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AI Dialer

Comparison

OpenPhone vs Dialpad: which fits your team?

Reviewed by Sujan ThapaliyaLast updated

The short answer

OpenPhone is a shared-number app built around conversations, and it is the simpler and cheaper of the two for a small team. Dialpad is a full business phone system with meetings, built-in AI transcription and a separate contact-centre product. The choice is really whether you need a phone system or a shared inbox with a number attached.
Flat per-seat licensing plotted against metered usage over connected minutes: the licence is $750 a month regardless of use, metered calling starts at zero and rises at $0.020 a minute, and the two only meet at 37,500 connected minutes. Where your team sits on this chart decides most comparisons of this kind.
Most comparisons in this area resolve to volume rather than features.

Side by side

What is the difference between openphone and dialpad?

The differences that change a decision, not a feature checklist.

OpenPhoneDialpad
What it isShared numbers and shared inboxesBusiness phone system with meetings and messaging
Pricing modelPer user, monthly or annualPer user, tiered, annual discounting
Team size it suitsSmall teams, up to a few dozenSmall through enterprise
Built-in AICall summaries and transcriptsReal-time transcription and coaching, a long-standing strength
Video meetingsNoYes
Contact centreNoSeparate product tier
Outbound dialling modesNoneIn the contact-centre product, not the phone plan

Which to choose

Which one should you use?

OpenPhone for a small team that mostly replies

Shared numbers, a shared inbox, and an app people learn in minutes. If the work is responding to customers rather than working a list, this is the cleaner and cheaper answer.

Dialpad when you need a phone system, not an app

Departments, routing, meetings, and transcription that is genuinely among the best in the category. It is the right choice when the whole company's telephony is the problem being solved.

Neither, if the job is outbound volume

Neither ships power, parallel or predictive dialling in its phone product. On Dialpad that means a second contract for the contact centre; on OpenPhone it is simply not there. If reps spend the day on a list, both leave most of the hour in ring time.

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper?
OpenPhone at the entry tier, in most comparisons. The figure that matters is the tier you actually need — Dialpad's transcription and routing sit at different levels, and both discount annually — so price the tier that has your features rather than the headline plan.
Can either handle a cold-calling team?
Not well. Cold calling depends on dialling throughput and on caller-ID reputation, and neither is what these products optimise. A team below roughly a 15% answer rate spends most of its hour listening to ringtone on either one.

Sources

  1. Telemarketing Sales Rule — Federal Trade CommissionDo-not-call obligations, abandonment-rate limits for predictive dialing, and required call disclosures.
  2. 47 U.S.C. § 227 — Restrictions on the use of telephone equipment — Cornell Legal Information InstituteThe Telephone Consumer Protection Act itself — the consent requirements, calling-hours limits, and private right of action.
  3. National Do Not Call Registry — Federal Trade CommissionThe registry that outbound calling lists must be scrubbed against.

Run both modes on one platform

You do not have to choose a product to choose a mode. Power, parallel, and predictive dialing are all in the base product; switch per campaign, per list, per hour of the day.

  • Every dialing mode included
  • No seat licences
  • Compliance guardrails on by default
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