We Tried The Best Play AI Alternatives in 2025 – Here's #1

TL;DR – What’s the best Play AI alternative?

To save you the time, we'll give it to you straight: It's Ringly.io. Throughout our analysis, we found that it delivers 2x the quality at half the learning curve, making it the clear winner for businesses that need reliable AI content without the headaches.

Ready for the details? Let's go in.

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What is Play AI?

Play AI hit the market in 2022 from Mountain View, California. Founded by tech pros Hammad Syed and Mahmoud Felfel, it's an AI voice tool that's changing how businesses talk to customers.

In simple terms, Play AI lets you build voice agents and create custom voices. These advanced AI voices make it ideal to handle customer calls, answer questions, make sales calls, and book appointments - allowing businesses to focus on what they're good at. It's like having a whole team of perfect employees who never sleep, never complain, and always follow your rules.

Play's platform also provides text-to-speech (tts) AI voice generation, voiceovers, but for this article we'll only focus on their AI voice agents.

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Top user complaints of Play's AI agent

We meticulously studied dozens of user reviews of Play.ht from online review platforms like G2, Gartner, and SoftwareAdvice and identified the following themes amongst user complaints that you should be wary of when looking for a Play AI alternative:

• Terrible Customer Support: Users consistently report waiting days or weeks for responses to support tickets, with many messages going completely unanswered despite promises of 12-hour response times.

• Billing Issues: Multiple customers describe continued charges after cancellation attempts, forcing some to cancel credit cards to stop payments, suggesting potentially deceptive billing practices.

• Technical Glitches: Users frequently mention experiencing bugs, slow performance, and unreliable outputs that severely impact usability for even basic tasks.

• Confusing Settings: Several reviews point to poorly explained configuration options and settings that make it difficult to utilize the platform effectively.

• Poor Admin Controls: Business users highlight weak administrative features ithat prevent proper management of team access and project modification permissions.

• Unpredictable Pricing Changes: Customers report dramatic price increases without clear explanation, with one noting a shocking 23x cost jump within a single year.

• Unreliable Performance: Many users mention the service staying in calls with no conversation for extended periods, wasting resources and credits unnecessarily.

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What to look for in competitors and alternatives to Play AI

• Responsive support: Find a provider that actually answers when you reach out. The gold standard? Live chat support with real humans who respond within minutes, not days or weeks.

• Transparent billing: Look for clear, straightforward pricing with easy cancellation options. The best alternatives let you cancel with a single click, no hoops to jump through.

• Rock-solid reliability: Your AI should work consistently every time. Test any alternative with your specific use cases before committing to make sure it delivers.

• Intuitive interface: The best platforms make complex AI simple to use with clear explanations, tooltips, and settings that actually make sense to non-technical users, so look for a user-friendly interface.

• Strong team controls: If you're using it for business, make sure administrators have enough customization options and protect projects from unwanted changes.

• Stable pricing model: Choose a provider with a history of reasonable, predictable pricing. Ask about their price change history before signing any long-term contracts.

• Efficient resource usage: Find an alternative that optimizes processing time and doesn't waste your credits or subscription time on unnecessary operations.

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#1 – Ringly.io – Best Play AI alternative

Best for: Online businesses & e-commerce stores that don't want to deal with customer service but just scale.

Product Hunt rating: 4.8/5 stars

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Founded in 2024 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, by Maurizio Isendoorn and Ruben Boonzaaijer, Ringly.io is revolutionizing e-commerce customer service with AI phone agents.

Designed for online businesses, Ringly handles customer calls on autopilot—solving support issues, recovering abandoned carts, and even boosting sales—at just 20% of the cost of human agents.

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With 1,300+ customers, Ringly.io is the go-to solution for e-commerce stores looking to scale without scaling their support team. With award-winning technology (BubbleCon 2024's "Most Innovative App"), Ringly.io transforms your phone system into a revenue-driving powerhouse—without the headaches of traditional call centers.

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AI features that make Ringly.io the #1 Play AI alternative

• No-code setup, instant results – Ringly.io is ready to go in minutes. Just add your website, docs, or text—no engineering required—and your AI phone agent instantly understands your business. It even updates automatically as your website changes.

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• ‍AI-powered sales & support – Ringly.io does both inbound and outbound calls. Recover 35%+ of abandoned carts with automated follow-up calls, provide real-time order tracking from Shopify, and convert more customers with personalized AI-driven conversations—not just reactive support.

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• Advanced analytics for smarter decisions – Ringly.io gives you real-time call data, customer intent tracking, and performance reports—helping you optimize support and sales strategies.

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• Scalable pricing without enterprise contracts – Ringly.io offers transparent, scalable pricing—pay for what you use, no locked-in contracts.

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Ringly.io cons:

• Not built for large enterprise call centers – Best for e-commerce and SMBs rather than massive enterprise call centers with complex IVR needs.
• Outbound calls require consent – Unlike human agents, AI outbound calling requires opt-in compliance, which varies by region.
• No custom code options – The Ringly.io platform is designed to easily create no-code ai phone agents, but less friendly for developers with more technical expertise that need versatile tools like custom code options.

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Ringly.io pricing plans:

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Ringly.io vs. Play AI: Cost vs. Value

• Ringly.io has clear pricing starting at $21/month with pay-as-you-go scaling. No contracts, no cancellation fees, and even a 110% money-back guarantee. Play AI starts at $9/month but hits you with extra charges for minutes ($0.18/extra minute), limits your voice clones, and restricts concurrent conversations.

• Ringly.io has a Free plan available with 10 minutes of AI phone calls—no credit card needed. Play AI also has a free plan but only gives you 30 minutes with major limitations on everything else.

• Ringly.io is ideal for e-commerce and SMBs, offering full features on all plans with scaling based on usage. Play AI forces you to upgrade to higher tiers just to get basic functionality like more concurrent conversations or voice clones.

• Ringly.io offers three levels of onboarding—DIY, Done-With-You, and Done-For-You—at different price points. Play AI users report "terrible customer support" with "days or weeks" of waiting for responses, and many messages going completely unanswered.

If you're an SMB or e-commerce brand looking for a powerful AI phone agent without the headaches, Ringly.io delivers better value, flexible pricing, and risk-free test calls—while Play AI users struggle with "billing issues," "technical glitches," and "unpredictable pricing changes" that shocked one customer with a 23x cost jump in a single year!‍

Reviews

"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.‍

"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."

"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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Get started with Ringly.io for free

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2. Synthflow

Best for: Small and medium-sized businesses looking for a powerful conversational ai platform.

Product Hunt rating: 4.7/5 (201 reviews)

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Founded in Berlin, Germany in 2023 by Albert Astabatsyan, Hakob Astabatsyan, and Sassun Mirzakhan-Saky, Synthflow AI offers a great conversational AI voice. With over 1,000 users, they're helping businesses stop missing calls and start making more money with their conversational ai technology designed for SMEs.

Their human-like voice AI agents don't just follow scripts—they actually understand what callers want and handle everything from appointments to customer questions without a human needing to step in.

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Features

• Human-like AI voices: Like Play AI, Synthflow can really roll with the conversation changes.
• Ready-to-Go Templates: Synthflow has an AI platform designed to make it easy to create agents with features like setting up meetings. Play AI offers "powerful AI voice agents built with just a few clicks" but seems less specific about what templates they include.
• Built-In Steps for Getting Things Done: Synthflow comes with workflows already set up. Play AI mentions they can "transform customer support" and "set appointments" but doesn't clearly explain how their workflows function.
• Connects to Everything: Synthflow works with 200+ business tools! Play AI only mentions integrating "with any back end system using Zapier and Make" without giving specific numbers.
• Speaks 20+ Languages: Synthflow has optimized their system for different languages. Play says they have 30 languages.
• Always Working: Synthflow's AI never sleeps. Play AI also mentions their agents work 24/7.

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Cons

• Pricing Gets Crazy Fast: People hate how Synthflow's prices jump up between plans and how fast minutes get used up. Play AI users report "dramatic price increases without clear explanation" with one customer seeing a shocking "23x cost jump within a single year."
• Sometimes Works, Sometimes Doesn't: Users say Synthflow can fade in and out during calls. Play AI customers complain about "unreliable performance" with "service staying in calls with no conversation for extended periods, wasting resources and credits."
• Glitchy Software: Synthflow freezes up and loses work. Play AI users constantly mention "bugs, slow performance, and unreliable outputs that severely impact usability for even basic tasks."
• Hard to Get Help: Synthflow's support is slow to respond. Play AI has "terrible customer support" with users "waiting days or weeks for responses" and "many messages going completely unanswered."
• Can't Really Try Before You Buy: Synthflow doesn't give enough free minutes to test properly, although they have a free trial. Play AI has a free plan with 30 minutes but severely limits what you can do with it.

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Pricing

• Starter Plan: Synthflow charges $29/month for just 50 minutes (that's $0.58/minute!) compared to Play AI's $9/month for 50 minutes ($0.18 per extra minute).
• Pro Plan: Synthflow costs $375/month for 2,000 minutes ($0.19/minute). Play AI's Pro plan is $99/month for 700 minutes ($0.14 per extra minute) - less minutes but slightly cheaper per minute.
• Growth & Higher Plans: Synthflow charges $750-$1,250/month ($0.19-$0.21/minute) for their higher tiers. Play AI's Scale plan is $299/month for 2,500 minutes ($0.11/extra minute) and Business plan is $999/month for 11,000 minutes ($0.09/extra minute).
• Enterprise: Both have custom pricing for big business customers.

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Reviews

"Is a very good platform" - Alejandro Palacios. Is good, easy to use, I like the videos for guide.I've just started to use, hope this keep going well. I would like to see some other languages.

"Synthflow support is non existent" - Andrew Vernon. I used Synthflow for testing purposes to compare it against other VoiceAI platforms. Their support is non existent. I sent and email and opened a support ticket and none were answered. There's no way we could go ahead, what if we had issues, how long would the response times be.

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3. Goodcall

Best for: Local businesses that want to streamline customer service

Product Hunt and Trustpilot rating: 3.6/5 (6 reviews)

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Founded in 2021 in Palo Alto, California by Bob Summers, Goodcall is revolutionizing customer service and sales with its innovative Agentic Voice AI. With over 2,000 users, Goodcall helps local businesses streamline their operations by automating call handling and sales processes, ensuring no opportunity is missed.

Key features include 24/7 call handling, lead capture and qualification, realistic AI speech, appointment scheduling, and seamless integration with existing tools. By offering detailed call analysis and optimizing workflows, Goodcall is designed to enhance customer service, and stay ahead in today’s fast-paced market.

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Features

• Grabs Lead Info Fast: GoodCall snags caller details automatically and texts or emails you right away. Play AI talks about "transform customer interactions" but doesn't clearly mention instant notifications.
• Teaches Your AI New Tricks: You can train your GoodCall AI to get smarter over time. Play AI mentions "model finetuning" but only for Enterprise customers, not for regular users.
• Books Appointments By Itself: GoodCall handles scheduling without you doing a thing. Play's platform offers AI-powered agents that can "set appointments the easy way" and "set or reschedule appointments based on rules you set."
• Works With Your Other Tools: GoodCall has a seamless integration with your CRM, Google Voice, and Slack. Play AI says they integrate "with any back end system using Zapier and Make" but doesn't list specific tools.

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Cons

• Always Trying To Sell You More: GoodCall pushes upgrades too hard. Play AI users complain about "billing issues" with "continued charges after cancellation attempts" forcing some to "cancel credit cards to stop payments."
• Hard To Get Help: GoodCall's customer support is tough to reach. Play AI has "terrible customer support" with users waiting "days or weeks for responses" and "many messages going completely unanswered."
• Sometimes Breaks Down: GoodCall's phone numbers and voicemail can be glitchy. Play AI users report even worse issues with "technical glitches," "slow performance," and "unreliable outputs" plus "service staying in calls with no conversation" wasting credits.
• Not What They Promised: GoodCall's free account wasn't as good as advertised. Play AI has a free plan, but with tiny limits - just 30 minutes, 1 voice clone, 3 private notes, and 1 private agent.

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Pricing

• GoodCall Starting Plan ($59/month): Unlimited minutes for 100 customers, plus forms and logic flows. Play AI charges $9/month for just 50 minutes then hits you with $0.18 per extra minute.
• GoodCall Growing Plan ($99/month): Unlimited minutes for 250 customers. Play AI's similar-priced Pro plan ($99/month) only gives you 700 minutes, then charges $0.14 per extra minute.
• GoodCall Big Plan ($199/month): Unlimited minutes for 500 customers. Play AI's Scale plan costs more at $299/month for 2,500 minutes, charging $0.11 per minute after that.

The simple truth: GoodCall gives you ALL THE MINUTES YOU WANT for a flat fee - which is HUGE if you make lots of calls. But you're limited by customer count.

Play AI might look cheaper at first glance, but those minutes disappear FAST. And the scary part? Play AI customers are SCREAMING about billing problems, terrible support, and glitches that waste your minutes.

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Reviews

"Incredible product" - Danny Lannon. saves me so much time, and I've been able to capture leads in an entirely new way. 100% worth it and saves me a ton of time.

"Customer dis-service" - Merle Craner. When I call a customer service number, I expect a number of options to eventually get to a person to deal with the problem. Goodcall starts immediately with upsell options to service I don't want or need. There is no interaction, just a constant sales pitch. If you have the patience, you will be told they can't help with the problem and provide another number to go through the exact same process again.

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4. Retell AI

Best for: Developers that want to build AI voice agents for businesses looking to enhance customer support.

G2 rating: 4.6/5 (12 reviews)

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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.

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Features

• Talk in Many Languages Worldwide: Retell AI helps businesses talk to customers around the world. Play has multiple languages as well with "English, Spanish, Arabic fully supported" and "25+ languages under development."
• Easy Phone Setup: Retell AI connects to your current phone systems and makes it easy to manage AI agents. Play AI mentions integration but users complain about "confusing settings" that "make it difficult to utilize the platform effectively."
• Keeps Data Safe: Retell AI has important safety certifications like SOC 2 and HIPAA. Play AI matches this with "GDPR, SOC 2 type II, and ISO2700 compliant" security.
• Watches How Calls Go: Retell AI shows you how calls are doing with real-time AI, including AI transcription. Play AI doesn't clearly mention call analytics in their features.

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Cons

• Talk in Many Languages Worldwide: Retell AI helps businesses talk to customers around the world. Play AI is still catching up with only "English, Spanish, Arabic fully supported" and "25+ languages under development."
• Easy Phone Setup: Retell AI connects to your current phone systems and makes it easy to manage AI agents. Play AI mentions integration but users complain about "confusing settings" that "make it difficult to utilize the platform effectively."
• Keeps Data Safe: Retell AI has important safety certifications like SOC 2 and HIPAA. Play AI matches this with "GDPR, SOC 2 type II, and ISO2700 compliant" security.
• Watches How Calls Go: Retell AI shows you how calls are doing with real-time AI, including AI transcription. Play AI doesn't clearly mention call analytics in their features.

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Pricing

• Pay-as-you-go: Retell AI charges $0.07–$0.31 per minute depending on what you use. Play AI starts at $9/month for 50 minutes ($0.18 per extra minute) and goes up to $999/month for 11,000 minutes ($0.09 per extra minute).
• Big Business Plan: Retell AI offers custom prices as low as $0.03 per minute. Play AI has an Enterprise plan with "custom pricing" but doesn't list specific rates.
• Extra Costs: Phone numbers and other add-ons cost more with Retell AI. Play AI limits features by plan level - you need higher tiers to get more voice clones, concurrent conversations, and other basic features.

The real story: Retell AI might have some growing pains, but at least they're upfront about their pricing. Play AI looks cheaper at first but BAM! - users get hit with "continued charges after cancellation" and "dramatic price increases without clear explanation." Some poor customer even saw a 23x price jump in one year!

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Reviews

"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.‍

"Extremely slow customer service 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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5. Bland AI

Best for: Enterprise companies that want a voice ai platform to streamline customer support and sales

Product Hunt rating: 3.0/5 (10 reviews)

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Founded in San Francisco in 2023 by Isaiah Granet and Sobhan Nejad, Bland AI is an innovative platform designed to build artificial intelligence-powered phone calling agents that efficiently handle the bulk of enterprise call volume.

Bland AI is built for large enterprises that want to automate their customer support and sales operations, offering enterprise scalability and integrate seamlessly with CRMs. The platform stands out with its advanced capabilities like memory functionality across calls, conversational pathways, high-accuracy transcription, context-aware summarization, and confidence scoring.

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Features

• Voice Selection: Bland AI lets you pick from tons of voices that sound like real people. Change the gender, accent, and how they talk to match your brand. Play AI boasts about "lifelike voices" but users report "unreliable outputs" that make even basic tasks hard.
• AI Models (Base, Enhanced, Turbo): Bland AI gives you three different speeds of AI brain - simple, medium, or super smart. Play AI doesn't mention different model options for regular users - "model finetuning" is only for Enterprise customers.
• Custom Prompts: Bland AI lets you tell your AI exactly how to talk and act. Play AI offers "AI voice assistants built with just a few clicks" but users complain about "confusing settings" that make it hard to use effectively.
• Background Tracks: Bland AI makes calls sound more real with coffee shop or office noise. Play AI doesn't mention this feature at all.
• Custom Tools: Bland AI connects your AI to other apps or AI tools to get info during calls. Play AI says they integrate "with any back end system using Zapier and Make" but users report "technical glitches" and "unreliable performance."
• Language Support: Bland AI talks in 28 languages. Play AI only has "English, Spanish, Arabic fully supported" with "25+ languages under development" - so they're not even ready yet!
• Inbound Call Handling: Bland AI answers calls automatically with custom greetings. Play AI mentions they can "accept calls" but users report the service "staying in calls with no conversation for extended periods, wasting resources."

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Cons

• Reliability Issues: Sometimes Bland AI gets tongue-tied or cuts off mid-sentence. Play AI users have it WAY worse with constant complaints of "bugs," "slow performance," and "unreliable outputs."
• Setup Complexity: You might spend a few hours getting Bland AI just right. Play AI users face "poorly explained configuration options" and "weak administrative features" that prevent proper management.
• Customer Service Concerns: Some folks say Bland AI support is slow. But Play AI has "terrible customer support" with users waiting "days or weeks for responses" and "many messages going completely unanswered."
• Can't Match Human Connection: For super sensitive stuff, Bland AI still feels like talking to a robot. Play AI doesn't even get this far with users reporting issues that "severely impact usability for even basic tasks."

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Pricing

• Bland AI Standard: $0.09/minute with basic voices and up to 100 calls daily. Perfect for small businesses just getting started.
• Play AI Pricing: Complicated tier system starting at $9/month for just 50 minutes ($0.18 per extra minute), going up to $999/month for 11,000 minutes ($0.09 per extra minute). Customers report "unpredictable pricing changes" with one seeing a "shocking 23x cost jump within a single year."
• Enterprise Options: Both have custom enterprise pricing, but Play AI users face "billing issues" with "continued charges after cancellation attempts, forcing some to cancel credit cards."

The TRUTH: Bland AI keeps it simple with per-minute pricing. Play AI looks cheaper but WATCH OUT - users report getting trapped in billing nightmares so bad they had to cancel their credit cards! And don't forget the "technical glitches" and "terrible customer support" that will leave you hanging.

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Reviews

"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.

‍"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's the best alternative AI tool to Play HT? (Our top 3)

After digging through all play.ht alternatives, it's clear that some AI voice tools just work better than others. The top alternative to play depends on your business size, call volume, and whether you're in need to handle high volumes.

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Based on our deep dive into features, pricing, and real user feedback, here are our top 3 Play AI alternatives:

1. Ringly.io: The clear winner for e-commerce and online businesses. With no-code setup, inbound/outbound calling, and 35%+ cart recovery, it delivers 2x the quality at half the learning curve. Plus, their 110% money-back guarantee makes it risk-free to try.
2. Goodcall: Best for local businesses making lots of calls. Their unlimited minutes for a flat monthly fee beats Play AI's per-minute charges that add up fast.
3. Retell AI: Perfect if you have developers who need an API to build custom voice solutions. Their real-time analytics and language support outshine Play AI's limited offerings.

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Ringly.io stands out as the most complete solution, especially for businesses tired of Play AI's support delays and billing surprises.

With plans starting at just $21/month and a free tier to test drive, it's the smart choice for scaling your business without scaling your support team.

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