CallHippo pricing breakdown + hidden fees to watch for

If you’re hunting for an affordable VoIP phone system, CallHippo’s Basic plan probably caught your eye. Who doesn’t want to pay $1 per user per month for a business phone system?

Unless, of course, that’s not the whole story.

The truth is CallHippo is more limiting than you’d think — and the Basic plan doesn’t include minutes, SMS, or caller ID. It gets even more frustrating when you realize how many limitations there are. This includes the number of times you’ll have to upgrade for essential features like call recording.

You can use this guide to get the real scoop on CallHippo’s pricing, including its plans, features, and hidden fees. We also explain its restrictions and limitations — and how the right business phone system can help you sidestep them.

CallHippo pricing: Key things to know

• Two separate services: CallHippo splits its product into Essential plans for business phone systems and Pro Suite plans designed mainly for large call centers.
• Limited messaging: SMS messages are capped on all its pricing plans.
• Toll-free calls aren’t unlimited: Incoming toll-free calls come with per-minute charges.
• Better suited for call centers: With dialers, omnichannel messaging, and leaderboards, CallHippo is ideal for outbound sales teams rather than growing businesses.

CallHippo business phone pricing and plans

CallHippo offers two levels of service for businesses: an office phone system billed as the Essential plans and a set of plans for call centers called the Pro Suite plans. For enterprise brands, it offers an outbound Dialer and access to AI voice and chat agents known as CallHippo AI. You can also purchase add-ons to access features like AI call transcriptions and summaries and caller ID names.

Essential plans

Let’s break it down in the chart below.

How much do CallHippo’s Essential plans cost, and what features will you get on each?

Feature	Basic	Starter	Professional	Ultimate
Price per user per month	$1	$19	$29	$45
Click to dial	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️
Text messaging	Pay per message	100 per user per month	500 per user per month	1,000 per user per month
Reports & call analytics	X	Basic	✔️	✔️
Call recording	X	X	✔️	✔️
AI voicemail transcription	X	X	✔️	✔️
Call tags	X	X	X	✔️
Shared inbox	X	✔️	✔️	✔️
Multilingual IVR	X	X	✔️	✔️

Basic plan

Pricing: $1 per user per month billed monthly or annually

Best for: Solopreneurs who need a basic business number for minimal calling and texting.

CallHippo previously marketed this as a free plan, but it now costs $1 per user per month. 

You get access to the following features:

• Click to dial
• One phone number
• WhatsApp Business API
• Voicemail
• SMS and MMS

Keep in mind, texts aren’t included. You’ll be charged $0.01 per message in the US. If you want included messages, you’ll need to upgrade to the Starter plan — but even there, the number of texts is capped.

Starter plan

Pricing: $25 per user per month billed monthly, or $19 per user per month if billed annually

Best for: Teams that make customer calls to mobile devices and landlines.

With the Starter plan, you can unlock basic features like:

• ‘Unlimited’ minutes
• 100 SMS messages per month
• Call logs with one-month storage
• Call forwarding to a device
• Shared inbox
• Business hours
• Number porting

Notice we said ‘unlimited’ here — because CallHippo’s minutes only include landline and mobile numbers. You have to pay extra to reach ‘specialty’ and ‘premium’ numbers. For example, if you receive calls on a US toll-free number, it’ll cost $0.033 per minute. 

Plus, you’ll only get 100 free SMS messages per user per month. After that, each message costs $0.01 in the US. 

There’s another catch: You can’t access your call logs for long since old conversations are deleted after one month.

Professional plan

Pricing: $39 per user per month billed monthly, or $29 per user if billed annually

Best for: Businesses that don’t text a lot of customers.

CallHippo’s Professional plan provides everything in Starter, plus a few extra key features like:

• 500 SMS messages per month
• Call recording
• Custom greetings
• AI voicemail transcriptions
• Multilingual IVR
• Reports that summarize user and call activity 

But notice again, there’s a lack of scalability — you still have to pay extra to reach specialty and premium numbers. Need your team to answer calls from their mobile devices? You’ll have to upgrade again.

Ultimate plan

Pricing: $55 per user per month billed monthly, or $45 per user if billed annually

Best for: Small businesses that want more advanced call routing but can live without unlimited texting.

CallHippo’s second most expensive Essentials plan unlocks all the features available on previous plans, as well as:

• 1,000 SMS messages per user per month
• Custom integrations
• Custom ring time
• Multi-level IVR, also known as interactive voice response
• Call blocking
• Holiday routing
• Personalized onboarding
• Dedicated account manager
• Call tagging

Unfortunately, there’s no way to unlock unlimited texts per user per month here, which could be a problem as your business grows. Plus, you’re mostly unlocking features you can get on traditional phone plans, including call blocking and phone menus.

Pro Suite plans

How much do CallHippo’s Pro Suite plans cost, and what features will you get on each?

Let’s break it down in the chart below:

Feature	Bronze	Silver	Platinum	Enterprise
Price per user per month	$35	$39	$49	Contact Sales
Call recordings	$0.005 per minute	✔️	✔️	✔️
Voice broadcasting	X	X	✔️	✔️
Leaderboard, or Gamification	X	✔️	✔️	✔️
Reports/analytics	X	X	✔️	Custom reports
Multiple-level call transfer	X	X	✔️	✔️
AI voicemail transcription	X	✔️	✔️	✔️
Custom ring time	X	✔️	✔️	✔️
Support	✔️	✔️	✔️	Priority

Bronze plan

Pricing: $39 per user per month billed monthly, or $35 per user if billed annually

Best for: Call center teams that don’t record a lot of customer calls.

The Bronze plan offers the same basic features as the Starter plan, including unlimited calls to mobile and landlines. 

More features you can expect to unlock:

• Shared inboxes
• Call mute
• Click to dial
• Call forwarding
• Skill-based call routing
• Webhooks
• Campaign management

While you’ll unlock call recording on this plan, be prepared to pay an extra $0.005 per minute. But you won’t be able to pause or resume your recordings, which may be frustrating if you only need to capture a few minutes of each call.

Silver plan

Pricing: $49 per user per month billed monthly, or $39 per user if billed annually

Best for: Call centers that need to manage long queues and keep reps motivated with leaderboards.

In addition to unlocking all Bronze plan features, the Silver plan gives you access to free call recordings and call dispositions. You’ll also get the following tools:

• Call reminders
• Leaderboards
• Pause and resume recordings
• Call queue
• AI voicemail transcription*

You get a few AI-powered tools on this plan, including voicemail transcriptions so you can quickly get context for missed calls. However, the best AI tools like call tags are locked behind the Platinum plan or the AI add-on, which costs $10 per user per month.

*AI voicemail transcription charges may apply.

Platinum plan

Pricing: $59 per user per month billed monthly, or $49 per user if billed annually

Best for: Call center teams that need to send post-call surveys.

The Platinum plan is the second most expensive plan in the Pro Suite solution. It comes with all the features previously locked behind paywalls. This includes conference calling and integrations with Google Drive. You’ll also get access to:

• DID groups, or Direct Inward Dialing, to let callers reach a specific extension or rep without going through a receptionist or phone menu 
• Compliance call recording to help ensure your team is compliant with regional laws
• Speed to dial
• Call barging and call whispering
• Multi-level IVR
• Post-call survey

Just keep in mind the Platinum plan doesn’t come with popular AI features. If you want call transcriptions, call summaries, sentiment analysis, or smart dashboards, you’ll need to pay for the AI add-on.

Enterprise plan

Pricing: Pricing isn’t public, requires a 50-user minimum.

Best for: Large sales teams with a global customer base and high call volume.

The Enterprise plan is meant for large enterprises that need to call across borders. It includes customizable add-ons for other countries and SMS, along with advanced tools to help manage compliance.

You’ll also get access to the following features:

• Dedicated compliance support
• Speech analytics, such as identifying specific words and emotions
• Custom reports that track team KPIs
• Service-Level Agreement, or SLA
• Developer support for integrations

Keep in mind, its exact pricing isn’t public. You’ll need to sign up for a trial or contact sales for a personalized quote. And with a 50-user minimum, it’s not a fit for small or growing businesses.

Optional add-ons

• AI coaching add-on: $10 per user per month for AI call transcriptions, sentiment analysis, and voicemail transcriptions.
• CNAM, also known as caller ID name: $100 one-time fee per account. It’s only available for US calling.
• Call Scribe: $15 per user per month to see transcriptions of recorded calls.
• Remediation Service: $100 per number for CallHippo’s help if a carrier labels your number as spam.
• Dashboard User: $15 per user per month for reps to access the CallHippo web app. Keep in mind the web dialer isn’t accessible for dashboard users.
• SMS Services: $3 per month to activate A2P 10DLC texting in the US and Canada, plus a one-time setup cost of $15 per account.
• Spam Watch: $2 per number per month for number monitoring that limits your likelihood of being labeled as spam.

CallHippo Parallel Dialer

CallHippo’s parallel dialer automates call initiation. It also helps save reps’ time by filtering out unproductive or machine-answered calls.

Basic plan

It costs $35 per user per month to access:

• AI smart DID routing that automatically chooses the best outbound phone number to improve pickup rates
• Queue calls
• Auto-pacing dial ratio that automatically adjusts dialing speed to reduce rep idle time
• Controlled multiple call attempts
• Time zone dialing

Keep in mind you’ll need to upgrade to access unlimited calling in the US and Canada.

Ultimate plan

It costs $200 per user per month to access everything in the Basic plan, plus:

• Unlimited calling in the US and Canada
• Automatic machine detection accuracy

CallHippo AI Voice Agent

CallHippo AI Voice Agent offers four separate plans. Let’s take a closer look at each. 

• AI Core Agent: $0 per month for 100 free minutes, one free AI agent, real-time analytics and performance tracking, five concurrent calls, and additional minutes require upgrading
• AI Pro Agent: $199 per month for five AI agents, up to 2,500 minutes, transfer call to human rep, 25 concurrent calls, and $0.16 per minute after 2,500 minutes
• AI Max Agent: $399 per month for 10 AI agents, up to 5,000 minutes, CRM integrations, 50 concurrent calls, and $0.16 per minute after 5,000 minutes
• AI Ultra Pro Max Agent: $799 per month for 20 AI agents, up to 7,500 minutes, call blocking, 80 concurrent calls, and $0.16 per minute after 7,500 minutes

Omnichannel Inbox 

CallHippo offers an Omnichannel Inbox service that lets you route messages from different apps, like Messenger and Instagram, into one place. Here’s what you get on each plan:

• Basic: Free for up to three users and includes contact management, file sending, multiple accounts, and performance indicators
• Bronze: $25 per user per month billed monthly, or $20 per user if billed annually for business hours, shared inbox, admin chat review, API, and quick reply
• Silver: $35 per user per month billed monthly or $28 per user if billed annually  for broadcast messages, unified inbox, data export, website chat button, and CSAT score
• Gold: Contact for pricing for unlimited contacts, tailored onboarding, personalized support, and enterprise-grade security

Keep in mind that CallHippo’s Omnichannel Inbox service is separate from its phone system. That means you’ll need to purchase both if you want to make and receive calls.

WhatsApp Business API

CallHippo also offers a Free Forever plan for its WhatsApp Business API. You’ll get access to the following features:

• WhatsApp Business API
• WhatsApp Blue Tick
• Omnichannel inbox
• Broadcast messages
• Team inbox
• Lead generation tool that lets you run click-to-WhatsApp ads
• Add unlimited team members
• CRM integrations

You should know that CallHippo’s WhatsApp Business API isn’t really “free.” You’ll still have to pay for every message you send, and CallHippo doesn’t list its WhatsApp messaging rates publicly. 

Hidden fees to know

Don’t let CallHippo’s prices fool you: they’re more than what you see advertised online.

Take these hidden fees, for example:

• Texting limits. You only get 100 SMS on the Starter plan, 500 SMS on the Professional plan, and 1,000 SMS on the Ultimate plan. Exceeding this limit comes with a per-text rate of $0.01 to $0.94 per outbound SMS.
• Toll-free numbers and minutes. CallHippo advertises one free number for each user on your account, but this doesn’t include toll-free numbers. You can expect to pay around $12 per number per month for a US toll-free number and $0.033 per minute for incoming call charges.
• Call forwarding charges. CallHippo users are charged twice for forwarded calls. First, you have to pay incoming call charges for your CallHippo number since the call rings there first. Then you have to pay outgoing call charges since your CallHippo number is technically sending an ‘outbound’ call to another number. Assuming you’re using a local US number and forwarding to another local US number, that’s an inbound charge of $0.020 per minute and an outbound price of $0.018 per minute. Keep in mind, this cost could be higher if you’re in Alaska or Hawaii.
• Call transcription. You’d think call transcription would be a basic feature — but with CallHippo, this costs extra. Call transcription is available as an AI add-on, which starts at $10 per user per month.
• Carrier registration fees. CallHippo charges between $3 and $10 per month, depending on the use case. You’ll also need to pay a one-time fee of $15. If you want SMS services in the US and Canada, be prepared to pay an additional $3 per month.
• International calling. The cost of reaching an international country with CallHippo depends on your location and number type. Their rates vary dramatically depending on the number you purchase.
• Caller ID. This feature is only available in the US and requires an additional $100 fee.

Quo vs CallHippo: Feature and pricing comparison

So does it make sense to buy virtual phone numbers through CallHippo? With basic features like conference calling starting at $49 per user per month, it’s not scalable for small business owners.

The good news is that Quo is the exact opposite — according to user reviews. We offer unlimited inbound and outbound calling in the US and Canada. Plus, you’ll get access to advanced features through third-party integrations and multiple AI tools on each of our plans.

Here’s how Quo and CallHippo’s Essential plans compare:

Features	Quo	CallHippo
Starting price	$15 per user per month	$19 per user per month
Unlimited calling	✓	Limitations on toll-free, premium, and specialty numbers
Unlimited SMS, MMS to US & Canada	✓	Starts at 100 SMS per user per month
Toll-free numbers	✓	Cost extra
Additional phone numbers	$5 per number	Varies
Number porting	✓	✓
Call recording	✓	Requires upgrade
Shared phone numbers	✓	✓
Group text messaging	✓	X
Shared contacts	✓	✓
Auto-replies	✓	X
Text message templates	✓	✓
Slack integration	✓	X
AI features	✓	Requires add-on that costs $10 per user per month
Gmail integration	✓	X
Zapier integration	✓	X
iOS and Android mobile apps	✓	✓
Web-based apps	✓	✓
Free trial	Seven days	10 days

1. Simple and straightforward pricing. Quo starts at $15 per user per month — no hidden fees. You can see how much everything costs directly on our pricing page. Want to check our prices before calling overseas? With Quo, you can check international calling and texting rates at any time. There’s also no mystery around our unlimited calls. For example, with Quo, you don’t pay any additional fees for incoming toll-free calls.
2. Call and text as one voice. With the help of Quo’s shared phone numbers, it’s easy to split responsibility for incoming calls. Every member of your number is notified of incoming calls and texts, which means anyone can pick up the phone. You can also delegate tasks with internal threads and mentions. 
3. Manage availability for a better work-life balance. Quo makes it easy to quickly update your business hours and keep customers and coworkers informed. First, you can set your business hours and adjust them whenever you need. Then, you can set up a custom away voicemail and enable Do Not Disturb so you can relax when the day is done. Plus, your team members can easily adjust their work schedule so they don’t receive work notifications while away from their phones. 
4. Route and handle calls automatically. Create round-robin call orders so the right teammates are notified first while ensuring someone can always pick up. If no one answers, Sona, Quo’s AI voice agent, can take messages, answer FAQs, and send texts during calls. You can also smoothly hand callers off with warm transfers, including multi-level transfers. Keep in mind that CallHippo’s AI agent charges per-minute. Quo’s Sona charges per call, so the conversation can run its course without worrying about how long it takes.
5. Easy integrations with your CRM and other tools. With Quo as your business phone system, you don’t have to worry about missing key conversations. We connect with the tools you already use — including your CRM — so all calls, texts, and contact info are seamlessly synced between accounts. Want to connect with more than HubSpot and Salesforce? We pair with 8,000+ other apps via Zapier and Make. For example, you can connect with helpdesk software like Zoho by setting up Zaps with our Zapier integration. 
6. Speed up your workflows with texting automations. Set up auto-replies for missed calls, texts, and voicemails to set customer expectations when your team isn’t available. In contrast, CallHippo doesn’t offer auto-replies on any of its plans. With Quo you can schedule messages in advance so texts only go out if the customer hasn’t responded first — and they always queue up in their time zone.  Plus, your team will be able to write and share snippets, or text templates, to answer FAQs even faster. 

Pros and cons of CallHippo pricing plans

CallHippo is a business phone system that makes sense for larger international teams. However, it may not be a scalable option for growing small businesses or startups.

Pros

• International numbers available. You can purchase phone numbers in over 50 countries.
• Enterprise features. You have the option to enable SSO, DID routing, and more.
• Omnichannel platform. CallHippo’s Omnichannel platform lets you integrate with popular apps such as Telegram, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Cons

• Limited call history. You can’t access call histories beyond one month unless you upgrade to CallHippo’s second-highest tier.
• No truly unlimited minutes. You’ll have to pay for inbound calls to premium, toll-free, and specialty numbers. This makes it hard to scale your business.
• No unlimited SMS. The most expensive plan only unlocks 1,000 SMS messages per user per month. Keep in mind, other providers like Quo offer unlimited SMS in the US and Canada on every plan.

See why Quo is the best business phone system

CallHippo might offer a lot of bells and whistles, but for growing small businesses, it’s more fluff than substance. That’s why dozens of growing brands have switched from CallHippo to Quo — the #1 business phone system, as rated by G2.

We offer startup-friendly features and pricing designed to grow alongside your business. All you need is an internet connection and a phone or computer to get started.

Plus, we offer a scalable solution that helps you provide a great customer experience. You’ll get access to truly unlimited calls and texts in the US and Canada starting at $15 per user per month. You’ll get access to CRM integrations like HubSpot and Salesforce. Quo also provides call monitoring software like group calls, which lets you listen in on conversations while muted to shadow new team members and see how they’re doing.  

See for yourself why Quo is the best CallHippo alternative by signing up for a seven-day free trial.

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