Callata vs Aircall: Which Phone System for Your Team?

Short answer: Aircall is a phone system built for sales and support teams that live in their CRM, priced from $30 per license per month on annual billing with a three-license minimum. Callata is a small-business phone system at $99 per month including five users, then $20 per additional user. Aircall is the better tool for teams that need 250+ integrations, power dialing, call queues and contact-center analytics. Callata costs less than Aircall Essentials from four users (Aircall's $90 three-license minimum is slightly cheaper for one to three people) and suits offices that want calls, texts, recordings with AI summaries and an AI receptionist on one plan.

Aircall figures are from aircall.io/pricing as checked on October 1, 2026. Callata figures are from callatta.com. Prices exclude taxes.

Plans and prices

	Aircall Essentials	Aircall Professional	Aircall Enterprise	Callata Office
Price	From $30/license/mo (annual)	From $50/license/mo (annual)	Quote	$99/mo incl. 5 users, +$20/extra user
Monthly billing	Higher (annual saves 25%)	Higher (annual saves 25%)	Quote	$99/mo ($79.99 first month)
Minimum users	3	3	25	None
Numbers included	1 local or toll-free per plan	1 local or toll-free per plan	1 local or toll-free per plan	Up to 3 local
Extra numbers	$6/mo each	$6/mo each	$6/mo each	Not offered beyond 3
Outbound calling	Unlimited US and Canada	Unlimited US and Canada	Unlimited US and Canada	Unlimited inbound; 1,500 pooled US and Canada minutes per user, then $0.01/min
SMS	Unlimited inbound, 4,000 outbound per user/mo	Same	Same	Shared inbox after $49 10DLC registration
Call recording and transcription	Included	Included	Included	Included
AI call summary, sentiment, topics	No	Included	Included	AI summaries with sentiment and action items
AI voice agent minutes	50/mo included	50/mo included	Included	$0.25 per minute, prepaid
Integrations	250+ and API	250+ and API	250+ and API	Gmail

What teams pay

Team size	Aircall Essentials (annual)	Aircall Professional (annual)	Callata Office
1 to 3 people	$90 (3-license minimum)	$150 (3-license minimum)	$99
5 people	$150	$250	$99
10 people	$300	$500	$199
20 people	$600	$1,000	$399

Monthly billing on Aircall is higher than these figures, since the annual plans include a 25% discount. Aircall also lists optional add-ons: AI Assist Pro for real-time coaching at $49 per seat per month, Analytics+ at $15, WhatsApp at $10, Salesforce Voice at $30, branded caller ID at $0.08 per call and spam management at $0.03 per check.

AI voice agents compared

Both products let an AI answer calls, but the pricing is structured differently.

Aircall includes 50 AI Voice Agent minutes per month on Essentials and Professional, and new accounts get 100 more at sign-up. Additional minutes are sold in volume bundles starting at $0.19 per minute, for example 500 minutes for $175 or 2,500 minutes for $725. Aircall also sells AI Voice Agents on their own from $100 per month, with or without its phone system. Its agents support 38 languages with custom voices, caller intake questions, outbound calling triggers and handoffs.

Callata includes no free AI minutes but has no AI subscription either. Agents use prepaid minutes at $0.25 per minute, sold in packs of 60, 250 or 1,000 minutes ($15, $62.50 or $250). An AI text reply costs a quarter minute. You can connect your own ElevenLabs account and pay a quarter-minute platform fee per minute instead. Agents answer on a dedicated line, after hours or when nobody picks up, and can text, email, take messages, schedule callbacks and transfer to a person. Outbound AI calls are limited to people who gave consent and to 8am to 9pm.

For low volumes, Aircall's 50 included minutes are a real perk. At high volumes, Aircall's bundles go below Callata's per-minute rate. For a small office answering a few hundred AI minutes a month, the costs are similar, and Callata has no license minimum underneath.

Texting

Aircall includes SMS on its plans with unlimited inbound messages and 4,000 outbound messages per user per month, and MMS on US and Canadian numbers. It also sells WhatsApp messaging as an add-on, which matters for teams with international customers.

Callata's texting runs through a shared inbox on your business number, so anyone on the team can pick up a conversation, with templates, delivery receipts and AI-suggested replies. It requires a one-time $49 carrier registration (10DLC), which usually takes 3 to 10 business days. Callata does not publish a per-user outbound cap; its messaging policy requires consent and honors STOP automatically, and it is not meant for bulk campaigns.

Day-to-day experience

Aircall is designed around agents: people log in to the Aircall app, take calls from queues, see caller context from the CRM and leave notes that sync back. Managers watch live dashboards. That structure helps a team of 10 or 50 run like a call center.

Callata is designed around a small office: calls ring everyone in the right ring group or the right extension, follow business hours, and roll to voicemail or an AI agent when nobody answers. The record of the call is the AI summary and the transcribed voicemail, saved to the contact. There are no queues or supervisor views.

Where Aircall is stronger

• Integrations. 250+ tools including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Intercom, Pipedrive, Microsoft Dynamics and Shopify, plus API access on every plan. Callata integrates with Gmail only.
• Sales and support tooling. Power dialer, outbound campaigns, call whispering and barge, smart routing, queue callbacks and live monitoring on Professional.
• Native apps for desktop and mobile. Callata is browser-based with cell ringing.
• Toll-free and extra numbers at $6 each. Callata offers up to three local numbers.
• International reach, with domestic minutes in several countries and international calling bundles.
• Free access to test the platform before committing.
• Enterprise compliance, including HIPAA, GDPR and SOC 2 on Enterprise.

Where Callata is stronger

• Price from four users. $99 covers five users, versus $150 for five Aircall Essentials licenses on annual billing.
• No user minimum, and five users included before any per-user charge.
• AI summaries on every recorded call without upgrading to a higher tier.
• Voicemail urgency triage with callbacks scheduled around business hours.
• Business-hours routing, ring groups and extensions in one plan.
• Month-to-month with one plan.

Who should pick which

A 15-seat inbound support team on Zendesk should choose Aircall. The help-desk integration, queues and analytics are worth the per-seat cost.

A 6-person outbound sales team on HubSpot will likely prefer Aircall Professional for power dialing and automatic CRM logging.

A 5-person service business that answers a main line, texts customers and wants every job call summarized will get more value from Callata at $99 than from Aircall at $150 or more.

Switching checklist

• Check your Aircall renewal date if you are on annual billing.
• Decide which numbers to keep; Callata includes up to three local numbers.
• Port numbers to Callata for free via [email protected].
• Register for 10DLC texting on day one.
• Recreate routing rules, ring groups and after-hours handling.

Related: Aircall pricing explained, Aircall alternatives, and Callata vs JustCall.

Try Callata

If your team does not need a CRM-heavy call center but does want recorded calls summarized and an AI receptionist on standby, Callata costs $99 per month for up to five users, plus $20 per additional user. Create a Callata account.