Caddy - Business Phone Number

Review by eFreeware

If you run a one-person business and your phone is also your personal phone, Caddy is worth a look. It gives you a separate local business number with unlimited calling and texting in the US and Canada, all running on the handset you already carry. Plumbers, electricians, roofers, mechanics, real estate agents, stylists, trainers, and freelancers are the people the developer has in mind, and that list makes sense: these are jobs where you are under a sink, in a bay, or with a client for an hour at a time and cannot stop to take a call.

The pitch is simple. Choose an area code, then call and text clients. There is no second device to buy or carry, and if you run more than one business you can add another number to the same phone. The app is free to download and shows no ads, with the service itself sold through in-app purchases. It has been installed more than 100,000 times and holds a 4.6 average from 1,721 ratings, which suggests the basics land well with the people using it.

What separates Caddy from a plain second number is the AI receptionist, and that is the piece I would weigh most carefully before committing. It is optional, and it sits behind the higher of the two plans. If your work involves a lot of missed calls that turn into lost jobs, it is the reason to consider this app over a simpler call-forwarding service.

An AI receptionist that fills in the gaps

The feature the developer leads with is the AI receptionist. When you cannot pick up, it answers the call, greets the person on the other end, and gathers what they need and when they are available. Most people who reach voicemail simply dial the next company instead. Caddy takes their details instead, so you can be the one who calls back first.

What you get afterward is the part that makes this useful rather than gimmicky. Each call the AI handled shows up in the app with a summary, a full transcript, and a recording. You can return the call already knowing what the job is, rather than starting from scratch. For a tradesperson juggling several quotes a day, that is a meaningful difference in how quickly you can respond.

The developer says Caddy takes the details already published on your site or Google profile, so callers get answers without you writing a script. It can also reply using your own voice. I would treat the voice cloning and the automatic learning as the two features to check against your own situation first, since how well they fit depends on how consistent your business information is online and how you feel about a synthetic version of your voice greeting customers.

Staying in control of who gets answered

Caddy does not hand every call to the AI. You decide who it answers: everyone, unsaved numbers only, or contacts only. Each number can be turned on or off, and the greeting and sign-off are editable. That level of control matters if you want the receptionist to cover unknown callers during working hours while your regular clients still reach you directly.

The rest of the package is the ordinary business-line groundwork. The Unlimited plan covers a local business number, unlimited US and Canada calls and texts with SMS and MMS, voicemail turned into text, and an inbox that filters and blocks numbers. Voicemail transcription is a small thing that saves a lot of time when you are checking messages between jobs.

Multiple numbers on one phone is a nice touch for anyone running two ventures, say a detailing business and a separate side trade. The app keeps the lines distinct.

What Caddy asks of you

Signing up requires a real phone number. That is a straightforward requirement, but it is worth knowing before you start.

The pricing is flat. Unlimited costs $9.99 monthly or $99.99 yearly. Nothing is billed by the minute, there are no AI credit packs, and texting setup carries no fee, which makes the costs easy to plan around. No contract is required, and a subscription keeps renewing until you cancel it in the Google Play Store.

The service is sold through in-app purchases. Budget for one of the two plans if you intend to use the number for actual client work. Messaging inside Caddy is built to comply with TCPA and 10DLC requirements, which is the regulatory side of running business texting in the US.

The app was released in April 2025 and last updated in September 2026. The most recent changes fixed push notifications for missed calls, voicemails, and messages, made the permission screen buttons respond without lag, and fixed in-app calling failing to launch when the app was in the background. Those are maintenance fixes rather than new features.

Getting the most from the setup

The automatic learning is only as good as the information it draws from, so the practical move is to make sure your website and Google profile are current before you rely on the receptionist.

Think about who you want the AI to answer before you turn it on. Contacts only is a sensible starting point if you are testing how it sounds, since your existing clients already know how to reach you. From there you can widen it to unsaved numbers, which is where most new business comes from. The greeting and sign-off are yours to shape, so write them the way you would actually answer the phone.

Keeping the lines separate from the start is easier than untangling them once clients have both numbers saved. And if you already have a separate work phone, the comparison to make is between that and one line here.

A business line for people who cannot stop to answer

Caddy is a good fit for solo operators and small crews whose income depends on catching calls they physically cannot take. Trades and home services, auto shops, agents and property managers, wellness and beauty professionals, and freelancers who want their personal cell off every invoice are the groups the developer built this for, and the feature set lines up with those jobs.

The AI receptionist is the reason to pick Caddy over a plain second number, and it is also the reason the higher plan exists. The summaries, transcripts, and recordings are what let you call back first with the details already in hand.

At $9.99 or $19.99 a month, the cost is easy to weigh against a single job you would otherwise have lost. The 4.6 rating from 1,721 ratings suggests users are broadly satisfied. My advice is to be honest about your call volume. If you miss calls regularly and they turn into work, Caddy is built for exactly that problem.

What's new in version 1.18.1

- For users where push notifications: missed call alerts, voicemails or messages were not alerting, this newest version fixes that bug. - Allow buttons on the permissions screen now respond immediately, without lag. - Fixed in-app calling failing to launch while the app was in the background.