Retell AI vs Regie.ai vs 11x vs Artisan AI: Which AI-Powered Sales Outbound Calling Tool Is Best?

Search for an AI tool to run outbound sales calls and four names surface fast: Retell AI, Regie.ai, 11x, and Artisan AI. All four promise more booked meetings with less manual work, and all four put "AI calling" somewhere on their pricing pages.

The catch is that the phrase means something different in each product. In one, the AI holds the conversation. In the others, the AI loads the queue and a human still does the talking.

This is Retell's own comparison, written from Retell's point of view, so read it with that in mind.

The verdict still rests on documented pricing, current G2 ratings, and published capabilities, and it credits each competitor on the dimensions where it genuinely leads. Retell ranks first here because it is the only one of the four where the AI itself places and holds the outbound call, yet it loses ground anywhere the real job is full-funnel prospecting rather than the call.

Quick Verdict

Retell AI fits teams that want the AI to place and hold outbound sales calls, at $0.07 per minute with no platform fee, plus SOC 2 and HIPAA included. Regie.ai, 11x, and Artisan AI win when you also need lead sourcing, email, and LinkedIn handled inside one platform.

Retell AI vs Regie.ai vs 11x vs Artisan AI: Feature and Pricing Comparison

How Retell AI, Regie.ai, 11x, and Artisan AI Compare in Detail

Retell AI: the only platform where the AI runs the call

Retell is a voice agent platform where the AI conducts the actual phone conversation. On an outbound sales call the agent dials, opens, asks discovery questions, handles common objections, and books the meeting, with lead qualification logic you define in the agent flow. No human sits on the line unless one is needed.

Pricing starts at $0.07 per minute for the voice engine, with no platform fee and no monthly minimum. New accounts get 60 free minutes, 20 concurrent calls, and 10 free knowledge bases, and enterprise pricing drops below $0.05 per minute at high volume. You add your LLM and telephony on top, which puts most production setups in the low-double-digit cents per minute.

For volume outreach, Retell runs outbound through batch call campaigns that work lists on a schedule. Cold-call and reactivation motions map to AI telemarketing, with branded caller ID and verified numbers available to lift answer rates.

The agent pulls live answers from a streaming knowledge base during the call, supports warm transfer with full context to a closer, and writes post-call analysis with sentiment and scoring. It runs across 31+ languages and carries SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA, GDPR, and built-in PII redaction. Latency sits around 600ms. Matic Insurance handled more than 8,000 calls in Q1 2025 on Retell and cut claims handle time from 12.4 to 5.8 minutes.

The honest limit: Retell does not source leads, maintain a contact database, or send cold email and LinkedIn. Agents also need prompt tuning before they sound fully natural. Retell is the call layer, not the prospecting engine.

Regie.ai: a parallel dialer that loads warm leads for human reps

Regie.ai is a sales engagement platform built around AI agents that warm leads and a dialer that human reps operate. Its AI Dialer supports parallel dialing across up to nine lines, generates voicemails in the rep's own voice, and runs real-time call coaching, but a person still holds every live conversation. The AI prioritizes who to call; the rep does the talking.

Pricing runs $180 per user per month for the AI SEP tier with a 10-seat minimum, which sets a floor near $21,600 a year, and $499 per user per month for Force Multiplier Rep with a 5-seat minimum. RegieOne enterprise pricing is custom, and there is no free trial. A 220M+ contact database is built in, which removes a separate data subscription.

Regie holds 4.6/5 across roughly 1,486 G2 reviews, where reps credit 10x dial volume and time-zone filtering. One recurring note is that the AI voice does not greet prospects on pickup, which leaves a brief silence. Regie is strong for established teams that want signal-driven dialing at scale, and weaker for anyone who wants the AI to carry the conversation.

11x: digital workers with one real AI phone agent

11x sells "digital workers." Alice handles outbound prospecting across email and LinkedIn, and Julian is an AI phone agent for inbound and consented outbound voice. Julian calls back demo sign-ups within seconds, qualifies them, and books a meeting, with a claimed +61% lift in inbound conversion and support for 30+ languages. Among the three competitors, 11x is the only one with a genuine autonomous voice agent rather than a human dialer.

Pricing is not published. Third-party reports place a full Alice deployment near $5,000 per month, with annual contracts in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, and Vendr marketplace data shows a median around $40,125 a year. Adding Julian reportedly adds $4,000 to $6,000 per month. There is no public self-serve path, and multi-year lock-ins are common. A 400M+ contact database, website visitor tracking, and signal triggers come with the platform.

Reviewers praise onboarding and 24/7 reach, but several report that Julian struggles with accents, natural turn-taking, and objection handling, and that messaging from Alice can read generic. 11x suits enterprise buyers ready to bet on a digital-worker model and budget for it.

Artisan AI: an email-first BDR with a human dialer attached

Artisan's Ava is an AI BDR that researches leads, writes and sends email, handles replies, and books meetings. Ava 2.0 went generally available on May 26, 2026, with self-serve onboarding, $300 in free credits, and entry pricing of $250 per month, a 10x cut from the earlier $2,500 floor. Higher tiers run on credits plus seats, with third-party estimates from roughly $2,000 to $5,000+ per month.

On calling, Artisan made a deliberate choice. Ava 2.0 ships a native dialer, but the company built it as a human dialer: the AI warms leads and auto-triggers call tasks, and a rep takes the conversation. Artisan states plainly that a voice on the phone is a human component of sales. There is no autonomous AI voice agent in the product.

Artisan carries a 300M+ contact database with email and phone enrichment, website visitor identification, and ML lead scoring, and integrates with Salesforce and HubSpot. LinkedIn automation was restricted at the start of 2026, removing a channel. Its G2 rating sits at 3.8/5 from a smaller base near 89 reviews, and reviewers report that fully autonomous sending can feel robotic and still needs 5 to 10 hours of weekly oversight. Artisan is the easiest entry point for a lean team that wants email-first outbound with a dialer attached.

How Retell AI Stacks Up Against Each Platform

Retell AI vs Regie.ai: AI conversation versus parallel dialing

The split here is clean. Regie multiplies a human rep's dial volume up to nine lines at once, then hands a connected prospect to that rep. Retell removes the rep from the call entirely, so the AI greets, qualifies, and either books or runs a warm call transfer to a closer when intent is high.

Cost models diverge as a result. Regie charges per seat from $180 per user per month with a 10-seat minimum, so the price scales with headcount. Retell charges $0.07 per minute with no seats and no minimum, so the price scales with talk time. A small team running steady outbound usually pays less on per-minute calling, while a large dialing floor that wants humans on every call leans toward Regie.

Connect quality matters for both. Retell pairs verified phone numbers and branded caller ID with the AI conversation, while Regie's dialer depends on the rep being ready when a human picks up. For pure dialing capacity behind human closers, Regie leads; for AI-run conversations at a transparent per-minute rate, Retell leads.

Retell AI vs 11x: two routes to autonomous voice

11x is the one competitor that also offers an autonomous voice agent, so this comparison is about depth, not category. Julian focuses on inbound qualification and consented callbacks and ships inside a broader digital-worker contract. Retell treats the AI voice agent as the whole product, which shows up in latency near 600ms, simulation testing before launch, and bring-your-own LLM, voice, and telephony.

Pricing transparency is the sharpest difference. 11x does not publish rates, and third-party estimates put a combined Alice and Julian deployment well into five figures per month on annual terms. Retell starts at $0 with 60 free minutes and bills per minute after that, so a team can test an outbound AI appointment setter before signing anything.

Where 11x wins is the surrounding workforce: Alice's prospecting, a 400M+ contact database, and visitor tracking that Retell does not provide. If you want an AI SDR plus a voice agent under one enterprise contract, 11x is the broader bet. If the priority is a production-grade outbound caller you can stand up this week, Retell is the tighter fit.

Retell AI vs Artisan AI: per-minute calling versus credit-based outreach

Artisan's strength is email-first outbound with a low, public entry price and $300 in free credits, which makes it easy for a lean team to start. Its dialer, though, puts a human on every live call by design, so Artisan does not automate the conversation itself.

Retell automates the conversation and prices it by the minute through transparent pricing, which suits teams whose bottleneck is talk-time capacity rather than email volume. The economics favor AI on the call: Gartner projects conversational AI will cut contact center agent labor costs by $80 billion in 2026, with one in ten agent interactions automated, and per-call voice AI costs run a fraction of a staffed seat.

The trade is scope. Artisan brings a 300M+ contact database and built-in sequencing that Retell lacks. For email-led outbound on a small budget, Artisan is the better starting point; for the actual outbound call run by AI, Retell is the better tool.

Pricing Compared: What Each Tool Actually Costs

The cleanest read: Retell is the only tool with usage-based per-minute calling and a true $0 start, Artisan is the cheapest published entry point for email-first outbound, Regie sets a four-figure monthly floor through seat minimums, and 11x stays opaque with the highest commitment.

Who Should Pick What

If you want the AI to place and hold outbound sales calls at scale, Retell AI is the fit, since it runs the conversation, lifts answer rates with branded call ID, and books or transfers in real time. SWTCH cut support costs by more than 50% after deploying Retell for high-volume voice.

If your priority is a high-volume human dialing floor backed by intent data and a built-in database, Regie.ai is the better choice, because its parallel dialer and SEP put more connected conversations in front of reps each day.

If you want an enterprise digital-worker program that combines an AI SDR for email and LinkedIn with an autonomous voice agent, 11x earns the look, provided you can absorb annual contracts and opaque pricing.

If you are a lean team that wants email-first outbound with a low, public entry price and a human dialer attached, Artisan AI is the easiest start. Teams that later want the AI to handle the call itself, with post call analysis for QA and scoring, tend to add Retell as the voice layer alongside whichever SDR tool sources the leads.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the best AI tool for outbound sales calls?

Retell AI is the best fit when you want the AI itself to run the call, at $0.07 per minute with SOC 2 and HIPAA included. Regie.ai, 11x, and Artisan AI are stronger when the job is full-funnel prospecting across email, LinkedIn, and a human dialer.

Do Regie.ai, 11x, and Artisan place calls with AI or with humans?

Regie.ai and Artisan AI use human dialers, so a rep holds every live conversation while the AI warms and queues leads. 11x is the exception with Julian, an autonomous voice agent for inbound and consented outbound. Retell's AI conducts the conversation directly.

Does Retell AI source leads or send cold emails?

No. Retell is the voice layer that runs the call, not a prospecting engine, so it does not maintain a contact database or send email and LinkedIn. Many teams pair it with a sales engagement tool that sources leads, then let Retell handle the outbound call.

Is Retell AI compliant for regulated outbound calling?

Yes. Retell carries SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA, and GDPR, with built-in PII redaction. Compliance certifications for Regie.ai, 11x, and Artisan were not independently confirmed in this comparison and should be verified directly with each vendor.

Can these tools connect to my CRM?

Yes. Retell integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, and GoHighLevel, while Regie.ai, 11x, and Artisan sync with Salesforce and HubSpot. Match the integration to the system your reps already log calls in.

Which tool helps most with answer and connect rates?

Retell pairs verified numbers, branded caller ID, and outbound navigate IVR to reach decision-makers, then runs the conversation when the prospect picks up. Human-dialer tools like Regie and Artisan depend on a rep being available the moment a call connects.

What is the cheapest way to start testing?

Retell AI starts at $0 with 60 free minutes and bills per minute after that. Artisan AI offers self-serve onboarding with $300 in free credits over 30 days. Regie.ai and 11x require a sales process and offer no public free trial.