vsBland
Bland gives developers an API for making and taking AI phone calls, priced by the minute. It stops at the AI. Patch includes the agent, the numbers, softphones for your people and the dashboard, so there is nothing else to buy or build.
Bland is an API and a visual builder for AI phone agents. You design the conversation, bring your own tools, and pay by the minute, around US$0.09 a minute on the self-serve plan plus extras for some features. It does outbound campaigns well and has a large template library.
Bland has no phones for your staff. When the agent needs to hand a call to a person, that person needs a phone system of their own, and the two are stitched together with transfers.
Patch is the whole phone system. The AI agent takes the call, books the job or answers the question using your API and MCP servers, and when it needs a person it rings them on a Patch softphone, in your own app if you like. Transcripts, recordings and a summary go to your webhook.
Plans are a flat monthly price in Australian dollars with numbers, call minutes and AI minutes included. You manage it from the dashboard, the API, or by asking Claude.
| Patch | Bland | |
|---|---|---|
| AI voice agents | Yes, minutes included in every plan | Yes, by the minute |
| Phones for your people | Softphones included, embeddable in your app | No, bring a separate phone system |
| Phone numbers | Australian local, mobile, national and toll-free, included and bought from the API | Bought through Bland or connected from a carrier |
| The agent's tools | Your HTTP endpoints and MCP servers | Your HTTP endpoints |
| Model | Claude | Bland's own models |
| Managing it | Dashboard, REST API, or Claude through the MCP server | Dashboard, visual builder and REST API |
| Outbound campaigns | Outbound calls from the API; no campaign tooling | Yes, built in |
| Billed in | Australian dollars, before GST, flat monthly | US dollars, by the minute |
Three people on the phones, an AI agent taking 500 minutes of calls, and 500 minutes of calls between the people. The same month on each.
The Business plan: three numbers, 1,000 call minutes, 500 AI minutes, softphones for everyone, the API, webhooks and the MCP server. Nothing per user.
About A$106 for 500 AI minutes, plus A$137 for three Aircall Essentials users so the staff have phones. Carrier charges not included.
Competitor prices are from their public pricing pages in October 2026 (Aircall, Bland, Vapi, Retell), converted at A$1.52 to the US dollar. Patch prices are in Australian dollars before GST and come from the live price list.
Pick Bland if you only need the AI side, you are running large outbound campaigns, and you already have (or do not need) phones for people.
Pick Patch if calls move between the agent and real people, you want the numbers and the staff phones on the same bill, or you would rather have Claude running the agent with your MCP servers.
Fourteen days free, with a number and an agent of your own. Or ring the demo agent now.
03 5213 3261