How do Retell AI and Kawl Now compare?
Both can put a voice agent on your website, but they differ in scope, knowledge control and cost.
| Consideration | Kawl Now | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Main focus | Browser voice support and sales for SaaS websites. | AI voice agents for phone calls, plus web calls, chat and SMS. |
| Website voice | One script tag adds a support or sales voice widget. | A widget with voice, chat and callback modes, or the Web SDK for your own call screen. |
| Phone, chat and SMS | Browser voice only, with no phone number for customers to call. | Inbound and outbound phone calls, text chat agents and SMS. |
| Knowledge sources | FAQs and notes you write, plus selected GitHub .md, .mdx and .txt files for support. | Web pages, uploaded files, text snippets, and Google Drive, OneDrive and Notion sync. |
| Knowledge updates | New and re-synced sources wait for your approval. | Optional auto-refresh re-fetches web pages and changed synced sources every 24 hours. |
| A person on the call | An early release: once your team verifies a UK or US phone number and turns handover on, a caller can choose Talk to a human, and your team hears a private briefing first. | A team member can listen live and take over phone or web calls. |
| Business systems | No CRM, calendar or help desk connectors, and no account lookup. | CRM and calendar integrations, with call outcomes written back to your CRM. |
| Cost to start | First 50 conversations free, with no payment details. | $10 in free credits, then $0.07 to $0.31 a minute for voice agents, as listed on 8 October 2026. |
Which Retell AI alternatives work on a website?
Retell AI is one way to run a voice agent on a website. Each of these alternatives describes its website option on its own pages, which we checked on 8 October 2026:
- Kawl Now: browser voice support and sales agents for SaaS websites, with every source approved before its agents can use it, and no phone number.
- Vapi: a developer platform with a web widget in voice or chat mode, a Web SDK for your own interface, and phone numbers.
- ElevenLabs Agents: voice and chat agents for phone, web, WhatsApp, SMS and email, with a website widget that starts in voice-only mode.
- OpenAI’s Realtime API: the starting point for building your own browser voice agent over WebRTC, with your own server, document search and limits.
How much setup does each one need?
Retell AI gives you more choices. You pick a single prompt or a conversation flow, then build from scratch, use a template or let Conductor, its AI copilot, draft the agent. You also choose a language model and a voice. On your website, you embed its widget or build your own call screen with the Web SDK, using a public key limited to your domains.
Kawl Now has fewer decisions to make. Every workspace starts with a support agent and a sales agent, both switched off. For each one, you set a greeting and instructions, pick one of two voices, add and approve knowledge, and list your site’s HTTPS address. Test it in the dashboard, switch on customer calls and paste one script tag into your site.
Both let you limit which websites can start calls, and both can be managed from a coding agent. Retell has an API, SDKs and an MCP server. Kawl Now has a REST API and an MCP server, and adding a source and approving it are separate steps.
Who controls what the agent knows?
Retell AI’s knowledge base takes web pages, uploaded files, text snippets, and content synced from Google Drive, OneDrive and Notion. Optional auto-refresh re-fetches URLs and re-syncs changed Drive, OneDrive and Notion content every 24 hours, and auto-crawl adds every page under a URL path you choose. Call history shows the chunks behind each answer that used the knowledge base.
Kawl Now asks your team to approve each source first. Support uses FAQs you write and selected GitHub .md, .mdx or .txt files. Sales uses its own notes and never sees support or GitHub sources. Every new source starts as Needs review, and each GitHub re-sync sends it back for approval, so changed docs reach callers only after someone signs them off. Website URL import is switched off, so add website copy as sales notes.
The trade-off is freshness against review. Auto-refresh picks up changes daily with no manual step, while approval adds a checkpoint when setup steps, features or prices change. Retell also handles bigger libraries: each knowledge base holds up to 500 URLs, 25 files and 50 text snippets, and an agent can use several. A Kawl Now workspace holds up to 100 sources of up to 50,000 characters each.
Do you need phone lines, chat or a person on the call?
Retell AI covers more channels: inbound and outbound phone calls, SMS, chat agents in its widget or through the API, and a widget callback mode that phones the visitor. A team member can listen to a live call and take over, on phone or web calls, and Retell’s docs say its Transfer Call tool works on phone calls only. Retell also connects to CRMs such as HubSpot and Salesforce, Zendesk for tickets and Calendly for bookings.
Kawl Now is browser voice only, with no phone number for customers to call. It has no CRM, calendar or account lookup, so its agent answers product questions from approved sources and records bug reports or feature requests when callers ask. Human handover is an early release: once your team verifies a UK or US phone number and turns it on, a caller can choose Talk to a human, and your team hears a private briefing before the caller is connected. Customer routing is still being tested, so keep your usual contact options.
If customers need to phone you or text you, or you want a team member to listen in and take over live calls, Retell is the better fit.
What does each one cost?
On 8 October 2026, Retell AI’s pricing page listed pay as you go at $0.07 to $0.31 a minute for voice agents, depending on the model, voice and add-ons, and from $0.002 a message for chat agents, with $10 in free credits. Phone calls on a Retell number add a telephony rate that varies by country, such as $0.015 a minute for a US Twilio number, and Retell doesn’t charge for SIP trunking or custom telephony. It listed the knowledge base add-on at $0.005 a minute, and Retell’s knowledge base guide says the first 10 knowledge bases are free, then $8 a month each. New accounts need no payment method to start, and Enterprise pricing is custom.
Kawl Now gives each workspace its first 50 conversations free, shared by support, sales and dashboard tests. Each browser call can last up to 10 minutes. Joining the waitlist asks only for your work details. Paid calls aren’t available yet, so no payment is collected and new calls stop once the 50 are used.
Which one fits your team?
Retell AI is the better fit if you want one platform for phone, web, chat and SMS, need CRM or calendar actions during calls, want a person to take over live calls, or need an agent that speaks several languages. Its homepage also states HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 27001 compliance.
Kawl Now is the better fit if you run a SaaS product and want separate support and sales voice agents on your website that search only sources your team has approved, including support docs kept in GitHub. Join the waitlist, test a few real customer questions in the dashboard with us, then switch on customer calls.
Retell AI sources reviewed on 8 October 2026. Features and prices can change.
Common questions
Does Retell AI support web calls?
Yes. Retell’s docs describe web calls that connect a visitor to a voice agent in the browser through its Web SDK, with no phone number involved, and a website widget with voice, chat and callback modes. Both use a public key limited to your domains.
Can you try Retell AI or Kawl Now without a payment card?
Yes. Retell AI says new accounts start with $10 in free trial credits and need no payment method until you buy a phone number. Kawl Now gives each workspace its first 50 conversations free, and because paid calls aren’t available yet, it doesn’t ask for a card.
How do Retell AI and Kawl Now keep answers up to date?
Retell AI can auto-refresh web pages and re-sync changed Google Drive, OneDrive and Notion sources every 24 hours, so updates reach calls without a manual step. Kawl Now sends every new source and every GitHub re-sync back for approval, so changed docs reach callers only after someone on your team signs them off.
Can Kawl Now take phone calls like Retell AI?
No. Kawl Now runs voice conversations in the visitor’s browser on your website, so it has no phone number for customers to call and doesn’t answer phone calls. If you need an AI agent on a phone line, Retell AI is the better fit.