numbers, allowances and overage — because that structure, not the headline price, decides your total.
Starter, billed annually. Monthly billing is $19/user/mo. No free plan — 7-day trial.
Essentials, billed annually. Monthly billing is $40/license/mo. Minimum 3 licenses.
True Solo, billed annually — priced per account, not per user. Monthly billing is $18/mo.
Core, billed annually. Monthly billing is $30/user/mo. No free plan — free trial offered.
| Quo (OpenPhone) | Aircall | Grasshopper | RingCentral (RingEX) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How you are billed | Per user | Per license, 3-license minimum | Flat per account — users are not billed per seat on Solo Plus / Small Business | Per user |
| Plans (annual billing) | Starter $15 · Business $23 · Scale $35 per user/mo | Essentials $30 · Professional $50 per license/mo · Custom is quote-based | True Solo $14 · Solo Plus $25 · Small Business $55 per account/mo | Core $20 · Advanced $25 · Ultra $35 per user/mo |
| Same plans, monthly billing | $19 · $33 · $47 per user/mo | $40 · $70 per license/mo | $18 · $32 · $70 per account/mo | $30 · $35 · $45 per user/mo |
| Numbers included | 1 local or toll-free number per user | 1 local or toll-free number per account on published pricing summaries — confirm at signup, as some summaries read it per license | True Solo 1 · Solo Plus 1 · Small Business 4 | A direct number per user, plus your company number setup |
| Extra numbers | $5/number/mo | $6/number/mo | $9/number/mo | $4.99/number/mo; international numbers from $5.99/user/mo |
| Calling included | Unlimited to US & Canada, subject to a fair use policy | Unlimited within US & Canada on published plans; international rates on request | Unlimited within US & Canada | Unlimited within US & Canada; toll-free minutes are capped (next row) |
| Texting included | Unlimited to US & Canada, subject to fair use; US texting registration is an extra fee | Included in plans; published allowances vary between sources — confirm your plan's outbound limit at signup | Unlimited within US & Canada; business texting registration is an extra fee | 25 (Core) · 100 (Advanced) · 200 (Ultra) SMS/MMS per user/mo — the smallest allowances here; overage is roughly a cent per message |
| Toll-free minutes | Toll-free numbers included; US/CA calling under fair use | Toll-free numbers available | Toll-free numbers available (note: toll-free numbers cannot text Canadian numbers) | 100 (Core) · 1,000 (Advanced) · 10,000 (Ultra) minutes, pooled across the whole account; overage 3.9¢/min |
| Where numbers are available | US & Canada only | 100+ countries published | US & Canada only | 100+ countries via Global Office; Japan is listed under a "Select" tier with exceptions |
| Free option | No free plan — 7-day trial | Free trial offered | Free trial offered (texting is not active during the trial) | No free plan — free trial offered |
| Trade-off to know | You pay for every seat even if the team shares two public numbers; numbers are US/Canada only | The 3-license minimum makes the real entry price $90/mo, and extra numbers are not bundled per license | No CRM integrations and no call recording — it is a phone line, not a sales/support platform | Texting and toll-free allowances are small enough that usage charges and add-ons decide the real bill |
Prices are USD, before tax, as published by the vendors in November 2026. US business texting also requires carrier registration (A2P 10DLC / TCR): vendors pass through a one-time fee of about $19–$19.50 plus roughly $1.50–$3/mo where it applies — budget for it on any of these services. Plans change — always confirm the current price, what is included, and the number allowance on the vendor's site before you buy.
Seat prices hide the main event. So here is the same team priced four ways, using only published list prices: 5 staff, 2 shared numbers (a main line and a support line), annual billing, before tax and texting-registration fees.
| Setup | How the math works | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grasshopper Solo Plus | $25 flat + 1 extra number × $9 (2 numbers total, 3 extensions) | $34 | $408 |
| Grasshopper Small Business | $55 flat — 4 numbers and unlimited extensions already included | $55 | $660 |
| Quo Starter | 5 users × $15 — 5 numbers are included, so the 2 public numbers cost nothing extra | $75 | $900 |
| RingCentral Core | 5 users × $20 — but note the texting allowance below | $100 | $1,200 |
| Quo Business | 5 users × $23 — the tier with phone menus (IVR) and CRM integrations | $115 | $1,380 |
| RingCentral Advanced | 5 users × $25 | $125 | $1,500 |
| Aircall Essentials | 5 licenses × $30 + 1 extra number × $6 (only 1 number is included) | $156 | $1,872 |
| RingCentral Ultra | 5 users × $35 — the tier whose texting allowance fits the scenario below | $175 | $2,100 |
| Aircall Professional | 5 licenses × $50 + 1 extra number × $6 | $256 | $3,072 |
The "one number per user" assumption is what moves these numbers. Quo bundles a number with every seat, so a 5-person team ends up holding 5 numbers whether it publishes them or not — the bill follows headcount. Grasshopper is the mirror image: headcount is free on its upper plans and you pay only for the numbers and extensions you actually run, which is why the same 5-person, 2-number setup costs a fraction as much — at the cost of CRM integrations and call recording, which Grasshopper does not offer. Aircall is asymmetric in the other direction: you pay per license, yet published summaries list only one included number for the account, so departments that each need a number pay $6/mo per extra number on top of every license.
And watch the texting line. If that same team sends about 600 texts a month (120 per person — a few appointment reminders a day), RingCentral's included allowances cover 125 messages on Core and 500 on Advanced for the team; only Ultra's 200-per-user allowance fits inside the plan. But run the overage math before upgrading: RingCentral's published per-message overage is around $0.0085, while moving from Core to Advanced costs $5/user/mo to buy 75 extra included texts per user — about $0.067 per added text, roughly eight times the pay-as-you-go rate. Upgrading just for texting rarely pays; upgrade for recording, integrations and analytics if you need those. On Quo and Grasshopper, US/Canada texting is published as unlimited (Quo under a fair use policy), which is why text-heavy small businesses often find the "more expensive per seat" option cheaper in total.
Quo — the product most people still search for as OpenPhone, after its September 2025 rebrand — is built around shared numbers: a main line that several teammates can answer, text from, and see the full conversation history for. Starter ($15/user/mo billed annually, $19 monthly) includes one local or toll-free US/Canadian number per user, unlimited calling and texting to the US and Canada under a fair use policy, and voicemail transcripts. Business ($23/$33) adds phone menus (IVR), call transfers, automatic recording, AI call summaries, and HubSpot and Salesforce integrations. Scale ($35/$47) adds AI call tags and dedicated onboarding. Extra numbers are $5/mo each. US texting requires a registration that costs $19.50 once, plus $1.50–$3/mo. Every plan also includes a metered allowance for Quo's AI answering agent — useful, but it is an add-on meter on top of the phone system, not the phone system itself.
Aircall is a cloud phone system aimed at sales and support teams, with its value concentrated in integrations (250+ published, including HubSpot, Salesforce and major helpdesks), call routing, and — on Professional ($50/license/mo billed annually, $70 monthly) — a power dialer and live monitoring. Essentials ($30/$40) covers core calling, IVR and recording. Two structural facts matter more than the feature list: both published plans carry a 3-license minimum, so the smallest real account is $90/mo on annual billing; and published pricing summaries list one included number for the account, with extra numbers at $6/mo each — confirm this at signup, because it is the line item that surprises teams who assumed one number per license. AI features are layered add-ons (AI Assist at $9/license/mo; AI Assist Pro at $49/license/mo; Analytics+ at $15/license/mo), so a fully loaded seat costs well above the headline rate. Aircall publishes numbers in 100+ countries, the broadest self-serve international catalog here alongside RingCentral.
Grasshopper is the oldest model here: a virtual phone system that puts a business number, auto-attendant and extensions on the phones you already own, priced per account. True Solo ($14/mo billed annually, $18 monthly) is one user, one number, one extension. Solo Plus ($25/$32) opens it to unlimited users with one number and three extensions. Small Business ($55/$70) includes four numbers and unlimited extensions, still with unlimited users. Every plan includes unlimited US and Canada calling and texting, voicemail transcription and a virtual fax; extra numbers are $9/mo each, and extra extensions on Solo Plus are $3/mo. What it deliberately is not: a platform. Published specs show no CRM integrations to speak of and no call recording, and international calling is an exception path (a deposit plus per-minute rates) rather than a feature.
RingEX is RingCentral's business phone, sold as part of a wider communications suite: phone, video meetings (100 participants on Core and Advanced, 200 on Ultra) and team messaging in one subscription. Core ($20/user/mo billed annually, $30 monthly) covers unlimited US/Canada calling with on-demand recording; Advanced ($25/$35) adds automatic recording, the full integration library and queue features; Ultra ($35/$45) raises the allowances and storage. The catch is in the allowances, and they are published, so read them before the feature list: texting is capped at 25 / 100 / 200 messages per user per month, and toll-free minutes are 100 / 1,000 / 10,000 pooled across the entire account, with overage at 3.9¢/min. Extra numbers are the cheapest here at $4.99/mo, and international numbers start at $5.99/user/mo. RingCentral also sells an AI receptionist as a separate add-on — relevant if you want it, but it is not included in the RingEX prices above.
Write down how many public numbers you will actually publish (main, support, locations) and how many people answer them. If people outnumber numbers, Grasshopper's flat pricing wins on cost; if every person needs their own direct line, a per-user system like Quo or RingCentral matches how you work.
Multiply out: seats × rate, plus extra numbers, plus the minimums (Aircall's 3 licenses), plus add-ons your team will actually switch on. Our 5-person table above runs from $408 to $3,072 a year for the same job — the gap is structure, not features.
Estimate last month's outbound texts and toll-free minutes. Under RingCentral's caps those two numbers pick your tier; on Quo and Grasshopper they are published as unlimited within the US and Canada (Quo under fair use). Then do the overage math before paying for a higher tier just to raise an allowance.
If you need a number outside the US and Canada, Quo and Grasshopper cannot sell you one; check Aircall's and RingCentral's country lists for your exact market (including number type) before signing. Then run one real week of calls through the trial of your shortlist — including a shared-number handoff and a texting workflow.
Yes. OpenPhone rebranded to Quo in September 2025; it is the same company, product and accounts under a new name, and the old domain redirects to Quo. People still search "OpenPhone pricing" and "OpenPhone alternative" — the prices in this guide are Quo's current published plans.
On published annual pricing for our reference setup (5 staff, 2 shared numbers), Grasshopper Solo Plus totals $34/mo ($408/yr) because it bills per account, not per person — but it has no CRM integrations or call recording. The cheapest per-user system is Quo Starter at $15/user/mo. "Cheapest" depends on whether your team shares numbers or each person needs a direct line, which is why we show the full math instead of a single winner.
Not from Quo or Grasshopper — both publish US and Canadian numbers only, though Quo can call Japan on prepaid international credits and you can use its app from Japan with a US number. Aircall publishes numbers in 100+ countries and RingCentral lists Japan under its Global Office / Global RingEX "Select" tier with exceptions; neither publishes enough detail to confirm the exact Japanese number type (for example a 050 IP number versus a geographic 03/06 number) or its SMS support from public pages alone. If a Japanese number is your primary requirement, verify it in writing before subscribing — and know that these four are US-centric systems; Japan-first cloud PBX services are a separate category this guide does not cover.
Because of the published 3-license minimum: Essentials is $30 per license per month on annual billing, and you cannot buy fewer than three licenses. A team of three or more pays exactly the sticker rate per person; a solo user or pair pays for a third seat they do not use, which is the single most common surprise in Aircall pricing.
Per published plan allowances: 25 SMS/MMS per user per month on Core, 100 on Advanced and 200 on Ultra. Messages beyond the allowance are billed per message at roughly a cent each on published rates, and higher-volume texting products are sold separately. If your team confirms appointments or sends delivery updates by text every day, model your real volume against those caps before choosing a tier (see the total-cost section for the upgrade-versus-overage math).
Because this guide is compiled from the vendors' published specifications and pricing, not from hands-on testing we did not do. Call quality depends on your network and the vendor's carriers in ways a spec sheet cannot settle, so we do not score it. Where a judgment appears — for example, that upgrading a plan only for texting allowance is poor value — it is arithmetic on the published prices, shown next to it so you can check it yourself.