Cube ACR vs Heilo.io — Which Call Recording System Is Right for Your Business in 2026?

TL;DR: Cube ACR is a personal call recording app that usually saves audio files from answered or placed calls on the phone side and may require extra setup depending on the operating system. Heilo.io is a business call CRM that handles calls through a Heilo-managed number and the calls you don't pick up, transcribes them, extracts the key facts (who, what about, how urgent), and serves it all in a panel — no manual file sharing, no app installation on every employee phone.

Two very different approaches to the same problem

Every customer phone call is a potential order, complaint, scheduling decision, or quote. If you rely only on memory or hand-written notes after the fact, sooner or later something falls through. So businesses look for ways to keep every conversation at hand — black on white, searchable, sharable with an employee, reviewable a month later.

That's where two completely different worlds meet: a local recorder like Cube ACR (installed on the phone) and a virtual call CRM like Heilo.io (running at the phone-number level, in the cloud).

What is Cube ACR?

Cube ACR (also known as Call Recorder Cube ACR) is a popular call recording app, especially associated with Android. On Android it works as a local call recorder, while the iPhone version uses a different mechanism, typically a conference-call flow that depends on carrier support. You can play recordings back inside the app, star them, export them to cloud storage, or email them to someone.

What Cube does well:

• Local audio files from calls you answer or place yourself
• Freemium model with paid premium features
• Quick recordings for personal use
• Export or backup outside the phone if you configure it

What Cube cannot do (which matters for a business):

• It is not a business call CRM — it does not create a shared customer, case, and status database
• On Android it often requires enabling accessibility services or an extra connector, which can be sensitive to OS updates and Google policy changes
• Doesn't record calls you don't answer — when a customer rings and you don't pick up, Cube has nothing to record
• It does not provide a typical business workflow with automatic transcription, lead scoring, and data extraction in one CRM panel
• Every employee needs their own setup and has to manage recordings themselves

What is Heilo.io?

Heilo is a business call CRM. Instead of sitting on an employee's phone, it operates at the phone-number level — you forward your business number to Heilo (conditionally when busy, when no answer, or unconditionally). Everything that happens through that number lands in Heilo:

• Calls you answer through a Heilo-supported mode → recorded in the cloud after proper configuration and recording notice, transcribed, summarised
• Calls you don't pick up → the caller hears your professional greeting, leaves a message, Heilo transcribes it and texts you a summary
• Every contact → goes into a database with call history, notes, urgency scoring

The employee doesn't have to install anything on their phone. They open the web panel, see the call list, read the text, listen to the audio, call back.

Recording calls you answer

Aspect	Cube ACR	Heilo.io
Where it's stored	Locally, in phone memory	Cloud, on the company account
Format	Audio file to play back, with optional export/backup	Recording + text transcript
Full-text search	Impossible	Yes (by name, keyword, amount)
Risk of loss	Phone and backup setup remain points of risk	Lower — available through the cloud panel
Team access	Manual file sharing	Every authorised employee sees the call

In practice: after a week of using Cube you have 80 files on your phone with names like "+44555123456-2026-04-22-14-31.mp3". To find that one conversation where a customer agreed on a Thursday delivery, you have to listen to several. In Heilo you type "Thursday delivery" and the transcript appears in a second.

Recording calls you don't pick up

This is the biggest difference and the heart of this comparison.

Cube ACR doesn't record missed calls. It cannot — technically. The app can only start when you physically pick up and a conversation begins. If you're on another call, on the road, in a meeting, doing surgery — the customer just hangs up. What they wanted, how much it was worth — you'll never know.

For Heilo.io this is the core job. A caller who can't reach you directly is seamlessly forwarded to Heilo. They hear your greeting (e.g. "Hi, you've reached XYZ. I'm on another call right now — please leave a message and I'll call you back as soon as I can."). They speak. Heilo:

1. records the entire message,
2. transcribes it to text,
3. extracts the key facts: name, phone number (from caller ID), what it's about, when they want a callback, location,
4. scores preliminary urgency (urgent matter, sales enquiry, spam),
5. texts you a summary.

Within 30 seconds of the call ending you have a complete description of the case on your phone. You call back already knowing the context, instead of dialing blind with "did you call me?".

Organising information from conversations

Cube hands you audio files. Pulling information out of them, remembering the context, linking to a previous call, assigning to an employee — that's all on you.

Heilo hands you structured data:

• Contact — every caller becomes a record with history
• Topic of the call — Heilo describes in 1–2 sentences what it was about
• Concrete facts — dates, prices, places, deadlines are highlighted in the transcript
• Status — to-call-back / called-back / spam
• Internal notes — employees add what was agreed after calling back

In other words: Cube is a dictaphone, Heilo is a system that remembers for you.

No MP3 uploads required

The business workflow with Cube often looks like this: file lands on the phone → you find it in the app → export to Google Drive or email → someone else has to download it → listen → manually note what was said. Bearable for one call. Across 30 calls a week — unfeasible.

In Heilo there is no "uploading the file" step. The conversation is already in the cloud, available to anyone with permission, with a transcript you can paste into a CRM, an offer, a work order. The phone storage never fills up, the phone never gets lost together with the recordings, and you never have to teach an employee "how to export a file from Cube".

Easy enough for any employee to use

Cube ACR requires every employee to:

• have a compatible phone and carrier,
• have the app or connector correctly installed,
• have the right permissions and recording method configured,
• remember to check recordings,
• manually share the important files.

Realistically: after 2–3 months one employee's update means recording needs reconfiguration; another wipes their phone and loses local files if backup was not set; a third uses an iPhone and needs a different recording mechanism than Android.

From an employee's perspective, Heilo is just a regular website. They log in, see the conversations, read, call back. Regardless of phone, OS, Android version. Onboarding a new person = create a login and send them a link.

Side-by-side comparison

Feature	Cube ACR	Heilo.io
Platform	Mainly a mobile app; Android plus a separate iOS version with a different mechanism	Any browser (Android, iPhone, laptop)
Records answered calls	Yes, depending on device, carrier, and setup	Yes, if the call goes through a configured Heilo mode
Captures missed calls	No as customer-case content	Yes (caller leaves a message)
Text transcription	Limited / dependent on platform and plan	Built into the Heilo workflow
Information extraction (who, topic, urgency)	No business CRM workflow for this	Built into the Heilo workflow
Full-text search of calls	Limited outside a business CRM	Yes
Multi-employee access	Requires manual export	Web panel with roles & permissions
Per-employee setup	Install + permissions + training	Panel login
Risk of losing recordings	Depends on phone and backup	Lower — cloud panel
GDPR & caller notification	Your responsibility, limited tooling	Notice greeting and logs help, but GDPR obligations still sit with the business
Model	Freemium / in-app ads / premium features	Business subscription

When Cube ACR is enough

To be fair: Cube isn't useless for everyone.

• Personal use. You want a recording of a call to a government office, a bank hotline, or a contractor — to prove what was said. Cube can be enough for that, especially if your setup works reliably.
• One-off situations. Occasional recordings for your own purposes, with no ambition to build a database.
• You work alone, your phone setup works well, and you don't handle many customers by phone. Cube can be enough.

In those scenarios Heilo would be overkill — you'd be paying for a business system you don't need.

When Heilo is the better choice

• You run a service business (workshop, clinic, plumber, salon, office) and you're losing customers on missed calls.
• You have a team. You want everyone to see the same call database, not 5 phones with separate MP3 folders.
• Your team uses mixed phones and carriers. Cube then needs separate setup for each person.
• You need an audit trail. A customer says "we agreed £1,200", you remember "£1,400". A transcript ends the dispute in 10 seconds.
• You want an easier path to GDPR compliance. Callers hear a recording notice in the greeting, recordings have logs, and recordings can be deleted on request — but you still need the right legal basis, retention policy, and request-handling process.
• You don't want employees to configure anything. Login to a panel — onboarding done.

FAQ

Does Heilo also record calls I answer in person?

Yes, if the customer calls a number handled by a configured Heilo mode and the call meets the recording-notice requirements. In that case the call can land in the panel with a recording and transcript.

Does Heilo work on iPhone?

Yes. Heilo is not a phone app — it's a system that runs at your number level. Employees log in to the panel from any device.

Are the recordings GDPR-compliant?

Heilo provides tools that help with compliance: recording notices, logs, and the ability to delete recordings. Actual compliance depends on how you use it: legal basis, notice wording, retention, and request-handling process.

Do I need a second phone number?

No. You can keep your existing business number and enable conditional forwarding (when no answer / when busy). The customer dials the same number they already know.

Can I listen to the original recordings, or only read the transcripts?

Both. The panel has an audio player and the full transcript next to it — you can click a word and jump to that moment in the recording.

What about the old recordings I already have in Cube?

Heilo starts working from the moment you turn it on — every new conversation goes straight to the panel. Old MP3s from Cube can stay where they are; there's no need to upload them anywhere.

Conclusion

Cube ACR is a good call recorder for one person when it works reliably in that setup. Heilo.io is a company-wide call database for the whole team — with transcription, automatic case summaries, working even when nobody picks up. When it comes to customer calls, the real question isn't "what should we record with", it's "how do we make sure no conversation is lost and every team member can access it". Cube answers that only partially — Heilo was built specifically for that workflow.

Setup takes a few minutes. Your number can stay the same. Every captured call enters the company workflow.

• Heilo.io