Bring-your-own-Twilio dialer: keep your numbers, billing and call records

What other dialers cost a team that already uses Twilio

• All-in-one dialers resell calling minutes inside seat prices that often pass $100 per user per month, even when you already pay Twilio for the same calls.
• Switching to a new dialer usually means porting your numbers into the vendor’s carrier account, and porting them out again if you ever leave.
• Building your own dialer on the Voice SDK means owning the call queue, the agent UI, recordings and every API change yourself.
• Recordings and call history stored in a vendor’s account are hard to take with you when you switch tools.

From Twilio account to first call

1. Connect Twilio

   An owner or admin pastes the Account SID and Auth Token in Telephony settings and chooses Save & provision. Rapidialer checks the credentials and that the account has at least one voice number.

2. Sync your numbers

   Rapidialer imports up to 200 numbers from the account; if you have none yet, buy a local number or port an existing one first. Pick a default caller ID, give each rep their own line, and turn on local presence if you own numbers in your leads’ area codes.

3. Import a list

   Upload a CSV of up to 5,000 rows. Phone, name, email and company columns are matched automatically, and you can change any match before importing.

4. Dial from the browser

   Reps call from the browser softphone with a talk track on screen. Twilio carries every call and bills your account directly at its published rates.

What is a bring-your-own-Twilio dialer?

A bring-your-own-Twilio dialer is calling software that places calls through a Twilio account you own, instead of reselling its own minutes and numbers. Most dialers are also phone companies that bundle minutes into a seat price and keep your numbers in their carrier account; this model splits those jobs. Twilio stays your phone company, with your numbers, your call records and your bill, and the dialer is software that drives calls through it, from a single call to an auto dialer working through a list.

This is different from BYOC (bring your own carrier), which connects a carrier’s SIP trunk into a platform. With bring-your-own-Twilio there is nothing to trunk or configure in SIP: the dialer talks to Twilio’s APIs with credentials you give it, and you can take those credentials away at any time.

Which dialers run on your own Twilio account?

Only a few dialers call through a Twilio account you own; all-in-one tools such as PhoneBurner and Mojo Dialer bundle calling into every license instead (PhoneBurner pricing, Mojo Dialer FAQ). The side-by-side list, with features and prices, is in our roundup of the best Twilio dialers. This page sticks to the account mechanics, which differ more than the feature lists suggest:

• Rapidialer: a browser power dialer plus a Chrome side-panel keypad, connected once with your Account SID and Auth Token on the server; the browser and extension only ever get short-lived call tokens.
• Nethram’s Auto Dialer for Twilio: a Chrome extension that dials a list and needs a paid Twilio account with at least one number (Chrome Web Store). Some newer Twilio extensions take the Account SID and Auth Token inside the browser itself, so check where they keep them. See Rapidialer vs Nethram.
• Twilio Flex: runs inside your Twilio account and is priced per user or per active hour on top of usage (Flex pricing); outbound list dialing takes configuration. See the Twilio Flex alternative page.
• Close: its bring-your-own-carrier option covers inbound calls only, while outbound calls use Close’s own telephony (Close help center). A BYO carrier dialer in that sense is not the same as one that uses your Twilio account for every call.

Can an agency connect a Twilio subaccount per client?

Yes, with one Rapidialer organization per client. Each organization connects exactly one Twilio account on Settings → Telephony, and a subaccount has its own Account SID and Auth Token, so you connect it the same way as a main account. That makes Rapidialer a Twilio subaccount dialer: each client’s numbers, recordings and usage stay on that client’s line of the Twilio bill, and the voice webhooks of other subaccounts are left alone.

Seats are bought per organization, so a client with two callers needs two seats in its own organization. Keep numbers that run an IVR or a Studio flow in a different subaccount from the ones you sync, because syncing repoints each number’s voice webhook.

What does Rapidialer change in your Twilio account?

Rapidialer makes three changes when you press Save & provision: one API key, one TwiML app and a new voice webhook on each synced number. You can see each of them in the Twilio Console:

• An API key named “Rapidialer by Botcadence Key,” listed under API keys & auth tokens (Twilio API keys). It signs the one-hour browser calling tokens.
• A TwiML app named “Rapidialer by Botcadence” plus your organization’s id, listed under TwiML apps, whose voice URL tells Twilio where to send browser calls.
• On each synced number under Active numbers, the incoming-call webhook becomes a Rapidialer URL ending in /voice/twiml, sent with HTTP POST, so calls to it ring in the Dialer. If a number already runs an IVR or Studio flow, keep it in a separate Twilio subaccount and connect the subaccount that holds your sales numbers instead.
• It does not buy, port or release numbers, change your billing, or touch your messaging settings or your voice geo permissions, which decide the countries you can call.

What does a bring-your-own-Twilio dialer cost for 3 or 10 reps?

A 3-rep team pays about $79.95 a month in total and a 10-rep team about $266.50: seats to Rapidialer, usage to Twilio, no markup in between. At Twilio’s published US rates a browser call costs $0.0140 per minute for the phone leg plus $0.0040 for the browser leg, recording adds $0.0025 per minute, and a local number is $1.15 a month (Twilio US voice pricing).

At 1,000 billed minutes per rep, each rep runs about $21.65 of Twilio usage plus a $5 seat. Three reps send $64.95 to Twilio and $15 to Rapidialer; ten send $216.50 and $50. Cold calling can add Twilio’s surcharge for unanswered and very short calls, which Rapidialer pricing explains.

What to check when connecting Twilio fails

The Telephony page shows the error Twilio or Rapidialer returned. The ones you can fix yourself:

• “Twilio provisioning failed.” The Account SID and Auth Token do not match. Copy both again from the Console home page, without spaces.
• “No Twilio phone numbers were found in this account.” Buy or port a voice number first, or connect the subaccount that holds it.
• Calls stop after you rotate the Auth Token. Rapidialer checks Twilio’s request signatures with the saved token, so paste the new one and save again.
• You deleted the key or app in the Console. Press Import from provider; Rapidialer recreates only what is missing.

When bring-your-own-Twilio is not the right fit

If you do not want a Twilio relationship at all and would rather buy minutes bundled into one invoice, an all-in-one dialer is simpler. The same goes if you need predictive or multi-line dialing, voicemail drop, or native CRM sync beyond HubSpot, which Rapidialer does not offer.

Twilio trial accounts also have limits: they can only call numbers you have verified in Twilio, so upgrade the account before calling leads (Twilio trial limits).

The features behind it

• Power DialSequential power dialing: the next contact is dialed after each wrap-up and a five-second countdown.
• Local presenceCaller ID that picks one of your own Twilio numbers with the lead’s area code.
• Call recordingDual-channel call recording stored in your own Twilio account, played back from call history.
• Calling hoursPer-list calling windows checked in each contact’s own time zone.

Teams that use it this way

• Small businessesHow owners, solo sellers and small teams set up outbound calling in Rapidialer.
• SDR and BDR teamsHow SDR and BDR teams run call blocks, book meetings and track activity in Rapidialer.

Bring your own Twilio: questions and answers