From This Day is a small company. With a team of three core staff, the phone system should be pretty simple, right? It quickly appeared that an online telephone service would offer the right flexibility and “reachability” needed. After discounting a few solutions, the most promising ones were: Aircall and Skype. We decided to take a look at these options in depth.
The members of the company are not geographically located at the same place – not even the same country for one of them. We all work from home, and we all have fairly different routines. Ivanna is on Spanish time with late starts, long lunches and late evenings too, Naomi usually works compact days fitting in with school runs and the occasional late night, Julie is also on the school run routine and is part-time. We wanted a phone system which would allow us to cover standard opening times between us – giving our clients one point of contact.
Aircall vs Skype – An In-Depth Analysis
What is Aircall?
Aircall is a Virtual Phone System Solution which you access via an app that takes few minutes to install, on desktop or mobile. Everything is managed inside the Aircall app.
You can buy one or several phone numbers from many locations across the world, add teammates to your dashboard, and place and receive calls via your app.
Aircall is built for teams, therefore it comes with collaboration features: call cascading across available people – transfer on-the-fly to a specific teammate, shared contacts, support ticket management, team availability and team performance analytics.
Aircall Pricing
There are three different packages offered by Aircall : Started / Premium / Enterprise
For the size of our company the Started Package is the most appropriate:
Starter package:
- 15$ per user per month billed annually or 20$ per user per month billed monthly
- includes 1 phone number (any additional number costs 6$)
- limited to 3 users
Outbound calls charged per minute:
- Landline (Outbound) 0.013$
- Mobile (Outbound) 0.022$
- Toll-Free (Inbound) 0.08$
What Is Skype?
Skype is a free to download Internet-based communication service, part of Microsoft.
Free to use between Skype users, it can also be used to call landlines and mobile phone numbers.
There are different options that would be suitable for us:
- The Skype Phone Number that allows customers to reach you using a local phone number.
- The Skype voice message that allows customers to leave a message when not available.
- The Skype subscriptions calling plans that let you make unlimited, or fixed-minute calls to landlines and mobiles where applicable.
Skype Number
A Skype Number is a phone number that you pay monthly for. People can call you from their mobile or landline and you pick the call up in Skype. Up to 10 Skype Numbers can be attached to your account and you can choose a different Skype Number for each country or area code you regularly expect calls from. Your Skype Number has both an international and area code, so when you call one from a mobile or landline, local and long distance charges apply.
To buy a phone number from the UK:
- Skype Number 3 month subscription £14.71
- Skype Number 12 month subscription £41.48
Skype voice message
When you are not available, Skype can handle all of your incoming calls with our free voicemail feature.
Listen to your voice messages and return any calls at your convenience.
When you purchase a Skype Number or an Unlimited Subscription, Voice Messaging is activated automatically.
Skype subscriptions calling plans
Subscriptions are monthly calling plans that let you make unlimited, or fixed-minute calls to landlines (and mobiles where applicable). A subscription is great if you make a lot of calls. All subscriptions are renewed automatically, offer a savings compared to our standard rates, and you can cancel at any time.
Subscriptions options :
- Pay Montlhy
- Cancel Anytime
- Call mobiles and landlines in the UK
Schemes :
- United Kingdom 100mins mobile and landlines – £2.40/month
- United Kingdom 400mins mobiles and landlines – £6/month
- United Kingdom unlimited mins landlines – £2.40/month
- United Kingdom unlimited min mobiles and landlines – £10.80/month
- World unlimited mins £12/month (Call mobiles and landlines in 8 destinations)
If you pay every 3 months there is a 5% discount applied, and if you pay annually there is a 15% discount applied.
Skype vs Aircall price comparison
Below is our comparison of what Skype and Aircall subscriptions would cost nowadays, on a on monthly basis scheme for 100 mins outside calls on mobile, for 1 user with 1 local phone number :
Aircall
- 20$ per month per user
- 100min outbound call on mobile = 2.20$
- TOTAL for 1 user = 22.20$ per month
- TOTAL for 3 users = 62.20$ per month
Skype
- Skype Phone number = £4.90 per month (3 month subscription £14.71)
- United Kingdom 100mins mobile and landlines – £2.40 per month
- Skype Voicemail included
- TOTAL for 1 account = £7.30 per month for 1 user ONLY
- TOTAL for 3 accounts = £21.90
Conclusions
Aircall offers the best team based solution in terms of phoning services, offering a real call centre service, with phone number set up between few different users, set up of business hours and voicemail, call cascading across available people, shared contacts, and analytics. However the price is high for a very small business. For three users sharing one phone number, up to 100 min of calls per month, the price goes up to $62 monthly.
Skype seems to offer a good compromise, offering up to 10 phone numbers, good price call subscriptions in the UK, and free voicemail service. However Skype is limited to one user per account and therefore doesn’t offer a single phone number to be used by different members of the team. For three team members, having each one a different account and Skype phone number, up to 100 mins of calls per month, the price goes up to £21.90 monthly.