Contact center software is a cloud-based communication system that lets you serve customers across multiple channels: voice, SMS, email, live chat, automated chatbots, and social media.

While traditional contact centers include service tools like IVR and call queues, today’s CCaaS software adds digital capabilities like AI features, intelligent virtual agents, and automated workflows. These features are a major reason why the omnichannel market is expected to grow at 13.6% yearly until 2030.

Below, I cover top contact center software providers, highlighting their pros & cons, pricing, and use cases.

 

Why You Can Trust GetVoIP + Our Research Methodology

We tried dozens of contact center software products to determine our rankings. When testing each CCaaS provider, we considered several angles: the agent and supervisor experience, the variety of features, the channels and task routing, integrations with other software, and the pricing and overall value.

We tried each software’s agent and supervisor dashboards, switching between channels and weighing the visibility of the task inbox. We built IVR menus and queues, seeing how intuitive each provider’s setup process is. We interacted with each product’s chatbots and virtual agents, getting a feel for their service and conversational capabilities. We made live calls to see audio quality, checking the accuracy of each provider’s call transcription.

Our thorough, hands-on approach makes us confident in our rankings below and enables us to recommend particular use cases for each software product.

 

Our Picks: Top Contact Center Software

  • Nextiva - Best for customer journey orchestration and rich chat services
  • Five9 - Best for supervisor support and quality management
  • NICE CXone - Best for customer experience insights
  • Dialpad - Best for AI-based agent support and coaching
  • RingCentral - Best for custom surveys
  • 8x8 - Best for team collaboration
  • Sprinklr - Best for customer self-service and ticketing
  • Genesys - Best for automated workforce management
  • Zoom - Best for a low-cost omnichannel software

 

Nextiva

 

Nate Reviews Nextiva AI Contact Center

 

Nextiva offers AI-rich contact center software with voice-only, digital-only, and omnichannel options. Digital channels include SMS, webchat, email, and social media. All Nextiva plans include auto-dialers, built-in CRM functionality, chatbots, and a workflow engine to customize task routing.

Nextiva chatbots are AI-powered, with rich service capabilities and multiple routing styles. Supervisors can monitor agents with screen recording, while your call center can monitor customer sentiment using surveys and CX analytics.

 

What We Like About Nextiva

  • Rich chat services: Live agents and chatbots offer advanced capabilities like secure payment processing, appointment booking, hotel reservations, and account information updates
  • Multiple auto dialer styles: Each Nextiva plan includes quarterback, progressive, and predictive dialers for sales use cases
  • Feature-rich basic plan: Even Nextiva’s lowest-tier plan includes advanced capabilities like workflow customization, intelligent agent scripting, basic chatbots, and auto-dialers
  • Built-in CRM: Nextiva includes several tools that help you manage customer relations. See a full view of each customer’s interaction history, with campaign management tools
  • Customer information: Gather a rich view of customer experience with multichannel surveys, customer experience analytics, and quality monitoring tools

 

What We Dislike About Nextiva

  • High price floor: While Nextiva’s lowest-tier plan is feature-rich, it’s also roughly 25% more expensive than the basic plan from other providers
  • Lack of out-of-the-box integrations: While Nextiva’s software supports open API integrations, it does not include out-of-the-box integrations with third-party software. CRM integrations are available as an add-on for an additional cost.
  • Lack of simplicity: All Nextiva plans include advanced capabilities, so there’s no option for teams that just want a basic call center with only calling and routing

 

Pricing

Nextiva offers three contact center plans, ranging from $99 to $139 monthly per user. They have digital-only, voice-only, and omnichannel setup options.

To learn more, check out our Nextiva pricing review.

 

Who Should Use Nextiva

  • Customer service teams: Nextiva’s built-in CRM features and rich chat-based capabilities options make it a strong option for customer service centers
  • Remote contact centers: Nextiva’s digital supervision tools and quality monitoring make it easy for supervisors to support staff

 

Five9

 

Nate Reviews Five9 Contact Center Software

 

Five9 offers advanced contact center software with AI features, workflow automations, quality and workforce management, and intelligent analytics. They have digital-only, voice-only, plus omnichannel plans with email, web chat, social media, and video.

All plans include an agent desktop, voice recording, and basic IVR and virtual agents that you can embed into your website or mobile app. AI tools include live-agent support, interaction summaries, and insights generated from call transcripts. Workflow automations connect dozens of apps for task routing, messaging forwarding between apps, and proactive customer outreach.

 

What We Like About Five9

  • Agent support tools: Five9 supports agents with real-time suggestions, including recommended articles, actions, integrations, and canned responses
  • Customer feedback: Customer experience analytics include sentiment detection and topic identification, which you can use to track feedback about products, services, or agents
  • Intelligent virtual agents: Chatbots use natural language understanding for interactive responses, with the ability to integrate customer data for personalized interactions
  • Coaching support: Five9 supports supervisors with custom evaluation forms, call monitoring, call recording on all plans, and automated agent feedback for each interaction
  • AI-based scheduling: Set up automatic shift scheduling based on anticipated staffing needs, or shift bidding for agents. Agents can view and set their schedules in a designated portal.

 

What We Dislike About Five9

  • Expensive: Five9’s cheapest plan is $175 monthly per user, which is substantially costlier than other providers’ basic plans
  • Lack of drag-and-drop customization: Five9’s AI designer and workflow automation builders require an on-staff developer, not as easy to use as the drag-and-drop builder that some alternatives offer
  • No SMS on most plans: Aside from the digital-only plan, none of the Five9 plans include SMS texting

 

Pricing

Five9 offers five plans, with publicly posted pricing ranging from $175 to $325 monthly per user with an annual commitment. Depending on your business's unique needs, these prices can be flexible and may adjust up or down slightly, upon consultation with Five9.

See our Five9 pricing guide for more information.

 

Who Should Use Five9

  • Companies that want to prioritize self-service: Five9’s chatbots use AI and customer data for personalized and high-level self-service
  • Large call centers: Five9’s automated workforce management features enable supervisors to staff and give feedback to large teams of agents

 

NICE CXone

 

Nate Reviews Nice CXOne Contact Center

 

NICE CXone is an AI-driven contact center with voice-only, digital-only, and omnichannel plans with email, live chat, SMS, and social media. Create IVR systems and queues for custom call routing, and screen record agents across all interactions for improved supervisor monitoring.

The analytics provide an in-depth look at the customer’s experience across 100% of interactions, including IVR menu choices, service quality, and keyword trends. Build custom dashboards with categories and sentiment analytics that you choose. The platform also has AI forecasting and an agent mobile app for staffing.

 

What We Like About NICE CXone

  • Staff performance insights: NICE CXone tracks staff schedule adherence and time utilization, providing deeper monitoring insights
  • Monitoring support: The monitoring system records each interaction, with omnichannel search allowing supervisors to search, revisit, and replay any interaction across channels
  • Customer experience: NICE provides a deep view of the customer’s experience, with AI-based CSAT analysis for 100% of interactions, including customer IVR choices and the root causes of customer issues
  • AI features: The platform has advanced AI-based add-ons for live-agent assistance, routing, supervisor support, and auto-dialers
  • Intelligent self-service: NICE CXone’s Enlighter Autopilot add-on is an AI-based self-service bot, deployable across digital channels. It learns from customer interactions and data, providing lifelike conversations.

 

What We Dislike About NICE CXone

  • Companies that want to understand their customers better: NICE CXone’s Voice of the Customer and trend analytics provide a strong understanding of what’s on the customer’s mind
  • Those seeking a cost-effective digital-only platform: At $71 per user, NICE CXone’s digital plan offers great value for those who don’t need voice

 

Pricing

NICE CXone offers six plans, from $71 to $209 monthly per user with an annual commitment. They have digital-only, voice-only, and omnichannel options.

For more information, see our NICE CXone pricing breakdown.

 

Who Should Use NICE CXone

  • Companies that want to understand their customers better: NICE CXone’s Voice of the Customer and trend analytics provide a strong understanding of what’s on the customer’s mind
  • Those seeking a cost-effective digital-only platform: At $71 per user, NICE CXone’s digital plan offers great value for those who don’t need voice

 

Dialpad

 

Nate Reviews Dialpad Ai Contact Center

 

Dialpad’s omnichannel AI contact center includes voice, video, and one digital channel of your choice–with additional channels available as add-ons. The user-friendly platform includes IVR menus, automatic call distribution (ACD), and queue callbacks.

Dialpad implements AI throughout their CCaaS software in unique ways: AI moments that provide summaries and note key points in video meetings and customer interactions; call transcripts; real-time agent assistance; and AI scorecards that evaluate agents automatically.

 

What We Like About Dialpad

  • AI scorecards: A unique feature only offered by Dialpad, create scorecards with your desired metrics and scoring systems. AI uses the transcript to provide feedback for agents automatically.
  • Live-agent support: Dialpad GPT, Dialpad’s proprietary AI engine, gives agents real-time response suggestions and sentiment insights
  • Interaction summaries: Dialpad supports live agents with AI recaps that summarize calls and provide a bullet-point list of key action items for agents
  • Flexible routing options: Connect IVRs and queues with skills-based, availability-based, or longest-idle routing styles
  • Video meetings: All Dialpad plans include video meetings for internal or customer-facing use cases. Meetings support 10 participants with collaborative features like waiting rooms, chat, and screen-sharing

 

What We Dislike About Dialpad

  • Learning curve for AI features: Dialpad’s advanced AI features have a steep learning curve and may require several weeks for agents to learn fluently
  • Limited video capacity: With a 10-participant capacity, Dialpad’s video meetings may restrict large companies’ ability to collaborate remotely

 

Pricing

Dialpad has three contact center plans that range from $80 to $150 monthly per user, with an annual commitment. Each plan includes video meetings alongside voice-only and omnichannel options.

To learn more, see our Dialpad pricing guide.

 

Who Should Use Dialpad

  • Companies seeking agent support: Dialpad’s live-agent support features, like summaries and speech suggestions, are among the best of any provider on our list
  • Call centers: Dialpad’s Essentials plan offers a cost-effective voice-only call center with advanced features like call transcription and AI interaction summaries

 

RingCentral Contact Center

 

Nate Reviews RingCentral Contact Center

 

RingCentral’s AI-based contact center includes voice, video meetings, email, SMS, live chat, and over 20 other digital channels across social media platforms. The platform supports tons of intelligent features to support agents, like call transcripts, summaries, task notifications, and real-time assistance.

The platform also supports supervisors with agent performance dashboards, workforce management and scheduling automations, and quality management tools like customer experience analytics for each interaction.

 

What We Like About RingCentral

  • AI agent support: AI uses the transcript to record key points and summaries for all calls, and provide real-time response suggestions for agents
  • Quality management: AI supports supervisors in several ways–speech analytics and CSAT scores for each interaction, automated call scoring, and AI-assisted agent feedback
  • Omnichannel surveys: Create and deploy custom surveys across all channels
  • CRM synchronization: All AI data, customer journey information, analytics, and survey results are automatically logged into your synced CRM system
  • Omnichannel interactions and routing: The platform includes a drag-and-drop omnichannel interaction designer and IVR studio–integrating AI, surveys, and task routing

 

What We Dislike About RingCentral

  • No single-channel options: RingCentral only offers omnichannel contact center infrastructure, without the voice-only or digital-only options that alternatives have
  • Costly add-ons: While RingCentral offers low starting prices for their CCaaS software, nearly all of our favorite features are add-ons that quickly increase the price
  • Cluttered interface: With AI features, analytics, and customer-journey customization options, the RingCentral agent dashboard feels crowded, which can make it difficult to access the features you want quickly

 

Pricing

RingCentral’s contact center software offerings start at $65 monthly per user, with add-on packages that increase the cost.

For more information, see our RingCentral pricing guide.

 

Who Should Use RingCentral

  • Sales teams: RingCX is a low-cost sales-focused platform, with AI features and analytics geared toward making sales teams more efficient
  • Those seeking to gain deeper customer insights: With advanced multichannel surveys, interaction analytics, and customer journey tracking, RingCentral offers several tools to help you understand your customers better

 

8x8

 

Nate Reviews 8x8 Contact Center Software

 

8x8 offers voice-only, digital-only, and omnichannel contact centers with video meetings, email, SMS, live chat, and social media. While the platform lacks advanced AI features, it supports team collaboration with video meetings and team chat.

Use video conferencing to host webinars or internal team meetings. Plans include multi-level IVR, call queues with callback, and intelligent routing. Supervisors can access usage and queue analytics, call volume reports, and call monitoring.

 

What We Like About 8x8

  • IVR: 8x8 provides a drag-and-drop IVR setup, with skills-based routing and an add-on for intelligent IVR that uses conversational intelligence to converse and route customers
  • Call queueing: Set up call queues with automated calls
  • Video meetings: Large-capacity video meetings host up to 500 participants, with collaborative features like chat, polls, screen sharing, hand raising, and breakout rooms
  • Mobile access: While many CCaaS alternatives only offer desktop access, agents can access 8x8 through desktop, mobile, or web-based apps
  • Frontdesk support: 8x8 Frontdesk is an app interface specifically designed for receptionists. It includes a view of agent and queue availability, with one-click options for easy routing.

 

What We Dislike about 8x8

  • No AI features: 8x8’s contact center platform does not use any AI features at this point, which limits its utility for agent assistance and customer insights
  • Shallow analytics: The platform tracks KPIs regarding call volume, queue status, and channel usage, but does not provide the same depth of Voice of the Customer as alternative solutions

 

Pricing

8x8 offers three contact center plans–the voice-only X6, digital-only X7, and omnichannel X8–but does not publicize pricing.

Learn more in our 8x8 pricing breakdown.

 

Who Should Use 8x8

  • Companies seeking a simple contact center: 8x8’s offerings have only the necessary features like omnichannel routing, queueing, and IVR–without the advanced features. This makes it a good choice for teams looking for a basic CCaaS product.
  • Those who need UCaaS functionality: 8x8’s contact center tools have built-in UCaaS functionality, promoting internal team collaboration via video and team chat

 

Sprinklr

 

Nate Reviews Sprinklr CXM

 

Sprinklr is a feature-rich omnichannel contact center unifying over 30 communication channels: email, voice, live chat, social media, review sites like Yelp and Google Reviews, and more. Provide customer self-service with intelligent chatbots, host a forum for customers to communicate, or build a knowledge base by writing articles.

The platform implements AI for agent support, with canned responses and guided customer paths. It includes built-in omnichannel and task routing, with an automated ticketing program. Plans have quality management tools for supervisors, conversational analytics, and multichannel surveys.

 

What We Like About Sprinklr

  • Unique channels: Sprinklr lets you interact with customers across review platforms, like Yelp and Google Reviews, along with social media platforms–unlocking unique customer touchpoints
  • Knowledge base: Create a customer-facing community forum, and write articles to create a searchable knowledge base. Most CCaaS providers don’t offer these self-service features.
  • Agent support: Sprinklr supports agents with AI-based speech and action suggestions and a 360-degree view of the customer’s journey. View a customer’s contact details, survey results, and interaction history.
  • Customer insights: Gain a better understanding of your customers with call transcription and conversational analytics for all interactions. Deploy surveys across all channels and get AI CSAT predictions.
  • Social listening add-on: Sprinklr Social adds social listening capabilities across social media channels and review sites, enabling you to track trends in the feedback your company receives across platforms

 

What We Don’t Like About Sprinklr

  • Price: While Sprinklr offers tons of advanced features like a knowledge base and conversational chatbots, it has the highest price floor of any provider on our list
  • Not much channel flexibility: Sprinklr does not offer voice-only or digital-only plans–only omnichannel options
  • No basic options: Teams seeking a simple contact center, with just basic features like IVR and queueing, may feel overwhelmed by the number of panels in Sprinklr’s agent dashboard

 

Pricing

Sprinklr offers two omnichannel CCaaS plans, one at $249 monthly per user, and a custom option that bundles features from add-ons, such as social media management. The platform has a 30-day free trial.

 

Who Should Use Sprinklr

  • Companies that want to utilize social media: Sprinklr’s service plans include social media and review channels, and the Sprinklr Social add-on bundles social listening to closely manage your company’s reputation across social platforms
  • Those who want to offer self-service: Sprinklr supports well-rounded customer self-service with a knowledge base, community forum, and intelligent chatbots

 

Genesys

 

Nate Reviews Genesys Contact Center Software

 

Genesys Cloud is a blended CCaaS solution with voice-only, digital-only, and omnichannel options that add email, social media, and live chat. The provider’s basic plans are cost-effective, with essential features like IVR, queueing, interaction recording, and a drag-and-drop customer journey orchestration tool.

Advanced plans have quality management dashboards, for supervisors to monitor agent performance and customer satisfaction. Build a knowledge center to support live agents, and make scheduling easier with automated AI forecasting.

 

What We Like About Genesys

  • Low-cost voice-only plan: At $75 monthly per user, Genesys’ Cloud 1 plan offers one of the most affordable call center software systems on the market
  • Agent-friendly dashboard: The Genesys dashboard provides multiple channels and panes for agents to engage in multiple customer interactions at once
  • IVR, IVA, and queueing: Use a drag-and-drop designer to orchestrate customer journeys intuitively across voice and digital channels, with no coding experience required
  • AI-based add-ons: While not included with regular plans, Genesys add-ons enable AI-intelligent bots, team collaboration, and workflow automation
  • AI Workforce management: Genesys uses AI to forecast staffing needs and schedule agents based on availability and FTE

 

What We Dislike About Genesys

  • Lack of advanced tools: Genesys offers AI self-service and workflow automations as add-ons, but many alternatives include these features built into the core plans
  • Basic analytics: Genesys analytics don’t offer the customizability and depth that alternative platforms have

 

Pricing

Genesys offers five pricing plans, ranging from $75 to $155 monthly per user. They have voice-only, digital-only, and omnichannel options.

To learn more, check out our Genesys Cloud CX review.

 

Who Should Use Genesys

  • Companies seeking a simple call center: Genesys’ Cloud 1 plan is an affordable and simple CCaaS platform with just the core features–IVR, recording, and queueing
  • Digital-only contact centers: Genesys offers advanced digital-only plans that include advanced features like AI analytics and workforce management

 

Zoom

 

Nate Reviews Zoom Contact Center Software

 

Zoom’s omnichannel contact center software bundles voice, video, web chat, SMS, email, and social messaging apps. It includes an IVR system with a drag-and-drop flow editor, call queues, and ring groups.

Gain Voice of the Customer (VoC) insights with AI call transcription, sentiment detection, and multichannel surveys. All plans include the AI Companion features for task automation, and advanced plans include AI-based expert assistance. Higher-tier plans also include quality management and workforce management features.

 

What We Like About Zoom

  • Cost-effective omnichannel: Zoom’s Essentials plan is just $69 per month, the most affordable omnichannel solution on our list
  • AI Companion: A unique offering, Zoom’s AI Companion assists agents by summarizing calls and messaging conversations, generating task lists after calls, even creating content like messages
  • Feature-packed basic plan: While alternatives include just queueing and IVR in basic plans, Zoom’s lowest plan has surveys, VoC, call transcription, and the AI companion
  • User-friendly workforce management: Some WFM dashboards can be overwhelming for new users, but we found Zoom’s scheduling and forecasting easy to use
  • VoC surveys: Gain a deeper understanding of customer experience by implementing surveys into workflows across multiple channels

 

What We Dislike About Zoom

  • Lack of analytics: While Zoom has a lot of advanced features, it doesn’t offer conversational analytics, which many alternatives have
  • Limited workflow customization: Zoom has a drag-and-drop editor for IVR call flows but cannot link various platforms and software systems with workflows, as some alternatives can

 

Pricing

Zoom has three contact center plans that range from $69 to $149 monthly per user. Each plan is omnichannel, though the higher-tier plans add email and social media.

To learn more see our Zoom Contact Center pricing review.

 

Who Should Use Zoom

  • Those on a budget: Zoom offers the most cost-effective omnichannel CCaaS product on our list, an exceptional value
  • Companies that plan to use video: Each Zoom CCaaS plan comes with their native video platform, full of rich interactive features

 

Which Contact Center Software Should You Choose?

While each contact center platform on our list offers omnichannel customer service, each software has unique strong points and use cases. Use the outline below as a quick guide.

  • AI features: Dialpad and Five9 offer AI-rich products with strong live-agent support tools
  • Chatbots and self-service: Nextiva and Sprinklr have intelligent, interactive self-service features
  • Customer insights: NICE CXone and RingCentral offer in-depth Voice of the Customer insights and accurate call transcription
  • Low-cost options: RingCentral, Genesys, and Zoom have low-cost digital-only, voice-only, and omnichannel plans for those on a budget
  • Team collaboration: With built-in team chat and video, 8x8and RingCentral makes a great option for internal team communication