Aircall alternatives
Aircall's main plans need three licences minimum. Six alternatives compared on seat floors, per-user cost and whether the call reaches your CRM.
Switch if a three-licence minimum is more than your team needs, or if what you actually want is calls logged against records rather than a phone system. Stay if you run a real support or sales floor with queues and routing.
The short answer
- We could not verify Aircall's prices from its own site: its pricing page injects the figures with JavaScript and served placeholders. Its structure is confirmed, so read the numbers in a browser before comparing.
- Aircall's own documentation confirms Essentials and Professional require three licences minimum, Custom requires 25, and only the Starter AI plan can be bought for a single user. It also states annual plans save up to 25 percent against monthly.
- The real question is which product you need. A phone system routes and queues calls. A CRM records what a call meant. Buying one to solve the other's problem is the usual mistake here.
How we compared these
Prices and structural facts come from each vendor's own site, checked in September 2026. Aircall's licence minimums and its annual-saving claim were confirmable in its own support documentation; its prices were not, because they render client-side. A figure appeared in search results and this page does not repeat it, since we could not verify it on a page Aircall controls.
Evaluated from Aircall's own documentation and pricing, September 2026. We have not run it in production. Everything below is drawn from vendor sites rather than from experience of operating a phone system.
The table compares seat floors, pricing model and where calls end up, because those decide the choice. Feature lists in business telephony are long and largely equivalent, and they do not distinguish a three-person team's needs from a fifty-person call floor's.
Aircall and its alternatives, compared
| Aircall | Quo, formerly OpenPhone | Close | Twilio Voice | HubSpot | SalesCrew | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | Its own pricing page renders figures client-side; no price confirmable | Starter $19 per user/mo monthly, $15 annual | Solo $9 per user/mo annual, $19 monthly | Usage only. US outbound to local $0.0140/min | $20 per seat/mo annual, $7 monthly | $299/mo flat, unlimited seats |
| Minimum licences | 3 on Essentials and Professional; 25 on Custom; 1 on Starter AI | 1 | 1 | None | 1, or the free tier | One instance |
| Pricing model | Per licence, monthly or annual | Per user | Per user | Usage. Numbers from $1.15/mo | Per seat | By tier. Seats are free |
| Provides phone numbers | Yes | Yes | Yes, calling billed on usage at around $0.02/min | Yes | On higher tiers | No. On the roadmap |
| Calls logged against a CRM record | Through integrations | Through integrations | Yes, natively | Whatever you build | Yes, natively | Yes, for outbound calls through Vapi today |
| Official MCP server | Not confirmable from its site | Yes, at mcp.quo.com, plus a certified Claude connector | Yes, three permission scopes | Yes, but in public beta and outside its SLA | Yes, read and write | Yes. Every UI action has an MCP twin |
| Free entry | A free-access CTA; terms not stated | 7-day free trial | 14-day trial, no card | $15 credit, no card required | Free tier, 2 users | 14-day trial, card required |
Figures checked on vendor pricing pages, September 2026.
The field, ranked for a team leaving Aircall
1. Quo, formerly OpenPhone
The closest peer and the one with no seat minimum: Starter at $19 a user monthly or $15 billed annually, with a hosted MCP server and a certified Claude connector. Note the rebrand, since older documentation still says OpenPhone. Best for: small teams who hit Aircall's three-licence floor. Not for: large call floors needing deep queue management.
Read more2. Close
If the real need was calls attached to deals rather than a phone system, Close does both at $9 a user annually with calling billed on usage and no minimum. Best for: sales teams whose calls should be CRM activity. Not for: support queues or a general business phone line.
Read more3. HubSpot
Calling on its higher tiers, natively logged against the contact, with a free tier for two users at the bottom. Best for: teams who already run HubSpot and want fewer vendors. Not for: heavy call volume, where a dedicated phone system is better at the telephony itself.
Read more4. Twilio Voice
The raw layer under nearly everything here, at $0.0140 a minute for US outbound with numbers from $1.15 a month and no seats at all. You build the interface. Best for: teams with engineers and unusual requirements. Not for: anyone who wants a product rather than a platform.
5. Stay on Aircall
Sensible if you have three or more people who need a real phone system with queues, routing and team management. That is exactly the shape it is built for, and the licence minimum stops being an obstacle the moment you clear it. Best for: support and sales floors.
6. SalesCrew
Not a phone system, and it would be dishonest to present it as one. Outbound calls through Vapi are logged against contacts today; phone numbers, inbound routing, voicemail and a browser softphone are on the roadmap and not shipped. Best for: teams whose problem is that calls are not becoming pipeline. Not for: anyone who needs a working phone line, which is the whole reason to buy Aircall. New product, no third-party reviews, no mobile app. Disclosure: SalesCrew is our product.
Read moreWhen to stay on Aircall
Stay if you run an actual call operation. Queues, routing rules, team assignment, business hours, warm transfers and supervisor tooling are what a purpose-built phone system does, and none of the CRM-with-calling options here match that depth. If several people share responsibility for answering a line, you are in Aircall's category rather than a CRM's.
Stay because number portability is the real switching cost. Your phone numbers are on collateral, in customers' contact lists and in signatures going back years. Porting them works but takes time and coordination, and any interruption is felt immediately by customers. That risk should be weighed against the saving, not assumed away.
Stay if three licences is a floor you clear anyway. The minimum only matters to a one or two-person team, and Aircall's Starter AI plan already covers that case without a minimum. For a team of five or more the constraint is irrelevant, and the criticism on this page simply does not describe your situation.
Questions
- Why does this page not list Aircall's price?
- Because we could not verify it from Aircall's own site. Its pricing page injects every dollar figure with JavaScript and served empty placeholders on repeated checks. Search results suggested a number, but it could not be confirmed on a page Aircall controls, so this page omits it. Open the pricing page in a browser and read it yourself.
- What is the three-licence minimum?
- Aircall's own support documentation confirms that its Essentials and Professional plans require a minimum of three licences, and that its Custom plan requires 25. Its Starter AI plan has no minimum and can be bought for one user. That floor is the structural fact worth knowing, whatever the price per licence turns out to be.
- Is a business phone system the same as a CRM dialler?
- No, and confusing the two is expensive. A phone system routes calls, handles teams and queues, and keeps numbers working. A CRM dialler is about the record: who you called, what happened, what is next. Some tools do both adequately; most do one properly. Decide which problem you are actually solving.
- What should I check before switching phone systems?
- Number portability first, because everything else is recoverable and your numbers are not. Then check whether call recordings export, whether the integration to your CRM survives, and what the notice period on your contract is. Phone migrations fail on those four things far more often than on features.