The choice decides who pays for the call and how the company looks to a customer.
City number
Anchors the company to a place: 495 for Moscow, 812 for Saint Petersburg. The caller pays the normal rate. In B2B and local services a city number signals a real office.
8-800 toll-free
Free for the caller, paid for by the company. The right choice for support, sales and inbound calls from other regions. The trade-off is the cost per minute for the owner.
Mobile number
The cheapest and fastest option, but in B2B it reads as a private person. Fine for couriers, tradespeople and local services; questionable for a corporate sales desk.
What to check
- Who owns the number range and whether the number can be ported to another provider.
- Whether call recording and missed-call statistics are included.
- Whether calls can be forwarded to a mobile or a messenger.
Appearance in search results
A city number in the page title improves local relevance; a toll-free number builds trust in the ad. In practice most companies publish both.
See also: who calls from 8-800, codes 800, 803, 804, 809.