CallHippo alternatives: The top options for businesses in 2023

Whether you’re currently a CallHippo customer or just browsing for similar business phone solutions, you may find yourself on the hunt for CallHippo alternatives. This guide will try to make your search a little easier.

We'll walk you through the factors you need to think about as you research the best alternative to CallHippo, before exploring the top options on the market right now. To round things off, we’ll look at some FAQs to help flesh out your understanding of the subject.

First, though, there’s one very important question to address:

What is CallHippo?

CallHippo is a virtual phone system that's meant to be used for bulk calling (mainly by sales, support, and other contact centre teams).

It comes with a few different native features, as well as a selection of integrations to allow you to customise your experience, which helps make CallHippo attractive to businesses that need more than just the basics from their virtual phone solution.

However, CallHippo is not an all-inclusive solution—nor is it perfectly suited to every business’s needs. For example, it doesn't have video conferencing or other communication channels. For these, you'll want to look at one of the CallHippo alternatives below.

Considerations when choosing between CallHippo alternatives

As you browse the alternatives below and make your shortlist, here are a few things to think about beyond just the pricing.

Communication capabilities

CallHippo defines itself as a virtual phone system—what that means is you won't get a true unified communications solution.

In practice, this means you can make phone calls with CallHippo, but that's the only communication channel you can use. CallHippo doesn’t support video calls and isn’t designed specifically with SMS, instant messaging, or other digital channels in mind. It does support WhatsApp messaging, but that will cost £13 per phone number, per month.¹

On the other hand, some of the CallHippo alternatives below, like Dialpad, do give you a more robust omnichannel experience.

Built-in AI

CallHippo does have a speech analytics feature that provides real-time coaching and transcription, among others, though beyond features, there is not a lot of information about whether their technology is built in-house and how it compares to other AI tools. Dialpad Ai, for example, is built with the expertise of an in-house team that includes 17 Ph.Ds and proprietary research, with the express purpose of supporting high-volume communications and uncovering conversation intelligence in real time.

For contact centre teams, sales and customer service AI are essential for running remotely distributed teams and quality assurance, so built-in AI is a key factor in our ranking of CallHippo alternatives.

Features

Each communications system offers a unique set of features. Even though the marketing websites may list similar-sounding features, there are usually pretty big differences in how those features work. Are they easy to use? Do they work on both desktop and mobile app? Something else to consider is that not all providers give you access to the same features for the same price.

For example, in order to access call whisper and call analytics, CallHippo customers need to choose the most expensive Platinum pricing plan. Other useful features, like call recording and reporting, are also locked behind higher price tiers.²

Ideally, the CallHippo alternative you're considering should have your "must-have" features available on a cost-effective plan.

Integrations

For most businesses that use a variety of different software, you'll want these tools to integrate with each other. This will help reduce manual data entry work and help you avoid having to constantly toggle back and forth between different windows or apps.

CallHippo does offer quite a few integrations with sales automation tools, CRMs, and other apps, so this is something to pay attention to when you compare it against other competitors below.

Pricing

Lastly, of course, there’s pricing to consider.

As with other things in life, more expensive options aren't automatically better (or worse), and what seems cheap now may end up costing you more later. Once you've gotten an initial quote, go through what's included in that quote with a fine-tooth comb.

For example, CallHippo has a free plan, but you have to pay for every phone number, it doesn't come with call recording or skills-based routing, call queues, and many other contact centre features that are essential for agents and supervisors.³ In the end, you'll end up paying more through add-ons and one of the more expensive plans anyway. Always look beyond the initial price tag!

Top CallHippo alternatives to choose from in 2023

Now that we've established our ranking criteria, it’s time to apply these to the CallHippo alternatives and competitors available on the market right now. Below is a ranked list of the best alternatives to CallHippo in 2023:

1. Dialpad Ai Contact Centre

First on our list is Dialpad Ai Contact Centre, a truly unified, AI-powered platform that provides everything that CallHippo comes with—along with a unique contact centre AI feature set.

Yes, we may also be a bit biased, but here are a few reasons why Dialpad is our top CallHippo alternative.

Truly unified communications

First and foremost, Dialpad is a truly unified solution. It lets you and your team communicate across every channel, both with colleagues and with customers. Typically, businesses will have separate messaging and conference call tools in addition to their contact centre software.

Not here. Dialpad brings all your conversations together in a single app including video calls, phone calls, SMS/MMS text messaging, team chats, social media channels, and live chat:

That means employees don't have to spend so much time switching between apps—every communication channel they need is at their disposal within the Dialpad app.

Artificial intelligence

One of the most unique things about Dialpad is its artificial intelligence, Dialpad Ai. Built in house and having analysed over four billion minutes of voice and messaging data, it powers features like Dialpad's real-time voice transcription, live sentiment analysis, and Ai Agent Assist, which automatically provides support agents and sales reps with the information they need to talk through challenging topics with customers:

Omnichannel support

One of the biggest advantages that Dialpad has over CallHippo is that it allows you to provide true omnichannel customer service. From voice calls to video calls, to WhatsApp to Apple Business Chat and Facebook Messenger, your agents can handle customer conversations across every channel—and easily escalate live chats to a voice call if needed—all from a single platform.

Integrations

Dialpad has a huge range of integrations with business software including HubSpot, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho CRM, Zapier, Salesforce, and Playvox QM. The Salesforce integration, for instance, works on both desktop and mobile app, and brings dialler functionality right inside the CRM so that your agents don't have to switch windows to make a call:

Want to build your own custom integration? You can do that too with the open APIs.

Mobile compatibility

Dialpad isn’t just for those with powerful desktop computers. There are mobile apps available for iOS and Android, too, and if you (or your clients) don't want to download an app to use Dialpad, it works on web browsers too. That means that anytime you’re caught in a situation where you need to access your business communications without your regular devices, you can simply log in using your browser.

Pricing

Dialpad Ai Contact Centre has two pricing tiers, Pro and Enterprise. (The Enterprise plan comes with an incredible 100% uptime guarantee.) Get in touch with us for a custom quote!

2. CloudTalk

A relatively robust phone solution, CloudTalk offers users access to a wide variety of call features, including text-to-speech and call routing.

The thing to keep in mind, though, is that it’s ideally suited to giving your customers phone-based support. (CallHippo at the very least supports WhatsApp as a digital channel.) That being said, CloudTalk does provide some CRM integrations, as well as analytics to help you measure the performance of your agents.

Pricing

Pricing plans start at $25 (around £20) and go up to $50 (around £40). Again, features that may be essential to most teams, like skills-based routing and SMS messaging, are locked to the higher tiers.⁴

3. RingCentral Contact Centre

Another company that markets itself as unified communications and contact centre solution, RingCentral offers a good number of features and communication channels to make it a viable alternative to CallHippo. It does offer your expected call centre functionality such as IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and ACD (Automatic Call Distributor), but be aware that RingCentral Contact Centre's product isn’t actually developed by the company itself. They are reselling a third party vendor's contact centre software.

Pricing

Reach out to their team for a quote on the contact centre plans.

Essentials: Voice only; Standard: Omnichannel; Premium: Omnichannel with Quality Management; Ultimate: Omnichannel with Workforce Engagement Management⁵

4. Aircall

A relatively basic call centre solution, Aircall is a CallHippo alternative that markets its features toward smaller companies looking for easily manageable customer communications.

It doesn't have video conferencing as a communication channel, although it does have a decent selection of integrations. Additionally, Aircall offers basic or more advanced analytics, depending on the pricing tier you choose.

Pricing

With an Essentials tier starting at £24.50, followed by a Professional tier at £50 monthly, Aircall isn’t technically the most cost-effective option available, especially if you need to have omnichannel communications.⁶ They do offer a Custom tier as well, though you have to contact them to find out more about it.

5. Vonage

Vonage is a UCaaS + CCaaS solution that is generally marketed toward smaller businesses and startups that have more limited resources.

While Vonage is a well-known name, you'll want to pay attention to their pricing. There are many add-ons, like screen recordings and post-call surveys, CRM integrations, and speech analytics⁷—which are often included as part of the plan itself for the other CallHippo alternatives.

Pricing

Vonage has a lower cost “Priority” plan and a higher “Premium” plan, both of which you'll need to get in touch with their team about to get a quote.⁸ Again, note that many features that may be considered essential are only available as paid-ons, which may bring your final price up significantly compared to other CallHippo competitors.

6. CallRail

Primarily built to help companies with lead conversion, CallRail’s native call tracking feature helps you stay on top of outgoing communications in a more focused way than CallHippo. It’s also useful for businesses dealing with a lot of inbound calls.

While CallRail doesn’t offer as many advanced features as some of the other AI-focused solutions on this list, this is largely because its focus is on phone calls above all.

That being said, CallRail can still be useful in covering your basic virtual phone needs, making it a viable CallHippo alternative.

Pricing

CallRail is one of the pricier options on our list, costing around £37 monthly at the lowest price point after an initial free trial.⁹

7. 3CX

3CX is a business communications solution that offers IP PBX (Private Branch Exchange) capabilities for businesses. It provides voice and video calling, chat and messaging, and basic call centre features like call queuing, IVR, and call recording.

3CX can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud, if you'd like that option, but unfortunately the company was hacked recently¹⁰ which caused some issues for its customers, hence its low position on this list.

Pricing

While 3CX is initially free at the Startup tier, it then makes a sharp and sudden jump to £175 per annum, with no monthly option. The Dedicated Pro tier is £280 per year, and the Dedicated Enterprise package costs £310 yearly. These prices assume 10 users—for more people, they increase even more.¹¹

What is the best CallHippo alternative for your business?

Considering the top CallHippo alternatives and competitors above, if all you need is just basic phone calls to communicate with customers and prospects, then you could go with almost any of these competitors listed.

But if you're interested in advanced AI-powered features, omnichannel communications, call centre features, and excellent call quality, then it's worth taking a bit more time to sign up for a few free trials and product demos to really get a sense of how these apps work and how easy to use they are.

With Dialpad, you get not just a business phone system—there are robust contact centre features such as intelligent call routing, IVR, AI-powered call analytics, call monitoring, and more, all in an intuitively designed, beautiful desktop and mobile app.

As a truly unified communications solution that's also AI-native, Dialpad is loved by both small team and global enterprises, from C.R. England to Xero. See why now!

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⁴cloudtalk.io/pricing/

⁵ringcentral.com/gb/en/office/plansandpricing.html

⁶aircall.io/pricing

^{7, 8}vonage.co.uk/contact-centers/plans/?icmp=l3nav|l3nav_plans_novalue

⁹callrail.com/pricing/united-kingdom

¹⁰pcmag.com/news/uninstall-now-hackers-hijack-3cx-desktop-app-to-deliver-malware

¹¹3cx.com/ordering/pricing