Guide · Call Tracking
CallRail vs WhatConverts: WhatConverts is cheaper at every rung, and the only one with a verifiable per-minute rate
WhatConverts undercuts CallRail's base at every tier and meters local calls at a confirmed $0.045/min. CallRail's per-minute rate has dropped off its JavaScript-rendered grid, and on compliance the two are closer than they look — both claim HIPAA support, neither posts a signed BAA on these self-serve tiers.
Re-verified 2026-06-23, with two corrections. First, the old “identical per-minute rate” framing no longer holds cleanly: WhatConverts’ local rate is a confirmed $0.045/min, but CallRail’s per-minute rate has dropped off its public pricing grid (the page is JavaScript-rendered and unreadable to a fetch), and the third-party trackers that still cite a number put it nearer $0.05–$0.06/min. Second, on compliance the two are closer than this guide used to claim: WhatConverts does publish HIPAA support (“complies with all HIPAA standards for HIPAA enabled customer accounts”), and CallRail’s BAA is a separate, sales-gated Healthcare account — so neither bundles a signed BAA into the self-serve tiers compared here. CallRail’s tier prices below are third-party ($55/mo, or $50/mo billed annually), since its live grid can’t be read.
The usual way to compare two metered platforms is to argue about per-minute rates. With CallRail and WhatConverts that argument used to be moot — both were cited at the same $0.045/min local. That parity is no longer something you can verify: WhatConverts still publishes its rate openly (local $0.045/min, toll-free $0.065/min, SMS $0.03/msg), but CallRail’s per-minute rate is no longer readable from its pricing page, and the trackers that estimate it now land around $0.05–$0.06/min local — if anything tilting the metered cost toward WhatConverts, not away from it. Either way, the decision still turns on the three things the data states plainly: base price, the quota that base buys, and whether forms and chats come bundled.
On base price, WhatConverts wins the entry tier outright: $30/mo versus CallRail’s $55/mo (or $50/mo if CallRail is billed annually). But the two numbers aren’t measuring the same thing, which is where the comparison gets interesting.
The entry tiers buy quota in opposite ways
| CallRail Lead Tracking | WhatConverts Call Tracking | |
|---|---|---|
| Base / mo | $55 ($50 annual) † | $30 |
| What the base includes | 250 local minutes + 5 tracking numbers | a $30 usage credit (~up to 148 calls) |
| Local minute rate | not readable from live grid (third-party ~$0.05–$0.06) | $0.045/min (published) |
| Toll-free / SMS | not readable (third-party) | $0.065/min · $0.03/msg |
| Forms / chats | not in this tier | not in this tier |
† CallRail’s live pricing grid is JavaScript-rendered and not machine-readable. These figures are third-party: GetApp and SoftwareAdvice show $55/mo (with one source noting “$50/month billed annually”), so the $55-vs-$50 spread most plausibly reflects monthly-vs-annual billing, not a price change.
CallRail bundles a fixed 250 local minutes and 5 numbers into its base, then meters anything beyond at a rate you now have to take on third-party faith. WhatConverts instead folds a $30 usage credit into its $30 base — making the first ~148 calls effectively “free” before its published $0.045/min kicks in — and it still prints the per-minute rate where you can read it. So WhatConverts is the cheaper floor on base price, and it’s the only one of the two whose metered rate you can actually verify before signing.
The moment you need forms and chats, the gap widens
Pure call tracking is where WhatConverts’ $30 tier is unbeatable. But most marketers tracking calls also want web-form and chat conversions in the same dashboard — and that’s where the bundled-feature column matters.
On WhatConverts, form and chat tracking arrives on the Plus plan at $60/mo, which adds 300 forms/chats on top of call tracking (still carrying the same $30 usage credit). On CallRail, form tracking and multi-touch cost-per-lead reporting come with Lead Tracking Complete at $105/mo ($95 annual).
So the comparison reframes by use case (CallRail at its monthly rate):
- Calls only: WhatConverts $30 vs CallRail $55 — WhatConverts by $25/mo.
- Calls + forms/chats: WhatConverts Plus $60 vs CallRail Lead Tracking Complete $105 — WhatConverts by $45/mo.
WhatConverts is cheaper at both rungs, and the gap widens once forms enter the picture. CallRail only starts justifying its premium higher up the stack, where Lead Conversion ($165/mo, $150 annual) adds Premium Conversation Intelligence — AI call summaries and sentiment — and Lead Conversion Complete ($215/mo, $195 annual) layers coaching on top. WhatConverts’ own ladder runs $100 (Pro) and $160 (Elite), every tier still carrying the $30 usage credit; its Agency plans (unlimited sub-accounts) sit separately at $500/$800/$1,250 with larger credits.
Compliance: closer than it looks, and a BAA is a sales call either way
This guide used to say CallRail published HIPAA and a BAA while WhatConverts published neither. That was wrong on both halves. WhatConverts does state HIPAA support — its security page reads “WhatConverts complies with all HIPAA standards for HIPAA enabled customer accounts” — and CallRail’s BAA isn’t bundled into the plans you’d compare here: it’s a separate, sales-gated Healthcare account (confirmed in CallRail’s own support docs), not the standard Lead Tracking tier.
So for a covered entity the honest read is: both vendors claim HIPAA support, and neither posts a signed BAA you can contract on from the self-serve pricing page. CallRail routes you to a Healthcare account through sales (the same trap we unpack for a HIPAA-bound dental office); WhatConverts speaks of “HIPAA enabled customer accounts” without publishing BAA terms, which is also a sales conversation. If a signed BAA is non-negotiable, treat it as a question to settle in writing with either vendor before you sign — not a checkbox that already favors CallRail.
There’s a secondary tiebreaker on integrations: CallRail advertises 700+ integrations against WhatConverts’ narrower native list, though WhatConverts routes through Zapier’s 2,000+ connectors, so for most stacks integration breadth is a wash.
How to read this
The old shortcut — “the minute costs the same, so just compare the base” — is half-retired: WhatConverts is still the cheaper base at every rung ($30 vs $55, $60 vs $105), and it’s now the only one of the two that publishes a per-minute rate you can verify. CallRail’s metered rate has slipped off its readable grid, and the third-party estimates that remain ($0.05–$0.06/local-min) would only widen WhatConverts’ edge if they’re right. CallRail earns its higher base in two situations: when you want its built-in Conversation Intelligence at the ~$165–$215 tiers rather than assembling analytics separately, or when its Healthcare account is the BAA path your compliance team prefers. On price alone, for straightforward call (and form) tracking, WhatConverts wins — and you can read its numbers before you buy. As always, the right figure is base plus metered minutes at your real volume; we publish the rate, the base, and the source behind each, and flag where a vendor has stopped publishing one.