8×8 Review (2024): Is it a Trustworthy Solution?

Image: 8×8

8×8 is simply a almighty unified communications strategy and interaction halfway solution that’s built to scale. You get unlimited calling to 14 countries and league calls with up to 500 progressive participants close retired of the box. It’s besides secure, reliable and backed by a 99.999% uptime SLA.

Overall, 8×8 is simply a beardown prime for planetary businesses and interaction centers with high-volume planetary calling and ample gathering requirements.

8×8’s pricing

8×8 has 5 plans to take from: 2 unified communications packages and 3 interaction halfway options:

• Unified Communications X2: Unlimited calling to 14 countries.
• Unified Communications X4: Unlimited calling to 48 countries and a fewer other features.
• Contact Center X6: Skills-based routing, reporting and travel mapping.
• Contact Center X7: Out-of-the-box CRM integrations and productivity tools.
• Contact Center X8: Auto, progressive, preview and predictive dialers.

Speak with an 8×8 income typical to larn much astir their plans and features. Image: 8×8

There’s nary authoritative pricing accusation online; however, 8×8’s website states that VoIP plans commencement astatine $15 per period per user, with much precocious features starting astatine $40 per period per user.

Features similar acold storage, built-in telephone payments and intelligent IVR tin beryllium purchased arsenic abstracted add-ons.

8×8’s cardinal features

Every 8×8 program is packed with features. Here’s a person look astatine immoderate of the modular features you’ll get with the entry-level plan.

Unlimited calling to 14 countries

Normally, concern telephone systems necessitate you to acquisition planetary calling packages arsenic a abstracted add-on. With 8×8, your full squad gets unlimited calling to the pursuing 14 countries arsenic a basal feature:

• United States.
• Canada.
• Puerto Rico.
• United Kingdom.
• Australia.
• France.
• Germany.
• Ireland.
• Italy.
• Netherlands.
• New Zealand.
• Spain.
• Sweden.
• Switzerland.

That makes this bundle an fantabulous prime for companies with offices overseas oregon customers located worldwide, peculiarly successful Europe. If you necessitate much extended planetary reach, upgrading to the adjacent program offers unlimited dependable calling to 48 countries.

Audio and video conferencing

Large organizations often conflict to find a instrumentality that tin enactment company-wide meetings. With different platforms connected the market, it’s communal to get league calling capabilities that enactment 100 participants astatine the entry-level tier oregon possibly 200 astatine the highest level.

8×8 shines supra these options with audio and video conferences for up to 500 progressive participants.

Aside from the quality to link with specified a monolithic fig of people, you’ll besides payment from built-in contented sharing and collaboration tools during your calls.

8×8 adjacent provides post-meeting insights, summaries and enactment items — each generated by AI.

The meetings are secure, encrypted and travel with precocious moderation capabilities, which is truly important astatine scale.

8×8 offers a video conferencing solution for businesses of each sizes. Image: 8×8

Unlimited net faxing

Internet faxing has go a must-have diagnostic for modern concern communications, which is wherefore I emotion that 8×8 offers unlimited net fax with each plan. It’s besides utile for distant and hybrid enactment environments wherever it’s unrealistic for your unit to person carnal fax machines successful their location offices.

Multi-level car attendant

8×8’s car attendant helps automate inbound telephone handling, truthful you tin afloat customize your dependable menus without needing to prosecute a dedicated relation oregon receptionist.

The car attendant starts with a nonrecreational greeting and past routes your caller to the close section oregon assets based connected their needs. You tin acceptable up aggregate car attendants for antithetic needs, locations, hours, holidays and more. This is peculiarly important for larger organizations, wherever 1 generic paper won’t beryllium capable to accommodate your full company.

With multi-level capabilities, you tin configure respective telephone flows based connected customized rules that are personalized to each circumstantial number. This diagnostic reduces the request for manual telephone transfers, and inbound callers volition beryllium blessed that they’re getting sent to the close spot without agelong clasp times.

Customize telephone handling with 8×8’s car attendant feature. Image: 8×8

Hot desking

If you person shared workspaces oregon hybrid enactment environments, you’ll emotion 8×8’s blistery desking capabilities. This is different diagnostic that’s not commonly offered arsenic a modular enactment with different platforms, but 8×8 offers it connected each plan.

Any worker tin beryllium successful beforehand of immoderate hot-desk-enabled VoIP telephone and usage it with their telephone fig oregon extension. They simply motion into the phone, and each calls to their fig volition automatically ringing from that device.

While this is disposable connected each 8×8 plans, it’s particularly utile for telephone centers wherever agents don’t person a dedicated workspace. They tin simply locomotion into the office, beryllium successful beforehand of immoderate telephone and they’ll beryllium acceptable up successful seconds to their ain extension.

When they’re done for the day, they motion retired the aforesaid mode they would from a machine and the telephone volition beryllium acceptable to usage for the adjacent shift.

8×8 pros

• Unified communications platform.
• Video, squad chat, texting and fax connected each plan.
• Keeps costs debased for planetary communication.
• Support for hosting monolithic meetings.
• Mix and lucifer idiosyncratic types.
• Scalable interaction halfway plans.
• Customizable with add-ons.
• Top-tier information and compliance.
• 24/7 telephone and unrecorded chat support.

8×8 cons

• Unclear pricing.
• Complex set-up and deployment process.
• Likely excessively precocious for tiny businesses.

Alternatives to 8×8

Nextiva and RingCentral are my apical recommendations for astir businesses. Nextiva works good for companies of each sizes with a scope of basal to precocious plans. RingCentral is amended for midsize and larger teams that request much almighty features crossed the board.

Here’s a person look astatine however 8×8 compares to its closest competitors.

8x8NextivaRingCentralDialpadOoma

Starting price	Custom quote	$28.95 per idiosyncratic per month	$20 per idiosyncratic per month	$15 per idiosyncratic per month	$19.95 per idiosyncratic per month
Free trial	No	Demo	14 days	14 days	No
Setup	Complex	Easy	Complex	Easy	Very easy
Call recording	Call halfway only	Top plan	Yes	Yes	Top 2 tiers
Video meetings	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Top 2 tiers
Texting	Yes	Top 2 tiers	Yes	Yes	Top 2 tiers
Online fax	Yes	Yes	Top 2 tiers	+ $10 per month	Yes
Team chat	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Top 2 tiers
Integrations	65+	20+	300+	70+	10+

Nextiva

Image: Nextiva

8×8 works good for planetary businesses, but not everyone needs that. If you privation a amended equilibrium of affordability, easiness of usage and functionality for US-based businesses, Nextiva is the mode to go.

RingCentral

Image: RingCentral

RingCentral is 1 of the astir almighty telephone systems retired there–even much truthful than 8×8. While it offers PSTN replacement and enactment successful different countries, you won’t get unlimited planetary calling with RingCentral. Instead, you’ll get precocious features similar IVR, ACD, monitoring and a monolithic scope of AI capabilities connected each RingCentral plan.

Dialpad

Image: Dialpad

If automations and AI are a precedence for you, Dialpad offers a wide scope of capabilities. From AI-powered scorecards and predictive CSAT scores to in-call cause assistance and afloat integer assistants, you’ll get cutting borderline functionality astatine an affordable price.

Ooma

Image: Ooma

Need table phones for a accepted bureau space? While immoderate of the companies listed present tin supply that, Ooma is the easiest to deploy, adjacent if you don’t person method unit connected your team. All of their devices are pre-configured, truthful each you person to bash is plug them in. Ooma is missing a batch of the precocious features you’ll spot elsewhere, but it’s perfect if you request thing simple.

Methodology

I reappraisal each concern connection systems based connected a acceptable of modular criteria.

Standard vs precocious features

I looked astatine cardinal features including video conferencing, voicemail, SMS messaging, virtual receptionist, telephone transfers betwixt devices, telephone forwarding, desktop apps and mobile apps and compared their availability astatine antithetic program tiers.

Customer support

I researched the hours of availability for lawsuit support, each service’s enactment channels and immoderate lawsuit reviews related to the provider’s level and velocity of service.

Third-party integrations

In bid to comparison functionality astatine an endeavor level, I checked each platform’s quality to sync with frequently-used concern software, similar CRM, unreality storage, fax, ERP, SMS and more.

Security and privacy

Encryption, relationship management, redundancy architecture, information halfway audits, multi-factor authentication and aggregate servers and information centers successful assorted locations were each considered.

Uptime percentage

I checked for immoderate reports of unplanned outages, infrastructure problems oregon method issues that could pb to uptime problems, delays oregon work interruptions.

Demo oregon escaped trial

This metric includes some the quality to trial the work utilizing a proceedings oregon demo earlier committing to a subscription, arsenic good arsenic the magnitude of clip provided for that escaped trial.

Overall cost

This includes each of the related fees, including escaped trials, discounts, monthly pricing versus yearly pricing, outgo per installation and terms per user. It besides factors successful whether existing oregon caller instrumentality is required to usage the telephone halfway telephone system.