Softwr

Telecommunications · head to head

Dialpad vs Exotel

Dialpad logo

Dialpad

Telecommunications

Cloud phone and voice communications

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Exotel logo

Exotel

Telecommunications

Indian cloud telephony and contact centre platform sold as prepaid credit bundles

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Dialpad pricing details not publicly disclosed; requires contacting sales; Exotel bundles expire: the 9,999 rupee Dabbler pack has only five months of validity and unused credits are lost at the end, so seasonal or uneven calling volumes waste money that a pay-as-you-go carrier would not.
  • They diverge on capability: Dialpad covers Voice calls, Exotel covers Exophones.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dialpad and Exotel actually diverge.

Attributes where Dialpad and Exotel differ
AttributeDialpadExotel
Pricing modelUnknownPrepaid credit bundle with a fixed validity period
PlatformsWeb, MobileWeb, iOS, Android, API
Founded2013Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Telecommunications).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Dialpad

  • Voice calls
  • Video meeting
  • Chat
  • Analytics
  • Call recording
  • Slack
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot

Only in Exotel

  • Exophones
  • IVR and call flows
  • Number masking
  • Contact centre
  • SMS and WhatsApp
  • Call recording and quality
  • CRM integrations
  • Communication APIs

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Dialpad

  • Customer service with AI voice and chat agentsnot Exotel
  • Autonomous contact centre operations with handoff to humansnot Exotel
  • Multi-channel communication (voice, chat, SMS, email)not Exotel
  • HIPAA-compliant healthcare communicationnot Exotel

Exotel

  • An Indian delivery or marketplace platform that must connect customers and riders without exposing either phone numbernot Dialpad
  • A lending or insurance business running outbound collections that needs recorded, monitored calls from Indian numbers with DLT compliance handlednot Dialpad
  • A healthcare aggregator routing patient calls to the right clinic by IVR with fallback to a queue outside working hoursnot Dialpad
  • A product team that wants to trigger verification calls and SMS from its own application over a REST API rather than buy an agent productnot Dialpad

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Dialpad

  • Pricing details not publicly disclosed; requires contacting sales
  • AI Agent pricing uses credit-based model with pay-per-value structure
  • Specific pricing tiers and feature comparisons not available on public website

Exotel

  • Bundles expire: the 9,999 rupee Dabbler pack has only five months of validity and unused credits are lost at the end, so seasonal or uneven calling volumes waste money that a pay-as-you-go carrier would not.
  • Voice, SMS and WhatsApp draw from one shared credit pool, which means a marketing SMS burst can consume the credits your support line needs and force an unplanned top-up.
  • Per-minute billing runs on a pulse of 30 or 60 seconds, so a 61 second call is charged as two full minutes; on high call volumes this materially inflates the effective rate against a per-second competitor.
  • Coverage and pricing are built around India, with a smaller footprint in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, so a business calling mainly North America or Europe gets worse rates and less carrier depth than a global CPaaS provider.
  • The enterprise contact centre tier publishes no pricing at all, so the transparent bundle prices only apply to the small end and larger buyers are back in an opaque sales process.

Pricing, plan by plan

Dialpad

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Dialpad review.

Exotel

On request
  • Dabbler$9999/year
    • Validity is five months, not twelve
    • Rental component of 4,999 rupees included in the price
    • 5,000 shared credits across calls, SMS and WhatsApp
  • Believer$19999/year
    • Validity is eleven months
    • Rental component of 10,499 rupees included
    • 9,500 shared credits
  • Influencer$49499/year
    • Validity is eleven months
    • Rental component of 10,499 rupees included
    • 39,000 shared credits
  • Enterprise Contact Centre$undefined/year
    • Full contact centre with supervisor tooling and AI agents
    • Custom credit and agent volumes
    • Pricing quoted, not published

Which should you pick?

Choose Dialpad if

  • You need voice calls.
  • You work on Web, Mobile.
  • You also want video meeting.
Dialpad review

Choose Exotel if

  • You need exophones.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, API.
  • You also want ivr and call flows.
Exotel review

Questions people ask

Is Dialpad or Exotel better?
Neither clearly leads. Dialpad starts at On request and Exotel at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dialpad or Exotel?
Dialpad starts at On request and Exotel at On request.
Does Dialpad or Exotel run on more platforms?
Dialpad runs on Web, Mobile. Exotel runs on Web, iOS, Android, API.
What is Dialpad best used for?
Dialpad is most often used for customer service with ai voice and chat agents, autonomous contact centre operations with handoff to humans, multi-channel communication (voice, chat, sms, email), hipaa-compliant healthcare communication. Of those, customer service with ai voice and chat agents and autonomous contact centre operations with handoff to humans are not what Exotel is typically brought in for.
What can Dialpad do that Exotel cannot?
Dialpad covers Voice calls, Video meeting, Chat, Analytics. Exotel covers Exophones, IVR and call flows, Number masking, Contact centre.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dialpad: How much does Dialpad cost?

Dialpad uses conversation-based pricing where customers purchase a pool of AI Agent Credits. Billing occurs only when AI delivers value by retrieving information or executing actions. Exact pricing is not published online and requires contacting sales.

Source
Exotel: Does Exotel publish prices?

Yes for its business phone system bundles: 9,999 rupees for Dabbler, 19,999 for Believer and 49,499 for Influencer. The enterprise contact centre is quoted.

Dialpad: What is Dialpad's AI Agent pricing model?

Dialpad AI Agents are priced per conversation using a credit system. Credits are used only when the AI retrieves information or executes actions like scheduling, routing, or order lookup.

Source
Exotel: Do unused credits roll over?

No. Credits are tied to the bundles validity period, five months on Dabbler and eleven months on the higher packs, and expire at the end of it.

Exotel: Can I use Exotel outside India?

Exotel operates in Southeast Asia and the Middle East as well, but India is where it holds licences, handles DLT registration and has the best rates and carrier relationships.

Exotel: Is there a free trial?

Yes, a seven-day trial with 500 rupees of credit and no commitment.

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