CiraSync alternatives for Microsoft 365 GAL sync in 2026

CiraSync is the best-known way to get the Microsoft 365 global address list (GAL) onto employees' phones, and it appears in nearly every search on the subject. It is not the only one. Depending on what you need (only colleagues' names on incoming calls, or also public folders, calendars and CRM contacts), on the permissions you are willing to grant and on your budget, another tool may fit better. This guide explains how CiraSync works, which criteria matter when you compare, and the main alternatives in 2026 with their published prices.

How CiraSync works

CiraSync is a cloud service connected to your Microsoft 365 tenant through an admin consent. It offers two ways to get the GAL onto phones, and neither installs an app:

• Mailbox sync (its historical mode). CiraSync copies the GAL into a contact folder of each user's Exchange mailbox and keeps it updated. The phone then receives those contacts through its mail account: the Exchange account in iOS or Android settings, or Outlook with contact saving turned on.

• Mobile Direct (iPhone, announced in 2026). CiraSync serves the contacts from its own CardDAV service. IT deploys a configuration profile with Intune or Workspace ONE, and the contacts appear in the iPhone's Contacts app. Sync is one-way, and the refresh rate follows the iPhone's “Fetch New Data” setting.

CiraSync also handles public folders, shared contact lists and calendars. For the core need, colleagues identified on the phone, its design has consequences that lead some IT teams to look elsewhere:

• A copy of the directory outside the phones. With mailbox sync, the directory is written into every mailbox: with 500 users, it exists 500 times in Exchange. With Mobile Direct, it is served from CiraSync's CardDAV service.

• Write access to every mailbox for mailbox sync, granted tenant-wide.

• The phone must sync mailbox contacts with mailbox sync: if a user only has Outlook without contact saving, or the Exchange account has contacts turned off, nothing shows up. Mobile Direct removes that dependency, but only on iPhone.

• Price. The Enterprise Edition is published at $1.25 per user per month billed annually ($15 per user per year), sold in packs of 10. A free Personal Edition exists, limited in users, items and sync frequency.

What to compare

• How contacts reach the phone: through the mailbox (server-side copy), through a hosted CardDAV address book, or through an app on the phone.

• Permissions: application consent with write access to mailboxes, or delegated read-only access to the directory.

• Where your directory is stored: on the vendor's servers, in every mailbox, or only on the phones.

• Deployment: through Intune or another MDM, without asking users to configure anything.

• Scope: the GAL only, or also public folders, calendars and CRM.

• Pricing model: per user, per device, per sync flow or per contact, monthly or yearly.

1. Calliente

Calliente is a mobile app for iPhone and Android, deployed by Intune or Workspace ONE. It reads the Microsoft Entra ID directory with delegated, read-only Microsoft Graph permissions and writes colleagues into the phone's native contacts, so their calls are identified by name. The directory is refreshed every day, and nothing is stored on Calliente's servers.

• Differences with CiraSync: no write access to mailboxes, no copy of the directory in Exchange or on a vendor server, and the same approach on iPhone and Android, whether or not the phone syncs mailbox contacts. On iOS, Secure Call ID identifies calls without writing anything to Contacts, so the directory never reaches personal iCloud accounts. On Android, contacts stay in the work profile.

• Limits: Calliente only distributes the Entra ID directory; it does not sync public folders, calendars or CRM contacts, and it does not add contacts to Outlook on the desktop.

• Price: €6 per user per year, €8 with the Business plan (group filtering, export blocking on iOS). 30-day free trial on your own tenant, no credit card.

Detailed comparison: Calliente vs CiraSync.

2. sync.blue

sync.blue is a contact synchronization platform that connects more than 80 systems (Microsoft 365, CRMs, phone systems) and distributes contacts to iPhone and Android, with caller ID. Contacts are processed and stored on its servers, in Germany.

• Best for: organizations that need to merge several sources into one central address book.

• Price: the Team plan costs €19 per month for 1 to 10 users and 250 contacts; the Mobile and Premium plans, from 11 users, are not priced publicly.

See Calliente vs sync.blue.

3. Contactzilla

Contactzilla manages shared address books and serves them to phones through a hosted CardDAV account, installed by an MDM profile or a QR code. Microsoft Entra ID is one of several possible sources, alongside Google Workspace, Salesforce or CSV files.

• Best for: curated, read-only address books that mix internal and external contacts.

• Price: billed per device and per month, annually: $1.79 from 1 to 199 devices, down to $1.20 from 500 devices. The Entra ID importer is an add-on at $50 per month. 14-day free trial.

See Calliente vs Contactzilla.

4. SyncPenguin

SyncPenguin is a general-purpose sync service: it connects Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and many business apps, and one of its use cases is copying the GAL into users' Microsoft 365 contacts, from where phones pick them up, as with CiraSync.

• Best for: teams that also want two-way sync between business applications.

• Price: from $9 per month for 2 sync flows, based on the number of active sync flows and change volume. One GAL sent to 100 users counts as 100 flows, so the bill grows with the headcount.

5. GALsync (NETsec)

GALsync is a Windows service installed on your own server. Originally built to synchronize directories between Active Directory forests or tenants, its contact module writes the directory into a subfolder of each mailbox's contacts, on Exchange Server or Exchange Online.

• Best for: organizations that want to keep the sync engine in-house, or that also share their GAL with other organizations.

• Price: license on the vendor's site; 21-day free trial. Plan for a Windows server to run and maintain.

What it costs for 100 users

Using the public prices above, for 100 users with one phone each, per year, in euros (dollar prices converted at about $1.13 to €1, the October 2026 rate):

• Calliente: €600 (€800 with Business).

• CiraSync Enterprise: about €1,330 ($1,500).

• Contactzilla: about €2,430 ($2,148 for the devices plus $600 for the Entra ID importer).

• sync.blue: on quote beyond 10 users.

Which one to choose

If your goal is to have colleagues identified on every iPhone and Android, with read-only permissions, no extra copy of your directory and an Intune or Workspace ONE rollout, Calliente is built for exactly that, at a fraction of the price. The other tools make sense mainly if you also need to push public folders, shared calendars or CRM contacts into Outlook mailboxes, or to merge many non-Microsoft sources into one address book.

To see the Calliente approach in practice, read Sync the Microsoft 365 GAL to iPhone contacts with Intune and its Android counterpart.

Try it on your tenant

The 30-day free trial runs on your own Microsoft 365 tenant, for 2 users and with no credit card. See all prices on the pricing page.

Prices and features taken from the vendors' public pages in October 2026. They change: check each vendor's site before deciding.