# 8 best Dialogflow alternatives in 2026, compared

By Samuel Oram-Jones

The best Dialogflow alternatives in 2026 are Bland, Vapi, Synthflow, ElevenLabs, PolyAI, Sierra, Decagon, and Retell, and Bland ranks first for enterprise calls because it is full stack. This ranking compares each voice AI provider on who builds the AI, how a call is billed, and where calls can run, as of November 2026.

## What are the best Dialogflow alternatives?

The best Dialogflow alternative for enterprise calls is Bland, because one company builds and runs every AI model on a call, while the other seven providers each rely on outside companies, a quote, or a bill assembled from parts.

- **Bland:** Best overall for enterprise calls
- **Vapi:** Best for developers assembling their own voice stack
- **Synthflow:** Best for sales-led teams that sign one annual contract
- **ElevenLabs:** Best for teams that already build on ElevenLabs voices
- **PolyAI:** Best for enterprises that want a managed, quoted agent
- **Sierra:** Best for enterprise teams buying outcome-priced agents
- **Decagon:** Best for support teams adding voice to chat and email
- **Retell:** Best for developer teams that pick their own model and voice

| Provider | Best for | Price | Who builds the AI | iMessage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bland | Enterprise calls | $0.14 per minute on self-serve Start, $0.12 on self-serve Build plus $299 a month, phone billed separately | Bland builds all of it | Native on Enterprise |
| Vapi | Engineers building their own stack | $0.05 per minute for hosting, plus providers | Other companies | No |
| Synthflow | Sales-led annual contracts | Annual agreement only | Mixed | No |
| ElevenLabs | Existing ElevenLabs users | $0.08 per minute past a plan's allowance, with language model usage billed on top in Custom mode | Mixed | No |
| PolyAI | Managed service | Quote only | Mixed | No |
| Sierra | Outcome-priced enterprise agents | Priced by outcome, no published rate | Mixed | Business Chat |
| Decagon | Support teams adding voice | Per conversation or per resolution, no published rate | Mixed | No |
| Retell | Developer teams | $0.07 to $0.31 per minute, with the model and voice as separate lines | Other companies | No |

## Why do teams look for Dialogflow alternatives?

Teams look for Dialogflow alternatives when a phone agent has to be priced, supported, and secured as one product, because Google sells Dialogflow as a set of parts. Google describes Flows, also known as Dialogflow CX, as "Deterministic agents built with intents and flows using Natural Language Understanding (NLU)", and Playbooks as generative agents built with natural language instructions.

A team that wants an agent to hold a conversation, rather than match what a caller says to a mapped intent, ends up choosing between two products that bill differently.

Billing is the first place that shows. Google charges voice agents $0.001 / 1 second on Flows and twice that on Playbooks, and it counts "the time your agent spends listening to the user" as well as the agent's spoken reply.

It also bills "The full duration of the generated audio" even when a caller interrupts it, and when a Playbook calls a Flow, "The entire conversation duration is charged as Playbooks", so the way an agent is built decides what a call costs.

Phone is the second. Dialogflow CX has a built-in Phone Gateway and partner telephony integrations from AudioCodes, Avaya, Twilio, and Voximplant, and Google says it "provides no support for these integrations" and sends a customer to the integration owner. A buyer who wants one company answering for the call from carrier to reply should ask who that is.

Buyers should check a few more things before switching.

A BAA is the contract [HIPAA](/hipaa-compliant-voice-ai) requires before a vendor handles patient information, and card payments need a clear [PCI DSS](/pci-compliant-voice-ai) statement. Each outside language model, speech, or transcription provider is also one more company in a [security review](/blog/call-center-security-best-practices).

Messaging belongs on the same list. Dialogflow CX and ES integrate with Messenger from Meta, LINE, Slack, and Google Chat, and Dialogflow doesn't offer iMessage agents as of November 2026. Bland runs iMessage agents natively on Enterprise, and of the other seven providers here only Sierra supports Apple Business Chat.

## How do the 8 best Dialogflow alternatives compare?

These eight providers differ most in how much of a call they build themselves, and Bland is the one that builds all of it. A buyer moving from intent-mapped flows can read [Prompt-based agents vs conversational pathways](/blog/prompt-based-vs-conversational-pathways) before choosing how to rebuild them.

![Bland's homepage, which reads Voice AI for the calls that can't go wrong.](/images/compare/bland-home.jpg)

### 1. Bland: Best overall for enterprise calls

**What does it do?** Bland is a full stack voice AI provider that builds and runs its language, speech, and transcription models for inbound and outbound calls. Teams build calls in Pathways as connected steps they can test before launch, which gives a Dialogflow team the structure of a flow with a language model holding the conversation.

**Who runs on it?** Bland publishes sub-200ms latency and a 99.9% uptime SLA on every plan, and serves more than 250 enterprise customers.

**Who is it for?** Enterprises and contact centers in any industry that run high-stakes calls at volume.

<div class="cmp-proscons cmp-proscons-own"><div class="cmp-proscons-pros"><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><ul><li>No outside AI lab in the call path, so a security team reviews one AI company</li><li>Dedicated orchestration and dedicated GPUs run by Bland, on Enterprise</li><li>BAA on Enterprise, PCI DSS self-attested, FedRAMP 20x Class A</li><li>Bland Speech v3 ranked first of 13 AI voices on Audio Realism Bench on 4 August 2026</li><li>Forward-deployed engineers on Enterprise</li><li>Native iMessage agents on Enterprise, sharing pathways with voice</li><li>Staged releases that pause a new agent version when it performs worse than the last</li><li>Alarms on latency, silences, transcription quality, and API errors</li></ul></div><div class="cmp-proscons-cons"><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><ul><li>Overkill for a small prototype, because Bland is built for production calls at volume</li></ul></div></div>

**Pricing:** Self-serve Start is $0.14 per minute with no platform fee, self-serve Build is $0.12 per minute with a $299 monthly platform fee, and [Enterprise](https://www.bland.ai/pricing) is priced to volume. Phone is billed separately at carrier cost. Enterprise adds native iMessage agents, warm transfers, a BAA, SSO, data residency, dedicated GPUs run by Bland, and forward-deployed engineers, alongside SMS and web chat.

Idaho Housing and Finance Association saves $750,000 a year by replacing its IVR with Bland, which handles 4,000 inbound calls a day and cut average call time by 20%.

> "We save thousands of dollars a day."

Greg Blake, Chief Information Officer, Idaho Housing and Finance Association

### 2. Vapi: Best for developers assembling their own voice stack

**What does it do?** Vapi hosts voice agents, and a team picks and pays for each model and voice.

**Who is it for?** Engineers who want to assemble everything themselves.

<div class="cmp-proscons" data-rival="vapi"><div class="cmp-proscons-pros"><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><ul><li>A team can choose every model and voice</li><li>Phone is free on Vapi numbers</li></ul></div><div class="cmp-proscons-cons"><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><ul><li>Language model, transcription, and voice billed at provider cost on top</li><li>HIPAA mode is a $2,000 monthly add-on</li><li>No iMessage agents</li></ul></div></div>

**Pricing:** $0.05 per minute for hosting, with each model and voice billed on top at provider cost.

### 3. Synthflow: Best for sales-led teams that sign one annual contract

**What does it do?** Synthflow sells AI voice agents through one annual enterprise contract with telephony, integrations, and launch support scoped in.

**Who is it for?** Mid-market and enterprise teams that want a sales-scoped voice platform with WhatsApp and SMS options.

<div class="cmp-proscons" data-rival="synthflow"><div class="cmp-proscons-pros"><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><ul><li>Visual builder</li><li>Its own model, with GPT models on Enterprise</li></ul></div><div class="cmp-proscons-cons"><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><ul><li>Annual enterprise agreement only, with no free plan or trial</li><li>No public per-minute rate</li><li>Synthflow says it is "Powered by proprietary orchestration and models from OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Deepgram, and custom in-house logic."</li><li>No iMessage agents</li></ul></div></div>

**Pricing:** Annual agreement only.

### 4. ElevenLabs: Best for teams that already build on ElevenLabs voices

**What does it do?** ElevenLabs sells voice agents built around its own voices, paired with one of its Realtime models or a language model the customer chooses.

**Who is it for?** Teams already on ElevenLabs voices that will manage their own language model.

<div class="cmp-proscons" data-rival="elevenlabs"><div class="cmp-proscons-pros"><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><ul><li>Own voices and its own Realtime models</li><li>Runs its own speech and transcription</li></ul></div><div class="cmp-proscons-cons"><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><ul><li>Language model usage billed on top in Custom mode</li><li>BAA applies only while Zero Retention Mode is on, which limits language models and analytics</li><li>Grades calls on transcripts only, not audio</li><li>Eleven v3 ranked 12th of 13 AI voices on Audio Realism Bench on 4 August 2026</li><li>No iMessage agents</li></ul></div></div>

**Pricing:** $0.08 per minute past a plan's allowance, with no telephony fee and language model usage billed on top in Custom mode.

### 5. PolyAI: Best for enterprises that want a managed, quoted agent

**What does it do?** PolyAI builds and runs a voice and chat agent for a customer on a quoted per-minute price, and it also sells a model API at 2¢ a connected minute.

**Who is it for?** Large consumer-facing companies that want PolyAI to build and run their agent. Buyers weighing it against other options can read [Best PolyAI alternatives](/blog/polyai-alternatives).

<div class="cmp-proscons" data-rival="polyai"><div class="cmp-proscons-pros"><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><ul><li>PolyAI handles the build</li><li>Its own Raven model alongside OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock models</li></ul></div><div class="cmp-proscons-cons"><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><ul><li>No public per-minute rate for the managed agent</li><li>Its contract says "the total handle time is rounded up to the next 30-second increment"</li><li>No iMessage agents</li></ul></div></div>

**Pricing:** Quote only for the managed agent, and 2¢ per connected minute for the model API, which leaves out telephony and orchestration.

### 6. Sierra: Best for enterprise teams buying outcome-priced agents

**What does it do?** Sierra sells a managed AI agent platform for customer service across chat, voice, email, SMS, and WhatsApp, priced by outcome with no published rate.

**Who is it for?** Enterprise customer experience teams that want a managed agent and are happy to negotiate pricing.

<div class="cmp-proscons" data-rival="sierra"><div class="cmp-proscons-pros"><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><ul><li>SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI among its certifications, and FedRAMP High held through Knox Systems, under whose platform it is listed</li><li>Holds PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider certification</li></ul></div><div class="cmp-proscons-cons"><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><ul><li>Sierra says it "automatically switches between LLM providers to optimize your agent"</li><li>Pricing is by outcome, with no published rate</li></ul></div></div>

**Pricing:** Outcome-based, with no published rate.

### 7. Decagon: Best for support teams adding voice to chat and email

**What does it do?** Decagon sells AI agents for customer support across chat, email, and voice, priced per conversation or per resolution.

**Who is it for?** Support teams that want one agent across chat, email, and voice.

<div class="cmp-proscons" data-rival="decagon"><div class="cmp-proscons-pros"><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><ul><li>One intelligence layer across chat, voice, and email</li></ul></div><div class="cmp-proscons-cons"><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><ul><li>Per-conversation or per-resolution pricing with no published rate</li><li>Says it uses "models from the frontier labs, along with our models developed by Decagon Labs"</li><li>No iMessage agents</li></ul></div></div>

**Pricing:** Per conversation or per resolution, with larger resolution commitments lowering the rate.

### 8. Retell: Best for developer teams that pick their own model and voice

**What does it do?** Retell is a platform for building and monitoring AI voice and chat agents, billed per minute with the language model and voice priced as separate lines. A customer's own SIP trunk (a connection to the phone network) carries no Retell phone charge, and phone on Twilio or Telnyx is billed on top.

**Who is it for?** Developer-led teams that want to choose their own language model and voice and pay per minute.

<div class="cmp-proscons" data-rival="retell"><div class="cmp-proscons-pros"><p><strong>Pros</strong></p><ul><li>A wide choice of language models and voices</li><li>SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR coverage</li></ul></div><div class="cmp-proscons-cons"><p><strong>Cons</strong></p><ul><li>Advertises "We guarantee >99.9% uptime", while its terms say "at least 99.5% uptime"</li><li>PII (personal data) Removal adds $0.01 a minute</li><li>No iMessage agents</li></ul></div></div>

**Pricing:** $0.07 to $0.31 per minute depending on the language model and voice, with Retell Voice Infra, GPT-4.1, and an ElevenLabs Flash voice coming to $0.14 per minute before phone.

### How were these alternatives ranked?

Each provider was compared on who builds the AI, deployment, how a bill is counted, compliance, and voice realism, with weight on what enterprise calls need. Every claim about a provider comes from its own public pages as read in November 2026, and voice scores come from Design Arena's chart of 4 August 2026.

Closer comparisons sit in [Bland vs Retell](/compare/bland-vs-retell), [Bland vs Vapi](/compare/bland-vs-vapi), [Bland vs Synthflow](/compare/bland-vs-synthflow), [Bland vs Decagon](/compare/bland-vs-decagon), [Bland vs Sierra](/compare/bland-vs-sierra), and [Bland vs ElevenLabs](/compare/bland-vs-elevenlabs). Related roundups cover [Best Cresta alternatives](/blog/cresta-alternatives), [Best Intercom alternatives](/blog/intercom-alternatives), and [Best CallFluent alternatives](/blog/callfluent-alternatives). A [demo](https://www.bland.ai/book-a-demo) built on a real customer workflow is the quickest next step.

## How much do Dialogflow alternatives cost?

Dialogflow alternatives count a bill in different units, from $0.05 per minute for hosting alone on Vapi to quoted contracts on PolyAI and Synthflow and outcome or resolution pricing on Sierra and Decagon, so no single rate settles a comparison.

Google's own units are seconds of audio and counts of chat requests, at $0.001 / 1 second for Flows voice and twice that for Playbooks voice. Bland's self-serve Start plan is $0.14 per minute for all of its AI, before phone. Enterprise pricing is custom, set with Bland's sales team.

![Bland's pricing page, with self-serve Start at $0.14 a minute, self-serve Build at $0.12 a minute, and custom Enterprise pricing.](/images/compare/bland-pricing.jpg)

Every total below is AI before phone. Retell's card adds Retell Voice Infra, GPT-4.1, and an ElevenLabs Flash voice to reach $0.14 per minute.

Vapi's card adds hosting to the top of each range Vapi says its providers run, and ElevenLabs' card adds the calculator's default model to a call minute.

Sierra and Decagon bill by outcome, conversation, or resolution, and PolyAI and Synthflow publish no managed per-minute rate, so no minute bill can be added up for them.

| Vendor | What a minute pays for | Total per minute | Phone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bland Start (self-serve) | All AI: model, transcription, speech $0.14 | $0.14 before phone | Billed separately at carrier cost |
| Retell | Voice infrastructure $0.055, GPT-4.1 $0.045, ElevenLabs Flash voice $0.04 | $0.14 before phone | Twilio at $0.015 a minute, billed on top |

Bland Start (self-serve): Self-serve Start has no platform fee. Self-serve Build is $0.12 a minute plus $299 a month. Phone and transfers bill separately. Retell: Retell Voice Infra, GPT-4.1, and an ElevenLabs Flash voice, before Twilio phone minutes.

| Vendor | What a minute pays for | Total per minute | Phone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vapi | Hosting $0.05, Transcription $0.0099, Language model $0.0452, Voice $0.0238 | $0.1289 before phone | Free on Vapi numbers, billed on top on Twilio at up to $0.014 a minute |
| ElevenLabs Agents | Call minute $0.08, Gemini 2.5 Flash, the calculator's default model $0.0029 | $0.0829 before phone | No ElevenLabs telephony fee, with a connected provider billing on top |

Vapi: Hosting plus the top of each range on Vapi's pricing calculator, before phone. ElevenLabs Agents: ElevenLabs call minute plus its pricing calculator's default model, before the customer's own phone provider.

## Which of these sounds most human?

Bland Speech v3 ranked 1st of 13 AI voices on Design Arena's Audio Realism Bench on 4 August 2026, at 1365, and every outside voice in those results that the other providers here let a customer choose scored lower.

On Retell and Vapi the highest outside voice was OpenAI's GPT Realtime 2, 4th at 1119. ElevenLabs' Eleven v3 ranked 12th at 938, and it is the one outside voice in those results that Synthflow offers.

See [Design Arena's published results](https://notes.designarena.ai/audio-realism-benchmark-measuring-realism-in-audio-models/).

## What does moving off Dialogflow involve?

Moving off Dialogflow means rebuilding conversation flows on a new platform, one flow at a time, and keeping phone numbers by connecting a carrier over [SIP](https://docs.bland.ai/agents/sip).

The safest start is one daily flow, rebuilt then run beside Dialogflow on a share of live calls. Because Google bills a conversation by the way its agent is built, a team should price its busiest flow on both Flows and Playbooks before it compares a total with anything else.

Transcripts and recordings should be exported before a project is shut down. On Enterprise, Bland's forward-deployed engineers work beside a customer's team on its first agent, and a rebuilt flow keeps its steps as Pathways instead of becoming one long prompt.

Bland also gates releases, since an agent moves from staging to production only when chosen simulated test cases pass chosen judges, and alarms on latency, long silences, transcription quality, and API errors reach a team by email, phone call, or API once a rebuilt flow is live.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the best alternative to Dialogflow?

Bland is the best alternative to Dialogflow for enterprise calls as of November 2026, because one company builds every model on a call, and Enterprise customers get dedicated orchestration and dedicated GPUs run by Bland.

### How much does Dialogflow cost?

Google bills Dialogflow voice agents at $0.001 / 1 second on Flows and twice that on Playbooks, and Flows chat agents at $0.007 / 1 count a request, as of November 2026. A call built as a Playbook that uses a Flow is charged entirely as Playbooks.

### Which Dialogflow alternatives support iMessage?

Bland is the one provider here that runs branded iMessage agents natively, on its Enterprise plan. Dialogflow, Vapi, Synthflow, ElevenLabs, PolyAI, Decagon, and Retell don't offer iMessage agents as of November 2026, and Sierra supports Apple Business Chat.

### Is Bland only for outbound calls?

No, Bland runs inbound and outbound calls, including AI receptionist and contact center work, and it also runs SMS and web chat.

### Is Bland only for developers?

No, Bland isn't only for developers. Pathways gives teams a visual builder, Norm helps build agents, and on Enterprise forward-deployed engineers build alongside a customer's team.

### Does Bland use an open-source model?

No, Bland operates a closed-source model that it developed itself, so its language model isn't an open-source model and no outside AI lab sits behind it.

### How much does Bland cost per minute compared with Dialogflow alternatives?

Rates run from $0.05 per minute for hosting alone on Vapi to $0.07 to $0.31 on Retell depending on the model and voice, while Sierra and Decagon count outcomes, conversations, and resolutions. Bland's self-serve Start plan is $0.14 per minute for all of its AI, before phone.

### Can I keep my phone carrier if I move to Bland?

Yes, Bland connects to a carrier or phone system over SIP, so numbers and routing stay in place.