The best AI voice and phone agents

Teams building custom voice agents for inbound or outbound calls.

Retell is one of the best voice agent platforms: natural calls, transparent per-minute pricing and deep configurability. It's a build-it-yourself platform, so non-technical owners will want a partner or a ready-made receptionist instead.

Developers who want full control over voice agents.

Vapi gives developers the most control over voice agents, with any model, voice and phone provider. It's built for developers; the costs are a stack of components, and compliance add-ons are pricey.

Teams running high-volume phone calls who can configure a voice platform.

Bland is a solid developer-oriented voice platform with simple per-minute pricing and higher concurrency on its paid tier. It's less turnkey for non-technical owners than a ready-made receptionist.

Mid-size and large teams that want no-code voice agents under contract.

Synthflow offers no-code voice agents with enterprise support, but it has moved to annual enterprise contracts only, with no free plan, trial or per-minute pricing. Good for mid-size and large teams; out of reach for small ones.

Small businesses that want one agent to handle customers, marketing and admin.

For a small business, Crevio does the most work with the least setup. It fully covers nine of the ten jobs we track, more than any other agent here, from support and the phone line to marketing and back office, and it starts from a plain-English description of your business rather than a flow you have to build. It asks before consequential actions and keeps a record of what it did. The tradeoffs are usage-based credits, a 2.5% fee on sales you take through it, and a smaller review footprint than the big automation platforms.

Enterprises automating contact-center and service conversations at scale.

Kore.ai is a capable enterprise platform for contact-center and service automation across voice and chat. There's no public rate card, and contracts carry substantial fixed fees.

Large consumer brands automating customer experience across chat and voice.

Sierra is among the best AI agents for customer experience at large brands, with outcome-based pricing and strong voice. It's enterprise-only: no public pricing, no free trial, and reported contracts run well into six figures.

Local service businesses that miss calls on the job.

Goodcall is one of the easiest AI receptionists for a local business, and per-caller pricing makes long calls a non-issue. It's a receptionist, not a full voice platform or business agent.

Solo owners and small businesses that can't always answer the phone.

Rosie is a low-cost AI receptionist for small businesses, with a free trial and plans from $49. Like Goodcall, it handles the phone and nothing else.

Large companies automating high-volume support across chat, email and voice.

Decagon is among the most capable support agents on the market, but it's built and priced for large companies: there's no public pricing, reported contracts run to six figures, and you still need a separate helpdesk for your human agents.

Busy owners who want an AI assistant for inbox, calendar, meetings and calls.

Lindy is an excellent AI executive assistant for inbox, calendar, meetings and phone, with top G2 ratings and strong compliance. It's built around your day rather than your customers' journey, so marketing and selling still need other tools.

Solo owners who want cheap, role-based help with inbox, social, leads and phone.

Marblism is the best value here: seven role-based AI employees, including a phone receptionist, for $24 a month on annual billing, with unlimited businesses. Each role is shallower than a specialist tool, and a 50-hour monthly cap limits heavy use.