Four setups cover almost everyone who has answered this question in public, and they sort by how much separation you want rather than by how much money you have.

A second number on the phone you already carry. An app or an eSIM that gives you a work number without a second device. This is the most common answer, and the reported cost sits in the low tens of dollars a month.

A second handset. A cheap phone on its own plan, carried alongside your own. The most complete separation available, because you can leave it in a drawer. Practitioners report paying roughly $20–35 a month for the line.

A second line from your carrier on your existing phone. Two numbers, one device, one bill. Cheaper than a second handset and simpler than an app.

No published number at all. Email or a booking form as the only intake channel, sometimes with outbound caller ID blocked so your own number never shows. Free, and more common than you would expect.

There is no default. Nothing in a therapy training programme, and nothing in the practice-management software most solos buy, hands you a work phone number. It is a separate purchase you have to assemble yourself, which is exactly why the question gets asked in the same words every few months.

What does each one actually cost?

Treat every figure below as what practitioners have reported paying, not as a current quoted price. Phone pricing moves and it moves regionally.

A second handset is the most expensive and the most predictable: a device you already own or buy used, plus a line. A carrier second line costs less because there is no second device. A virtual number app is usually the cheapest monthly figure, and Canadians consistently report a narrower and more expensive set of choices than the American guides describe — the free option those guides recommend is not available here in the same form.

Two published anchors, and one structural fact that explains the shape of the Canadian market.

The structural fact: a second number from a Canadian carrier is a second plan, not an add-on. Bell says so directly — dual SIM puts two numbers on one phone, but "you will need two rate plans and will be billed separately for the two lines" (Bell, dual SIM support). The cheapest publicly priced line is prepaid, at "$19/month" with unlimited Canada-wide calling (Koodo prepaid plans), and several carriers publish add-a-line rates only behind a login.

On the app side, published entry prices sit in the teens — "plans start as low as $14/month" at Grasshopper (pricing), "$19/month" for Talkroute's single-user plan (pricing). Neither page states a currency and both companies are US-domiciled, so the Canadian cost is higher than the number printed.

And the free option the American guides name really is unavailable: Google Voice's own help pages state its single-user plans are "only available in the US" (Google Voice subscription types).

No number costs nothing and is the only option with a hidden bill: the inquiries that arrive by phone and never reach you.

What breaks?

Each setup fails in its own specific way, and the failures are the reason people switch rather than the prices.

Apps that don't ring. The most-reported complaint against virtual number services is not cost — it is that the notification doesn't arrive, the call drops, or a text fails silently, and you discover it at the no-show. If you go this route, test it deliberately from another phone every so often instead of assuming silence means nobody called.

Leaky separation. A second number that rings your personal phone is still your personal phone. Practitioners describe client names landing in their real address book, and not being able to tell a client's call from a spam call before they answer. The number is separate; the experience is not.

Two numbers, one confused client. If you keep both live, some clients will keep using the old one, and a callback from the new one can look like a stranger calling. Two practitioners in these threads went back to a single number for exactly this reason.

Carrier-level surprises in Canada. One Canadian reviewer set up a US-built business phone app, only to be told by support that their mobile carrier blocks the app's outbound caller ID — people could call in, but calling back was impossible. Ask about outbound calling specifically before you commit.

A free number that gets reclaimed. Free virtual numbers can be taken back for insufficient use, and the number on your directory listing and your business cards goes with it.

What about not having a phone number at all?

It is a real setup and a defensible one. Therapists describe removing the number from their website and their directory profile because they were never able to answer it mid-session anyway, and pointing everyone at a booking page instead. The trade is stated openly by the people who did it: fewer contacts, less dread.

Two things to know before you choose it. Some directories and insurer listings require a phone number to be published, so you may not have full control over whether one exists. And a number you never answer is worse than no number, because it looks like a channel and behaves like a wall.

If you go this way, say so plainly wherever the number would have been. "Email is the fastest way to reach me" is a setup. A phone number that rings forever is not.

What do I actually have to decide?

Only two things. Everything else is implementation.

How separate does it need to be? If you want to put work down at the end of the day in a physical sense, only a second device does that. If you want clients to have a number that isn't yours and you are content to manage notifications, one device with two numbers is enough.

What answers when you can't? This is the decision people skip, and it is the one that determines whether the setup holds. In session, you are unreachable by definition. A greeting that states when you return calls, and something that replies to a missed call without you, is what turns a second number from a place calls disappear into a channel.

If you only need a number

Say it plainly: if all you want is somewhere for clients to call that isn't your personal cell, and you are content to return calls yourself, the cheapest honest answer is a second line from your mobile carrier. One bill, no app, no reliability surprises, and outbound calling that works because it is the carrier's own network. It will not text you a transcript, it will not answer for you, and it will ring in your pocket like everything else — but it is a real phone number and it costs less than most software.

Buy something more than that when the problem you have is not "I need a number" but "I need something to happen while I am in session."

The short version

Pick the level of separation you need, then decide what answers when you can't. Test whatever you buy by calling and texting it from another phone before you put it on a directory listing, and check it again occasionally — the failure mode of every option on this page is silence you mistake for quiet.

About Rivet

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