When 8x8 doesn’t add up: The best 8x8 alternatives for business communications

It’s hard to miss 8x8 when you’re trawling through the online marketplace looking for communications solutions. They’re one of the most recognisable names in the business communications field, and you’ve probably come across them more than once.

8x8 has many positives, such as XCaaS branding, but are their dimensions the correct fit for your business? Yes, they have several good selling points, but if you look a bit closer below the surface, you’ll find there are 8x8 alternatives that pack a bit more of a punch. It shouldn’t surprise you to find out that Dialpad is on that particular list, but this is for good reason. We think it’s one of the best 8x8 alternatives going.

Join us as we examine 8x8 in more detail and explore some of the other communications solutions available.

What is 8x8?

8x8 has been around for a while. These days it describes itself as the “eXperience Communications Platform,” designed to provide optimised experiences for both customers and employees—and it does have some features to help you do that.

These include a VoIP phone system with call encryption, advanced call management, video conferencing, team chat, a contact centre option, and an open integrations framework. There’s 24/7 technical support via live chat and phone for users of some products (depending on the plan), plus a knowledge base and virtual assistant.

Pricing plans start at $25 per user, per month in Australia and $29 per user, per month in New Zealand, if you opt to pay annually.¹ The packages vary slightly in each region, but they both give you unlimited local calling, multi-level auto attendant, voicemail transcription, and call activity analytics, among several other things.

The cheaper Express plan, which offers a basic communication package for small businesses, is only available in the US and UK, so if you’re a smaller AU/NZ business, you need to jump in at a higher pricing band with the X2 plan from the beginning. This means it may not be among the best small business phone systems out there for you.

Reasons why you might look for an 8x8 alternative

You’re looking for a fully integrated platform

Although it’s presented as a unified communications platform, 8x8’s features aren’t quite as tightly bound together as, for example, Dialpad’s. The contact centre offering is a case in point—8x8 was planning to build its own product but is now reselling the Genesys contact centre solution through a new partnership.

That’s actually quite a common practice for UCaaS companies, but it means 8x8 doesn’t have full ownership of its platform (which could be tricky if there’s a glitch). In addition, calls made with 8x8 phone systems may be ported through a third party, depending on location and availability.

A fully integrated platform makes for a much more consistent user experience, as you have a single interface for all your comms and data, with no need to toggle between different screens or systems. That’s why Dialpad builds its own software and owns every bit of its code.

You want the best value for money

You’ve probably realised already that “value for money” can mean different things to different businesses, but it’s something to keep a close eye on when you’re researching 8x8 virtual office alternatives.

If there’s one tip I can give you, it’s to think seriously about what your business needs—and what it’s going to need in the future—before committing to a solution based purely on price.

Consider how much it will cost to implement, configure, and support your chosen software. If it’s tricky to set up and learn, the hassle could negate the affordable price point.

The lowest-priced tier of Dialpad is $20, which shares some features with 8x8 Express, like smart call routing. However, Dialpad’s plan provides more value for your money, such as built-in AI, voicemail transcription, and SMS/MMS messaging—and most importantly, it’s actually available in the AU/NZ region:

And because it’s truly integrated, it offers a much lower total cost of ownership than paying for a bunch of separate apps.

Take a closer look at the top 4 alternatives to 8x8

1. Dialpad: An easy-to-use communication platform with built-in AI

Dialpad really is an all-in-one solution, enabling you to keep all your tools, conversations, and customer data in one central place. All plans include HD voice and video calling, SMS, MMS and group messaging, and there's also contact centre pricing if you need it.

What makes Dialpad an excellent alternative to 8x8?

For starters, let’s circle back to the “fully integrated” thing. 8x8 has you covered for both UCaaS and CCaaS, but they’re on two different apps—as opposed to Dialpad, where you have one interface and one login for the whole shebang. It’s faster and more productive.

The onboarding and setup are a lot smoother, and you don’t have to call your IT team to help with basics like adding extra users or a new auto attendant greeting. However, if you do need assistance, there’s 24/7 support via phone, email, live chat (with a real human!) and the detailed Help Centre.

Like 8x8, Dialpad's most basic paid plan gives you unlimited calling in Australia, the US, and Canada, plus affordable international calling with 70+ countries supported, unlimited meeting recordings, AI-powered call and voicemail transcriptions, and built-in call analytics.

The system is built on the Google Cloud Platform for top-notch security, reliability, and call quality, with 100% uptime guaranteed for Enterprise plan customers. Want to know what customers think? Here are the TrustPilot ratings for Dialpad and 8x8:

What you get with Dialpad

Seamless switching between devices

If you have a remote team or spend a lot of time away from your desk, you need a solution that works on all devices—and the ability to switch seamlessly between them without losing the discussion thread. 8x8 only has limited device-switching capabilities, whereas Dialpad automatically syncs your conversations across devices.

That means you can communicate and collaborate with colleagues or customers on whichever channel is most effective—or even use Call Flip to continue an ongoing call on another device. And you’ll be able to see all these interactions in a single interface, whether you’re using iOS, Android, Mac or PC.

Robust business messaging

There’s a lot that Dialpad’s business messaging can do. You can ask a quick question without typing out an entire email or picking up the phone, collaborate with your team on group chat, and send updates or reminders with bulk texts.

While 8x8 does include messaging capability, Dialpad gives you robust messaging including SMS, MMS, instant, and group messaging. And you can even start a Discord-like temporary voice chat from a messaging conversation with Dialpad’s Sidebar feature:

Real-time insights with Dialpad Ai

Dialpad’s communications platform is the only one that has AI built into the product—and it’s available on all plans. Known as “Dialpad Ai," the conversation intelligence technology harnesses natural language processing (NLP) to transcribe calls and meetings in real-time, with speech analytics picking up customer sentiment and frequent keywords and phrases.

8x8’s AI offering largely takes place via partnerships with other vendors, and most of the features are only accessible to managers using the contact centre product—usually at an extra cost. Speech analytics, for example, is only available on the more expensive X8 plan.

Live coaching features

8x8's top-priced contact centre plan does let managers monitor calls. With Dialpad Ai, you can get sophisticated real-time coaching features, alongside other handy tools like monitoring and unlimited call recording.

RTA (Real-Time Assist) cards pop up automatically on an agent’s screen when a customer says a particular word or phrase. They provide relevant info so the agent doesn’t have to go look it up—and they even point out if someone’s talking too fast or using too many filler words.

Meanwhile, managers can oversee all ongoing calls (and real-time transcriptions) on a live dashboard. Status lights indicate whether a given caller’s sentiment is positive or negative. This helps managers immediately see which agents need support and jump in to assist while the call is still happening:

A wide range of integrations

Dialpad integrates seamlessly with software like OneLogin, Google Workspace, and Okta, making it even easier to deploy new users and handle identity management. Automatic provisioning and de-provisioning help decrease manual workloads as well as improving security and compliance.

OneLogin’s single sign-on (SSO) integration with Dialpad means you don’t have to remember multiple passwords or usernames, while Okta ensures strict authentication for the latest cloud technology. The Google Workspace integration adds business productivity tools to Dialpad’s unified communications platform, which automatically populates meeting invites with a video meeting link, for example. No more juggling different windows, tabs, and logins.

Pricing

Standard: $20 per user per month; Pro: $35 per user per month; Enterprise: Get in touch!

2. RingCentral MVP

RingCentral offers an all-in-one cloud solution for enterprise VoIP, video, SMS and team chat. The higher plans have a decent array of features, which we’ll cover shortly.

What makes RingCentral a good alternative to 8x8?

The platform beats 8x8 for device-switching with its desktop and mobile apps, and it has a call flip feature like Dialpad’s. It also offers chat and messaging capabilities, plus extra integrations and a higher number of participants for video meetings.

RingCentral also has real-time analytics and reporting, and voicemail transcription. There’s also a contact centre package (pricing not shown online). But—yet again—even though it calls itself an integrated unified comms and contact centre platform, it’s actually reselling another company’s contact centre software.

Be aware that even though the Essentials package comes with basic call management, other essential features like auto attendant, call recording, real-time transcription, and Salesforce integration (and even video meetings!) are limited to higher tiers.

Pricing

Essentials: $25.99 per user per month (regular price); Standard: $47.99 per user per month (regular price); Premium: $55.99 per user per month (regular price); Ultimate: $76.99 per user per month (regular price)³

3. Aircall

Aircall is a cloud phone system that focuses on voice calling and virtual contact centre solutions, and makes it easy to manage your calls. However, it’s a little more expensive than most of the other competitors on this list.

What makes Aircall a good alternative to 8x8?

One advantage for Aircall is that it owns its own platform, rather than reselling software from other companies. It’s easy to use and flexible, with apps for both desktop and mobile, and has a large set of integrations to help you build your tech stack (although not Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, oddly).

The Essentials tier gives you a wide range of call management features, including recording, IVR, custom hold music, ring groups, and voicemail by email. And so it should­—it doesn’t come cheap! However, it has only basic analytics and lacks a Salesforce integration.

One major downside is that the platform has no video functionality. As good as the calling features may be, you’d have to pay for (and switch in and out of) a separate platform for video.

Pricing

Essentials: $45 per user per month; Professional: $75 per user per month; Custom: (ask for quote).⁴

4. GoTo Connect

GoTo Connect is another of the 8x8 VoIP competitors, offering video, chat, and texting alongside phone calls. Formerly known as Jive, it’s now part of LogMeIn, which houses all the GoTo products.

What makes GoToConnect a good alternative to 8x8?

Pricing is relatively simple—there are just three tiers to choose from. The system is easy to set up and configure via the visual editor. It scores well for customer service, with phone support, email, and tickets, plus user guides, FAQs, and videos, plus a community for crowdsourcing answers.

There’s a mobile app that lets you call from any device, anywhere, with free international calling for up to 50+ countries (in the higher plans). Video meetings enable up to 250 participants, with screen sharing, collaboration, and analytics.

The Basic tier has enough features to get you started, including auto attendant, call forwarding, and ring groups. Call recording, voicemail-to-email, and analytics are reserved for the higher tiers (you’d get all of those with Dialpad Standard), with contact centre capability only at the Premium level.

Pricing

Basic: $20 per user per month (for 20 or fewer users); Standard: $44 per user per month; Premium: $72 per user per month⁵

What's the best 8x8 alternative for your business?

The field of business communications is a crowded one, and there are a few serious competitors to 8x8.

In our opinion, Dialpad’s easy-to-use unified communications platform packs a wealth of advanced features into its basic plan, and is a truly integrated all-in-one platform that’s entirely owned and built in-house—and at the very least, it's worth checking out with a free trial or product tour.

Alongside its powerful AI technology, Dialpad is also recognised for its reliability, security, scalability, and customer service. If you need any more reasons why it’s the best alternative to 8x8, check out the review comparisons on GetApp:

¹8x8.com/products/plans-and-pricing

²ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html#office

³aircall.io/pricing

⁴goto.com/pricing/connect