If you are one practitioner seeing clients, you almost certainly do not need a phone system. You need a second number that is not your own, that someone can always reach, and that you can put down at the end of the day.

That distinction matters because "phone system" pulls up business VoIP products built for offices with a front desk, extensions, ring groups and hold music. Priced per user, sold on features a solo practice will never open. You can buy one. Most therapists who do end up using about a tenth of it.

The four shapes worth knowing are a carrier second line, a virtual number app, a full business phone system, and a practice line built for the work. Which one is right turns almost entirely on how many people answer the phone.

What your records software will not do

Worth settling first, because a lot of practitioners assume it is covered.

Records software handles notes, scheduling, billing, forms and often video. It does not give you a phone number. Jane's published plans include SMS appointment reminders on the Practice tier and note that availability varies by region; Owl Practice lists email and SMS reminders across its solo plans. Both are notifications going out, not a conversation coming back.

So "my software has messaging" and "a client can text me" are different claims. The first is usually a portal message or an automated reminder. The second needs a number.

The four options

A carrier second line. A second number from a mobile carrier, on your existing handset or a cheap spare. It is the most complete separation available and the easiest to reason about — a different number, a different bill, and a handset you can leave in a drawer. If you only need a number and nothing else, this is the cheapest honest answer and you should take it.

What it does not do is answer for you. When you are in session, it rings out.

A virtual number app. A second number over the internet, on the phone you already have. Cheaper than a carrier line, and no second device. This is where Canadian practitioners hit friction American colleagues do not — availability and pricing differ north of the border, and several of the free options US guides recommend are not straightforwardly available here. Check what an app actually does on a Canadian number before you rely on it.

A business phone system. Extensions, auto-attendant, ring groups, a front desk. This earns its keep the moment more than one person answers the phone — an admin, an associate, a shared reception. Below that, you are paying per user for a switchboard with one user on it.

A practice line. A number that behaves like a practice rather than a phone: it answers when you cannot, it texts back, and the thread stays in one place. This is the shape that fits the actual problem, which is not "I have no number" but "I cannot answer during a session and the caller gets silence".

The question that decides it

Not budget. How many people answer the phone.

One person, and you want a number plus something that covers you during sessions. Two or more, and you want a system with extensions, because routing becomes the real problem and no amount of second-number cleverness solves it.

The secondary question is what happens to a missed call. A number that only rings is half a solution — most calls to a solo practice arrive while the practitioner is with someone else, which is exactly when nothing can be answered.

What it costs to get this wrong

Two failure modes, both common.

Overbuying. A per-user business system for a one-person practice, most of it unopened. Reversible, but you will pay for a year first.

Underbuying. A number with nothing behind it. Calls land in a voicemail box nobody hears until evening, and prospective clients who reach silence phone the next person on the directory. That one does not show up on a bill, which is why it runs for years.

Before you commit to any of them

Ask whether the number is portable. Under the CRTC's rules a Canadian number can move between providers, and a provider who makes that difficult has told you something about the rest of the relationship. Your number is the one asset in your practice that clients have written down.

Ask what happens to messages if you stop paying, and ask it before you sign up rather than when you leave.

The short version

Solo, and you need to be reachable during sessions: a practice line. Solo, and you genuinely just need a second number: a carrier line, and stop shopping. More than one person answering: a real phone system with extensions.

About Rivet

Rivet is a Canadian practice line built for therapists — a separate number for calls, texts and voicemail, with video sessions and clinical tools in the same place. Your data stays in Canada, and transcription runs on Rivet's own hardware rather than a third-party AI service.

One plan, $65 CAD a month, everything included. Fourteen-day trial, no card.

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