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Alternatives to Vapi

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Closest alternatives to Vapi

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  1. 01

    ElevenLabs Agents

    Hosted platform for building voice and chat agents, with telephony, SDKs and a choice of LLM.

    From Free

    Why it's on this listFor teams whose top priority is voice quality over orchestration breadth: ElevenLabs' agent product inherits the same voice-cloning models that made it a reference point for AI voice, plus a genuinely flexible LLM layer -- an ElevenLabs-hosted model for lowest latency, or bring your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key. Pricing layers a subscription (Pro $99/month for 1,238 minutes, Scale $299/month for 3,738 minutes) with LLM and telephony billed separately on top, the same stacked-cost pattern as Vapi, and the free tier is thin at 15 minutes and 4 concurrent calls. Like Vapi, it is still a developer buy -- you assemble your own telephony and CRM workflow -- so this is a lateral move for voice quality, not an escape from Vapi's developer-first shape.

    Where it improves on Vapi

    • +Agent permissions · YesTool use is gated per MCP server and per tool: always ask, fine-grained (auto-approved, requires approval, disabled), or no approval at all.Source ↗
    • +In your pipeline · YesAgents deploy from CI with an API key in the environment; the unit of change is the agent configuration, not a pull request in your code.Source ↗
    • +Seat model · YesTwo seat types with a hard ceiling: Full Seats are capped at 11 per self-serve workspace, every plan includes 20 Basic Seats, and Enterprise seat counts sit in the contract.Source ↗

    Trade-offs against Vapi

    • −In your editor · NoThe vendor enumerates its surfaces as web widgets, mobile apps, phone systems and custom integrations; no editor or IDE extension appears in that list.Source ↗
    • −Admin controls · PartlyGuardrails constrain what an agent may say and per-tool approval constrains what it may do, but Guardrails is in Alpha and enabling MCP servers is not restricted to admins.Source ↗
    • −Getting out · PartlyAgents, tools and tests pull down as files via the CLI and conversations are readable over the API, but unused paid credits expire on cancel or downgrade and rollover caps at two months.Source ↗
    Compare with VapiView listing
  2. 02

    PolyAI

    Enterprise platform for building voice and chat agents that resolve customer calls, priced per minute.

    Why it's on this listIn your editor · YesThe ADK edits agent resources as local files in any editor, and Builder MCP plugs the same workflow into Cursor, Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Codex.Source ↗

    Where it improves on Vapi

    • +In your pipeline · Yespoly push is CI-compatible and the Agents API lets a pipeline gate promotion on a passing simulation-test set.Source ↗
    • +Data residency · YesEnterprise workspaces are pinned to a US, UK or EU region with matching API and MCP hosts; self-serve accounts live in the shared Studio region.Source ↗

    Trade-offs against Vapi

    • −Multi-agent · NoThe only 'team of agents' feature is assigning several TTS voices to one agent; no coordination between multiple agents on a single task is documented, and the build assistant works one branch at a time.Source ↗
    • −Open models · PartlyThe model catalogue enumerates only Raven, OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock (Claude, Nova) with no open-weight option, but you can attach your own LLM endpoint.Source ↗
    • −Self-hosted · NoRuns only as PolyAI-hosted SaaS on AWS with region-specific workspaces; no on-premise or customer-cloud deployment appears anywhere in the vendor's docs or security pages.Source ↗
    Compare with VapiView listing
  3. 03

    Cartesia

    Real-time speech models and a managed runtime for production phone and web voice agents.

    From Free

    Why it's on this listSeat model · PartlySeats are not priced, but inviting anyone requires Startup ($49/mo) or above; a Free organization is capped at one member. The pricing page's 'unlimited workspace seats on every plan' contradicts this.Source ↗

    Where it improves on Vapi

    • +Certifications · YesGDPR, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and PCI-DSS service provider, with a public Trust Center; DPAs and BAAs come with Enterprise.Source ↗

    Trade-offs against Vapi

    • −Done-for-you service · NoSelf-serve software: you build and deploy the agent yourself; sales contact exists for Enterprise terms, not for building it for you.Source ↗
    • −Multi-agent · NoSystem tools enumerate three slots: end call, DTMF, and transfer to an E.164 phone number. An agent therefore hands off to a number, not to another Cartesia agent.Source ↗
    • −Open models · PartlyThe 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.Source ↗
    Compare with VapiView listing
  4. 04

    LiveKit Agents

    Open-source Python and Node.js framework for voice AI agents, with LiveKit Cloud hosting, telephony and observability.

    From Free

    Why it's on this listThe one open-source, self-hostable option in this set (Apache 2.0, 11.5k+ GitHub stars) for teams that want full code ownership instead of Vapi's proprietary orchestration layer -- and it is proven at real scale, powering OpenAI's ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode with xAI, Salesforce and Tesla as named customers. The free Build tier includes 1,000 agent-session minutes a month with no credit card, and Scale runs $500/month for 50,000 minutes. The tradeoff is the inverse of Bland or ElevenLabs: it is a framework and SDK you write and deploy code against, not a configured dashboard product, and the free tier's $2.50 inference credit covers only about 50 minutes before you are paying LiveKit Inference credits or your own provider keys on top of the session-minute meter.

    Where it improves on Vapi

    • +Self-hosted · YesAgents are containers you can run on your own Kubernetes; the LiveKit media server and SIP service are separately self-hostable. Self-hosted agents still meter WebRTC participant minutes if they connect to LiveKit Cloud.Source ↗
    • +Open source · YesApache 2.0 for the Agents SDK and for the media server, SIP, Egress, Ingress and client SDKs. LiveKit Cloud is the commercial hosted layer on top.Source ↗
    • +Opt out of training · YesNothing to opt out of: zero retention is the default on every plan, LiveKit logs no prompts, audio or completions, and voice-clone samples are opted out of provider training on your behalf.Source ↗

    Trade-offs against Vapi

    • −Done-for-you service · NoYou run the software: an open-source SDK plus a self-serve cloud. Enterprise adds a designated solutions engineer, which is support, not a build-for-you engagement.Source ↗
    • −MCP server · PartlyThe agent is the MCP client: it consumes tools from remote HTTP or local stdio MCP servers, Python only. LiveKit does not expose a running agent as an MCP server for another agent to query.Source ↗
    • −Bring your own key · PartlyProvider plugins run on your own account, key and billing, and self-hosted agents run in your own cloud. Bringing your own key to traffic routed through LiveKit Inference is not supported.Source ↗
    Compare with VapiView listing
  5. 05

    Retell AI

    Pay-as-you-go platform for building, testing and running AI phone, chat and SMS agents.

    From $0.07/minute

    Why it's on this listThe closest direct rival in shape and market -- both are bring-your-own-model voice AI platforms competing for the same developer buyer, and this site runs a dedicated Vapi vs Retell AI comparison. Retell's headline $0.07/min composite (voice infrastructure, TTS, LLM and telephony) climbs to roughly $0.13-$0.31/min with add-ons like knowledge base, denoising or PII removal -- the same headline-hides-the-real-cost pattern as Vapi -- but it backs that with a wider integration surface (Twilio, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier, Five9) and reached $60M ARR by April 2026 while staying profitable on a single $4.6M seed round, for teams wanting a more established, support-backed peer rather than a genuinely different pricing or deployment model.

    Where it improves on Vapi

    • +Certifications · YesHIPAA, GDPR and SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2 are claimed, with BAA and DPA self-signing at no extra fee and reports available through a trust centre.Source ↗

    Trade-offs against Vapi

    • −Open models · PartlyRetell's own model menu is limited to hosted GPT, Claude and Gemini, but the custom-LLM path lets you put a self-hosted open-weights model behind the agent over a WebSocket you operate.Source ↗
    • −On the command line · NoThe docs enumerate every way to drive Retell: dashboard, REST API, Node/Python SDKs and MCP server. No command-line tool is among them.Source ↗
    • −Self-hosted · NoThe platform runs on Retell's own infrastructure: pay-as-you-go uses shared servers and the most isolation offered is a dedicated Retell server sold as an Enterprise add-on, with no customer-infrastructure deployment documented.Source ↗
    Compare with VapiView listing
  6. 06

    Telnyx Voice AI Agents

    Carrier-owned platform for phone and web voice agents, with telephony, STT, TTS, LLM and orchestration in one stack.

    From $0.05/minute

    Why it's on this listAudit log · YesAn audit events API returns who changed what and when, including whether the change came from Telnyx, the owner, an organization member or an account manager, though the vendor calls it best-effort.Source ↗

    Where it improves on Vapi

    • +Single sign-on · YesSAML single sign-on is configurable per organization with IdP entity ID, SSO target URL and certificate fingerprint; only the organization owner can reach the SSO settings page.Source ↗
    • +Certifications · YesSOC 2 Type II is claimed on the product page, and GDPR, PCI and HIPAA readiness is presented as standard on every plan including pay-as-you-go rather than a paid enterprise add-on.Source ↗

    Trade-offs against Vapi

    • −Done-for-you service · NoYou build and run the agent yourself in the portal or over the API; Telnyx sells platform capacity, and human help appears only as a dedicated account manager on the $500-minimum Committed plan, not as a build service.Source ↗
    • −GPT · PartlyGPT models run as an external provider you supply credentials for: you create an OpenAI API key, store it as an integration secret and select the model, and OpenAI free-plan keys are rejected outright.Source ↗
    • −Self-hosted · NoThe runtime, telephony and portal stay on Telnyx; only the LLM and TTS steps can be pointed at your own endpoint, and Enterprise 'dedicated infrastructure' is still Telnyx-operated.Source ↗
    Compare with VapiView listing

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