Zoom Phone Alternatives: 8 Best Options for 2026
Zoom Phone makes sense when your company already runs on Zoom and has someone to manage the admin portal. It makes less sense when calls keep dropping and the advice is to run a network test and file a report.
The quick answer: The best Zoom Phone alternative is Carly. It answers your business line, rings your team first, books callers on your real Google and Outlook calendars, calls new leads back within a minute and texts from the same number, the same way on every call. It connects to thousands of apps, Zoom included. Set it up on carlyassistant.com, or just ask ChatGPT or Claude to set it up for you.
Why teams move off Zoom Phone
- Dropped calls, and the fix is on you. On Zoom’s own community forum, a business reports a lot of dropped calls over three weeks, and the advice was to file a problem report from the app after every drop. In another dropped-calls thread, calls first stopped routing to a support line, then dropped midway, and the answer was to run Zoom’s network test and try a different connection.
- It’s an IT project. Zoom Phone is configured in the Zoom admin portal: call queues, auto receptionists, routing rules. Great if you have an admin, slow if you’re the owner.
- The AI answers and stops there. Zoom’s AI receptionist answers and routes calls, but it doesn’t call new leads back, and changing how it handles calls runs through Zoom’s virtual agent builder. More in Zoom AI Receptionist.
How we ranked the alternatives
Every phone system costs money, so we ranked on four things: setup (how fast your line works), reliability (what customers report in recent 1- and 2-star reviews), how good the AI is (answering, booking, calling back, texting) and what it connects to.
Zoom Phone alternatives compared
| Tool | Setup | What customers report | AI on calls | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Minutes, on the site or by asking ChatGPT or Claude | Follows your rules the same way on every call | Answers, books, calls leads back, texts | Any team that wants every call handled |
| Zoom Phone (baseline) | Zoom admin portal | Dropped-call threads on Zoom’s forum | AI receptionist answers and routes | Companies already on Zoom |
| RingCentral | Sales-led, admin portal | Spam-flagged calls, texting outages (1.7/5) | AI Receptionist add-on | Multi-site teams |
| Dialpad | Self-serve with admin settings | Fast pickups going to voicemail (4.1/5) | Transcripts and coaching | Sales and support teams |
| Microsoft Teams Phone | Teams admin center | Needs Microsoft 365 plus calling setup | Copilot recaps in Teams | Companies on Microsoft 365 |
| Quo | Self-serve app | Lost message history, glitching numbers (4.2/5) | Sona answers inbound, texts a link | Small teams who text |
| Nextiva | Onboarding team | Slow porting, an AI add-on that didn’t go live (4.5/5) | XBert add-on, answers only | Teams that want chat and phone |
| Google Voice | Inside Google Workspace | A week-long texting outage in January 2026 | Phone menus and ring groups | Workspace teams |
| 8x8 | Through sales or a reseller | An 8-hour outage with no updates (2.7/5) | Contact-center AI | Large, multi-country companies |
Trustpilot scores checked October 25, 2026.
The 8 best Zoom Phone alternatives
1. Carly: best overall, and the easiest to set up
Carly replaces the admin portal with plain English. You say how calls should go, and it does exactly that on every call.
Setup takes minutes. Start on carlyassistant.com, or paste Carly’s setup prompt into ChatGPT or Claude and let it set everything up, phone number included. No call queues to configure. Keep your Zoom Phone number and forward the calls you miss while you switch, or grab a new number in the chat.
- Rings your team first in business hours and answers when nobody picks up. After hours it answers right away.
- Books callers during the call on your team’s real Google and Outlook calendars.
- Calls new web leads back within about a minute (how it works) and texts back every missed call.
- Hands callers to a person through ring groups or a phone menu.
- Knows who’s calling. Callers in your CRM are greeted by name, and every call, text and voicemail is logged.
- Speaks English and Spanish, picked from how the caller talks.
It connects to everything. Carly connects to thousands of apps, Zoom and Microsoft Teams included, so a booked call can come with a meeting link, a CRM update and a Slack note without anyone touching it. Those run as free Zapier-style workflows.
It runs from your AI chat. Add the Carly connector in Claude or the Carly plugin in ChatGPT to place calls, send texts and steer a live call from the chat (see how). The same Carly runs your Gmail and Outlook inboxes and calendars.
Best for: Teams that want calls answered and handled without an IT project. Get started, or watch the 2-minute video.
2. RingCentral
The biggest business phone system, with video and chat bundled. Like Zoom Phone, it’s run from an admin portal.
- What customers report: at 1.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot, reviewers describe calls flagged as spam and 40-minute holds and mobile apps that stopped ringing after an update.
- Best for: multi-site teams that want one vendor for phone, video and chat. See RingCentral alternatives.
3. Dialpad
A cloud phone system built around its own AI: transcripts, recaps and coaching.
- What customers report: a long-time customer says picking up quickly sends calls to voicemail, and another’s SMS took three months to activate.
- Best for: sales and support teams. See Dialpad alternatives.
4. Microsoft Teams Phone
Phone calling inside Microsoft Teams, the natural swap if your company has standardized on Microsoft 365 rather than Zoom.
- Watch for: it needs a Teams Phone license on top of Microsoft 365, plus a calling plan or a carrier connection, all set up in the Teams admin center.
- Best for: companies already on Microsoft 365 with an IT admin.
5. Quo
Quo, formerly OpenPhone, is a friendly phone app with shared numbers and text threads, the opposite of an admin portal.
- What customers report: one owner says Quo erased their conversation history more than once, and another couldn’t text most clients after porting a number in.
- Best for: small teams who mostly text. See Quo alternatives.
6. Nextiva
Phone, chat and an onboarding team, with the strongest Trustpilot score of the traditional systems here (4.5 out of 5).
- What customers report: the 1-star reviews are about getting started, like porting that hadn’t begun after a month.
- Best for: teams that want people to set it up. See Nextiva alternatives.
7. Google Voice
Business calling inside Google Workspace.
- What customers report: Google’s status page tracked MMS messages not reaching recipients from January 8 to 14, 2026.
- Best for: teams already on Workspace. See Google Voice for business.
8. 8x8
Phone and contact-center software for large, multi-country companies.
- What customers report: one long-time customer’s phones were down for more than 8 hours with nobody contacting them.
- Best for: large companies with an IT team. See 8x8 alternatives.
For more options, see best small business phone systems and AI receptionist.
Switch off Zoom Phone without missing calls
- Set up Carly first with the prompt below and test it with a call from your own phone.
- Forward your Zoom Phone numbers to Carly while you move.
- Port the numbers when you’re ready, and keep Zoom Phone active until the port completes.
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/integrations (Advanced > API Keys > Create a new key, with Owner set to the team and all scopes selected) 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.FAQ
What is the best alternative to Zoom Phone?
Carly. It answers your line, books callers on your calendars, calls new leads back within a minute, texts from your number and connects to thousands of apps, including Zoom. Setup takes minutes on the website or from ChatGPT or Claude.
Why does Zoom Phone keep dropping calls?
Zoom’s community answers usually point at the customer’s network: run Zoom’s network test, try another connection, and file a problem report after each drop. If the drops continue, a different provider is the faster fix.
Can I keep my Zoom Phone number?
Yes. Forward it to Carly while you switch, then port it when you’re ready.
Does Zoom Phone have an AI receptionist?
Yes. Zoom’s AI receptionist answers and routes calls. It doesn’t call new leads back. Carly answers, books, calls leads back and texts. See Zoom AI Receptionist.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
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."
