Top free VoIP phone service in 2024

Advertised as the only mobile provider to offer free nationwide phone service in the U.S., TextNow is simple to get started with and offers a fairly generous set of free features. You get free calls and texting, a free local number and every TextNow plan includes built-in voicemail. It’s easy to set up and get started through the TextNow app, and you can be calling or texting over Wi-Fi in minutes.

If you decide you want to expand your service to include data, TextNow also offers flexible data plans, including an unlimited option. This is a more traditional SIM-card-based service but it is a handy option if you decide you want to expand your personal plan and costs significantly less than alternatives at major phone providers.

However, TextNow doesn’t offer many services or products aimed at supporting multiple users/businesses on a single account, so it may not be suitable for establishing communication for your SMB.

2ndLine is a somewhat unique VoIP provider in that it adds a second line to your existing phone, through which you can then receive calls and messages for free. Though the app is currently only available on Android, it’s simple to download the app, enter your area code and then select a free number from a pool of local options 2ndLine provides.

You can then start calling and messaging for free. 2ndLine also includes voicemail and call forwarding, so you can automatically route incoming calls to another number in the U.S. or Canada.

2ndLine also supports some other handy features, like the ability to create group chats by text. Bear in mind, though, that the free app only allows you to contact U.S. and Canadian numbers, and reaching out to international numbers will require the purchase of credits. Like TextNow, 2ndLine is also squarely aimed at individual users and doesn’t include many features that would make it more attractive to small business owners.

Jitsi isn’t a VoIP phone service in the traditional sense but is instead a secure internet platform for video conferences. Jitsi can integrate easily with Google Calendar and Office 365 for scheduling meetings and setting up notifications, and its open-source platforms allow you to create and join meetings directly through a browser at meet.jit.si or by downloading the free app, available on both Android and iOS.

Jitsi Meet, the video conference app, packs a surprising number of useful features for a free app. Users can auto-view the speaker, text chat, stream conferences directly to YouTube, enable an audio-only option, record their conference and lock rooms with passwords, making Jitsi one of the most robust free video conferencing platforms available.

Much more than just a VoIP phone service, Bitrix24 is a complete customer relationship management solution and workspace platform. It offers a full suite of software options for businesses and can supplant a number of a company’s current software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms.

Bitrix24 can help your team collaborate with video conferencing and chat software, online meetings, calendar software and webmail. On the customer side, it allows you to manage leads, invoicing, online payments and marketing. It also offers a number of other tracking and management solutions. The free plan grants access to a large swath of the total feature set and allows for unlimited users, though it limits storage to 5 GB and doesn’t include webmail.

The phone service offerings in Bitrix’s catalog are also extensive, though be aware that the company doesn’t provide a free number, and all its call options require number rental. However, they do provide everything from full call center functionality, including complex call routing options, to complete phone systems for small businesses and telemarketing software.

AirCall is primarily designed as a call center solution for small to medium-sized businesses, with a number of features designed to make setting up a call center and managing incoming calls and customer issues a simple process. Note that AirCall does not have a truly free long-term plan, but the company does offer a seven-day free trial that includes 20 minutes of credit to make calls.

AirCall promises to let users get set up and ready to take and make calls with just a few clicks. The platform is supported by a wide range of software integrations so that your call center can blend seamlessly with your existing software solutions, including CRM platforms.

AirCall also offers the ability to track important metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) and includes tools so that your team can collaborate better, be it on individual calls, through a shared inbox or by assigning follow-ups to individuals.

Skype is one of the best-known video call apps, launched by Microsoft over twenty years ago. The app continues to offer high-quality video and audio quality and has added a number of features over the years.

You’re now able to automatically forward calls to another number for free or send them directly to voicemail, and Microsoft has integrated some Bing AI features directly into the Skype client. This allows you to quickly get answers to questions or perform searches while you’re in the middle of a call or chat. There’s even a live translation option for text and audio, and Skype will automatically detect different languages.

Skype now offers more traditional phone services, like a dedicated number and texting, through Skype Number. However, getting a dedicated number requires a subscription, as do the other Skype-to-phone services.

Acefone is touted as a powerful cloud phone system geared toward helping businesses streamline internal communications as well as provide customer-facing services like call centers and toll-free numbers. While there’s no truly free option, Acetone does offer customers a 15-day trial to preview its services.

The trial gives you full access to Acefone’s more than 65 features, including HD voice and messaging, full call recording and monitoring capabilities and detailed reporting/feedback. You’ll also get access to their 24/7 customer support options and a virtual assistant that can automatically greet and direct callers.

Acetone also supports a number of third-party APIs to help your team coordinate or add additional CRM functionality, including Zoho.

Like Jitsi, Microsoft Teams isn’t a traditional VoIP phone service but is instead a platform designed for video conferencing and online meetings. While there are a number of paid options, the free version of Microsoft Teams includes a fairly generous sampling of the full product. At the free level, you get access to group meetings lasting up to an hour or one-on-one meetings that can run up to 30 hours.

The free version allows up to 100 participants to join a call and allows 5 GB of storage for each user. Chat features are unlimited even on the free plan, and it also includes full data encryption for calls, meetings, files and chat.

If you do decide to upgrade, the Teams Essentials plan, the lowest tier of Teams’ paid subscriptions, expands the number of meeting/video call participants to 300 and allows them to run for up to 30 hours while doubling the amount of storage per user to 10 GB each.