Vapi is a developer-friendly platform for building customizable voice agents that support real-time conversations over phone or web. While Vapi pricing starts at $0.05 per minute, total costs often rise to $0.13-$0.33 per minute after adding third-party services. In contrast, open-source platforms are free to use, reduce costs by up to 70% by paying only LLM, STT and TTS vendor fees, and offer stronger data security and privacy through self-hosting and full infrastructure control.
Vapi doesn’t offer pre-built templates tailored to common user use cases, so building a voice bot requires more hands-on effort. Users report hidden charges and there is no support to buy a UK number, and charge twice for one call.
A Reddit thread highlights complaints about hallucinations, and in this blog we’ll list open-source Vapi alternatives like Dograh AI, Pipecat, and LiveKit to help you choose a better option.
Table of Contents
A Quick Overview on Vapi AI Alternatives
A quick overview of Vapi AI and free alternatives like Dograh AI, Pipecat, LiveKit, and Vocode to help you choose a better voice AI platform.
What is Vapi AI
Vapi is a proprietary, developer-friendly platform with 40+ integrations and support for 100+ languages and $10 free usage based. It claims to handle complex infrastructure so developers can focus on delivering high-quality voice experiences.
Voice agents allow user to :
- Enable natural, real-time conversations with users.
- Make and receive phone calls.
- Integrate seamlessly with existing systems and APIs.
- Handle complex workflows such as appointment scheduling, customer support, and more.
Migrate from Vapi : Save upto 70% cost with Dograh Voice AI.
Dograh offers an open-source, no-code Voice AI builder it’s free to use, with no platform fees, friendly UI lets you create and deploy voice agents in minutes.
What is Dograh AI
Dograh AI voice ai agent github ensures privacy and low latency through a self-deployable, fully open-source platform with no vendor lock-in and complete transparency. Supporting 30+ languages, it gives developers full control over data, workflows, models and integrations.
Dograh AI allows user to :
- 2 mins setup from zero to working voice bot in 2 mins.
- No code agent builder, visual flow design with prebuilt template.
- Real time preview and testing, custom prompts and responses.
- Telephony integration to any phone system like Twilio or Vonage or bring your own SIP trunk.
- Flexible deployment custom branding and styling option.
- Langfuse observability offers real-time monitoring, TTFB and performance metrics, conversation transcripts, and LLM usage tracking.
- Dograh AI is free to use as an open-source platform, with costs limited to the LLM, STT and TTS vendors you choose to run.
What is Pipecat
Pipecat is an open-source Python framework for building real-time voice and multimodal conversational agents technical knowledge prerequisite hence suited for technical teams. It also simplifies orchestration of audio, video, AI services, transports and conversation pipelines.
Pipecat allows user to :
- Voice-first, with built-in speech recognition, text-to-speech, and conversation handling.
- Pluggable, with support for multiple AI services and tools.
- Composable pipelines that let you build complex behaviors from modular components.
- Real-time, ultra-low-latency interactions across multiple transports such as WebSockets and WebRTC.
- With Pipecat users can build Voice Assistants, AI Companions, Multimodal Interfaces, Interactive Storytelling, Business Agents and Complex Dialog Systems.
What is LiveKit
LiveKit agent is an open source framework for building real-time voice and multimodal conversational agents. Flexible integration to STT/TTS, LLM and realtime API. Built-in task scheduling and dispatch APIs to connect users with agents. The platform is depend on technical framework and require technical development to go to production, hence more suited for deeply technical teams.
LiveKit allows user to :
- Extensive WebRTC clients with open-source SDKs to build apps across all major platforms.
- Seamless telephony integration with LiveKit, enabling agents to make and receive phone calls.
- Built-in testing framework with judges to verify agent performance.
- Semantic turn detection helps to reduce interruptions.
- Exchange data with clients using RPCs (Remote Procedure Calls) and Data APIs.
What is Vocode
Vocode is an open-source library for building voice agents.. It offers conversation abstractions, endpointing and integrations with STT (Deepgram), LLMs (OpenAI), and TTS (ElevenLabs) across telephony, web, and Zoom.
Vocode allows user to :
- Vocode services allow users to automate inbound/outbound calls via API.
- Provides conversation abstractions for both streaming and turn-based interactions.
- Supports conversation features such as endpointing and emotion tracking.
- Integrates with leading speech-to-text and text-to-speech providers, making it easy to choose the best voices and transcription engines.
- Supports telephony, web and Zoom for cross-platform voice agents.
Features of Vapi Alternative Open Source
Below are the features of free, open-source Vapi AI alternatives like Dograh AI, LiveKit, Pipecat, and Vocode to help you choose the best option.
Vapi AI features
- Multilingual support to talk with agents in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and 100+ other languages.
- Automated testing to detect hallucination risk before production.
- Tool calling lets you plug in your APIs so agents can fetch data and perform actions on your server intelligently.
- API-native, with everything exposed via APIs and 1000s of configuration and integration options.
- Bring your own API keys for transcription, LLM or TTS models.
- A/B experiments to test different prompts, voices and flows for continuous performance optimization.
- Delivers 99.99% uptime with enterprise-grade reliability.
- SOC 2, HIPPA and PCI compliant for enterprise - level security for healthcare and financial services.
Migrate from Vapi : Save upto 70% cost with Dograh Voice AI.
Dograh offers an open-source, no-code Voice AI builder it’s free to use, with no platform fees, friendly UI lets you create and deploy voice agents in minutes.
Dograh AI features
- No-Code Builder : Easily create advanced AI voice agents with a drag-and-drop interface, no programming needed.
- Natural Language Processing : Advanced NLP enables AI agents to understand context and intent with human-like accuracy.
- Real-Time Analytics : Track conversations, measure performance and optimize agents with detailed insights.
- 24/7 Availability : AI agents work nonstop, managing customer inquiries and generating leads anytime.
- Multi-Language Support : Provides multi-language support, enabling agents to speak multiple languages and handle diverse accents seamlessly.
- Voice customization : Allowing selection of different voice profiles or creation of custom voices to match brand personality.
- Intelligent Routing : Automatically directing complex queries to human agents to ensure an optimal customer experience.
- AI-powered insights : Analyze conversation data to understand customer needs and preferences.
- Open Source Voice Agents Free : Dograh AI has no platform fees users only pay LLM, STT and TTS costs directly to vendors.
- Data Privacy : Dograh AI is a self-hosted platform, ensuring full control over data and minimizing the risk of data breaches.
- Community : Dograh AI 24/7 support slack community help you resolve queries.
Pipecat features
- Enables ultra-low-latency interactions across multiple transports, such as WebSockets and WebRTC.
- Supports integration of speech recognition, text-to-speech, and conversation management.
- Provides end-to-end audio processing with VAD, noise suppression, channel interruption handling and semantic turn-taking for natural, fluid conversations.
- Offers WebRTC/WebSocket support for browser and mobile integration, enabling scalable sessions without platform fees.
- Allows mixing and matching services like Amazon Transcribe or Silero VAD for greater flexibility.
- Discord community for help and support.
LiveKit features
- LiveKit pricing includes Build ($0/Month), Ship ($50/Month), Scale ($500/Month) and Enterprise (Custom).
- Provides a comprehensive ecosystem to combine the right STT, LLM, TTS, and real-time APIs to fit any use case.
- No credit card needed, Includes 1,000 free agent session minutes per month.
- LiveKit open source SDK ecosystem for building client applications.
- Builtin test framework for analyzing the performance of voice agents.
- With LiveKit users can build Starter agent, Outbound Caller, Text-only-agent, Multi user transcriber, Video avatars and Restaurants ordering/ Reservations.
Vocode features
- With Vocode, users can build real-time, streaming LLM-powered conversations and deploy them across phone calls, Zoom meetings and more.
- Users can also build personal assistants or voice-based apps such as voice-controlled chess.
- Vocode offers simple abstractions and integrations, bringing everything you need into a single library.
- Vocode manages streaming and turn-based conversations with support for endpointing and interruptions.
- Integrations with all leading STT, TTS and LLM providers.
- Discord community support to resolve queries.
Comparing Vapi AI, Vocode and Dograh AI features
Why choose one over the other ?
- Transparent pricing with full cost control and no hidden charges like vapi.
- Easy, reliable voice bot development.
- Simple setup with no-code or low-code options.
- Clear voice quality, low latency, and natural speech.
- Seamless integrations and workflow automation.
- Strong security, compliance, and flexible deployment options.
- AI-powered insights and optimization with built-in testing tools (e.g., LoopTalk).
What are the customers saying ?
Top Open-Source Vapi Replacements: Featuring Dograh AI
Interested in leveraging Dograh for lead generation, cold calling or business automation ? Here’s a streamlined path to getting started, along with direct links to essential resources :
1. Dograh AI: Quick Start Demo
2. Run Docker Command
Download and Start Dograh first startup may take 2-3 mins to download all images
3. Quick Start Instructions
Describe use case
Auto-generated templates - test your bot and customize quickly
Step by step written guide to building and deploying your first voice AI Agent
- Open Dashboard: Launch http://localhost:3000 on your browser.
- Choose Call Type: Select Inbound or Outbound calling.
- Name Your Bot: Use a short two-word name (e.g., Lead Qualification).
- Describe Use Case: In 5–10 words (e.g., Screen insurance form submissions for purchase intent).
- Launch: Your bot is ready! Open the bot and click Web Call to talk to it.
4. Community & Support
Join Slack Community and discuss issue with Dograh experts :
5. Additional Resource
Related Blog
- Discover the Top AI Communities to Join in 2025 for innovation and collaboration.
- Learn what makes Voice-Enabled AI Workflow Builders Effective in 2025.
- Discover how Making AI Outbound Calls Work: A Technical Guide for Call Centers can streamline automation and boost call efficiency.
- Explore AI Outbound Calling in 2025: What Actually Works Now to learn proven strategies for effective, real-world voice automation.
- See how 24/7 Virtual Receptionist Helps Small Firms Win More Clients by boosting responsiveness and improving customer engagement.
- Learn how How Call Automation Cuts Outbound Calling Costs by 60%: Virtual Assistant Guide can transform your call center’s efficiency and savings.
- Check out "The Ultimate Guide to Reduce Speech Latency in AI Calling [Proven]" for expert tips on making your voice agents faster and more responsive.
FAQ’s
1. What is the best voice AI agent ?
Open-source options, like Dograh AI (full control and privacy), Pipecat (real-time, low-latency pipelines) and LiveKit (scalable WebRTC and telephony) are among the best choices.
2. How much does Vapi voice agent cost ?
Vapi charges a base platform fee of $0.05 per minute, but total costs typically range from $0.13 to $0.33 per minute once third-party services are included.
3. Does Vapi use WebRTC ?
Yes. Vapi uses WebRTC to deliver low-latency, real-time audio streaming for conversational AI voice agents.
4. Is vapi ai free ?
No, Vapi AI is not fully free. It’s a paid, usage-based platform, though it offers a free trial with $10 in credits for testing.
5. Does Vapi use LiveKit ?
No, Vapi does not use LiveKit. They are separate platforms, Vapi focused on voice AI agents and LiveKit providing real-time WebRTC infrastructure.
6. Best open source voice agents ?
Dograh AI is one of the best open-source voice agent platforms, offering full control, privacy, and no vendor lock-in. It’s ideal for teams that want flexible, self-hosted voice AI solutions.
7. What is the best AI voice agent ?
Open-source voice agents are the best choice for most teams, with platforms like Dograh AI, LiveKit, and Pipecat offering greater control, flexibility and transparency.
