8 Best Aircall Alternatives + Why They Are Better

Aircall is a cloud-based small business phone system best for blended call centers looking for standard features like smart routing, multi-level IVR, and ring groups to help manage moderate daily call volumes. While Aircall offers advanced AI and analytics add-ons and includes a powerful outbound auto dialer, it lacks digital channels and essential unified communications tools like video conferencing and team chat.

Enterprises seeking an omnichannel contact center with advanced AI-powered automations are better served by popular Aircall alternatives like Five9, NICE CXone, and Talkdesk. Medium-sized hybrid teams looking for business phone systems with built-in unified communications tools and greater scalability should explore Aircall alternatives like Nextiva, RingCentral, 8x8, and Genesys.

Read on to learn more about the pricing, top features, ideal user bases, and more for each of these Aircall alternatives.

How We Evaluated These Alternatives

We used the below criteria to evaluate the best alternatives to Aircall:

• Pricing and Plans: We compared the providers’ available pricing, plans, billing options, and add-ons to determine overall value
• Available Communication Channels: We explored each provider’s available voice and digital communication channels, including VoIP calling, SMS/MMS, social media and website chat messaging, email, virtual faxing, etc.
• Unified Communications Tools: We studied each provider’s available team collaboration and unified communication features, including video calling, team chat messaging, file sharing/storage, user presence monitoring, task management, etc.
• Available Features: We evaluated each provider’s overall feature suite, including call management tools, workforce management capabilities, AI-powered automation, and live/historical analytics
• Third-Party Integrations: We looked at each provider’s third-party integration capabilities, (plus available APIs) to ensure they integrated with popular CRM, helpdesk, marketing, and collaboration tools
• Security and Customer Support: We compared the providers’ available customer support options, including hours, channels, and premium support add-ons. We also studied the alternatives’ network reliability, security, and compliance certifications
• User Experience: We reviewed each provider’s overall user experience, determining each platform’s ease of use, intuitiveness, and ideal use case/user base

Aircall Alternatives: At-A-Glance Comparison

The Best Aircall Alternatives

According to our extensive research and hands-on product testing, the best Aircall alternatives are:

• Five9
• Nextiva
• Talkdesk
• Dialpad
• NICE CXone
• Genesys
• 8x8
• RingCentral

1. Five9 - Best For Scalability and Omnichannel Self-Service

Five9 is a scalable omnichannel cloud contact center with built-in VoIP service, workforce management tools, performance monitoring features, and AI-powered interaction analytics. While Aircall and Five9 both provide outbound dialers and SMS/MMS text messaging, Five9 also facilitates customer communication across website chat, social media messaging, email, and video conferencing.

Although Five9 and Aircall offer conversational analytics and AI-powered call summaries, these capabilities are only available to Aircall users via paid add-ons. Finally, Five9 has advanced employee engagement and WFM features unavailable to Aircall users, including forecasting/scheduling tools, automated Agent Assist, in-call coaching, and custom agent evaluations.

Five9 Pricing

Five9 offers 5 plans starting from $119/user/month. Users can choose from a voice-only or digital-only option as well as plans with scalable quality management, workforce management, and interaction analytics.

For more details, see our Five9 pricing page.

Five9 Key VoIP Features

• Five9 Video: Customers can escalate voice or digital interactions to a real-time video call with agents via desktop and mobile devices. During these video calls, customers and agents can share their screens and locations, send/receive attachments and files, annotate their screens, and scan barcodes.
• SMS/MMS: Admins are able to filter and route SMS and MMS messages to the right agent while the platform tracks progress from initial message to resolution.
• IVR with Speech Recognition: All Five9 users have access to IVR for both inbound and outbound calls. Speech recognition capabilities can also be integrated into the IVR system for an added fee.

Why Five9 is a Great CCaaS Alternative

• Digital Engagement: Five9 Digital Engagement provides agent-led and automated self-service across all digital channels, unifying conversations within one interface.
• Employee Engagement: While Aircall has call monitoring and call whisper, Five9 provides far more advanced omnichannel agent coaching and workforce engagement tools. These include performance gamification with real-time leaderboards and a rewards marketplace.
• Outbound Dialer: While Aircall offers an outbound Power Dialer with voicemail drop, the Five9 Dialer includes Predictive, Power, Preview, and Progressive dialing modes.

2. Nextiva - Best For Digital-First Small Businesses

Nextiva is a customer experience and cloud communications platform offering VoIP telephony, customer engagement, reputation management, and workflow automation. While Aircall is designed for voice-only call centers, Nextiva is a digital-first solution ideal for teams providing agent-led and bot-based customer support via social media, website chat, email, SMS, and voice calling.

Unlike Aircall, Nextiva provides reputation management features across 50+ social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X, etc.) and online review sites (Yelp, Google, Amazon, etc.) Additionally, Nextiva has much stronger unified communications and collaboration tools than Airlcall, including video meetings, team chat messaging, file sharing, and unlimited audio conferencing.

Nextiva users can also upgrade to an Enterprise cloud contact center solution with omnichannel inbound/outbound communication, Workforce Engagement Management, and Agent Assist–all features unavailable on any Aircall plan.

Nextiva Pricing

Nextiva offers 4 Small Business plans from $20-$60/user/month with annual billing and $25-$75/user/month with monthly billing. Plans include a digital-only plan, a voice and digital plan, a plan with chatbots and call center features, and an call center plan with AI-powered capabilities.

Users can upgrade to Nextiva’s Enterprsie omnichannel contact center, which includes three plans from $129-$199/agent a month and up. These plans add an outbound dialer, workforce management tools, conversation analytics, and more advanced AI automation.

For more details, see our Nextiva pricing page.

Nextiva Key VoIP Features

• Reputation Management: Nextiva’s unique social media and reputation management tools streamline reviews and support requests from all social platforms/review sites into a unified inbox–and alert supervisors to new reviews and requests in real-time.
• Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs): While Aircall provides customer self-service via IVR and custom call routing, Nextiva offers omnichannel self-service enhanced with Nextiva AI. Real-time sentiment and intent analysis, live call transcription, internal knowledge base integration, and GenAI-powered responses to customer queries boost FCR rates and CSAT scores.
• Video Conferencing: While Aircall provides no video conferencing capabilities, nearly all Nextiva plans come with unlimited video meetings for up to 250 participants–plus customer-facing video calls.

Why Nextiva is a Great CCaaS Alternative

• Nextiva WEM: The WEM suite, included with Nextiva Enterprise, includes forecasting/agent scheduling with intra-day management, performance gamification, custom agent scorecards, and self-assessments.
• Secure Payment Agent Assist: PCI-compliant and customer facing tool that enables companies to accept payment without the agent ever hearing or seeing a credit card number
• Nextiva AI: Nextiva offers AI-powered features such as speech-to-text transcription, sentiment analysis, AI classification, language translation, and data loss prevention

3. Talkdesk - Best For Industry-Specific CCaaS Solutions

Talkdesk is a CX cloud contact center platform with advanced omnichannel automation, WFM and performance management tools, and industry-specific solutions. Unlike Aircall, which includes voice calling and SMS only, Talkdesk offers digital communication channels like social media messaging, website chat, and email.

Talkesk includes a variety of AI-powered features that Aircall doesn’t provide, including Talkdesk Copilot for in-conversation Agent Assist, Talkdesk Shield for biometric user authentication, and omnichannel self-service via Talkdesk Autopilot.

While both Aircall and Talkdesk provide extensive third-party integrations, Talkdesk includes API access on all plans–a feature that’s restricted to the top-tier Aircall plan. In addition to over 70 out-of-the-box integrations, Talkdesk's AppConnect Marketplace gives users 1-click access to advanced hardware and software integrations–including 30-day free app trials.

Talkdesk Pricing

Talkdesk offers 3 CX Cloud Contact Center plans from $85-$165/user/month. Options include a digital-only plan, a voice and digital plan, an omnichannel plan with QM and customer feedback tools, and a complete plan that adds more advanced reporting and lets users choose from a workforce management, proactive engagement, or CX analytics add-on.

Talkdesk also has 5 industry-specific Experience Clouds starting at $225/user/month, which are purpose-built for insurance providers, those in the banking sector, retail shops, healthcare providers, and businesses working in the government.

For more details, see our Talkdesk pricing page.

Talkdesk Key VoIP Features

• Call routing: Companies can set up intricate routing systems based on caller data, IVR selection, business hours, agent skills, and more.
• Conversations Mobile App: Users can handle both inbound and outbound calls from any location, using any internet-enabled device, with the Talkdesk app for Android or iOS
• Proactive Outbound Engagement: While Aircall includes an automated outbound power dialer, Talkdesk provides power, predictive, and preview dialing directly in Salesforce or via the Talkdesk interface. Talkdesk also has event-triggered automated outbound SMS notifications, ideal for appointment reminders and customer data collection

Why Talkdesk is a Great CCaaS Alternative

• Talkdesk Copilot: Automated in-conversation Agent Assist tool that integrates with your internal knowledge base and third-party CRM systems to provide real-time call transcription, context-aware next-best-action suggestions to agents, and post-interaction summaries.
• Customer Experience Analytics: Access 360-degree live and historical analytics including benchmarks, keyword/topic recognition, important conversation moments, and real-time performance wallboards.
• Talkdesk Autopilot: Talkdesk Autopilot provides voice and digital customer self-service using customer intent analysis, machine learning, and Generative AI. Leverage the no-code Talkdesk Automation Designer to access AI-powered omnichannel automation, upload agent scripts, and design conversation paths and workflows for IVAs and live agents

4. Dialpad - Best For Affordable UCaaS and Live Analytics

Dialpad is a cloud communications platform offering a business phone system/unified communications solution and an AI-powered omnichannel contact center. Unlike Aircall, Dialpad includes team collaboration tools like video and audio conferencing, team messaging, and file sharing.

Dialpad also has more built-in AI capabilities than Aircall, including Agent Assist, agent scorecards, CSAT monitoring, and custom moment detection. While both platforms include business SMS/MMS texting, Dialpad offers more extensive international text messaging, better group texting, and more affordable domestic SMS rates.

Dialpad Pricing

Dialpad Business Communications offers 3 UCaaS plans from $15-$25/user/month and up with annual pricing and $27-$35/user/month and up with monthly pricing. All plans include unlimited calling, team chat, text messaging, and video conferencing, but more advanced tiers include unlimited ring groups, 24/7 support, and CRM integrations.

Dialpad Sell ($39-$150/user/month) is available as a standalone or add-on product and includes AI Agent Assist, agent scorecards, CSAT monitoring, and a power dialer.

Dialpad Support ($80-$150/user/month) also includes AI Agent Assist tools, but adds omnichannel communication, automated callbacks, and more advanced call controls.

For more details, see our Dialpad pricing page.

Dialpad Key VoIP Features

• Dialpad Ai Meetings: All Dialpad plans include video conferencing for up to 150 participants (maximum 5-hour meeting time.) In-meeting features include desktop/mobile screen sharing, audio and video recording, team chat, whiteboards, and virtual backgrounds.
• Dialpad Analytics: Dialpad Ai Contact Center includes real-time sentiment analysis and call transcriptions, call volume heat maps, IVR analytics, and CSAT scoring.
• Automatic SPAM call detection: Dialpad's platform uses AI to detect SPAM calls providing an extra layer of security. Included in all plans.

Why Dialpad is a Great CCaaS Alternative

• Ai Agent Assist: Unlike Aircall, Dialpad offers extensive in-call Agent Assist tools. These include pre-made real-time assist cards for common support interactions as well as AI-powered Agent Assist with knowledge base integration.
• Custom Moments: Dialpad’s AI-powered Custom Moments feature monitors live conversations and automatically alerts managers when trigger words/phrases pop up in a customer conversation, allowing managers to intervene on high-priority or complicated calls. Custom Moments are also included in automated post-call summaries.
• AI-powered recaps: Dialpad's platform creates automatic summaries of calls and meetings with action items, highlights, keywords, etc.

5. NICE CXone - Best For Enterprise AI Omnichannel Communication

NICE CXone is an all-in-one contact center solution known for its superior AI-powered features and analytics. Unlike Aircall, NICE CXone offers voice-only, digital-only, and omnichannel contact center solutions and a-la-carte AI solutions like Agent Assist, knowledge base management, and conversational analytics.

NICE CXone also provides workforce and performance management features Aircall lacks, including call center scheduling and forecasting, custom agent evaluations, and customer feedback across voice and digital channels.

While Aircall’s AI analytics tools provide trending and key topic recognition, talk-listen ratios, and call summaries, they can’t compete with NICE CXone’s extensive 360-degree analytics and GenAI-powered contact center activity insights.

NICE CXone Pricing

NICECXone offers 6 standard plans from $71-$209/agent/month. Options include a voice-only plan, a digital-only plan, an omnichannel plan, and tier-based plans adding quality management, forecasting, and AI analytics.

The CXone Mpower plan ($249/agent/month) adds advanced AI-powered tools like Enlighten for CSAT, Enlighten Copilot, and Enlighten Autopilot.

For more details, see our NICE CXone pricing page. 

NICE CXone Key VoIP Features

• Unified admin and user interface: Enables users, supervisors and admins to access all communication under one pane of glass.
• Enlighten Actions: Enlighten Actions is a supervisor-facing GenAI analytics solution that lets leaders type specific questions into a chatbot and review insights based on historical/real-time data and conversation analytics.
• Voice recording and storage: Users can manually or automatically record calls, create playlists, and more.

Why NICE CXone is a Great CCaaS Alternative

• Workforce Engagement Management: NICE CXone WFM solutions include performance gamification, omnichannel interaction recording, automated in-call coaching and performance scoring, scheduling with 40+ forecasting algorithms, and long-term resource management.
• Enlighten Autopilot: CXone Autopilot is an omnichannel automated self-service solution that leverages Natural Language Understanding and machine learning to resolve the majority of customer issues without involving a live agent.
• Enlighten Copilot: Enlighten Copilot analyzes customer sentiment intent, sentiment, conversation history, and knowledge base data to provide real-time next-best-action suggestions to agents.

6. Genesys - Best For Agent Optimization and Customer Engagement

Genesys is a cloud contact center provider offering voice-only, digital-only, and omnichannel contact center solutions with built-in or standalone WFM tools.

As with the other providers on this list, Genesys offers digital communication channels Aircall doesn’t, including email, social media messaging, and website chat. Genesys also provides more advanced AI capabilities than Aircall, including omnichannel predictive engagement and routing, Agent Assist, knowledge base management, and forecasting.

That said, Genesys is much more expensive than Aircall, with its voice-only cheapest plan starting at $75 per agent/month–more than double the price of Aircall’s most affordable plan. While Genesys provides better value than Aircall for teams needing an omnichannel solution, voice-only call centers are better served by Aircall.

Genesys Pricing

Genesys Cloud CX offers 4 plans from $75-$240/user/month and up. Named license, concurrent license, and hourly pricing options are also available. Options include a voice-only contact center, an omnichannel solution, and an omnichannel CCaaS tool with WEM and conversation analytics.

For more details, see our Genesys pricing page.

Genesys Key VoIP Features

• IVR and Call Routing: Users build IVR call flows with parameters such as weekend or holidays, open and close hours, upsell offers, and special announcements
• Voice Channel: Genesys offers a secure, flexible voice platform with options for TDM, IP or hybrid environment deployments, on premise or in the cloud
• Omnichannel Unified Communications: Context carries over across channels with unified dashboards to help users create seamless interactions even when customers use multiple channels

Why Genesys is a Great CCaaS Alternative

• Predictive Engagement: Predictive engagement analyzes historical website interaction data, leveraging it to engage with current website visitors at the ideal point in the customer journey. Admins can add custom automated outbound messages according to specific customer behavior, create action maps, and review predictive engagement data.
• Agent Copilot: Agent Copilot integrates with your internal knowledge base, helpdesk tools, and CRM systems to provide AI-powered Agent Assistance during live customer interactions. It can also automate workflows, suggest next-best-actions, and provide automated interaction summaries.
• Workforce Engagement Management: Automate forecasting and agent scheduling, monitor adherence in real-time, leverage automated intraday management, and automatically approve/disprove PTO requests according to preset rules or conditions.
• Predictive Routing: Skills-based omnichannel routing connects customers to the best available agent, but can also route customers to agents according to KPI targets.

7. 8x8 - Best For Global Businesses Needing Flexible Pricing

8x8 is a cloud communications platform offering a unified communications solution and an omnichannel contact center. Compared to Aircall, 8x8 offers more flexible pricing, better collaboration tools, and more scalable analytics. Its contact center platform facilitates customer communication across voice calling and digital channels unavailable with Aircall, including social media, chat messaging, email, and video calling.

That said, 8x8 and Aircall provide a similar level of call management features, including skills-based routing, IVR, and call queues. Like Aircall, 8x8 is a more basic business phone system than the other providers on this list. However, it does offer more competitive international calling rates than Aircall, plus a more advanced outbound auto dialer.   

8x8 Pricing

8x8 offerrs the most flexible pricing options out of any provider on this list–but the overall value is difficult to estimate, as all plans are quote-based.

8x8 has one unified communications plan and two contact center plans. Digital channels, speech and text analytics, customer-agent co-browsing, and skills-based routing are only available on CCaaS plans. 8x8 also offers pay-as-you-go pricing via individual APIs for even greater cost savings.

For more details, see our 8x8 pricing page.

8x8 Key VoIP Features

• Global Voice Calling: 8x8’s cheapest plan includes unlimited calling to 14 countries, while higher-tier plans include unlimited calling to 48 countries.
• 8x8 Work: Work streamlines internal business communication into a single desktop or mobile app, allowing agents to access video, messaging, and telephony from any location. Work includes video meetings for 500 participants, file sharing and storage, user mentions, and public/private chat.
• Video Conferencing: High participant capacity of 500 and includes post meeting insights and advanced moderation controls.

Why 8x8 is a Great CCaaS Alternative

• Co-browsing: Agents can see the customer’s screen during live interactions and, if needed, take remote control of their screen.
• Conversation IQ: The Conversation IQ tool transcribes all voice calls in real-time, makes word clouds of popular keywords and conversation topics, recognizes customer sentiment trends, and automatically scores agent performance.
• AI-enabled self service: Graphical scripting designer to build IVR paths, pre-built paths, and intelligent self-service options

8. RingCentral - Best For Mid-Size Remote Call Centers

RingCentral is a cloud communications provider offering a unified communications platform, omnichannel contact center, online event platform, and revenue intelligence solution for sales teams.

Clearly, it has a much more extensive product selection than Aircall, offering greater scalability ideal for growing businesses. However, it also has far more AI-powered capabilities than Aircall, better real-time analytics, and stronger customer support.

Compared to Aircall, RingCentral offers more team collaboration tools, a larger third-party integration ecosystem, and a scalable contact center solution with WFM and agent coaching features.

RingCentral isn’t just cheaper than Aircall–it also offers a better overall value, given that all plans include video calling, APIs, at least 100 toll-free monthly minutes, and basic call queues.

RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral has the largest product offering out of all the other providers on this list. RingCentral RingEX offers three unified communications plan from $20-$35/user/month with annual billing and $30-$45/user/month with monthly pricing.

Digital communication channels, outbound dialers, and WEM features are available via RingCentral RingCX contact center, with two plans from $65/agent/month.

For more details, see our RingCentral pricing page.

RingCentral Key VoIP Features

• RingCentral Video: Lets up to 200 participants meet for 24 hours. In-meeting features include breakout rooms, whiteboards, screen/file sharing with annotations, chat, and collaborative notes.
• Customer Support: All RingCentral plans come with a 99.999% uptime, 7 layers of security, SSO, and 24/7 live customer service.
• Business SMS/MMS: Reach customers faster with automated notifications, alerts, reminders, promotions, etc. Included in all plans.

Why RingCentral is a Great CCaaS Alternative

• AI Intelligent Routing: RingCentral leverages Conversational AI to determine customer sentiment and intent, routing customers to the best available agent across voice and digital channels. Admins can create custom call rules, add routing strategies, and build call flows in the drag-and-drop interface.
• RingSense AI for Sales: RingSense for Sales provides automated call summaries, CRM and helpdesk integrations, agent coaching, performance scoring, and deal/call scoring to increase revenue.
• Advanced Security: Single sign-on, end-to-end encryption, HIPAA compliance, and multi-factor authentication.

Why Seek an Alternative to Aircall? 

Most businesses seek Aircall alternatives because they need an AI-powered omnichannel contact center with built-in workforce management and unified communications tools, not a voice-only call center with limited collaboration features and no in-call agent coaching.

Aircall does integrate with 100+ third-party CRM, collaboration, and helpdesk platforms, but lacks the advanced native UCaaS features of its competitors.

One of Aircall’s biggest drawbacks is that it doesn’t offer video conferencing, team chat messaging, whiteboarding, or file sharing–all essential features for remote teams. With Aircall, collaboration features are limited to call comments and notes, call tagging and assignment, and a shared inbox with agent status updates.

Further, business text messaging (SMS and MMS) is the only additional communication channel Aircall offers outside of voice calling. While unlimited international outbound voice calling is included on the top-tier Aircall plan, international texting is available only in Canada, the UK, Australia, France, and Germany.

Businesses also look for Aircall alternatives because they need more advanced AI and analytics capabilities than Aircall provides. Aircall offers some conversation intelligence features, like sentiment analysis, keyword/trending topic recognition, and automated post-call summaries, they are only available with the Aircall AI paid add-on for $9/license/month. Further, Aircall does not offer more advanced AI tools like real-time call transcription, in-call Agent Assist, and automated agent performance scoring.

Finally, while Aircall is affordable (with plans starting from $30/user/month) it doesn’t offer a high overall value. For example, all plans include only 1 local or toll-free phone number, the top-tier Custom plan has a 25-user minimum, and the ability to drill down analytics by individual KPI requires the Analytics+ add-on.