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.

Aircall Alternatives: At-A-Glance Comparison

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

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 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.

Key Five9 Features

• Digital Engagement: Five9 Digital Engagement provides agent-led and automated self-service across all digital channels, unifying conversations within one interface. Admins can configure omnichannel skills-based routing, leverage IVA chatbots, and collect customer data via custom forms and surveys.
• 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.
• Outbound Dialer: While Aircall offers an outbound Power Dialer with voicemail drop, the Five9 Dialer includes Predictive, Power, Preview, and Progressive dialing modes.
• 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, in-call coaching from supervisors via chat messaging, agent screen recordings, and an e-learning agent portal with peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.

Five9 Pricing

Five9 offers 5 plans starting from $175/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 Is A Good Aircall Alternative If You Need:

• Advanced scheduling tools (multi-skill/what-if forecasting, live shift bidding/adherence monitoring, PTO management) to optimize available agents and manage unexpected increases in contact volumes
• Digital communication channels Aircall doesn’t provide, like social media and website messaging, email, and video conferencing
• AI-powered Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) to provide 24/7 customer self-service across voice and digital channels

2. Nextiva - Best For Digital-First Small Businesses

Nextiva is a customer experience and cloud communications platform offering customer engagement, reputation management, and workflow automation across voice and digital channels. 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.

Key Nextiva 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. Admins can create automated instant responses, use smart routing to assign reviews to agents, schedule posts, and leverage social listening and tagging tools.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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. In-meeting features include chat, file and screen sharing, meeting co-hosts, remote desktop control, and social media livestreaming.

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-$159/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 Is A Good Aircall Alternative If You Need:

• Social media and reputation management tools that monitor company mentions, support requests, online reviews, and engagement rates across multiple social media platforms
• A business phone system with built-in UCaaS features that lets you scale up to an AI-powered omnichannel cloud contact center over time
• Workforce management tools like interaction detection, omnichannel interaction recording, scheduling apps, and performance gamification

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.

Key Talkdesk Features

• 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
• 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

Talkdesk Pricing

Talkdesk offers 4 CX Cloud Contact Center plans from $85-$145/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 quote-based industry-specific Experience Clouds, 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 Is A Good Aircall Alternative If You Need:

• More advanced conversation analytics than Aircall’s Analytics+ add-on provides, including 900+ live and historical KPIs, root cause analysis, CSAT/NPS scoring, and real-time customer survey response monitoring
• Superior security features and customer authentication tools, including AI-powered alerts for suspicious login attempts, agent behavior monitoring, and 30+ third-party compliance certifications
• A highly customizable, industry-specific contact center solution that integrates with financial, healthcare, and government third-party apps and uses industry-specific AI model training for purpose-built, out-of-the-box automation

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.

Key Dialpad Features

• 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. In addition to next-best-action suggestions, Dialpad Speech Coaching gives agents in-conversation reminders to slow down if they’re talking too fast, or to let customers speak more if they’re talking too much.
• 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.
• 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.

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 Ai Sales ($60-$170/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 Ai Contact Center ($80-$170/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 Is A Good Aircall Alternative If You Need:

• Built-in UCaaS features like video calling, team chat messaging, virtual faxing, and whiteboards ideal for remote team collaboration
• More advanced sales tools for your outbound call center than Aircall provides, including agent scorecards, CSAT monitoring, automated and supervisor-led Agent Assist, and agent coaching tools
• A scalable business phone system with a more robust feature suite than Aircall offers, including unlimited ring groups and office locations, multiple phone numbers per account, and stronger real-time analytics

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.

Key NICE CXone Features

• 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. It analyzes past customer conversations to provide personalized service and relies on customer journey insights to proactively engage with customers at the right time.
• 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. Copilot identifies the reason for the customer’s call, highlights key events in the conversation, provides an interaction summary, and rates agent performance.
• 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. For example, a supervisor could type, “Show me the top reasons for customer complaints for the past year” and receive interactive charts alongside actionable KPI reports that can be filtered and drilled down.
• 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.

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 Is A Good Aircall Alternative If You Need:

• Best-in-class AI-powered omnichannel automation to optimize available agents, decrease customer wait times, and provide superior customer self-service via intelligent virtual agents
• The ability to scale from a voice-only or digital-only communications platform to an omnichannel contact center with built-in WFM and Conversation AI
• An enterprise solution for contact centers with a high daily inbound contact volume across channels that want to improve the customer experience without hiring additional 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.

Key Genesys Features

• 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.

Genesys Pricing

Genesys Cloud CX offers 3 plans from $75-$155/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.

Users can also from 2 Cloud CX Digital Plan (from $95-$135/user/month) for digital-only communication plus predictive engagement, Agent Copilot, performance monitoring, and outbound digital campaign monitoring.

Genesys Cloud EX (from $90/user/month) is an add-on or standalone workforce engagement solution with AI scheduling and foreasing, speech analytics, QA tools, and more.

For more details, see our Genesys pricing page.

Genesys Is A Good Aircall Alternative If You Need

• AI-powered customer engagement and sales tools to increase upselling and cross-selling opportunities and optimize lead generation
• Scalable WFM and employee engagement tools unavailable with Aircall, especially in-call/post-call agent coaching tools and performance insights
• A digital-only cloud communications platform for teams already using another business phone system or for companies that need to automate the majority of digital customer service requests

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.   

Key 8x8 Features

• Global Voice Calling: 8x8’s cheapest plan includes unlimited calling to 14 countries, while higher-tier plans include unlimited calling to 48 countries.
• 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.
• 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.
• Co-browsing: Agents can see the customer’s screen during live interactions and, if needed, take remote control of their screen.

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 two unified communications tools and three contact center plans. Digital channels, speech and text analytics, customer-agent co-browsing, and skills-based routing are only available on CCaaS plans.

All plans allow for mix-and-match pricing, and users can choose from metered or unmetered monthly calling bundles. 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 Is A Good Aircall Alternative If You Need

• More flexible pricing options than Aircall, as 8x8 provides individual communication APIs, mix-and-match pricing, metered/unmetered call bundles, and quote-based plans
• Affordable international calling rates, given that 8x8 includes unlimited international calling to up to 48 countries
• A business phone system with built-in video conferencing with a high participant capacity, plus persistent team chat messaging and file sharing for remote collaboration

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.

Key RingCentral Features

• RingCentral Video: RingCentral Video, included in all RingEX plans, 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. RingSense AI for RingCentral Video provides live transcription, closed captioning, meeting summaries with suggested action items, and video highlight reels.
• 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.
• 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.
• Customer Support: All RingCentral plans come with a 99.999% uptime, 7 layers of security, SSO, and 24/7 live customer service.

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 $9.99-$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.

RingCentral for Sales ($60/user/month and up)  adds AI-powered features like deal scoring, high-level CRM integrations, agent coaching, and performance analytics.

In addition to RingCentral Video, users can upgrade to RingCentral Webinar ($30/organizer/month) and RingCentral Events (from $1,490/license/year) for more advanced web conferencing capabilities.

For more details, see our RingCentral pricing page.

RingCentral Is A Good Aircall Alternative If You Need: 

• More extensive third-party integrations, as RingCentral integrates with over 300 third applications and includes API access on all plans
• More advanced AI add-ons than Aircall, including AI-powered chat message summaries, video meeting and post-call summaries, GenAI-powered message creation and translation, and real-time notetaking
• A scalable solution that lets you upgrade from a business phone system to an omnichannel contact center with an online event platform for webinar hosting and an AI-powered sales solution

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.