Top 6 Vapi AI Alternatives & Competitors in 2025

Founded in 2020, Vapi AI is a specialized conversational tool that aims to make AI voice technology more accessible and easier to use.

However, it doesn’t live up to its claims. Receiving a 1-star rating on Trustpilot clearly highlights key issues like distrust, lack of functionality, and poor customer support that’s forcing users to cancel their subscriptions.

The platform forces you to pay for both your external API providers (underlying infrastructure) and its own premium charge, making it challenging for businesses to scale through voice bots using Vapi AI.

If you’re here, you are probably a user-facing these issues and are now looking for an alternative. Well, we’ve tested some of the best Vapi AI competitors in 2025, exploring features, capabilities, reviews and pricing.

Reasons Why Vapi AI Should Stay in Your Past

Even with the state-of-the-art technology, Vapi AI comes with its set of flaws that push its users to make a switch. Here are our top four reasons:

Need to have your own transcription, language and text-to-speech model

Vapi AI is a middleware layer designed for companies with their own underlying infrastructure, such as transcriber (speech-to-text), Intelligence (LLM), and voice (text-to-speech) models that they want to integrate with their AI phone call agent.

So, instead of having its own end-to-end model, it asks users to bring their own. That means users are responsible for handling the end-to-end infrastructure. They’ll have to pay for the transcriber, LLM, and voice model, along with Vapi premium pricing.

The lack of built-in functionality creates additional engineering time and cost for anyone building on top of Vapi AI. Your organization could spend anywhere between 1-2 sprints to build functionality in your phone agent which is not at all affordable and scalable.

Latency issues

Since Vapi AI connects with a wide array of external API providers, the built-in network latency between services is relatively high, especially during periods when OpenAI and other LLMs experience heavy loads. 3-4 seconds of latency can completely ruin call quality and hurt the customer’s experience.

High cost

Aside from forcing you to pay for your own transcription, telephony, and text-to-speech models, Vapi AI also charges a $0.05/minute premium. This means that the cost of running Vapi will largely depend on the number and duration of calls you receive in a month, along with the models you choose.

Vapi AI currently offers DeepGram as its transcription model, priced at $0.01/ minute. For language models, they offer GPT-4-turbo ($0.20/min) and GPT-3.5-turbo ($0.02/min). Lastly, it provides various voice models that are priced below:

Source

For instance, your expected usage is around 10,000 minutes per month. You decided to use Deepgram ($0.01/minute), GPT-4-turbo ($0.20/minute), and PlayHT ($0.07/minute) as your transcription, language and voice model.

Then this will cost you:

(10,000 * 0.05) + (10,000 * 0.01) + (10,000 * 0.20) + (10,000 * 0.07) = $3,300 per month.

This means your average cost per AI phone call is $0.33 per minute, which is quite expensive compared to other Vapi AI alternatives.

Customer support

Vapi AI offers Discord support to its users to help with any kind of inquiry. However, many Vapi AI users are disappointed with the lack of good Support.

One of Vapi’s AI users mentions,
“Support is non-existent, and documentation is extremely poor. I spent a lot of time setting up an assistant, and it was working okay. Then, they had a developer conference and rolled out a lot of new features, but everything broke. I spent hours and hours trying to get it working again to no avail. I emailed them and was told the “bugs” would be fixed tomorrow… then tomorrow… then tomorrow. It’s really frustrating.”

What Should You Look For In Vapi AI Alternatives?  

Before you get on to the Vapi AI alternatives, let’s understand the features that you should look for when choosing your next AI-powered voice agent.

Enhanced Usability and No-Code Setup

A no-code platform offers a fundamentally different approach to voice bot development. Instead of writing complex code, these tools provide intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, customizable templates, and pre-built components.

For instance, Synthflow’s no-code platform offers a drag-and-drop interface and multiple pre-built templates to quickly construct and customize customer journeys and deploy AI-powered voice bots.

If you’re a small team with a limited budget and want to build a predictive model without writing complex code, then no-code AI voice agents should be your priority.

High-quality AI phone agents

Major issues that most Vapi users face are a lack of seamless integration, no customization, and a challenging setup. When looking for a Vapi alternative, make sure to choose a conversational AI platform that is scalable, efficient, and easy to use.

A high-quality AI phone agent provides businesses with the capability to integrate with their favourite tools for smoother workflows. It should come with an underlying model that can manage multiple tasks, such as booking appointments, sending messages, or transferring calls to a human, while under defined conditions.

For instance, Syhthflow supports top LLMs like Llama and OpenAI’s GPT-3 through GPT-4o. It also offers a variety of languages and accents through 11Labs—from Australian and British to Argentinian Spanish to support effective communication. This makes it a versatile tool for global businesses.

Transparent & Low Pricing

Even the voice assistant with the best features won’t stand a chance if it’s not cost-efficient.

The voice provider and AI model are the two most expensive parts of an AI caller. Some platforms require you to purchase a set amount of minutes every month. So, depending on your requirements and the configuration you want to go for, choose the platform that offers it the cheapest.

Synthflow offers affordable and transparent pricing and allows users to test out all the features of its AI phone system through a free trial.

Best Vapi AI Alternative Recommendation

For businesses navigating the best AI answering service and seeking a Vapi alternative, we present our top 6 options. We explore each AI agent’s features, pros, challenges, and user testimonials to see which AI offers the best alternative to Bland for voice calls.

Alternative 1:  Synthflow AI

Get started with Synthflow

Ready to create your first AI Assistant?

Get Started Now

‍

Synthflow’s no-code and enterprise-ready capabilities set it apart from all Vapi AI alternatives. Its drag-and-drop interface allows users to set up a voice agent in minutes without needing any technical knowledge or coding ability.

Synthflow users can also create and customize voice agents and processes within the tool. This flexibility enables them to optimize their voice agents according to their business needs.

The biggest problem with Vapi AI was its dependence on external API providers. Rather than outsourcing model infrastructure, Synthflow AI hosts the entire underlying model in-house and provides reliable low phone call latency and high call quality at low cost.

In addition, Synthflow offers integration to most of your favourite tools through Zapier, which is a big drawback with Vapi AI. You can seamlessly manage contacts through Hubspot, schedule meetings through Cal.com and automate tasks through Make.com.

Vapi AI has always struggled to provide good customer support, but Synthflow provides a 24/7 AI voice assistant and a dedicated support manager to handle complex issues.

Synthflow’s features are highly advanced compared to those of its competitors, and its use cases are well-suited for any business looking to automate aspects of its sales and marketing seamlessly.

Features:

• Automated voice calls, no code needed
• Zero latency
• Text-to-speech and advanced transcription features
• 11labs integration – clone voices and automatically schedule appointments into your calendar
• Robust customer support
• Advanced call sorting, logging and transferring
• Generate responses and action them live in call
• Resell Synthflow – fully white-labeled version available
• CRM Integrations – High Level, HubSpot
• Top models (GPT4 & GPTo) included in all tiers of Pricing
• Use Synthflow outbound and inbound calling, automated appointment booking, outbound lead qualification voicebot.

Ratings & Reviews: 4.5/5 stars

‍Synthflow is highly appreciated, with an average of 4.5/5 stars. Users love the variety of features available and the ability to integrate Synthflow into many popular platforms flexibly.

Alternative 2: Bland AI

Bland AI is phone calling software dedicated to developers and large enterprises. Unlike Vapi, which asks developers to bring their own models, Bland AI manages the end-to-end phone agent experience. Its custom tools let your AI agents interact with web APIs mid-call to send a message, schedule an appointment, or update a CRM. While Bland AI is not as easy-to-use as Synthflow, many users have found Bland AI complex and redundant. Poor call quality and high latency are recurring challenges for customers.

Features:

• Automate multiple tasks
• Integrate with your favourite apps using Zapier
• Voice recognition and natural language processing
• Automatic transcription of calls
• Live call transfers to a human
• Automate phone calls in healthcare, real estate, logistics, financial services, alternative data, and small business.

Ratings & Reviews – 2.6/5 stars

‍Unfortunately, many users are frustrated with setting up their voices at Bland AI. They think that technology is still not fully developed to take on such big roles due to its high latency issues.

‍Pricing

‍Early-stage companies looking to scale with voice bots may find Bland AI pricey. It doesn’t offer a subscription plan but charges a hefty $0.09/minute only for connected calls.

Alternative 3: Retell AI

Similar to Vapi AI, Retell AI is a middleware layer that allows you to bring your own LLM and phone provider. For early-stage companies looking for a quick solution, Retell makes it easy to connect to an LLM to make calls. Again, technical knowledge is necessary to work with prompts to create phone agents with Retell AI. Overall, Retell AI excels in providing a low-code infrastructure where you can access powerful APIs for agent creation, updates, and initiating phone calls. Users can choose from a variety of languages and dialects, from ElevenLabs, open voices, and Deepgram voices. However, Retell AI doesn’t support integration with third-party tools, which can hamper your business workflow. Compared with Synthflow, Retell struggles with latency and unreliability created by not handling end-to-end infrastructure and extensive dependence on external API providers. Retell is a great VAPI alternative for businesses that meet HIPAA compliance and are willing to pay more to connect their LLM.

‍Features:

• Build, test, and deploy voiceflows in minutes
• Pre-built templates for seamless development
• Stable call volume
• High scalability
• 11labs & OpenAI integrations
• Multilingual Support with access to over 7 languages.
• Use case: Best for healthcare businesses that requires HIPAA compliance

Ratings and Reviews: 3.2/5 stars

‍Reviews for Retell AI are also scarce, but one reviewer on Trustpilot stated, “That company can’t be used for anything; it’s quite untrustworthy.”

‍Pricing:

‍Retell offers two plans: a pay-as-you-go ($0 to start) and an Enterprise plan. If you want to test the features, the pay-as-you-go model offers 10 minutes of free access and up to 20 concurrent calls. For companies with large call volumes, the Enterprise plan is a good option. It starts at $0.05 per minute (a discounted price).

Alternative 4: Air AI

Air AI is the world’s first-ever conversational AI tool, which transformed the way businesses interact with customers. This cloud-based software can seamlessly conduct full-length, human-like conversations. Designed for startups and small businesses, AIr AI provides features that are beneficial for sales and customer support teams. However, Air AI is plagued by subpar performance, inadequate training, and poor integration. AIr only focuses on sales use cases specifically for businesses that lack any technical knowledge. Air lacks advanced features like guardrails, observability, and testing of voice calls. The platform is a tough sell for enterprises that care about tracking the quality of these AI calls and their interactions with customers.

Features:

• Integrates with popular CRM platforms like Salesforce
• Streamlining sales processes by automating follow-ups and providing enriching customer insights.
• Provides multichannel Support, from live chats to voice calls
• Calls are intelligently routed to the most appropriate agent or department based on predefined criteria.
• Take live action automatically on calls across 5000 external platform integrations
• Have autonomous calls of 10-40 mins in length
• Use case: Popular choice for small businesses that wants scale with voicebots

Ratings and Reviews:1.5 stars out of 5

‍Air AI’s Trustpilot ratings indicate some red flags. With only 1.5 stars out of 5, users have called out Air AI as fraud because of its hidden costs and misleading business practices. Furthermore, AIr AI advertises itself as a plug-and-play conversational AI tool, but reviews say it requires intense coding knowledge to implement this software.

Pricing:

‍Air AI pricing involves an upfront payment of $25,000-$100,000 as license fees from its clients. Smaller organizations with limited budgets may find this quite expensive. However, Air AI is facing extreme criticism for failing to provide refunds, which has led to customers leaving negative reviews and some even considering suing them.

Alternative 5: Vocode.dev

Vocode.dev is the only open-source voice assistant tool in this list. This platform provides tools and abstractions to build voice agents on top of LLMs. With Vocode. Dev, you can create a system that answers/makes phone calls, acts as a personal assistant, joins Zoom meetings and more. Vocode.dev is a great Vapi alternative due to its built-in developer flexibility, which allows you to embed an AI call center directly in your product. If you’re looking for an affordable conversational AI solution that lets you build, deploy, and scale hyperrealistic voice agents, then Vocode.dev should be your priority. That said, Vocode.dev’s open-source offering lacks extensive infrastructure and optimization, making it difficult to scale and degrading volume quality. Synthflow’s no-code solution provides quick and easy setup by integrating with your existing CRM for seamless AI Phone Calls.

Features:

• Adequately handles the complexities of a conversation, such as interruptions, slang, and endpoints.
• Conversation abstractions (streaming, turn-based)
• Conversation functionality (endpoints, emotion tracking)
• Automate inbound/outbound calls via API
• Supports multiple languages
• Seamlessly integrates with leading speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and large language models.
• Cross-platform Support (telephony, web, Zoom)
• Use cases: Best for small businesses in customer service, sales and marketing and customer support that have limited budgets and want to scale through voice bots.

Ratings and Reviews:

Reviews for Vocode.dev are also scarce; however, users appreciate its flexibility with LLMs and ease of setup. One of the reviewers says, “I’ve found Vocode.dev to be stable and easy to set up for local use.”

Alternative 6: Goodcall

Developed to simplify phone-based transactions, Goodcall leverages the power of GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) and natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to engage in human-like interactions with recipients. Goodcall is a no-code platform compared to the dense technical requirements necessary to work with Vapi AI. The simple interface is great for early-stage startups looking to build their conversation AI system. However, it starts losing value as companies scale. Many users have complained of its degrading and slow conversational quality, which sends voice calls directly to voicemails. Synthflow provides direct integration with Eleven Labs, allowing users to choose from hundreds of voices that differentiate in accents, personality, and language. Its crystal-clear voice quality with Zero latency provides the most realistic speech. You can also create a replica of your own voice for personalized communication.

‍Features:

• Schedule outbound calls at predefined intervals.
• Manage call queries
• Automated follow-ups based on specific triggers.
• Integrates with popular CRM systems like Salesforce and Hubspot seamlessly to help with data synchronization and lead management.
• Users can customize call scripts, responses and greetings to align with the brand voice.
• Triggers automation templates to streamline business processes
• 24/7 Availability
• Detailed call analysis
• Use cases: Best for home services, beauty/salon, and healthcare for handling bookings, call forwarding, and message taking.

Ratings and Reviews: 3.9 out of 5 stars

‍Users review Goodcall with an average score of 3.9 out of 5 stars, stating that the platform sometimes stops working and they are unable to reach their customers. However, Goodcall has many positive reviews that state that managing their voice calls has now become simpler.

‍Pricing:
Goodcall offers subscription-based Pricing starting at $59/month. This includes features like:

• Unlimited Minutes
• Custom Flows
• Connects w/ Zapier
• Avail 24-7 support
• Blocks Spam
• Detailed Call Analytics

Conclusion

While Vapi AI offers a range of features, its latency limitation, high cost, and bad customer support can damage customer relationships. So, if you’re looking for a user-friendly AI phone agent platform that offers easy integration and comprehensive customization, Synthflow AI should be your priority.Take Synthflow’s 14-day free trial now.

‍FAQ

‍Can Synthflow be Customized to Suit Any Business Needs?

Synthflow AI empowers you to create a dynamic voice AI platform tailored according to your business needs using the no-code infrastructure. Pick from pre-built templates or build your workflow from scratch; you can customize everything in Synthflow.

How Does Synthflow Ensure Data Security and Compliance?

Synthflow AI takes all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and that no personal data is transferred. Each user can store an unlimited amount of data in a highly secure Pinecone database. Pinecone uses built-in safeguards like data encryption through a 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm, which processes the data multiple times and turns it into an unintelligible cipher that can only be cracked by Pinecone itself.

Can Synthflow Be Integrated With Existing Systems and Tools?

Integration is a key strength of Synthflow AI. It can seamlessly connect with popular apps and CRM tools like HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Zapier, and Make, helping users expand their capability and providing flexibility.