You have hired a subcontractor who is about to talk to a client, and you have to decide what phone number that conversation happens on. Your own number is wrong: the client will text you at 9pm about work you did not do. Their personal cell is worse, because it walks out the door when the engagement ends. So you go shopping, and hit a pricing question that looks simple and is not. Does the second number cost you a seat, or a line?
The moment a phone line stops being optional
For a solo operator this problem does not exist. One person, one number, one voice on the other end. Plenty of agencies run that way for years, the owner’s mobile doing double duty.
The trigger is specific: the first time somebody who is not you places or answers a call as your business. A contract designer picking up a revision call, a community manager replying to an inbound text about a delayed post. Two constraints arrive together. The client should not end up with the subcontractor’s personal cell in their contacts, and texts from that subcontractor should not look like they came from you. Once both are true you are buying something, and the only open question is the unit.
Two vendors, two different things they charge for
Quo, the product formerly sold as OpenPhone, charges per user. Its pricing page, fetched 7 September 2026, lists Starter at $19, Business at $33, and Scale at $47 per user per month billed monthly, dropping to $15, $23, and $35 per user per month billed annually, stated on the page as $180, $276, and $420 per year. Every tier carries the same line item: one new or ported phone number, local or toll-free, per user.
The rebrand is mid-transition and the page shows it. On 7 September 2026, openphone.com/pricing resolved to quo.com/pricing with the plan cards branded Quo, while the comparison table below still described numbers as belonging to an OpenPhone workspace and the footer carried both companies’ copyrights. Same product, not two competing ones.
Grasshopper prices the other axis. Its homepage, fetched the same day, states that plans start as low as $14 per month, that you can add unlimited users at no extra cost, and that the plan shares one number across your entire team. You are buying a line, then handing out access to it.
What adding one subcontractor actually triggers
| Vendor | Cost to add the person as a user | Cost of a distinct phone number for them | Fallback: sharing an existing number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quo (formerly OpenPhone) | A new paid seat, from $19 per user per month, or $15 billed annually on Starter | Included. Every paid seat bundles one new or ported local or toll-free number | Quo’s shared phone number feature, a workflow route rather than a discount |
| Grasshopper | Nothing, per the homepage claim of unlimited users at no extra cost | Not bundled with the person. An extension or an additional number is what costs money | Built in: one shared number is the plan’s default |
The shared-number workaround, and where it stops working
The lever most agencies pull on Quo is the shared phone number, and the plan comparison table puts a hard limit on it. On Starter, a shared number supports up to 10 paid users. Business and Scale remove that ceiling and allow unlimited paid users on one shared number. Under ten seats on Starter, sharing is not a workaround. It is the supported path.
What it costs you is not on the invoice. Quo describes shared numbers as sharing call and text histories across the workspace. The consequence: the subcontractor you onboarded last week can scroll back through every text that number ever exchanged with a client, including the thread where you quoted a rate. Fine for a support line. Not fine for a number that has carried your commercial conversations.
A third option sits between the two. Quo’s pricing page lists an add-on for additional phone numbers at $5 per month each, billed annually, each with its own inbox and settings. If you want the subcontractor reachable on a number that is neither yours nor shared, that buys the number by itself.
Grasshopper’s extension is not the same purchase as a new number
Grasshopper’s add-ons list, on the homepage fetched 7 September 2026, prices additional department or employee extensions at $3 per month each. An extension is not a phone number. It is a routing destination behind the number you already publish: the client dials your main Grasshopper line, and the extension decides whose phone rings and whose greeting they hear. The number they save is still the agency’s one line.
An additional standalone number is a different product in the same add-ons group, listed at $9 per month each and described as adding more Grasshopper numbers without changing your plan. That figure comes from the homepage, not from a plan page, which is where verification stops: grasshopper.com/pricing returns a notice stating Grasshopper is available only in the USA and Canada, with no tier names or allowances visible from here. [EVIDENCE NEEDED: Grasshopper’s per-tier plan names and the extensions and numbers each tier includes before add-on pricing applies, from grasshopper.com/pricing on a US or Canadian connection.] The add-on prices are confirmed, the tier structure around them is not.
Pricing out one hire, on both vendors
Picture an agency owner already paying for one line, onboarding one subcontractor who will text a client directly. On Quo there are three honest answers: a new Starter seat at $19 per month, or $15 billed annually, with a number bundled in; the subcontractor added to a number that already exists, at no extra cost under ten paid users on Starter; or a distinct number on an existing seat at $5 per month billed annually.
On Grasshopper the arithmetic runs the other way. The person is free by the vendor’s own claim. A distinct identity on your existing line is $3 per month for an extension, and a separate number clients dial directly is $9 per month per the homepage add-ons list.
Both vendors answer the same question, what does this subcontractor’s number cost me, by charging for opposite things. Quo charges for the person and throws in the number. Grasshopper charges for the number and throws in the people. Which is cheaper depends on which you are adding more of.
What to check before picking a model
- Does the client need a number distinct from every other subcontractor’s, or is a shared line with shared history acceptable? If a client would be surprised that three contractors read the same text thread, sharing is not acceptable, it is just cheap.
- Will this subcontractor still be on the account in 90 days? A per-user seat cancels in a click. A number you ported in and handed to clients does not.
- Does this person need their own voicemail greeting and call history? On Quo that means a seat or an add-on number. On Grasshopper an extension covers both without a second published number.
Where to go next
The phone line is rarely the only thing you set up the week a subcontractor starts. This blog has covered invoicing tools for social media freelancers, time tracking for social retainers, and sharing brand account access without sharing a password, the same shape of problem as the shared-number tradeoff above.
Prices in this post were verified against the vendors’ own pages on 7 September 2026. This is not Watchdog data and it is not on the re-verification schedule, so check the vendor’s page before you buy. followedapp is published by the team behind RecurPost, and RecurPost is covered vendor #34 under the same rules as every other vendor.
FAQ
Is OpenPhone still called OpenPhone?
Not on the vendor’s own site: as of 7 September 2026 openphone.com/pricing resolves to quo.com/pricing with the plan cards branded Quo, while the comparison table lower down still refers to an OpenPhone workspace. One product mid-rebrand, so check the vendor’s site in case the transition has finished.
Does adding a user to Grasshopper cost anything?
No. Grasshopper’s homepage states you can add unlimited users at no extra cost and share one number across the team. The bill moves on outward identity instead, at $3 per month per extension and $9 per month per additional number, both from that homepage on 7 September 2026.
What does it cost to give a subcontractor their own callback number on Quo?
Either a new paid seat, which bundles one new or ported local or toll-free number, from $19 per user per month on Starter or $15 billed annually. Or, to avoid adding a seat, Quo’s additional phone number add-on at $5 per month, billed annually.
Can multiple people share one business number to avoid buying a second line?
Yes on Quo, through its shared phone number feature, which supports up to 10 paid users on Starter and unlimited paid users on Business and Scale. The tradeoff is that everyone on a shared number sees the same call and text history, including threads that predate the new arrival.
Sources
- Quo pricing page, archived copy dated 22 August 2026, HTTP 200. Source for every Quo figure here. The live www.quo.com/pricing was fetched 7 September 2026 with identical figures, and openphone.com/pricing returned HTTP 301 to it.
- Grasshopper homepage, HTTP 200, fetched 7 September 2026. Source for every Grasshopper price here.
- grasshopper.com/pricing, HTTP 200, fetched 7 September 2026. Served a regional availability notice, so no figure comes from it.