April 13, 2021

A detailed analysis and comparison of Twilio's competitors

Twilio is a major player among outbound call software. But is it really the right tool for you? Let's see how Twilio's competitors compare.

Ishwar Singh

Content Marketer

Reading time: 6 minutes

At its very core, Twilio is a platform that boasts several features to support its goal to streamline communication between businesses and their leads and customers. They have even been recognized as a major player among outbound call software companies out there.

Of course, as we’ll see later, it is not without its flaws.

Let’s delve right in, shall we?

Pros of using Twilio

Variety of features

Twilio is known for having a variety of features that help support and streamline communication.

Some of them include:

Voice API – Create recorded voice messages that can be used in the form of notifications and IVR messages
Answering machine detection (AMD) – Lets the caller determine if the receiving end of the call is a human or software.
WhatsApp API – Send WhatsApp messages via WhatsApp Business API (Twilio as a solution provider)

Integration with popular software

Twilio works well with other popular SaaS solutions such as Salesforce and Hubspot.

As two of the most well-known CRM tools out there, many companies use Salesforce and Hubspot to make their workflows more efficient.

Twilio’s integration with them means that customers will not experience much disruption to existing workflows when they start implementing them.

Omnichannel Platform

Omnichannel capabilities allow you to reach consumers through many different communication channels. These include phone calls and text messages.

This means that businesses can reach out to their customers on their preferred channels and make the customer experience more enjoyable.

Cons of using Twilio

High price point

Twilio’s price points for its communication tools are higher than other products in the market. For example, sending a picture message costs $0.02. While this might seem like a negligible figure, it adds up.

The majority of businesses are going to send a lot of messages, and such a high variable cost per message is not going to be ideal for many companies with budget constraints.

In addition, Twilio charges for receiving messages too, something many other competitors do not practice.

Not ideal for beginners

While Twilio has a wide array of functions to simplify communication processes, it is only beneficial if the user understands its usability.

The user interface on Twilio can be daunting to beginners as some programming knowledge or experience is required in order to utilize the functions well.

6 alternatives to Twilio

SendBird

SendBird is a telecommunications solution provider that specializes in voice API and video API. Its outbound call software is highly scalable, with capabilities to hold tens of millions of monthly users.

Industry uses for this Twilio competitor include healthcare, ride-sharing, delivery services, and many other professional services.

The interface allows switching between chat and calls simultaneously as necessary, making communication as effective as possible based on different needs.

💡 Standout feature: Switching between chat and calls simultaneously

💡 Pricing: $0.0010-$0.0015 per minute

💡 Other Features: Multi-device support, Media encryption, Custom metadata.

Novocall

Novocall is a holistic call management system that specializes in call-related capabilities such as outbound calls, inbound calls, call scheduling, and call tracking.

Its autodialer allows you to create cold call campaigns. Upload long lists of contacts into the software and it will automatically dial all the numbers on the list. This helps you save time that otherwise would have been spent manually dialing the numbers.

Its suite of features supports both inbound and outbound call-driven lead generation efforts. Its click-to-call software is embedded onto your website and helps capture inbound site visitors by allowing them to request scheduled or immediate callbacks.

With multiple services catered to generating leads and providing analytics, you can monitor your team’s performance from anywhere in the world.

💡 Standout feature: Suite of call management features that support call-driven lead generation

💡 Pricing: $20 per user per month (Starter), $40 per user per month (Pro).

💡 Other Features: Call blast, List management (import and manage contacts in a single place), Metrics reporting.

RingCentral

RingCentral is a business communication platform that specializes in solutions catered to team messaging, cloud phone systems, outbound calls, and video conferencing.

The ease of setting up global teams within minutes, alongside the ability to use any device to work on tasks makes it ideal for remote work and independent teams.

On top of being ideal for remote teams, this Twilio competitor utilizes skills-based routing and agent management that pairs customers with the right agents based on their expertise and availability.

💡 Standout feature: Ease of use on any device.

💡 Pricing: Customized pricing

💡 Other Features: Virtual Hold (Call customers back once their queue is reached), Call recording, Dual listening, omnichannel analytics.

Plivo

Plivo is a communication platform with voice and SMS API capabilities that facilitate communication quickly through low latency levels.

This means that your representatives using this outbound call software can move from one cell to the next with minimal technical delays.

Plivo prides itself as a service that provides good customer service, with support available 24/7 for users. Furthermore, it has a privacy shield in line with general data protection guidelines, ensuring your data and privacy is maintained at all times.

Plivo has features that analyze your calls and provides you with insights pertaining to audio quality and even smart diagnosis which alert you to issues in the middle of calls.

💡 Standout feature: Smart Diagnosis in the midst of the call

💡 Pricing: $0.055 per minute for outbound local calls

💡 Other Features: Text to speech, Digit Input (collect customer information from their keypad), Voice Surveys, Call forwarding.

Telnyx

Telnyx is a global voice API solution provider that allows you to control and manage calls for the best performance.

On top of conferencing capabilities and call recording, Telnyx’s outbound call software has an agent coaching feature that lets you train new hires.

This feature allows a coach to privately prompt and advises a new hire concurrently while they are on a call with a customer.

Telnyx also has a text-to-speech function that allows you to translate your value propositions in different accents and languages to reach multiple markets globally.

💡 Standout feature: Agent coaching feature

💡 Pricing: $0.0070 per minute for outbound local calls

💡 Other Features: Smart IVR (Pair customers to a representative with relevant expertise), answering machine detection, audio playback.

Avaya

Avaya is a cloud-based business communication solution that allows you to reach out and attend to customers’ queries through text, calls (outbound and inbound), emails, and social media.

Avaya’s OneCloud CcaaS contact center solution leverages artificial intelligence and knowledge to suggest improvements to your processes and outbound calls. This allows you to achieve just what you need at the moment for a previously learned (machine learning) situation or call.

Avaya’s capabilities also streamline work processes through workforce engagement. Last but not least, their analytics feature is robust and helps you identify areas of improvement.

💡 Standout feature: Machine learning prompts

💡 Pricing: $0.015 per minute for outbound local calls

💡 Other Features: Coaching, Screen recording, Interactive voice response (IVR).

So, which Twilio competitor is the software for you?

I hope you found this examination of Twilio competitors helpful. Now on to the million-dollar question. Which one is the software you should use?

The quick answer is, it depends. There is no one size fits all solution as different software works best for different businesses.

If you don’t want to focus on call-driven lead generation and not too many communication channels, perhaps Novocall is the right one for you.

If you still can’t make up your mind, remember that many of these SaaS businesses come with a free trial. So make use of them and try them out yourself! In fact, Novocall itself comes with a free 14-day trial. So sign up for a free trial today!