CloudTalk alternative
The CloudTalk alternative built for the CRM you already run
CloudTalk is call-centre software for sales and support teams, sold on three plans with unlimited US and Canada calling on all of them and local numbers in more than 160 countries. It is built for an international stack, and its integration directory shows exactly whose: Intercom, Zendesk, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Shopify, Greenhouse, Bullhorn. Not one investor CRM is on it - no Podio, no DataSift, no Left Main REI, no InvestorFuse, no GoHighLevel. Two other things decide it for smaller teams: texting is not on the entry plan, and the prices shown by default are annual rates that carry a twelve-month commitment.
No card required. No seat minimum.
The short version
- CloudTalk lists more than ninety integrations and none of them is an investor CRM. Podio, DataSift, Left Main REI, InvestorFuse, Realeflow, Invelo, Carrot, Tape and GoHighLevel are all absent; Zapier is there as a bridge.
- Starter has no integrations at all. The row reads "Upgrade to access", and the APIs, webhooks and workflow designer are struck out with it.
- Texting starts on Essential. SMS and MMS are not on Starter. A smrtPhone seat includes SMS and MMS with 1,000 segments a month.
- The headline $25, $29 and $49 are annual rates with a twelve-month commitment. Paid monthly the same plans are $34, $39 and $69 a user, and Expert needs a minimum of three licences.
- CloudTalk includes unlimited US and Canada calling on every plan. A smrtPhone seat includes 500 minutes and meters the rest at $0.03, or $99 a seat for unlimited.
smrtPhone vs CloudTalk
The CloudTalk alternative, feature by feature
Every CloudTalk figure below was taken from CloudTalk’s own public pricing pages . Prices change; check theirs before you decide.
| What matters when you dial |
|
smrtPhone |
|---|---|---|
| What it is built for | Sales and support teams calling internationally from a mainstream stack | Small teams running conversations inside the CRM they already use |
| The phone system underneath | Yes. A full calling platform, in its own workspace | Yes. Call flows, inbound teams and departments, voicemail, business hours, warm transfer, conference calling and call monitoring |
| Price a seat | Starter $34, Essential $39, Expert $69 a user, billed monthly | $29 a seat, plus smrtDialer at $50 or $90 |
| What the listed price commits you to | Partly. $25, $29 and $49 are the annual rates and carry a twelve-month commitment | Yes. Month to month, or a year for two months free |
| Seat minimum | Partly. One on Starter and Essential, three on Expert | Yes. None. Buy one seat |
| Domestic calling | Yes. Unlimited US and Canada calling on every plan | 500 minutes a seat, then $0.03. Unlimited at $99 a seat |
| Texting | Partly. SMS and MMS from Essential up. Not on Starter | Yes. SMS and MMS in every seat, 1,000 segments, then $0.02 |
| Integrations on the entry plan | No. None. Starter reads "Upgrade to access" | Yes. All ten CRM integrations, from the $29 seat |
| Native CRM integrations | Partly. 90+ mainstream sales, support, hiring and commerce tools | Yes. Podio, GoHighLevel, Left Main REI, InvestorFuse, DataSift, Realeflow, Invelo, Carrot, Tape and Salesforce |
| Investor CRMs in the directory | No. None. Podio, DataSift, Left Main REI, InvestorFuse, Realeflow, Invelo, Carrot, Tape and GoHighLevel are all absent | All ten |
| Power dialing | A $15 a user add-on, included on Expert. Parallel dialing to 10 lines is $39 a user | smrtDialer, 1 to 4 lines, $50 or $90 a seat |
| Where the record lives | Its own workspace, with sync out to the tools above | Yes. Your CRM. Calls and texts write to it |
| Phone numbers | Partly. Billed separately. Number prices sit in a country lookup, not on the pricing page | 1 a seat, then $2 to $5 each |
| Outbound list compliance | Partly. Anti-spam number protection, with Spam Remediation quoted separately | Yes. DNC and DNT lists, DNC applet, DNC API, A2P 10DLC and automatic opt-out, in the base seat |
| AI agents that take calls | AI Voice Agents, sold as a minute bundle add-on | smrtAgents answer, qualify and hand off with context |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days |
The other side
When CloudTalk is the better choice
CloudTalk is the better fit whenever the calling is international or the volume is high. It sells local numbers in more than 160 countries and bundles unlimited domestic calling on every plan, where a smrtPhone seat includes 500 minutes and meters the rest at $0.03 - past roughly 3,300 minutes a month a smrtPhone seat wants the $99 unlimited tier. Its parallel dialer runs up to ten lines against smrtDialer's four, and it sells local numbers in countries we do not cover at all.
- Your team calls outside the US and Canada, or needs numbers in several countries.
- Your callers are on the phone for thousands of minutes a month.
- Your stack is mainstream SaaS - Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zendesk, Intercom.
- You want parallel dialing on ten lines rather than power dialing on four.
- The CRM question does not apply to you and the calling itself is the whole job.
If what you need is international calling
CloudTalk is a global calling product before it is anything else: local numbers in more than 160 countries, unlimited domestic calling bundled by region, and a directory full of the tools an international sales or support team runs - Intercom, Zendesk, Front, Gorgias, Salesloft, Outreach, Greenhouse, Bullhorn. smrtPhone is US and Canada, and native to a set of CRMs almost none of those teams use. If your callers are spread across Europe or LATAM and your stack is mainstream SaaS, that is the shape CloudTalk fits and we do not.
This page is for the other case: a team whose CRM is Podio, GoHighLevel, Left Main REI, InvestorFuse or DataSift, calling US numbers, wanting the call and the text on the record without a connector in between.
Straight from the reviews
What CloudTalk users complain about
Recurring themes across CloudTalk’s own public review profiles, each one set against what smrtPhone does about it.
- 4.1/5
- 4.4/5
|
What reviewers report
|
What we do about it
|
|---|---|
| Cancelling and getting money back | Month to month. Stop when you stop, with no unused balance to argue about |
| Add-ons that take a support ticket to switch off | Every add-on is per seat and toggled from your own account |
| Costs that appear after the seat price | Numbers, minutes, segments and dialer tiers all priced on the pricing page |
| Texting missing from the plan they bought | SMS and MMS in every seat, 1,000 segments included, then $0.02 |
| A CRM integration that will not sync the activity | Ten native investor CRM integrations, writing the call and the text to the record |
Why CRM-led teams pick smrtPhone instead
-
The CRM was not in the directory
Ninety-odd integrations and not one of them an investor CRM. Podio, DataSift, Left Main REI, InvestorFuse, Realeflow, Invelo, Carrot, Tape and GoHighLevel are all absent, and Zapier is the only route to any of them - which means a bridge to maintain and no click-to-call from the record.
Ten native CRM integrations -
The entry plan did not text
SMS and MMS start on Essential. Teams that bought Starter for the phone system found the follow-up half of the job was on the next plan up, and the integrations were too. Every smrtPhone seat includes SMS and MMS with 1,000 segments.
Texting in every seat -
The price on the page was an annual one
The $25, $29 and $49 shown by default are annual rates with a twelve-month commitment; monthly is $34, $39 and $69, and Expert needs three licences before you can buy it. smrtPhone is $29 a seat month to month, one seat at a time, with the yearly discount optional.
Month to month, one seat
Built into the CRM you already run
Calls, texts, recordings and dispositions land on the record they belong to, with no connector in between.
Verified reviews
What smrtPhone users say
Everything above is our claim. This is not: these are reviews left on Capterra, where most reviewers are real estate investors.
- 4.7/5
-
5 out of 5. 2+ years in
Integration with Podio and the ability to customize every aspect.
Ryan J. Founder, real estate -
5 out of 5. 6-12 months in
Great customer service with very fast reaction. Also the dialer and the extensions work magnificent.
Javier B. Acquisition manager, real estate -
5 out of 5. Under 6 months in
What I like most about SmrtPhone is how responsive and helpful their support team is. In fact, there have been instances during my onboarding that they have proactively reached out. They make the learning curve very easy to overcome.
Brendan P. CEO, real estate
What switching actually involves
Numbers port. The thing to plan is the CRM: on CloudTalk the record lives in its own workspace and syncs out, so decide what you want kept before you move, then wire the CRM here and let the calls and texts write to it directly.
- Port your numbers. They move with you. Nobody has to learn a new number.
- Connect the CRM. Calls, texts, recordings and dispositions start writing to the record.
- Rebuild your call flows. Routing, ring groups, business hours and the DNC applet.
- Run both for a few days. Then move the dialing over once the logging looks right.
How long the port really takes
- Porting takes one to three weeks once the paperwork is in and confirmed. It is faster when your current provider sits on the same underlying carrier we do, and slower if the paperwork comes back rejected over a detail that does not match your carrier record.
- Support does the work. You start it from live chat and the team handles the submission.
- Do not cancel your old provider until the port completes. Your number keeps working throughout.
- Occasionally voice ports a few hours before texting does. It settles by itself.
Questions people ask before switching
How much does CloudTalk cost?
Three plans: Starter at $34 a user a month, Essential at $39 and Expert at $69, all billed monthly. The $25, $29 and $49 you see on the pricing page by default are the annual rates, which save about 30% and carry a twelve-month commitment. Expert has a three-licence minimum. Add-ons are priced separately: the power dialer is $15 a user, the parallel dialer $39, conversation intelligence $9, and branded caller ID from $0.07 a call. smrtPhone is $24 a seat a month billed yearly, or $29 month to month, with smrtDialer at $50 for one line or $90 for up to four.
Does CloudTalk integrate with Podio or GoHighLevel?
Neither is in its integration directory. CloudTalk lists more than ninety integrations - Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, Zendesk, Intercom, Shopify, Greenhouse, Bullhorn and so on - and no investor CRM appears among them: no Podio, DataSift, Left Main REI, InvestorFuse, Realeflow, Invelo, Carrot, Tape or GoHighLevel. Zapier is listed, so a bridge is possible, but that is a connector you maintain rather than a native integration, and it does not give you click-to-call from the record. smrtPhone is native to all ten.
Does CloudTalk send text messages?
From the Essential plan up. SMS and MMS are struck out on Starter, along with the integrations, the APIs and the webhooks - Starter is the phone system on its own. A smrtPhone seat includes SMS and MMS with 1,000 segments a month, then $0.02 a segment, written to your CRM record alongside the calls.
Does CloudTalk include unlimited calling?
Yes - unlimited US and Canada calling on all three plans, and the same arrangement for the EU, UK, Iceland and Norway on the European view of the page. A smrtPhone seat includes 500 minutes and meters the rest at $0.03 a minute, or $99 a seat for unlimited. If your callers run past roughly 3,300 minutes a month, that is a real difference and worth pricing out.
Can I try CloudTalk before buying?
Yes. CloudTalk has a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and charges no setup or onboarding fee. smrtPhone has a 14-day free trial too, so you can run both for a fortnight against the same list and see which one puts the conversation where you need it.
Ready for something better than CloudTalk?
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