# Chirp vs Dialpad: a communications platform or a managed AI receptionist? Dialpad is a phone and contact centre platform with AI agents that answer calls, chats and texts. Chirp is an AI receptionist built and run for you. Here's how they compare. - Publisher: Chirp AI (https://www.agentchirp.ai) - Published: 2026-10-06 - Canonical page: https://www.agentchirp.ai/post/chirp-vs-dialpad **The short answer:** Dialpad is a communications and contact centre platform, and it's very good at it: phone, chat, SMS and email in one place, deep integrations with tools like Salesforce and Zendesk, and no-code tools for your team to build its own AI agents. Chirp is the better choice if what you need is every call answered and every job booked, without your team building and running the agent. Our Melbourne team builds your agent around how your business handles calls, connects it to any software you use and tunes it every week. Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average, and plans start from $16 a day, plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee. You can use both. Chirp works with the phone setup you already have, through call forwarding, SIP trunking or a direct phone setup. Everything here about Dialpad comes from its own website, checked in September 2026. Prices and features change, so check their site before you buy. ## Chirp vs Dialpad: the comparison table | | Chirp | Dialpad | | --- | --- | --- | | Setup | Built and managed by Chirp's team | Self-serve. Your team builds agents in a no-code tool | | Starting price | From $16 a day, plus a one-off build fee | Credit based for AI Agents. Other plans through sales | | Integrations | Any software you use. 6,000+ integrations, plus custom builds | Salesforce, Zendesk, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Dynamics, plus marketplace | | After go-live | Every call scored. Tuned by our team every week | Your team tests and refines agents with Dialpad's tools | | Emergency triage | Sorts emergencies from quotes. Safety calls triaged after hours | Not stated on the pages we read | | Channels | Phone, web chat and SMS | Voice, chat, SMS and email | | Australian voice | Natural Australian voice. Melbourne team | Australian site. Trust page says customer data is stored in US | | Human handover | Puts the call through to your office | Transfers to a person with full context and transcript | | Contract | Set out in your proposal | Monthly plans cancellable any time, subject to fees in terms | Facts about Dialpad were read on its own website in September 2026. ## What Dialpad is good at Dialpad is a big, capable platform that does far more than Chirp does. If you need a phone system or contact centre for a team of staff, it deserves a close look. Here's what it does well, in its own words where we could. - **One platform for phone, contact centre and sales.** Dialpad sells four connected products, AI Agents, Support, Sell and Connect, covering business phone, contact centre, outbound sales and digital channels. For a business already running a phone team, that's one vendor in place of several. Dialpad's own reviews page shows ratings of 4.4 on G2, 4.3 on Capterra and 4.4 on Trustpilot. - **Many channels, many conversations at once.** Dialpad's homepage says it can "handle thousands of customers simultaneously across voice, chat, SMS, email, and more" with a consistent experience. That suits a business with high call and message volume. - **Deep links into the big business systems.** Dialpad names Salesforce, Zendesk, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace and Microsoft Dynamics as integrations, plus a wider app marketplace. If you already run a CRM or help desk you don't want to replace, that matters. - **Proper tools for building your own AI agents.** Agent Studio is a no-code builder so business users, not just developers, can build agents. Skill Mining looks through past conversations for tasks to automate, Proving Ground tests agents before launch, and Guardian watches AI conversations for compliance risk. - **Serious security credentials.** Dialpad's Trust page says it is SOC2 Type II compliant, HIPAA-ready, supports GDPR and is certified to ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018. For health, finance and other regulated businesses, that's a genuine strength. - **Every call scored for customer satisfaction.** Dialpad's AI CSAT feature scores 100% of calls, not a sample. Dialpad reports 75% more efficient coaching, a 20% cut in average handle time and a 14% lift in CSAT within 4 weeks, and cites a Forrester study it commissioned. **Who Dialpad suits:** A business that runs, or wants, a full phone and contact centre operation with an in-house team to configure it, and wants to build and manage its own AI agents inside systems like Salesforce, Zendesk or Microsoft Teams. You can use both. ## Where Chirp is different Chirp is a managed AI receptionist. Our team builds it, connects it and improves it, so your staff don't have to. Chirp works with the phone setup you already have, through call forwarding, SIP trunking or a direct phone setup. - **Built for you, around how you already work.** Our Melbourne team maps how your business handles calls, your operating rules, and writes them into your agent. It sorts emergencies from quotes, books the job and puts the call through to your office when it should. You're live in weeks. - **Better every week, with a person in the loop.** Every Chirp call is scored and the misses surface. Our team retrains the agent, tests the change against last week's version, then ships it. That loop runs every week, and Chirp's resolution rate is rising about 1 point a month. - **Connects to any software you use.** Chirp works with 6,000+ integrations, APIs and data connectors. If your software isn't on the list, our team builds a custom integration, so bookings land where your team already works. - **Results you can check, and a guarantee on the build.** Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average, and has booked more than 10,000 appointments and handled more than 20,000 successful customer calls. Run it live for 60 days, and if it hasn't delivered, your Build & Implementation Fee comes back. ### It gets better every week Every AI receptionist gets things wrong. With Chirp, every call is scored, the misses surface on their own, and our team ships the fix that week. Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average, up from 52.6% in June 2025, and rising about 1 point a month. That comes from the self-healing loop, which runs every week: 1. **Every call is scored.** Each conversation is measured against what good looks like for your business. 2. **The misses surface.** Analytics and observability show exactly where your agent fell short. 3. **The agent is retrained.** Our team makes the fix. A person is in the loop every week. 4. **The change is tested.** This week's agent is measured against last week's before anything ships. 5. **It ships, and the loop runs again.** Your agent this month is better than your agent last month. ### It works with every system you use Chirp connects to the software you already run, and if yours isn't on the list, our team builds the connection. Chirp works with the software you already use: 6,000+ integrations, plus any custom connection you need. - **Ready-made connections.** More than 6,000 apps, including ServiceM8, simPRO, Fergus, HubSpot and Google Calendar. - **APIs and data connectors.** Chirp reads and writes to your systems directly, so it can look up a customer and book the job. - **Custom integrations.** If your software isn't on the list, our team builds the connection for you. Examples: ServiceM8, simPRO, Fergus, ServiceTitan, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Shopify, Notion, Zapier, Make. ## The real cost of managing it yourself A tool you run yourself is cheaper on the invoice. What you don't pay upfront, you can end up paying for in your own hours and in calls that go elsewhere. Here is Chirp's estimate for a typical trade business. **$45,840** is what a self-managed AI receptionist can cost a trade business in its first year, on top of the subscription. That is about $126 a day. | Cost | How we worked it out | A year | | --- | --- | --- | | Setting it up properly | 3 days defining process flows and operating logic, once, at $80 an hour | $1,920 | | Connecting your software | 2 days building the integration layers, once, at $80 an hour | $1,280 | | Managing it week to week | 2 hours a week at $80 an hour | $8,320 | | Troubleshooting | 1 hour a week at $80 an hour | $4,160 | | Maintenance and retuning | 1 hour a week at $80 an hour | $4,160 | | Performance drops | 2 calls a week handled badly, half of which would have become a $250 job | $13,000 | | Missed calls | 2 calls a week missed, half of which would have become a $250 job | $13,000 | | **Total** | First year, on top of the subscription | **$45,840** | For comparison, Chirp starts from $5,840 a year ($16 a day), plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee. Setup, integration, troubleshooting and tuning are done by Chirp's team. An illustrative estimate for a trade business running a self-serve AI receptionist itself, in its first year, on top of the subscription. The hours and call counts are Chirp's assumptions. Your numbers will differ. Hourly and job values are from the low end and the midpoint of the ranges in the [hipages plumber cost guide](https://hipages.com.au/article/how_much_does_a_plumber_cost). ## What Chirp costs - Chirp plans start from $16 a day, plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee for the custom build. - The price depends on call volume, coverage hours and the work you want handled. - Custom built, fully managed and tuned every week by an Australian team. - 90% lower cost than a part-time receptionist. - The Go-Live Guarantee: run it live for 60 days, and if it hasn't delivered, your Build & Implementation Fee comes back. ## The verdict Chirp is the better choice for a business that wants every call answered well and every job booked, without asking its own team to build and run an AI agent. Our Australian team builds the agent around your rules, connects it to your software and improves it every week, and Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average. Chirp estimates that running an AI receptionist yourself can cost a trade business about $45,840 in its first year on top of the subscription, in your own time and in lost jobs. With Chirp, that work is ours. If you also need a phone system for a team of staff, you can use both. Chirp works with the phone setup you already have, through call forwarding, SIP trunking or a direct phone setup. Plans start from $16 a day, plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee, and the Go-Live Guarantee means that fee comes back if Chirp hasn't delivered after 60 days live. - Dialpad: [Dialpad homepage](https://www.dialpad.com/au/), [Dialpad pricing](https://www.dialpad.com/au/pricing/), [Dialpad AI Agent](https://www.dialpad.com/au/ai-agent/), [Dialpad AI contact centre](https://www.dialpad.com/au/ai-contact-center/), [Dialpad business communications](https://www.dialpad.com/au/business-communications/), [Dialpad Trust page](https://www.dialpad.com/au/trust/), [Dialpad terms of service](https://www.dialpad.com/au/legal/), [Dialpad reviews page](https://www.dialpad.com/au/reviews/) - Chirp: [How we work](https://www.agentchirp.ai/how-we-work), [Guarantee](https://www.agentchirp.ai/guarantee), [Case studies](https://www.agentchirp.ai/case-studies), [Industries](https://www.agentchirp.ai/industries) If you work at Dialpad and something here is out of date, email hello@agentchirp.ai and we'll fix it. ## See it on your own calls [Book a 15-minute discovery](https://www.agentchirp.ai/book). We'll map how your calls come in today and show you what your agent would do with them. You can also read our [case studies](https://www.agentchirp.ai/case-studies), try the [missed-call calculator](https://www.agentchirp.ai/calculator), or see how Chirp compares with [every alternative](https://www.agentchirp.ai/post/ai-receptionist-australia-comparison). ## Questions people ask ### What is the difference between Chirp and Dialpad? Dialpad is a communications and contact centre platform, with no-code tools your own team uses to build, test and refine AI agents. Chirp is a managed AI receptionist: an Australian team maps how your business handles calls, builds the agent around those rules, connects it to your software and tunes it every week. ### Is Chirp better than Dialpad? Yes, for a business that wants calls answered and jobs booked without building and running the agent itself. Chirp resolves 80.3% of customer requests on average, rising about 1 point a month. Every call is scored and our team retrains the agent every week. It connects to any software you use, and it's backed by the Go-Live Guarantee on the build fee. If you need a phone system or contact centre for a team of staff, Dialpad is worth a look, and you can use both. ### How much does Dialpad cost? Dialpad didn't publish dollar prices on the pages we read in September 2026. Its AI Agents are sold as a pool of credits used when the AI completes real work, and its other plans are quoted through its sales team. Check dialpad.com for current pricing. Chirp starts from $16 a day, plus a one-off Build & Implementation Fee. ### Can I use Chirp with my existing phone system? Yes. Chirp works with the phone setup you already have, through call forwarding, SIP trunking or a direct phone setup. It sorts emergencies from quotes, books the job and puts the call through to your office when it should. ### Does Chirp integrate with my software? Yes. Chirp connects to any software you use, through 6,000+ integrations, APIs and data connectors. If yours isn't on the list, Chirp's team builds a custom integration for you. ### What happens if Chirp doesn't work for my business? Chirp is backed by the Go-Live Guarantee. Run it live for 60 days, and if it hasn't delivered for your business, your Build & Implementation Fee comes back.