Is Frontly an alternative to Aircall, or do I need both?

Different categories. Aircall is a phone system for your team to make and take calls. Frontly is an AI that answers calls automatically (no human needed). If your team needs a phone system, you need something like Aircall. If you want every inbound call answered without staffing, you need Frontly. Many businesses run both: Aircall for the team's outbound and warm-transferred inbound, Frontly for everything that would otherwise miss.

Can Frontly forward calls into Aircall when needed?

Yes. We support warm transfer to any SIP-addressable destination, which includes Aircall queues. The handoff carries the call transcript so your Aircall agent picks up the conversation in context.

Does Frontly need a phone system to work?

No. Frontly provisions an Australian local number for you, or you forward your existing landline / mobile number to Frontly. No PBX, no VoIP system, no hardware required to use Frontly on its own.

What if I'm currently shopping for Aircall but actually want AI?

It's a common mix-up. Aircall demos beautifully because it solves a real problem (your team needs better calling tools), but it does not answer inbound calls automatically. A human still has to pick up. If your actual pain is missed calls and unanswered enquiries, Frontly is the right purchase. If your pain is the team using mobile phones and Excel to track calls, Aircall is right. Some businesses need both.

How does Frontly compare on outbound calling?

Frontly's outbound is AI-driven campaign calling: recall, arrears, follow-up. Loaded as a list, no per-call charge. Aircall's outbound is human-driven dialing for your sales team. Different uses. We don't replace a sales team's manual outbound; we replace receptionist-style outbound campaigns.

Is Frontly Australian-hosted? I'm worried about data leaving the country.

Yes. All caller data is stored on Australian infrastructure. Aircall is a multi-region cloud product with primary data centres in the US and EU.

How long to migrate inbound from Aircall to Frontly?

Usually about an hour if you keep your existing Aircall numbers and route the inbound to Frontly via SIP forwarding. Your Aircall outbound continues unchanged; only the inbound flow shifts. We run a parallel pilot for the first week so any edge cases get caught before full cutover.

Frontly vs Aircall

Aircall is a cloud business phone system that equips your team to make and take calls from anywhere. Frontly is an AI receptionist that answers your inbound calls 24/7 when no human is available, and captures every booking in your Frontly dashboard. Different categories. Often run together.

Which one (or both) you actually need

If your team needs a unified business phone system to make outbound sales calls and pick up inbound, Aircall is the answer
If you want every inbound call answered automatically (24/7, no humans needed) and routed straight to bookings in your Frontly dashboard, Frontly is the answer
If you want both, a phone system for your team AND an AI to handle calls outside business hours or when the team is busy, run Aircall + Frontly together (we connect to most VoIP systems via SIP)
Aircall does NOT replace a receptionist. It gives your team better dialing tools
Frontly does NOT replace a phone system. It replaces or augments the human at the front desk

What it actually does

Feature	Frontly	Aircall
Outbound dialing for your sales team	No	Yes
Inbound calls answered automatically by AI	Yes	No
24/7 coverage without staffing	Yes	No
Real-time appointment booking from a call	Yes	No
Call recording + analytics for your team	Transcripts + summaries	Yes
Power dialer / sequenced outbound campaigns	Outbound campaigns	Yes
Soft-phone / desktop app for agents	No	Yes

Outbound dialing for your sales team

Frontly

Aircall

Inbound calls answered automatically by AI

Frontly

Aircall

24/7 coverage without staffing

Frontly

Aircall

Real-time appointment booking from a call

Frontly

Aircall

Call recording + analytics for your team

Frontly

Transcripts + summaries

Aircall

Power dialer / sequenced outbound campaigns

Frontly

Outbound campaigns

Aircall

Soft-phone / desktop app for agents

Frontly

Aircall

Inbound handling

Feature	Frontly	Aircall
AI answers in under 5 seconds	Yes	Routes to staff
AI qualifies the lead during the call	Yes	No
AI books appointment into your calendar	Yes	No
Contact + transcript captured in the dashboard	Yes	No
Call queue + IVR menu	Replaced by AI conversation	Yes
Voicemail to email transcription	Not needed (AI answered)	Yes

AI answers in under 5 seconds

Frontly

Aircall

Routes to staff

AI qualifies the lead during the call

Frontly

Aircall

AI books appointment into your calendar

Frontly

Aircall

Contact + transcript captured in the dashboard

Frontly

Aircall

Call queue + IVR menu

Frontly

Replaced by AI conversation

Aircall

Voicemail to email transcription

Frontly

Not needed (AI answered)

Aircall

Workflow & capture

Feature	Frontly	Aircall
Bookings captured in vendor's own dashboard	Yes	No
Up to 200 outbound AI agents per customer	Yes	No
Cross-call memory of returning callers	Yes	No
Visual workflow builder for call routing	Yes	IVR builder only

Bookings captured in vendor's own dashboard

Frontly

Aircall

Up to 200 outbound AI agents per customer

Frontly

Aircall

Cross-call memory of returning callers

Frontly

Aircall

Visual workflow builder for call routing

Frontly

Aircall

IVR builder only

Billing & contract

Feature	Frontly	Aircall
Flat monthly rate (Frontly) / Per-seat monthly (Aircall)	Flat rate	From ~AUD$45/seat/mo
Outbound minutes included	Outbound campaigns: yes (no per-min charge)	Per-region bundled minutes + overage
Onboarding included in the plan	Yes	Yes
No lock-in	Yes	Annual discount available

Flat monthly rate (Frontly) / Per-seat monthly (Aircall)

Frontly

Flat rate

Aircall

From ~AUD$45/seat/mo

Outbound minutes included

Frontly

Outbound campaigns: yes (no per-min charge)

Aircall

Per-region bundled minutes + overage

Onboarding included in the plan

Frontly

Aircall

No lock-in

Frontly

Aircall

Annual discount available

Compliance & data (AU)

Feature	Frontly	Aircall
Australian data hosting	Yes	Multi-region (US/EU primary)
AU-resident customer success	Yes	EMEA / US-led support

Australian data hosting

Frontly

Aircall

Multi-region (US/EU primary)

AU-resident customer success

Frontly

Aircall

EMEA / US-led support

DEEP DIVE

Key Differences Explained

Aircall is a phone system. Frontly is a front desk.

Aircall replaces the desk phone hardware your team used to own. It's an excellent VoIP product if your sales team makes calls all day and you want a unified interface, dialer, recording, and CRM logging. It does not, by design, replace the human receptionist at the front of your business. When an inbound call comes in, Aircall routes it to a human's softphone or a queue, and that human still has to answer.

Frontly answers the calls Aircall would route to staff

Frontly sits in front of (or alongside) your phone system and handles the inbound. The AI agent picks up in under 5 seconds, qualifies the caller, books the appointment, captures it in your Frontly dashboard, and only escalates to a human when something requires real judgment. If you have Aircall today and you're still missing calls (especially after hours and weekends), Frontly fills that gap without replacing Aircall.

How they coexist

We integrate at the call-routing layer. Inbound calls hit Frontly first. Routine enquiries (bookings, FAQ, status updates) Frontly resolves end-to-end. Anything genuinely requiring your team gets warm-transferred into your Aircall queue. Your team uses Aircall as before; Frontly catches everything else, including everything outside business hours and during peaks. Net result: zero missed calls, no extra reception staff.

If you only have budget for one

Most Australian SMBs we talk to who are weighing this question already have a phone (mobile or landline). They don't actually need Aircall. They need someone (or something) to ANSWER the phone they already have. In that case, Frontly is the higher-leverage spend: forward your existing number to Frontly's AI and you have 24/7 coverage tomorrow without rolling out a new phone system. Add Aircall later when your sales team's outbound calling justifies it.

Flat rate per business vs per-seat pricing

Aircall bills per seat per month, from around AUD$45, so the cost climbs every time you add a person to the phone system whether or not call volume changes. Frontly is a flat monthly rate per business from $149/mo, with unlimited inbound calls and no per-seat scaling, so what you pay tracks what you need answered rather than how many staff log in. Aircall bundles a region's outbound minutes and charges overage per minute beyond them, while Frontly includes outbound campaigns on its outbound and bundled plans with no per-call charge.

How Pricing Compares

Frontly

From $149/mo, flat rate

Flat monthly rate per business. Unlimited inbound calls. No per-seat scaling. Outbound campaigns included on Frontly's outbound and bundled plans. Yearly plans save 20%.

Aircall

From ~AUD$45/seat/mo

Aircall pricing is per-seat per month (Essentials, Professional, Custom tiers). Includes a regional bundle of outbound minutes; overage is per-minute. Setup-friendly but cost scales with team size, not call volume.

INDUSTRY FIT

Is Frontly right for your industry?

AI IVR to replace your phone menu already routes calls with a menu tree. The gap is that routing is all it does, so every call it handles still lands on a person who then does something simple.

AI intake reception for law firms already has a phone system that routes calls well during business hours. The gap is the after hours new-matter enquiry that reaches voicemail and goes to the next firm.

AI receptionist for accounting practices does not need a second phone system, it needs the overflow answered when tax season triples the call volume your existing lines were sized for.

AI helpdesk reception for MSPs sits closest to the hybrid model: keep your routing stack, and put an AI front desk in front of the after hours queue so SLA clocks start on answer, not on callback.

AI front desk for any business already routes calls perfectly well during business hours. The gap is who answers when the routing runs out of people to route to.

Also See

Frontly vs ReelAI Frontly vs Voqo AI Frontly vs AiDial Frontly vs Smith.ai Frontly vs OfficeHQ Frontly vs Virtual Receptionist Services Frontly vs Generic AI Platforms (Bland, Vapi, Air AI)Frontly vs Human Receptionist

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

HEAR IT FOR YOURSELF

Your AI Agent Is Ready to Talk

Call our AI agent right now. No signup. No credit card. Just dial and experience it.

Test Call

Talk to the AI agent right now from your browser. Hear exactly how Frontly will sound for your business.

Hear a real AI agent handle a typical inbound callNo signup, no card, no waiting on a sales rep

Ready to Stop Missing Leads?

Set up your AI front desk in about an hour. No credit card required.

Get Started Try a Free Test Call