Exotel vs MyOperator vs Knowlarity: cloud telephony compared

Starleads wrote this guide. Starleads sells business contact lists and is not one of the tools compared here. Facts about the tools come from their own websites, checked on 20 October 2026; prices change, so check before you buy.

The quick answer

Cloud telephony gives a sales team business numbers, call routing, recording and a dialer, with no exchange to install. Of the seven names people compare, Servetel is now Acefone. Exotel sells prepaid packs, MyOperator a yearly plan for ten users, Tata Tele Business Services prices Smartflo per licence, Acefone charges per user with a minimum number of seats, and Knowlarity lists most of its plans but quotes its outbound dialer. Ozonetel quotes Indian customers on request. None of them supplies the numbers to call: that part is yours.

Which one to pick

• Exotel: a small team that wants a prepaid pack with an auto dialer and IVR, after a 7-day trial.
• MyOperator: a team of up to ten that wants calls and WhatsApp on one yearly plan.
• Knowlarity: a business that needs a missed-call number, a toll-free line and a contact centre from one provider.
• Ozonetel: a larger contact centre happy to get a custom quote for its CloudAgent platform.
• Smartflo (Tata Tele): a low monthly rate per licence from a telecom company, with a one-time setup cost.
• Acefone (formerly Servetel): a calling team of five or more that wants lead lists, scripts and CRM connections in one place.

Cloud telephony in plain words

• Virtual number: a business number hosted by the provider, not on a SIM. It rings whichever staff phone or laptop you choose and can show on outgoing calls, so customers see one company number.
• IVR: the "press 1 for sales" menu that answers and routes incoming calls.
• Click-to-call: click a number in the CRM; the system rings your phone, then the customer.
• Auto, power and predictive dialers: the system dials a list for the caller. A power dialer rings the next number as soon as the caller is free; a predictive dialer rings several at once and passes answered calls to free callers, which suits big teams. "Auto dialer" can mean either, or recorded-message calls.
• Call recording: calls saved for training and disputes, kept for three months or more depending on the plan.
• CRM integration: calls and outcomes logged against the lead in your CRM. See our CRM comparison for the other half of the setup.

Cloud telephony providers compared

Prices are as shown on the providers' own pricing pages on 20 October 2026. Where a page doesn't mention GST, we don't say whether it is included.

Exotel

Exotel (Exotel Techcom Pvt. Ltd.) sells phone systems, contact centre software and APIs. Exotel pricing for its Business Phone System comes as prepaid packs: Dabbler at ₹9,999 with 5 months' validity, 1 Exotel virtual number and 3 agents; Believer at ₹19,999 with 11 months' validity, 2 numbers and 6 agents; and Influencer at ₹49,499 with 11 months' validity, 10 numbers and unlimited agents. Each pack's price is its rental plus its credits: ₹4,999 rental and 5,000 credits for Dabbler, ₹10,499 rental and 9,500 credits for Believer. One credit is ₹1, spent on calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages.

Every plan includes an auto dialer, call recordings, multi-level IVR, missed call services and call transfer. The trial lasts 7 days with ₹500 of free usage. Enterprise Contact Center plans show XPrime at "$70" and XPro at "$100" without saying per what.

Limits: the page doesn't show what a call minute costs in credits, so ask. Suits: small teams that like paying once for a few months.

MyOperator

MyOperator sells "Calls + WhatsApp" plans, and its pricing page promises a "30-Day FULL REFUND POLICY". Sedan costs ₹5,000 a month for 10 users, with IVR, unlimited incoming and outgoing calling, call recording and WhatsApp chat and broadcasts. SUV costs ₹15,000 a month for 10 users and adds higher calling capacity, "CRM and 100+ Integrations" and API access. "All plans are billed yearly. GST applicable."

Add-ons include a 1800 toll-free number from ₹500 a month and an auto-dialer from ₹700 per user a month, which is "Available only for SUV & AI Team plan". WhatsApp message charges from Meta are extra; its page lists ₹0.95 per marketing message to Indian numbers.

Limits: yearly billing means Sedan is ₹60,000 a year plus GST, and CRM integrations and the dialer need SUV. Suits: a team that sells on calls and WhatsApp together. For the WhatsApp side, see our WhatsApp API comparison.

Knowlarity

Knowlarity's voice pricing page offers "All India One Pricing" and a "30sec calling pulse". Its cloud contact centre plans are ₹1,999 a month for inbound, ₹2,999 a month for inbound and outbound, and ₹3,499 a month with lead management (Tentacle). A softphone over WebRTC costs ₹1,499 or ₹1,999 per agent a month for 10 agents, with a minimum contract of one year and payment quarterly in advance.

For a small office, the prepaid Advance plan costs ₹16,800 a year with 1 virtual number, 5 users (forwarding numbers), 10 channels, 1,200 free minutes a month and 3 months of call recording. There are also missed-call numbers at ₹5,000 a month and toll-free plans from ₹21,000 a year. The outbound dialer, with progressive and predictive dialing, is "Connect with us for pricing".

Limits: the outbound dialer is quoted, not listed, and GST isn't mentioned. Suits: businesses that want several products from one provider.

Ozonetel

Ozonetel's main product is CloudAgent, "a full-fledged contact center on the cloud" with advanced IVR, a multi-mode dialer, call recordings and ready CRM integrations. CA LITE is "a virtual receptionist" with a free DID number, auto attendant, click to call and call reports. For both, its Asia pricing page says "Request pricing".

Its main pricing page shows dollar plans from $25 per user a month ("$30 if billed monthly") to $55 for the plan with power and predictive dialers, but adds "These prices are only valid for North America". Its FAQ says payment can be monthly or annual, with no cancellation fees.

Limits: no published Indian price. Suits: larger contact centres.

Tata Tele Business Services Smartflo

Smartflo is the cloud communication suite of Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS). Smartflo Lite costs ₹950 per licence a month plus a one-time ₹5,000, with unlimited calling within India, one standard DID per agent, 3 months of recordings and a 5-level IVR. It has "No separate monthly SKU" and a minimum 3-month tenure, so the minimum is ₹2,850 per licence plus the one-time cost. Smartflo Pro, with a softphone and 6 months of recordings, is ₹1,250 per licence a month plus ₹10,000 one-time.

"Unlimited" works under a fair-usage policy of 5,000 minutes per user per month, pooled. Limits: one-time charges on every plan, and no trial or GST note on the page. Suits: teams that want a low monthly rate from a telecom operator.

Acefone (formerly Servetel)

On 13 February 2025 Servetel rebranded to Acefone, and servetel.in now redirects to acefone.com; existing Servetel customer portals continue to work, according to Acefone's announcement.

Acefone's Contact Center Studio for India costs ₹1,599 per user a month on Professional (minimum 6 seats), an inbound contact centre with manual outbound calling, and ₹1,999 per user a month on Ultra (minimum 5 seats), the complete contact centre with 6 months of recordings. Both include unlimited calling within India, 1 standard DID and a 7-day trial with limited calling. Features include bulk upload of lead lists, a "DND Leads" setting, agent scripts and connections to Zoho, LeadSquared, HubSpot, Salesforce and Bitrix24. WhatsApp is an add-on at ₹200 per seat a month.

Limits: the seat minimums mean Professional starts at ₹9,594 a month. Suits: calling teams of five or more.

How to choose

• How you pay. Prepaid packs, yearly plans, one-time fees and seat minimums give very different first bills for the same team.
• What a minute costs. "Unlimited" plans carry fair-use limits; credit plans spend credits per call. Ask for the per-minute rate and the pulse.
• The dialer. Check which plan includes a power or predictive dialer; some providers sell it as an add-on or quote it separately.
• Leads and CRM. Ask whether you can upload an Excel or CSV lead list straight into the dialer, and check that your CRM is on the integration list for your plan.
• GST. Most pages here don't say whether GST is included, so ask for a quote that shows it.

India's rules for sales calls

A virtual number doesn't change the rules for promotional calls. Under TRAI's Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018, people can block all promotional calls or chosen categories on the DND register (NCPR) through 1909 or an app. TRAI's February 2025 amendment, as the government's press release describes it, restricts senders from using normal 10-digit numbers for telemarketing, keeps the 140 series for promotional calls and gives the 1600 series to service and transactional calls. A sender who crosses the complaint threshold has outgoing services barred for 15 days; after further violations, all its telecom resources are disconnected for a year and it is blacklisted.

A further amendment announced on 18 September 2026 covers automated calling: calls started by software "without direct human dialing, including using autodialing" must be declared to the telecom provider in advance, with the numbers used, or they are treated as unsolicited. If you plan to use an auto, power or predictive dialer, ask your provider how it handles this. Our DND guide explains the register and the registered route. This is general information, not legal advice.

Where a leads database fits

A dialer is only as busy as its lead list. Every provider above helps your team call faster; none tells you who to call. A ready list of every firm of one trade in a city or state is the fastest way to give a new telecaller hundreds of numbers on day one, and growth needs a steady supply of new contacts after that.

A Starleads list is an Excel file of businesses by industry, state and city, and each list page shows the share of rows with a mobile number, an email and an address before you buy, plus 60 sample contacts free. Our Business Owners & Proprietors list for India has 3,27,366 contacts in 1,586 cities, and 98% of rows have a mobile number, which is what a dialer needs. For larger buyers, the Purchase & Procurement Heads list has 7,19,174 contacts.

Business owners in the biggest cities:

• Mumbai 30,599 contacts · 10% email · 85% mobile ₹499
• Chennai 21,211 contacts · 0% email · 100% mobile ₹499
• Ahmedabad 18,085 contacts · 1% email · 100% mobile ₹499
• Pune 17,989 contacts · 0% email · 100% mobile ₹499

A routine that works with any of these providers:

1. Download the Excel file and keep the columns your callers need: business name, contact name, mobile number, city.
2. Save it as CSV and import it as a lead list in the dialer, or into your CRM.
3. Split the list by city or area and assign each part to one caller, so no number is called twice.
4. Keep a do-not-call sheet and follow the DND rules above before any promotional campaign.
5. Log every outcome, and send the rate card by email or, once the buyer agrees, on WhatsApp.

Our telecalling apps comparison covers the app side, and the list builder makes a list for any mix of industries and cities. Prices: ₹499 for a city, state or specialisation list, ₹1,999 for a large All-India list, with no GST added.

What Starleads doesn't do. The data is compiled from business directories and similar sources, so not every row has an email or a named person, and contact details change. There is no look-up of one named executive, no CRM integration or API (you import the Excel or CSV file), payment is by UPI or bank transfer confirmed by hand, and the lists cover India only.

What it costs: a worked example

Two telecallers calling business owners in one city for a month:

• Exotel Dabbler: ₹9,999 covers 5 months and 3 agents, about ₹2,000 a month (₹9,999 ÷ 5), with 5,000 credits to spend on calls over those months.
• Smartflo Lite: 2 licences × ₹950 = ₹1,900 a month. The 3-month minimum and one-time cost make the first bill 2 × ₹2,850 + ₹5,000 = ₹10,700.
• MyOperator Sedan: ₹5,000 a month for up to 10 users, billed yearly: ₹60,000 plus GST.

Add the leads: a city list costs ₹499, and the Mumbai list of business owners has 30,599 contacts. For example, if each caller makes 80 calls a day for 22 working days, the two of them dial 3,520 numbers in a month, so one large city list can keep them busy for weeks. These are round example numbers, not a forecast.

Our verdict

For a small Indian team, the lowest published starting points are Exotel's Dabbler pack, Smartflo Lite and Knowlarity's prepaid plan, and Exotel lets you try before you pay. MyOperator suits teams that sell on calls and WhatsApp together and can pay for a year. Acefone fits calling teams of five or more that want lead lists and scripts inside the contact centre. Knowlarity publishes plans for several products, and Ozonetel quotes CloudAgent to your size. Whichever you choose, budget for the numbers to call as well, and follow the DND rules from day one.

Questions people ask

What is Exotel's pricing?

Its Business Phone System packs are Dabbler at ₹9,999 (5 months, 3 agents), Believer at ₹19,999 (11 months, 6 agents) and Influencer at ₹49,499 (11 months, unlimited agents), each including credits for calls, SMS and WhatsApp at ₹1 a credit. There is a 7-day trial with ₹500 of free usage.

Exotel vs MyOperator: which is better?

They are priced differently. Exotel sells prepaid packs with an auto dialer in every plan. MyOperator sells yearly plans for 10 users with calling and WhatsApp in one plan (Meta's message charges extra), and its auto-dialer is an add-on on the SUV plan. Compare the cost for your number of callers over a year.

Is Servetel the same as Acefone?

Yes. Servetel rebranded to Acefone on 13 February 2025, and servetel.in redirects to acefone.com. Current plans appear on Acefone's pricing page.

Can I use an auto dialer on a bought contact list?

The dialer works with any list you import, but the rules depend on the call. Promotional calls must follow the DND rules and go through the registered route, and automated calling must be declared to your telecom provider under TRAI's September 2026 amendment. Our calling plan shows how to work a list call by call.