Parloa vs Shortwave: 2026 comparison
Voice agents for contact centers — handles tier-1 calls end-to-end.
AI email client — natural-language search, summary, scheduled send, and AI-drafted replies grounded in your inbox.
Parloa vs Shortwave — specs
| Spec | Parloa | Shortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Agent Rank | 63 / 100 (B) | 72 / 100 (A) |
| Autonomy | Autonomous | Assistant |
| Pricing | Subscription · Free tier | Freemium · from $9 |
| Open source | No | No |
| Capabilities | Voice, Tool use, Memory | RAG, Memory, Tool use |
| Integrations | 3 apps | 3 apps |
| Verified | — | Verified |
| Released | Apr 2025 | Feb 2025 |
Agent Rank breakdown
- Autonomy fit
- 9
- Capabilities
- 6
- Integrations
- 4
- Pricing value
- 9
- Polish & maturity
- 4
- Verifiability
- 6
Auto-computed from autonomy, capabilities, integrations, pricing, maturity and editorial verification. Updated every deploy. How is this computed?
- Autonomy fit
- 7
- Capabilities
- 6
- Integrations
- 6
- Pricing value
- 8
- Polish & maturity
- 6
- Verifiability
- 10
Auto-computed from autonomy, capabilities, integrations, pricing, maturity and editorial verification. Updated every deploy. How is this computed?
Pros & cons
- +Best voice agent in the category — latency, naturalness, multilingual
- +Strong telephony integration (Twilio, Vonage, Genesys)
- +Clean human handoff preserves full transcript + classified intent
- −Voice-first — chat experience is secondary
- −Sales-led, no transparent pricing
- −Less effective on long-tail languages outside the supported 12
- +Best AI-native email client in 2026 — search, summarize, draft all natural-language
- +Built specifically for Gmail; faster + smarter than Gmail itself
- +Cheap relative to Superhuman with better AI features
- −Gmail-only — no Outlook support
- −AI assistant is helpful but not yet revolutionary
- −Smaller user base means fewer integrations than Gmail/Outlook ecosystems
Pricing
- +Voice agents (12+ languages)
- +Telephony integration (Twilio / Genesys)
- +Human handoff preserves transcript + intent
- +Basic AI summary
- +90-day search
- +Unlimited search
- +AI assistant
- +Scheduled send
- +Shared inboxes
- +Send delegation
- +Admin controls
Which one should you pick?
Pick Parloa if cost is the main constraint or if you want the highest autonomy and the verification loop is in place.
Try Parloa →Pick Shortwave if you want a vendor we've verified for accessibility and pricing accuracy.
Try Shortwave →Affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Frequently asked
Should I pick Parloa or Shortwave in 2026?+
Pick Parloa if cost is the main constraint or if you want the highest autonomy and the verification loop is in place. Pick Shortwave if you want a vendor we've verified for accessibility and pricing accuracy. Most working teams running both can use Parloa for primary work and Shortwave for the workflows where its specific strengths matter.
What's the price difference between Parloa and Shortwave?+
Parloa starts at Subscription · Free tier; Shortwave starts at Freemium · from $9. Parloa is the cheaper entry option. For team deployments the TCO can differ — use the AI Agent Rank TCO calculator for your specific volume.
Which is more autonomous, Parloa or Shortwave?+
Parloa is the more autonomous of the two (Autonomous vs Assistant). Higher autonomy ships throughput faster but requires verification loops in place — see our autonomous-vs-copilot framing for when each tier wins.