An OpenPhone alternative when the bill is the international minutes
OpenPhone is a shared number and a shared inbox, and the texting is the half that does not travel. International calling is metered on top of a licence per person.
01What it is
What OpenPhone actually is
OpenPhone gives a small business one number that several people can answer, a shared inbox where calls and texts sit in the same thread, and light contact records attached to them. It is genuinely good at the thing it is for, which is a founder or a small team who want to stop running the business from a personal mobile.
02The model
How OpenPhone is priced
A licence per user per month, plus a recurring charge for each extra number. The people on the account are the unit, so the bill grows when the team grows rather than when the calling does.
We describe OpenPhone by what it does, never by what it charges. Seat prices change, vary by country and often sit behind a sales call, so a figure copied here would go stale faster than anyone would re-check it. Read theirs on their own pricing page. Ours is published in full at /rates and is generated from the same table the keypad quotes from.
03Where it stops
Where it stops, if the problem is international calling
It is a United States and Canada product first.
That is where the numbers, the texting and the support are built out. Everything else is available rather than native, which matters most if the point of the account is calling somewhere else.
Texting is the core, and texting is the part that does not cross a border.
Business texting in the US runs through carrier registration that is specific to US networks. It does not become an international messaging channel by adding a country to the account, so the feature you are paying for is the one that stops at the border.
Everyone with a login is billed, whoever placed the call.
A five-person team where one person makes the international calls pays five licences. The calling itself is then metered on top.
Rates are per country rather than per number.
A landline and a mobile in the same country are usually quoted at one blended figure, which is fine until the number you were handed turns out to be the dearer of the two.
04What we are not
What you would be giving up
Airlophone is calling, not a phone system. These are the specific things OpenPhone does that it does not, stated before the price rather than after it.
We cannot send a text.
A rented number receives SMS and shows it in an inbox here. Sending is not built, because outbound business texting in the US requires carrier registration we have not done, and half a messaging feature is worse than none.
There is no shared inbox and no assigning a thread to a colleague.
A rented number can be assigned to one person on the team, and that is the whole of it. Nobody claims a conversation, nobody hands one over, and there are no internal comments on a thread.
Contacts are a name and a note, not a record.
You can name a number and write yourself a line about it. There are no custom properties, no tags, no pipeline and nothing that syncs anywhere.
No shared voicemail.
An inbound call that nobody answers is not recorded and does not become a message in an inbox. If voicemail is part of how the team works, this does not replace it.
05Stay put if
When OpenPhone is the right answer
Stay where you are.
You text customers, you need two people in the same conversation, or the shared inbox is how the business actually runs. Those are the three things OpenPhone is for and the three things here are weakest.
06What it costs
What the calling itself costs here
No licence, no seat, no minimum and no commitment. You fund one balance, the team spends from it, and a colleague who made no calls this month costs nothing. Rates for a founder calling suppliers and customers abroad, from $0.02 a minute across 220+ countries:
| Destination | Landline | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico | $0.03 | $0.07 |
| United Kingdom | $0.07 | $0.09 |
| India | $0.15 | $0.12 |
| Canada | $0.02 | $0.02 |
| Philippines | $0.59 | $0.89 |
Per minute in US dollars from a US caller ID, billed per minute with part of a minute counting as a full one. Read live from the published card, so this table cannot disagree with what you are charged. A landline and a mobile in the same country are priced apart because they cost different amounts to reach, and the band is resolved from the digits you dial rather than from a question you are asked.
A shared balance, a monthly cap per person enforced when they press Call, and an answer rate per member rather than a call count: see how the team account works, including the five things it deliberately does not do.
07Try it
Price a call your team actually makes
Type a real number from your own call log. The exact rate for that number appears before anything dials, and the first minute is free without a card.
Type a number to see its exact price.
Sign up and call. First minute on us, no card details.
08Questions
Common questions
What is a good OpenPhone alternative for international calling?
If the reason you are looking is the international bill rather than the product, the alternative is pay-as-you-go calling: one prepaid balance the team spends from, no licence per person, and a per-minute rate published for every country before you sign up. The trade is the shared inbox and the texting, which is most of what OpenPhone is, so it is only the right swap if calling is the part you use.
Can I send business texts from Airlophone?
No. A number rented here receives SMS and shows it in an inbox, and sending is not built. Outbound business texting on US networks requires a carrier registration process we have not completed, and we would rather say that plainly than ship a sending feature that silently drops messages.
Is there a phone number service with no monthly fee per user?
Yes, if what you need is calling rather than a phone system. Airlophone charges nothing per person on the account: you fund one balance, everyone spends from it, and a member who made no calls this month costs nothing. A rented number is a separate flat monthly charge and only if you want one.
Does OpenPhone work outside the US?
It is built around US and Canadian numbers and US business texting, and that is where the product is strongest. Whether it fits a team based elsewhere is a question for their own documentation. What is worth checking either way is how the international minutes are priced, because that is the line that grows with use rather than with headcount.
Price it against your last OpenPhone invoice
Take a number off your own call log, type it in, and read the per-minute rate for that exact number. No licence, no seat count, no commitment, and the first minute is free without a card.