Bland AI vs Retell AI: Who has the Best AI Phone Agent?

Bland AI – Overview

Founded in San Francisco in 2023 by Isaiah Granet and Sobhan Nejad, Bland AI is a game-changing phone automation system for enterprise companies that want to level-up their customer support and sales calls. Their AI-powered phone agents bring a perfect mix of customization and simplicity, with features like branded voice selection, tiered AI models, natural background sounds, and no-fuss external data connections - all designed to make automated calls feel surprisingly human.

In the next section, we'll break down how Bland AI's features stack up against Retell AI and Ringly.io. We'll dive into what each one does best, what they cost, and what real users are saying. Stick around to see why Ringly.io might actually be the smarter choice for businesses that want results without the headaches.

Core features Bland AI offers:

• ‍Conversational Pathways - Pathways is Bland's programming system that maps out conversations and decision points for your AI agents. This helps your AI stay on track and avoid "hallucinations" (making stuff up) during customer calls. It keeps conversations structured and predictable. Retell uses a similar agent builder approach but focuses more on testing capabilities.
• ‍Custom Prompts - Like Retell, you provide sample dialogues and key details to personalize how Bland's AI talks to your customers. This makes conversations feel more on-brand and relevant to your specific business needs rather than generic robot talk.‍
• Scalability Infrastructure - Bland can handle thousands of concurrent calls by automatically scaling resources as needed. You'll never miss business opportunities during high-volume periods, and you only pay for what you use. Both competitors offer similar scaling capabilities, but Ringly.io's system was built from the ground up for enterprise-level reliability, handling massive call volumes while maintaining perfect call quality even during peak times.‍
• API Integrations - Bland AI seamlessly integrates with your existing systems like CRMs, schedulers, and ERPs to exchange data during calls. Your AI agent can access and update customer information, book appointments, and take other actions in real-time while on the call. Retell AI markets their integrations heavily but requires more technical setup. Ringly.io provides the most comprehensive integration ecosystem with one-click connections to major platforms like Shopify and truly no-code workflows through Make.com and Zapier, making it accessible even to non-technical users.

Next, let's look at Bland AI's pros and cons. We studied dozens of reviews from real Bland AI users from platforms like G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius. Then we identified commonalities and summarized the main pros and cons of Bland AI based on real user feedback for you here:

Bland AI Pros:

• Low latency - Multiple users specifically mentioned being impressed by the speed of Bland's AI responses
• Time-saving for sales teams - Some users reported that it helped their sales teams save significant time
• Weekly improvements - Users noted that the team consistently improves the product with regular updates
• Good support - A few users mentioned receiving good customer support

Bland AI Cons:

• Setup difficulties - Multiple users reported spending hours setting up the system without achieving desired results, indicating a poor ease of use
• Poor reliability - Several users experienced calls where the AI doesn't speak or gets interrupted
• Customer loss concerns - Some users reported losing actual customers due to the AI's performance
• Unresponsive customer service - A significant number of users complained about slow or unhelpful support
• Can't replace human interaction - Multiple users expressed that the system falls short of real human contact

Retell AI – Overview

Founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2023 by Todd Li, Evie Wang, Bing Wu, Weijia Yu, and Zexia Zhang, Retell AI is crushing it as the go-to platform for lightning-fast AI voice agent creation. With over 3,000 businesses already on board, they're helping developers build human-like voice agents in just one day instead of months - a total game-changer for contact centers looking to level up their operations without the usual headaches.

Let's get into the meat of what makes Retell AI special next. We'll break down exactly how their features stack up against Bland AI and Ringly.io, what you'll actually pay, and what real customers are saying after using each option. Stick around to discover which of these powerhouses might be the perfect fit for your specific needs.

Retell AI offers these these features:

• ‍Voice AI API and Agent Builder - Create custom conversational AI agents through Retell's intuitive builder tools at a starting price of $0.07 per minute - cheaper than Bland's $0.09 rate. This makes setting up AI calling affordable for businesses of all sizes. Their agent builder lets you quickly craft conversation flows without deep technical know-how. While Bland focuses on their "Pathways" system, Retell emphasizes testing features that catch potential issues before deployment. However, Ringly.io takes ease-of-use to another level with templates that get you started in minutes rather than hours - no agent building required.‍
• Built-in LLM Testing - Retell lets you test your voice agents against different scenarios to make sure they handle tough situations correctly. This helps catch problems before your AI talks to real customers. Bland lacks this dedicated testing environment, forcing more trial-and-error with live calls. Ringly.io goes beyond simple testing with AI Call Analysis that continuously improves performance based on real conversations, not just simulations, meaning your system gets smarter every day without you lifting a finger.‍
• Call Transfer Features - Retell offers warm transfers with handoff messages so human agents know what's happening when they take over calls. You can set up multiple transfer paths based on different triggers or situations. Bland has similar transfer capabilities but with less emphasis on contextual handoffs. Ringly.io's Smart AI Call Transfer system is more advanced, automatically determining when transfers are needed based on customer emotion and complex triggers, with perfect call summaries that save human agents precious time.‍
• SIP Trunking Connectivity - Connect Retell to virtually any phone system or VoIP provider through SIP Trunking technology. This works with popular services like Twilio, Vonage, Telnyx and more. Bland requires more dedicated infrastructure setup. Ringly.io provides similar wide compatibility but adds a no-setup option that works instantly with your existing business phone number.‍
• Batch Calling Campaigns - Run large outbound call campaigns without concurrency limits and track conversions for each campaign. Perfect for sales outreach or follow-ups with detailed reporting afterward. Bland offers scaling but with less focus on batch management tools. ‍
• Multilingual Support - Retell AI provides in 18+ languages and dial phone numbers worldwide. This helps businesses reach international customers in their native languages. If you compare Retell AI to Bland, Bland AI stands out with 28 languages.

Next, let's look at Retell AI's pros and cons. We studied dozens of reviews from real Retell AI users from platforms like G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius. Then we identified commonalities and summarized the main pros and cons of Retell AI based on real user feedback for you here:

Retell AI Pros:

• Natural-sounding voice agents - Many users highlighted the quality of voice interactions that often pass as human
• Quick response times - Users consistently praised the low latency and fast response times
• Easy setup and deployment - Multiple users noted how quickly they could get agents up and running
• Cost-effective pricing - Several users mentioned the "pay for what you use" model with no platform fees
• Excellent integrations - Users appreciated the seamless integration with major language models and services
• Responsive development team - Many users praised the team's quick response to feature requests and issues
• Highly customizable - The platform's flexibility was regularly mentioned as a key strength

Retell AI Cons:

• UI improvements needed - Multiple users suggested the user interface could be more user-friendly
• Voice variety limitations - A few users wanted more options for male voices and customization
• API changes without notice - Some recent reviews mentioned unexpected API changes affecting production
• Slow customer support - A few recent reviews noted declining response times from customer support
• Account blocking issues - At least one user experienced account blocking without warning
• Platform still evolving - Some users noted that as a newer platform, features are still being developed

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Pricing - Retell vs Bland

Note: The pricing information below is accurate at the time of writing and may be subject to change. For the most up-to-date pricing, please visit the pricing page of Retell AI and Bland AI.

Bland AI pricing

Bland AI offers straightforward per-minute pricing, but watch out for those hidden costs! While their base rate looks attractive, you'll quickly find yourself paying extra for features that Ringly.io includes standard. Their enterprise tier requires custom negotiations, making it hard to budget without lengthy sales conversations.

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Retell AI pricing

Retell AI uses a complex "pay-as-you-go" model that looks cheap at first, but adds up FAST once you actually use it. While they boast about "no platform fees," you'll end up paying separately for each component of your calls. Their enterprise tier has a long 6-month minimum contract that locks you in.

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Ringly.io pricing

Ringly.io delivers the perfect balance of affordability and powerful features. Unlike competitors who nickel-and-dime you with add-on costs or force you into expensive tiers, Ringly.io includes all core features even in its free plan. The simple, transparent pricing scales based on your actual usage, with no surprise fees. Plus, Ringly.io is the only provider offering a 110% money-back guarantee, showing our absolute confidence in delivering value.

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Online customer reviews: Bland AI vs Retell AI

When evaluating ai voice assistant platforms like Bland, Retell, and Ringly.io, online reviews can provide great insights into user satisfaction, platform reliability, and overall ease of use. Here's a breakdown of the positive and negative reviews for each platform, based on their ratings and user feedback.

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What users are saying about Bland AI:

Bland is known for its human-like conversations for enterprises, with advanced features, while staying user-friendly. Bland has a 3.0-star rating from 10 reviews on Product Hunt, which means that users are generally not very positive.

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"Extremely impressed" - Casper Boutens. Extremely impressed by Bland, the team is improving their product every week, they offer great support and all by all great phone calls made by their AI.

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"Doesn't work at all" - Albert Salgueda. Doesn't work at all. I call and it doesn't speak, it gets interrupted... still not there.

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What users are saying about Retell:

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Retell is well known for its advanced AI features for developers. It has a 4.6 star rating from 12 reviews on G2. Overall, users seem to like Retell AI's interactive voice platform.

"Made our customer service smarter and faster" - Utkarsh M. We’ve been using Retell to build these voice agents for our customer service, for over a year. It’s so natural, people don’t even realize it’s not a human half the time. The responses are super quick too, like you’re having a real convo. It’s actually helped us cut down on how many calls our team has to take, and customers are definitely happier..less hold time and better answers. If you’re on the fence about trying it, just do it.

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"Extremely slow customer support on discord even when unannounced API changes break product" - Jerry Y. The product is the same as others on the market -- we would switch instantly if there were no switching cost, these guys are not a reliable vendor

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What users are saying about Ringly.io:

Ringly.io is known for its simplicity, and a focus on e-commerce, with features like abandoned cart recovery and order status lookups. It has a 4.8 star rating from 12 reviews on Product Hunt and other platforms.‍

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"it stands out significantly ahead"- Bertrand, Director. We are at the initial stage of testing and have made only a few calls so far. Consequently, I have rated the product with four stars for now. However, I must express that the product has shown significant promise. When compared to competitors, it stands out significantly ahead.

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"This is such a great product"- Jim Miranda, Founder. This is such a great product. I have been with you for less than a week and already closed 3 deals with it."

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"It really sounds like a human"- Laix, Founder. Tried Ringly.io today and the quality of the phone calls surprises me! It really sounds like a human, and it reacts really fast. Will need to deploy it in action to see the full capabilities.

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"How to automate customer service? -> Ringly.io" - Sidra Husnain, Founder.

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Why Ringly.io is a Better Choice

Highly Rated: 4.8/5

Ringly.io has quickly become a standout solution in the AI phone agent space. It’s seen impressive growth, particularly in ecommerce, where it has helped businesses automate their customer support and sales calls to skyrocket efficiency.

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Founded by Maurizio Isendoorn and Ruben Boonzaaijer, Ringly.io is designed to serve businesses looking to improve customer experiences while reducing reliance on human agents. The platform’s easy setup and seamless integrations with ecommerce platforms make it a go-to for growing businesses that need reliable, scalable phone solutions.

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What sets Ringly.io apart is its focus on automating customer service through AI, offering businesses of all sizes a simple way to manage inbound and outbound calls without the complexity. Whether you’re looking to automate order updates, recovery calls, or FAQs, Ringly.io makes it easy and accessible to even non-technical users.

Key features of Ringly.io's AI phone agent platform

• Knowledge base: Add your website, docs, or text, and your AI phone agent instantly becomes an expert on your business. No training needed - it just works. Your agent answers customer questions using your actual content, not made-up info. The system also updates daily with your website changes, so it's always current. This means fewer "let me get back to you" moments and more instant answers that build customer trust. Perfect for businesses tired of answering the same questions over and over

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• Abandoned Cart Recovery: Turn lost sales into money with AI phone calls that recover over 35% of abandoned carts. Your AI agent automatically calls customers who left items in their cart and helps close the sale. It works with all major platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. The best part? It's way more effective than emails or texts because it creates that human connection. Just pick a proven template, connect your store, fill in a few blanks, and watch sales roll in while you sleep.

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• Order Status Checking: Your AI phone agent checks order status in real-time during customer calls. When someone asks "Where's my package?" your agent instantly finds their order in Shopify and gives them the exact status. No more frustrated customers, no more manual lookups. It turns your most annoying support calls into your most satisfying customer experiences. The system works 24/7, verifies orders properly, and explains shipping updates in friendly, easy-to-understand language. Five minutes of setup saves you hours of tracking questions every week.

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• Smart AI Call Transfer: Your AI agent knows exactly when to hand calls to your team, complete with perfect call summaries. It routes calls to the right person or department based on custom triggers you set. You can handle transfers in multiple ways - cold transfers for urgent issues or warm transfers with context for better preparation. Your team only gets the calls they should, with complete context about why the customer is calling. This means your experts stay focused on complex issues while your AI handles the simple stuff automatically.

• SMS Capabilities: Stop making customers write down links and codes. Your AI agent sends perfect text messages during the call with just one click. Send checkout links, discount codes, and tracking numbers without spelling nightmares. Messages arrive instantly while customers are still on the call, so they know they got what they need. You can create templates with smart variables like {{customer_name}} for personalization, or let your AI craft custom messages based on the conversation. This feature turns "I'll think about it" into "I just bought it" by removing purchase barriers

• Custom Actions: Connect your calling agent to your business tools to create tickets, send emails, update CRMs, and more - all during customer calls. Works with everything from Freshdesk to HubSpot through simple no-code connections via Make.com or Zapier. Your agent collects exactly the information needed, then takes immediate action before the customer even hangs up. Create unlimited custom actions for different situations with smart triggers that activate at the perfect moment. This turns your phone system into your business command center, solving problems in real-time.

• AI Voicemails: Your AI agent recognizes voicemail boxes and leaves perfect messages every time - no more silent hangups on outbound calls. The system waits for the beep with natural timing and delivers custom messages that include personal details like names and order numbers. You control whether to leave messages or hang up, what script to use, and what personal variables to include. Set up once, use forever across all your call campaigns. This feature ensures consistent professional messaging while your team focuses on live conversations.

• AI Call Analysis: See exactly why calls succeed or fail with powerful AI analysis of every conversation. Your dashboard shows call results (resolved, incomplete, transferred), caller mood (positive, negative, neutral), and AI-written summaries of key points. Powerful search and filtering help you find calls by keyword, length, cost, or any data point you need. The system doesn't just track calls - it shows you how to improve them with AI suggestions, category analysis, and trend spotting.

• AI Phone Call Automations: Create end-to-end workflows that handle entire customer journeys automatically. Trigger calls from anywhere through Zapier integration or API connections, reaching customers exactly when they need help. Send call data to your other systems to keep everything in sync, including summaries, results, and customer mood. No coding needed - just simple tools like Zapier or Make.com..

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Bland AI vs Retell AI: Which is Best for You?

Let's cut through the noise and figure out which AI calling solution fits YOUR use case like a glove. After digging into features, pricing, and of course customer satisfaction, here's who each platform works best for...

Who Bland AI is best for...

• Enterprise teams with technical resources - If you've got developers who can spend time tweaking and optimizing, Bland's customizable Pathways system might be worth the setup headaches
• Sales teams focused on outbound calls - Their low latency can help sales reps save time on repetitive outreach calls (just watch out for those customer loss reports!)
• Businesses needing simple, predictable pricing - Their $0.09/minute rate is straightforward, though you'll pay extra for features Ringly.io includes standard
• Companies willing to trade reliability for lower base costs - You'll save a few pennies per minute, but according to reviews, you might lose customers in the process

Who Retell AI is best for...

• Developers building voice AI applications - Their API-first approach and testing tools make it ideal for technical teams building custom solutions
• Budget-conscious startups (who don't mind hidden fees) - That "$0.07/minute" looks great until you add LLM costs, telephony fees, and all those little extras
• Businesses who need batch calling campaigns - Their outbound calling features work well for large-scale campaigns
• Companies needing multilingual support - With 18+ languages available, they're solid for international calling (though not as comprehensive as Bland's 28 languages)

Who Ringly.io is best for...

• Ecommerce businesses who want results, not headaches - Ringly.io delivers reliability that actually generates revenue instead of customer complaints
• Non-technical teams who need to launch FAST - While others take days or weeks to set up, Ringly.io's templates get you making perfect calls in minutes, no coding needed
• Growing businesses that can't afford downtime - With near-zero downtime and crystal-clear call quality even during peak times, your growth isn't limited by technical problems

Truth is, while Bland and Retell both have their strengths, Ringly.io delivers what MATTERS most - reliable calls that actually grow your business, not drive customers away. The slightly higher price point pays for itself many times over when you're not losing customers to poor call quality and system failures.

Plus, Ringly.io's transparent pricing means no surprises on your bill and no 6-month lock-in contracts like Retell requires for enterprise. You stay because it works, not because you're trapped.

Find the best AI phone call solution

Look, at the end of the day, your business needs calls that actually work. Not calls that sound like robots or drop in the middle of important conversations with customers.

After diving deep into Bland AI, Retell AI, and Ringly.io, here's what we've learned:

• Bland AI works if you've got tech people who can babysit it and you don't mind some setup headaches. Their $0.09/minute pricing model seems simple, but watch out for those add-ons. Go with Bland if you're willing to risk some customer complaints for a slightly lower base rate.
• Retell AI is solid for developers who want API access and don't mind piecing together different components. Their "$0.07/minute" pricing structure looks cheap until you add up all the extra fees. Choose Retell if you're technically savvy and don't mind being locked into a 6-month contract for enterprise features.
• Ringly.io simply delivers what matters most - reliable calls that grow your business instead of driving customers away. The slightly higher price is nothing compared to the cost of losing customers to poor customer interaction. Pick Ringly.io if you want to set it up fast, without technical headaches, and actually have it work consistently.

Bottom line? The cheapest option isn't always the best value. When AI calling goes wrong, you don't just lose the cost of the call – you lose the customer. Ringly.io's focus on reliability over rock-bottom pricing means you'll actually make more money in the long run.

Want to compare other competitors in the market?

• Compare Bland AI and Synthflow
• Choose Bland AI or Vapi AI?

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