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Retell AI vs ZenCall

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Retell AI starts at $0.07, ZenCall at $29. Only Retell AI has a free tier. Both ship a public API.

Retell AIBuild and run AI phone agents that book, qualify and transfer calls, billed by the minute.ZenCallAI phone agent that answers, qualifies and dispatches inbound calls, pitched at trades and home services.

Side by side

FactRetell AIZenCall
CategoryVoice Agents & Phone AIVoice Agents & Phone AI
Pricing modelFreemiumPaid
Starts at$0.07 minute$29 month
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CompanyRetell AI Inc.LOULEK COMMUNICATION (EURL)
Launched2023—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Retell AI

One of the more honest voice-agent stacks: the pricing page breaks out infrastructure, TTS and LLM cost per minute so you can predict a call's cost instead of guessing. Telephony choice is wide and the concurrency allowance is generous. The catch is that per-minute billing plus add-ons makes a busy contact centre expensive fast, and the cheap end of the range only holds if you pick the cheap models.

Pros

  • Per-minute cost broken down by voice infrastructure, TTS provider and LLM on the public pricing page
  • Telephony via SIP trunking, Twilio and Vonage plus n8n, HubSpot, Make and Go High Level integrations
  • 20 concurrent calls included before any concurrency charge
  • Voice, chat and SMS agents share one platform and API
  • HIPAA path exists via a signed BAA covered in the terms of service

Cons

  • Cost per minute more than quadruples between the cheapest and most capable model combinations
  • Knowledge base, denoising, PII removal and branded caller ID are all metered extras
  • No flat-rate plan, so a spike in call volume lands straight on the invoice

ZenCall

For a trade business losing jobs to voicemail, $29 a month to have every call answered, qualified and written into ServiceTitan is easy arithmetic. Setup is a text prompt rather than a flow builder, which is fast but limits control. The plans are thin on minutes — 100 a month on Essentials — so the real bill depends on the $0.09 overage rate.

Pros

  • Dedicated local number, smart routing and AI call summaries on the entry plan
  • Prompt-driven agent setup with emergency-versus-routine triage
  • Syncs bookings into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber and Workiz
  • Public API at api.zencall.ai for custom integrations
  • French publisher identified with a registered Paris address

Cons

  • Essentials includes only 100 minutes a month before $0.09/min overage kicks in
  • No free tier, only a trial
  • API access is gated to the Standard tier
  • Lifetime deal requires emailing support and waiting up to 48 business hours to activate

Which one fits

Choose Retell AI if you need

  • Teams replacing an outbound qualification or booking script
  • Contact centres that already have Twilio, Vonage or SIP trunking
  • Developers who want per-minute cost visibility before launch

Choose ZenCall if you need

  • Plumbers, HVAC and locksmiths who cannot answer while on a job
  • Small teams that need after-hours and weekend cover
  • Shops already using ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro or Workiz

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