# Alternatives to TelEcho > Source: https://theagentsindex.com/telecho/alternatives (current datasheets, evidence-ranked) Candidates share the baseline category or are previously researched peers. Requirements, preserved strengths, explicit trade-offs and research coverage decide the order; paid tier does not. ## Shortlist ### 1. ElevenLabs Agents Hosted platform for building voice and chat agents, with telephony, SDKs and a choice of LLM. **Research coverage:** 35/35 criteria **Where it improves on TelEcho:** - [Claude: yes — Anthropic models are natively selectable in agent settings; a few older Claude models drop out in EU data-residency workspaces.](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/eleven-agents/customization/llm) - [Open models: yes — Open-weight models run two ways: ElevenLabs-hosted Qwen in the native model list, or Llama and Mixtral through a custom LLM endpoint such as Together AI, Groq or SambaNova.](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/eleven-agents/customization/llm/custom-llm/together-ai) - [Model choice: yes — You pick the model per agent, plus a backup cascade; LLM usage is billed on top of the plan and varies by model.](https://elevenlabs.io/docs/eleven-agents/customization/llm) **Trade-offs against TelEcho:** - No researched regression against the baseline. [View ElevenLabs Agents](https://theagentsindex.com/elevenlabs-conversational-ai) ### 2. PolyAI Enterprise platform for building voice and chat agents that resolve customer calls, priced per minute. **Research coverage:** 35/35 criteria **Where it improves on TelEcho:** - [Claude: yes — Claude is one of the third-party models you can run instead of Raven; the model docs list Claude options under the Amazon Bedrock provider tab, selectable per channel.](https://poly.ai/blog/agentic-dialog-platform-open-to-builders) - [Open models: partial — The model catalogue enumerates only Raven, OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock (Claude, Nova) with no open-weight option, but you can attach your own LLM endpoint.](https://docs.poly.ai/behavior/models/byom) - [Model choice: yes — You choose the model per channel in voice and chat configuration; Raven is the recommended default rather than the only option.](https://docs.poly.ai/behavior/models/model-use) **Trade-offs against TelEcho:** - [Agent permissions: partial — Wren plans and waits for approval by default, always asks before writing to the live environment, never receives secret values, and its API discovery requests are GET-only.](https://docs.poly.ai/wren/building) [View PolyAI](https://theagentsindex.com/polyai) ### 3. Synthflow Enterprise voice AI platform with in-house telephony for inbound and outbound call automation. **Research coverage:** 35/35 criteria **Where it improves on TelEcho:** - [Free tier: yes — You can build an agent at no cost; charges begin at launch on a pay-as-you-go basis.](https://synthflow.ai/) - [API access: yes — Platform API with bearer-key auth covers agents, calls, campaigns, knowledge bases and subaccounts.](https://docs.synthflow.ai/authentication) - [Admin controls: yes — Agency admins grant or revoke per-subaccount permissions for actions, agent types, editor options and integrations.](https://docs.synthflow.ai/manage-subaccount-permissions) **Trade-offs against TelEcho:** - [Claude: no — The agent model selector enumerates OpenAI GPT variants and Synthflow's own LLMs; no Anthropic model is offered.](https://docs.synthflow.ai/general-configuration) [View Synthflow](https://theagentsindex.com/synthflow-ai) ### 4. AudioCodes Live Hub Self-service SaaS for building voice AI agents and connecting them to SIP trunks, Teams, WhatsApp and WebRTC. **Research coverage:** 33/35 criteria **Where it improves on TelEcho:** - [Open models: partial — Open-weight models run only as custom models on your own Groq, Cerebras or OpenAI keys; none appear in the pre-deployed list Live Hub hosts.](https://techdocs.audiocodes.com/livehub/Content/AI-Agents/Bring%20your%20own%20models.htm) - [Model choice: yes — You choose the LLM per agent and may substitute any supported provider with your own key, and equally bring a third-party conversational AI platform instead.](https://techdocs.audiocodes.com/livehub/Content/AI-Agents/Bring%20your%20own%20models.htm) - [Free tier: yes — Self-signup with no card and no sales call, seeded with $10 of credit; the trial account is deleted three months after creation.](https://www.audiocodes.com/livehub/pricing) **Trade-offs against TelEcho:** - [Agent permissions: partial — Limits are set at design time: tool allow-lists, valid transfer numbers, Max turns. The vendor warns prompt guardrails are not a security boundary, and there is no runtime human approval step.](https://techdocs.audiocodes.com/livehub/Content/AI-Agents/Prompt%20engineering.htm) [View AudioCodes Live Hub](https://theagentsindex.com/audiocodes-live-hub) ### 5. Vapi Developer platform for building, testing and deploying voice AI agents that make and receive phone calls. **Research coverage:** 35/35 criteria **Where it improves on TelEcho:** - [Claude: yes — Claude is selectable as the assistant's LLM, on Vapi's integration or your own Anthropic account.](https://docs.vapi.ai/providers/model/anthropic) - [Open models: yes — Open-weight models reach the pipeline through Groq, Together AI, Mistral, DeepSeek and OpenRouter, or a self-hosted server.](https://vapi.ai/platform) - [Model choice: yes — You choose transcriber, LLM and voice independently and can swap any of them.](https://vapi.ai/platform) **Trade-offs against TelEcho:** - [Agent permissions: partial — Tools fire mid-call without human approval; a per-tool rejection plan is the mechanism that withholds an action.](https://docs.vapi.ai/tools/tool-rejection-plan) - [Certifications: partial — SOC 2 Type II and a HIPAA BAA sit in the Scale contract, and the plan table shows SOC2 only in that column; HIPAA mode is a $2,000/month add-on on either plan.](https://docs.vapi.ai/enterprise/plans) [View Vapi](https://theagentsindex.com/vapi) ### 6. Cartesia Real-time speech models and a managed runtime for production phone and web voice agents. **Research coverage:** 35/35 criteria **Where it improves on TelEcho:** - [Claude: yes — Anthropic Claude models are named in the SDK's supported-models table and used in its examples.](https://docs.cartesia.ai/line/sdk/agents) - [Open models: partial — The LLM layer routes through LiteLLM to 100+ providers, but the vendor names only Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, and its own speech models are API-only.](https://docs.cartesia.ai/line/sdk/agents) - [Model choice: yes — You pick the agent's LLM and can swap it in the Playground or API; Cartesia owns the speech models and manages the LLM integration.](https://docs.cartesia.ai/agents/models) **Trade-offs against TelEcho:** - [Done-for-you service: no — Self-serve software: you build and deploy the agent yourself; sales contact exists for Enterprise terms, not for building it for you.](https://www.cartesia.ai/agents) - [Agent permissions: partial — Limits are prompt-level guardrails plus per-tool execution settings (timeout, immediate vs async, speak-before-acting); there is no separate policy engine.](https://docs.cartesia.ai/agents/configuration) [View Cartesia](https://theagentsindex.com/cartesia) ## Method Unknown data is never treated as a benefit or a trade-off. Featured placement is labelled but cannot alter recommendation order.