OpenPhone

Plans and pricing

What it is: a business phone line that lives in an app instead of on a desk. You pick a local or toll-free number and answer calls and texts from a laptop, a phone, or a browser tab. What separates it from forwarding calls to your cell is that the number is shared. Your partner or assistant sees the same text thread and voicemails, and can answer them. We checked that claim, and it holds on every tier including the cheapest.

Who it fits: one to roughly five people who need a business number that is not their personal cell and who text customers about as much as they call. Contractors, agents, consultants, small service shops. It ranks 2 in the phone systems category of our resources directory, rated 4.5 across 21,440 reviews. That score leans on app stores, where about 17,500 of those reviews sit at 4.4 to 4.6. Trustpilot is softest at 4.0 on 1,012, normal where billing disputes land.

All figures come from Quo's pricing page, checked September 2026 and confirmed in the page source rather than taken from review blogs. Pricing is per user, per month, with taxes and fees added at checkout.

• Starter: $15 per user/month billed annually ($180 a year), or $19 month to month. One new or ported number per user, local or toll-free. Calling and messaging to US and Canadian numbers. Voicemail transcripts, the Quo API, email ticket support, the Sona AI agent, and a ChatGPT/Claude connection. Free porting too. The catch is what is missing.

• Business: $23 per user/month billed annually ($276 a year), or $33 month to month. Everything in Starter plus call transfers, phone menus, custom ring orders, group calling, AI call summaries and transcripts, auto call recording, analytics, HubSpot and Salesforce integrations, and live chat support. Read that list twice. Transferring a live call to your partner, and any "press 1 for sales" menu, are not entry-tier features. A two-person shop that assumed both were table stakes is shopping at $23, not $15.

• Scale: $35 per user/month billed annually ($420 a year), or $47 month to month. Everything in Business plus AI call tags, dedicated onboarding, priority support, and inbound phone support. That last one deserves a note: phoning your phone company and reaching a person starts at the top tier.

That "unlimited" US and Canada calling is asterisked on the page as subject to a fair use policy, which publishes no numeric cap and reserves the right "to impose limits and charge overages." Ordinary volume will not touch it. A dialing operation would.

Three costs sit outside the plan price. Extra numbers are $5 a month each, toll-free included at the same rate. Each seat comes with one number, so a second business line is cheap, but a second person answering is a second seat.

The AI agent has a ceiling. Sona is on every plan, but with 1,000 automation credits, which the pricing page spells out as 10 calls a month. After that it is $1.00 per call, or a credit tier at $25 to $199 a month where the overage falls to $0.45. Fine as an after-hours backstop. Not an unlimited receptionist.

A2P 10DLC registration is a real line item. About $19.50 one time, paid to the Campaign Registry rather than kept by Quo, then $1.50 to $3 a month depending on your business classification, plus $15 to resubmit a rejected application. Toll-free registration is free. ## Why consider it

The shared number fixes a specific, annoying problem. A customer texts about rescheduling. You are on a ladder. Your partner sees the same thread, answers it, and the history stays in one place instead of someone's personal messages. Quo's shared-number pages add internal comments and typing indicators so two people do not answer the same text twice.

Porting is free, so you keep the number already printed on the van. If you have handed out a number for four years, changing it is a marketing expense, not a phone expense. Free transfer assistance sits in Starter, the right place for it.

The entry price is honestly low. Two people, a number each, shared access, on annual billing: $30 a month. Our card's "best value for a two or three person team" claim survives scrutiny, with the tier caveat attached.

It runs on hardware you already own. Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, and a browser at my.quo.com, up to three devices at once. No desk phone to buy, no installer to schedule. Setup genuinely takes minutes, with one big exception below.

Where it falls short

You cannot text on day one, and the trial will not let you try it. The trial runs 7 days, requires a credit card, and per Quo's trial documentation excludes US texting and international calling. The reason is legitimate: A2P 10DLC registration has to clear first. Quo's carrier registration guide is blunt that "As of August 31, 2023, unregistered numbers cannot text US phone numbers." Most approvals land in 24 to 48 hours, though the same page admits some sit pending up to 20 days. So the honest version of our "setup in minutes" card claim: calling works in minutes, texting works when the carriers say so. The card is corrected.

Support is thin at the bottom. Starter buys email tickets. Live chat starts at Business, phone support at Scale.

It is not a phone system for a staffed office. For video meetings, AI note-taking, and a fuller platform under one bill, look at Nextiva. For a front desk, receptionist, desk phones, and departments that need real routing, look at RingCentral. Both are heavier and priced accordingly, and both win once someone's job is answering the phone. Quo is for the stage before that.

One more thing. Part of registering a number is showing how customers agreed to be texted, and consent gets collected where someone hands over their number, not buried in a policy. Quo's guidance puts the opt-in line "near the submit button of the form where contacts provide their phone number, not just in your footer or privacy policy." Our SMS terms show that shape, and our virtual phone number and call forwarding pages cover how a business line fits a real street address.

A note from Lobi Space management

Management here has spent more than twenty years dealing with technology, hiring people, and using remote employees and live reception services. Two things, straight.

First, interview whoever is going to pick up your phone. If that is a service, get on the line with the humans. If it is an AI agent, call it yourself ten times and listen to how it handles the question your customers really ask. And ask honestly whether you need live reception at all when you are starting out. Auto attendants and AI can carry you early, and there is no better person to answer a phone call than the owner, the sales manager, or the person in charge.

Second, people in our community ask each other constantly: what do you use, what is good? Then they jump in on a neighbor's recommendation. Not every business is designed to be the same. Shopping for software takes a long time and switching later is painful, so make the right decision the first time. Write down every process your business needs to succeed, then match each one to a tool or a person. If "two of us answer the same customer texts" is on that list, this fits. If "route callers to three departments" is on it, shop a tier up or a vendor over.

The short version

OpenPhone is Quo now, since September 23, 2025, product and account unchanged. Three plans, per user, per month: Starter $15 annual or $19 monthly, Business $23 or $33, Scale $35 or $47, taxes at checkout. Shared numbers, free porting, and the Sona AI agent are on every tier. Call transfers and phone menus are not, and start at Business. Extra numbers are $5 a month, A2P registration about $19.50 up front plus $1.50 to $3 monthly, and Sona covers 10 calls a month before overages. The trial is 7 days, needs a card, and will not let you test texting.

And the part no plan comparison will do for you. Tools, workshops, software, services, all of it is great. Without a road map, a goal, and a plan, you are shooting in the dark or chasing a dream. Write the plan first, then buy against it.

Our team did the research and the price checking. AI helped organize what needed covering. Every opinion here is ours.

Blunt questions, straight answers

Is OpenPhone gone? Do I have to move my account? No. Same company, new name, as of September 23, 2025, and the announcement is explicit that the product is not changing. Your number, account, and history came along. Expect "OpenPhone (DBA: Quo)" on legal documents.

Why can't I text customers as soon as I sign up? Because US carriers require A2P 10DLC registration first, and Quo's documentation says unregistered numbers cannot text US phone numbers. Budget 24 to 48 hours for approval, longer if something needs verifying. The trial excludes texting for this reason, so if texting is the point of your purchase, register immediately.

Two of us, one business. What do we really pay? Two Starter seats on annual billing is $30 a month, each with a number you can both work from. Add $5 for an extra line, plus about $19.50 once and $1.50 to $3 monthly for texting registration. Need to transfer live calls or run a menu? That is Business, so $46. Taxes on top.

Can two people share one seat to save money? Not the way you are hoping. A number can be shared, but each person answering needs a seat. Sharing one login puts you against the three-device limit with no idea who replied to whom.

When should I pick something else? When you hire the person who answers the phone. A staffed front desk, departments, and formal routing are what RingCentral is built for. For video and AI notes bundled in, Nextiva is the fuller platform. Switching is painful, so if you see that hire coming inside a year, price both now.

Why it made our list

• The shared inbox means a partner or virtual assistant can answer texts and voicemails in the same thread, so a client never has to repeat themselves.
• Calling works within minutes and the apps are genuinely pleasant, though business texting cannot start until your A2P 10DLC registration clears, which usually takes a day or two.
• It is the best value in the category for a two or three person team: real business texting and call handling without a per-seat enterprise bill.