VS 
PhoneBurner vs Orum
Leave a message or hang up: two opposite answers to the answering machine, and two ways of selling. Published prices against quotes, one licence against nine.
We build Skipcall, and we sell to the same teams as PhoneBurner and Orum. We therefore have a commercial interest in you choosing neither, and you should read this page knowing that.
That is why Skipcall appears nowhere in the comparison below: not in the table, not in the verdict, not in the questions. Every claim here points to a dated public source, listed at the foot of the page. If something looks wrong, write to us: we will correct it and date the correction.
In short
The essentials in five sentences
- PhoneBurner and Orum answer the same problem, time lost on voicemail, by opposite methods: PhoneBurner drops a pre-recorded voice message in one click, Orum detects the answering machine and moves to the next number.
- PhoneBurner dials one number at a time on every plan, as a deliberate design choice, while Orum goes up to ten simultaneous lines according to the vendor.
- PhoneBurner publishes its rates, at $140, $165 and $183 per licence per month on annual billing as of 8 September 2026, with no licence minimum and no fixed term. Orum publishes no amount and shows a nine-licence minimum.
- A team of one can buy PhoneBurner, provided it only calls the United States and Canada: its official FAQ states that the service does not dial other destinations.
- On G2 as of 8 September 2026, PhoneBurner scores 4.7 out of 5 across more than 275 reviews and Orum 4.6 out of 5 across more than 700. Neither publishes the hosting region of its data.
Which of the two
If you prospect in North America, you are a small team and voice messages are part of your method, PhoneBurner is the only one of the two you can budget and buy without talking to a salesperson. If you have at least nine reps, your objective is conversations per hour and the answering machine is nothing to you but time to avoid, Orum is built for that case and its licence floor does not get in your way. Below nine reps Orum will not sell, and outside North America PhoneBurner will not dial: in those two cases, the choice has already been made for you.
The point that decides
Leave a message, or hang up before the second ring
Both vendors deal with the same moment, the one where the answering machine picks up. One has built its entire product to leave a trace there, the other to lose not a second on it. Everything else, including the way they sell to you, follows from that choice.
At PhoneBurner, the answering machine is not a failure: it is an opportunity to leave something behind. The feature the vendor promotes most is one-click voicemail drop, included in every plan at no extra cost. The rep triggers a recording prepared in advance and moves straight to the next call, without waiting for the beep to finish. That time saved on voicemails is what G2 reviews cite most often, for a rating of 4.7 out of 5 across more than 275 reviews.
At Orum, the answering machine is dead time and nothing else. The product detects it, hangs up and keeps dialing: up to ten simultaneous lines, with detection advertised across more than twenty languages. The positive reviews, more than 700 for a rating of 4.6 out of 5 on G2, almost all concern the same point, the volume of calls per hour and the speed of connection when somebody actually picks up.
One clarification is worth having before picking the speed camp: ten lines is a technical maximum, not a recommended setting. Dialing ten numbers at once on a list of a few thousand contacts burns through the base faster than it produces conversations, because every prospect the rep cannot take is left with a missed call from an unknown number. The figure to negotiate is therefore not the advertised maximum, but the setting the vendor recommends for your list.
The same opposition shows up at the point of purchase, and that is what makes this comparison decidable without a demonstration. PhoneBurner publishes three prices, imposes no licence minimum and requires no fixed term: a single rep can subscribe. Orum publishes no amount, points you to a quote, and shows a floor of nine licences. That floor is not a billing constraint, it is a definition of who its customers are: below nine reps, the sale is refused, whatever your budget.
Two methods, two sales models, and one shared blind spot: neither says where your data is stored. On that precise point the two files are equal, and they are equal at the bottom.
The table
PhoneBurner and Orum, criterion by criterion
Checked on 8 September 2026. Prices are the ones each vendor publishes, in its own currency, on the date given for each, and the sources are listed at the foot of the page.
| Criterion | PhoneBurner | Orum |
|---|---|---|
| Lines dialled in parallel | One, on every plan, as a deliberate choice | Up to ten, according to the vendor |
| How the answering machine is handled | One-click voicemail drop, included everywhere | Answering machine detection advertised across more than twenty languages |
| Price per licence per month | $140, $165 and $183 on annual billing | Not published, quoted on request |
| Licence minimum | No minimum | Nine, shown on the pricing page |
| Fixed term | None | Not published, specific to each negotiated contract |
| French numbers dialable | No: United States and Canada only | Not publicly documented, to be confirmed at quotation |
| G2 rating | 4.7 out of 5, more than 275 reviews | 4.6 out of 5, more than 700 reviews |
| Trustpilot rating | 2.7 out of 5, across seven reviews only | Domain listing unclaimed, no reviews |
| Data hosting region | Not published | Not published |
| Year founded | 2008, in Laguna Beach, California | 2018, American company |
Skipcall is not in this comparison
We publish this page. Four parallel lines, price published from $25, no licence minimum.
Which one for which use
Two situations, two answers
PhoneBurner is the right choice if
- you prospect exclusively in the United States and Canada
- you are between one and eight reps: it is the only one of the two that will sell to you
- voicemail drop is part of your method and you want to measure it
- you want a public price, with no licence minimum and no commitment, so you can budget without a sales meeting
- you prefer a product held by the same vendor since 2008 to a more recent technology
Orum is the right choice if
- you have at least nine reps to equip at the same time
- your deciding criterion is the number of conversations obtained per hour
- you prospect in several languages and multilingual answering machine detection is useful to you
- a purchasing cycle with a quote and a demonstration is no problem for you
- you take the view that a message left on an answering machine does not produce meetings
The limits
What each one does not do
PhoneBurner limits
- The official FAQ states that the service only dials numbers located in the United States and Canada. A team calling in France cannot use it, whatever plan it takes.
- No plan offers parallel dialing. If your objective is conversations per hour, the ceiling is structural and no add-on lifts it.
- Transcription, AI note-taking and text messaging are only available from the Premium plan onwards, at $183 per licence per month, with texts billed at $15 per 1,000 outbound messages beyond the included volume.
- The price per licence is the most frequent grievance in the Capterra reviews, where several users mention successive price increases.
Orum limits
- The nine-licence minimum rules out teams of one to eight reps from the start. It is not a question of budget: the sale is refused to them.
- No price is published. You can neither budget before a sales meeting, nor compare two offers on paper, nor check that the amount proposed resembles what another team was given.
- The ten simultaneous lines are a technical maximum, not a usage recommendation. Used as they stand on a small list, they consume contacts faster than they produce conversations.
- Public reputation rests on a single platform, G2, fed by mostly North American buyers, and the site, the documentation and the help centre are published in English.
What neither of them does
- Neither publishes the hosting region of its data or the name of its cloud provider. At PhoneBurner, neither the privacy page nor the trust centre gives the information; at Orum, the security and privacy pages list the certifications obtained without naming a region.
- Neither advertises support in French. Both vendors are American companies: PhoneBurner is based in California, Orum falls under the American Federal Trade Commission and declares adherence to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
- Neither publicly documents an offer designed for a European team. PhoneBurner does not dial French numbers; Orum does not say where the data of its European customers is stored.
- Neither publishes the methodology behind its quantified productivity claims: the rates advertised on the product pages are marketing claims, with no basis of comparison stated.
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Frequently asked questions
Short answers
Which is cheaper, PhoneBurner or Orum?
The comparison is only possible on one side. PhoneBurner publishes its rates, at $140, $165 and $183 per licence per month on annual billing as of 8 September 2026, with no licence minimum. Orum publishes no amount and points to a quote request. The only public figure in its offer is a nine-licence minimum: whatever unit price is negotiated, its invoice covers at least nine seats, where PhoneBurner's may cover only one.
Which one should you choose to prospect in France?
Neither, as of 8 September 2026. PhoneBurner's official FAQ states that the service only dials American and Canadian numbers: calling a French prospect from it is impossible. Orum publishes neither the hosting region of its data nor the detail of its coverage in Europe, two points to have confirmed in writing before any commitment.
Does PhoneBurner offer a parallel dialer?
No, on no plan, and the vendor stands behind that choice. Its dialer handles one number at a time. The argument put forward is the quality of the first second of conversation, the one in which the prospect decides whether to stay on the line or hang up: opening several lines, the vendor says, degrades it. That is a design position, not a technical limit awaiting a fix.
Does Orum accept a team of fewer than nine reps?
No. Its pricing page shows a nine-licence minimum as of 8 September 2026. A team of four reps would therefore pay for five unused seats, assuming the vendor agreed to contract at all. If you are below that threshold, the question is settled before the demonstration, and it is the first point to raise in the first conversation.
How many lines does each of them dial in parallel?
PhoneBurner dials one number at a time, on every plan. Orum goes up to ten simultaneous lines according to the vendor, with answering machine detection advertised across more than twenty languages. Those ten lines are a technical maximum and not a recommended setting: the right question to ask in a meeting is the number of lines advised for the real size of your list.
Which one is better rated by its users?
On G2 as of 8 September 2026, PhoneBurner scores 4.7 out of 5 across more than 275 reviews and Orum 4.6 out of 5 across more than 700: both are among the best rated in their category, with a broader corpus at Orum and a longer track record at PhoneBurner, present since 2008. The Trustpilot ratings should weigh in no decision: PhoneBurner's, at 2.7 out of 5, rests on seven reviews, and the orum.com domain listing is unclaimed and holds no reviews at all.
Can you move from one to the other?
Nothing prevents it contractually on the PhoneBurner side, which imposes no fixed term. In the other direction, Orum's exit conditions are negotiated contract by contract and are not public: note the renewal date and the applicable notice period in writing. The real cost of switching is not contractual but methodological: voicemail drop on one side and answering machine detection on the other have no equivalent, and your call scripts and follow-up sequences have to be rebuilt.
Which one suits a rep working alone?
PhoneBurner, and only PhoneBurner. It requires no licence minimum and publishes its prices, so a single person can subscribe at $140 a month on annual billing as of 8 September 2026. Orum shows a floor of nine licences and does not sell below it. The caveat is unchanged: PhoneBurner only dials American and Canadian numbers.
Sources
Everything is checkable
- PhoneBurner, FAQ · dialable countries, absence of commitment, unlimited calls
- PhoneBurner, pricing page · plans, price per licence, absence of a minimum
- PhoneBurner, voicemail drop · how it works and claims made
- PhoneBurner, About page · founding in 2008, claimed customers, call volume
- G2, PhoneBurner reviews · rating and review volume
- Capterra, PhoneBurner reviews · rating, volume and distribution of reviews, pricing grievances
- Trustpilot, PhoneBurner reviews · rating and review volume
- Orum, pricing page · nine-licence minimum, absence of a public rate
- Orum, dialer page · number of lines, answering machine detection, languages covered
- Orum, security and compliance · published certifications, absence of a hosting region
- Orum, privacy policy · Data Privacy Framework and American supervisory authority
- G2, Orum reviews · rating and review volume
- TechCrunch · founding, founders, amounts raised
Going further
- Our analysis of PhoneBurner with its prices recorded at source
- Our analysis of Orum with its prices recorded at source
- Alternatives to PhoneBurner
- Alternatives to Orum
- The 25 tool comparison where Skipcall appears, and where we say so
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