Close alternatives: 8 solutions compared (2026)
This page brings together what a decision maker needs before making a call: who Close is, what its calling includes plan by plan, what it really costs once usage is added, what its users say, and the question that matters more than any feature: do you want a dialer, or do you want to change CRM?
Key points
- Close is a sales CRM with calling built in, founded in 2013 by Steli Efti, Anthony Nemitz and Thomas Steinacher. It says it is self-funded, profitable, fully remote, and trusted by more than 11,500 sales teams.
- Its power dialer starts on the Growth plan, listed at $99 or $109 per user per month depending on billing, and calls leads one at a time. The predictive dialer, which calls several leads at once, is reserved for the Scale plan at $139 or $149.
- Calling is not included in the subscription: Close bills minutes and phone numbers on top, at cost, at about $0.02 per minute for most outbound calls and from about $1 per month per number.
- Call transcripts and summaries are a paid add-on, Call Assistant, at $50 per month per organization plus $0.02 per minute.
- The real question is not the dialer but the CRM: choosing Close means running your pipeline in Close. If your team already works in HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce or Attio, a dialer that updates that CRM avoids a migration.
The 8 Close alternatives at a glance
Eight tools, two ways of dialing and two starting points: a CRM or phone system that comes with its dialer, or a dialer that plugs into the CRM you already have. Telling them apart avoids comparing a CRM with a dialer.
Who sits where
Dialing mode, and where the pipeline lives
One number at a time
Close
Aircall
JustCall
PhoneBurner
Several lines
CloudTalk
Kixie
Trellus
Orum
Skipcall, 4 lines on top of your CRMSkipcall, 4 lines, your CRM keptCloseAircallJustCallPhoneBurnerCloudTalkKixieTrellusOrumThe horizontal axis separates tools whose standard mode calls one number at a time, such as Close on its Growth plan, from those that open several lines at once. The vertical axis separates products you adopt as your CRM or phone system from dialers that sit on top of the CRM you already use. Positions are editorial: they reflect what each vendor publishes, not a measurement.
The lower right quadrant is the one to look at if your pipeline already lives in a CRM and you want several lines. Skipcall sits there with Kixie, Trellus and Orum. Skipcall adds a business line for the people who do not prospect: colleagues who only need one line (management, admin, customer service) are equipped from $25 per month, on the same account.
Business telephony · 4-line parallel dialer
Parallel dialing on four lines for the people who prospect, and a simple business line for everyone else, on the same account: business number, calls and voicemail, SMS, mobile and web apps, call sequences, contacts, call transcription and call summary. No phone menu, no call queues, no inbound routing. From $25 per license, with no minimum.
Sales CRM with built-in calling · Power dialer on Growth, predictive dialer on Scale
All-in-one and self-funded. The dialer comes with the CRM: you cannot add it to another one.
Dialer and SMS for sales teams · Multi-line dialer, up to 4 lines
Works on top of your CRM. No price is published on its pricing page.
Dialer and in-call coaching · Parallel dialer, up to 5 lines
Published prices, $99.99 and $149.99 per seat per month, with no seat minimum.
Parallel dialer for SDR teams · Parallel dialer, price on quote
A minimum of 9 seats and no published price.
Power dialer for sales teams · One number at a time
Published prices, from $140 per seat per month on annual billing.
Cloud phone and SMS · Power dialer from the Pro plan
$29, $49 and $89 per user per month on annual billing, with a 2-user minimum.
Team phone system · Power dialer on the Professional plan only
$30 and $50 per license per month, with a 3-license minimum.
Cloud phone system · Power and parallel dialers as paid add-ons
Parallel dialer on 5 lines by default, up to 10 on request. Plans from about $28 per user per month.
What is Close?
Close is a sales CRM with calling, email and SMS built in. It grew out of ElasticSales, an outsourced sales company started by Steli Efti, Anthony Nemitz and Thomas Steinacher after Y Combinator: the tool they built for their own reps became Close in 2013. The company says it is self-funded and profitable, with no outside investors, a fully remote team of more than 120 people and more than 11,500 sales teams as customers. This is an established vendor with a clear position: a CRM built by salespeople for small and mid-sized sales teams.
2013
Year founded
Born inside ElasticSales
11,500+
Sales teams claimed
Figure shown on its site
120+
People
Fully remote team
0
Outside investors
Self-funded and profitable
What do Close users say?
Close is well rated on both platforms we could read. The two samples are very different in size, so the scores should be read as a trend rather than compared decimal for decimal.
Ease of use and lead management are the points that come up most in positive reviews. G2 blocks automated reading: the score and the volume were read in search results on November 11, 2026, not on the page itself.
Rated Excellent, with 67 of the 77 reviews posted in the last twelve months. Reviewers praise the built-in dialer, having every conversation in one place and responsive support. The sample is small next to G2: read it as a trend, not a measurement.
Distribution of the 77 Trustpilot reviews
Checked on November 11, 2026
On Trustpilot, 82% of reviews give five stars and 12% give one star, with almost nothing in between. The reservations come from a minority of reviewers and concern support follow-up, the mobile app, audio quality and the breadth of the tool, rarely the CRM itself.
Some reviewers describe repetitive template answers or urgent emails left without a reply. Others, more numerous, praise the same support team: the experience seems to depend on the case.
Occasional connection problems in the mobile app are reported. For a team that calls from the field rather than from a desk, it is worth testing during the 14-day trial.
A few reviews ask for better audio on calls. Close lists Twilio as its subprocessor for calling: quality then depends on the route and on your own network, so test on your real destinations.
Close covers CRM, email, SMS, calling and workflows. A minority of reviewers find that scope heavy when all they wanted was to make calls, and judge its mass emailing weaker than dedicated tools.
Does Close have a dialer? What each plan includes
This is the point most comparison pages skip: Close can call on every plan, but the dialer you are looking for starts higher up, and usage is billed separately.
Close
A CRM with calling built in
- Every plan can make and receive calls and send SMS, and its calling page says outbound calls reach nearly 200 countries.
- The dialing modes are tiered: power dialer and voicemail drop from Growth, predictive dialer and live coaching (listen, whisper, barge) on Scale only.
- Recordings are kept 30 days on Solo and Essentials, 90 days on Growth, and without limit on Scale.
- Minutes and numbers are billed on top, at cost.
Skipcall
A dialer on top of your CRM
- The power dialer and the 4-line parallel dialer are included from the Starter plan, with 400 conversations, one number and 200 SMS.
- Calls start in Skipcall, then the call, its outcome, the recording, the transcript and the summary are written back to HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce or Attio.
- Skipcall is not a CRM, and it has no native integration with Close.
How much does Close really cost?
Close publishes its prices and offers a 14-day trial without a credit card. What you actually pay depends on three things the headline price does not show: the plan that holds the dialer you need, the calling usage billed on top, and the Call Assistant add-on if you want transcripts.
The subscription gap is real, but it is not the main point: with Close you are buying a CRM, with Skipcall you are adding a dialer to the one you have. The Close price also covers pipeline, email and workflows, which Skipcall does not replace.
The second row calls for a clarification: a predictive dialer shares calls across a pool of reps, a parallel dialer gives each rep their own lines. Close does not publish how many numbers its predictive dialer calls at once, so the two cannot be compared line for line.
Simulator
What does it cost for your team?
Close
·
Conversations per year: ·
Cost per conversation: ·
Skipcall
·
Conversations per year: ·
Cost per conversation: ·
The full picture of prospecting tools, beyond the voice channel alone, is in our comparison of B2B sales prospecting software. This page is about the decision to switch, not about choosing between two product sheets.
To see where Close sits among dialers sold with or without a CRM, read our comparison of the best power dialers. For a team of one or two, see the power dialers with no seat minimum.
Your telephony solution live in 5 minutes.
The tool that lifts your team's performance. One license is enough, and your data stays hosted in the European Union.
No commitment · Account active immediately
The French legal framework since August 11, 2026
This is the parameter most comparison pages ignore, even though it changes the economics of telephone prospecting in France.
Since August 11, 2026, cold calling consumers in France has moved from opt-out to opt-in: a call is lawful only if the person has given prior consent, and the burden of proving that consent falls on the company. Bloctel, the French opt-out register, disappears on that date. Calling hours remain regulated: Monday to Friday, from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 14:00 to 20:00. Business to business prospecting remains possible on the basis of legitimate interest, when the approach relates to the profession of the person called.
The direct consequence for choosing a tool: the volume of permitted calls goes down, so every attempt has to produce more. A dialer that filters out voicemails and puts your reps in conversation more often is no longer a comfort, it is what makes the channel profitable.
Read our full analysis of the French reform, in French →Keep your CRM and add a dialer, or move everything into Close?
Close is a CRM first. Its dialer is a good reason to choose it if you are choosing a CRM, and a poor reason to change CRM if you are not. Here are the four situations to tell apart, and the trap in each of them.
- Check that the dialer has a native integration with your CRM, not a connector you will have to maintain
- List what must be written back after each call: activity, outcome, recording, transcript, summary, and on which record
- Run a one-week pilot with two reps and compare what lands in the CRM with what was said on the calls
The trap. Buying a second CRM to get a dialer. Two systems of record mean double entry within a month, and the pipeline review ends up run on whichever one the manager opens.
- For a founder or a team of two or three, a CRM with calling built in removes an integration and a second bill
- Price it on the plan that holds the dialer you need: Growth for the power dialer, Scale for the predictive dialer
- Add the usage: minutes, numbers, and Call Assistant if you want transcripts
The trap. Comparing on the entry price. Solo and Essentials make calls but have no dialer: the plan that suits a calling team starts at $99 per user per month.
- A power dialer calls one lead at a time: every answered call is yours, and the pace depends on how many people pick up
- A predictive dialer calls several leads for a pool of reps and connects whoever is free: it suits larger teams working long lists
- A parallel dialer opens a fixed number of lines for one rep, four in Skipcall, and cancels the others at the first pickup
The trap. Assuming more lines is always better. Each extra line cancels more calls to people who would have answered. Ask every vendor how many numbers are called at once: Close does not publish it for its predictive dialer.
- Export leads, activities, custom fields and recordings while the account is still active
- Rebuild only the workflows and sequences that are really used: most accounts carry automation nobody remembers
- Plan new numbers if the next tool does not take ports, and warm them up before the switch
The trap. Switching to save on the subscription and losing a month of selling time. If Close fits and only the dialing volume falls short, moving up a plan may cost less than moving out.
Before you sign
5 questions to settle before you move a CRM
They hold whatever the tool. Answer them in writing before the first demo: a CRM migration takes weeks, a dialer takes an afternoon.
- 01Which system does the sales manager open on Monday morning for the pipeline review? That one is your CRM, whatever the org chart says
- 02How many calls does each rep really make per day? Below a few dozen, click to call is enough and no dialer pays for itself
- 03What must exist on the record after a call for the next person to take over without calling you?
- 04What is the total per rep per month once minutes, numbers, transcripts and the plan that holds the dialer are added?
- 05What happens to your recordings, your numbers and your history the day you leave?
What to check before switching
Monthly plans can be changed or canceled at any time; annual plans are discounted, and downgrades and cancellations take effect at the end of the billing term. Close also advertises a 30-day money-back guarantee after purchase. Note your renewal date before you start a trial elsewhere.
Close keeps call recordings 30 days on Solo and Essentials and 90 days on Growth; only Scale keeps them without limit. If recordings matter for coaching or as a record, export them before they expire, and well before you close the account.
Leaving Close means moving a CRM, not a phone line. List the custom fields, the call outcomes, the email and SMS history and the workflows your team really uses, then check where each one lands in the next system. This is where a migration is won or lost.
Numbers rented through Close belong to that setup. Ask Close in writing whether they can be ported out and how long it takes. Skipcall will soon let you port your existing numbers: until then, you would start with new numbers, which means warming them up and updating signatures and voicemail greetings.
What do you actually need?
Three situations, three families of tool. Most bad choices come from comparing a CRM, a phone system and a dialer as if they were the same product.
Close belongs to the second family. Asking it to be a dialer on top of another CRM means asking for a product it does not sell: its calling lives inside its own CRM.
Should you stay with Close or switch?
Close is still the right choice if
- you have no CRM yet, or you are ready to replace the one you have
- you want email, SMS, calls and pipeline in a single tool, with public prices and a 14-day trial
- your reps call one lead at a time and a power dialer is enough, or you can pay for Scale to get the predictive dialer
An alternative makes sense if
- your pipeline already lives in HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce or Attio and you do not want to migrate it
- you want several lines at once without moving to the top plan
- you want transcripts and summaries included rather than billed as an add-on plus a per-minute fee
- you want calling included in the subscription instead of metered on top
Also worth reading
Six analyses to sharpen your choice, from seat minimums to the way a dialer connects to a CRM.
Sources
Public data checked on November 11, 2026.
- Close, pricing page · plans, prices, dialers by plan, calling usage, Call Assistant, trial and terms
- Close, About page · founding, founders, team size, customers, funding
- Close, calling page · power dialer, predictive dialer, countries reached
- Close, integrations · integrations listed, HubSpot sync, automation tools
- Close, security page · SOC 2 Type II, subprocessors
- Close, GDPR page · data processing agreement, standard contractual clauses
- Trustpilot · score, volume and review distribution
- G2 · score and review volume, read in search results
Prices and scores change. The figures above reflect the state of the public sources on the date shown. Close is a trademark of the company that publishes it, cited here for the purposes of objective comparison.
One plan per person, not one licence for the whole team
In a team of ten, needs are not the same. An SDR placing hundreds of calls a day, an account executive placing a handful and a head of sales who mainly needs a business line have no business being on the same plan. The usual market model still has all ten taking the same licence.
An SDR on the Expert plan, an account executive on Starter, a founder on the Business VoIP line. The plan follows the person's usage rather than the team average, and it changes without changing account: the number, the call history and the contacts stay.
Many parallel diallers plug into a telephony provider you contract separately: two tools, two invoices, two support desks. Here the line, the dialler, the contacts and the sequences sit in the same tool.
No minimum of three, six or nine licences to reach the right offering. One invoice for the company, itemised user by user.
Other alternatives we reviewed
Neighboring vendors, reviewed the same way: company, plans, real pricing and what to check.
Klenty alternativesA sequencing platform, with multi-line dialing as a paid add-on.The alternatives →
Aloware alternativesA calling and texting contact center, five seats minimum for the power dialer.The alternatives →
Quo (ex-OpenPhone) alternativesA phone system for small teams, with no prospecting dialer.The alternatives →Alternatives to the other vendors
The same work, vendor by vendor: company, hosting, public reviews, real pricing and what to check.
Ringover alternatives Full French telephony, limited dialling. CloudTalk alternatives Parallel dialling offered as a paid add-on. JustCall alternatives US vendor, sales offering priced on request. 
RingCentral alternatives Enterprise suite with a fixed-term commitment. 
Dialpad alternatives Unified suite, dialler tied to the sales offering. 
3CX alternatives Software PBX, billed by simultaneous calls. See all 28 alternative pages · all 28 vendors, each with company, hosting, pricing and points to check.
A calendar full of meetings starts with a call.
No commitment · Number live in 2 minutes
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Close alternative in 2026?+
It depends on what you want to keep. If you want an all-in-one CRM with calling, Close remains a strong choice and the alternatives are other CRMs. If you want to keep your current CRM and only add a dialer, look at tools that sync with it: Skipcall (power dialer and 4-line parallel dialer, native sync with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce and Attio), Kixie, Trellus or Orum for outbound calling, and Aircall, JustCall or CloudTalk if you also need a team phone system for inbound calls.
How much does Close cost?+
On November 11, 2026, the Close pricing page shows two prices per user per month for each plan: Solo $9 or $19, Essentials $35 or $49, Growth $99 or $109, Scale $139 or $149. The page says annual plans are discounted without labeling which price is which, so read the lower figure as the annual price. Calling and SMS usage come on top, passed through at cost: about $0.02 per minute for most outbound calls and from about $1 per month per phone number. Call Assistant, for transcripts and summaries, costs $50 per month per organization plus $0.02 per minute.
Does Close have a power dialer?+
Yes, from the Growth plan. The Close power dialer calls leads one at a time and moves to the next number automatically. Solo and Essentials include calling but no dialer. Voicemail drop also starts on Growth.
Does Close have a parallel dialer?+
Not under that name. Close offers a predictive dialer on its Scale plan, which calls several leads at once and connects a rep only when someone answers. Its pages do not say how many numbers it calls at the same time. A parallel dialer such as Skipcall works differently: each rep opens a fixed number of lines, four in Skipcall, and is connected to the first person who picks up.
Is Close a CRM or a dialer?+
A CRM. Calling, the power dialer and the predictive dialer are features of that CRM, not a product you can plug into another one. That is its strength if you want everything in one place, and the reason to look elsewhere if your pipeline lives in another CRM.
Can I use Skipcall with Close?+
Not through a native integration. Skipcall syncs natively with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce and Attio. With any other system, Close included, the options are a CSV import of your call lists and the Skipcall open API, which exposes contacts, call data and metrics. If Close is your CRM and you are happy with it, its own dialer is the simpler route.
Does Close require a minimum number of seats or a contract?+
No seat minimum is stated on its pricing page, and the Solo plan is limited to one user. Monthly plans can be changed or canceled at any time, annual plans are discounted, and Close advertises a 14-day free trial with no credit card and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Where does Close host its data?+
Close lists Amazon Web Services as its hosting subprocessor, along with Twilio for calling and SMS and OpenAI and Anthropic for AI features. The pages we read do not state the hosting region; Close says the full list, with locations, is in its Trust Center. It states that it is SOC 2 Type II audited and provides a data processing agreement that includes standard contractual clauses for transfers outside the European Economic Area.
Does Close work for calling France and Europe?+
Yes for dialing: its calling page says outbound calls reach nearly 200 countries, and international numbers can be purchased. What a European team should check is the rest: where recordings are stored, the data processing agreement, and, for France, the rules that have applied since August 11, 2026 to calls to consumers.
Why is Close rated 4.7 on G2 and 4.5 on Trustpilot?+
The two scores tell the same story on very different samples: over 2,000 reviews on G2 and 77 on Trustpilot. On Trustpilot, 82% of reviews give five stars and 12% give one star, and the low scores mostly describe support cases. Neither score says anything about fit: a well-rated CRM is still the wrong purchase if you did not want to change CRM.
Ready to multiply your productivity?
Join the sales teams that have transformed their prospecting.
Personalized demo • No commitment
