The $65 plan that includes no phone numbers

CallTrackingMetrics (it renamed itself CTM on January 6, 2026, and moved to ctm.com) does something most of its rivals avoid: it prints real prices on its pricing page. Marketing Lite is $65 a month on annual billing, Marketing Pro is $149 and Sales Engage is $274. Those numbers look like a bargain next to the call centre features they come with. They are also only the entry fee.

The FAQ says so in one sentence: "Unlike some other call tracking solutions, our plans do not come with any included numbers or minutes." Every tracking number, every forwarded minute, every text, every transcription past a threshold and every AI question is metered on top. The plan fee buys you the software. The phone bill is separate, and it is paid from a prepaid balance that recharges itself from your card.

That is the whole review in miniature. CTM is a serious platform, founder-owned (Laure and Todd Fisher started it in 2011 in Maryland) and, by its own account, profitable since day one - so no private-equity owner is squeezing the price list. But you cannot read its cost from the headline, and a small business that only wants to know which ad made the phone ring will pay for a lot it never uses.

What a real month costs

These are the US rates the pricing page loaded when I checked it in September 2026. The visible table renders by JavaScript, so treat them as current list prices rather than a quote. Local numbers start at $2 a month and toll-free at $3. A local minute forwarded to your phone costs $0.04; toll-free forwarding is $0.055. Texts are $0.016 each way and MMS $0.05. Outbound calling ($0.031 a minute) does not exist on Lite or Pro at all.

Then the rounding. CTM's help centre is blunt about it: "a 63-second call is considered 2 minutes long." If your average call runs two minutes and ten seconds, you are billed for three, and your minute cost is about 38% higher than the arithmetic on the rate card suggests.

Here is an estimate for a modest setup - 10 local tracking numbers and 2,000 forwarded minutes a month, annual billing, no texting, no AI:

Two details change that table over time. The 3,000 transcription minutes on Pro and Sales Engage are a one-time allowance - the pricing page says included minutes "do not renew each month" - so from month two Pro adds the same $40 Lite pays. And on monthly billing Pro's fee is $179, not $149.

AI is metered the same way. AskAI custom questions start at $0.01 each, AskAI summaries are $0.05 per activity, and running AskAI against raw audio costs 3.5 cents a minute. Summarising 1,000 calls a month adds $50. VoiceAI agents are $0.12 a minute after 60 included minutes per agent. None of it is on Lite: AskAI starts at Marketing Pro.

The add-on list runs to more than twenty lines - encrypted recordings at $0.004 a minute, spam lookups at $0.01, enhanced caller ID at $0.10, redaction at $0.005 a minute, a chat licence at $19 a month, white label at $65 per domain. Capterra reviewers pick up the consequence: bills that do not break down what you were charged for. Budget with a 20% margin until you have seen three real invoices.

Tracking and attribution

The core is what you would expect from a mature tool and it is done well. Dynamic number insertion swaps the number on your site per visitor, number pools tie a call to the session and keyword that produced it, and GeoContact routes by caller location. Offline sources - a billboard, a flyer, a radio spot - get their own static numbers. Calls, forms, chats and texts land in one activity log with source, score, value and the agent who took it.

Lite already sends conversions to Google Ads, Local Services Ads, GA4 and Microsoft Ads, which covers most paid-search shops. Pro adds HubSpot, Facebook, Reddit and Yext, and Sales Engage adds Salesforce, Zoom, Calendly and Gong. CTM lists 40+ integrations and an open API, and it has kept shipping: an Adobe Analytics connector late in 2025, an OpenAI Ads integration in June 2026, LeadSquared in July. Capterra reviewers rate the integrations as the dependable part.

The gap is on Lite. Its plan table has no form-tracking allowance, and forms are half the lead picture for most service businesses. Pro includes 5,000 form submissions a month (then $0.02 each), which is really where CTM's attribution becomes complete. One reviewer complaint worth knowing before you build reports around it: you cannot filter calls by campaign medium.

Where it outgrows call tracking

Unlimited users on every plan is the quiet advantage. There is no seat minimum and no per-user fee on the platform itself, so a front desk of twelve costs the same software fee as a front desk of two. Agencies get 25 sub-accounts on Pro (more in packs of 25 for $50 a month) and unlimited sub-accounts from Sales Engage up.

Sales Engage turns the product into a contact centre: a VoIP softphone that can sit inside Salesforce, a smart dialer with outbound calling, skills- and weight-based routing, queues, live call scripts and coaching, and post-call surveys. That is not what CallRail or WhatConverts are built around. The softphone route is also cheaper per minute ($0.02725 local, plus a $0.007 agent connection charge) than forwarding to a mobile. The trade-off shows in reviews: a browser-based phone can lag or drop calls on a weak office connection.

Healthcare is the other place CTM earns its keep. HIPAA readiness is supported from Marketing Pro up, and the standard BAA is signed self-service through Dropbox Sign instead of waiting on a sales rep. Marketing Lite is not eligible, so a clinic cannot take the $65 route.

The fine print: trial, contract, texting, leaving

There is no free trial. CTM waives the first month's plan fee instead, but it asks for a card up front and your usage in that month - numbers, minutes, texts - is still charged. CallRail and WhatConverts both give 14 days free.

Month-to-month is available and has no contract. Annual billing is cheaper and binding: the terms of service renew it automatically for another year unless you cancel at least 30 days before the renewal date, and leaving inside the first twelve months triggers an early termination fee equal to your monthly charges times the months remaining. Walk away six months into a $149 annual Pro plan and you owe at least $894.

Texting from local US numbers needs 10DLC registration, and CTM passes the carrier fees through: $4 for brand verification, $40 for vetting, a $15 campaign vetting fee, then $1.50 or $10 a month per campaign with three months charged upfront - all non-refundable. Carrier fines for non-compliant messages are passed on too, up to $2,000 per T-Mobile violation.

Leaving is cleaner than the contract. You cancel yourself in the app (support will not do it for you), call history is kept for 60 days afterwards, and porting numbers away is free. The catch is money on account: leftover balance is not refunded automatically, and the terms say it is forfeited after 90 days if not claimed.

CTM vs CallRail vs WhatConverts

Prices checked in September 2026. At five numbers and a few hundred minutes, CallRail's included allowance means you pay close to the sticker price, and WhatConverts is cheaper still. CTM only closes the gap once you need Pro's forms, AI and HIPAA together, or a call centre on top of the tracking.

Verdict

Buy CTM if you are an agency running call tracking for many clients, a healthcare group that needs a BAA without a procurement cycle, or a multi-location business that wants attribution and a real contact centre in one login. Unlimited users, sub-accounts and a founder-owned company that has not been flipped are worth the metered bill at that scale. Start on month-to-month until you have seen real invoices, and only then take the annual discount.

Skip it if you are one business with a handful of numbers that wants to know which ad made the phone ring. You would pay $65 a month for software with no minutes and no form tracking in it. CallRail includes five numbers and 250 minutes for $50, and WhatConverts does it for $30 with a usage credit - both with a free trial CTM does not offer.

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