A Google Voice alternative for a business run from one cell

Google Voice is a reasonable first business number. The Basic plan costs $0 a month and gives you a separate number for calling and texting on all your devices, with unlimited domestic calls and texts, as long as you already have a mobile number. This page is for the point after that, when the phone rings with real work and real junk, and you're deciding whether to keep building on Voice or to put screening in front of the number your customers already have.

What Google Voice does well

It asks strangers for their name. With Screen Calls on, a caller who isn't in your Google Contacts says their name before being connected, and Voice plays it back to you. Press 1 to take the call, or press 2 to send it to voicemail, where you can listen while they leave a message and press star to talk after all. People in your contacts aren't asked, and neither are businesses Google already knows.

It lets you treat people differently. From a computer, you can write rules that send one contact or a whole label to a particular linked phone or straight to voicemail, give them their own greeting, and switch screening on or off just for them.

It watches for spam. Voice puts a warning on calls it suspects are spam, and a number you block hears "Number not in service." Google says Voice uses its AI to block spam calls and to turn voicemails into text.

It can grow into a phone system. For one person, Starter is $10 a month and adds 24/7 support, three-way calling, transfers and call recording. Standard is $20 a month and adds auto attendants and Gemini call notes. Teams on Google Workspace can add Voice at $10 to $30 per user per month, on top of the Workspace plan.

It calls and texts from the business number. That's the everyday job Google built Basic for. We don't do it at all, which we'll come back to.

Where it gets awkward when your cell is the business line

Most of the friction comes from one detail: Voice screens calls to your Google Voice number. If the number on your truck, your invoices and your customers' phones is your cell, those callers are dialing a different number, and Voice never hears from them.

Moving your cell into Voice is a real decision. Google charges $20 to port a mobile number into a personal Voice account, and not every number can be ported. Once the port is done, your carrier cancels that phone service. Voice doesn't sell mobile plans, so you'd set up a new plan with a new number and link it to Voice to keep getting calls on your phone.

Keeping both numbers splits your callers. New customers can dial the Voice number and get screened. Everyone who saved your cell years ago keeps calling it, and those calls ring just as they do today.

The free number has to stay busy. Google's policy says it may reclaim a Voice number that isn't being used as intended, for example with no calls or texts for 3 months. The $10 Starter plan says your number won't be reclaimed for inactivity.

A name only tells you so much. Voice screening collects the caller's name. That's often enough to catch a robocall, but "Mike" doesn't tell you whether Mike has a leak under the sink or a warranty offer, and a caller outside your Google Contacts is asked for their name every time until you add them.

Where VettedCalls fits

We start from the other end and leave your number alone. Your cell keeps the number it has. Setup happens on the phone: install the free Cloud Softphone app, open our welcome email and tap Activate VettedCalls, allow the permissions the app asks for, then dial your carrier's forwarding code so every call to your cell comes to us first.

Each call then goes through the same checks, in order. Numbers you've marked as spam are blocked. Saved contacts and anyone who got through in the last 60 days skip screening and ring you, and so does anyone who finished screening, left a voicemail or texted your VettedCalls number in the last 4 hours. Numbers on the spam registry we share across every customer are blocked. Everyone else hears a greeting in your business name asking who's calling and how we can help.

A real caller says a few words and presses 1 or 2 to be put through. A caller who presses nothing hears that the number doesn't accept unsolicited calls, and the call ends. When a call gets through, your phone rings in Cloud Softphone with the caller's number showing, and when you answer, you hear their name and what they need, then a beep, then the caller. That reason is the part a name-only screen leaves out.

Two more things run on every plan. Priority Passthrough lets customers who say one of your selected priority words ring straight through to you, regardless of the time of day. The call skips the press 1 step and rings you right away for up to 40 seconds. And a number that collects 10 counted flags on the shared registry is blocked for every VettedCalls customer.

Missed calls depend on the plan. On Pro, the caller goes to voicemail, you get a text alert and the transcript by email, and callers who pressed 1 get a text saying you missed them. On Receptionist, an AI receptionist answers instead, except for priority calls and saved contacts, which go to voicemail. It takes the caller's name, what they need and the days that work, and you confirm the appointment when you call back.

What Google Voice does that we don't

Know this before you switch. We don't give you a second number to call or text customers from: the VettedCalls number only receives calls, and the texts it sends are automatic notices. We don't make outbound calls. You call people back from your own cell, and the Cloud Softphone app can't place calls, including 911. We don't port numbers either. If you want a separate number for calling customers back, Google Voice does that job and we don't.

What each costs

Google Voice for one person is $0 on Basic with an existing mobile number, $10 a month on Starter, and $20 a month on Standard, which Google is selling at half price for the first 6 months. VettedCalls is $29.99 a month for Pro and $99.99 for Receptionist (coming soon), each with voice minutes included, plus AI minutes on Receptionist. Screening, the spam registry and Priority Passthrough are the same on every plan; the plan decides where a call goes after it passes. Every call we answer counts toward those minutes, spam we block included, rounded up to the next whole minute. You get a 14-day money-back guarantee, and if your carrier turns out not to support forwarding, a full refund in those 14 days. The pricing page has the minutes and overage rates for each plan.

Which to pick

• Stay with Google Voice if you're happy handing out a new number, you want to call and text customers from it, and a caller's name is all the screening you need.
• Try VettedCalls if customers already call your cell, you want unknown callers to say who they are and why before your phone rings, and you want missed calls covered by transcribed voicemail or an AI receptionist.

If you're sticking with Voice for now, our Google Voice call screening guide covers turning screening on, writing rules and blocking numbers. Our features page lists everything VettedCalls does, and the answering service comparison covers live receptionists and AI answering too.

Google Voice questions