CMP-08 AIRCALL
Aircall pricing in 2026: what a seat really costs, plus the Aircall alternatives and competitors worth comparing
Aircall costs $30 per license per month on Essentials and $50 on Professional, both billed annually, with a 25-license minimum on the Custom tier. The number that decides your bill is the 3-license minimum on both published plans: the smallest Aircall account you can buy is $90 a month, or $1,080 a year, even if only one person answers the phone. Phoner starts at $15 for a single seat with no minimum, so a solo operator or a two-person business pays $15 to $30 a month for the same job.
The full ranked field is in the guide to the best VoIP for small business, entry pricing for every provider sits yearly against monthly in the business phone system comparison, and Phoner's plans are listed in plain dollars on the pricing page.
01 · Pick your number
02 · Your phone menu
03 · Incoming call
Press a key to answer the menu yourself
Voicemail to text
transcribed · texted to you · 0:42
Call sheet
Today
This number can be yours in about 5 minutes.
Recording consent laws vary by state and country. You are responsible for lawful use.
WHERE AIRCALL IS GENUINELY STRONG
Aircall is a genuinely strong product and the reasons to buy it are real. It ships 250+ integrations and API access on the entry plan, which is unusual: most rivals, Phoner included, put CRM connections on an upper tier. The IVR, call recording, and click-to-dial are all on Essentials at $30. Professional at $50 adds a Power Dialer, voicemail drop, Salesforce CTI, live call monitoring, and smart routing with queue callback, which is a real outbound sales stack rather than a phone system with a dialer bolted on. If you run a sales floor or a support queue where supervisors listen in and coach, Aircall is built for that and Phoner is not.
WHERE PHONER FITS
Phoner is the better buy when the team is small and the job is answering the phone well. There is no license minimum, so one person pays $15 and two people pay $30, against a $90 floor at Aircall. Every plan is month to month rather than billed annually, extra numbers are $5 instead of $6, and the phone menu, ring groups, business texting, and call recording with consent announcements all sit on the $29 Team plan.
In practice the deciding features are usually the call routing and ring groups and IVR phone menu.
Phoner vs Aircall, line by line
| What you are buying | Phoner | Aircall |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $15/user/mo | $30/license/mo, billed annually |
| License minimum | None, buy a single seat | 3 licenses on both published plans |
| Smallest possible monthly bill | $15 | $90 |
| Contract shape | Month to month at every tier | Published rates are billed annually |
| IVR phone menu | Team, $29 | Essentials, $30 |
| Call recording | Team, $29 | Essentials, $30 |
| Recording consent announcements | Yes, built in | Not published on the pricing page |
| CRM integrations and API access | Business, $59 | Essentials, $30 |
| Salesforce CTI | No | Professional, $50 |
| Power dialer and voicemail drop | No | Professional, $50 |
| Live call monitoring and coaching | No | Professional, $50 |
| Analytics history | Unlimited on Business | Up to 6 months on both published plans |
| Numbers included | 1 per account, extras $5/mo | 1 local or toll-free, extras $6/mo |
| Business texting | Team, $29 | Listed, rates quoted on request |
Swipe sideways for the full table
COMPETITOR FIGURES ARE PUBLIC LIST PRICES AND POSITIONING AS OF 2026. VERIFY BEFORE BUYING.
Phoner's side of the table starts at $15/user/mo on the Starter plan and $29 on Team, the plan most small teams pick, both month to month. Extra local or toll-free numbers are a flat $5/number/mo. Where the two products tie on a row, the difference is usually how visibly the feature is built: see the call routing and ring groups page for exactly how Phoner does it.
What Aircall costs at each team size, once the 3-license minimum is applied
Aircall publishes $30 per license, and almost every comparison stops there. The line that actually sets your bill sits directly underneath it on Aircall's own pricing page: three licenses for $90 a month, billed annually. Both published plans carry that 3-license floor, and the Custom tier requires 25. Below is what each team size really pays on each product. Both columns price the entry plan billed annually, because that is the only way Aircall publishes its rates: it showed no month-to-month figure in the view we captured, so we are not going to calculate one. Phoner month to month is $19 per user at every team size shown.
| Team size | Aircall Essentials | Phoner Starter | What the numbers mean |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $90 a month ($90 per person) | $15 a month | Aircall costs 6 times more for the same single line |
| 2 people | $90 a month ($45 per person) | $30 a month | Still the 3-license floor, so the third seat is paid and empty |
| 3 people | $90 a month ($30 per person) | $45 a month | The first team size where Aircall charges its headline rate |
| 5 people | $150 a month ($30 per person) | $75 a month | Phoner Starter; Phoner Team with the phone menu is $145 |
| 10 people | $300 a month ($30 per person) | $150 a month | Phoner Starter; Phoner Team with the phone menu is $290 |
| 25 people | $750 a month ($30 per person) | $375 a month | The seat count where Aircall's Custom tier becomes available |
Swipe sideways for the full table
AIRCALL FIGURES READ FROM ITS OWN PRICING PAGE ON AUGUST 4, 2026 · ESSENTIALS $30 PER LICENSE AND PROFESSIONAL $50 PER LICENSE, BOTH BILLED ANNUALLY WITH A 3-LICENSE MINIMUM · CUSTOM TIER REQUIRES 25 LICENSES · AIRCALL COLUMN ABOVE PRICES THE ESSENTIALS PLAN · PHONER COLUMN PRICES THE $15 STARTER PLAN · TAXES, REGULATORY FEES, AND A2P TEXTING REGISTRATION ARE EXTRA ON BOTH · PRICING IN THIS CATEGORY MOVES, SO VERIFY ON THE VENDOR PAGE BEFORE BUYING
What Aircall actually costs once you read past the headline rate
The 3-license minimum is the whole story for a small team
Aircall lists $30 per license, and one line down it says three licenses for $90 a month, billed annually. That floor applies to Essentials and Professional alike, so the cheapest Aircall account that exists is $90 a month, $1,080 a year. For a solo consultant that works out at $90 per person for one phone line. For a two-person business it is $45 each, and you are paying for a third seat nobody uses. The floor stops mattering at exactly three people, which is where Aircall starts charging the rate it advertises. If your team is at or above that line, the criticism disappears and you should compare the products on features instead. If it is below, no feature comparison changes the arithmetic.
Aircall puts integrations on the entry plan, and that is genuinely rare
On most business phone systems, connecting the phone to your CRM is an upper-tier feature. On Phoner, CRM integrations and API access are on the $59 Business plan. Aircall includes 250+ integrations and API access on Essentials at $30, which is a real advantage and the main reason sales teams choose it. The caveat worth knowing is that Salesforce CTI, the deep embedded softphone rather than a general connector, sits on Professional at $50. So does the Power Dialer. If your reason for buying Aircall is Salesforce, price the $50 tier, not the $30 one, which puts the floor for three people at $150 a month.
Two features Phoner does not have at any price
Aircall Professional includes a Power Dialer that works a list automatically and voicemail drop that leaves a pre-recorded message with one click, plus live call monitoring so a manager can listen to a rep in real time and coach them mid-call. Phoner has none of those and is not going to pretend otherwise. They are outbound-sales and contact-center tools, and a business that needs them should buy a product built around them. Phoner is built around a published number that a small team answers well: a menu, ring groups, business hours, transfers, texting, and recording.
Analytics history is capped on both published tiers
Aircall keeps analytics data for up to six months on Essentials and on Professional; unlimited history arrives with Analytics+, sold separately at $15 per license per month, or on the 25-license Custom tier. Call recordings are treated differently and more generously: up to a year on Essentials and unlimited on Professional, though both note that six months is what you get in the dashboard and longer retention is by request. If you are in an industry that expects you to produce a call from eighteen months ago, confirm the retrieval process rather than the marketing line, on any provider.
The add-ons stack faster than most buyers plan for
Aircall's published add-ons are priced per license, not per account, which compounds. AI Assist is $9 per license per month, Analytics+ is $15, WhatsApp is $10, Salesforce Voice is $30, and real-time AI coaching is $49. AI Voice Agents are billed by usage from $0.19 a minute, with bundles at $175 for 500 minutes and $725 for 2,500, or pay as you go at $0.49 a minute. A five-person team on Professional with AI Assist and Analytics+ is $50 plus $9 plus $15, which is $74 per license, or $370 a month. That is a legitimate price for a sales platform. It is roughly two and a half times the $145 the same five people would pay on Phoner Team, which is the honest way to state the gap.
Texting is listed but the rate is not published
Aircall lists SMS and MMS business texting for the US, Canada, UK, Australia, France, and Germany, with a footnote directing you to contact them for rates. That is not a criticism of the product, but it does mean you cannot budget for texting from the pricing page, and texting volume is exactly the kind of cost that surprises people. International outbound calling is quoted the same way on both published plans; only the 25-license Custom tier includes unlimited worldwide calling. Get both numbers in writing before you sign if either one matters to you.
Check the exit while they are still selling to you
Under FCC local number portability rules a carrier cannot refuse to release your number because there is an unpaid balance, so porting out is your right rather than a favor you have to negotiate. Ask any provider, Aircall or Phoner or anyone else, what a port out looks like and how long it takes, before you commit a team to them. Porting into Phoner is free, usually completes in one to two weeks, and your existing line keeps ringing right up to the cutover, so callers never reach a dead number.
Who should pick which
PICK AIRCALL IF
Pick Aircall if you run an outbound sales team or a support queue with at least three people on the phones, and you want CRM integration, a power dialer, live monitoring, and call coaching from one vendor. At three or more seats its per-license price is competitive, and nothing in this comparison matches its integration catalog on an entry plan.
THEIR LIST PRICE: $30-50/LICENSE/MO, 3-LICENSE MINIMUM
PICK PHONER IF
Pick Phoner if fewer than three people answer the phone, or if you would rather not commit to a year. One seat is $15 and two are $30, against a $90 minimum, and the phone menu, ring groups, texting, and recording with consent tools are all on the $29 plan, month to month.
PHONER: $15-29/USER/MO, MONTH TO MONTH
Leaving Aircall does not mean a new number
Your number is yours and moves with you. Phoner's free number porting takes about 1-2 weeks, and the line keeps ringing on Aircall until the moment it switches over. Set up your phone menu and ring groups in Phoner while you wait, then the cutover is invisible to callers.
PORT ORDER · AIRCALL → PHONER
Sign up for Phoner and submit the port with a recent Aircall bill.
Keep answering on Aircall. The number never goes dark.
In 1-2 weeks calls ring your Phoner apps. Cancel the old account.
PORTING FEE: $0 · DOWNTIME: NONE
Common questions about switching
How much does Aircall cost per month?
Aircall costs $30 per license per month on Essentials and $50 on Professional, both billed annually. Both plans require a minimum of three licenses, so the smallest Aircall bill is $90 a month, or $1,080 a year. The Custom tier is quote-only and requires at least 25 licenses.
Does Aircall have a minimum number of users?
Yes. Both published Aircall plans require three licenses, and the Custom tier requires 25. This is the single most important line on the pricing page for a small business: a one-person or two-person company still pays for three licenses, which works out at $90 or $45 per person rather than the advertised $30.
What are the best Aircall alternatives?
For a team under three people, or any team that does not want a three-seat minimum, Phoner at $15 to $29 per user month to month is the closest like-for-like swap. RingCentral and Nextiva are the comparable full suites at $20 and $15 per user billed yearly. Quo, formerly OpenPhone, suits text-heavy teams that live in a shared inbox.
Is Aircall worth it for a small business?
It depends almost entirely on headcount. At three or more people who spend the day on the phone, especially in sales or support, Aircall is competitively priced and its integration catalog and power dialer are genuinely strong. Below three people the license minimum makes it an expensive way to run one or two phone lines.
What is the difference between Aircall Essentials and Professional?
Essentials at $30 per license covers the phone system itself: IVR, call recording, click-to-dial, texting, and 250+ integrations with API access. Professional at $50 adds Salesforce CTI, a Power Dialer, voicemail drop, advanced analytics with live call monitoring, smart routing, and queue callback, plus unlimited teams instead of three.
Does Aircall charge extra for phone numbers?
Each plan includes one local or toll-free number, and additional numbers cost $6 per number per month on every tier. Phoner includes a number with each account and charges $5 per month for extras. On either product, remember that toll-free inbound minutes are handled separately from the unlimited domestic calling both advertise.
Can I pay for Aircall monthly instead of annually?
Aircall presents both published plans billed annually, and it did not show a month-to-month rate in the pricing view we captured on August 4, 2026, so we are not going to quote one. Ask their sales team directly if avoiding an annual commitment matters to you. Every Phoner plan is available month to month at $19, $35, and $69 per user.
Does Phoner have a power dialer like Aircall?
No. The Power Dialer, voicemail drop, and live call monitoring are Aircall Professional features and Phoner does not offer equivalents at any tier. If automated outbound dialing and real-time supervisor coaching are what you are shopping for, Aircall is the better product and you should buy it.
Can I move my Aircall number to another provider?
Yes. Phone numbers are portable by law, and under FCC local number portability rules a carrier cannot refuse to release a number over an unpaid balance. Porting into Phoner is free and usually takes one to two weeks, and your existing number keeps ringing during the switch so no caller hits a dead line.
CONNECT · LINE OPEN
Ready when you are, month to month
Pick a number and be live in about 5 minutes, or port your Aircall number for free.
No credit card to get started. Cancel any time.