Skype shut down in May 2025. We compare what's left — honestly, with one real drawback per service, and a dedicated look at the best Skype for Business replacement.
Create AccountBrowser-based · No app · Pay as you go
Microsoft announced Skype's retirement in February 2025 and shut the service down on May 5, 2025, migrating accounts to Microsoft Teams. Skype Credit sales stopped before the shutdown; remaining balances could be used up, but not topped up. That left one group without a real successor: people and businesses who used Skype to call regular landline and mobile numbers abroad — because Teams is a meeting tool, not a cheap way to dial a phone number in another country.
This comparison focuses on exactly that use case. Every service below is judged on four questions: Can it call real numbers? What does it honestly cost? How is it licensed and where is your data processed? And what is its real drawback — including our own.
Disclosure: FluffyCall is ours. It appears first because this is our site, not because it won a test. Its drawbacks are listed like everyone else's.
| Service | Model | Calls Real Numbers | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| FluffyCall | Pay as you go, from €0.03/min, per-second billing | Yes | Licensed German telecom (BNetzA), GDPR/EU |
| Microsoft Teams Phone | Per user/month + calling costs | Yes | Official Skype successor for M365 shops |
| Google Voice | Free US number + per-minute international | Yes | Business plans in 14 countries; free tier US-only |
| Viber Out | Prepaid credit / country plans | Yes | Strong in Eastern Europe & SEA |
| Rebtel | Subscription plans per corridor, plus pay-as-you-go credit | Yes | Good for one fixed country |
| GlobCall | Pay as you go, from $0.02/min | Yes | Browser-based newcomer |
| TwinPhone | Pay as you go, from $0.02/min | Yes | Virtual numbers in 40+ countries |
| Fonable | Pay as you go | Yes | Browser-based newcomer |
| Free | No | App-to-app only | |
| Zoom Phone | Per user/month | Yes | Built for meetings-first teams |
Calling landlines and mobiles abroad is what this one is built for — see the full breakdown on our Skype alternative for international calls page.
FluffyCall does what Skype Credit did: top up a balance, call any landline or mobile in 200+ countries straight from Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge. US, UK, Germany and France landlines cost €0.03/min, billed per second — a 40-second call costs 2 cents, not a rounded-up minute. What sets it apart from the newer browser-calling services: FluffyCall is a registered telecommunications provider with the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), based in Berlin, with servers in Germany and a verifiable legal entity behind every call. One account, no per-seat licences: you pay per call, not per employee. The honest drawback: FluffyCall is outbound-only. There are no inbound virtual numbers, and no video calls — it replaces Skype Credit, not Skype meetings.
If your company lives in Microsoft 365, Teams Phone is the path Microsoft built. It handles meetings, chat and real phone calls in one place. The drawback: it bills per user per month, with international calling costs on top — for a team that mainly makes outbound international calls, the per-seat model is expensive overkill.
A free US number, clean apps, and cheap international rates from around €0.01/min. The drawback: the free version needs a US number and US residency. Google Voice for business is sold in 14 countries, including Germany, but only on top of a Google Workspace subscription.
Prepaid credit or country plans, reliable quality, particularly popular for calls to Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. The drawback: it requires the full Viber app and phone-number registration — there is no quick browser path, and rates vary widely by destination.
Rebtel's unlimited country plans can beat pay-as-you-go if you call one destination heavily and predictably every month. The drawback: it is a subscription — the moment your calling pattern varies, you pay for volume you do not use.
Launched after the Skype shutdown, GlobCall advertises rates from $0.02/min to 200+ countries, browser-based with a free trial. The drawback: it is a young service with a short track record — before committing a business workflow to any newcomer, check who operates it, under which license, and where your data is processed.
Also browser-based and pay-as-you-go from $0.02/min, with optional inbound virtual numbers in 40+ countries (€1.95/month) — a feature FluffyCall does not offer. The drawback: the same short track record as every post-Skype newcomer, and per-minute billing granularity should be checked against per-second alternatives for short calls.
A further post-shutdown, browser-based pay-as-you-go service in the same mould. The drawback: little verifiable information about the operating company and licensing — the checklist below applies in full.
Perfect for family calls where both sides have the app. The drawback is structural: it cannot call landlines or regular mobile numbers at all — it does not replace Skype Credit.
A capable cloud phone system attached to the Zoom ecosystem, priced per user per month. The drawback mirrors Teams Phone: per-seat pricing makes it expensive if outbound international calling is all you need.
"Skype for Business" searches usually mean one of two things. If you need meetings, chat and internal telephony in one suite, the answer is Microsoft Teams Phone — that is what Microsoft built it for, and no pay-as-you-go service replaces a full phone system.
But if your actual pain is outbound international calling costs — sales, procurement, hotel front desks, support teams calling customers abroad — the per-seat model works against you. Ten employees on a per-user plan cost a fixed amount every month whether they call or not. A licensed pay-as-you-go provider inverts that: one account, no per-seat licences, per-second billing from €0.03/min, and transparent, GDPR-compliant data processing that passes a data-protection review. That is the model FluffyCall is built on — and why it works alongside an existing phone system rather than replacing it.
The post-Skype market attracted many new browser-calling services. Most work fine — but for business use, verify four things first: 1) Licensing: Is the operator a registered telecommunications provider with a verifiable legal entity and imprint? 2) Data: Where is call data processed, and is the service GDPR-compliant with EU infrastructure? 3) Billing granularity: Per-second billing beats a lower headline rate on short calls — a 10-second call at €0.03/min per-second costs half a cent; the same call rounded to a full minute at €0.02 costs four times that. 4) Rate transparency: Are per-country rates published, or hidden behind a signup?
Pay-as-you-go browser services: top up, dial any real number, pay only for what you use. FluffyCall, GlobCall, TwinPhone and Fonable all follow this model; they differ in licensing, billing granularity and track record — see the checklist above.
Microsoft Teams Phone is the official successor, but it bills per user per month plus international calling. Businesses that mainly make outbound international calls often pay less with a licensed pay-as-you-go provider such as FluffyCall: one account, no per-seat licences, per-second billing from €0.03/min, servers in Germany.
Four things: whether the operator is a licensed telecom provider with a verifiable legal entity, where your data is processed (GDPR/EU infrastructure), whether billing is per second or rounded per minute, and whether rates to your key destinations are published transparently.