# fone.me vs Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) (slim)

> Hume EVI scores 54.1 (C) to fone.me's 28.3 (F) for voice agents. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fone-me-vs-hume-evi.md (~6,000 tokens) · this version ~3,480 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fone-me-vs-hume-evi.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fone-me-vs-hume-evi
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) scores 54.1 (C) on agent readiness against fone.me's 28.3 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. fone.me leads on payments & pricing. Both do voice agents.

- fone.me: F 28.3, rank #1406 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fone-me.min.md
- Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface): C 54.1, rank #914 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hume-evi.min.md
- fone.me, good for Agents acting for a person who need to reach a freelancer's, shop's or small business's own AI agent at its fone.me link to ask a question, request a booking or quote or leave a message, and owners who want an answering agent on a link, WhatsApp, Telegram and a $9.99 number without building one. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 50 against 37. Also No key needed to call it.
- Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface), good for Consumer and coaching products where the caller's tone matters and English is enough on EVI 3. Ahead on Reliability, 55 against 15; Schema & documentation, 90 against 31; Agent ergonomics, 66 against 29; Maintenance & community, 35 against 23; Transparency & trust, 61 against 23.

| Category | fone.me | Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 15 | 55 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 31 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 29 | 66 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 30 | 27 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 50 | 37 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 23 | 35 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 23 | 61 |

| Fact (where they differ) | fone.me | Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Fone | Hume AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://www.fone.me/mcp` | `https://api.hume.ai/v0/evi` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service. Terms of service at https://www.fone.me/terms, whose text draws by script and could not be read on 5 November 2026; no company is named on any page read. No source, SDK or package is published | MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 4 | none |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-08-18 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2025-02-25 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | none | 180 stars, 79k npm/wk, 24k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) +59: fone.me 31 (MCP reading, since the MCP server is what an outside agent calls. No tool arguments or input schemas are published in llms.txt, the guide pages or the GitHub README, and robots.txt disallows /mcp, so no session was opened and tools/list was not read. Per-link A2A agent cards are machine-readable JSON (protocol 0.3.0, JSONRPC, input and output modes, skills with examples) and server.json names the remote, but neither types the MCP tools (8 of 25). llms.txt is a real document for agents covering the MCP server, A2A, the search API and the widget (10). Each tool has a one-line purpose in llms.txt and the README, and the how-it-works page states what the agent will and won't do; nothing says when not to use a tool (6 of 20). No typed inputs, enums, constraints or required fields published (0 of 15). Example prompts in the README, per-skill examples in agent cards and widget code for eight site builders; no error response is documented (4 of 15). server.json and the agent cards carry version 1.0.0 and the cards a protocol version; no changelog (3 of 15). 8+10+6+0+4+3 = 31.); Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) 90 (llms.txt links an AsyncAPI 2.6.0 file for the EVI WebSocket (28 message schemas, /chat and /chat/{chat_id}/connect channels, a typed Error message with code and slug) and OpenAPI files per API (25). llms.txt (10). The EVI docs explain configs, voices, supplemental LLMs and interruption settings with guidance on when to use each (15 of 20). Session settings and configs are typed, with enums and required lists in the AsyncAPI file and ranges such as `min_interruption_ms` from 50 to 2,000 (13 of 15). Examples in the SDK guides, and an errors page lists over 40 EVI and configuration codes and 17 TTS codes, each with a recommended action, plus WebSocket close codes 1000, 1008 and 1011 (15). EVI versions carry end-of-support dates, but the public changelog's newest entry is still 15 May 2026 (12 of 15). Per the 2 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Hume's terms bar robots on its websites).)
- Reliability, Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) +40: fone.me 15 (Hosted reading, for the MCP server and A2A endpoints and the service behind them. No status page is linked from llms.txt, the home page or any guide page read, and https://www.fone.me/status failed to load (0). No readable incident history, so the floor (5). No request rate limit for the MCP server, the search API or A2A is published; the only limits are on the agent's own outbound calls (8 am to 9 pm in the callee's time zone, 'limited per day' with no number), which are not request limits (0 of 15). No 429, overload or retry guidance and no idempotency key for message_agent or message/send (0 of 15). No SLA (0). Nothing on the MCP server, the agent cards or llms.txt is marked beta or preview, and the MCP repository's server.json is version 1.0.0 (10). 0+5+0+0+0+10 = 15.); Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) 55 (Hume's Terms of Service (last updated 5 October 2026) bar access to any portion of the Service, which includes its websites, through spiders, robots, crawlers or data mining tools, so no hume.ai page, status.hume.ai included, was re-read on 4 November. Readings are per the 1 and 2 October checks. A status page at status.hume.ai with component history back to September 2025 (20). Today's window runs from 6 August. Its readable part, 6 August to 2 October, holds one incident, TTS down for about 7 minutes on 19 September, which names TTS and not EVI. The EVI outages of 11 July (about 6.5 hours) and 24 July (about 2.6 hours) are now outside the window, and 3 October to 4 November is unread. A window that is partly unread holds at its recorded award and isn't credited for the unread stretch, as mailtrap's was after its majors aged out, so the line stays at 5 until the rest of the window can be read (5). Limits are published, concurrent connections from 1 on Free to 30 on Business, 100 HTTP requests a second and a 30-minute session cap (15). The error catalogue has a rate-limit code (E0811, 'Retry later') and a too-many-chats code (E0700) that states the active count and limit, but no HTTP 429, Retry-After or backoff guidance (5 of 15, held partial). No SLA found (0). EVI 3 is the generally available default per the 30 September check (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 55.)
- Transparency & trust, Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) +38: fone.me 23 (Closed service. Terms of service exist at /terms but draw by script, so their content, governing law and the company they name are unchecked; no company, address or country of incorporation appears on any page read, llms.txt says San Francisco, and the MCP repository has no licence (5 of 30). Data handling was read only from guide pages, which say only the owner sees their calls and messages, calls are transcribed and callers told so, and private categories are withheld. The privacy policy and data-deletion page draw by script, so no retention period, recording statement, DPA or AI-training statement was read (8 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0). No subprocessors, telephony, model or hosting providers or data locations are named on any page read; the demo agent card's icon is served from Cloudinary (0 of 20). 5+8+0+0 = 13.); Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) 61 (Closed service with clear terms and MIT SDKs (18 of 30). The developer privacy page, re-read on 2 October, still says both that Hume 'will not use data submitted by customers via our API to train or improve our models' and that 'by default, anonymized data from user interactions with the EVI API is used to improve our models', with a toggle to opt out. Retention is on by default with a 'Do not retain data' toggle. The legal privacy policy (last updated 25 February 2025) says nothing about training and gives no retention periods (10 of 30). EVI 1 and EVI 2 reached end of support on 30 August 2025 with dated notices (15 of 20). Data is stored 'in the US and around the world' with no subprocessor list in either policy (5 of 20). Per the 2 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Hume's terms bar robots on its websites).)
- Agent ergonomics, Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) +37: fone.me 29 (MCP reading. Four tools named in llms.txt, a small set, but their definitions were not read, so short of full marks (18 of 25). find_agents searches by what someone does and the search API takes a query; no limit, paging or output-size controls are documented (3 of 20). No error codes or messages documented for the MCP server, the search API or A2A (0 of 20). No readOnlyHint or destructiveHint seen and no idempotency key; the three lookups are read-only by name and description, while message_agent writes to a real person's inbox and continues the conversation across calls (2 of 20). No credentials, no configuration beyond the URL, and few stated inputs; no SDK in any language (6 of 15). 18+3+0+2+6 = 29.); Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) 66 (Scored as an API. Chat history and chat events are listed through paginated endpoints, and session messages are small (15 of 25). Paging on chats, chat groups and configs (16 of 20). Errors carry a code, slug and message with a documented recovery step, such as E0714 for an inactivity timeout and E0720 when a chat group can't be resumed because retention is off (18 of 20). No idempotency keys, and tool calls depend on a supplemental LLM (5 of 20). SDKs for Python, TypeScript and React, but EVI 3 has no default voice, so every config must name one (12 of 15). Per the 2 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Hume's terms bar robots on its websites).)
- Payments & pricing, fone.me +13: fone.me 50 (No x402, MPP or L402 on any page read (0). Premium is $9.99 a month on llms.txt and the Smith.ai comparison page, with no minute allowance or per-call price (10 of 20). The MCP server, search API and A2A endpoints are free with no account, and the agent, first link and chat button are free for owners; no page mentions a card for any of these (20). An outside agent needs no sign-up, key or payment to find and message an agent (20). 0+10+20+20 = 50.); Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) 37 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). Plan prices and per-minute overage from $0.06 to $0.04 are on the public pricing page (20). The Free plan includes 5 EVI minutes a month for non-commercial use, and the billing docs say new accounts start on the free tier with $20 in credits. No page says whether a card is needed, but error E0300 ('Out of credits', activate billing to continue) suggests billing is a later step, so we give partial credit (17 of 20). Access starts with a human signup (0). Per the 2 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Hume's terms bar robots on its websites).)
- Maintenance & community, Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) +12: fone.me 23 (Closed service. The newest dated change to the agent surface found is the MCP repository github.com/spearisa/fone-me-mcp, created 5 October 2026 with server.json version 1.0.0, 31 days ago (20). The comparison page marked 'Checked October 28, 2026' and the profile lastmods in the sitemap are content, not releases. No changelog, release notes or three dated changes in 90 days (0 of 20). The support page and FAQ draw by script and no support email, forum or community channel was found; responsiveness unchecked (3 of 15). server.json names the server me.fone.www/agents, a namespace that needs proof of the domain, but the official MCP registry could not be read, so presence is scored absent (0 of 15). No package, public code or CI (0 of 10). 20+0+3+0+0 = 23.); Hume EVI (Empathic Voice Interface) 35 (Read as a closed service whose API access ends on 13 November 2026, so recency is the last API change. The SDK releases since June don't change EVI. TypeScript SDK 0.16.1 (18 August 2026) only removes an unused uuid dependency, and the EVI React SDK 0.3.0-beta.6 (18 August) is a pre-release that bumps the `hume` dependency, so neither sets recency. The last releases that changed EVI code are TypeScript SDK 0.16.0 and Python SDK v0.14.0 on 17 June 2026, regenerations that touched the EVI types (140 days, 10). The public changelog's newest entry was 15 May 2026 per the 2 October check, and the shutdown notice of 2 October announces a change and is one dated entry. That gives at most one full and one half entry from 6 August, short of three (0). A public changelog and no support test (5 of 15 for a closed service). Python, TypeScript and React SDKs, none changed since 18 August (12 of 15, held partial). MIT SDKs with ci.yml workflows in all three repositories (8 of 10). 10 + 0 + 5 + 12 + 8 = 35.)