Why I built DialVia, and what's next
By Utku B ·
DialVia started as a calling platform I built for myself to make international calls when I was travelling. Previously, I was using Skype for it, but once Microsoft announced that they were shutting down operations, it became clear to me that there was no other easy way of achieving the same calling experience.
Why I built it
There were plenty of other apps that allowed international calls, and there was also the option of buying an international calling plan from my mobile carrier. I carefully assessed those two options.
Firstly, the mobile carrier: I travel about 4 to 5 times a year, and if I were to actually upgrade my plan and commit to a contract, I would be paying upwards of £120 more a year than I normally do just to make calls internationally. The number of calls I make did not justify the expense. That instantly pushed me towards considering pay as you go options.
Then, I quickly discovered that most of them required downloading an app or a monthly subscription (as everything seems to be a subscription nowadays). This bit of research left me with the kind of dissatisfaction where I thought building one for myself can't be that hard.
So the journey started on the 1st of April 2025: building my own browser-based international calling solution. The goal was to keep it completely functional and easy to use while saving you a bunch of money.
A year and a half in
It's been 1.5 years since I started, and it has definitely had its ups and downs. However, I am even more excited now to keep building and improving. So far, close to 3,200 people have used DialVia, and this number is increasing by the day.
However, I realised that, other than a couple of attempts to post some videos on YouTube, I didn't really spend much time documenting the journey and sharing the progress with the people who use DialVia, so they could have a sneak peek at what's going on behind the scenes.
So today is the day I introduce our regular updates page. This is the first update, and there will be more to come as I build more and more with the help of our users for guidance.
I am very proud of DialVia, and I think this is the perfect place to share and show the world what we can achieve with it: connecting people from different sides of the world affordably, and sharing every struggle or achievement that comes with it.
DialVia in numbers
Now that the background is out of the way, here are some stats about DialVia:
- It is currently built and maintained by only one person (me, Utku)
- This month we did £1K in revenue
- We have 9 people renting a US phone number from us
- We are completely bootstrapped and independent
- We grow completely organically, without any paid advertising
What's next
There are a couple of very exciting new features we are working on at the moment that you can check out on our roadmap. I think these are the kind of features that will really make us stand out from other options and competitors, and I truly believe we will be fixing a very important problem that comes with international calling, especially for travellers. That is coming soon.
The next goal: 10K users
I will sign off this update with the next goal: I believe we can take DialVia from 3,200 total users signed up to 10K users by the end of the year. (I know I am not giving myself much time.) However, I think this app has so much potential, and it's worth doing my best to put it out there.
So, over the next couple of months, I will be sharing the methods I've tried to get to that number by the end of the year, what worked and what didn't, and the reasoning behind each (or my best guess).
If you are interested or want to try DialVia for free, you get a free call when you first sign up. Go and do that here.