There are dozens of call center solutions available — some for large businesses, some for outbound and even some for solo users. They all have their place in the market, but choosing the best call center software for your specific needs can feel like an impossible decision. To help narrow down your choices, I’ve selected the top six call center software and categorized them by use case.
All of the call center platforms on this list include call routing, analytics, softphone functionality, call recording and a range of integrations. The table below outlines some of the most important distinctions between them.
| Nextiva | ||||||
| RingCentral | ||||||
| Vonage | ||||||
| Five9 | ||||||
| LiveAgent | ||||||
| Dialpad |
Nextiva used to be geared more toward smaller businesses and call centers. But with its recent acquisition of Thrio, an enterprise-grade contact center software solution, it’s become infinitely scalable. That — layered on top of rock-solid reliability, customer care, an automation engine and unwavering usability — makes it a full-scale omnichannel solution that’s hard to beat.
Nextiva is my top pick because of its unmatched versatility. It works equally well for inbound or outbound sales, marketing and support teams. Just about any team member in any role will get everything they need (and more) with Nextiva.
The Essential plan lets you choose one channel. The other two are complete omnichannel solutions, with Premium also including enterprise features for workforce, quality and performance management.
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RingCentral is similar to Nextiva in many ways. However, RingCentral offers a bit of extra oomph for businesses that want to customize the platform and leverage AI, speech analytics and customer journey mapping.
RingCentral is one of the few solutions to offer a plan option with unlimited domestic calling — most call center providers always charge per minute. You can also adapt the platform to match your needs with a massive range of add-ons, more than 300 integrations and over 400 APIs. Overall, RingCentral supports more than 30 digital and voice channels, making it the most comprehensive solution on my list.
RingCX is an entry-level starting point, but you’ll pay per minute for outbound calls. Enterprise includes unlimited calling and more of the advanced capabilities. With either plan, you can buy numerous add-ons, depending on what you need.
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If you don’t need the power of Nextiva or RingCentral but want the ability to mix and match features, Vonage offers a modular alternative at a more affordable price point. It’s nowhere near as comprehensive, but there are plenty of features and add-ons that smaller to midsize businesses can use without breaking the bank.
Not every business needs the most powerful and advanced call center software. Despite that, they may still want to customize the solution, only paying for the features they’ll actually use. The standard base plans offer just enough for new or small businesses, but there’s still room to grow. And if you have users who need a standard phone plan instead, Vonage Fusion makes it easy to manage your entire account from one centralized location.
Vonage pricing is based on a custom quote, depending on the size of your team, the add-ons you need and your location. Regardless of the base plan you choose, you can buy add-ons whenever you’re ready to make the most of the platform.
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Want the same powerful routing and collaboration capabilities but don’t use voice? Five9 is one of the few contact center solutions that offers a digital-only plan that covers live chat, email, texting, messaging apps and social media messaging.
Five9 offers voice-only, digital-only and omnichannel contact center options. Its digital-only channel is unique, giving you the ability to leverage Five9’s power to create personalized digital experiences, even if voice isn’t a channel you use. The same is true for its enterprise-grade capabilities — you can add them to your plan when you need them.
The Digital plan covers all digital channels and comes with access to Five9’s powerful automation builder, outreach tools and more. Core offers all of the same functionality but for the voice channel. All of the higher tiers combine digital and voice together.
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Similar to Five9, LiveAgent doesn’t prioritize voice. Unlike Five9, it’s hyper-focused on ticket management instead of digital engagement, making it a great choice for support teams looking for a better way to manage inquiries. It also offers basic call center features, like ACD, IVR, call queues and call recording, on higher tiers.
Even though you have to use a standalone VoIP provider for full voice capabilities, you’ll be able to use your phone system as normal while taking advantage of LiveAgent’s ticketing, customer service and contact center capabilities layered on top.
The Small Business plan has a few call center capabilities, but you’ll get full access to all call center functionality on the Medium Business plan or higher.
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If you’re looking to leverage cutting edge AI capabilities that go beyond text generation and call summaries, Dialpad is the way to go. Other providers have some AI features, but Dialpad is implementing artificial intelligence in unique ways — so much so that other providers are struggling to keep up.
Dialpad offers all of the standard call center features you need. On top of that, you’ll get its powerful AI tools to level up your agents, customer experience and operations even more. All of its AI features are designed to save time for agents and supervisors, with plenty of tools for real-time assistance, monitoring and analyzing agent performance.
Dialpad also offers specialized AI-powered plans for sales teams, ranging from $60 to $150 per agent per month. These offer all of the same features as Dialpad’s contact center plans but are optimized around affordable access to the features sales teams in particular need.
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The best way to start is by assessing your needs. The goal is to weigh the factors of price, channels, complexity, ease of use, power and functionality to find the right fit for your team.
It’s important to think about what you need now and what you anticipate needing in the future. Switching to a new call center solution isn’t an easy task, so it’s important to consider how your requirements will change as you grow.
If there are several call center software options that score equally on qualifying factors, I recommend testing them with a small group before making your final decision. During testing, try to use it as you would at full scale.
Once you’ve chosen your software, it’s critical to carefully plan implementation, including integrating existing tools, migrating data if necessary and training your team. Over time, you can optimize the plan or features to match your needs and add new capabilities as needed.
Over the years, I’ve researched just about every call and contact center software out there. When putting this guide together, I drew from my own experience and validated how I felt by looking at a wide range of customer reviews. From there, I narrowed down the list to my top choices by considering six key factors.
I looked for software that offers the most essential tools for handling customer calls as well as innovative features that further enhance operations.
It was a priority to find software that integrates with a large number of other business tools, including CRMs, collaboration software and helpdesk solutions.
I looked for options that give customers a good deal and offer scalable plan options that can grow with your business.
Your call center needs to be up and running all the time, so I looked for software known for being reliable.
Since online threats are a top concern for business leaders, I looked for software that remains compliant and keeps data safe.
Good customer support is a must, so I looked for providers that have a reputation for being there for you when you need help.
