Aircall — Independent Software Review

AI-Powered Customer Communications Platform for SMBs & Enterprise

Compliance Transparency Index

Grade: A — Score: 100/100

Best For

• Sales and customer-support teams of 3 to 100 agents that need a cloud phone system tightly integrated with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, or Intercom rather than a standalone PBX.
• Outbound sales operations that need Power Dialer, automated queue callback, live call monitoring, and managed coaching workflows on the Professional tier.
• Companies in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare) that require SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR compliance, AES-256 encryption, and explicit AI-training opt-out by default.
• Multinational teams that already use English-language sales playbooks and need a softphone deployable across desktop, mobile, and browser without VoIP hardware.

Not Ideal For

• Solopreneurs or 2-person teams, since the 3-license minimum forces $90/month minimum spend on Essentials annual even when only one phone line is actually used.
• Teams that need video conferencing or unified messaging in the same product, since Aircall is voice-and-SMS-only and you would still need Zoom, Google Meet, or Slack alongside it.
• Multilingual call centers running non-English calls, since AI Assist transcription, summaries, and call scoring only support English as of early 2026.
• Cost-sensitive buyers who want AI features included at the entry price, since AI Assist costs $9/license extra on Essentials and AI Assist Pro is a $49/license add-on at every tier.

Operational Overview

Pricing Structure

Essentials: $30/license/month billed annually, or $40/license/month monthly

• 3-license minimum ($90/month entry point on annual)
• Maximum of 3 teams
• 1 included local or toll-free number, $6/month per additional number
• Unlimited inbound and internal calls
• 100+ integrations (HubSpot, Zendesk, Pipedrive)
• IVR, call recording (1-year retention), click-to-dial, basic analytics (6 months)
• Send and receive SMS/MMS (4,000 outbound/month)
• AI Voice Agent: 50 free minutes/month + 100 bonus at sign-up

Professional: $50/license/month billed annually, or $70/license/month monthly

• 3-license minimum
• Unlimited teams
• Salesforce CTI integration (Sales Cloud and Service Cloud)
• Power Dialer and Voicemail Drop for outbound
• Smart routing, manual and automated queue callback
• Live call monitoring and call whispering
• Mandatory call tagging for QA workflows
• All AI Assist features included (saves $9/license vs Essentials)
• Unlimited call recording retention

Custom: Custom (contact sales)

• 25-license minimum
• SAML-based Single Sign-On
• Custom onboarding and dedicated success manager
• API developer support and Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
• Unlimited international outbound calls
• Analytics+ included (unlimited historical data)
• 24/7 premium support across EMEA, APAC, and NA

AI Assist (add-on): $9/license/month

• Required on Essentials (included on Professional and Custom)
• Call summaries, key topic recognition, sentiment analysis
• Talk-to-listen ratios, action items, call scoring
• Automated CRM logging and email follow-ups
• AI and Transcription API access

AI Assist Pro (add-on): $49/license/month

• Available across all plan tiers
• Live transcription and real-time prompts during calls
• Custom playbooks (BANT, SPICED, or your own framework)
• Automated call scoring with custom score cards
• Contact insights and automated post-call workflows

Analytics+ (add-on): $15/license/month

• Unlimited historical data (vs 6-month cap on standard plans)
• Drill-down, export, heat maps, advanced filters
• Dashboards for outbound activity and unanswered calls
• Advanced live monitoring
• Included on Custom plan

Alternative Consideration

Consider switching to RingCentral: Offers similar features with a focus on video conferencing and team messaging.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Aircall compare to Dialpad?

Dialpad bundles voice, video conferencing, and team messaging starting around $25/user/month with AI transcription and real-time coaching included on base plans. Aircall is voice-and-SMS only at $30/license/month annual on Essentials, but offers deeper Salesforce CTI on Professional and 200+ native integrations versus Dialpad's narrower stack. Choose Dialpad if you want unified voice plus video plus messaging in one product, or Aircall if you need the deepest CRM integrations and a managed call center workflow with Power Dialer and queue callback.

Does Aircall use my call data to train AI models?

No. Aircall's published AI policy states explicitly that customer call data, including recordings and transcripts, is never provided to third parties outside of Aircall and is never used to train internal or third-party AI models. Aircall also anonymizes call transcriptions by removing personally identifiable information before feeding any data into the AI models that generate summaries, action items, and sentiment analysis. This puts Aircall ahead of competitors that bury training opt-outs in enterprise contracts or default to opt-in training on lower tiers.

Does Aircall offer SAML Single Sign-On?

Yes, but only on the Custom plan, which has a 25-license minimum and requires contacting sales for pricing. SAML SSO works with identity providers like Okta, Azure AD, and OneLogin, alongside Two-Factor Authentication that is available on all plans. If your team is under 25 licenses and needs SSO for compliance reasons, the only path is to negotiate a Custom plan or wait until you scale to that license count. 2FA on Essentials and Professional is available out of the box at no extra cost.

Can I port my existing phone number to Aircall?

Yes. Aircall supports number porting in the 100+ countries it covers, with one-time porting fees that typically run $5 to $15 per number. The process is handled by Aircall's onboarding team and usually takes 2-4 weeks depending on the originating carrier and country. Each Aircall plan includes one local or toll-free number; additional numbers cost $6 per number per month on top of the per-license fee. The Custom plan supports unlimited international outbound calling.

What's the difference between AI Assist and AI Assist Pro on Aircall?

AI Assist at $9/license/month covers post-call work: summaries, key topic recognition, talk-to-listen ratios, sentiment analysis, action items, and CRM autofill. It is included free on the Professional and Custom plans, but a paid add-on on Essentials. AI Assist Pro at $49/license/month adds real-time features: live transcription during calls, live prompts for objection handling, custom playbooks (BANT, SPICED, or your own framework), automated call scoring with custom score cards, and contact insights. AI Assist Pro is a paid add-on on every Aircall plan including Custom, so even enterprise customers pay extra for it.

How long does Aircall retain call recordings?

On the Essentials plan, call recordings are retrievable for up to 1 year by support request, but only the last 6 months are visible directly in the dashboard. The Professional and Custom plans offer unlimited retention, with the same 6-month dashboard visibility limit. Teams in regulated industries (healthcare, financial services) that need historical recordings beyond 6 months in the dashboard typically add the Analytics+ add-on at $15/license/month, which provides unlimited historical analytics data alongside the recording retention.

Why does Aircall require a 3-license minimum?

Aircall is sold per phone-line license rather than per active user, and the Essentials and Professional plans both enforce a 3-license floor regardless of headcount. The Custom plan jumps that minimum to 25 licenses. This means a 2-person team is forced to buy 3 licenses ($90/month minimum on Essentials annual or $120 on monthly), making Aircall structurally inappropriate for solopreneurs and very small teams. If you have fewer than 3 phone lines worth of need, alternatives like Quo (formerly OpenPhone) at $19/user with no minimum are usually the right fit instead.

Does Aircall integrate with Salesforce on the Essentials plan?

Only partially. The basic Salesforce connector that logs calls and syncs contacts is available on Essentials, but the full Salesforce CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) with click-to-dial inside Salesforce, screen pops on inbound calls, and the Omni-Channel Widget for Salesforce Voice all require the Professional plan at $50/license/month. Sales teams whose workflow centers on Salesforce should plan for Professional from the start, since the $20/license upgrade is cheaper than the productivity loss of context-switching between Aircall and Salesforce on the Essentials tier.

What countries does Aircall support for outbound calling?

Aircall provides local and toll-free numbers in 100+ countries, with unlimited domestic outbound calls included to the US and Canada on all plans. International outbound calling is metered with separate per-minute rates that vary by destination country, and bundles must be purchased separately on Essentials and Professional. The Custom plan is the only tier that includes unlimited international outbound, which is why high-volume international sales operations typically need to negotiate to Custom or budget significant per-minute overages on Professional.

AI Visibility Report

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