Call center agents need to evolve and better address the needs of customers continually. There is a seemingly endless number of tools and applications they use on a day-to-day basis to empower their efforts and live up to customers’ expectations. A sizeable user base at call centers is now accepting independent applications like open-source call center software to support and strengthen the way they work.
Free and open source call centre software have emerged as one of the best ways to empower businesses and modify their functions. Such solutions are not just easy to customize but can be transformed and integrated with existing applications seamlessly.
A call centre solution is a unique way through which companies can provide assistance to customers. Initially, customers could contact company certified executives only through voice calls. But today, the availability of call centre software solutions has made it possible for businesses to manage customer grievances via live chat, social media posts, emails and all other channels.
Call centre solutions have also benefited agents handling customer services as they can streamline incoming and outgoing calls, track relevant call metrics and upload automated scripts.
Open source call centre software doesn’t always mean free! It usually suggests that you can host the software on your own and run its applications independently. At the same time, you can customize the software and update it yourself. You might have guessed it by now that you also need to troubleshoot challenges and upgrade it at regular intervals.
Open source and free call centre software for small business can be sourced directly from dedicated providers with the capability of intense flexibility and customization. In spite of the little or no extra cost, the software ensures the improved quality of service across the board. However, check if there is any extra (or recurring cost) associated with the open source call center solution you are opting for.
Now that we are aware of the importance of call center software, we move to the next step; choosing the best call center software for your business. There are numerous inbound as well as outbound call center software solutions available in the market today. But which of them is suitable for your business?
Here are 10 best open source free call center software solutions with different features to help you decide better:
Bitrix24 is call center software free that provides useful features like an intranet and customizable web-based lead forms. Even if, you opt for its cloud version, you can start calling and receiving calls within a few minutes with the call center software. Free download for PC is available and can be downloaded by any browser.
The free version is for 12 employees, and you need to pay as your team expands. Its other important functionalities such as SIP connector, a phone number on rent, and the Bitrix24 telephony for outbound calls are available with additional costs.
Major Features of Bitrix24:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| Bitrix24 | Enterprises requiring customisable call centre solution that can be integrated with other solutions. | Premium Plan – ₹ 2757 (additional features such as phone number on rent, SIP connector, and Bitrix24 telephony for outbound calls.) |
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VMukti 1.1 is a comprehensive call center solution, which is suitable for both inbound and outbound call centers. Built with an open architecture, this open source call center software supports all common standards, such as ITU, IETF, etc.
Further, you don’t need any proprietary hardware or software to use this free call center software. The solution provides many robust functionalities such as detailed statistics and answering machine detection to promote data-based decision making.
Major Features of VMukti 1.1:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| Vmukti 1.1 | Businesses requiring analytical tools to monitor various metrics related to customer service. | Contact VMukti 1.1 through its official website for details. |
GOautodial is a fully-featured and best call center software, which can handle inbound, outbound and blended calls with efficiency. It’s loaded with many useful features for administrative setup and control, report generation, call recording capabilities and more. Also a multi-channel contact center application with both voice & non-voice functionalities.
Major Features of GOautodial:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| GoAutoDial | Businesses looking for multichannel solutions such as voice, chats etc. | ₹1061/month per user which provides cloud storage services. |
AVOXI is a cloud-based contact center software, which provides many business-class phone features to ensure uninterrupted continuity of customer service. You can leverage VoIP phone service technology with AVOXI and meet specific business needs such as scaling up and down your customer service requirements.
You can also get a virtual phone number so that you can forward a call from one location to another. AVOXI call center application software meets the international calling needs of call centers along with hotels, tour operators and other enterprises with a global presence.
Major Features of AVOXI:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| Avoxi | Hospitality businesses such as hotels and tour operators. | ₹1838 per month with 910 additional minutes for inbound/outbound calls. |
You can get Elastix call centre software solution free by just downloading it from the official website. It also supports unlimited simultaneous calls along with call logging and forwarding on busy or no answer. In addition, it promotes auto pickup on busy along with extensive Codec support.
Call reporting, call parking/ pickup and the support for SIP trunks/ gateways make this open source and free call centre solution a must-have. However, as your business grows, you can opt for Pro and Enterprise versions for more advanced features.
Major Features of Elastix:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| Avoxi | Hospitality businesses such as hotels and tour operators. | ₹1838 per month with 910 additional minutes for inbound/outbound calls. |
VICIdial is an open source call center software with more than eight hundred registered installations till now. Also, thousands of people have downloaded the official release of VICIdial in just one year. It’s a fully-featured predictive dialler, which is capable of inbound, outbound and blended call handling. This open source software also allows service agents to log in from remote locations.
Major Features of VICIdial:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| VICIdial | Businesses looking for inbound, outbound and blended call processes. | ₹ 28,275 per month for VICIhost call software ,provides hosting services per month, first month free. |
OrecX is a free call center software, which comes with a fully featured commercial version. Using this open-source software, you can manage Cloud, VoIP & TDM call recording at a significantly lower price. It ensures convenient setup with easy maintenance and is deployed worldwide across 200 countries. Also, you can rest assured of no-cost localization and customization so that you can optimize the processes at your call centre as per your business needs.
Major Features of OrecX:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| OrecX | Medium businesses and enterprises with growing consumer bases. | Begins from ₹ 1132 including full software customisation with open APIs. |
If you are looking for a comprehensive, free and open source call centre software, Asterisk is an ideal choice. Asterisk call center software provides advanced modules to tackle all the tasks related to customer service. Asterisk telecommunications platform also provides low-maintenance tools which are easy to work with and can easily be integrated with telephony hardware.
Major Features of Asterisk:
| Product Name | Best for | Pricing |
| Asterisk | Big enterprises looking for an all-encompassing call software solution. | Basic plan – free ₹ 1625 for Channelized SIP Trunking with unlimited inbound / outbound local and long-distance minutes/channel. |
You can easily find a call center software free of charge today, however, Ekiga is widely popular among call centers across the globe for its softphone, video conferencing and messaging solutions. It can be integrated with a plethora of codecs and has a user-friendly interface. However, it provides all its users a SIP address, free of cost. This SIP address lets users to make outbound calls to customers across the world, including video calls.
Major Features of Ekiga:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| Ekiga | Technical business processes, which require videoconferencing | Contact Ekiga’s official website for details about the pricing |
CallHippo is another free and open source call center software, suitable for small businesses that need or require basic call centre management tools. It also has a user-friendly interface with simplistic tools which provide a cost-effective solution to small businesses.
CallHippo also provides easy integration with other third-party CRM software for a seamless customer service management.
Major Features of CallHippo:
| Product name | Best for | Pricing |
| CallHippo | Small and Medium Businesses who require basic call centre tools. | Bronze plan- ₹ 700 per user per month. |
Benefits of Call Centre Software Free Open Source
Call centre software enables the smooth functioning of a plethora of customer-facing processes in a business. If your customer service reps deal with many clients every day and address their queries, then open source and free call centre software is the ideal solution for you.
With the help of free and open source call centre software, businesses can manage tasks such as transactions, information queries, delivery related info, troubleshooting, or other support related calls
Suggested Read: Top 20 Best Call Recording Apps for Android Phones 2019
An ideal outbound or inbound call centre software comes with numerous benefits. Some of these are mentioned below:
With the help of a contact centre software, business processes can be automated as much as possible to ease human efforts. Automatic call queue and call time recording are some of the tasks where a free call centre software contributes. It helps in categorising calls based on what type of query the customers have, so that calls can be routed to the specific department.
Best call centre software helps reduce the wait time of customers. It also helps customer care representatives retrieve and access the files of customers instantly. As a result, agents provide instant support and resolution to the clients.
Cloud call centre software also helps internal departments communicate and exchange data for quick and effective customer service. Free and open source call centre software provides easy tools to the employees with which they can transfer or merge calls with different departments.
Agents can also monitor the tasks so that they can be executed to completion. You can record and retrieve the task history so that agents can immediately pick up the work from where the subordinates left it.
Sales can be multiplied manifold with the help of a paid or free call centre software solution. In traditional sales process, one person can only make a limited number of sales in a day. But the call centre software helps expedite and streamline the sales processes so that as soon as one case is closed, the agent can immediately move to the next one.
Many free and open source call centre software also provides information and purchase history of a customer, which can help agents in cross-selling. This results in more sales and, as a result, more profit.
Call centre software for small business provides secure data access and encryption tools so that no data breach can be committed. It also provides a UI from where data cannot be recorded or extracted for malicious purposes.
In addition, most of the standard and free call centre software solutions provide cloud backup which helps in saving data in a remote server. This is done so that in case of any physical on-site accident, the data can remain secure remotely.
Call center management system help in prioritising tasks on the basis of urgency by routing and assigning priority calls to the concerned department. It also helps in proper allocation and distribution of calls, in times of high call-flow.
All the standard call centre services nowadays provide multi-channel assistance option through which customers can seek help through SMS, calls, website or mobile apps. Call center CRM software helps in reducing traffic on a specific channel and distribution of work.
Moreover, it also provides customers the option to choose the channel they are comfortable in.
It is a known fact that people like to talk to a person rather than an automatic machine, because they trust human intelligence more for troubleshooting. Free and open source call centre software provides customers a platform where they can seek assistance from people who can understand the complexity of their problem and provide efficient solutions.
Some of the Core Call Centre Software Features
A robust free and open source call centre software should automatically route the call to the agent most suited to handle it based on the nature of the grievance.
After a call centre executive has finished a telephonic interaction, they can label the outcome of the call using code such as ‘interested’, ‘issue resolved’, ‘handled by IT’ etc.
Many open source and free call centre software solutions provide customers with the option to relay their message to the call centre agent in the form of a voice note or email in case they are not available.
A call center management system free and open source can be efficiently integrated with third party apps to secure customer information or to provide the services not possible in a single platform
In case a new call center executive has been added to the call centre CRM software, a manager can listen on to his/her call with the customer without the customer getting to know about it.
IVRs are the pre-recorded messages a customer hears before they are connected to an agent. With a call centre software, IVRs are composed seamlessly to provide maximum assistance to the customer in the easiest way regarding the category of their grievance.
Suggested Read: How Does Knowledge Base Software Help Call Centers
The Bottom Line
Free and open source call centre solutions applications have opened up new opportunities for small and mid-sized companies to be driven towards higher productivity and efficiency. With free and relatively cheaper licenses for call centre systems, companies can now adopt new technologies and deliver better customer service.
In the final analysis free and open source call centre systems are providing a big relief to bootstrapped and limited-budget companies out there. Now, they don’t have to depend on someone else to manage the vulnerabilities in their customer service process. Companies can create customized and flexible solutions for their specific needs. With options in addition like those outlined above, it’s clear that open source technology has opened new frontiers for call centre staff and managers.
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