For those looking to separate business from personal, a second phone number for work is a great option. If you’re considering a second line, chances are you have heard of GoDaddy SmartLine and Google Voice, two of the most popular on the market today.

So, how did they become popular? Because they already had large customer bases who are using other products from these companies. That makes it easy for them to popularise their virtual numbers. However, if you’re a small business owner or startup founder looking for the best second phone apps, it makes more sense to look at GoDaddy SmartLine and Google Voice alternatives.

A comparison of GoDaddy SmartLine and Google Voice

Both GoDaddy SmartLine and Google Voice are intended for the budget-friendly section of the second phone market. Google Voice is preferable if you’re looking for integrations and seamless connections with your mobile carriers. GoDaddy SmartLine is the more affordable of the two and would suit smaller teams.

But you should also understand that when you compare GoDaddy SmartLine vs Google Voice, you’re comparing phone services designed for different sets of users. GoDaddy SmartLine’s primary purpose is to mute work-related calls that come outside of business hours.

Google Voice is the ideal option for regular users who want to stay in touch with their friends and family through another number, or for freelancers and solopreneurs whose primary concern is the price. Now let’s compare the two by key features.

GoDaddy Smartline vs Google Voice: Pricing

GoDaddy Smartline has a free trial for a month. Google Voice’s free service under its Personal User Plan is limited to a single user. The paid versions of both the plans are around £7.50 per month.

The pricing isn’t too different between GoDaddy Smartline and Google Voice. While the latter is more budget-friendly, GoDaddy Smartline has certain additional features. For example, you can customise your business hours. Its app is also more modern when compared to Google Voice.

For integrations, conferencing, activity reporting, auto-attendants and other features, Google Voice is the ideal choice. So, while Google Voice delivers more features at around the same price, if you need more business-friendly features, you should consider GoDaddy SmartLine.

GoDaddy Smartline vs Google Voice: Call quality

Since both rely on your carrier’s network, the quality of the calls you receive will primarily depend on your network, device and bandwidth. In other words, if there are dropped calls, it may not be due to the faults of these apps and would be due to patchy network connections or poor device quality.

It should be pointed out that Google Voice allows you to use either your Wi-Fi or carrier’s network to connect to the internet. But GoDaddy SmartLine can only use the network and not Wi-Fi. Google Voice also has better integrations with carriers. However, those differences are mostly irrelevant as long as you have a good internet connection.

GoDaddy Smartline vs Google Voice: Additional features

When it comes to features, Google Voice has a clear edge over GoDaddy Smartline. The latter may allow you to customise your business hours but Google Voice has a lot more to offer. Several of these would also suit the needs of small teams and solopreneurs.

As a small business or medium enterprise, you would need call management features. Google Voice has call forwarding, auto-attendant and ring groups. These will come in handy if you want multiple team members from your business to answer calls.

With auto-attendant, you will be able to direct calls to the right extension. Call forwarding will allow you to manually change the caller to another line. With ring groups, or simultaneous ring, the call will ring on multiple devices until someone answers it. This will make sure that your calls are always answered.

GoDaddy Smartline vs Google Voice: Ease of use

Like most Google products, Google Voice is also easy to use. You can effortlessly use messaging, voicemail or jump between calling through its navigation bar. The app also integrates with Google Workspace although this feature is mostly limited to paid users.

GoDaddy SmartLine also comes with an easy-to-use interface that’s effortless to navigate. While it doesn’t have the features of Google Voice, it’s more user-friendly. In a few minutes, you can use the app’s features.

GoDaddy Smartline vs Google Voice: Customer support

Since Google has hundreds of millions of users, customer support is a bit sketchy for Google Voice. Multiple users have complained that it’s challenging to get an immediate resolution. The only solution is the community forums.

If you run into a problem, with GoDaddy Smartline, you can always turn to their SmartLine Help Page for answers. If you can’t find a resolution, you can reach out to the team via email, webchat or phone call.

Chalkboard: A smarter alternative

Whether you’re looking for GoDaddy SmartLine alternatives or Google Voice alternatives, you should consider Chalkboard. Why? Because it's designed for the needs of small businesses, startups and solopreneurs.

The second-line app comes with business-friendly features such as auto-reply. Now you won’t have to worry about missing calls since Chalkboard will send a pre-determined message to your callers.

Chalkboard is also an affordable choice for small businesses and startups. You can also choose a mobile number in the UK or a local number in the US. Reasons enough to sign up today and discover how Chalkboard can benefit your business.