Best Skype alternatives for calling phones in 2026

Microsoft shut Skype down on May 5, 2025. Most of what it did lives on somewhere else, video calls moved to Teams, chats moved to WhatsApp or Telegram, but the one thing Skype was uniquely good at, calling an ordinary mobile or landline number abroad from your computer with prepaid credit, doesn't have one obvious replacement. Here are six real options, including where each one falls short.

QuikRing publishes this list and is one of the options on it, listed first. Read the limitations for each service too, not just the pitch.

Who it's for: anyone who wants to call a real phone number abroad without installing anything or picking a plan.

How you pay: sign up with an email address, add credit, and the per-minute price for the number you typed shows before you call. You pay per started minute, credit never expires, and top-ups include a bonus. New accounts get their first call free for up to one minute on popular routes.

Fair limitation: it's browser-only by design, so it needs a working internet connection, and the free first call is capped to popular routes rather than every country.

Who it's for: people who already have, or want, a free US-based phone number, and occasionally call abroad from it.

How you pay: a personal Google Voice number is free, including calls within the US and Canada. Calling other countries draws from Google Voice credit that you buy in advance and spend per minute, at the rate shown on Google's own rates page.

Fair limitation: it's built around having a US Google Voice number. Getting one, and porting an existing number into it, is aimed at US-based users and can be confusing from outside the US.

Who it's for: people who already use Viber to message friends and family and want to add calling real phones on top of it.

How you pay: Viber Out is a separate, prepaid credit balance inside the Viber app, spent per minute on calls to mobiles and landlines.

Fair limitation: it lives inside the Viber app. There's no way to buy Viber Out credit and place a call from a plain browser tab without installing Viber first.

Who it's for: people who call the same one or two countries often and want a dedicated app for it.

How you pay: prepaid credit, spent per minute, similar in shape to Viber Out and QuikRing.

Fair limitation: Rebtel is an app-first product built around downloading it, not a browser-based service, so it's another app to install rather than something you can just open a tab and use.

Who it's for: calling someone you already message on WhatsApp, when both of you have a data or Wi-Fi connection.

How you pay: nothing. WhatsApp calls are free, using your internet connection instead of the phone network.

Fair limitation: WhatsApp can only call other WhatsApp users. It cannot dial a landline, a business line, or anyone who doesn't have the app, which rules it out for the exact case Skype used to cover.

Who it's for: people who already use Teams for work meetings and want to call colleagues inside the same organization.

How you pay: calling other Teams users is included free with a Teams account.

Fair limitation: there's no simple, low-cost way for an individual to dial an ordinary phone number from Teams. Calling regular mobiles and landlines needs a Calling Plan add-on sold to organizations, not something a consumer can just switch on.

For a longer look at everything that changed when Skype closed, see the Skype alternative guide. To check today's price to a specific country before you commit to any of these, see QuikRing's rates for every country.