Compare international calling apps — honestly

Microsoft closed Skype in May 2025 and declined refunds for most prepaid credit. BoraPhone works the way Skype credit used to — pay-as-you-go calls from your browser.

Great unlimited plans for heavy single-country callers — wrapped in 30-day auto-renewals, vanishing plan minutes, and a review page full of cancellation complaints. Occasional callers need a different shape.

A polished app with genuinely low rates — and $0.99 welcome offers that quietly become auto-renewing monthly bundles. Fine if you are disciplined; risky if you are not.

Low teaser rates on a messenger everyone has — with the full price list hidden in the app, credit that freezes after 6 idle months, and "unlimited" plans capped by unpublished fair-use rules.

The calling card, modernized: cash top-ups, access numbers, honest rate tables. But no browser or desktop calling, surcharge fine print, and rates that can change without notice.

A well-rated mobile app with real strengths in African corridors and local-currency payments. But it is app-only, publishes no rates on the web, and credits expire after a year of inactivity.

The original honest-pricing PAYG service — still fairly priced, but users report vanishing numbers, outages, KYC rejections, and a 2.4-star iOS app. The model aged well; the infrastructure less so.

VoipBuster, CheapVoip, FreeCall and 40+ siblings — same company, different prices for the same call, "free" windows that lapse, and a 2.3-star Trustpilot. Cheap if you play the game perfectly; costly if you do not.

Still free for a couple of short calls a day — but capped, ad-funded, and its only paid option is a $10–$50/month subscription. The browser-calling idea, without the real minutes.

App pulled from both US app stores, prepaid balances reported stranded, and the company has pivoted to an AI product. If your calls stopped connecting, this is why.