Alternatives · AI Agents
Pipecat alternatives
As of Nov 13, 2026, the highest-graded Pipecat alternative is LangGraph (2.6 GPA). It's also the best free one.
Pipecat compared with 5 alternatives: LiveKit Agents, Vapi, Retell AI, Ultravox and LangGraph.
Pipecat has a free plan. 2 of the 5 alternatives are free or have a free plan. 3 more offer a free trial.
Listings checked up to Nov 13, 2026 · Where the facts come from
Black Friday: is there a Pipecat sale?
At a glance
How each one differs from Pipecat
LiveKit Agents
Open source framework and cloud for voice and video AI agents
- LiveKit Agents starts at $50 per month.
Suits: Developers building production voice agents who want hosting and models in one bill
Vapi
Developer platform for building and running voice AI agents
- Vapi starts at $29 per month (Core); usage-only starts at $0.05 per minute hosting.
- Vapi has no free plan, only a free trial, unlike Pipecat.
Suits: Developers building phone agents for support, lead qualification or scheduling
Retell AI
Pay-per-minute platform for AI phone and chat agents
- Retell AI starts at $0 to start, then $0.07 to $0.31 per minute for voice agents.
- Retell AI has no free plan, only a free trial, unlike Pipecat.
- Retell AI also covers chatbots.
Suits: Developers and agencies building phone agents for receptionist, support or lead-qualification work
Ultravox
Speech-native voice AI platform and API for building voice agents
- Ultravox starts at $100 per month, billed yearly.
- Ultravox has no free plan, only a free trial, unlike Pipecat.
- Ultravox also covers voice cloning.
Suits: Developers building voice agents who want a per-minute price
LangGraph
Open-source framework for building controllable AI agents
- LangGraph starts at $39 per seat / month, billed monthly.
- LangGraph also covers workflow automation.
Suits: Developers who want fine-grained control over agent logic
Limits worth knowing in Pipecat
- Pipecat Cloud is billed per active minute: agent-1x costs $0.01 a minute, agent-2x $0.02 and agent-3x $0.03.
- Daily WebRTC voice transport is free for 1:1 sessions on Pipecat Cloud; PSTN dial-in or out is $0.018 a minute.
- The site says the Pipecat team is joining Deepgram, and that Pipecat stays open source and vendor neutral.
- It is a developer framework, not a no-code builder.
Common questions
What are the alternatives to Pipecat?
The alternatives to Pipecat in this directory are LiveKit Agents, Vapi, Retell AI, Ultravox and LangGraph. Each one has a side-by-side comparison with Pipecat.
Is there a free alternative to Pipecat?
Yes. LiveKit Agents and LangGraph have a free plan alongside paid ones.
When were these prices checked?
Each listing shows its own date. On this page they run from Nov 12, 2026 to Nov 13, 2026. Vendors change prices without notice, so confirm on their site before you buy.