sipgate sona
Düsseldorf telephony provider's AI phone agent, free to start with 500 minutes a month, running on its own models and servers
Quick Overview
| Company | sipgate GmbH |
|---|---|
| Category | AI Voice Agents |
| Headquarters | Düsseldorf, Germany |
| Founded | Not stated |
| EU Presence | Yes - Germany (EU) |
| Data Location | Germany (per sipgate) |
| Open Source | No |
| GDPR Compliant | Yes |
| Self-Hosting | No |
| Main Features | Inbound call handling, appointment booking, CRM and ERP lookups, ticket creation, real-time call monitoring, character and voice selection, call logging |
| Pricing | Base version free: 500 call minutes a month and one phone number; paid tariffs for more minutes or system connections |
| Best For | German-speaking small and mid-size businesses that want a phone agent without a consulting project |
| Replaces | Vapi, Retell AI, Bland AI |
Detailed Review
Most voice agent platforms start as an API for developers. sipgate sona starts from the other side: sipgate already sells business phone lines to more than 40,000 companies (its own figure), and sona adds an agent to the same account.
The product page is written for non-technical buyers. You pick a character, assign tasks, store knowledge, connect tools and switch the agent on, all in self-service and without paid onboarding.
Why the base tier costs nothing
sipgate explains the free tier on its page: language models, servers and telephony belong to the company, so there is no licence fee to a third-party model vendor that would have to be passed on. The saving is handed to customers as 500 call minutes a month and a dedicated number.
A tier that never expires makes it easy to test with real callers instead of a sandbox.
What the agent does during a call
Before the conversation the agent reads customer data from a CRM or ERP. During it, the agent can create tickets, book appointments and trigger automations, and afterwards it pushes the call record to your systems so a colleague can pick up where it stopped.
Callers speak in their own words rather than pressing keys, and a dashboard shows live calls, escalation rate and the most frequent topics.
Hosting and model independence
sipgate states that its models run on its own infrastructure, developed and operated without US dependence, and that customer data stays in Germany. That is a stronger claim than most platforms make, and it is the vendor's own statement rather than an audited one.
Limitations to Consider
The free tier stops at 500 minutes a month, and connecting your own systems needs a paid tariff whose prices we did not see on the pages checked. The product page is in German, and we could not verify the list of supported call languages. Platforms such as Famulor or telli expose more building blocks for custom conversation flows.
Who Should Use sipgate sona
German businesses that already use or would consider sipgate for telephony and want a first phone agent with a permanent free tier.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Permanent free tier with 500 minutes
- Own models, servers and telephony per sipgate
- Self-service setup without consulting
- CRM and ERP actions during the call
- Live call monitoring and topic analytics
Cons
- Paid tariffs not seen on the checked pages
- German-language product page
- Less flexible than developer-oriented builders
- Supported languages not verified
Alternatives to sipgate sona
Other European ai voice agents worth comparing before you decide:
Famulor
Germany · Self-serve voice agent platform with a Frankfurt database
fonio
Austria · Phone assistant for small businesses with published plans
telli
Germany · Berlin voice platform for sales, service and reactivation calls
GetVocal
France · Contact-centre agents with a human approval layer
See all European ai voice agents or compare them directly against Vapi on our alternatives page.
Frequently Asked Questions
The base version is permanently free according to sipgate, with 500 call minutes a month and its own phone number. A higher tariff is needed for more minutes or for connecting your own systems.
sipgate states that the language models, servers and telephony are its own and that the product was developed and operated without US dependence. We could not verify this independently.
Yes. The product page lists appointment booking directly in the calendar, together with first-level support, lead qualification and billing questions.