Alternatives to Sipgate Basic

I've recently ordered broadband from Giganet over CityFibre, and hope to get it installed in late September. Our existing provider is Plusnet FTTC - their existing contract doesn't run out until November so we have plenty of overlap.

We would prefer to keep our landline number for incoming calls only, and my original plan was to migrate it to Sipgate's free Basic service (after getting Giganet installed and working, of course) - but I'm disappointed to find out that this has just been discontinued and none of their advertised plans are free any more.

So does anyone have any recommended free (or very cheap) alternatives? A&A appears to offer a basic package for £1.20 per month but I thought their porting charge was rather high for landline numbers, and I've discovered Number People, who seem to offer a similar service to Sipgate and get good reviews on Trustpilot. So has anyone had experience of Number People - do they offer what I'm after and does it work well? - or do you have any suggested alternatives?

Many thanks

I would recommend VoIPify ... previously known as Port5060 https://www.voipify.net/features/

UK owned and based. Their monthly charges are reasonable and their call charges are excellent. Most companies are much th same when it comes to porting costs.

In reply to a post by MHC:

I would recommend VoIPify ... previously known as Port5060 https://www.voipify.net/features/

Are they not a little pricey at £4.20/month for the one number (£1.20/month) and one extension (£3.00/month) as the OP just wants to keep it for incoming calls only.

I can recommend A&A:

https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-informat...

£1.20 per month. No bundled calls but if you're just looking for incoming calls then there are no other costs (other than porting your number).

I've been with them for around 19 months and everything's just worked

I don't have any personal experience with them, but I found that Voipfone.co.uk has a "flex" plan at £1.50 per month (from 1st Oct 2022, was £1 previously). They're certainly long established.

They also have good support which is why I have been a customer for 7 years. Unlike Sipgate you can only have one device registered.

No experience here with voipfone.co.uk but their porting is £20+VAT:

https://www.voipfone.co.uk/PB_Porting_Numbers.php

And then it looks like they charge £3/month for the number (is that on top of the £1/month fee?)! That's rather expensive either way compared to A&A (£1.20/month)!

I seem to recall that I paid £15+VAT porting with A&A but that was a while ago and I don't see the cost instantly visible on their site now!

Another happy AAISP VoIP customer. Since 2019, and it was about £15 to migrate my number from an Openreach line.

In reply to a post by zeb99:

looks like they charge £3/month for the number (is that on top of the £1/month fee?)!

It does appear to be, the flex plan doesn't come with a number and a number cost £3/month so by my calculation that's £4.80/month inclusive of VAT


Edit: by all accounts it does come with a free 056 UK phone number and the extra £3/month above is for a 01 or 02 number.

Edited by deleted (Tue 13-Sep-22 22:29:38)

In reply to a post by Stargazer99:

A&A appears to offer a basic package for £1.20 per month but I thought their porting charge was rather high for landline numbers

I am presently considering opening a VOIP basic account with AA and I notticed their £44.00 porting fee which mentioned copper lines, (which may be costly for porting because they apparently try to port the copper line without triggering a broadband cancelation.

I don't know why the Copper Line porting charge is so high but I did phone them to ask about VOIP to VOIP number porting and was told that it would cost £15.00 including VAT. - which is not so bad.

Regards,
Fido