The best cold calling software is a stack, not one app: a contact data tool that finds direct mobile numbers, a dialer, a CRM that logs every call, and call recording for coaching. For the dialer, the main options in 2026 are Aircall, Dialpad, JustCall, Kixie, PhoneBurner, Orum, Nooks, Outreach and Salesloft.
Below, the nine cold calling tools are compared on the same seven fields, with prices from each vendor’s pricing page as of September 2026. A separate section covers where the numbers come from, because a dialer only calls what you load into it.
The 9 best cold calling tools at a glance
Here are the nine dialers side by side, with identical fields. Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan on monthly billing, read on each vendor’s pricing page on 27 September 2026.
| Tool | Dialer type | Entry price (monthly billing) | Pricing model | HubSpot / Salesforce integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aircall | Power (Professional), click-to-call | 40 USD / license, 3 minimum | Per license | Both |
| Dialpad | Power (Dialpad Sell) | 49 USD / user (Sell Essentials) | Per user | Both |
| JustCall | Power, predictive, click-to-call | 39 USD / user, 2 minimum | Per user | Both |
| Kixie | Power, 1 or up to 4 lines | Not published | Not published | Both |
| PhoneBurner | Single-line power | 165 USD / user | Per user | Both |
| Orum | Parallel (up to 5 lines), power | Not published, 9 seats minimum | Quote | Both |
| Nooks | Parallel, power | Not published | Quote | Both |
| Outreach | Click-to-call | Not published | Quote, seats plus AI credits | Salesforce only confirmed |
| Salesloft | Sales dialer in Cadence | Not published | Quote | Both |
What is the best cold calling software?
The best cold calling software depends on team size and call volume. For most small teams it is a phone system with a power dialer, such as Aircall, JustCall, Dialpad or Kixie, fed by a data tool that returns direct mobiles.
Teams of 9 or more SDRs calling all day can reach more people per hour with a parallel dialer such as Orum or Nooks, which rings several numbers at once. Either way, budget for contact data first: seven of the nine tools here dial only the numbers you give them.
What a cold calling stack includes
A complete cold calling stack has four layers: contact data, a dialer, a CRM, and recording with coaching. Buying a dialer covers one layer, sometimes two.
- Contact data. Named people with direct mobiles and verified emails. Compare the price per mobile found and whether a lookup that finds nothing is charged.
- Dialer. Places the calls and drops each outcome into the CRM. The dialing mode sets how many calls a rep gets through in an hour.
- CRM. The record of every dial, connect and meeting. All nine tools here connect to Salesforce, and eight list HubSpot.
- Recording and coaching. Recordings, transcripts, AI call summaries, listen-in and whisper. This is how a manager coaches a rep without sitting next to them.
The dialer layer comes in four modes:
- Click-to-call (preview). You open the record, read it, and click the number. One call at a time, at your pace.
- Power dialer. The next number rings as soon as you hang up. Still one line per rep.
- Parallel dialer. Several numbers ring at once for one rep, and the first person who answers is connected.
- Predictive dialer. The software dials ahead for a pool of reps, based on when it expects a rep to be free.
Our power dialer comparison draws each mode and shows which one fits which team, and the guide to how parallel dialers work covers multi-line calling in depth.
Which layers each tool covers
Most cold calling tools cover the dialer and recording layers; only two touch contact data.
- Recording is standard, retention is not. Aircall gives access to recordings for up to 1 year on Essentials and without limit on Professional; PhoneBurner stores them 30 days on Standard, 90 days on Professional and without limit on Premium.
- AI coaching usually costs extra. It sits on higher plans (Dialpad’s real-time guidance from Sell Advanced, JustCall’s AI call scoring on Pro Plus) or is an add-on (Orum’s AI Coaching, Kixie’s Conversation Intelligence).
How we picked these cold calling tools
We picked the dialers that B2B sales teams actually buy for outbound calling, and compared them on published facts only.
- Three kinds of product. Phone systems with a power dialer, dedicated outbound dialers, and sales engagement platforms with a built-in dialer.
- Published facts only. Prices and features come from each vendor’s pricing and product pages, rendered in a browser with a US locale on 27 September 2026. When a vendor sells on quote, we write “not published”.
- Seven identical fields. What it is, dialer type, entry price, pricing model, CRM integrations, best for, and where it falls short.
- Numbers judged separately. Whether each tool supplies phone numbers, or dials only what you load.
- Left out. Contact-center suites built for inbound support queues, and tools built around prerecorded or AI voice calls, which raise consent issues for cold calls to mobiles.
Phone systems with a power dialer
These cold calling tools give each rep a business number, SMS and CRM logging, with power dialing on the higher plans.
1. Aircall
What it is: A cloud business phone system for sales and support teams, with CRM integrations, AI voice agents and a Power Dialer on the Professional plan.
Dialer type: Power dialer from Professional. Click-to-dial on every plan, through browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. How many lines it dials at once is not published.
Entry price: Essentials is 40 USD per license a month on monthly billing, or 30 USD billed annually, with a 3-user minimum. The Power Dialer needs Professional: 70 USD a month, or 50 USD annually (Aircall pricing).
Pricing model: Per license, minimum 3 users (25 on Enterprise).
CRM integrations: HubSpot, Salesforce (the Salesforce Voice add-on is 30 USD per seat a month), Pipedrive, Zoho, Attio and Copper, among “250+ integrations”.
Best for: Sales and support teams that want one phone system with CRM sync, where power dialing is one feature among many.
Where it falls short: No Power Dialer, voicemail drop or outbound campaigns on Essentials. International outbound rates are on request. It sells no contact data, so you bring the numbers.
2. Dialpad
What it is: A business communications platform whose Dialpad Sell product is built for outbound sales calling, with a power dialer, local presence and real-time AI coaching.
Dialer type: Power dialer in Dialpad Sell. The pricing cards do not say which Sell tier first includes it, and the number of lines is not published.
Entry price: Sell Essentials is 49 USD per user a month on monthly billing, or 39 USD billed annually. Sell Advanced is 110 USD (95 USD annually) and Sell Premium 170 USD (150 USD annually) (Dialpad pricing).
Pricing model: Per user. Advanced and Premium are sold through sales, and Dialpad’s FAQ says Premium is annual only.
CRM integrations: Salesforce and HubSpot on Sell, plus Zendesk, Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace.
Best for: Sales teams that want a power dialer inside a full business phone, with AI coaching on the same bill.
Where it falls short: Local presence dialing and voicemail drop start on Sell Advanced, at 110 USD a month. No contact data.
3. JustCall
What it is: A cloud phone and SMS platform for sales and support teams, with power and predictive dialers, AI coaching and 100+ CRM integrations.
Dialer type: Power dialer from Pro. Predictive and dynamic dialers on the quote-only SalesPro plan, which can “Dial up to 10 numbers at once”. Click-to-call on every plan.
Entry price: Team is 39 USD per user a month on monthly billing, or 29 USD billed annually, with a 2-license minimum. Pro, which adds the power dialer, is 69 USD (49 USD annually) (JustCall pricing).
Pricing model: Per user, minimum 2 licenses (10 on Business).
CRM integrations: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Close, Copper and Freshsales, plus Apollo.io, Outreach and Salesloft.
Best for: SMB and mid-market teams that want phone, SMS and power or predictive dialing on one seat price.
Where it falls short: Predictive dialing is quote-only. Included calling excludes international and toll-free calls, and recording per plan is not stated on the pricing page. JustCall sells no numbers; it connects to Apollo.io for data.
4. Kixie
What it is: A revenue communication platform for sales teams: business calling and SMS, a single-line or multi-line PowerDialer, local presence and two-way CRM integration.
Dialer type: Power dialer, single-line or multi-line. The pricing page says “PowerDial up to 4 lines”; the site navigation says up to 10 numbers in parallel. Click-to-call on every plan.
Entry price: Not published. The pricing page lists Professional, Single-Line PowerDialer and Multi-Line PowerDialer without prices, with a 7-day free trial and no credit card (Kixie pricing).
Pricing model: Not published.
CRM integrations: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho and HighLevel natively, plus Close, Copper and Zapier.
Best for: SMB sales teams that want a CRM-connected phone, SMS and power dialer with local presence.
Where it falls short: No public prices. AI Human Voice Detection needs the Multi-Line plan and is a premium add-on, as are ConnectionBoost and Conversation Intelligence. Do Not Call screening is a separate compliance add-on.
Dedicated outbound dialers
These tools exist to fit more live conversations into each hour of calling, and two of the three add contact data.
5. PhoneBurner
What it is: A single-line power dialer with a built-in CRM, local presence and number-reputation add-ons.
Dialer type: Single-line power dialer, plus click-to-call. Its FAQ says “PhoneBurner is a single-line dialer”.
Entry price: Standard is 165 USD per user a month on monthly billing, or 140 USD billed annually. Professional is 195 USD (165 USD annually) and Premium 215 USD (183 USD annually) (PhoneBurner pricing).
Pricing model: Per user, monthly or annual.
CRM integrations: HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Close and HighLevel, among “150+ integrations”, plus its own built-in CRM.
Best for: Reps who want one-at-a-time dialing with no connection delay, often from inside their CRM.
Where it falls short: No multi-line dialing, by design. Local presence needs approval, and the number-reputation add-ons have no listed price. It has the highest published per-user price of the nine.
6. Orum
What it is: An AI parallel and power dialer for outbound sales teams, with live-answer detection, phone-data agents called Scout, and AI coaching.
Dialer type: Parallel dialing (“Run up to 5 lines at once”) and power dialing, plus click-to-call and one-off dials.
Entry price: Not published. Orum prices “based on package type and number of users”, with a 9-seat minimum, and the free trial is limited to 500 dials (Orum pricing).
Pricing model: Quote only.
CRM integrations: Salesforce and HubSpot, plus Outreach, Salesloft, Gong Engage and Apollo.
Best for: SDR teams of 9 or more doing high-volume cold calling inside Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach or Salesloft.
Where it falls short: The 9-seat minimum rules out small teams, AI Coaching is an add-on, and no prices are public. Data enrichment is included, but no per-number price or database size is published.
7. Nooks
What it is: An AI sales platform built around a parallel dialer, with AI sequencing, signals, coaching and a contact data enrichment module, sold on custom quotes.
Dialer type: Parallel and power dialing with AI answer detection. Nooks says the dialer “runs several lines at once”; the number of lines is not published.
Entry price: Not published. The pricing page says “Get in touch with the team to get a custom quote” (Nooks pricing).
Pricing model: Quote only, by module: dialer, sequencing, signals, coaching and contact data.
CRM integrations: Salesforce and HubSpot, syncing in both directions, plus Outreach, Salesloft, Gong, Apollo and Clay.
Best for: Outbound SDR teams that want parallel dialing, mobile-number enrichment and AI coaching from one vendor.
Where it falls short: No public prices or plan tiers, and the number of parallel lines is not published.
Sales engagement platforms with a built-in dialer
These platforms run email and call sequences for a whole sales org; the dialer is one part of a larger contract.
8. Outreach
What it is: An enterprise sales execution platform: sequencing, a dialer, conversation intelligence, deal management and forecasting, sold as seat-based packages plus AI credits.
Dialer type: Click-to-call. Outreach describes an “integrated click-to-call dialer” inside its interface.
Entry price: Not published. All four Amplify packages say “Request pricing” (Outreach pricing).
Pricing model: Quote only: per user, plus AI credits consumed per action.
CRM integrations: Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. A HubSpot connector was not confirmed on the pages we reviewed.
Best for: Mid-market and enterprise revenue teams that want sequencing, calling, coaching and forecasting under one contract.
Where it falls short: No public prices, AI usage metered in credits, and contact data bought separately through marketplace apps such as ZoomInfo, LeadIQ and SalesIntel.
9. Salesloft
What it is: A revenue orchestration platform with Cadence sequencing, a sales dialer, conversation intelligence, deals and forecasting, sold through a sales quote.
Dialer type: A sales dialer inside Cadence (“Call or message buyers from the sales dialer to capture important details automatically”). Power or parallel modes are not published on the pages we reviewed.
Entry price: Not published. The pricing page is a “Talk to sales” form (Salesloft pricing).
Pricing model: Quote only.
CRM integrations: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and HubSpot (CRM Sync).
Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams that want cadences, calling, conversation intelligence and forecasting in one platform.
Where it falls short: No public prices or packages, no contact data, and dialing modes that are not published.
Where the numbers come from
The numbers come from a contact data tool, because seven of the nine dialers above call only what you load into them. And the type of number you load changes how often anyone picks up.
Across nearly 3 million dials, Nooks found that “mobile numbers have a 45% higher connect rate than non-mobile numbers”, and those conversations turned into meetings 18% more often (Nooks, 2025). It is vendor platform data, and it matches what reps see: a switchboard puts a gatekeeper in the way, and a desk line often rings an empty desk.
Our breakdown of direct dial vs mobile vs switchboard has the details, and connect rate benchmarks by number type show what to expect per dial.
Scalelist: the mobiles for any dialer
Scalelist, an AI lead finder, is where you get the mobile number, not just the email. It is not a dialer. It finds the people and their direct mobiles, then hands the list to whichever dialer you already use.
- Describe your buyer in one sentence, for example “VPs of Sales at US logistics companies with 50 to 500 employees”. The Lead Finder shows what it understood and how many people match before you spend a credit.
- Reveal mobiles and emails. 20 credits per mobile found, 1 per lead or email found, 0 when nothing is found. Every email is verified before it is returned and labelled Valid or Risky.
- Move the list to your dialer, by CSV or through HubSpot.
- Dial and log. Your dialer calls, and every outcome lands on the CRM record.
Already have names and companies? The Mobile Finder adds mobiles to an existing CSV at the same 20 credits per mobile found.
On the Scaler 5K plan (199 USD a month for 5,000 credits), a mobile found costs about 0.80 USD. If Scalelist finds mobiles for 150 of your 200 prospects, you spend 3,000 credits on mobiles, and the 50 it misses cost nothing.
In our own provider benchmark, Scalelist found a phone number for 87% of a North American test list. Plans run from 29 USD to 649 USD a month; see Scalelist plans and credits.
How the numbers reach your dialer
There is no direct Scalelist connector for these nine dialers today. You move the numbers one of four ways:
- CSV. Export the list and upload it wherever your dialer takes call lists. PhoneBurner Standard, for example, includes 10,000 contact imports a month.
- HubSpot. Scalelist pushes selected leads to HubSpot with field mapping (see the HubSpot integration). Eight of the nine dialers list HubSpot as an integration; Outreach’s was not confirmed.
- Zapier. The Scalelist Zapier app has a Mobile Finder action you can place in any Zap.
- API.
POST /api/v1/phone/findreturns one mobile;POST /api/v1/phone/bulkruns a list and posts results to a webhook.
The step-by-step version is in how to load Scalelist mobiles into your dialer, and every connector is on the Scalelist integrations page.
Scalelist is not the right buy in two cases. If you want the data inside the dialer contract, Nooks and Orum include enrichment. And if you need a tool that dials, records or logs calls, Scalelist does none of that.
Describe the people you want to call in one sentence, see how many match at no cost, then pay 20 credits only for each mobile found.
Get 20 credits to test itWhat a cold calling stack costs
A working cold calling stack costs about 214 USD a month for a founder and about 439 USD a month for three SDRs, on monthly list prices from September 2026.
- Founder calling a daily block, 214 USD. Scalelist Scaler 1K (49 USD, up to 50 mobiles), PhoneBurner Standard (165 USD) and HubSpot’s free CRM, which covers up to 2 users.
- Three SDRs on a phone system, 439 USD. Scalelist Scaler 5K (199 USD, up to 250 mobiles), Aircall Professional for 3 users (210 USD) and HubSpot Sales Hub Starter for 3 seats (30 USD).
- Nine or more SDRs on a parallel dialer: quote only. Scalelist Scaler 20K (649 USD, up to 1,000 mobiles) plus Orum or Nooks, which both sell on quote. Orum starts at 9 seats.
The mobile counts assume every credit goes to mobiles; leads and emails use credits too.
My own calling setup is three tools: Scalelist AI lead finder pulls the list with direct mobiles, Claude preps every call, Flunter dials and logs everything. Across 894 dials in 8 recorded sessions from July to September 2026, 23% connected and 18 meetings were booked, about one meeting per 50 dials.
Most of those sessions called the direct mobiles of Australian mid-market tech prospects; the one US session connected at 10% with no meetings. The complete cold calling guide covers the scripts, cadence and metrics that sit on top of the stack.
How to choose cold calling software
Choose the data first, then the dialing mode, then the plan that includes it. Before you sign, check these seven points:
- Calls per rep per day. Short daily blocks work fine with click-to-call or a single-line power dialer. Parallel dialing pays off when calling is the whole job.
- Seat minimums. Aircall needs 3 users, JustCall 2 and Orum 9.
- Which plan has the dialer. The power dialer starts on Aircall Professional, JustCall Pro and Kixie’s PowerDialer plans, not on the entry plan.
- The CRM connector. Confirm a native connector for your CRM and check what it logs: the call, the recording, the outcome.
- Recording retention. From 30 days (PhoneBurner Standard) to unlimited (Aircall Professional, PhoneBurner Premium).
- Where the numbers come from. What a mobile costs, and whether a miss is charged.
- Automatic modes. Ask how parallel and predictive modes handle a second person who answers, and clear them with counsel.
Test before you buy: run 50 of your own prospects through a trial. JustCall offers a two-week free trial with no credit card, Kixie a 7-day trial, and Orum a trial capped at 500 dials.
FAQ
What is cold calling software?
Cold calling software is the set of tools a sales team uses to find, call and track prospects by phone. It usually means a dialer that places the calls and logs them to a CRM, but a working stack also needs a contact data tool for direct mobiles and call recording for coaching. Aircall, JustCall, PhoneBurner, Orum and Nooks are common dialers.
Which cold calling software includes phone numbers?
Two of the nine dialers here add numbers. Nooks sells a Contact Data Enrichment module with mobile number enrichment, and Orum lists data enrichment as included in its plan, with no per-number price published. Aircall, Dialpad, JustCall, Kixie, PhoneBurner, Outreach and Salesloft dial the numbers you bring, usually from a data tool such as Scalelist.
What is the cheapest cold calling software?
On monthly billing, JustCall Team (39 USD per user, 2-user minimum) and Aircall Essentials (40 USD per license, 3-user minimum) have the lowest published entry prices. Their power dialers cost more: JustCall Pro is 69 USD and Aircall Professional 70 USD. PhoneBurner publishes no seat minimum but starts at 165 USD per user.
Do I need a power dialer or a parallel dialer?
A power dialer fits most small teams: it dials one number after another, so every person who answers reaches a rep. A parallel dialer rings several numbers at once and suits larger SDR teams calling long lists all day; Orum, for example, requires 9 seats. Our power dialer comparison explains each mode.
Is cold calling software legal in the US?
Yes, in general. Live B2B sales calls are allowed in the US, and the FTC exempts most calls to businesses from its Do Not Call provisions. The TCPA adds a consent rule for calls to cell numbers made with an autodialer or a prerecorded or artificial voice. Which dialing modes that covers is a question for counsel. This is not legal advice.
Does Scalelist integrate with Aircall, Orum or Nooks?
Not directly. There is no native Scalelist connector for these dialers today. You export a CSV, push leads to HubSpot and dial from a tool that reads HubSpot, use the Zapier Mobile Finder action, or call the REST API. Mobiles cost 20 credits each, only when found.
How much does a cold calling stack cost?
About 214 USD a month for a founder (Scalelist Scaler 1K, PhoneBurner Standard and HubSpot’s free CRM) and about 439 USD a month for three SDRs (Scalelist Scaler 5K, Aircall Professional for 3 users and HubSpot Sales Hub Starter), on September 2026 monthly list prices. Stacks built on Orum or Nooks are quote only.
Sources
- Aircall pricing and Aircall Power Dialer
- Dialpad pricing and Dialpad power dialer
- JustCall pricing and JustCall predictive dialer
- Kixie pricing and Kixie facts page
- PhoneBurner pricing and PhoneBurner FAQ
- Orum pricing and Orum dialer
- Nooks pricing and Nooks AI dialer
- Outreach pricing and Outreach sales engagement
- Salesloft pricing and Salesloft sales engagement
- HubSpot Sales Hub pricing
- Nooks Insights: Here’s who picks up the most, published February 2025
- 47 U.S.C. § 227, Telephone Consumer Protection Act
- Vendor prices retrieved in a browser with a US locale on 27 September 2026 (Kixie rechecked 28 September 2026). Scalelist provider benchmark, September 2026 (/b2b-data-providers-comparison/).
