8 best Parloa alternatives in 2027

The best Parloa alternatives in 2027 are Computer, by DevRev, Kore.ai, Cognigy, Sierra, Decagon, PolyAI, Replicant, and Retell AI.

Parloa is an AI agent management platform for customer service and contact centers, with a no-code Agent Builder, simulation before launch, and consumption-based pricing by the minute for voice and by the interaction for chat.

This guide compares eight Parloa alternatives on key channels, standout features, build approach, G2 rating, and pricing. It also sets out seven criteria to weigh in 2027: channel coverage, build approach, testing before launch, connection to business systems, handoff and oversight, language coverage, and cost model.

TL;DR

These are the top alternatives to Parloa:

1. Computer, by DevRev: Best for shared-context service agents
2. Kore.ai: Best for service plus employee work
3. Cognigy: Best for existing contact centers
4. Sierra: Best for many-channel agents
5. Decagon: Best for written procedures
6. PolyAI: Best for voice-first service
7. Replicant: Best for call resolution
8. Retell AI: Best for developer-built voice

Why do teams look for Parloa alternatives?

Teams look for Parloa alternatives mainly because of rates that aren’t in print, a no-code builder, voice and chat channels, and context that stays in customer service.

A Parloa alternative is any voice or omnichannel AI agent platform that can take over a team’s service calls and chats, connect to the business systems behind each conversation, and hand off to a person when one is needed.

Its support for more than 140 languages across voice and chat is a real strength. Four things still push teams to look elsewhere.

• Rates aren’t in print: Parloa says it “uses consumption-based pricing: per minute for voice and per interaction for chat,” with rates that reflect the complexity of each use case, volume packages, custom plans, and outcome-based pricing where it makes sense. It publishes no rates, so teams that want per-minute prices in print compare platforms that do.
• The builder is no-code: Parloa’s Agent Builder includes an AI design assistant called Navigator that turns written guidance and existing standard operating procedures into agents. Teams that want code-level control look at platforms with developer tooling.
• The channels are voice and chat: Parloa’s conversation infrastructure describes voice and chat on one platform. Teams that also want email, SMS, WhatsApp, or ChatGPT as channels compare what each alternative offers.
• The context stays in customer service: Parloa’s solutions center on customer-service jobs such as IVR replacement, collections, and first notice of loss. Teams that want the same agent to draw on what product and engineering know compare platforms built on a shared memory.

Those are the points where a buyer’s needs can differ from what Parloa offers.

Parloa alternatives comparison for 2027

The table compares eight alternatives on key channels, standout features, build approach, G2 rating, and pricing.

How should you evaluate these Parloa alternatives?

We assessed each tool against seven editorial criteria, led by channel coverage (25%), using vendor pages and G2. Moving a service agent between platforms touches telephony, knowledge, and every team that reviews conversations, so compare the options on the same few points.

The table lines up all eight tools on key channels, standout features, build approach, G2 rating, and pricing. The seven criteria below are what to weigh, ordered from most to least important for a team that wants one agent across voice and digital. The percentage after each criterion is its weight.

• Channel coverage (25%): Does the same agent run on voice, chat, email, and messaging, or does each channel need its own build?
• Build approach (20%): Can people who aren’t developers change the agent, and can engineers reach it through an API or code when they need to?
• Testing before launch (15%): Can you simulate conversations and compare versions before a change reaches customers?
• Connection to business systems (10%): Does the agent read and write to your CRM, ticketing, and order systems, or only answer from documents?
• Handoff and oversight (10%): Does a person take over with the full conversation, and is every call and action logged?
• Language coverage (10%): How many languages does the vendor say it supports, and on which channels?
• Cost model (10%): Is the bill per minute, per interaction, per outcome, or by quote, and can you forecast it at your volume?

These percentages express editorial priorities, not calculated vendor scores or a weighted ranking. Teams should test the criteria against their own workflows.

How to weight by team type: contact centers with an existing platform should lean on connection to business systems and handoff. Digital-first support teams should lean on channel coverage and testing. Teams with strong engineering should lean on build approach and cost model.

How these tools differ: some are voice specialists, some run one agent across many channels, and one builds the agent on a memory shared with the rest of the company. That split drives most of the differences in the entries below.

What are the 8 best Parloa alternatives?

1. Computer, by DevRev: Best for shared-context service agents

Computer, by DevRev, is rated 4.3 out of 5 on G2 from 210 reviews.

Overview

DevRev is a Palo Alto company founded in 2020 by Dheeraj Pandey and Manoj Agarwal, formerly of Nutanix, and backed by Khosla Ventures and Mayfield. Customer Agent, built on Computer, by DevRev, drafts a working agent from your support history and runs on Computer Memory, a permission-aware knowledge graph built from connected systems.

Voice is a channel on that agent, not a separate product, so a call draws on the same memory as a chat. Customer and product context carries from the voice exchange into a governed response or a handoff to a person.

Standout features

• Customer Agent reads your ticket history and drafts a working agent, so teams edit and approve and don’t configure from a blank page.
• For hard cases it checks logs in Datadog, pulls the order from Shopify, and replays the customer’s session before it resolves.
• Every week it reviews the conversations the agent had, brings a short set of fixes you can approve, edit, or skip, and drafts knowledge base answers for questions it couldn’t answer.
• Teams build and adjust agents in Agent Studio with no-code templates, with approval before sensitive actions.
• Responses stay governed: answers cite source records, permissions follow each source system, and every query, answer, and action is logged.
• Voice AI supports up to 70 languages, and every call is logged, summarized, and recorded with consent.
• Customer and product context carries from a voice exchange into the response: a call draws on the same Computer Memory of tickets, orders, and engineering records as a chat, and permissions follow each source system.
• When a case needs a person, Customer Agent summarizes the conversation, and Voice AI can transfer the call to a configured human destination. What the receiving agent sees depends on your telephony setup.
• Agents can be tested in a sandbox on real data before they go live.

Pricing: Contact DevRev for pricing.

Pros

• One agent and one memory across voice and digital channels.
• Context from support, product, and engineering reaches the agent, so a voice exchange can draw on more than the help center, with approval before sensitive actions.
• DevRev’s Trust Center shows SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022, plus an AI penetration testing assessment.

Cons

• Voice is a channel on Customer Agent, so teams that want a stand-alone voice product will find it broader than they need.
• It is not a drop-in telephony or IVR replacement. Voice AI connects through SIP-based telephony, so compare telephony and IVR coverage separately.

Computer, by DevRev, vs. Parloa: Parloa prices by the minute for voice and by the interaction for chat and builds agents in a no-code Agent Builder, and Computer, by DevRev, builds Customer Agent on shared Computer Memory. Parloa’s solutions include IVR replacement, and Computer, by DevRev, is not a drop-in telephony or IVR replacement. It is priced by contact.

What reviewers say

• Love: Breaking down silos. A senior product manager writes that “DevRev’s standout value is how it actively breaks down the traditional silos separating support, product, and engineering” (May 5, 2026; incentivized review).
• Complain: Onboarding takes real effort. The same reviewer writes that “this is absolutely not a plug-and-play solution; initial onboarding requires serious effort” (same review).

2. Kore.ai: Best for service plus employee work

Kore.ai is rated 4.6 out of 5 on G2 from 507 reviews.

Overview

Kore.ai was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Orlando. It sells AI for Service for customer experience, AI for Work for employee requests, and an agent platform underneath. Its AI for Service line spans voice and digital agents, agent assist, quality management, and an AI-native contact center.

Standout features

• AI for Service covers voice and digital agents across voice, chat, email, and messaging, with context that carries across channels and sessions.
• Agent assist adds guided playbooks, real-time coaching, next-best actions, and automated summaries for people on calls.
• Quality management lets teams set custom evaluation criteria and uses AI to score every call.
• The agent platform includes a language for defining agent behavior, tools, guardrails, and handoffs, plus an optimization engine.
• A Proof Concierge service tests the platform on your own use case before purchase, and forward-deployed engineers help move to production.

Pricing: Price not published; contact Kore.ai.

Pros

• Customer service, employee work, and quality management sit on one platform.
• A proof stage on your use case before you buy.

Cons

• No published price.
• A reviewer reports occasional bugs when configuring complex flows.

Kore.ai vs. Parloa: Kore.ai pairs AI for Service with agent assist, quality management, and a contact center, where Parloa centers on building, testing, and monitoring agents. Neither publishes rates, and Parloa describes consumption-based pricing.

What reviewers say

• Love: Easy to use. A software developer at an enterprise writes, “What I like best about Kore.ai is how intuitive and user-friendly the platform is” (July 27, 2026).
• Complain: Bugs in complex flows. The same reviewer writes that “the platform can occasionally present unexpected bugs or inconsistent behavior, especially when configuring and testing more complex conversational flows” (same review).

3. Cognigy: Best for existing contact centers

Overview

Cognigy was founded in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2016 and is now part of NiCE, which completed its acquisition in September 2025. It sells conversational AI and AI agents for customer service and contact centers, centered on the Cognigy.AI platform, with phone and voice agents, chat and messaging agents, and an agent copilot for people on calls.

Standout features

• AI Agent Studio is a visual creation and orchestration engine where teams define personas, behavior, memory, and knowledge.
• Voice Gateway provides voice connectivity to a contact center, and Cognigy names integrations with Avaya, AWS, Genesys, NiCE CXone, Microsoft, and 8x8.
• Knowledge AI grounds answers in enterprise content such as FAQs and product documents, using structured and unstructured data.
• Cognigy says it supports more than 100 languages and capacity for more than 25,000 concurrent interactions.
• Agent Evaluation, Insights and Analytics, and AI Ops and Orchestration are part of the platform.

Pricing: Price not published; contact Cognigy.

Pros

• Integrations with the contact center platforms named above.
• A voice gateway and an agent copilot on the same platform.

Cons

• No published price.
• Cognigy’s pages show phone, chat, and messaging, with no email channel.

Cognigy vs. Parloa: Cognigy names connections to contact center platforms and a visual studio, where Parloa describes a no-code Agent Builder with an AI design assistant. Neither publishes rates.

What reviewers say

• Love: Time saved without coding. An assistant manager at a mid-market company writes that “it helps in saving time and easier to use” (September 18, 2024).
• Complain: Limited analytics. The same reviewer writes, “Limited analytical possibilities, less possibilities of advanced chat flow” (same review).

4. Sierra: Best for many-channel agents

Overview

Sierra was co-founded by Bret Taylor, a former co-CEO of Salesforce, and Clay Bavor, who led Google Labs. It sells a conversational AI platform for businesses and says a single agent can be deployed across chat, SMS, WhatsApp, email, voice, and ChatGPT.

Standout features

• Ghostwriter builds an agent from uploaded materials or a plain-English goal, with built-in guardrails.
• Agent Studio is the dashboard for building and managing agents.
• Insights includes Explorer for conversation analysis, Monitors that flag conversations needing attention, Experiments for multivariate testing, and Observability for tracing agent actions.
• Horizon covers long-horizon planning, customer context memory, outcome optimization, and proactive engagement.

Pricing: Outcome-based, which Sierra says means you pay for the value it delivers. No rates are published.

Pros

• One agent across a wide range of channels.
• Built-in conversation analysis, monitoring, and experiments.

Cons

• No published rates, so cost per outcome comes through a quote.
• Context Engine and Channels appear on the home page without detail.

Sierra vs. Parloa: Sierra prices by outcome and builds agents from materials or a goal through Ghostwriter, where Parloa prices by the minute and interaction and builds in Agent Builder.

What reviewers say

• Love: Context-aware conversations. A CTO at a small business writes, “The conversational AI feels genuinely context-aware rather than scripted” (August 27, 2026).
• Complain: Limited analytics. The same reviewer writes, “The analytics dashboard is functional but a bit limited for deeper cohort analysis” (same review).

5. Decagon: Best for written procedures

Overview

Decagon is a San Francisco company founded by Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas. It sells an AI agent platform for customer service across voice, chat, and email.

Standout features

• Agent Operating Procedures define workflows, and pre-built integrations provide connectors.
• Experiments run live A/B tests, and Testing and QA runs simulations.
• Watchtower provides always-on quality assurance, and Suggestions drafts AI-powered knowledge.
• Duet is an AI partner for building self-improving agents.
• It also offers personal agent detection, with a dedicated channel and permissions the customer controls.

Pricing: Price not published.

Pros

• Simulations and live A/B tests sit in the same platform.
• Voice, chat, and email on one platform.

Cons

• No published price.
• Workflows are written as Agent Operating Procedures, so teams work in Decagon’s own format.

Decagon vs. Parloa: Decagon defines workflows as written procedures and adds live A/B tests, where Parloa describes Navigator turning standard operating procedures into agents and simulations for evaluation.

What reviewers say

• Love: Fewer repeat questions for agents. A team lead at a mid-market company writes, “I really like how Decagon handles repetitive customer questions without the need for constant agent involvement” (September 3, 2026).
• Complain: Unusual questions. The same reviewer writes, “One area that could be improved is how Decagon handles more complex or unusual customer questions” (same review).

6. PolyAI: Best for voice-first service

Overview

PolyAI was founded in 2017 by Cambridge machine learning researchers Nikola Mrkšić, Shawn Wen, and Eddy Su. It sells the Wren Dialog Agent and Dialog Studio, plus two models: Dialog-RSN-1, which reasons over raw call audio, and Dialog-Raven-3.5, a text model for webchat and messaging.

Standout features

• Dialog Studio holds flows, tools, and brand voice in one place, from no-code to full code.
• Channels include voice, SMS, WhatsApp, mobile app, web chat, email, and in-app voice.
• Developer tooling includes an ADK, MCP, a Platform API, and a CLI.
• Guardrails, PII redaction, and human-in-the-loop review are included, with data residency in the US, UK, EU, and APAC.
• Pre-built integrations include Zendesk, ServiceNow, Twilio, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.

Pricing: The voice agent is priced per minute, with maintenance and support included and billing on connected time with no minimums. The Dialog-RSN-1 API charges 2¢ per connected minute, billed by the second, with telephony and orchestration not included. No platform rate is published.

Pros

• Test calls, simulated conversations, and A/B tests on live traffic at no extra charge, per PolyAI.
• A bring-your-own carrier option over SIP at no charge.

Cons

• The platform rate isn’t published.
• The model-only API leaves telephony and orchestration to you.

PolyAI vs. Parloa: PolyAI is built around its own voice and text models and shows per-minute pricing, where Parloa describes consumption pricing by the minute for voice and by the interaction for chat.

What reviewers say

• Love: A natural voice. A recruiter digital coach at a small business writes, “when speaking to it at times it feels as if it was a real person interacting” (October 25, 2025).
• Complain: Speed. The same reviewer writes, “Slow at times, some annoying advertising for consumers” (same review).

7. Replicant: Best for call resolution

Overview

Replicant was founded in 2017 by Gadi Shamia and Benjamin Gleitzman. It sells Conversation Automation and Conversation Intelligence. It describes its platform as built for resolution, with voice, chat, and SMS.

Standout features

• Agents are built from an organization’s knowledge, workflows, and limits, and pair language models with code-based guardrails.
• Agents rehearse against simulated customers before launch, and deployment is gradual and A/B tested.
• When a person should take over, the agent makes a warm hand-off.
• The platform analyzes every conversation across channels, with generative AI scoring and a “Talk to your data” feature.
• Replicant offers hundreds of pre-built connectors for contact center, CRM, and ticketing systems.

Pricing: Price not published.

Pros

• Rehearsal and gradual rollout before full launch.
• Warm hand-offs to live agents.

Cons

• No published price.
• No languages are stated.

Replicant vs. Parloa: Replicant centers on resolving calls with deterministic guardrails and simulated rehearsal, where Parloa describes an Agent Builder, simulation, and production monitoring.

What reviewers say

• Love: More calls handled. An IT admin at a mid-market company writes, “the ability for our agents to chase down more leads with calls they aren’t able to get to” (June 12, 2025).
• Complain: Communication tool. The same reviewer writes, “Using Rocket lane as primary communication” (same review).

8. Retell AI: Best for developer-built voice

Overview

Retell AI sells a voice AI agent platform for phone calls, with chat and SMS channels and an API.

Standout features

• A drag-and-drop canvas builds call flows, with call transfer, appointment booking, a knowledge base, and keypad menu navigation.
• Batch calls, branded caller ID, and verified phone numbers support outbound work.
• Post-call analysis, AI quality assurance, and testing sit under monitoring.
• APIs and SDKs support custom builds, and telephony connects through SIP trunking, with Twilio and Vonage named.

Pricing: Retell AI charges $0.07 to $0.31 per minute for voice agents, depending on models, voice, and add-ons, and chat agents from $0.002 per message. It also offers $10 in free credits and 20 free concurrent calls. Enterprise pricing is custom.

Pros

• Published per-minute prices and a free-credit start.
• An API and SDKs for custom builds.

Cons

• The per-minute total depends on the model, voice, and add-ons you pick.
• The use cases it shows lean toward calls, such as receptionist, dialer, and appointment setter, more than enterprise service.

Retell AI vs. Parloa: Retell AI prints per-minute voice prices and offers developer tooling, where Parloa describes custom plans and a no-code builder.

What reviewers say

• Love: Natural, low-latency calls. A reviewer at a small company writes, “The natural conversations, low latency, and easy integration with APIs and business workflows make it especially useful for automating customer calls and support” (September 30, 2026).
• Complain: Cost at volume. The same reviewer writes that “The main thing I dislike about Retell AI is that the pricing can get expensive as call volume increases” (same review).

Other Parloa alternatives worth considering

• Yellow.ai describes its Nexus platform as a universal agentic platform for AI agent workforces, with voice agents in 500+ languages. It offers a free plan with 500 chat sessions a month, then $0.99 per resolution, with Enterprise pricing by contact.
• Synthflow calls itself an AI voice platform for enterprises and shows enterprise contracts from $30,000 a year, scoped by call volume, concurrency, and telephony setup.
• Vapi is a developer voice platform with a $0.05 per minute hosting fee, plus transcription, model, voice, and telephony billed at provider cost. It offers a $0 starting package and Core at $29 a month.
• Ringly is built for Shopify stores with phone support. It charges $99 a month for the first 50 conversations and $1.99 for each one after, with a handoff to your team when needed.
• Bland is a voice-first platform with per-minute rates: Start at $0.14 a minute, and Build at $299 a month with $0.12 a minute. Telephony is billed separately.

How do you switch from Parloa?

Switching from Parloa means keeping your procedures, knowledge, and telephony connections, and rebuilding agent definitions, test suites, and reporting in the new platform. Moving a service agent between platforms is easier when you know which parts are portable. Parloa says Navigator turns written guidance and existing standard operating procedures into agents, which makes your procedures the part you keep.

What carries over

• Your procedures and knowledge: standard operating procedures, knowledge articles, call scripts, and the intents you want automated.
• Your telephony and system connections: Parloa connects to telephony through SIP, and PolyAI and Retell AI both describe connecting your own carrier over SIP, so numbers and carriers can stay where they are.
• Your conversation history: Customer Agent in Computer, by DevRev, reads your support history to draft an agent from it.

What needs manual attention

• Agent definitions and skills: Parloa’s pages don’t describe exporting an agent, so plan to rebuild flows and skill connections in the new platform’s format.
• Test suites: simulations written in Parloa’s Performance Lab need rewriting in the new tool.
• Reporting: monitoring dashboards and review habits differ between platforms.

Three checks before switching

Before switching, test whether:

• The new platform connects to the same telephony and business systems.
• It can simulate your most common conversations before a change goes live.
• You can move one use case or one share of traffic first, then widen the rollout.

These checks reduce uncertainty, but validate a sample migration and a recovery plan before a full cutover.

How do you choose a Parloa alternative?

Choose by channel mix, build style, and cost model. Those three narrow the field fast.

• You want one agent across voice, chat, and email: Choose Sierra, Decagon, PolyAI, Kore.ai, or Computer, by DevRev.
• Your work centers on calls: Choose Replicant or Retell AI.
• You want developer tooling: Choose Retell AI, PolyAI, or Kore.ai.
• You want a visual studio: Choose Cognigy.
• You want an agent drafted from your support history: Choose Computer, by DevRev.
• You need AI that acts inside your permissions and approvals: Choose Computer, by DevRev, which acts as the user within existing permissions, waits for approval before a sensitive step, and logs every action. Its Trust Center shows SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022.
• Your contact center platform is fixed: Choose Cognigy, which names integrations with Avaya, Genesys, NiCE CXone, and 8x8.
• You want customer service and employee work on one platform: Choose Kore.ai.
• You want per-minute prices in print: Choose Retell AI, or PolyAI for its Dialog-RSN-1 API.
• You want a no-code builder with simulation and a pricing model built around volume: Stay on Parloa.

Channel and cost narrow the choice, but one question settles it: should the service agent know only what your help center says, or what support, product, and engineering all know? That question picks the tool.

Why is Computer, by DevRev, our pick?

Computer, by DevRev, is our pick when you want one customer-facing agent across voice and digital whose answers draw on the same context as support, product, and engineering, for three reasons you can check.

• One memory behind every channel: Customer Agent runs on Computer Memory, so a voice exchange works from tickets, orders, and engineering context and not from the help center alone.
• It shows its work inside guardrails: Answers cite source records, permissions follow each source system, sensitive actions pause for approval in Agent Studio, and every query, answer, and action is logged.
• Voice joins the same agent: DevRev says its Voice AI supports up to 70 languages, and that every call is logged, summarized, and recorded with consent. When a case needs a person, Voice AI can transfer the call to a configured human destination.

Choose Computer, by DevRev, if you want one customer-facing agent across voice and digital that draws on the same context as support, product, and engineering, and you will compare telephony and IVR coverage separately. That’s Work Softer: fewer handoffs, clearer answers.