TalaLevel vs Close: the Close alternative for teams that call and text

At a glance

We ran a Close trial on November 5, 2026. We imported leads, called a test number from a lead page and from both of Close’s dialers, and built a workflow and a web form, without sending anything to anyone. Close’s prices are from close.com/pricing as of November 2026; TalaLevel’s are from our pricing page.

What five reps cost on each

Take five reps who call and text US leads all day. On Close they need Growth, the first plan with the power dialer. On TalaLevel they need Pro, the first plan with texting.

The 1,000 minutes is our assumption, so put in your own. Close lists no price per text, which is why texts are left out of its total. Billed yearly, TalaLevel Pro is 5 × $970 = $4,850, and Close Growth is 5 × $99 × 12 = $5,940 plus 12 × $105 = $1,260 of calls and numbers, about $7,200 before texts.

For several lines ringing at once, Close’s predictive dialer means Scale: 5 × $149 = $745 a month before usage, against $485 for TalaLevel Pro’s 3 lines. Two cases go the other way. TalaLevel Scale, with up to 10 lines, Joey and 5,000 AI credits a seat, is 5 × $247 = $1,235 a month, more than Close Scale. And without a power dialer, Close is cheaper: one seller can run Solo for $9 a month billed annually ($19 monthly), while TalaLevel’s cheapest plan, Dialer at $47, has no texting.

On TalaLevel, extra texts or AI credits are $10 per 1,000, and a weekly spam check on every number is $100 a workspace a month if you add it.

Calling

In Close, the first call takes three prompts: whether to record all calls, a recording consent notice, and a phone settings panel. A call from a lead page puts a strip under the top bar with the contact, your outgoing number and Hang up, and the call lands in the lead’s timeline with a note box that saves as you type.

Close’s power dialer runs from Smart Views, its saved searches. On the plain Leads list the Call menu is greyed out with the tooltip “Save this search as a Smart View to call using the Power Dialer.” Once a view is saved, a Manage page shows who on the team is dialing it, so several reps can work one list. The predictive dialer needed two things before it would run: a number anyone in the organization may use as caller ID, and a recorded message for people who answer when no rep is free.

Close is stronger on inbound calls and on the phone system itself. Each number has its own routing, phone menu, ring order, forwarding and voicemail greeting. Both let you bring your existing number in. Scale keeps recordings with no time limit, where Solo and Essentials keep 30 days and Growth 90.

TalaLevel is built for working an outbound list, up to 3 lines at once on Pro and up to 10 on Scale. The dialer answers phones’ call screeners with your recorded reply and leaves your recorded voicemail, and every call is recorded, transcribed, summarised and filed on the lead. On Pro and Scale, the live call assistant listens to both sides. When the lead pushes back, a suggested next line appears on your screen, and your call checklist fills itself in as they talk. We found nothing like it in Close, in the trial or on its pricing page. Both products keep listening in, whispering and taking over a rep’s call for their Scale plan.

Texting

Both apps text from your own numbers, and both need your business registered with the US carriers (A2P 10DLC) before texts to US numbers go through.

In Close, registration is one form under Settings, Phone & Voicemail, US Compliance, covering calling and texting together: legal name, EIN, legal structure, website, a street address (no PO boxes), your texting use case and how you collect consent. Our trial number wasn’t registered, so we wrote a text in the lead’s timeline but couldn’t send it. Close’s form builder has ready-made 10DLC consent blocks, a useful detail if leads come from your own site. Texts are billed at cost, picture messages work, and texts inside automated workflows need Growth.

TalaLevel’s texting is on Pro and Scale, and we do the registration with you rather than handing you the form. Pro includes 2,000 texts a seat and Scale 6,000. Every text is checked before it leaves for opt-outs, quiet hours in the lead’s time zone, and your numbers’ registration.

Email

Email is where Close does more. Every plan connects Google or Microsoft accounts with two-way sync, past mail, templates and snippets. Growth adds bulk email, sending limits, unsubscribe handling, scheduled sends and Send As. A private BCC address files any email you copy it on under the matching lead.

TalaLevel sends email from each rep’s own Gmail, with follow-ups, on Pro and Scale. It doesn’t connect Microsoft accounts, so a team on Outlook should look at Close.

AI

TalaLevel’s AI works the conversation. Tala texts a new lead back from your own number, day or night, asks what you’d ask and books the call. It can answer leads who text you, follow up after a call and reply to people who fill in your website form, and each of those is off until you switch it on. If someone asks, Tala says it is an AI assistant, and anything else that would reach a lead waits for your click. A conversation uses about 20 AI credits, so Pro’s 1,500 credits a seat cover about 75 conversations a month. On Scale, Joey calls a list for you from 9am to 8pm in each lead’s time zone and hands you the people who want to talk. You can talk to Joey yourself on our home page.

Close’s AI works the whole CRM. Chloe is a chat panel on every screen that takes the open lead as context, offers to summarise it or draft a follow-up email, and lists the actions it took. On every plan, Chloe can also call down a list of leads in the US and Canada, paid in AI credits plus calling; in our trial, setting that up began with a 3 to 5 minute phone call with Chloe. Close’s Agents, labelled beta as of November 2026, aim at the jobs Tala and Joey do: replying to new leads, qualifying them, booking meetings and reviving lost deals. We didn’t run one, so we can’t compare them on a real lead.

Close’s AI reaches further across the CRM. TalaLevel’s is aimed at two moments, the text reply to a new lead and the live call. Both connect to ChatGPT and Claude through an MCP server.

CRM depth and integrations

This is Close’s ground. In the trial, almost everything about how a business sells was a settings page: lead statuses, several pipelines, your own names for Lead, Contact and Opportunity, and up to 250 custom fields, with custom objects and custom roles on Scale. The workflow builder, on Growth and Scale, is a node graph: a trigger, then email, call, SMS and task steps with delays, goals that stop the sequence, sending hours, and an option to create each email as a draft for review. Close also has an API, webhooks, over 100 listed integrations including Zapier and Calendly, iOS and Android apps, and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance.

TalaLevel’s CRM is simpler: leads, lists, pipeline, calendar and reports. What it does differently is keep itself current from calls and texts. Statuses move as they happen, a callback promised for 2pm shows up on Home at 2pm in the lead’s time zone, and leads who stop answering are marked so Tala can follow up. Reports show dials, connects, conversations and calls booked by rep and by day, and the hours your leads pick up. TalaLevel connects to Gmail, Google Calendar and Meet.

TalaLevel has no drag-and-drop workflow builder. We build the workflow with you instead: tell us how your process runs and we set it up in your workspace. On our own floor that is a document review. When a lead sends files, the app reads them, checks them for signs of tampering, pulls out the figures and tells the rep what is missing before anyone opens a PDF. If your process needs something like that, talk to us before you assume it can’t be done.

Trial, setup and switching

Close’s trial is 14 days with no card and $5 of calling and enrichment credit, and paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Its importer mapped every column of our file on its own, offered to match rows to existing leads by name, and keeps running if you leave the page. It also imports straight from HubSpot, Pipedrive and HighLevel.

TalaLevel’s trial is 7 days with a card on file, and you pay nothing if you cancel before it ends. Sign in to the CRM you use now (Close, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Zoho, HighLevel, Attio, Copper, Freshsales or monday) and your leads, people, deals and history come across by themselves; or you import a spreadsheet and TalaLevel matches the columns. To leave Close, export from its Leads list (More, then Export) and import that file. Close workflows don’t import. If your process depends on one, tell us what it does and we rebuild it with you. Custom objects have nothing to move into yet, so if you rely on those, stay where you are.

Which to pick

What you getTalaLevelPro, $97 a seat7of 10CloseGrowth, $109 a seat6of 10

Unlimited US callingEvery planAbout $0.02 a minute

Power dialerEvery planGrowth and Scale

Several lines at onceUp to 3On Scale, $149

Texts in the seat2,000Billed at cost

AI during a live callLive call assistantNone we found

AI working leads on its ownTala, by textChloe calls lists

Email to leadsFrom each rep's GmailGoogle or Microsoft

Workflows you build yourselfBuilt with youGrowth and Scale

A Zapier app and 100+ integrationsAn API and webhooksYes

Calling outside the USUS onlyNearly 200 countries

Pick TalaLevel if

• Your reps spend the day calling and texting US leads from a list.
• You want a power dialer for $47 a seat a month rather than Close Growth at $99 to $109.
• You want several lines ringing at once without the top plan: 3 lines on Pro at $97, against Close’s predictive dialer on Scale at $139 to $149.
• You’d rather have calling and texts in the seat price than metered.
• You have a process of your own and want it built for you instead of learning a workflow builder.
• You want new leads texted back at any hour, and a suggested line on screen when a lead pushes back on a call.
• You want your carrier registration done with you rather than a form to fill in alone.

Pick Close if

• You want to build and change automated workflows yourself, or you need custom objects and custom roles.
• Your team is on Microsoft 365, or email carries as much of your outreach as the phone.
• You call or text outside the US.
• You connect other tools through a Zapier app or its 100+ integrations.
• You take a lot of inbound calls and need routing and phone menus.
• You work alone and don’t need a power dialer. Solo at $9 a month billed annually costs less than any TalaLevel plan.
• You want an AI caller without paying for a top-plan seat.