Quo (OpenPhone) Review 2026: Pros, Cons and Sona AI
OpenPhone is now Quo. It’s 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 own Sona documentation and the patterns in thousands of user reviews. Here’s the honest read.
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 handles booking by texting a link. If you want the AI to qualify the caller, check real calendars and book the right person while they’re still on the line, book a call with the Carly team to see Carly Phone.
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.
If Sona’s score is the row that matters most to you, see Carly Phone on a call before you commit to a credit tier.
What changed when OpenPhone became Quo
OpenPhone renamed itself Quo in September 2025, alongside a $105 million funding round. The app kept its listing (it now shows as “Quo (formerly OpenPhone)” in the App Store), so existing customers didn’t have to switch anything.
Many older “OpenPhone review” articles still describe Sona as a $49-a-month add-on with 50 calls. That’s no longer how it’s sold. What’s current:
- 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.
For the full per-seat math, see our Quo pricing breakdown.
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: US carriers require registering your business with The Campaign Registry. Quo lists a $19.50 one-time review fee plus a $1.50 to $3 monthly messaging fee.
- Sona credits: one call is 100 credits. 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 sent 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.
On Starter, AI summaries only cover calls Sona handled, so growing teams tend to land on the $23 seat, not the $15 one. If the credit math gives you pause, get a Carly Phone walkthrough and have it scoped against your real call volume.
What Quo does well
It feels like a messaging app, not a phone system. Every contact gets one thread with calls, texts, voicemails, recordings and internal notes in order. This is the thing reviewers praise most, and the words that keep coming up are simple, intuitive and easy to set up.
Shared numbers work. A sales or support line can ring several teammates, show who’s typing, and keep one history everyone can see. On Starter, a shared number is capped at 10 paid users. Business and Scale lift that cap.
Setup is quick for a small team. Pick a local or toll-free number or port the one you have (Quo does the port at no charge), install the apps, invite the team. No desk hardware required.
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 you drop into Quo’s call flow builder: after a ring group goes unanswered, after hours, or behind a phone menu option. You can run several Sona steps with different greetings and knowledge for business hours and after hours.
What Sona handles, per Quo’s own documentation:
- Greets callers and 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 own 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 while the caller is still on the line
- 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. Quo says Sona answers inbound calls and doesn’t make outbound ones.
- Booking happens through a link. Quo’s appointment-setter page describes Sona texting a booking link mid-call, with confirmation texts sent through Zapier or Make. Quo says it can’t reschedule or cancel an appointment on a live call.
- One language per call. Sona can’t switch languages mid-conversation.
- Metered by the call. About 10 calls a month are included. A roofing company that misses 15 after-hours calls a week is through that in its first week and shopping credit tiers.
- Quo only. Quo says Sona doesn’t work with other phone systems.
Net: Sona is a real upgrade over voicemail. Quo’s docs describe it answering from the knowledge base you give it. They don’t describe it pulling up the caller’s past emails or reading your team’s live calendars to pick a time. That gap is the difference between an answering agent and a receptionist who closes the loop, and it’s the part the Carly team can show you on a call.
For the wider field, our AI answering service guide and best AI receptionist roundup compare the options.
What Quo users complain about
Patterns across G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and Reddit threads, roughly in order of how often they show up:
- Reaching a human when something breaks. The most common 1-star story is an outage, a flagged account or a billing problem, followed by a ticket queue instead of a person. Phone support exists, but only on Scale, weekdays 8 to 5 Pacific.
- Dropped calls and audio problems. Quo runs over your internet connection, and reviewers report drops, lag and missed call notifications, especially on weak Wi-Fi or cell data.
- Slow starts on texting. Carrier registration has to clear before texts deliver reliably, and some reviewers describe weeks of waiting while customers went unanswered.
- Ports that drag. Some users describe number transfers that took several attempts. Quo says most customers see no disruption during a port.
- 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. Reviewers say 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.
If support is your deal-breaker, Carly Phone is set up with you by the Carly team. Book a call and ask how that works.
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
- Home services, real estate and agencies where most customer contact is texting
- Teams that want one shared inbox and don’t need phone menus yet
- Anyone who wants to try an AI answering agent on a handful of calls first
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 or the consult, not text a link and hope the caller follows through
- Every call has to land in the CRM with context, and they’re buying Business seats mainly to get HubSpot or Salesforce sync
- Nobody on the team has time to build and maintain call flows, knowledge bases and Sona instructions
Compare the field in Quo alternatives, Quo vs RingCentral, Quo vs Google Voice and the best small business phone systems. If you already know you’re in the second list, get a walkthrough of Carly Phone.
Where Carly fits: an AI that qualifies and books
Carly is an AI assistant for businesses, and Carly Phone gives it a business phone line. The core features Quo sells a small team (shared numbers, routing, phone menus, voicemail transcripts, call summaries, texting, AI answering, CRM sync) are all there, and the Carly team sets them up for you.
The difference is what happens after the AI picks up.
Say Josh runs a remodeling company. A homeowner calls at 7pm about a kitchen quote. Sona can answer, collect details and text a booking link. Carly answers, knows the caller from last month’s email thread and the record in the CRM, asks Josh’s qualifying questions (budget, timeline, zip code), checks Josh’s and Emily’s real calendars, books the estimate with whoever covers that area, and texts the caller a link with the details. The summary is in the call inbox and in HubSpot before Josh is home. See Carly book a caller like that.
What Carly Phone covers:
- One business number for calls and texts, new or the one you already have
- Call routing that rings your team at once or in order, with business-hours rules, call flows and phone menus
- An AI receptionist that answers when nobody picks up, qualifies callers against your criteria and books the right person on a real calendar
- A shared text inbox where Carly replies and anyone can take a conversation over, with photos and opt-out handling
- Voicemail transcripts and call summaries in one call inbox with resolve and reopen follow-up
- CRM logging to Carly’s built-in CRM plus HubSpot, Salesforce or Dynamics 365
- Everything else Carly does: email, calendar, scheduling and follow-ups, and it connects to thousands of apps
You don’t build call flows or write agent instructions yourself. The Carly team sets it up with you, it’s live after one call, and pricing is set on that same short call. Book a call with the Carly team to map your routing and hear it answer.
FAQ
Is Quo the same as OpenPhone?
Yes. OpenPhone rebranded to Quo in September 2025, at the same time as a $105 million funding round. It’s the same company and the 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?
Quo costs $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 sent through Zapier or Make. Quo also says Sona can’t reschedule or cancel appointments on a live call. If you want the AI to check your team’s calendars and book the right person directly, see Carly Phone on a 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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