CallFire vs. Google Hangouts (Classic)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
CallFire
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
CallFire is a VoIP and messaging solution designed for both external B2C interactions and internal company use. It includes features such as text messaging, call tracking, voice broadcasting, and an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Subscription pricing starts at $99 per month.
$99
per month
Google Hangouts (Classic)
Score 2.8 out of 10
N/A
The classic version of Google Hangouts included messaging, voice, VoIP, and video call capabilities. It was replaced by the Hangouts Chat collaboration tool, and Google continues to support conferencing via the new Hangouts Meet.N/A
Pricing
CallFireGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Editions & Modules
Lite
$99.00
per month
Startup
$199.00
per month
Grow
$299.00
per month
Pro
$599.00
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CallFireGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CallFireGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Features
CallFireGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Cloud PBX
Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Product A and Product B
CallFire
7.6
Ratings
5% below category average
Google Hangouts (Classic)
5.3
Ratings
40% below category average
Hosted PBX6.00 Ratings2.00 Ratings
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)9.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
User templates7.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Call reports7.20 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Directory of employee names9.00 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Call Management
Comparison of Call Management features of Product A and Product B
CallFire
9.3
Ratings
11% above category average
Google Hangouts (Classic)
6.8
Ratings
21% below category average
Answering rules8.00 Ratings2.00 Ratings
Call recording10.00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Call park8.50 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Call screening10.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Message alerts10.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
VoIP system collaboration
Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Product A and Product B
CallFire
10.0
Ratings
23% above category average
Google Hangouts (Classic)
7.1
Ratings
11% below category average
Video conferencing10.00 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Audio conferencing10.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Video screen sharing00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Instant messaging00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Mobile apps
Comparison of Mobile apps features of Product A and Product B
CallFire
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
Google Hangouts (Classic)
7.0
Ratings
12% below category average
Mobile app for iOS8.50 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Mobile app for Android8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CallFireGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Small Businesses
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 7.2 out of 10
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 7.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 7.2 out of 10
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 7.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 8.6 out of 10
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CallFireGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
CallFireGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Likelihood to Recommend
If you need to find a test candidate for your client quickly, this is one of the best ways. Pull yourself a hot list of a couple hundred potential candidates and load them in to CallFire. Then get ready to hit about 50-60 calls per hour. You should have a great test candidate for your client in about 24 hours! It's amazing how quickly you can show your clients the true speed of your company.
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As previously mentioned, Google Hangouts (Classic) is best suited for ad-hoc, informal communications with external collaborators that would benefit from face-to-face interactions, but don’t require a record of the conversation and don’t necessarily require a high degree of corporate security. For communications of consequence, our corporate toolset is more appropriate, but Google Hangouts (Classic) serves a similar function to FaceTime or Zoom.
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Pros
  • CallFire has amazing organization as far as categories and campaigns and all aspects go.
  • It is very easy to use and understand! Very user friendly.
  • Customer service and help is awesome! There have been some times when I have needed assistance and they were always so quick to reply.
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  • Google Hangouts (Classic) is embedded within Gmail's scheduler, so setting up the link is as quick as a click of the button. It's a one-step process.
  • Google Hangouts (Classic) is user-friendly and [has] features to share screens easily.
  • Google Hangouts (Classic) is much easier to use than its competitors.
  • Google Hangouts (Classic) have [a] good connection time and there are few glitches.
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Cons
  • The services are easy to use and robust, but there is room for improvement. Unfortunately, not much has changed over the last 2 years of use. There haven't been any new features or innovations in that time.
  • API integration and automation is not easy for most folks to jump into and there is very little technical support or documentation to take advantage of such features.
  • The standard reports are generally sufficient, but there isn't any customization or intelligence available.
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  • I would like to see improved video support, so that saved videos can be sent back and forth via Hangouts more easily, without having to start a separate meet chat
  • More pronounced notifications of messages would be helpful; pop up notifications are good, but once there is one, additional messages do not pop up
  • Custom muting times would be great, so that if I am in a 90 minute Zoom meeting, I can set it for that time; right now, it is 1 hour or 2 hours. Easy to forget.
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Likelihood to Renew
There is no reason not to, it has proven effective in the usage
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No answers on this topic
Usability
No answers on this topic
The tool is almost self-implemented. It is likely to be available in every pc or mobile device a user or potential user might have, and all you need to do is adding the company's account and you are done. Once you are setted up, you have almost all actual communication methods available in one tool
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
Google Hangouts works great and does not require a lot of work to troubleshoot. Everything is simple and easy to use. Google provides all of the tools that one requires to utilize Google Hangouts and any information can be found in the built-in help tools. There is also a forum for users to report issues and typically, Google responds well and will try to work out any issues.
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Alternatives Considered
We considered Trello before deciding on CallFire. Trello is a good service that seems to do much of what CallFire does, however we wanted to avoid the labor-hours necessary to get Trello up to speed, as it is very technically involved. We didn't want to hire any additional developers just to get Trello set up and maintained. With CallFire, it was very intuitive and easy to setup quickly.
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For its time, Google Hangouts (Classic) was a fantastic product and matched up well with all of its successors. Now however, with it having been phased on within Workspace for Education, I would not advise any new users use the product. Google Chat, combined with Google Meet, have superseded Hangouts (Classic) and should be used by default due to their close knit integration with Gmail.
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Return on Investment
  • I sent out a broadcast message pretty deep in our data base, well three years out. I had one customer come in and buy thanking me for contacting her.
  • Our holiday season was up 35% over last year, this year we used CallFire more than we did in the past.
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  • I believe it was part of the google suite that was purchased. It was worth the cost as it was cheaper. I believe it is now free, but also becoming deprecated. It is much better to use Teams, Discord, Telegram, etc. Google does not provide enough support or features to make using hangouts worth it these days.
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ScreenShots