Setting up a virtual phone number in the UK takes less time than most people expect. I helped a friend’s small bookkeeping business move off her personal mobile onto a proper business line last year, and the whole thing, from picking a provider to taking the first call, was done inside an afternoon. No engineer visit, no BT line rental, no waiting weeks for an installation slot.
That’s the appeal of a virtual number: it runs over the internet rather than a physical phone line, so it can ring on your mobile, your laptop, or a desk phone app depending on what you’ve got to hand. This guide walks through what these numbers actually are, which UK area codes and formats you can choose from, what providers charge in 2025, and the practical steps to get one working properly.
What A Virtual Phone Number Actually Is
A virtual number is a telephone number that isn’t tied to a physical SIM card or a copper line into a building. Instead, it’s hosted by a provider and routed to wherever you tell it to go, usually an app on your phone, a softphone on your computer, or a set of physical extensions if you’re running a small office.
This is sometimes called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), though virtual numbers and VoIP aren’t quite the same thing. VoIP describes the underlying technology that carries the call as data rather than as an analogue signal. A virtual number is the product you actually buy: the number itself, plus the routing rules that decide what happens when someone dials it.
The distinction matters because you can have a virtual number that forwards to a normal mobile line without any VoIP app involved at all. Plenty of small business owners in the UK use their virtual number purely as a call-forwarding front for their existing mobile, and never install any software.
Why People Get One
The most common reason I’ve come across is separating work calls from a personal mobile number. A sole trader running a landscaping business doesn’t necessarily want clients ringing their personal phone at 9pm on a Sunday, and a virtual number with its own opening hours and voicemail solves that without buying a second handset.
Other typical uses include:
- Giving a business a local presence in a city or region it doesn’t have an office in
- Running a freephone (0800) or local-rate (0330) number for customer service
- Letting a remote team share one main business number that routes to whoever’s on shift
- Testing a new market or product line with a disposable number that’s easy to drop later
- Keeping a personal number private when selling items online or doing short-term freelance work
Types Of Virtual Number Available In The UK
Ofcom, which regulates telecoms numbering in the UK, sets out the ranges that different number types can use. Knowing these ranges helps you understand what a number is signalling to the person receiving the call, because callers do notice.
Geographic Numbers (01 and 02)
These are the traditional area-code numbers, like 020 for London, 0121 for Birmingham, or 0161 for Manchester. A virtual geographic number lets a business appear to be based in a specific city even if nobody actually works there. This is genuinely useful for a freelancer in Leeds who wants to pitch for contracts with London-based clients, since a 020 number can look more established to some callers than a mobile number would.
Ofcom’s rules mean these numbers should still have some connection to the relevant area, though in practice enforcement of that “genuine use” requirement is fairly loose for virtual numbers routed over the internet.
National Numbers (03)
The 03 range, including 0330 and 0345 numbers, is meant to cost callers the same as a geographic call and can’t be more expensive than a call to an 01 or 02 number, even on mobile tariffs that include inclusive minutes. Businesses like this range because it’s number-agnostic; a company with customers all over the country doesn’t have to pick a single city to represent.
Freephone Numbers (0800 and 0808)
Since July 2015, calls to 0800 and 0808 numbers have been free from UK mobiles and landlines, following an Ofcom reform that removed the access charge mobile networks used to add on top. That change made 0800 numbers far more attractive for small businesses, since customers genuinely pay nothing to call, rather than paying a per-minute mobile charge on top of an already “free” number, which used to catch people out.
Non-Geographic Numbers (084, 087)
These ranges (0843, 0844, 0870 and similar) used to be common for customer service lines but have largely fallen out of favour. Since 2015, providers have had to display the exact per-minute cost of these numbers, and many businesses simply moved to 03 or freephone ranges instead because the transparency requirement made 084/087 numbers look worse next to a plainly free or standard-rate alternative.
Personal Numbers (070)
Worth a specific mention here: 070 “personal numbering” was designed decades ago to let someone have one number that followed them across different phones. In practice, it’s been heavily associated with call-forwarding scams and premium routing tricks, and Ofcom has published guidance warning consumers to be cautious about unexpected 070 numbers. I’d avoid this range entirely for a legitimate business; most reputable virtual number providers don’t even offer it any more.
Mobile-Format Virtual Numbers (07)
Some providers also sell virtual numbers in the mobile format, useful when you want the number to look and feel like a normal UK mobile rather than a landline or freephone number, which can matter for consumer-facing SMS marketing or two-way texting.
What A Virtual Number Costs In The UK
Pricing varies quite a bit depending on whether you want just a number with call forwarding, or a full hosted phone system with multiple users, auto-attendants, and call recording.
At the simple end, a basic UK virtual number with call forwarding to an existing mobile typically runs somewhere in the £5 to £10 a month range as a standalone product. Sipgate, for example, has offered free UK numbers with pay-as-you-go call rates as part of its consumer-facing offering, which suits someone who only needs an occasional business line.
For a small team wanting a proper cloud phone system, expect to pay per user, per month, generally somewhere between £10 and £25, depending on features like call recording, CRM integrations, and international calling bundles. RingCentral, 8×8, Aircall, and CircleLoop all operate in this space and target UK small and medium businesses specifically, with CircleLoop in particular marketing itself as a UK-built alternative to the bigger US platforms.
A few things affect the final price:
- Number type — freephone numbers and premium city codes can carry a small monthly premium over a standard national number
- Call minutes included — some plans bundle UK landline and mobile minutes, others charge per minute on top of the base fee
- Number of users — per-seat pricing adds up quickly for teams past five or six people
- Porting an existing number — moving a number you already own to a new provider is sometimes free, sometimes a one-off charge of around £10 to £20
I’d genuinely recommend checking a provider’s current published pricing page before committing, since these figures shift and some providers run temporary offers that make comparison misleading if you’re going off older reviews.
How To Actually Get One: Step By Step
1. Decide What You Need The Number For
Before comparing providers, work out whether you need a single number for yourself, or a shared number for a team. A one-person consultancy has very different requirements from a five-person customer support team that needs call queuing and shift-based routing.
2. Choose A Number Type And Area Code
Pick between a geographic number tied to a specific city, a national 03 number, or a freephone 0800 number based on how you want to present the business. If you’re targeting a specific local market, a matching area code genuinely helps; local trades in particular still benefit from a recognisable local dialling code.
3. Compare Providers On Features You’ll Actually Use
Don’t just compare the headline monthly price. Look at whether the provider includes:
- Call recording, which some UK sectors need for compliance reasons
- Voicemail-to-email or voicemail-to-text
- Business hours routing, so calls outside working hours go to voicemail or a different team
- Number porting, in case you want to leave later
- App quality, since a clunky mobile app is genuinely one of the most common complaints in user reviews of VoIP providers
4. Sign Up And Verify Your Details
UK providers are required to carry out some identity checks when issuing a new number, partly because of anti-fraud rules around numbering. Expect to provide a name, address, and sometimes proof of ID or a business registration number if you’re setting up under a limited company.
5. Set Up Call Forwarding Or Install The App
Depending on the provider, you’ll either set a forwarding number in an online dashboard or download a softphone app for your phone and computer. Most set-up wizards take under fifteen minutes for a single number.
6. Test The Number Properly
Call it from a different phone, leave a voicemail, and check that any auto-attendant or business-hours message plays correctly. It’s easy to assume everything works because the dashboard says “active,” but I’d always test with a real call from an external line before putting the number on a website or business card.
7. Update Your Listings
Once it’s working, update the number on Google Business Profile, your website, invoices, and any directory listings. Keeping the number consistent across these matters for local search visibility, since inconsistent business details across listings can confuse both customers and search engines.
Common Questions People Ask
Do I need a business bank account or limited company to get one?
No. Sole traders and individuals can buy a virtual number directly from most consumer-facing providers without any company registration. Some business-tier plans do ask for a company number if you want to be invoiced under a registered business, mainly for accounting and VAT purposes.
Can I keep my existing mobile number and add a virtual one alongside it?
Yes, this is the most common setup. Your existing 07 mobile number stays as your personal line, and the virtual number simply forwards to it, or rings inside a separate app on the same phone. Calls and texts stay clearly separated because the apps are distinct, even though both are ultimately reaching the same physical device.
Is a virtual number the same as a “burner” number?
Not really, though they’re sometimes marketed similarly. A proper UK virtual number from a regulated provider is tied to your identity for compliance reasons and isn’t designed to be anonymous. Genuinely anonymous or disposable numbering services exist but sit in a different, less regulated category, and I’d be cautious using one for anything business-related.
Will calls sound different on a virtual number?
Call quality depends entirely on internet connection stability rather than the number itself. On a decent broadband or 4G/5G connection, most people can’t tell the difference from a standard mobile call. On patchy wifi, you might notice some lag or dropped audio, which is the main technical trade-off worth knowing about upfront.
Do virtual numbers work for receiving text messages too?
Some do, some don’t. This depends entirely on the provider and number type, since not every virtual number range supports SMS. If two-way texting matters to you, check this specifically before signing up, because it’s easy to assume all numbers handle texts the same way a mobile does.
Making The Decision
If you only need one thing from a virtual number, it’s usually reliability rather than the longest feature list. A number that occasionally drops calls or delivers voicemails hours late will cost a small business more in missed opportunities than it saves in monthly fees.
For a sole trader or freelancer, start with a simple forwarding number from a provider like Sipgate or a similar consumer-focused service, and only move to a full hosted system once call volume actually justifies the extra cost. For a growing team, it’s worth trialling two providers side by side for a couple of weeks, since app usability and call quality genuinely vary more between providers than the spec sheets suggest.
Whichever route you take, keep the number type deliberate rather than default. An 0800 number signals something different to a customer than a local 0161 number does, and picking the one that matches how your business actually wants to be seen is a small decision that’s easy to get right at the start and annoying to fix later.