Calling real phones after Skype
Most "Skype alternative" lists quietly skip the hardest part. Signal, Zoom and the rest are great for calling other people who have the same app — but none of them dials an ordinary landline or mobile number. That was Skype Out, and it needs its own replacement.
What happened to Skype's paid calling
Skype's paid calling — Skype Credit, Skype Numbers (an inbound phone number) and calling subscriptions — is discontinued. Microsoft stopped selling new Credit, Numbers and subscriptions around the shutdown, and Skype Numbers stopped auto-renewing on April 3, 2025. Users with leftover Credit or an active subscription could keep using the Dial Pad for a while, but it's a dead end — there's no way to top up. So if you called phone numbers with Skype, you need a new home for that job.
Your three realistic options
Google Voice — best free (US)
A free US phone number plus free calls within the US and Canada. The simplest, cheapest swap if you're a US resident. Sign-up is US-only and international calls are paid per minute.
Zoom Phone — best all-in-one
A real cloud phone number and international dialling, added to Zoom as a paid plan. Closest to Skype's "one app for calls and phone numbers," and it sits alongside the video calls you're already making in Zoom.
Pay-as-you-go VoIP — best like-for-like
Rebtel, Talk360 and BOSS Revolution sell prepaid credit at per-minute international rates to landlines and mobiles — the most direct replacement for Skype Out's model of "buy credit, dial the world."
How to choose
| Need | Best option | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Free US/Canada calls | Google Voice | Free number, free domestic calls (US residents) |
| One app for video + phone | Zoom Phone | Real DID + international, alongside Zoom calls |
| Cheap international to landlines | Rebtel / Talk360 / BOSS | Prepaid per-minute credit, Skype-Out-style |
| An inbound number people can call | Google Voice or Zoom Phone | Both give you a real number to receive calls |
The honest catch
There is no single free app that fully replaces Skype Out. Calling real phone numbers costs the provider money (they pay to connect to the phone network), so expect either a subscription (Zoom Phone), a regional free tier (Google Voice in the US), or prepaid per-minute credit (VoIP services). For app-to-app calls to friends and family, use one of the free alternatives on the main page — save the paid phone service for when you genuinely need to dial a real number.