Aircall is a user-friendly cloud call center software offering toll-free, local, and international numbers combined with a robust set of call management and productivity features.
Aircall can improve customer service, help agents spend more time talking to valuable leads, and give supervisors the insight they need to streamline business processes.
Read on to learn more about Aircall pricing and plans, features, benefits, and more.
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- What is Aircall?
- Aircall Pricing and Plans Overview
- Aircall Key Features
- Top Aircall Benefits
- Best Aircall Alternatives
- FAQs
What Is Aircall?
Aircall is a cloud-based VoIP business phone system built to optimize call center productivity, evaluate and meet customer expectations, and offer remote and in-house teams increased flexibility.
Aircall is designed to work alongside, not in lieu of, existing third-party business applications like Zendesk, Slack, Salesforce, JIRA, Zapier, and Shopify. It aims to combine your team’s favorite tools into one easy-to-navigate dashboard.
Advanced live and historical monitoring tools help supervisors identify workflow bottlenecks, peak call center times, and daily sales team and phone support team activity.
Because Aircall does not offer native video conferencing or team chat messaging, it’s best for small-to-medium-sized businesses that primarily communicate via voice calling and occasional, one-on-one SMS texting.
Aircall Pricing and Plans Overview
The table below outlines the standard Aircall pricing model.
Essentials Plan | Professional Plan | Custom Plan | |
Pricing | $30.00/user/month, billed annually | $50.00/user/month, billed annually | Quote-based |
Minimum Number of Users | 3 | 3 | 10 |
Maximum Number of Teams | 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Outbound International Calls | Rates/bundles upon request | Rates/bundles upon request | Unlimited |
Call Recording Access | Up 1 year upon request | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Call Analytics History | Up to 6 months | Up to 6 months | Up to 6 months and access to Analytics+ |
Queue Callback | X | ✔ | ✔ |
Call Monitoring, Call Whispering | X | ✔ | ✔ |
Live Activity Feed and Advanced Analytics | X | ✔ | ✔ |
PowerDialer | X | ✔ | ✔ |
Salesforce Sales Cloud and Salesforce Service Cloud Integrations | X | ✔ | ✔ |
API/Developer Support | X | X | ✔ |
Dedicated Account Manager and Personalized Onboarding Sessions (15-user minimum) | X | ✔ | ✔ |
Priority Customer Support | X | X | ✔ |
Essentials Plan
The Essentials Plan comes with a local or toll-free phone number, unlimited inbound and internal calling, and unlimited calls and texts within the US and Canada. It’s best for smaller businesses (as 3 teams/designated departments) are allowed.
The available call management features are surprisingly robust, and include:
- Softphone and mobile app access with CTI
- Click-to-call
- Custom music and messages
- Business hour settings
- Call queuing
- IVR
- Call forwarding
- Ring groups and call distribution rules
- Call assignment and call commenting
- Shared contacts and shared call inbox
- Call recording and call tagging
- Conference calling
- Voicemail to email
- Desktop notifications
- Blacklist numbers
- Warm transfers
- After-call work
- Extensions
- Parallel calls
- Pause-resume call recording
Though it lacks the live activity feed and advanced and custom analytics, it still offers 6 months of analytics history and access to call recordings for up to a year–enough insight for many companies.
Customer support is somewhat limited compared to the other plans, but Essentials users still have access to the online help center, live group onboarding sessions, and phone/email support (though support hours aren’t specified.)
The biggest downside here is the lack of access to the coveted Salesforce integration–although Zoho, Slack, Intercom, Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zendesk, and API/webhooks are included.
Sales-focused call centers will likely opt out of this plan, as it doesn’t include the PowerDialer, call monitoring, or call whispering.
But for $30.00/user per month, the Essentials plan still provides excellent value, especially for newer or smaller teams that don’t need extensive analytics or monitoring capabilities.
Professional Plan
It’s easy to see why the Professional plan is Aircall’s most popular tier. It offers the more advanced features the Essentials plan lacks without a cost-prohibitive price increase.
Ideal for remote, in-house, and blended teams of over 10 employees, this plan offers users the Salesforce integration needed to take call center CRM to the next level.
Admins can make call tags mandatory to prevent miscommunications, access the power auto dialer for improved lead list penetration, optimize staff schedules with the live activity feed, and use queue callbacks.
It’s the ideal plan for a growing call center–and Essential users will likely find themselves scaling up to this tier soon.
Custom Plan
The Custom Plan isn’t much of a step-up from the Professional Plan, but does offer a higher level of customization and personalized attention.
Priority customer support, API developer support, unlimited outbound international calls, custom analytics, and access to Analytics+ are the only real upgrades here.
As pricing is quote-based, assessing the plan’s value is a challenge.
However, given that Aircall doesn’t offer native additional communication channels, nor other advanced contact center features like AI-based automation, enterprise-level companies will likely opt for a UCaaS or contact center software instead.
Aircall Key Features
Aircall call center software offers a mix of call management, team collaboration, productivity, and call monitoring features alike.
While basic functionalities like call recording, voicemail, conference calling, and unlimited simultaneous calls are included, the features we’ve highlighted below are what really make Aircall stand out from competitors.
Phone Numbers
Aircall offers local, toll-free, and international business phone numbers in over 100 countries. IVR-only phone numbers are also available.
Number porting makes it easy to keep existing telephone numbers, and vanity toll-free numbers ensure customers always remember how to reach you.
Add new numbers or delete outdated ones with one click–additional numbers cost $6.00/number per month.
All plans enjoy access to unlimited calling within the US and Canada, and all plans come with one local or toll-free number included.
Call Routing and Call Forwarding
Aircall offers list-based, time-based, status-based, relationship-based, and customizable call routing strategies to optimize call management and decrease customer hold times.
This ensures inbound calls are sent only to available agents, or to predetermined ring groups via simultaneous ringing.
Call forwarding to additional agent numbers or voicemail boxes is available, and admins can set the maximum number of rings before a call is forwarded.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
IVR provides customer self-service, keeps queues manageable, and frees up agents by providing an interactive call menu with pre-recorded prompts customers guide themselves through.
The drag-and-drop interface lets you easily adjust call routing and call flow strategies, and text-to-speech capabilities make setting up menus and welcome messages fast and easy (users can also upload their own recordings.)
Up to 10 sub-menus are available, and admins can set business hours and add agents to each queue.
Call Queuing And Automated Callbacks
Call queuing helps customers understand their options if no agent is available to take their call.
While waiting, customers can hear customized pre-recorded announcements, navigate to the IVR call menu for self-service, or listen to hold music. Admins can specify the maximum hold time before the call is forwarded to another agent or voicemail box.
The queue callback feature further improves the call waiting and follow up process by letting customers choose to receive a callback at the time and date of their choosing instead of staying on the line.
This decreases customer frustration and lets agents spend more time with callers–offering assistance without the pressures of a long call queue.
Once the customer requests a callback, Aircall automatically sends a notification to the agent–which can also be seen by team members with access to the shared inbox. To place the call, the agent–or any representative currently available–just clicks the notification to instantly start a callback.
Agent Collaboration Tools
Aircall’s collaboration tools are designed to keep call queues moving without sacrificing customer satisfaction levels.
Call tagging lets users add customizable and color-coded tags to their notes/call logs for easier filtering and better organization. Call tags are even synced across all your apps.
Shared contact lists let more agents tackle long call lists and ensure key information is easily accessible to all.
The shared inbox feature lets users add team-wide inboxes (in addition to private, individual ones.)
This means all agents with shared inbox access can view call logs, agent notes and tags, access call recordings and voicemail messages, and get notifications about missed calls or needed callbacks.
Agents can add comments to call histories within the shared inbox, assign calls to one another, and use the warm transfer feature to give other agents all the information they need before connecting with a client.
Power Dialer
Aircall’s Power Dialer streamlines the outbound calling process by automatically dialing the next phone number on an imported lead list instantly after an agent finishes a call.
Admins can create and assign power dialer contact/lead lists of up to 1,000 numbers at a time and reorder numbers with the drag-and-drop interface. The outbound autodialer optimizes lead list penetration by eliminating manual dialing and scrubbing duplicate/disconnected numbers.
Agents can delete, skip, tag, or comment on calls, as well as view CRM data.
SMS Business Texting
Aircall offers 1:1, two-way business text messaging in the US, UK, Australia, and France–with third-party integrations for bulk texting. US and Canadian numbers can send up to 4,000 texts/month for free.
As with business calls, SMS texts with Aircall operate via a Shared Inbox. Users can text on desktop computers, and iOS/Android mobile apps, adding to Aircall’s high ease of use.
Users cannot currently send/receive images or URLs with Aircall SMS, but can access:
- Real-time badge and push notifications
- Text message history
- Read receipts
- Contact lists (add contacts, message contacts, etc.)
After-Call Work
After-call work gives agents built-in wrap-up time between calls to take notes, tag and add call filters, assign calls, add comments, or take time to prepare for the next call.
Agent status automatically updates to show they’re engaged in after-call work, and agents can’t receive inbound calls until they’ve marked themselves ready.
Real-Time Modifications
Adapt to sudden increased call volumes, busy agents, or schedule snafus with real-time modifications.
Assign agents to calls based on their current status, adjust routing strategies or maximum wait times, add agents to more queues, and use the live coaching feature to provide assistance to agents in real time.
Top Aircall Benefits
In addition to the above features, Aircall offers competitive benefits like:
A Fast And Simple Setup Process
Aircall’s online knowledge base and help center is one of the best we’ve seen–from initial installation and setup to ongoing customer service and support.
As a cloud phone system, Aircall eliminates the need for expensive hardware and time-consuming installations right off the bat.
Its Customer Resources center navigates new users through a straightforward, step-by-step Onboarding Portal outlining number porting, team creation, integration installation, and more.
Aircall simplifies things even further with its dashboard setup survey–fill it out, return it, and receive a customized dashboard setup worksheet to get up and running ASAP.
Detailed setup and customization instructions are available in eBook, live and pre-recorded video, and step-by-step guide formats–as well as best practices for specific types of businesses.
Teams needing further assistance can take advantage of Aircall’s Professional Services. These include Technical Consulting, CRM and Helpdesk Automation, or a Full Technical Support Package for integration setup, call flow optimization and hands-on staff training.
High-Level Security And Network Reliability
Thanks to its 7 global data centers, 99.99% uptime, partnerships with top-tier local and international voiice carriers, and use of the Opus codec, Aircall provides a consistently high call quality.
Real-time network monitoring, live push notifications, and even in-call descriptions of issues like latency and jitter–with links to solutions–provide a high level of reliability.
Aircall’s security standards include:
- End-to-end encryption
- SOC 2, FedRAMP, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI compliance
- Third-party penetration testing
- Frequent data backups
The post-call rating feature lets Aircall users rate the quality of every inbound and outbound call on both desktop and mobile applications.
A Robust App Marketplace
Aircall’s App Marketplace contains over 100 third-party, one-click integrations. They include essential business software like:
- Salesforce (Service Cloud and Sales Cloud)
- Zendesk
- Freshdesk
- HubSpot
- Pipedrive
- Slack
- Zoho
- Intercom
Aircall’s Insight Cards feature is an automatic inbound/outbound in-call pop-up displaying relevant customer data from integrated CRM tools, allowing for further personalization.
REST API and webhooks allow for further customization–made even easier with Aircall’s detailed API references, tutorials, and strong developer team.
API developer support is included in the Custom plan and available for purchase for all Aircall users.
Detailed Insights From Analytics
Aircall offers standard call monitoring features like call barge, call whisper, and automatic call recording with on-demand playback.
However, its real-time and historical analytics suite is packed with KPIs and reporting tools that offer invaluable insight into customer journeys, agent productivity, and overall contact center activity. Interactive graphs, charts, and tags make the massive amount of data Aircall monitors digestible.
Aircall’s live Activity Feed shows:
- Real-time agent status and availability/how long an agent has maintained their current status
- Service Level
- Number of current calls
- List of all active inbound/outbound calls with one-click call coaching and live call monitoring
- Number of calls waiting/longest call wait time/average waiting time in the last hour
- Number of missed calls in the last 30 minutes
Aircall’s historical dashboards–when combined with the advanced Analytics+ add-on–can be filtered by agent, date range, timezone, department, phone number, and by specific call tags.
Though as of this writing, historical reporting is not customizable, Aircall analytics can be drilled down to such a specific level that no business will lack for data.
Key historical call center metrics and KPIs are:
- Number of total calls, number of inbound and outbound calls, number of missed calls
- Top reasons for missed calls (call outside of business hours, no pickup, IVR abandoned, etc.) and callback data
- Call trends, call type, and call evolution over date range
- Most popular call tags
- Agent rankings for missed calls, answered calls, talk time, outbound calls, etc.)
- Average call duration, call wait time, call handling time
- Agent status/availability monitoring
- Average response time
Each report can be downloaded and shared as a PDF or .CSV file.
Best Aircall Alternatives
Below, we’ve outlined the top 10 Aircall alternatives.
Provider | Pricing | Key Features | Integrations |
Five9 | 4 plans from $149.00-$229.00/month | – Drag-and-drop call scripts
– Power, Preview, Progressive, Predictive dialing modes – Workforce management tools |
Zendesk, ServiceNow, Oracle, Salesforce, Freshdesk |
Nice CXone | Quote-based | – Workforce Engagement analytics
– MAX customer data/info tool – Feedback Management surveys |
Salesforce, Oracle, SugarCRM, Zendesk, Zoom |
Talkdesk | 4 plans from $75.00-$125.00+/user/month | – AI Agent Assist
– Call transcription commenting – Sentiment analysis |
Zendesk, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Shopify, Help Scout |
Dialpad | 3 plans from $15.00-$25.00+/user/month | – AI-based Voice Intelligence
– Dialpad Departments – Automated post-call notes |
Google Workspace, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Zapier |
Genesys | 5 plans from $75.00-$150.00+/month, or pay-as-you-go pricing | – NLU-based conversational AI bots
– Advanced routing strategies – Intent Miner |
Salesforce, Zoom Phone, Zoho, Brightmetrics |
Twilio | Pay-as-you-go, volume and committed use discounts, varies by API | – Customizable communication APIs
– Automated callback queues – Speech recognition bot |
Monday.com, Zapier, Airtable, Salesforce, Slack, Twilio Studio |
RingCentral | 4 plans from $19.99-$44.99/user/month (for 1-20 users) | – Real-time analytics
– Unified team chat, phone calls, video conferencing – 24/7 phone/chat customer support |
HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft365, Google Workspace, Zoho CRM |
Nextiva | 3 plans from $18.95-$32.95/user/month (for 20-99 Users) | – Native CRM
– Call Pops – Nextiva CoSpace |
Google Workspace, HubSpot, Microsoft Teams, Zendesk, Salesforce |
8×8 | 3 plans from $15.00-$44.00/user/month | – Unlimited international calling in 48 countries
– Post-call survey tool – Customizable ring patterns |
Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Google Workspace, Pipedrive, Zendesk, Zoho |
Freshdesk | 1 free plan, 3 paid plans from $15.00-$75.00/user/month | – Intelligent support ticket assignment
– Field Service Management – Team Inbox |
WhatsApp, Slack, Shopify, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Microsoft Teams |
Aircall FAQs
Below, we’ve answered the top Aircall FAQs.
Aircall is used for call center optimization and management, providing a cloud-based business phone system for remote, blended, and in-house teams. It has over 100 third-party integrations, outbound power dialer capabilities, advanced call analytics, and customizable call flow paths with call routing and IVR (among other features.)
Aircall offers international phone numbers in over 100 countries, giving businesses a global presence. However, texting with Aircall is only available in the US, UK, Australia, and France.
The Aircall free trial is 7 days long.