Our pick · Verified 19 August 2026
KrispCall — numbers in 100+ countries with the history shared across the team
Essential from $12/user/mo billed annually · numbers outside US/CA/UK are an add-on
The requirement that separates research telephony from consumer apps is holding a genuine local number in a country you have no office in, and keeping the conversation history attached to the study rather than to whoever answered. KrispCall does both across 100+ countries at an entry price around $12 per user per month billed annually, with recording and IVR on that tier. Budget for the numbers separately — only US, Canada and UK come free, and for a multi-country study the add-ons are the actual cost.
See KrispCall pricing Opens on the vendor’s site · CASRAI referral link
Read the full buyer’s guide on cost → — Per-minute usage and per-country number charges sit on top of every subscription in this category. That guide covers what a realistic month looks like.
Editorial disclosure: CASRAI has commercial referral arrangements with some of the vendors named on this page, and may earn a commission if you subscribe to them. We name them here regardless of whether a link is present. We only recommend tools our editorial team has independently researched. Read our full disclosure policy.
In summary
- A virtual number routes over the internet, so it can be local to a country where you have no presence and can follow the study rather than a person.
- Local numbers materially improve answer rates in international recruitment — an unknown foreign number is frequently ignored outright.
- KrispCall covers 100+ countries; Essential is around $12/user/month billed annually, with only US, Canada and UK numbers included free.
- The under-discussed win: participants stop holding a coordinator’s private mobile number indefinitely.
- Recording a participant call is a consent and protocol question before it is a feature — do not switch it on because the platform makes it easy.
What a virtual number solves, and what it does not
Mapped to the problems study teams actually report
| Dimension | The problem | Virtual number | Coordinator’s own mobile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Participant answer rate abroad | Unknown international numbers go unanswered | Local number in each study country | Foreign number, frequently ignored |
| Privacy of staff | Participants retain a private number indefinitely | Study-owned; revoked when someone leaves | Personal line, permanently exposed |
| Continuity across turnover | Grants outlast the people on them | Number and history stay with the study | Contact route breaks when they leave |
| Evidence of contact | Protocol-defined contact windows need records | Call log with timestamps | Reconstructed from personal phone bills |
| Out-of-hours boundaries | Participants ring at any hour | Do-not-disturb, routing, voicemail | Rings the person, always |
| Handling PHI | Clinical calls need a signed BAA | Only if the vendor signs one — verify it | No BAA, no controls |
The last row is the one to check before purchase rather than after. A virtual number is not automatically HIPAA-covered; that depends entirely on whether the vendor will sign a Business Associate Agreement.
What a virtual number actually is
A conventional phone number is bound to a physical line or a SIM card, and therefore to a place and a device. A virtual number is bound to neither: it exists on a provider’s network and forwards calls over the internet to whichever app, device or person you point it at. You can change the destination without changing the number.
Two consequences matter for research. First, the number can be local to somewhere you are not — a Kenyan number answered in Manchester, a German number answered in Boston. Second, the number belongs to the account rather than to a handset, so it can be reassigned as staff change without the outside world noticing.
Everything else — the apps, the shared inbox, the recording — is built on top of those two properties.
Local numbers and whether people pick up
If your study recruits or follows up across borders, the number you dial from is part of your recruitment method whether or not anyone treats it that way.
An unrecognised international number is, for many people, indistinguishable from a scam call — and in several markets the default behaviour is simply not to answer one. Whatever your participant information sheet says, a call that is never picked up cannot consent anyone or book anyone in. Teams often interpret this as poor engagement with the study when it is really a property of the channel.
A local number changes the first second of that interaction. It does not make an unwanted call welcome, and it will not rescue a badly designed recruitment approach — but it removes an obstacle that has nothing to do with your science, and it is cheap relative to the cost of under-recruiting.
Two honest caveats. Holding a local number does not entitle you to imply a local presence you do not have; be straightforward about who is calling and from where. And in some jurisdictions there are rules about presenting a local caller ID from abroad — worth a question to the provider if you are operating at scale in an unfamiliar market.
Getting coordinators off their own phones
This is the most valuable thing on this page and it rarely appears in a business case.
Across a great many studies, participant contact happens from a coordinator’s personal mobile, because no alternative was ever provided. Three problems follow, and all of them are avoidable.
The participant now holds a private number for a named individual, permanently. They keep it after the study closes. They may share it. They may call it at three in the morning about something distressing, and there is no queue, no routing and no colleague who can pick it up.
The staff member cannot switch off. Research staff on fixed-term contracts are frequently early-career and poorly placed to push back on this. It is a workload and wellbeing issue that gets treated as a personal boundary failure rather than a missing piece of infrastructure.
Continuity breaks on departure. When the coordinator’s contract ends, the contact route in your approved participant documentation stops working — and you cannot easily tell participants that without a fresh mailing.
Ethics committees increasingly ask how participants will contact the study team. A study-owned number with a defined answering arrangement is a straightforwardly better answer than a person’s mobile, and it costs a few pounds a month. If you fix one thing after reading this page, fix this.
Recording, consent and data protection
Every provider offers call recording. Treat it as a design decision, not a toggle.
Consent rules differ by jurisdiction and within them. Some US states require all parties to consent; others require one. In the UK and EU, recording a call containing personal data engages data protection law — you need a lawful basis, a stated retention period and a transparency notice. A cross-border call can engage more than one regime simultaneously.
For human-subjects research it is a protocol matter. If you will record participant calls, that belongs in the protocol and the consent documentation your committee approved: what is recorded, why, who can access it, how long it is kept, and how a participant declines while still taking part.
Storage is the part people forget. Recordings of participants are personal data and often special-category. Decide where they live, who can reach them, and when they are deleted — and get the vendor’s data-processing terms and sub-processor list in front of your DPO before the first call, not after.
Done properly, recording is genuinely valuable for qualitative work; a recording beats a coordinator’s contemporaneous notes every time. Done casually, it creates an unmanaged archive of identifiable health conversations on a third party’s servers.
What it costs, honestly
Three separate charges, and only the first is advertised.
The seat. KrispCall Essential is around $15 per user per month, or $12 billed annually, for up to five users with recording, voicemail and IVR included. Standard is around $40 ($32 annually) for unlimited users, unlimited recording storage, API access and call monitoring.
The numbers. One US, Canada or UK number comes free with a seat. Every other country is a recurring add-on — which, for the multi-country studies this page is about, is the whole reason you are buying and therefore a real line in the budget. Price your actual country list, not the headline.
The calls. Usage is metered per minute and per SMS segment on top. Outbound calls to mobiles and to international destinations cost more than domestic landline minutes. A recruitment push can spend more on usage than on subscription.
These figures came from third-party aggregators rather than KrispCall’s own pricing page, which blocks automated access — so verify the live rate. And put the fully-loaded number in the grant before the award; a communications line is far easier to fund at proposal stage than to find money for in year two.
When you do not need this
A single domestic study with a handful of participants. One virtual number with voicemail, or an existing departmental line, will do. A per-seat platform is over-specification.
Your institution already runs telephony. Many universities can issue a departmental number and a queue on a system that is already paid for, already covered by institutional agreements and already assessed by IT. It is rarely advertised. Ask before procuring anything.
Nobody will answer it. A number in a participant information sheet that rings out damages trust more than having no number. Staffing is the prerequisite, not the software.
You need confirmed HIPAA coverage. If PHI will be discussed, you need a signed Business Associate Agreement. We could not confirm KrispCall offers one — ask directly and get it in writing before buying, and treat a non-answer as a no.
Price your real country list, not the headline
One number is included; the rest are add-ons, and usage is metered on top. Take your actual list of study countries and expected call minutes and get a worked figure before it goes in a budget.
Essential from $12/user/mo billed annually
See KrispCall pricing Opens on the vendor’s site · CASRAI referral link
Frequently asked questions
What is a virtual phone number?
A number not tied to a physical line or SIM. It lives on a provider network and routes calls over the internet to whichever device or app you choose, which means it can be local to a country where you have no presence and can stay attached to a study rather than to a person.
Why do research teams need virtual phone numbers?
Two reasons. Local numbers materially improve the chance a participant abroad answers at all, since unknown international numbers are widely ignored. And a study-owned number gets coordinators off their personal mobiles, which solves participant privacy, staff boundaries and continuity when contracts end.
How much do virtual phone numbers cost?
On KrispCall, a seat is around $15 per user per month or $12 billed annually, and includes one free US, Canada or UK number. Numbers in other countries are recurring add-ons, and calls and SMS are metered per minute and per segment on top. Verified against third-party aggregators on 19 August 2026 — KrispCall blocks automated access to its own pricing page.
Can we record calls with participants?
Technically yes, but treat it as a consent and protocol decision. Some jurisdictions require all parties to consent, recording personal data engages data protection law, and for human-subjects research the recording should be described in the protocol and consent documents your ethics committee approved. Also decide in advance where the audio is stored and when it is deleted.
Is a virtual phone number HIPAA compliant?
Not inherently. Compliance depends on whether the provider will sign a Business Associate Agreement covering the calls. We could not confirm that KrispCall offers one, so if protected health information will be discussed, get that answer in writing from the vendor before purchasing.
Can we keep the number if we change provider?
Ask before you publish it anywhere. If a number appears in an approved participant information sheet it needs to outlive your contract with any single vendor, and confirming portability afterwards is far harder than confirming it first.
Is this better than giving participants a departmental landline?
Not necessarily — if your institution can issue a departmental number with a queue, that is already paid for and already assessed by IT, and you should use it. Virtual numbers win specifically where you need local presence in countries your institution has none, or where the line must follow a study across sites.
