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
- RingCentral MVP
- 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.
How Free | Call Recording | Voice Customization | Text to Speech | Call Logging | Voicemail | |
Ekiga | Totally Free | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
MicroSIP | Partially Free | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Voxibot | Partially Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
VBVoice by Pronexus | Totally Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Verboice | Totally Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Genesys Cloud CX | 30 Day Free Trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Plum Fuse | 30 Day Free Trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
RingCentral MVP | 14 Day Free Trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Dialpad | 14 Day Free Trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The Best Free IVR Software Providers
The following IVR solutions are categorized by three different types of free:
- Totally Free: All features are free, for perpetuity.
- Partially Free: Free versions of an expanded software, limited either in terms of features or number of accounts.
- 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:
Ekiga Pros | Ekiga Cons |
Free, open source software | Limited set of features |
Installation is very simple | No version for Mac OS |
High definition sound and video quality | |
User-friendly interface | |
Multi-platform operability: Windows and Linux |
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:
MicroSIP Pros | MicroSIP Cons |
Easy to use once installed | Difficult to set up |
Very reliable | |
Visually appealing interface |
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:
Voxibot Pros | Voxibot Cons |
Can be located on the cloud, on-premise, or even both. | Last company updates were in late 2018, so may be outdated. |
Compatible with Asterisk, FreePBX, and LAMP (Linux, Apache, Mysql, PHP). |
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:
VBVoice Pros | VBVoice Cons |
The support team works with you to ensure you get the right features. | Testing can be difficult in some cases. |
Integrates with Microsoft® Visual Studio®. |
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:
Genesys Pros | Genesys Cons |
Easy to configure. | Simple and common tasks difficult to find. |
Powerful enough to handle significant customization | Reporting is limited. |
Simple user interface design. |
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:
Plum Fuse Pros | Plum Fuse Cons |
Great UI to build and manage IVR applications. | Knowledge of VoiceXML is required to create more complex IVR applications. |
Good analytics and reports that detail customer journey. | Knowledge of speech recognition is required to build conversational dialogues. |
Easy to manage phone number. |
8. RingCentral MVP
RingCentral MVP 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:
RingCentral Pros | RingCentral Cons |
More integrations than any other provider in the communications space | IVR includes many options, but is complicated to set up |
Full stack of advanced features | Customer support agents can be difficult to reach |
Excellent audio quality | Incompatible with most competing hardware, so many customers may have to purchase RingCentral phones |
High quality video conferences with advanced video features for mid-range and higher priced plans | Video conferencing is not included in the lowest priced plan (Essentials) |
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:
Dialpad Pros | Dialpad Cons |
Live agent customer support offered in all plans, 24/7 live support in Pro plan and above | Video Meeting participants capped at 10 unless you purchase the Dialpad Meetings Business plan separately |
Built-in AI capabilities in all plans | 100% uptime guarantee only available in Enterprise plan |
Video conferencing available in all plans | Lack of video recordings unless you purchase the Dialpad Meetings Business plan separately |
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.