7 Best Aircall Alternatives in 2026 (With Real Pricing)
Aircall is a capable calling platform for sales and support teams. People look for a replacement because of the bill: a three-license floor, a $20-a-seat jump to get the power dialer, and AI that runs on a meter.
The quick answer: The best Aircall alternative for teams that live on inbound leads is Carly. It answers every call your team can’t, qualifies the caller, books them on the right rep’s real calendar and logs it all to HubSpot or Salesforce. Copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live. If a lower seat price is all you need, Quo and Dialpad start at $15 a user billed annually, and Kixie and JustCall are built for outbound volume.
Aircall alternatives compared
Prices are per user per month on annual billing, checked against each vendor’s US pricing page on September 14, 2026.
| Tool | Starts at | AI that answers calls | HubSpot / Salesforce sync | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/mo | Answers 24/7, qualifies, books on real calendars, texts back | HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Carly’s own CRM | Speed-to-lead on inbound calls |
| Aircall (for reference) | $30/license, 3-license minimum | AI Voice Agent: 50 min/mo, then $0.49/min | Salesforce CTI on Professional ($50) | Sales and support teams of 3+ |
| Quo | $15/user | Sona: about 10 calls/mo, then credit packs | Business plan ($23) | Small teams sharing a line |
| Dialpad | $15/user | AI Agents, a separate product billed per conversation | Pro plan ($25, 3-user minimum) | Google Workspace teams |
| JustCall | $29/user, 2-license minimum | AI Voice Agent, per-minute add-on | From the entry Team plan | SMB sales and support teams |
| CloudTalk | Per user, three plans | AI Receptionist from $99/mo for 200 min | Salesforce on Expert | Teams that want dialer add-ons |
| RingCentral RingEX | $20/user | AIR add-on from $39, then $0.50/min | Advanced plan ($25) | Calls, video and chat in one app |
| Kixie | Not published | Built for outbound dialing | Every plan | High-volume outbound SDR teams |
Why teams leave Aircall
- The three-license floor. Essentials is $30 a license a month annual, or $40 monthly, and both self-serve plans require three licenses.
- The dialer costs a tier. Power Dialer, voicemail drop, Salesforce CTI, live monitoring and advanced analytics sit on Professional at $50 a license annual, or $70 monthly.
- AI on a meter. Every account gets 50 AI Voice Agent minutes a month, then $0.49 a minute pay-as-you-go ($0.39 above 2,500 minutes) or $175 for 500 minutes. On Essentials, AI Assist summaries are another $9 a license, AI Assist Pro coaching $49, Analytics+ $15 and each extra number $6 a month.
- Annual terms that lock. Aircall’s help center says annual upfront licenses can’t be reduced mid-term, with no pro-rated refunds for users deleted mid-cycle.
- Billing friction in reviews. Aircall holds a 3.0 on Trustpilot across more than 1,000 reviews. Reviewers describe being held to an extension after missing a cancellation deadline, paying a full extra month to port a number out, and a roughly $2,000 renewal charge they couldn’t get refunded.
A three-rep inbound team on Professional pays $150 a month annual before any AI. If the AI Voice Agent covers 400 minutes of after-hours and overflow calls, 350 of them bill at $0.49, another $171.50.
1. Carly: best Aircall alternative for speed-to-lead
Carly picks up when every rep is busy or it’s after hours, asks the qualifying questions you set, and books the meeting on the right rep’s real calendar while the caller is still on the line. It’s reliable and endlessly customizable: it follows your rules exactly, the same way on every call.
- Answers 24/7, or only when your team doesn’t pick up, in English or Spanish.
- Books callers during the call on your team’s real Google and Outlook calendars, round robin.
- Calls new web leads within a minute and texts back every missed call from the same number.
- Hands callers to a person through ring groups or a phone menu.
- Logs every call, text and voicemail to one team inbox and HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365 or Carly’s own CRM.
- Runs from ChatGPT or Claude with the Carly connector, connects to thousands of apps and triggers free Zapier-style workflows.
How it works under the hood: our AI lead response agent guide.
Best for: Sales and service teams where a slow or missed call is a lost deal. Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Setup: Copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live. Get started.
2. Quo (formerly OpenPhone)
The closest thing to Aircall’s everyday phone experience at half the entry seat price. Its AI agent, Sona, is included on every plan and answers around the clock. See Quo alternatives.
Pricing: Starter $15 a user a month annually ($19 monthly), Business $23 ($33), Scale $35 ($47). Sona includes 1,000 credits, about 10 calls; packs of $25, $49, $99 and $199 cover 40, 100, 250 and 600 calls. Watch out for: CRM sync, phone menus and AI summaries on every call start on Business. US texting needs 10DLC registration at $19.50 once plus $1.50 to $3 a month.
3. Dialpad
AI built into the phone system, with Ai Recaps for summaries and action items, and a low Standard price. See RingCentral vs Dialpad and Dialpad alternatives.
Pricing: Standard $15 a user a month annually ($27 monthly), Pro $25 ($35) with a 3-user minimum, Enterprise on a quote with a 100-user minimum. Watch out for: Standard integrates only with Google Workspace, so Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Zapier and webhooks mean Pro. AI Agents are a separate product billed per conversation.
4. JustCall
The most direct Aircall lookalike, with CRM integrations from the entry Team plan and an AI Voice Agent for after-hours and overflow calls.
Pricing: Team $29 a user a month, Pro $49, Pro Plus $89, billed annually with a 2-license minimum. Watch out for: The AI Voice Agent is a per-minute add-on, and AI coaching sits on Pro Plus.
5. CloudTalk
Sales and support calling with a strong add-on menu: power dialer, parallel dialer and conversation intelligence, plus two AI voice agents sold as minute bundles.
Pricing: Three per-user plans (Starter, Essential and Expert). AI Receptionist from $99 a month for 200 minutes; AI Specialist from $349 for 1,000 minutes. Watch out for: Advanced Salesforce sits on Expert, and CloudTalk bills in advance with no refunds or credits for partial months or plan changes.
6. RingCentral RingEX
Calls, video meetings and team chat in one app, with the AIR AI Receptionist as an add-on. See RingCentral alternatives and RingCentral AI Receptionist.
Pricing: Core $20 a user a month annually ($30 monthly), Advanced $25 ($35), Ultra $35 ($45). AIR is $39 a month on a RingEX plan ($49 standalone) with 100 minutes, then $0.50 a minute. Watch out for: CRM integrations start on Advanced, and contracts auto-renew unless you give notice at least 30 days before the term ends.
7. Kixie
A sales dialer and business phone with bi-directional CRM sync on every plan, from single-line calling to multi-line power dialing.
Pricing: Not printed. The three plans (Professional, Single-Line PowerDialer, Multi-Line PowerDialer) come through a 7-day trial or a demo. Extra US and Canada local numbers are $5 a month. Watch out for: ConnectionBoost, Conversation Intelligence and AI human detection are premium add-ons.
Matching the replacement to how your team uses Aircall
- Leads call you, and the first answer wins the deal: Carly. Compare it with other AI answering services and AI receptionists.
- Small team, tight budget, shared number: Quo Starter or Dialpad Standard.
- Outbound dialing volume: Kixie, JustCall or CloudTalk Expert.
- Video and chat from the same vendor: RingCentral RingEX.
Call your own sales line at 7 pm. Whatever answers is what your best lead hears. To make it Carly, paste this into ChatGPT or Claude:
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/account (API key under Carly Teams) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.Get started, or watch the 2-minute video. For the wider field, see best small business phone systems.
FAQ
What is the best alternative to Aircall?
For inbound sales and service teams, Carly, because it answers the calls your reps miss, qualifies the caller, books them on the right calendar and logs it to HubSpot or Salesforce. For outbound dialing, Kixie and JustCall are the closest fits.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Aircall?
Yes. Quo and Dialpad both start at $15 a user a month billed annually, and RingCentral RingEX starts at $20, against Aircall’s $30 a license with a three-license minimum. Check where CRM sync lands: it starts on Quo’s Business plan, Dialpad’s Pro plan and RingEX Advanced.
Does Aircall have a minimum number of users?
Yes. Aircall’s Essentials and Professional plans require at least three licenses, and its Custom plan requires 25. Licenses on an annual upfront plan are locked for the year.
How much does Aircall’s AI Voice Agent cost?
Each Aircall account gets 50 AI Voice Agent minutes a month. Beyond that, pay-as-you-go is $0.49 a minute up to 2,500 minutes and $0.39 above, or you can prepay $175 for 500 minutes.
Can I keep my Aircall number if I switch?
Business numbers can be ported between providers. Check your Aircall renewal date first, since annual licenses can’t be reduced mid-term.
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See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
