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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Gist

    Score9.5 out of 10
    N/AGist is a unified marketing, sales, and support platform. It includes live chat, a help desk, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, opt-in forms, and more.

    $29

    per month

    Google Voice

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Voice is a free IP telephony service that provides users with one phone number that can be forwarded to multiple phones or devices. It includes features such as call forwarding, voicemail translation, text messaging, and voice calls. Fees may apply for international calling.

    $10

    per month

    Twilio

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/ATwilio offers a CPaaS and CCaaS solution, with the combination of its programmable Voice, Video, and Messaging APIs, as well as the Twilio Flex cloud contact center. Additional capabilities include Twilio's Elastic SIP Trunking, as well as API for WhatsApp.

    $0

    per min per participant

    Pricing
    GistGoogle VoiceTwilio
    Editions & Modules
    Professional
    $29.00
    per month
    Premium
    $99.00
    per month
    Starter
    $10
    per user/per month
    Standard
    $20
    per user/per month
    Premier
    $30
    per user/per month
    Programmable Video
    $0.0015
    per min per participant
    WhatsApp Business API
    $0.0042
    Per WhatsApp Template message sent
    WhatsApp Business API
    $0.005
    Per WhatsApp session message
    Elastic SIP Trunking
    $0.007
    Per min for termination
    Programmable Messaging
    $0.0075
    per message sent or received
    Programmable Voice
    $0.0085
    per minute to receive a call
    Programmable Voice
    $0.013
    per min to make a call
    Elastic SIP Trunking
    $0.045
    Per min for origination
    Twilio Conversations
    $0.05
    per active user per month
    Twilio Authy
    $0.09
    per authentication
    Programmable Wireless
    $0.1
    per MB
    Twilio Flex (Contact Center)
    $1
    per active user hour (5000 hours free)
    Programmable Wireless
    $2.00
    per SIM card
    Twilio SendGrid Email API
    $14.95
    per month up to 100k emails. (Up to 40k emails free for 30 days)
    Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns
    $15
    per month for 5,000 contacts and 15,000 emails. Your first 2,000 contacts are free
    Twilio Flex (Contact Center)
    $150
    per named user per month (5000 hours free)
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GistGoogle VoiceTwilio
    Free Trial
    YesNoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details1. Pay-as-you-go pricing: Simple usage-based pricing without contracts. 2. Volume discounts: Discounts trigger as usage grows. 3. Free trial credit that includes full API access.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GistGoogle VoiceTwilio
    Considered Multiple Products
    Gist
    No answer on this topic
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Twilio
    Chose Twilio
    Google Voice and Twilio both provide phone numbers; however, Twilio allows you to program how to respond to voice calls. We have only used a small portion of what Twilio is capable of. I appreciate being able to get information about a phone number to see the provider and …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    20 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    41 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    66 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    41 Answers
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    58 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    39 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    68 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    27 Answers
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    45 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    35 Answers
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    56 Answers
    Features
    GistGoogle VoiceTwilio
    Chat Analytics and Reports
    Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Gist and Google Voice and Twilio
    Feature
    Gist
    8.9
    2 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Google Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Twilio
    -
    Ratings
    Chat history and transcripts8.92 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat reporting8.92 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat and web analytics8.92 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Gist and Google Voice and Twilio
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    Google Voice
    5.3
    53 Ratings
    40% below category average
    Twilio
    -
    Ratings
    Hosted PBX00 Ratings6.025 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)00 Ratings3.027 Ratings00 Ratings
    User templates00 Ratings1.419 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call reports00 Ratings7.046 Ratings00 Ratings
    Directory of employee names00 Ratings9.027 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of Gist and Google Voice and Twilio
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    Google Voice
    8.4
    67 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Twilio
    -
    Ratings
    Answering rules00 Ratings8.546 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call recording00 Ratings8.152 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call park00 Ratings6.422 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call screening00 Ratings10.060 Ratings00 Ratings
    Message alerts00 Ratings9.065 Ratings00 Ratings
    VoIP system collaboration
    Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Gist and Google Voice and Twilio
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    Google Voice
    7.5
    44 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Twilio
    -
    Ratings
    Video conferencing00 Ratings6.022 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio conferencing00 Ratings8.039 Ratings00 Ratings
    Video screen sharing00 Ratings8.014 Ratings00 Ratings
    Instant messaging00 Ratings8.027 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of Gist and Google Voice and Twilio
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    Google Voice
    7.2
    63 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Twilio
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile app for iOS00 Ratings6.945 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android00 Ratings7.451 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GistGoogle VoiceTwilio
    Small Businesses
    Olark
    Score10 out of 10
    CallFire
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Simplify360
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoho SalesIQ
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Fuze
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Customer.io
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Genesys DX (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    SAP Service Cloud
    Score8.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GistGoogle VoiceTwilio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (112 ratings)
    7.5
    (73 ratings)
    8.1
    (94 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    9.3
    (7 ratings)
    7.5
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    6.7
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    9.5
    (10 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (38 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.6
    (9 ratings)
    7.0
    (35 ratings)
    5.7
    (16 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GistGoogle VoiceTwilio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Gist
    If your marketing model is selling products, services, or SAAS where you are doing inbound marketing and your website will do most of the lead generation and conversion, this is a great product. From live chat, support, event tracking, and automation, you could almost put your entire business on autopilot. If your marketing model is mostly outreach to cold leads and conversion, this software currently does not have any type of sales stages or task generation. I would still use Gist for website inbound but use another software for outreach and cold leads then when they become a lead put them into Gist for marketing automation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    I do think Google Voice works well for organizations that do not have a support team meant to provide regular telephone support, and instead do so on an ad hoc basis. I would not recommend it for high-volume call activities, such as SDR motions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    I have tried other competitors. But I always end up going back to Twilio because I feel like it is dependable, easy to use, and, has competitive pricing. The only time I wouldn't recommend Twilio to someone as if they are completely inexperienced about using webhooks or APIs. Because you can't really just sign up and start using Twilio without connecting it to another platform first.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Gist
    • Customer service via a unified inbox so you dont have to separately monitor your twitter, Facebook or IG account for consumer communication there. Gist unified all into one inbox, better than anyone else I've seen in the market. They archive all communications and tie them back to a single user so you get unified customer history / data.
    • Marketing segmentation and automation: they track user history and behavior across the site and have super detailed segmenting capability, on par with ActiveCampaign's, but better I'd say. Better UI for the marketing admin person, and more unified data than in AC.
    • Live chat and chatbot. Usually it's either one or the other but with Gist you can do both seamlessly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Google Voice has been great for setting up additional phone lines and numbers.
    • The voicemail inbox is a great feature and you can see when messages come in online and listen to the messages from your computer.
    • Google Voice allows us to have multiple phone numbers and lines for specific business purposes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    • Easy to see my team in one place, when they log in and out and what call status they are in.
    • Twilio is a simple, user friendly way to log in and out of work activities.
    • Excellent services and support.
    • The omnichannel feature which allows agents to get request from all channels.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Gist
    • Plan limits can be confusing. For example, there is a monthly charge for support and a monthly charge for "growth," plus there's a separate charge depending on how many contacts and seats you have. Perhaps this is normal in the industry, but it can make it a little challenging to understand the bill every month.
    • The vast amount of features means development will never be as fast as you'd like it to be (even though they release updates all the time). This may not actually be a valid concern, and it certainly isn't unique to Gist (who doesn't have a wishlist they're waiting on their favorite SaaS to get to?), but I do believe the likelihood of being stuck without your desired feature being developed goes up a lot as the product gets bigger and bigger.
    • Email deliverability has been less than perfect in the past, but it has improved drastically in the last year.
    Read full review
    Google
    • There has not been much innovation since the initial release.
    • It doesn't handle SMS well.
    • It does not natively integrate with CRM without legacy complication
    • It is not supported by Google as it once was
    • Call Recording is non-existent
    • Call-Tree or Virtual Auto-Attendant needs are not available
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    • Control panel. Often, navigating through lists is challenging. I want endless scrolling, not pagination.
    • Conversational intelligence service require a Language. I would like it to detect it.
    • We would like to have some credit on clients that chose to use their own Twilio account.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Gist
    Gist is a quite reliable service with a lot of added values. We don't need to pay for different Saas for these important features. If I had an issue the team was super responsive and helpful, that is essential for every business. The email delivery is great, so virtually no email has landed into spam folder
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    Google Voice has been invaluable for us in our effort to provide exceptional customer service. With Google Voice, we have been able to increase our customer interactions while reducing the wait time to reach a live person on our team. We couldn't be more pleased with the way things have worked out since implementing Google Voice.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    Unless we can get this handled quickly -- less than 1 week -- we will likely switch to another provider who, in my opinion, we'll have to spend close to $3,000 in development time to build a new integration for texting. Our clients need texting and I feel Twilio has failed us miserably.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Gist
    It’s pretty simple, but it does a lot so there are more complicated features which depend on an individuals ability for software implementation. I am not an IT expert and I’ve managed to implement everything myself, others that are more tech-minded may find everything easier.
    Read full review
    Google
    I think it works really well in the arena it operates in, but not so well in areas where an enterprise system would be more appropriate. It's great for quick solutions that just work, but not so much for more complex call management tasks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    Twilio has well documented APIs and examples. There are several tutorials, videos and Q&As regarding their services. So, usability is very good. I must say that advanced knowledge of telephony, API/Programming and error-handling is essential to make good use of Twilio. It's not just plug-and-play unless you are integrated with a system that has all of the programming built for it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Twilio
    Twilio executes what it is designed to do: send SMS messages at scale while providing very good deliverability. I believe that Twilio is very good at what we use for adding SMS messages to our comms strategy. We can see those messages get opened and replied to, which is exactly what we are looking to achieve.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Gist
    Fantastic support. Ask a question, get an answer within 24 hours every time. And sometimes within a few minutes. They've always come through for me, helpful and, even when it's an issue on my end, they point me in the right direction.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    They do not offer support unless you have the Business account for Google Voice under G Suite. This is tough, because Google doesn't really have a customer support team for this service, so when it gets shut down for a few hours, we have no choice but to wait it out. But this doesn't happen that often, which is great.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    I have not had to communicate with Twilio support in the last 3 years but my past experience with them has been very positive. They replied to my previous requests promptly and kept me well informed to resolve my inquiries. With their documentation that's available, I hardly imagine why anyone would need to contact support since it's all there in a concise and easy to understand format. It would probably take you longer to type out a support ticket than to just open their doc websites.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    It is a pretty seamless program to transfer to, even for people who either have little experience with these programs or people who were stuck on Skype
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    The developer APIs and SDKs are super easy to follow.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Gist
    Gist combines all our previous products into one application and adds many more features that would require more apps. Gist is excellent and a no-brainer all-in-one application when compared to having to manage multiple applications at higher cost. The support from the whole Gist team has been extremely responsive.
    Read full review
    Google
    The integrations of Google Voice with all our devices are flawless, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux and Mac. Also, the call performance is far superior on wifi as well as on mobile data. With Skype, we had several problems with personal accounts, performance issues, and in general, it felt awkward to use it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    We evaluated many fundraising-based text-to-give programs and found the subscriptions prohibitively expensive for our small scale and uncertain first few years of development. While we may be willing to invest that kind of money after discovering how things work, we're happy with Twilio now and have no desire to start over.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Google Voice should be also be use to those who have difficulty in speaking English. So the contract term will need to be a little strict as Google Voice is used in navigations as the part of GPRS navigation is personal. The private data need to be in control much more securely and safely.
    Read full review
    Twilio
    Being in South Africa, direct local currency support would be nice
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    It help to connect with the products that we use as a part. We need to get in touch with our professional world. It is like a tool that helps us to get in touch with everything from A to Z in our professional careers. So we need to be in touch with everything as linearly as the jpb can be done.
    Read full review
    Twilio
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Gist
    • They are perfect for me as a someone who needs a lot of bang for the buck. The chat messenger device on my website alone has brought me new prospects that I did not have to spend money recruiting.
    • I am able to save hours of time with the automated emails that are GDPR compliant.
    • I don't have to pay for a designer to have excellent looking emails either.
    Read full review
    Google
    • Cost for Google Voice is stellar, starting at $10/mo per user.
    • While it doesn't offer a new Audio/Video conferencing solution it does integrate with GSuite so it makes use of Google Calendar and Hangouts/ Google Meet.
    • Gets the employee's to use their company phone numbers more as texting is easy and deployment is simple.
    • The cell phone app is reliable and easy to deploy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    • We found that associates who had the opportunity to respond to a survey about their assigned job were 37% more likely to return to a job site
    • We were able to reduce the number of resources required to manually respond to associates using Twilio Studio, so those resources could have more time to complete other tasks
    • We were able to scale the number of associates who received survey messages at least by a factor of 8 without increasing our resource demand
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Gist Screenshots

    Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Email MarketingScreenshot of Marketing Automation WorkflowsScreenshot of Knowledge BaseScreenshot of Meetings

    Twilio Screenshots

    Screenshot of the “Explore Products” section, which is where to build products.Screenshot of the optional drag-and-drop visual editor and code editor.Screenshot of Flex, which is a programmable Contact Center that puts you in control.