3 Trengo Alternatives for WhatsApp, CRM and AI Calls
Carly is our Trengo alternative when you want an AI assistant to answer customers, handle calls and book appointments alongside their CRM records. Hiver is worth comparing for customer service operations, while SleekFlow fits a sales process centered on messaging and conversational commerce.
Trengo presents WhatsApp, email, live chat, social and voice in a shared inbox, with AI handling repetitive questions. That is a useful starting point for a customer team. A replacement needs to improve a particular part of the process, not just offer another inbox.
For some businesses, the problem is ownership: too many people see a conversation and nobody acts. For others, the problem is capacity: there is no person available to reply or arrange the appointment. Those problems call for different evaluations.
This guide reflects public product information reviewed November 9, 2026. It is published by Carly and is not a comparative reliability test.
What Trengo reviews tell a buyer to check
In a G2 review dated December 29, 2025, customer-contact team lead Birgit O. rated Trengo 4.5/5 and praised centralized communication. Their criticism was that “you can’t configure everything yourself,” with email display as an example. G2 labels that review organic. It is an older report, so verify the current settings before treating it as a present limitation.
A verified recreational-services reviewer gave 3/5 on April 28, 2026, liked ease of onboarding and wrote, “Their customer service is sometimes not up to standard.” G2 labels that review incentivized. It reports one customer’s support experience; it does not establish response times for every plan.
Together, these reviews suggest checking who can change settings and who helps when your team cannot. Ask an administrator to configure the email view and an escalation rule during the trial. If the change requires support, establish the process on the plan you would buy rather than assuming the sales demo’s access is standard.
Trengo’s included users change the cost calculation
Trengo’s current pricing includes a Base tier with three users and a 1,200-conversation annual allowance, as well as Boost and Pro. Its published FAQ quotes Boost at €299/month billed annually or €349 month-to-month for ten users; Pro is €499 annually or €599 monthly for twenty users. Additional conversations and channel usage can add cost. AI and automation availability differs by plan.
At the annual Boost rate, ten included users work out to €29.90 per user/month if all ten are used. Two people using the same package would effectively allocate €149.50 each. Those calculations explain utilization; they are not per-seat offers or proof another product is cheaper. Check Base if your team is small instead of assuming Boost is the minimum.
Hiver’s plan page uses a per-user structure and distinguishes service tiers. A fair quote should include your actual agents, channels, automation and reporting needs. Carly likewise has Organization seats and separately billed communications add-ons; its entry price is not a complete replacement quote for a support department.
When an inbox change is the wrong project
Keep Trengo if customer ownership, service reporting and the existing channels work well, and the main gap is a single booking or after-hours task. Adding an assistant for that bounded job can be more practical than moving the entire support operation. Choose a full replacement when the daily team workflow is what needs to change.
Carly should be evaluated for the conversations and appointments you want delegated. Hiver should be evaluated for the support team’s working process. SleekFlow should be evaluated for conversations leading into commerce. Do not assume all three reproduce the same service-level reports, roles or history exports.
Before migration, identify unresolved conversations and the colleague responsible for each. Sample a reopened issue and a customer with several email addresses. Confirm how the new system preserves context and which history remains accessible after cancellation. Successful contact import is only the beginning of moving a support queue.
Decide whether you need an inbox, an agent or both
| Alternative | Main buying case | A useful test |
|---|---|---|
| Carly | An AI assistant handling conversations and bookings | A customer request completed while staff are busy |
| Hiver | Customer service workflows across a team | Assignment, escalation and resolution ownership |
| SleekFlow | Messaging-based sales and commerce | A sales conversation moving toward a purchase |
1. Carly: customer handling across messages and calls
Carly can answer and place phone calls, exchange SMS, handle WhatsApp and work with email. Its CRM holds team customer records, and calendar connections support booking during the conversation.
That makes it a useful choice when a small team needs a repeatable response to common inquiries. Give the agent your service information, the questions it should ask and the situations that require a person. For a consultation request, the outcome should be a suitable appointment with enough context for the teammate attending it.
The rules should remain understandable when you change them. If Friday appointments require approval, specify that. If an existing customer should go to the account owner, explain the handoff. The aim is reliable behavior you can inspect, not an assistant improvising your business policy.
Carly works from ChatGPT, Claude, Grok Bot, Meta Muse and Perplexity and connects to thousands of apps. Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Organization starts at $35 per seat/month, with usage allowances to consider.
Carly cost and scope: Business SMS, calling and the AI receptionist are Organization add-ons billed separately from seats. Confirm channel availability and expected AI usage. Evaluate your required reporting, permissions and migration path before replacing an established CRM or phone system.
2. Hiver: customer service as the central workflow
Hiver is worth comparing when support ownership and team coordination are the reason for replacing Trengo. Its offering includes collaborative inboxes and a wider AI customer-service platform, so evaluate the current product rather than assuming it is only a shared Gmail extension.
Hiver’s Omni pricing separates tiers for the customer-service platform. Identify the channels and controls needed by each agent before comparing per-user costs with Trengo’s bundled users. A small team and a larger department may reach different conclusions from the same plan table.
Test a customer replying after resolution, a colleague requesting a supervisor and two agents trying to answer at once. The interface should make responsibility clear, and the escalation should leave enough context for the next person. Ask staff to perform those tasks using the roles they would actually receive.
Tradeoff: a support platform does not automatically reproduce a sales pipeline or an autonomous appointment agent. Treat those as separate demonstrations if required. Hiver is most relevant when improving the support team’s daily process is the project, not simply adding one after-hours booking routine.
3. SleekFlow: messaging tied to a sale
SleekFlow is the alternative to examine when customer conversations lead into commerce. Its team inbox, social CRM, messaging automation, catalog and payment links make the buying case different from a support queue alone.
The current product and pricing page distinguishes upcoming channels from available ones. Confirm email and ordinary phone-call requirements directly. A roadmap item should not be treated as a live replacement for a channel your Trengo team uses today.
Use a customer who needs help choosing between two products, then returns with an order question. Inspect the information available to the next colleague and the record of the commercial step. A resolved chat is useful, but it does not alone establish that the purchase and subsequent service process remain connected.
Tradeoff: commerce tools can be irrelevant overhead for a team whose main work is service escalation. Keep Trengo if its support workflow is already effective and the desired improvement is narrow. Evaluate SleekFlow when the sales conversation itself—not just the number of supported channels—is what needs a different operating process.
Make human handoff part of the trial
An AI-assisted inbox needs a clear division of responsibility. Decide which questions the agent can answer, which actions need review and when a teammate should take over. Test what happens when a person replies while an automated action is pending.
Also inspect the record after a conversation closes. A short summary, the customer’s actual request and an accountable next step are more useful than simply marking the thread done.
Configure one channel before expanding
Start with the channel where customer requests are most often missed. Add a second channel only after the team understands ownership and handoff in the first. This makes it easier to distinguish an instruction problem from a connection problem.
For Carly, use the business setup page and configure the agent’s WhatsApp and phone settings separately. The WhatsApp CRM guide explains the category when customer records are part of the purchase.
Set up Carly for customer handoff
Choose a first channel and define when the AI should involve a teammate.
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.Want Carly answering your phones?
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