Many sole traders begin their business journey relying on their personal mobile device and number to field professional calls and messages.
This is a convenient and perfectly understandable decision in the early days, though you may quickly find you outgrow it. Whether it’s one too many unwelcome or out-of-hours customer calls, or appearing less established than you are, sooner or later, you might want to consider another solution – a virtual number.
A virtual number gives you a dedicated business number that can route calls to your existing phone, helping you look more professional while keeping your personal number private. Here’s how to get a virtual phone number in 2026, the benefits for sole traders, and how to choose the right provider.
How to get a virtual phone number
To get a virtual phone number, first choose a provider that offers the types of numbers and additional services you require, and matches your budget. Virtual Landline, which offers virtual numbers at competitive prices, is a great option. Next, choose what type of number you need. For example, national numbers (starting with 03) are a good choice if your business has a UK-wide presence, while a geographic (01/02) number might be better if your business serves a localised or regional customer base.
Finally, you can publish the number on your website, Google Business Profile, invoices and other customer touchpoints and start making and receiving calls using your preferred devices.
What is a virtual phone number?
A virtual phone number is a cloud-based number that allows you to make and receive business landline calls from a mobile, desktop app, landline or VoIP phone. That means you can answer calls from an office, from home or when you’re out and about. Not only are you less likely to miss an important call, but you can also maintain a professional image, wherever you are.
Why sole traders should consider using a virtual phone number instead of a personal mobile number
There are some key advantages to using a virtual phone number for professional calls over your personal number, including:
Privacy
If you choose to use your personal number for professional calls, you have to make it widely available online, inviting anyone to call your personal device at any time. This is a level of intrusion you might not want to tolerate, even if some of the calls are important. With a virtual number, you can still choose to have business calls come through to your personal mobile, but you will know the nature of the call and can decide whether to answer.
Professionalism
There’s no two ways about it – a business landline number simply looks more professional than an 07 number. A personal mobile could give prospective clients the impression that you are still at an early stage or not yet established enough to be worth their time.
Call handling
With a virtual number, you get much more flexibility over how to handle calls. You can use features like call forwarding or routing to direct the call to the right person or department, recorded menus to give callers options, or send calls you aren’t able to answer to voicemail.
Work-life balance
If all your business calls come through to the same device you manage your personal life on, it’s hard to avoid the feeling that you must always be available to respond to professional matters. With a virtual number, you can use Time of Day Routing or an out-of-hours greeting so that, outside of working hours, business calls are routed to voicemail or answered by a virtual receptionist instead of coming through to your device. That way, you won’t even be tempted to take every single call.
Scalability
As a sole trader, you may only need calls forwarded to your mobile at first, but if you later take on staff, work with a virtual assistant or open a second location, you can keep the same business number and adjust how calls are handled or easily add new devices or users.
What type of virtual phone number should you choose?
Here are the different types of virtual numbers and what businesses they are most suited to:
- Geographic (01/02) – linked to a specific town or city area code, geographic numbers are ideal for businesses that want to appear as local and familiar to consumers in a particular region
- National (03) – national numbers are UK-wide, but don’t cost any more to call than a geographic number. They are the best option for businesses that serve customers across the whole country
- Freephone (0800) – freephone numbers are free to call from UK mobiles and landlines. That makes them ideal for businesses that expect things like booking enquiries, sales calls, or customer service calls, where reducing friction that could discourage calls is important
How to get a virtual phone number, step by step
Here’s your step-by-step process for getting a virtual number.
- Choose your number type – decide whether a geographic (01/02), national (03) or freephone (0800) number is most suitable for your business
- Compare providers and pricing – in particular, you should pay attention to monthly fees, setup costs, call charges, inclusive minutes, and contract length. It is also worth checking which call handling features are included as standard, and which you have to pay extra for
- Decide where calls should be routed – decide whether calls should go to your mobile, landline, VoIP handset, desktop app or another team member. If you’re a sole trader, you might start by simply forwarding all calls to your mobile, but as you grow, you may need to expand your routing options
- Set up greetings, voicemail and business hours – a professional greeting lets callers know they’ve reached the right place and builds trust at the first moment of contact. Once you’ve set business hours, calls outside those hours will be automatically routed to voicemail, which captures important inquiries or opportunities and maintains a professional image
- Test the number before publishing it – you should always make a few test calls to ensure features like your greeting, forwarding, voicemail, or auto-attendant are working as expected
- Add the number to your website – update the number across every customer-facing touchpoint, both on and offline, including your Google Business Profile, invoices and email signature
How much does a virtual phone number cost?
The main costs you should look out for are:
- Monthly fees – expect to pay anything between £5 and £15, depending on whether you choose a local/national, London or freephone number. Virtual Landline offers some of the lowest prices on the market, with 01/02 and 03 numbers from £4.50
- Call forwarding costs – while call forwarding is usually included as a feature in your monthly plan, the cost of diverting or forwarding a call to another mobile or landline is deducted from your credit or inclusive minutes, with calls outside of your allowance costing anything from 1p to 5p per minute.
- Inclusive minutes – virtual number providers include a set number of prepaid minutes, which may cover inbound and outbound calls, or call forwarding to mobiles and landlines. Inbound calls taken through an app are often unlimited. Calls to premium rate or international numbers may not be included in your minutes and incur an additional charge
- Extra users – you may have a certain number of users included in your plan as standard, with extra users incurring additional charges
- Add-on features – virtual number plans come with certain basic features, such as the ability to make and receive calls, call diverts, or voicemail services, while more advanced features like time-based routing or auto-attendant may only be available on higher-tier plans. Make sure your provider of choice includes the calls you need at a price point you can budget for
How Virtual Landline works
Discover how Virtual Landline lets you choose a number and route calls to an existing mobile or phone system.
Comparison of virtual phone number providers
Here’s how different virtual phone number providers stack up against one another.
| Provider | Price | Core features | Best for |
| Virtual Landline | From £4.50 | Ultra-low-cost standalone virtual number, unlimited inbound calls to the app, simple call forwarding, business eSIMs. Also offers feature-rich virtual office systems | Startups and sole traders |
| Dialpad Connect | From £12 per user per month | AI-powered call and voicemail transcriptions, messaging, unlimited UK calling, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 integrations | Small to medium-sized businesses, remote and hybrid teams |
| RingCentral | From £12.99 per user per month | AI-powered calls, messages and meetings, team collaboration, call and meeting summaries | Growing businesses |
| bOnline | From £7 per user per month | VoIP features, digital phone line and number, unlimited inbound calls, 100 outbound landline minutes | Startups and sole traders |
How to choose the best virtual phone number provider for your business
The best virtual phone number provider is the one that gives you the right number type, call features and pricing for the way your business actually works.
For many sole traders, a simple virtual number that forwards calls to a mobile will be enough. But it is worth thinking ahead. If you later hire staff, work with a virtual assistant or need calls to ring through to more than one device, you’ll want a provider that lets you add users, upgrade your plan or change your routing without starting from scratch.
Virtual Landline is the ideal option for sole traders and small businesses that want a straightforward way to separate their business and personal calls, choose a professional number and route calls to an existing mobile or phone system.
