The Best Free and Open-Source IVR Software

The power of interactive voice response (IVR) software is that it can enhance customer experience, positively impact your company’s bottom line, and reduce stress on your customer service and sales teams.

While IVR should not replace your entire customer service or sales teams, it can and should complement an already competent team.

Below, we’ll explore nine free IVR software solutions, compare their features, pros & cons.

• Ekiga
• MicroSIP
• Voxibot
• VBVoice by Pronexus
• Verboice
• Genesys Cloud CX
• Plum Fuse
• RingEX
• Dialpad

Comparing 9 Free IVR Software Options

There are some basic features you should assess to determine whether or not free IVR software is a good fit for your company.

Beyond that, it’s important to determine the scope of the offer: is it good for perpetuity or a limited time, across numerous accounts or only one?

Here is a breakdown of nine different free IVR software options, followed by a detailed overview of each.

The Best Free IVR Software Providers

The following IVR solutions are categorized by three different types of free:

1. Totally Free: All features are free, for perpetuity.
2. Partially Free: Free versions of an expanded software, limited either in terms of features or number of accounts.
3. Free Trial: Freemium versions of a paid premium software.

Let's take a closer look at each.

1. Ekiga

The only totally free IVR software option to make it into the list, Ekiga is a softphone which offers free SIP addresses. While you won’t benefit from call recording or voice customization, Ekiga will provide you and your customers with free audio and video calls, text to speech, and voicemail.

Best For

Set up your Ekiga-connected phone line with “Call Auto-Answer” and you won’t need to worry about assigning an employee to your phone line at all times. Or, you can switch back and forth using a single phone line by setting up call forwarding when a line is set to a busy status.

What Users Say

Here are some of the things that users like and dislike about Ekiga's platform:

2. MicroSIP

While MicroSIP does create custom-built solutions for a fee, its basic version includes every feature absolutely free. The open source free IVR software is designed to provide maximum customization for users.

Best For

Companies looking for a reliable, visually appealing system will enjoy the latest updates to MicroSIP. However, you must have a technically competent staff member on hand to set up this software.

What Users Say

Here are some of the things that users like and dislike about MicroSIP's platform:

3. Voxibot

Voxibot’s aim is to cut costs by providing your call center with an automated agent. The software is free, with every feature available, for one channel. The platform boasts of the ability to integrate with “any telephony network or telephone systems,” as well as “any CRM, internal systems, human chats and third-party applications.”

Best For

Call centers can use Voxibot as an automated agent to enhance customer experience. Great for international teams, as Voxibot can handle calls in all common languages.

What Users Say

Here are some of the things that users like and dislike about Voxibot's platform:

4. VBVoice by Pronexus

VBVoice IVR toolkit was created so developers can manipulate fully programmable controls to create custom solutions.

Its features include a diagnostic log collector and remote diagnostic logging, automatic generation of crash dumps, and more.

Best For

This toolkit is intended for developers who are creating solutions for their company.

What Users Say

Here are some of the things that users like and dislike about VBVoice's platform:

5. Verboice

Verboice is a free and open-source platform for creating IVR systems. It provides a simple interface and access to such features as Call Flow Designer, Text-to-Speech and Speech Recognition, Call Recording, reporting and analytics, and more.

Best For

Used by diverse organizations, from the American Red Cross to the International Labour Organisation operating in Cambodia, Verboice is an open source, mission-critical communications support system.

What Users Say

“Verboice is an adaptable open-source platform that makes it easy for anyone, speaking any language, to create and run their own customized automated voice response systems for mobile phones. Highly customizable and scalable, Verboice allows users to adapt to suit their requirements. Verboice is basically a non-developer’s platform to create mobile applications for non-smartphone users.” - Tharum Bun, Communications and Digital Media Manager at InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia

6. Genesys CX Cloud

Genesys' IVR software solution is accessible to nearly everyone. Its features are anything but simplistic, as it supports automatic speech recognition across dozens of languages, multiple prompts and versions, and more. CX Cloud’s end goal is to help you build better relationships with your customers.

Best For

The drag-and-drop designer facilitates easy manipulation even for the non-tech savvy customer service manager.

What Users Say

Here are some of the things that users like and dislike about Genesys' platform:

7. Plum Voice

Plum Voice’s hosted IVR platform and development tools are meant to empower your self-service strategy, enabling you to easily automate even complex customer interactions. At the same time, Plum prides itself on obviating the need for “complex telephony infrastructure.” Plum Voice's platform offers conversational AI technologies and natural language processing.

Best For

Plum Fuse recommends its IVR software for medium- to large-sized enterprises across a wide variety of industries.

What Users Say

Here are some of the things that users like and dislike about the Plum Fuse platform:

8. RingEX

RingEX is a complete business communications solution with messaging, video and phone capabilities. RingCentral's multi-level, intelligent IVR system is packed with advanced features such as speech recognition, natural language processing, and skills-based routing.

RingCentral's platform has a high level of security and reliability with SSO, end-to-end encryption and 99.999% uptime.

Best For

RingCentral is best for large call centers and enterprises that need IVR in addition to other contact center features such as video conferencing, SMS and MMS texting, and real-time analytics.

What Users Say

Here are some of the things that users like and dislike about RingCentral's platform:

9. Dialpad

Dialpad is a leading business communication platform best known for its AI-powered Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center solutions. Dialpad's IVR system allows users to create custom rules and route calls to any line, voicemail, a pre-recorded message or an automated menu. Dialpad's IVR feature is included with all Dialpad plans which start at $15 per month after the free trial expires.

Best For

Dialpad is best for SMBs in a high growth phase that need to automate time-consuming tasks. Large enterprises and contact centers with remote and/or global teams will also benefit from Dialpad.

What Users Say

Here are some of the things that users like and dislike about Dialpad's platform:

Choosing the Right Free IVR Software

There is significant overlap in the features offered by the free IVR software solutions available today. However, there are some clear differentiating characteristics of each platform.

What may stick out most to the customer service manager hoping to implement a free IVR software solution is that the above solutions vary in just how free they really are. You may opt for a more hands-on, totally free experience such as Ekiga. Or, perhaps you just want a free trial of a premium service like Zendesk Talk.

The IVR software you settle on will largely depend on the size and ambitions of your team. Thankfully, there are a number of free IVR software solutions to try out before you need to make your final decision.