Comparison · updated 19 October 2026
The right Vapi alternative depends on why you are leaving. For one bill, more calls at once and a free HIPAA agreement: Retell. For the best voices at small volumes: ElevenLabs Agents. For high-volume outbound calling: Bland. For full control without a platform fee: the open-source LiveKit Agents or Pipecat. Already on Twilio: ConversationRelay. For speech to speech: OpenAI's Realtime API.
30 min · Fixed quote before we build · Projects from $2,500
We built a 24/7 phone assistant on Vapi that answers in Arabic (Darija and Modern Standard Arabic), English and French, with ElevenLabs voices and Twilio numbers. These are the reasons people give us when they compare platforms, checked against Vapi's own documentation:
None of this makes Vapi a bad choice. It gives a developer the most control over each part of the call. The question is whether you need that control, or would rather pay for a platform that decides for you.
We pick the platform that fits your call volume, build the agent, connect it to your calendar and CRM and keep it running. One phone agent starts at $2,500; running costs are $200 to $500 a month.
| If you want | Pick | From |
|---|---|---|
| One bill, a no-code builder, HIPAA without an add-on | Retell | $0.07 to $0.31 a minute, all in |
| The best voices at small volumes | ElevenLabs Agents | $6 a month with minutes included |
| Thousands of outbound calls a day | Bland | $0.14 a minute, phone line extra |
| To stay on Twilio with your own backend | Twilio ConversationRelay | $0.07 a minute plus call charges |
| Natural speech to speech | OpenAI Realtime API | from about $0.015 to $0.05 a minute of audio |
| Full control, no platform fee | LiveKit Agents or Pipecat | free frameworks; hosting from $0.01 a minute |
| Someone to build and run it for you | A custom build (us) | from $2,500 to set up |
From each vendor's own pricing page on 19 October 2026. Synthflow, often listed as a Vapi alternative, now sells enterprise contracts only, from $30,000 a year.
The closest like-for-like move. One price covers the platform, voice, model and US calls; beyond 20 simultaneous calls each extra line is $8 a month. A business associate agreement is self-serve at no fee, and voices cover 63 languages. Our usual stack costs about $0.123 a minute here against $0.092 on Vapi.
WebsiteThe best voices on this list, 90+ languages and a no-code builder. Minutes come inside the plan (75 on the $6 plan, 275 on the $22 plan) and simultaneous calls grow with it, from 4 to 40. The language model and the phone line are billed on top.
WebsiteBuilt for volume: the Build plan allows 50 simultaneous calls and 2,000 calls a day, against 10 and 100 on Start. One per-minute price covers the model, transcription and voice. A business associate agreement is enterprise only.
WebsiteTwilio handles transcription and the voice, and sends the text to your own server and model. Twilio states typical response delays under half a second. A good fit if your numbers and your backend already live on Twilio.
WebsiteOne model listens and speaks, which makes conversations feel natural. Audio is priced per token and the whole conversation is resent on every turn, so long calls cost more per minute than short ones. You need your own phone line and the plumbing around it.
WebsiteA framework you run yourself or on LiveKit Cloud, with your choice of transcription, model and voice. The Scale plan ($500 a month, 50,000 minutes) includes a business associate agreement. For engineering teams that want to own the whole call.
WebsiteA Python framework for voice agents, run on your own servers or on Pipecat Cloud with no concurrency cap. You pay the transcription, model and voice providers directly. For teams with Python engineers who want full control.
WebsiteNot a platform: we build and run the agent for you on Vapi or Retell, connected to your calendar and CRM, and you own the accounts. For a business that wants the result without hiring a developer.
WebsiteRead the totals with what they include. The cheapest line on this list can end up the most expensive once you add the parts it leaves out, and the one with everything included can be cheaper than it looks.
For most businesses, Retell: one all-in price per minute, 20 simultaneous calls without an extra fee, a no-code builder and a free HIPAA agreement. Developers who want full control should look at LiveKit Agents or Pipecat.
Retell is easier and includes more in its price. Vapi is cheaper per minute for the same providers (about $0.092 against $0.123 for our stack) and gives a developer more control.
Yes. LiveKit Agents (Apache 2.0) and Pipecat (BSD) are free frameworks; you pay for hosting and for the transcription, model and voice providers. LiveKit Cloud includes 1,000 free minutes a month.
It depends on what the price includes. Twilio ConversationRelay ($0.07 a minute plus calls and your model) and the open-source frameworks are cheapest per minute; Retell and Bland include more in one price.
Retell signs a business associate agreement at no fee, LiveKit includes one on its $500 Scale plan, Vapi charges $2,000 a month, and Bland's is enterprise only (19 October 2026).
Vapi retired Workflows on 18 August 2026, and existing workflows stopped running the next day. Vapi now recommends assistants for simple agents and squads for multi-step ones.
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Free · 30 min · Projects from $2,500
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