Phonely vs Retell.ai: full comparison guide (2025)

Phonely
Starting at $396 (yearly)
Phonely AI bills itself as a half-price, real-time, human-sounding receptionist, but in practice its $45–$900/month tiers hide gates around voice cloning, advanced analytics, and telemarketing workflows, forcing you into Growth or Agency plans just to unlock basic follow-up features. The voice quality can still wobble into robotic stress when handles complex queries, and “0s time to lead” claims evaporate once you factor in the manual routing tweaks and context-handoff hiccups that surface in real deployments. Integrations are limited to Google Calendar, Zapier, and a handful of CRM connectors—anything custom means wrestling with their sparse API docs—while the dashboard feels cluttered and the documentation skimpy. For companies seeking a truly plug-and-play AI receptionist, Phonely delivers half the promise but twice the maintenance.
Key Metrics
Latency
1200 ms
Automation
52%
Integrations
17
Onboarding
1 days
Full Comparison
Vendor | Score | Latency | Automation | Integrations | Cost | Action |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OpenCall.ai $0.10/ minute | 93 | 700 ms | 76% | 2000 | Low | |
![]() Retell.ai $0.07 – 0.08 /min | 82 | 950 ms | 55% | 25 | Low | |
![]() Sierra AI $2 per successful outcome | 79 | 800 ms | 60% | 30 | Low | |
![]() PolyAI $0.25 /min (example case study) | 67 | 1700 ms | 72% | 25 | Medium | |
![]() Bland AI $0.09/min | 66 | 1100 ms | 50% | 15 | Low | |
![]() Phonely $396 (yearly) | 61 | 1200 ms | 52% | 17 | Medium | |
![]() Hey Rosie $49/mo (250 min) + $0.25/min | 57 | 950 ms | 60% | 1 | Low | |
![]() Smith.ai $3.25 /call (Starter 30 calls @ $97.50/mo) | 55 | 2300 ms | 40% | 30 | Medium | |
![]() 8x8 XCaaS $60 per seat per month | 49 | 250 ms | 50% | 15 | Medium | |
![]() CloudTalk $25 – $50 /user/mo | 47 | 23 ms | 40% | 500 | Low | |
Synthflow AI $0.08 /min (Growth) | 20 | 2300 ms | 45% | 20 | Low | |
![]() Balto.ai $100 / seat /mo | 12 | 100 ms | 0% | 40 | High |