Quo (OpenPhone) Review 2026: Pros, Cons and Sona AI
OpenPhone is now Quo: mostly the same app small businesses have liked for years, with a new name, an AI agent called Sona, and a credit meter attached to that agent. We went through Quo’s current plans, its Sona documentation and the patterns in thousands of user reviews.
The quick answer: Quo is one of the easiest business phone apps for a small team that lives in texts: shared numbers, a clean inbox, good mobile apps, and plans from $15 per user per month on annual billing. The weak spots are support when something breaks, reliability reports, and Sona, which answers and takes messages well but meters every call and books by texting a link. If you want the AI to book the right person on your real calendars while the caller is still on the line, that’s Carly, and setup is one prompt in ChatGPT or Claude.
Quo review scorecard
| Category | Score | The short version |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | 4.5/5 | Clean desktop and mobile apps, calls and texts in one thread per contact |
| Texting and shared numbers | 4.5/5 | The reason most teams pick it. Carrier registration still required |
| Call routing and phone menus | 3.5/5 | Phone menus, ring order and transfers start on the Business plan |
| Sona AI agent | 3.5/5 | Answers questions, takes messages, transfers. About 10 calls a month before credits kick in |
| CRM integrations | 3.5/5 | HubSpot and Salesforce sync need Business or higher |
| Support | 3/5 | Email tickets on Starter, live chat on Business, phone support only on Scale |
| Value | 4/5 | Cheap per seat, but numbers, carrier fees and AI credits stack up |
| Overall | 3.8/5 | A great first business phone. Thinner once the AI has to do real work |
Where users land: roughly 4.7 out of 5 on G2, about 4.2 on Capterra and about 4 on Trustpilot, where long-time fans share the page with a stubborn cluster of 1-star support complaints.
What changed when OpenPhone became Quo
OpenPhone renamed itself Quo in September 2025, alongside a $105 million funding round. The app kept its listing (“Quo (formerly OpenPhone)” in the App Store), so customers didn’t have to switch anything. Many older reviews still describe Sona as a $49-a-month add-on with 50 calls. Today:
- Sona is on every plan with 1,000 automation credits a month, which Quo says covers about 10 calls.
- Sona can follow up over text when a lead texts in or a call is missed (in beta).
- Quo connects to ChatGPT and Claude, so you can analyze calls, texts and contacts from there.
Quo plans and pricing (US, September 2026)
| Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $15/user/mo ($180/yr) | $19/user/mo | One number per user, US and Canada calling and texting, voicemail transcripts, Sona, email ticket support |
| Business | $23/user/mo ($276/yr) | $33/user/mo | AI summaries on every call, phone menus, ring order, transfers, group calling, HubSpot and Salesforce, analytics, auto call recording, live chat |
| Scale | $35/user/mo ($420/yr) | $47/user/mo | AI call tags, dedicated onboarding, priority support, inbound phone support |
Fees worth budgeting for:
- Extra numbers: $5 a month each, on top of the one number every user gets.
- Texting registration: The Campaign Registry review, $19.50 one-time plus $1.50 to $3 a month.
- Sona credits: 100 credits per call. Paid tiers run $25 a month (40 calls), $49 (100), $99 (250) and $199 (600). Overage runs from $1.00 per call on the included tier down to $0.45 on the top tier.
- Automated texts through the API, Zapier or Make: 1 cent per segment.
- International calls and texts are billed per minute or per message.
Contract terms are light: a 7-day trial, monthly or annual billing, and cancellation inside the app. Your account stays active to the end of the billing cycle, and Quo holds your numbers for 60 days after that. Because Starter’s AI summaries only cover Sona calls, growing teams tend to land on the $23 seat. Full math in our Quo pricing breakdown.
What Quo does well
- It feels like a messaging app. Every contact gets one thread with calls, texts, voicemails, recordings and internal notes. Reviewers praise this most: simple, intuitive, easy to set up.
- Shared numbers work. A line can ring several teammates, show who’s typing, and keep one history. Starter caps a shared number at 10 paid users; Business and Scale lift the cap.
- Setup is quick. Pick a local or toll-free number or port yours (free), install the apps, invite the team. No desk hardware.
- The integration list covers a typical small business. HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, Attio, Clio, Jobber, HighLevel, Slack, Zapier and Make, plus an API. HubSpot and Salesforce require Business or higher.
Sona in practice: what Quo’s AI agent actually does
Sona is an AI voice agent in Quo’s call flow builder: after a ring group goes unanswered, after hours, or behind a phone menu option, with separate greetings and knowledge per step. Per Quo’s documentation, it:
- Answers questions from a knowledge base built from your website URL, PDFs or written docs
- Takes messages and collects the lead details you define (Quo’s examples are pain points, budget and timeline)
- Transfers callers to a teammate, an inbox or an outside number
- Texts a scheduling link, form or directions mid-call
- Records and summarizes every call it handles
- Speaks English, Spanish or French, with four voices and three tones
Where it stops, also per Quo:
- Inbound only. Sona doesn’t make outbound calls.
- Booking happens through a link, with confirmation texts through Zapier or Make. It can’t reschedule or cancel on a live call.
- One language per call. No switching mid-conversation.
- Metered by the call. A roofing company that misses 15 after-hours calls a week is through the included 10 in its first week.
- Quo only. Sona doesn’t work with other phone systems.
Net: Sona is a real upgrade over voicemail. Quo’s docs don’t describe it reading your team’s live calendars to pick a time (Carly does), and that gap is the difference between an answering agent and a receptionist who closes the loop. Compare the field in our AI answering service guide and best AI receptionist roundup, or read the Quo AI guide for every Sona detail.
What Quo users complain about
Patterns across G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and Reddit, roughly by frequency:
- Reaching a human when something breaks. An outage, flagged account or billing problem, then a ticket queue. Phone support is Scale-only, weekdays 8 to 5 Pacific.
- Dropped calls and audio problems, especially on weak Wi-Fi or cell data, plus missed call notifications.
- Slow starts on texting. Some reviewers describe weeks waiting on carrier registration while customers went unanswered.
- Ports that drag. Some transfers took several attempts, though Quo says most customers see no disruption.
- Bugs in the details. Scheduled messages not sending, time zone glitches, integration sync hiccups.
- Costs that creep. $15 a seat is the headline. Extra numbers, carrier fees, Business-tier features and Sona credits are the invoice.
- AI accuracy. Sona can misread context, and its summaries are worth a second look.
The praise is just as consistent: easy setup, a clean app, good value at small team sizes. Quo is excellent at holding conversations. Users hit its limits when they need it to finish them.
Who Quo fits, and who outgrows it
Quo fits solo operators and teams of 2 to 10 who want a business number off their personal cell, texting-heavy home services, real estate and agencies, teams that don’t need phone menus yet, and anyone who wants to try an AI answering agent on a handful of calls.
Teams outgrow it when:
- Missed-call volume makes Sona’s per-call credits a real line on the bill
- They need the AI to book the job, not text a link and hope
- They’re buying Business seats mainly to get HubSpot or Salesforce sync
- Nobody has time to maintain call flows, knowledge bases and Sona instructions
Compare Quo alternatives, Quo vs RingCentral, Quo vs Google Voice and the best small business phone systems. Already outgrowing it? Carly is built for that list.
Where Carly fits: an AI that answers and books
Sona answers, collects details and texts a booking link. Carly answers and books, following your rules exactly, the same way on every call.
- Answers your line 24/7, or only when your team doesn’t pick up, in English or Spanish.
- Books the right person on your team’s real Google and Outlook calendars during the call, round robin.
- Calls new web leads within about a minute, then texts and emails if they miss it.
- Texts from the same number: two-way, missed-call text back, reminders to a list, group texts.
- Hands callers to a person through ring groups or a phone menu.
- One team inbox for every call, transcript, voicemail, text and email, written back to HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365 or Carly’s own CRM.
- No call flows to build. Set it up from ChatGPT or Claude, connect thousands of apps, and trigger free Zapier-style workflows after every call.
Copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live.
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.Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started, or book a call if you’d like a walkthrough.
FAQ
Is Quo the same as OpenPhone?
Yes. OpenPhone rebranded to Quo in September 2025, alongside a $105 million funding round. Same company, same app, now listed as “Quo (formerly OpenPhone).” Older OpenPhone reviews often quote outdated prices and Sona terms.
Is Quo a good business phone system?
For small teams that text customers a lot, yes. Users rate it highly for ease of use and value, and complain most about slow human support during outages, dropped calls and costs that rise with add-ons and AI credits.
How much does Quo cost per month?
$15, $23 or $35 per user per month billed annually (Starter, Business, Scale), or $19, $33 or $47 billed monthly. Extra numbers, texting registration fees and Sona credits beyond about 10 calls cost extra.
Is Sona included with Quo?
Every plan includes 1,000 automation credits a month, about 10 Sona calls. Beyond that, credit tiers run from $25 a month (40 calls) to $199 a month (600 calls).
Can Quo’s Sona book appointments?
Quo describes Sona’s booking as texting the caller a scheduling link during the call, with confirmations through Zapier or Make, and says it can’t reschedule or cancel on a live call. Carly checks your team’s calendars and books the right person during the call.
Can you cancel Quo anytime?
Yes. You cancel inside the Quo app without calling anyone. Your subscription stays active until the end of the billing cycle, and Quo holds your numbers for 60 days afterward before removing them.
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"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."
