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Summary: Talkdesk and Five9 are two popular contact center solutions with scalable workforce management, AI-powered conversational analytics, and proactive outbound engagement.

Both providers have voice-only, digital-only, and true omnichannel plans that include 24/7 customer support and 99.999% uptime. Talkdesk is more affordable than Five9, has more transparent pricing, and offers 5 industry-specific packages for the government, retail, financial, and healthcare sectors.

While it’s more expensive than Talkdesk, Five9 is the more feature-rich option, giving users better overall value for money.  Compared to Five9, Talkdesk has stronger security features, more third-party integrations, and better WFM and agent coaching tools. Five9, on the other hand, provides deeper analytics than Talkdesk thanks to its unique AI Insights feature.

Five9 also has more digital channels than Talkdesk–including customer-facing video calling–and more advanced outbound auto dialers. That said, both providers lack native unified communications and collaboration tools.

 

Choose Talkdesk If You Need:

  • Industry-specific contact center solutions that fulfill your unique third-party integration and compliance requirements
  • An affordable omnichannel contact center that lets you scale to add more advanced WFM features a la carte for greater cost savings
  • Automated real-time and post-interaction agent coaching tools with sentiment monitoring, synchronized agent screen and voice recordings, and  customizable evaluation forms

 

Choose Five9 If You Need:

  • Advanced scheduling and forecasting tools that optimize available agents during peak times, alongside multilingual AI insights that identify additional opportunities for automation
  • Best-in-class outbound auto dialers and proactive engagement tools to increase conversions, optimize the lead management process, and reduce sales agent burnout
  • Highly customizable voice and digital AI Agents for fully automated self-service and omnichannel proactive outbound notifications/reminders

 

Five9 vs Talkdesk: At A Glance

The table below provides a quick comparison of Five9 vs Talkdesk.

Five9 Talkdesk
Pricing+Plans
  • 1 voice-only plan and 1 digital-only plan from $119 per user/month
  • 3 quote-based omnichannel, WEM, and analytics plans
  • 4 CX Cloud plans from $85-$145 per user/month
  • 5 quote-based, industry-specific  Experience Clouds
Voice Calling+SMS 
  • Five9 Dialer with progressive, preview, predictive, and power  with TCPA compliance and dynamic local caller ID
  • Call recording with live transcription, automated customer callbacks, IVR
  • Bulk,group, and 1:1 customer text messaging
  • Outbound preview, predictive, and power dialing with list/campaign management
  • Unlimited local calling, unlimited call recording with live call transcription
  • Bulk SMS and SMS customer surveys
Digital Communication 
  • Live/bot-based interactions via website chat, email, social media messaging, with simultaneous messaging and messaging APIs
  • Customer-facing video chats
  • Outbound digital engagement with intelligent routing and interaction transfer
  • Live and automated interactions across email, live website chat/chatbots, SMS, online faxing, and social media messaging
  • Digital interaction routing and transfers
  • Use Digital Connect to integrate with additional third-party digital channels
Omnichannel Workflow Automation
  • Omnichannel proactive notifications based on event detection in Five9 and integrated systems
  • Low-code/no-code omnichannel workflow design, task automation, and agent skill assignment
  • Voice and digital IVAs powered by Five9 Genius AI
  • Automated customer support ticketing with Talkdesk Cases
  • GenAI intelligent interaction routing with Talkdesk Navigator
  • No-code Automation Designer for omnichannel virtual agents, Talkdesk Studio for IVR call flow management

 

Workforce Management
  • Agent Assist and interaction summaries
  • Performance gamification, live agent desktop monitoring, multi-channel agent evaluations
  • 6 forecasting methods, automated agent scheduling with agent-facing app
  • Omnichannel forecasting with shift templates and adherence monitoring
  • Custom agent evaluations and automated scoring via Talkdesk Forms
  • Employee recognition/rewards, performance gamification, interaction recording
Analytics+Reporting
  • CSAT monitoring, topic detection, customer sentiment, and resolution status via Five9 AI Insights
  • 120+ live and historical KPIs, 90+ reporting template
  • Talkdesk Feedback VoC survey tool with live analysis
  • Interaction Analytics with sentiment/intent monitoring, topic analysis, keyword search, utterance monitoring, and mood insights
  • Monitor 900+ live and historical KPIs
Integrations+APIs
  • API access
  • Limited pre-built integrations
  • Five9 CX marketplace for instant access to 160+ partner tools for sale
  • API access
  • 70+ pre-built integrations
  • Talkdesk AppConnect marketplace for 1-click access to 100+ popular CCaaS apps, plus 30-day free trials
Security+Network Reliability
  • 99.999% uptime with 24/7 network monitoring
  • HIPAA, BAA, PCI, SOC 2 Type 2, and GDPR compliance
  • Data encryption in transit and at rest
  • 99.999% uptime
  • Talkdesk Shield for user authentication, PCI-compliant Talkdesk Secure Payments
  • 30+ third-party security certifications including HIPAA and FedRAMP compliance
Customer Support 24/7 omnichannel support 24/7 omnichannel support

 

How We Compared Talkdesk vs Five9

We used the below criteria to compare Five9 vs Talkdesk:

  • Pricing and Scalability: We reviewed the cost of bundled month-to-month plans, overall plan value, flexible pricing options like pay-as-you-go or concurrent user billing, platform scalability, and available individual add-ons
  • Communication Channels: We looked at included voice and digital communication channels like VoIP voice calling, SMS/MMS texting, website chat, social media messaging, video calling, email, online fax, etc.
  • AI Workflow Optimization: We evaluated how each provider leverages AI to optimize workflows and automate routine business processes. We looked for features like live agent assist, automated agent coaching/scoring, IVR and IVAs, knowledge base management, interaction summaries, etc.
  • Workforce Management: We compared workforce and performance management tools like automated and supervisor-led agent coaching, agent evaluations and scoresheets, performance gamification, scheduling/forecasting, etc.
  • Analytics and Reporting: We reviewed available live and historical KPI monitoring reports, report types, conversational AI-powered insights, customer survey tools, and custom analytics
  • Third-Party Integrations and APIs: We looked at available APIs, pre-built third-party integrations with popular business communications software, and app marketplaces
  • Security and Customer Support: We reviewed the quality and availability of support channels, looked for paid support upgrades and self-help tools, and reviewed security certifications

 

Five9 vs Talkdesk: Pricing and Plans

Summary: With 9 total plans starting from $85/user/month, Talkdesk provides more value and scalability than Five9. Talkdesk also offers 5 industry-specific Experience Clouds for businesses in the healthcare, banking, insurance, retail, and government sectors. Five9 has 5 plans from $119/user/month, but three of the plans are entirely quote-based–making it tough to estimate value. Both Five9 and Talkdesk have voice-only, digital-only, and omnichannel plans alongside plans with scalable WFM and analytics tools. Only Five9 includes WFM, CX analytics, and proactive outreach on top-tier plans, meaning it offers more value than Talkdesk.

 

Five9 has 5 total plans from $119/user/month with a 36-month contract. Usage-based pricing and concurrent pricing options are available, but require a 50-seat minimum. Voice-only and digital-only plans are both $119/user/month and include blended calling or messaging, interaction recording, and complete workflow automation. The voice-only plan includes the Five9 Dialer.

The quote-based Five9 Premium plan provides omnichannel communication and adds essential quality management tools. The Optimum plan adds enterprise WFM and quality management, while the top-tier Ultimate plan adds interaction analytics.

For more details, see our Five9 pricing guide.

 

Talkdesk has 4 CX Cloud plans from $85-$145/user/month. Per-hour and concurrent user pricing are also available. The Digital Essentials Plan ($85/user/month) includes quality management, interaction routing, APIs, Talkdesk Connections, basic reporting, and mobile app access.

The Cloud Essentials Plan ($85/user/month) is the voice-only solution, adding automation and workspace design tools. Essentials users can access third-party integrations via a paid add-on. The Cloud Elevate plan ($115/user/month) is an omnichannel solution that adds customer surveys and screen recording, while the Cloud Elite Plan ($145/user/month) includes performance management and advanced reporting. However, the Cloud Elite plan only let users pick one WFM, CX analytics, or proactive engagement add-on to be included in their plan. The other 2 add-ons must be purchased separately.  While this flexibility may result in cost savings for businesses that don’t need all three capabilities some money, it will drive up operating costs for those that do.

Talkdesk offers 4 quote-based industry-specific Experience Clouds for banking, insurance, healthcare, retail, and government users. These plans include 2 add-ons, integrate with niche third-party tools, and meet unique compliance regulations.

For more details, see our Talkdesk pricing guide.

 

Communication Channels: Five9 vs Talkdesk

Summary: Five9 and Talkdesk provide comparable voice and digital communication channels, although Five9 is the only option to include customer-facing video calls. Both provide omnichannel skills-based routing and intergrate with internal knowledge base and CRM data to give agents in-conversation assistance via screen pops. Talkdesk offers stronger customer security than Five9 thanks to its built-in voice biometrics tool and Talkdesk Shield security bundle. Five9, however, easily bests Talkdesk when it comes to automated outbound voice calling.

Five9 Conversation Transcript

Five9 and Talkdesk both provide agent-led and fully automated customer communication across voice, SMS, email, website chat, social media messaging, and integrated digital channels. While only Talkdesk includes online faxing, only Five9 includes customer-facing video calls. Both providers leverage omnichannel AI-powered features like live Agent Assist, automated interaction summaries, intelligent omnichannel routing, real-time transcription, and intuitive IVA and IVR design tools to improve CX.

Both also include proactive engagement across voice and digital channels, but Five9 offers a stronger outbound auto dialer than Talkdesk. Five9 is best for outbound contact centers, while Talkdesk’s automated ticketing feature makes it the better fit for inbound customer service teams.

Five9 and Talkdesk both provide preview, predictive, and power dialing–but only Five9 also includes progressive auto dialing and comes with more advanced campaign and lead management tools.

 

Workforce Management: Five9 vs Talkdesk

Summary: Talkdesk and Five9 both provide advanced WFM suites including forecasting and scheduling apps, gamification, live agent interaction monitoring, coaching tools, and employee recognition programs. Talkdesk’s WFM solution is among the best in the CCaaS market–especially when it comes to performance evaluations and agent coaching. Five9, however, provides stronger agent scheduling and forecasting tools, making it the better fit for understaffed contact centers struggling to keep up with high contact volumes. Teams looking to increase agent retention rates alongside CSAT scores should choose Talkdesk.

five9 agent assist call center

 

Both Five9 and Talkdesk include multiple forecasting methods, shift templates, automated scheduling with live intraday management, and adherence monitoring in their workforce management tools. While both offer omnichannel forecasting, only Five9 has native multi-skill forecasting and more algorithms than Talkdesk. That said, Talkdesk’s agent-facing schedule management app is available on desktop and mobile devices, unlike Five9’s.

Talkdesk provides far better quality and performance management tools than Five9. Talkdesk Forms lets supervisors completely customize agent evaluations and score sheets–and automatically scores agent performance in real time. Once an interaction is over, supervisors can add time-stamped notes to voice recordings/transcripts, review trends in agent performance, and assign relevant training modules for better agent coaching.

talkdesk wfm

 

On the other hand, Five9’s performance management dashboard provides multi-role dashboards for agents, supervisors, and managers with real-time KPI and SLA alerts–a feature Talkdesk doesn’t offer.

 

Analytics+Reporting: Five9 vs Talkdesk

Summary: Five9 and Talkdesk both offer excellent reporting tools, including standard KPI monitoring, speech and text analytics, quality management, CSAT monitoring, and omnichannel customer surveys. Talkdesk monitors more individual KPIs than Five9, and is the only provider to analyze customer survey responses in real time. However, Five9’s AI Insights tool, powered by Five9 Genius AI, is difficult to beat.

talkdesk analytics

 

Talkdesk and Five9 both analyze 100% of omnichannel interactions to evaluate customer sentiment and intent, the root cause of common customer service issues, trends in agent performance, and common conversation topics. Five9, however, also offers conversational AI insights in 28 languages, making it the better choice for global contact centers.

five9 ai insights

 

Five9 AI Insights identifies opportunities for automation, automatically categorizes calls by topic, tracks CSAT trends and marketing campaigns, and lets supervisors drill data down to view team-based, agent-based, and KPI-based reports.

Talkdesk’s AI-powered Customer Experience Analytics tool identifies common keywords and topics in customer conversations, and tracks customer mood insights that identify the root causes of changes in CSAT levels. While it’s a strong tool, it can’t compete with Five9 AI Insights.

 

Integrations+APIs: Five Vs Talkdesk

Summary: Five9 and Talkdesk both include API access on all plans, but only Five9 includes third-party integrations with all plans. Still, Talkdesk provides 70+ pre-built integrations, while Five9 only integrates with a few CRM and helpdesk tools (despite claiming to have more.) Talkdesk and Five9 both have an app marketplace that lets users purchase and integrate third-party tools into the platform with one click–but only Talkdesk offers free 30-day trials with AppConnect tools.

Both Talkdesk and Five9 include APIs and integrate with essential CRM systems and helpdesk solutions like Salesforce, Zendesk, ServiceNow, and Oracle. Both also integrate with popular unified communications tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Talkdesk has 70+ pre-built integrations, but limits access to them to upper-tier plans. Five9 doesn’t appear to offer nearly as many integrations as Talkdesk, and doesn’t include much information about compatible platforms on its website.

While both Talkdesk and Five9 have an app marketplace, Talkdesk’s is more extensive and offers free 30-day trials of popular software. That said, while all Five9 plans include integrations and API access, only Talkdesk Cloud Elevate users and above have access to pre-built third-party integrations and the AppConnect Marketplace.

 

Five9 Pros+Cons

The pros to choosing Five9 over Talkdesk include:

  • Five9 offers an affordable digital-only plan with social messaging (social messaging is only available as an add-on with Talkdesk)
  • Five9 offers 6 types of auto dialers which are included in all plans (Premium Talkdesk plans only offer power and preview auto dialers)
  • Five9 offers real-time call center video chat as an add-on (Not offered by Talkdesk)

That having been said, here is where Five9 falls short: 

  • Five9 is more expensive than Talkdesk
  • SMS/MMS is only included in the digital plan or as an add-on
  • Five9 has fewer pre-built integrations than Talkdesk (though APIs are available)

 

Talkdesk Pros+Cons

The pros to choosing Talkdesk over Five9 include:

  • Talkdesk includes over 60 pre-built integrations (Five9 has under 10)
  • Talkdesk offers industry-specific packages with prebuilt workflows (Five9 does not offer this)
  • 100% uptime SLA with experience cloud packages (Five9 does not offer 100% uptime SLA)

 

That having been said, here is where Talkdesk falls short: 

  • Marketing, outreach, and WFM/WEM features like bulk SMS, preview dialing and automated scheduling are only available in the most expensive plan–and customers may only choose one of these features to be included in their package (Five9 includes WFM/WEM tools in Premium plan and up)
  • Limited digital engagement channels (chat, SMS, email) are only included in the mid-range pricing plan and up
  • Talkdesk does not offer some advanced inbound features such as screen pop or incoming call whisper (Five9 offers these features in all plans)

 

User Experience: What are Customers Saying?

We’ve taken a look at what some of GetVoIP’s users have been saying about both providers, and here are a few that stand out.

 

Here's what Five9 users are saying:

“The service is very reliable and dependable. They have great customer support. Issues are always resolved in a timely manner and they stay in constant communication with you with updates so you always now the status of your issue being resolved. You can customize your features to meet all of your business needs.” – Tina A.

“Even though we’re a small call center, Five9 provides the support and attention we need. The Five9 platform meets all of our needs and makes our call center run more effectively.” – Jake N.

 

Here's what Talkdesk users are saying:

“Talkdesk is an excellent platform on which to connect with customers across a variety of communication methods such as phone, chat and email. It provides well developed tools to monitor performance and deep integration across the various apps. The cloud based approach allows colleagues to work remotely and connect across all of our sites easily and has helped during the current COVID-19 pandemic.” – Paul James R.

“This is easy to use. Everyone will be able to learn to use it and be able to use it with ease. Makes monitoring the agents and statuses easy. All of the monitoring is on one screen so it is easy to find statuses of a specific agent. Finding the calls stats for the day is conveniently in one location and you are able to change the dates and times to monitor a certain time frame easily.” - E'Llysa A.

 

Alternatives to Five9 and Talkdesk

Our final take on Five9 vs Talkdesk?

Outbound call centers and enterprises needing extensive AI analytics to improve the customer experience should choose Five9. Five9 is also a good fit for digital-first omnichannel contact centers heavily reliant on proactive messaging for upselling and retaining customers.

Enterprises that need extensive workforce management tools to optimize agent scheduling, decrease agent turnover, and improve agent performance should choose Talkdesk. Talkdesk is also right for growing omnichannel contact centers that prioritize scalable pricing and the flexibility of individual add-ons.

If neither option sounds right for your business, check out our guides to the best Talkdesk alternatives and the top Five9 alternatives. Providers like RingCentral, NICE CXone, or Genesys may be a better fit for your team.