There’s no doubt that remote working has surged in popularity over the past few years. As a result, it is crucial that businesses in the UK and across the world have software that enables them to connect with their employees in real time, no matter where they are.
Task and team management software solutions like Bitrix (others include Asana, Wrike, Trello, Basecamp, Jira, and so on) play a vital role in facilitating this.
But, if you’ve tried out Bitrix 24 and decided it didn’t quite do what you needed it to or that the cost was too much of an issue, then fear not! There are plenty of very good Bitrix24 alternatives to be found—at comparable (or even lower) prices.
What is Bitrix?
Bitrix24, or Bitrix, is an open source intranet project management platform whose main functionality includes basic customer relationship management (CRM) and team collaboration features like Gantt chart and Kanban board functionality—ideal for time tracking and agile project management.
It even has customisable templates for website building.
Why would you want a Bitrix24 alternative?
As a basic collaboration tool, Bitrix24 is fine, but if you need to be able to make business phone calls in a cost-effective way, it is not really a viable option for most businesses.
Bitrix isn’t known for its telephony product, and its pricing packages reflect that.
The lowest pricing plan tier is at least double the cost of many of the Bitrix24 alternatives and competitors in the list we’ve compiled below and it doesn’t provide any more features.
Although Bitrix offers a mish-mash of different CRM and project management functionality, there are some basic areas where it falls short when it comes to everyday communications.
One of the biggest things to know about Bitrix right from the get-go is that their highest level of customer support is only available on the Enterprise plan, which will cost you £299 per month if you pay annually. (£374 per month if you don’t!)
In most cases, if you want customer support, you’ll have to go to their live chat or use their online Help Centre.
Another issue is that Bitrix almost tries to do too much. Yes, it has a CRM and a website builder and a contact centre and Kanban boards and file sharing—but there’s a reason that almost no providers will branch out their products into so many disparate areas like this.
The biggest challenge is that it’s hard to keep the user experience cohesive and simple when you have so many distinct tools—and you’ll see this reflected in its pricing, which is very high compared to almost all the other solutions below, which offer the same, if not even better, functionality at much more affordable prices.
A few things to consider when looking at Bitrix24 alternatives for your UK business
Customer support
One of the biggest factors to look for in any software you purchase for business use is robust customer support.
This is actually one of Bitrix’s biggest weaknesses, and as you’ll see later on, even competitors that have free or less expensive plans provide more robust customer support, and across different time zones too.
Depending on your business hours, you may need 24/7 support, whether that’s over the phone or via live chat. Live chat support and a self-service option like an online Help Centre are the bare minimum—but if you run a larger enterprise or have a global customer base, you’re better off with a provider that can give you worldwide 24/7 support.
Cost-efficiency
We also looked at how cost-efficient each Bitrix24 alternative is. We considered whether it’s available with tiered pricing that’s affordable for small businesses and whether it's a scalable solution that can be flexible and grow with your business.
For example, can you start with just one or two business phone lines, then add more later? Your communications platform or phone system should let you do that easily on your own without waiting days or weeks for a support team to make those changes for you:
Many of Bitrix’s SaaS competitors have free plans that offer features like unlimited video meetings. But with Bitrix's pricing, it's a bit confusing to see what you get. For example, Dialpad’s first paid tier is only £12 per user per month and clearly states you get unlimited calling in the US, Canada, and your country—while Bitrix’s first paid tier is £36 per month, but doesn't say what kind of phone calling minutes you get.
Integrations
The whole point of a communications and collaboration platform is to streamline your workflows as much as possible. To ensure the solution you choose empowers your team to be as productive as possible, it’s generally best to choose something that integrates with the business apps and tools your team is already using.
Bitrix does have its own CRM functionality, but if you’re looking for a communications platform and you’re already using Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zoho as your CRM, then you’ll probably want an integration with the CRM you're using instead.
You’re unlikely to need separate project management software like Trello or Asana if you’re using Bitrix—and it does integrate with basic productivity tools like OneDrive, Gmail, and Google Drive.
But, it doesn’t integrate with more industry-specific tools (like Clio for law, for example) or other tools for more specific use cases like sales engagement.
The top 9 Bitrix24 alternatives and how each one compares
A few things to remember: we’re looking at unified communications and contact centre alternatives to Bitrix in this list. That being said, if you’re looking specifically for a CRM or a project management tool, or a website builder (or a combination of those things)—you can stop reading because out of these options, only Bitrix will give you all those things.
But if you’re looking for a versatile business VoIP system that lets you make phone calls, have video meetings, send instant + SMS messages, run contact centre teams and more, all from one app, then keep reading.
1. Dialpad: A truly unified, AI-powered communications platform
In terms of overall functionality, ease of use, and price, Dialpad offers everything Bitrix24 does and more—in a more robust and feature-rich platform.
Dialpad isn't just a business phone app. It's a cloud-based unified communications solution that brings together phone calls, instant and SMS messaging, video meetings, and even a contact centre platform—all in a single app that’s easy to deploy, manage, and use—on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC.
With Dialpad, onboarding is easy and takes just a few minutes, and your team won’t have to waste time toggling between different windows and tabs to get work done.
Communicate on any channel
Dialpad even has a built-in hosted contact centre solution, which brings together all your external and internal communication channels (including voice, video, and messaging) in one intuitive platform.
You can set up group chats to collaborate on projects, chat face-to-face in a video meeting, and have phone calls with customers all from the same place:
And if you’re having virtual meetings with clients or prospects who don’t want to download the app, no problem. Dialpad is fully browser-based, which means you can host and join meetings from a web browser without losing any functionality:
Robust security
Dialpad is built on the Google Cloud Platform and offers enterprise-grade security and reliability to ensure all your business communications and data are protected. Your internal and external communications are encrypted, and Dialpad can also help you maintain GDPR and SOC2® Type II compliance.
Advanced communications features
Even though Dialpad is much more than a business phone system, it has all the advanced calling features that a business or organisation would need. From unlimited call recording, to intelligent call routing, to interactive voice response (IVR), to voicemail, Dialpad comes with everything you need to handle day-to-day communications built right in:
Fully integrated contact centre
Unlike many communications platforms, Dialpad’s virtual phone system has a fully integrated contact centre platform if you need it. If you have a customer support, sales, or contact centre team that needs to handle a high volume of communications, your agents and supervisors can do that—again, right in the same app.
That’s one thing Bitrix does not have… And nor does it have this:
Dialpad Ai (The secret sauce)
What really sets Dialpad apart, though, is its AI. This is built by Dialpad’s own team—no third parties—from the ground up.
What it does: Dialpad Ai can transcribe calls in real time. Not a few hours or a few days after—you can see the running transcript in real time. (And it’s more accurate than most competitors out there.)
But not only can it transcribe calls accurately, Dialpad Ai can also pick up on certain keywords and phrases and how frequently they’re spoken on customer calls. For example, say you wanted to see how often customers are calling you about a new product that you just launched. You can create a “Custom Moment” in Dialpad to track how often that product name is said:
Not only that—and this is more for customer support and contact centre teams—you can also go a step further with Dialpad Ai and use it to pop up Real-Time Assist (RTA) cards on your agents’ screens with little cheat sheets when tricky topics are spoken on calls:
A huge library of integrations
As if that wasn’t enough, Dialpad also integrates with many of your favourite business apps—and if it doesn’t, its open API will let you build custom integrations with pretty much anything you want.
Dialpad integrates with:
CRM tools like HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and Salesforce
Productivity software like Google Workspace, Google Drive, Microsoft 365, and Dropbox
Customer service software like Intercom, HappyFox, and Zendesk
Workflow automation tools such as Zapier
Sales engagement tools like Outreach and Wingman
And many more
Plans and pricing
Pricing plans start at £12 per user per month (billed annually) for Dialpad Ai Voice's Standard plan, which comes with unlimited calling in your country, the US, and Canada. On top of that, it also includes unlimited video meetings, unlimited call recording, call forwarding, a multi-level auto attendant, and a lot more.
This is a scalable and affordable option for small businesses and gives you all the advanced features and functionality you need to grow (note that many other alternatives offer far fewer features and are much more expensive).
If you want to take things up a notch, Dialpad’s Pro plan is £20 per user per month (billed annually), and for enterprises, Dialpad’s Enterprise plans come with additional features like 100% uptime Service Level Agreements (SLAs), unlimited office locations, custom data retention policies, and more.
What makes Dialpad better than Bitrix24?
If you’re in the market for a scalable and versatile all-in-one business communications platform that combines everything your team needs to collaborate and work from anywhere, Dialpad’s the best choice.
There are plenty of things that set Dialpad apart from Bitrix, one of which is that it’s affordable for small businesses. Although Bitrix has a lot of handy features, you won’t be able to leverage its full potential without forking out for its professional plan.
Dialpad, on the other hand, offers all the key features a great communication and collaboration platform should have, even on its most basic plans. Not only that, Dialpad grows with your business and offers all the flexibility you need to empower remote teams.
Try the best Bitrix24 alternative!
Try Dialpad free for 14 days—or, take a self-guided product tour of the app to play around with it first!
2. Zoom One
Zoom is a video conferencing solution that’s been very popular with mainstream consumer users, and you’ll often see it used for everything from a business meeting to a virtual happy hour.
If you’re looking for a basic video conferencing tool, Zoom is fine as an option. You can host video conferences capped at 40 minutes on the free plan, and it also has a relatively new Zoom Phone product that can handle phone calls as well.
But it’s important to note that Zoom has been the subject of many security concerns, and has also been banned by organisations like Google, NASA, and even Taiwan and the Australian Defense Force.
What makes it better than Bitrix24?
Zoom is an easy-to-use platform that covers your basic communication needs, and although Bitrix has a more extensive list of features for project and team management, it’s still limited in terms of how many people can use the platform before it becomes too costly for small businesses.
Features
If you need phone calls, you'll need to start at the Zoom One "Business Plus" plan, which is the second most expensive plan. This will come with:
Unlimited "regional" calls
Auto-attendant
Call recording
Screen sharing
Pricing
Zoom One's Business Plus plan starts at £185 per year per user, which is just over £15 per user per month. There are also three lower plans: Basic, Pro, and Business—but none of them come with the ability to make or receive phone calls.2
3. RingCentral MVP
Like Dialpad, RingCentral markets itself as a UCaaS platform. It integrates a business phone system with video conferencing and messaging, and has been around for a few decades now.
Note that the pricing for RingCentral is a bit strange. There’s a free plan for video meetings, but if you want to access features like basic phone calling and messaging, then you’ll need to skip the basic paid plan and go with the second most expensive subscription.
Comparatively, Dialpad gives you unlimited phone calling and SMS meetings in addition to unlimited video conferencing on the most basic plan (£12 per user per month) and you’ll get unlimited calling and texting in the US and Canada too.
What makes it better than Bitrix24?
Like many of the options on this list, RingCentral consolidates most of your communication and collaboration needs in a single app, and you can trust the company won’t go down anytime soon because they’ve been around for so long.
In terms of having a complete communications package, RingCentral is likely a better option than Bitrix.
📚 Further reading:
Learn more about the top RingCentral alternatives.
Features - RingCentral MVP Essentials
Unlimited calls within the US/Canada
Voicemail-to-text
Team messaging
Pricing
Essentials: £12.99 per user per month; Standard: £16.99 per user per month; Premium: £21.99 per user per month; Ultimate: £26.99 per user per month (top 3 tiers based on 100+ users)3
4. GoTo Meeting / GoTo Connect
GoTo Meeting is a business communications tool that’s designed for connecting remote teams to facilitate communication and collaboration. With this software, meeting hosts and participants can use screen sharing, drawing tools, and in-meeting chat.
GoTo Meeting is simple software that’s easy for anyone to use, but its functionality doesn’t offer much beyond video conferencing unless you go with GoTo Connect, which includes a phone system.
What makes it better than Bitrix24?
If you’re looking for a simpler, more straightforward alternative to Bitrix24 that offers a video calling feature, GoTo Meeting is an option that’s more affordable for small businesses. But it also doesn’t offer any extra functionalities beyond the bare bones.
The plans for GoTo Connect starts at a pretty high price though, and for what you’re paying, the other alternatives on this list can give you a lot more.
Features
Number porting support
Call routing
Call forwarding
Pricing
GoTo Connect’s Basic package starts at £10 per user per month. The pricing goes up sharply from there (£21 per user per month on the standard plan and £44 for the premium plan)—which places it at a higher cost than the other Bitrix24 alternatives on this list, and it doesn’t give you more functionality either.4
5. Webex
Webex by Cisco allows users to call, message, and meet from a single app. One feature that makes Webex stand out as a Bitrix alternative is that it allows users to multi-stream HD video meetings.
You can share files, conduct online meetings with screen sharing and polling, and integrate the platform with different software apps to boost productivity. (Learn more about the best alternatives to Webex.)
What makes it better than Bitrix24?
Webex offers a more intuitive interface than Bitrix. In this way, it’s simpler to use and offers much of the same functionality that's priced, like the other alternatives on this list, more affordably, though if you need to make lots of phone calls frequently, its pricing model isn't as good as some of the providers that have unlimited calling, like Dialpad.
Features - Webex Suite: Business Meet + Call
Screen sharing
Call forwarding
Call waiting
Conference calling
Pricing
The Webex Suite's Business plan starts at £16.50 per licence per month.5
6. Vonage
Vonage is a cloud-based business phone system that’s available on desktop and mobile. It’s quite well known, as like RingCentral, it's a public company—and like Ooma, it has a residential arm of the business too and provides VoIP numbers.
Although Vonage is aesthetically more pleasing than Bitrix, one important thing to note is that its pricing plans come with little functionality and are probably its biggest weaknesses—many basic features, like call recording and visual voicemail, are paid add-ons.6
What makes it better than Bitrix24?
Vonage offers many of the same features as Bitrix24, along with more robust video calling features like screen sharing and polling for video meetings. But if you're looking for something with straightforward pricing and that includes all your basic communication needs in a simple package, Vonage won’t be that different.
📚 Further reading:
See how Vonage compares to Dialpad.
Pricing
Vonage Select plans start at £9 per month per user. Professional plans cost from £12.50 per line per month, and Ultimate plans cost £16.50 per line per month.6
7. 3CX
3CX is a communications system that allows users to call, meet, and chat internally among teams and externally with customers. It also offers call centre functionality, features like caller ID, and integrations with productivity-enhancing tools like Microsoft Teams—but these are reserved for the highest paid tier.
If you’re looking for a Bitrix alternative, then 3CX could be an option, but its pricing and range of features leave a bit to be desired.
What makes it better than Bitrix24?
3CX is pretty on-par with Bitrix24 when it comes to features. Both platforms are relatively expensive when you require functionality that goes beyond their basic pricing plans, which is why you’re better off with a unified communications platform that’s affordable for small and growing businesses.
📚 Further reading:
Learn more about the best 3CX alternatives.
Features - Dedicated Pro
Up to 4 simultaneous calls
Call recording
SMS/MMS messaging
Pricing
Startup Pro starts at £175 per year, Dedicated Pro starts at £280 per year and gives you 4 simultaneous calls.7
8. 8x8
8x8 is another communications platform that’s a viable alternative to Bitrix24 for businesses that need remote-team-friendly features like video conferencing.
8x8 allows users to record meetings and integrate the platform with calendar apps like Google Calendar, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 to streamline task management. Like RingCentral, 8x8 has been around for many years (although one of the disadvantages of that is it means their technology is also older and less flexible than cloud-native solutions).
What makes it better than Bitrix24?
Again, if you need a communications platform that gives you different channels like phone calls and messaging, 8x8 is a stronger choice than Bitrix. But if that's the case, there are other unified communications platforms on this list that are comparable or better, so make sure to try out the free trials as you're narrowing down your shortlist.
Get a closer look at how 8x8 stacks up against Dialpad.
Features - Business Communications Express
Up to 5 users
Unlimited calling in the US and Canada
Visual voicemail
Call analytics
Pricing
Business Communications Express plan starts at £10 per user per month, X2 plan starts at £19 per user per month, X4 starts at £36 per user per month if you pay annually.8
9. CallRail
CallRail is a phone system that markets its call tracking functionality pretty heavily, but things like transcripts and keyword tracking are available in some of the other top options in this list too. That being said, it's still a good alternative to Bitrix24 as it's pretty robust.
Features - Call Tracking plan
5 local numbers
250 local minutes
Call recording
Call routing
Pricing
There’s no UK pricing online, but Call Tracking does appear to be available in the UK. Plans start at USD 45 per user per month ("plus additional usage"). The Call Tracking + Intelligence plan starts at USD 95 per user per month, and the Call Tracking Complete plan starts at USD 145 per user per month.9
What's the best Bitrix24 alternative for your UK business?
If you're looking for something that lets you make phone calls, have video meetings, and send instant + SMS messages all in one place, there are many options that are better—and better priced—than Bitrix.
We can't tell you that Dialpad is 100% the best for you, because if you do need a CRM or project management Kanban tool, Bitrix will be a better option.
In our humble opinion, Dialpad is one of the best Bitrix24 alternatives if you need a robust and flexible communications platform. Not only does it include all the communication channels you need, it also has a fully integrated virtual contact centre platform and has built-in AI that can do things like transcribe calls in real time.
Why not see for yourself?
Looking for the best Bitrix24 alternative?
Try Dialpad's unified communications platform! It takes just a few minutes to get set up with a virtual business number. Or, take a self-guided interactive tour to play around with the app on your own first!
1bitrix24.com/prices/
2zoom.us/pricing
3ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html
4goto.com/pricing/connect
5pricing.webex.com
6vonage.com/unified-communications/pricing/
73cx.com/ordering/pricing/
88x8.com/products/plans-and-pricing
9callrail.com/pricing/united-kingdom