If most of your enquiries arrive by phone, CallRail is usually the stronger fit. If they arrive by a mix of phone, forms and chat, WhatConverts is usually the better fit, because it pulls everything into one lead feed. Both are good tools, and the cheaper one is not automatically the right one. What matters is how your customers actually get in touch with you.
We build websites and run local SEO for small businesses in Derbyshire and across the UK, so we see this question a lot. Someone spends money on a new site or on Google visibility, the phone rings, and nobody can say which of those efforts made it ring. Call tracking fixes that. Here is how the two best-known tools compare, and how to choose without pulling your hair out.
TL;DR
- CallRail is built around calls: recording, transcription and conversation analysis. It is the better pick when the phone is your main sales channel.
- WhatConverts tracks calls, forms and chat in one place and groups them into a single lead profile per person. It is the better pick when leads come from several routes.
- On published entry prices, WhatConverts starts lower ($30 a month against $50), but the plans that add forms and chat are what you should compare, not the headline numbers.
- Both quote in US dollars, and in the UK you also need to handle call recording consent under UK GDPR.
- Neither replaces a CRM. Tracking tells you where a lead came from; something else has to follow it up.
Table of Contents
- What call tracking actually does for a small business
- CallRail vs WhatConverts at a glance
- Pricing: look at what each plan buys
- Where CallRail is stronger
- Where WhatConverts is stronger
- Call analytics or attribution: the question that decides it
- UK points to check before you sign up
- What neither tool will do for you
- Our view: tracking first, tools second
- Working with us on the bits around the tracking
- A simple way to run your trial
- FAQ
- Sources
What call tracking actually does for a small business
Call tracking gives different phone numbers to different marketing sources. One number appears for people arriving from Google Ads, another for people from your Google Business Profile, another for visitors from a leaflet’s web address. When someone rings, the tool logs which number they dialled and therefore where they came from.
Both tools go further than numbers. They also capture form submissions and tie them back to the ad, search or page that produced them. That is the real prize for an owner: you stop guessing which £500 of marketing made the phone ring.
If you are a plumber in Chesterfield, a solicitor in Sheffield or a dental practice in Nottingham, this is the difference between “the website seems fine” and “the Google Business Profile brings us 40% of our calls, so that is where we put the next pound”.
A word of honesty before we go on. We do not sell call tracking. We build sites, run SEO and set up CRMs, so we have no commission to earn from either option here. What we do have is plenty of experience of what happens to the data afterwards.
CallRail vs WhatConverts at a glance
| CallRail | WhatConverts | |
|---|---|---|
| Core strength | Call recording, transcription, conversation analysis | Attribution across calls, forms and chat |
| Lead model | Calls and forms tracked as separate items | One unified profile per person |
| Entry price (US) | $50 a month | $30 a month (calls only) |
| Form and chat tracking | Higher plan tier | $60 a month Plus plan |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| Best when | Phone is your main sales channel | Leads come from many routes |
Prices are the vendors’ published US-dollar figures, checked against the sources below. Both vendors change plans often, so confirm on their pricing pages before you commit.
Pricing: look at what each plan buys
The headline numbers favour WhatConverts. Its single-account plans start at $30 a month for call tracking only, with a $60 Plus plan that adds form and chat tracking. Its Pro plan is $100 a month and includes call flows and a usage credit.
CallRail’s entry plan is $50 a month, covering calls and texts. Form tracking sits on a higher tier, and reviewers disagree on the exact figure, which tells you the plans move around. Check the current page rather than trusting any comparison article, including this one.
Three things catch small businesses out:
- Entry prices do not buy the same thing. A $30 plan that tracks only calls and a $60 plan that tracks calls, forms and chat are different products. Compare like for like.
- Overages. Both platforms charge extra for minutes and numbers beyond what the plan includes, so a busy month costs more than the sticker price.
- Currency. You will be billed in dollars, so your actual monthly cost shifts with the exchange rate, and you should allow for that in your budget.
A rough rule: for a business that needs forms and calls tracked, the gap between the two is smaller than the headline suggests. Decide on fit, then on price.
Where CallRail is stronger
CallRail’s reputation rests on what happens during and after the call. Industry practitioners point to its call analytics: transcription and sentiment scoring, so you can see whether the conversation was a genuine sales enquiry or a wrong number. Its AI add-ons, such as an automated receptionist and conversation intelligence, are covered in independent reviews.
That matters when:
- You get a high volume of inbound calls and want to know which ones were real prospects.
- Staff answer the phones and you want to coach them on what was said.
- You work in home services, trades or professional services where the phone is how the job is won.
Think of a roofing firm that gets 60 calls a month. Half might be quotes, a quarter existing customers and the rest sales cold-callers. Knowing which is which changes how you judge your Google Ads spend. That is exactly the kind of case where call-level detail pays for itself.
Where WhatConverts is stronger
WhatConverts is built around the lead rather than the call. It uses a unified lead profile: if someone fills in your form on Monday and rings on Friday, they appear as one lead. In CallRail they can appear as separate items, which can mean stitching the story together by hand. Bear in mind that this comparison comes from WhatConverts itself, so it will naturally stress its own strengths. The underlying point, though, is worth testing in a trial.
The practical benefit is time. Reviewers note that if leads are spread across chat, forms, e-commerce and phone, an all-in-one lead feed saves a good deal of manual reporting.
This suits:
- Businesses whose website is the main shopfront and where people research before they ring.
- Anyone who pays an agency or freelancer for SEO and wants one report showing every enquiry source.
- Shops and service firms with longer buying journeys, where the first touch and the final call are days apart.
Call analytics or attribution: the question that decides it
Most people treat these tools as interchangeable. They are not. One is stronger at telling you about the quality of a call, the other at telling you where your marketing money is working. Practitioners suggest choosing according to whether you need to improve call quality or improve lead-source spending.
Ask yourself:
- Where do my last 20 enquiries come from? If 15 or more were phone calls, lean towards CallRail.
- Do I spend money on more than one channel? If you run ads, SEO, a directory listing and social media, attribution across them matters more.
- Who answers the phone? If it is you, call transcripts save time. If it is a team, call analysis helps training.
- Do I need the whole customer journey? If yes, the single lead profile is a real advantage.
If you cannot answer the first question because you have never counted, start there. Check your phone log for a month. It costs nothing and it will make the choice obvious.
UK points to check before you sign up
Both tools were designed in the United States, and some of the detail matters differently here.
Call recording and consent. Recording calls is lawful in the UK for business purposes, but a recorded call is personal data. A UK guide to call recording sets out the basics: a lawful basis, a recorded announcement telling callers, secure storage, a retention period and a way to respond to subject access requests. If you switch on recording or transcription, add a short “calls may be recorded” message and update your privacy policy. If you are unsure, ask the Information Commissioner’s Office or a data protection adviser before enabling AI analysis of calls.
Local numbers. Check that the tool can supply UK numbers, ideally local area codes such as 01332 or 0114, because local numbers tend to inspire more trust than a generic one. Confirm availability and cost per number during your trial, not after.
Health-related work. Both vendors describe HIPAA support, which is a US regulation and does not apply here. If you run a UK clinic or practice, your concern is UK GDPR and the handling of health data, so speak to your data protection adviser first.
Number swapping and your Google listing. Dynamic numbers on your website are standard practice. On your Google Business Profile, keep your real main number as the primary one, and use tracking numbers only where the tool’s documentation says it is safe to do so, so your business details stay consistent across the web.
What neither tool will do for you
This is the bit comparison articles skip. Call tracking tells you that a lead arrived and where it came from. It does not chase the lead, remind you to ring back on Thursday or tell you that a quote has gone cold.
We regularly meet owners who have excellent tracking and a messy inbox. The data shows 30 enquiries last month, but nobody can say how many became customers, because the follow-up lived in a mix of WhatsApp messages, email threads and a notebook by the till. That is a manual bottleneck, and no amount of attribution reporting solves it.
Four habits make tracking worth paying for:
- Log every lead in one place. A shared CRM, even a simple one, beats memory.
- Mark outcomes. Record which enquiries became jobs. Without that, you are measuring activity rather than results.
- Review monthly. Spend ten minutes asking which source brought the most paying customers, not the most calls.
- Fix the page that leaks. If a landing page gets traffic but few enquiries, the problem is the page. Our guides on lead capture forms that generate quality leads and what good conversion rates look like are a good place to start.
Our view: tracking first, tools second
A few honest observations from working with small firms across Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
First, most small businesses do not need the biggest plan. If you get a few dozen enquiries a month, you need a clean setup, not a feature list. Pick the tool that matches your main channel, run the 14-day trial on real traffic, and judge it on whether you can answer “which source made us money last month” in under five minutes.
Second, the website matters more than the tracking. Tracking a weak page is just measuring a leak. Before paying for any tool, make sure your pages load quickly on a phone, put the number and enquiry form where a thumb can reach them, and say plainly what you do.
Third, simplicity wins. We built SmartFlowCRM because owners kept telling us the same thing: leads arrive by WhatsApp, email and phone, and nothing holds them together. A call tracking tool can sit alongside a CRM like that, with the CRM holding the conversation and the follow-up. If you are weighing both, that is how we would think about it: tracking for source, CRM for the relationship.
If we had to give one-line advice, it would be this. Count your last month’s enquiries by channel. If the phone dominates, trial CallRail. If it is spread out, trial WhatConverts. If you cannot tell, fix that first.
— Chris
Working with us on the bits around the tracking
We do not resell either tool, but we do the work that makes tracking useful. That means mobile-first web design with plans starting at £120 a month (Starter), local SEO from £150 a month, and SmartFlowCRM, which brings WhatsApp, email and other channels into one place, from £130 a month (Silver) or £260 a month (Gold). Our team is based in Derbyshire and happy to meet in person. If you would like help working out what to track and where the leads should land, take a look at SmartFlowCRM or get in touch through our site.
Once leads are flowing, you may also find it helpful to read how rules-first lead scoring helps a small team decide who to ring first.
A simple way to run your trial
Both tools offer a 14-day free trial, which is enough if you plan it.
- Before you start, write down how many enquiries you got last month by channel, even roughly.
- Install the tracking script on your site and set up a number for each main source: website, Google Business Profile, ads.
- Test it yourself. Ring from a phone after arriving from Google and check that the call appears with the right source.
- Submit your own form and, if the tool supports it, ring afterwards. See whether it shows as one lead or two.
- Check the reporting. Can you get a monthly summary your accountant or business partner would understand?
- Count the cost. Note the minutes and numbers used, then work out what the plan costs once overages are included.
- Decide on evidence. If you would not look at the reports weekly, you do not need the tool yet.
FAQ
Is CallRail better than WhatConverts?
Neither is better across the board. CallRail is stronger on call recording and conversation analysis, so it suits businesses that live on the phone. WhatConverts is stronger at joining up calls, forms and chat into one lead, so it suits businesses with several enquiry routes.
How much do CallRail and WhatConverts cost?
As published, WhatConverts starts at $30 a month for calls only and $60 for calls, forms and chat. CallRail’s entry plan is $50 a month. Both bill in dollars and add overage charges, so check the current pricing pages.
Can I record calls with these tools in the UK?
Yes, call recording is lawful for business purposes, but you must treat recordings as personal data. UK guidance points to telling callers, setting a retention period and storing recordings securely. Ask a data protection adviser if you plan to use AI analysis.
Do I need call tracking if I already have a CRM?
A CRM stores and manages your leads, but it does not know which advert or search produced them unless something feeds that information in. Tracking fills that gap. If you only get a handful of enquiries a month, a CRM and a simple question at the start of each call (“how did you hear about us?”) may be enough.
Sources
- WhatConverts pricing
- CallRail review 2026, Block Sentient
- CallRail vs WhatConverts: four big differences, WhatConverts
- Top visitor tracking software for home services in 2026, Pipelineon
- Call recording UK 2026: GDPR-compliant setup guide
