Best Nooks Alternatives in 2026
Nooks is a solid AI-powered sales dialer with a virtual sales floor concept, but it's relatively new and pricey for small teams. If you need a power dialer without the AI premium, or want more established options, here are the competitors.
At a Glance
| Tool | Price | Best For | Key Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orum | Custom pricing | High-volume outbound teams that need a parallel dialer with live conversation detection | AI-powered parallel dialer that filters out voicemails and bad numbers before connecting reps |
| Salesloft | Custom pricing | Teams that want a dialer embedded in a full sales engagement platform | Complete sales engagement suite with built-in dialer, email sequences, and deal management |
| Outreach | Custom pricing | Enterprise sales teams running complex multi-channel sequences | The largest sales engagement platform with the deepest enterprise features and AI-powered deal intelligence |
| Apollo | Free-$119/user/mo | Teams that want a dialer bundled with B2B contact data and email sequences | Built-in database of 275M+ contacts plus dialer and sequences in one affordable platform |
| Gong Engage | Custom pricing | Teams already using Gong for conversation intelligence that want to add outbound dialing | Dialer backed by Gong's industry-leading conversation analytics and AI coaching |
1. Orum
Coverage & Capabilities
Orum is the closest direct competitor to Nooks. It offers parallel dialing, AI-powered voicemail detection, and a virtual sales floor for remote teams. Reps typically see 3-5x more live conversations per hour compared to single-line dialers. It integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, and Salesloft. The platform also includes call analytics and coaching tools. Pricing isn't public, but expect enterprise-level costs similar to Nooks. Smaller teams may find it hard to justify the spend.
The most direct Nooks alternative. If you want parallel dialing with AI filtering and a virtual sales floor, Orum is the top competitor. Budget accordingly.
2. Salesloft
Coverage & Capabilities
Salesloft's dialer is part of a broader engagement platform. You get click-to-call, voicemail drop, local presence dialing, and call recording. It's not a parallel dialer like Nooks or Orum, so call volume per rep will be lower. The strength is the full workflow: emails, calls, social touches, and meetings in one cadence. CRM sync with Salesforce and HubSpot is tight. Conversation intelligence (acquired from their Drift integration) adds AI analysis to calls.
Pick Salesloft if you want a dialer inside a complete engagement platform. You'll trade parallel dialing speed for a more unified workflow.
3. Outreach
Coverage & Capabilities
Outreach offers a built-in dialer with click-to-call, voicemail drop, and call recording. Like Salesloft, it's a single-line dialer, not parallel. The platform's strength is multi-channel orchestration: email, phone, LinkedIn, and chat in structured sequences. Kaia AI provides real-time call transcription and coaching. Deal management and pipeline analytics round out the enterprise feature set. The downside: it's complex to set up and expensive. Most teams pay $100-$150/user/mo.
The enterprise-grade option. If your team runs structured, multi-channel outbound at scale, Outreach delivers. Not the right fit if you just need a fast dialer.
4. Apollo
Coverage & Capabilities
Apollo combines a B2B contact database with a sales engagement platform. The dialer includes click-to-call, call recording, and voicemail drop. It's a single-line dialer, so it won't match Nooks on call volume. But the value proposition is different: you get 275M+ contacts, email sequences, and a dialer starting from a free tier. Paid plans top out at $119/user/mo. For teams that don't have a separate data provider, Apollo eliminates the need to buy ZoomInfo plus a dialer plus a sequencing tool.
The best budget alternative to Nooks. You won't get parallel dialing or a virtual sales floor, but you get data + dialer + sequences at a fraction of the cost.
5. Gong Engage
Coverage & Capabilities
Gong Engage (formerly Gong's sales engagement add-on) brings dialing into Gong's conversation intelligence platform. You get a power dialer, email sequences, and multi-channel workflows. Every call is automatically recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by Gong's AI. Coaching insights, talk ratio analysis, and competitor mention tracking come standard. The catch: it's most valuable if you're already a Gong customer. As a standalone dialer, it's expensive and less focused than Nooks or Orum on raw call volume.
The right choice if you're already invested in Gong's ecosystem. The conversation intelligence integration is unmatched. Less compelling as a standalone dialer purchase.
How We Chose These Alternatives
We evaluated these alternatives based on dialer capabilities, AI features, integration depth with CRMs, pricing transparency, and job market demand from our database of 23,000+ job postings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest Nooks alternative?
Apollo is the most affordable option with a free tier that includes a basic dialer, 275M+ contacts, and email sequences. Paid plans start at $49/user/mo. For dedicated parallel dialing similar to Nooks, Orum is the closest competitor but uses custom pricing.
Which Nooks alternative has the best parallel dialer?
Orum is the only alternative on this list with a true parallel dialer comparable to Nooks. It dials multiple numbers simultaneously and uses AI to detect live answers before connecting reps. Salesloft, Outreach, and Apollo all use single-line dialers.
Do I need a parallel dialer, or is a power dialer enough?
It depends on your call volume targets. Parallel dialers (Nooks, Orum) connect reps to 3-5x more live conversations per hour. Power dialers (Salesloft, Outreach, Apollo) dial one number at a time but still automate the process. If your team makes 100+ dials per rep per day, a parallel dialer pays for itself. Under 50 dials, a power dialer is fine.