5 Best Vapi Alternatives in 2026 (With Per-Minute Pricing)
The best Vapi alternatives, in short: Retell AI if you want a published rate card and 20 concurrent calls included ($0.07 to $0.31 a minute all-in by Retell's own range); Bland AI if you want one bundled rate ($0.14 a minute on Start, $0.12 plus $299 a month on Build); Synthflow for a managed enterprise contract (from $30,000 a year); and Voiceflow for voice and chat agents built on one canvas. Vapi itself charges $0.05 a minute for hosting plus model, voice, transcription and phone costs.
More on this topic: Calls, SMS and AI voice agents, every guide in one place.
Vapi is a developer platform: you choose the speech-to-text, language model and voice providers, and Vapi orchestrates the call. That flexibility is why developers like it and why other teams look elsewhere: the bill has several parts, concurrency is limited on the base tier, and building an agent takes engineering time. The right alternative depends on which of those is the problem.
Key takeaways
- Vapi today: $0.05/min hosting, $5 free credit, 4 concurrent calls on pay-as-you-go, $10/month per extra line; its own estimate is $82 to $129 for 1,000 minutes.
- Retell AI: $0.055/min voice infrastructure plus voice, model and phone; 20 concurrent calls included; $10 free credit.
- Bland AI: $0.14/min on Start (100 calls a day, 10 at once) or $0.12/min plus $299 a month on Build.
- Synthflow: no public per-minute price; enterprise contracts from $30,000 a year.
- Voiceflow: voice and chat agents; pricing on request.
- No-build option: a CRM with voice agents built in, if you want outcomes rather than a platform.
Why do people look for Vapi alternatives?
People look for Vapi alternatives because of cost predictability, concurrency, build effort or compliance needs. Our Retell AI vs Vapi comparison covers the closest head-to-head in detail.
- A bill with many parts. Hosting, transcription, model, voice and telephony are billed separately, so the per-minute cost depends on choices you make in the build.
- Concurrency. Pay-as-you-go includes 4 concurrent calls; more costs $10 a line a month, or a Core ($29 a month, 10 calls) or Pro plan.
- Build effort. A production agent needs prompts, tools, testing and integrations. Teams without developers often want a managed or no-code product.
- Compliance cost. Vapi lists HIPAA as a $2,000 a month add-on.
How we picked
Every list like this is someone's opinion. Here are the criteria behind this one, so you can discount the ones you disagree with.
- Builds phone or voice agents that answer or place calls, not just text chatbots.
- Pricing published on the vendor's own page, or clearly marked as by request.
- Usable without a large engineering team, or clearly flagged as developer-first.
- Different reasons to switch, so each pick answers a different problem.
Disclosure: this article is published by Scalry, which appears on the list. We have tried to describe every tool as its own users would, including where they beat us — but read it knowing who wrote it, and check the claims against each vendor.
What is the best alternative to Vapi?
Retell AI is the closest alternative to Vapi: both are developer platforms billed by the minute, but Retell publishes a rate card for every component and includes 20 concurrent calls. If you'd rather pay one bundled rate, Bland AI is simpler; if you want someone else to build and run it, Synthflow sells managed enterprise contracts.
| Tool | Price | Concurrency | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vapi (reference) | $0.05/min hosting + providers; $82–$129 per 1,000 min (Vapi estimate) | 4 included; $10/line/mo | Developers who want provider choice |
| Retell AI | $0.055/min + voice from $0.015 + model + phone $0.015; $0.07–$0.31/min range | 20 included; $8/line/mo | Predictable components, more concurrency |
| Bland AI | Start $0.14/min; Build $0.12/min + $299/mo | 10 (Start), 50 (Build) | One bundled rate |
| Synthflow | Enterprise from $30,000/yr | Set in contract | Managed, contracted deployments |
| Voiceflow | Request pricing | Not published | Voice and chat agents on one canvas |
| Scalry | $29 / $79 / $199 per month; call time on credits | Campaign pacing settings | Voice agents inside a CRM |
Prices checked on vapi.ai/pricing, retellai.com/pricing, bland.ai/pricing, synthflow.ai/pricing and voiceflow.com/pricing on 26 October 2026, in US dollars. Model and voice rates change often; check current pricing before you build.
Developer platforms
1. Retell AI
Price: Pay as you go: $0.055/min voice infrastructure, voices from $0.015/min, LLM $0.0016–$0.384/min, US telephony $0.015/min
Best for: Teams that want Vapi-style control with clearer pricing
Retell prices each layer separately but publishes them all, so you can work out the per-minute cost before you build. Every account includes 20 concurrent calls, and extra capacity is $8 per concurrent call a month; new accounts get $10 in free credit. ElevenLabs voices cost more, from $0.04 to $0.10 a minute. Our Retell AI pricing guide works through typical builds.
Where it wins: Five times Vapi's included concurrency and a published rate for every part.
Where it falls short: Still a developer platform: you write and test the agent yourself.
2. Bland AI
Price: Start $0.14/min, no platform fee; Build $0.12/min + $299/mo; Enterprise custom
Best for: Teams that want one rate covering model, transcription and voice
Bland's per-minute rate bundles the AI stack; phone carrier costs and transfers are extra ($0.05 a transfer minute on Start, $0.04 on Build). Start is capped at 100 calls a day and 10 at once; Build raises that to 2,000 a day and 50 at once. See Bland AI pricing and Bland AI vs Retell AI.
Where it wins: The simplest per-minute price to budget.
Where it falls short: Less provider choice, and the Start caps bind quickly for outbound campaigns.
Managed and no-code options
3. Synthflow
Price: Enterprise contracts from $30,000 a year
Best for: Companies that want a vendor to scope, build and run voice agents
Synthflow now lists a single Enterprise plan. Price depends on call volume, concurrent calls, phone setup, integrations, security requirements and launch support, so you get a quote rather than a rate card.
Where it wins: Less engineering on your side, with terms set in a contract.
Where it falls short: Far too large a commitment for testing an idea or a small business.
4. Voiceflow
Price: Request pricing; free trial for agencies and partners
Best for: Teams that build voice and chat agents together
Voiceflow builds agents on a visual canvas and deploys them across voice and chat. Its pricing page offers usage-based billing for agencies and partners and pricing on request for businesses; it doesn't publish per-minute rates, and telephony details are not on the pricing page.
Where it wins: One design tool for voice and chat, with agency workspaces.
Where it falls short: No public price, so it is hard to compare per minute.
Want to see what your own numbers look like? Start a workspace and price it against the table above.
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A CRM with voice agents built in
5. Scalry
Price: $29 / $79 / $199 a month, with call time drawn from plan credits
Best for: Small businesses that want calls qualified and logged, not a platform to build on
Scalry's voice agents are set up from templates, given a phone number and tested from the browser. Campaigns apply calling windows, a calls-per-minute pace and do-not-call suppression, and every call is logged on the CRM record. Calling needs a paid plan and your own number.
Where it wins: No build: the agent, CRM, email follow-up and booking share one record.
Where it falls short: Much less control over models, voices and prompts than Vapi or Retell.
How do you choose a Vapi alternative?
| If your problem with Vapi is... | Look at |
|---|---|
| Unpredictable per-minute cost | Bland AI (bundled) or Retell AI (published components) |
| Concurrency limits | Retell AI (20 included) |
| No developers to build it | Synthflow (managed) or a CRM with voice agents |
| You also need chat agents | Voiceflow |
| You need calls tied to a sales pipeline | A CRM with voice agents built in |
Whatever you choose, work out the all-in cost for your expected minutes with our AI voice agent cost guide, and check consent before any outbound AI calling: the FCC treats AI voices as artificial voices under the TCPA, as explained in are AI voice calls legal.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Vapi alternative?
Retell AI is the closest: a per-minute developer platform with published component rates and 20 concurrent calls included. Bland AI suits teams that want one bundled rate, and Synthflow suits companies that want a managed contract.
Is Retell AI cheaper than Vapi?
It depends on the model and voice you choose; both pass those costs through. Vapi's hosting fee is $0.05 a minute against Retell's $0.055, but Retell includes 20 concurrent calls versus Vapi's 4 on pay-as-you-go.
How much does Vapi cost per minute?
Vapi charges $0.05 a minute for hosting plus your transcription, model, voice and phone costs. Its own estimator puts 1,000 minutes at $82 to $129 a month, about $0.08 to $0.13 a minute.
Does Synthflow still have a per-minute plan?
Its pricing page now lists only Enterprise contracts starting at $30,000 a year, priced on volume, concurrency, telephony and integrations.
Is there a no-code alternative to Vapi?
Managed vendors such as Synthflow build the agent for you, and some CRMs include voice agents set up from templates. Both trade control over models and prompts for less build work.
How Scalry's voice agents pace calls and log outcomes is on the AI voice agents page.
Price your expected minutes on two of these, including concurrency and phone costs, before you commit to a build. You can rebuild one real campaign inside Scalry before moving anything else.
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