The 5 Best Alternatives to Cisco Call Center

Looking for the top Cisco Call Center alternatives? Primarily built for large-scale enterprises, Cisco is an advanced contact center solution with omnichannel communication, AI-driven analytics, and cloud integrations. It also has WebEx, a more affordable contact center for growing businesses, but updated pricing plans have yet to be made public.

Cisco is among the most trusted brands for networking and call centers alike, but there comes a time when it’s necessary to seek a better, nimbler vendor.

This guide covers the top five recommendations if you’re looking for a cost-effective alternative to Cisco Call Center software. We’ll discuss pricing and features to help you make an informed decision.

Why Customers May Consider an Alternative to Cisco Call Center

While Cisco is highly customizable and integrates deeply with a broader suite of products, users often seek an alternative for the following reasons:

1. High price point

Cisco’s plans and packages are tailored to large-scale enterprise organizations — making them too expensive for smaller organizations with limited budgets.

While the WebEx contact center is supposedly more affordable, you’ll need to pay extra for necessary add-ons such as workforce optimization (WFO) tools and cloud PBX integration, increasing already incurred costs.

2. Complexity

Cisco can be pretty complex due to its numerous features and integrations, especially for non-technical users. The nonintuitive interface can make it difficult for users to make changes or discover new features.

“The system is incredibly complex. UIs are almost intentionally hard to understand and are almost never updated. Everything looks like it was built in the ’90s because it probably was.”

3. Poor customer support

Some user reviews suggest that Cisco’s support team can be unnecessarily bureaucratic, making it harder to resolve issues on time. This can be a challenge for growing businesses that require on-time support to troubleshoot and solve problems as quickly as possible.

“They make you jump through hoop after hoop regarding service agreements, licensing, user assignments, and access. You’d think you were trying to break into Fort Knox whenever you need help with something.”

The Top 5 Alternatives to Cisco Call Center

Are you looking for a Cisco alternative? Here are the top contact center platforms to consider:

	Best For	Top Features	Pricing
Nextiva	Large enterprises or call centers that handle high volumes of customer interactions across multiple channels	AI-driven insights, voice analytics, and real-time dashboards Omnichannel support Seamless CRM integration and auto-responders	From $129 per agent
Five9	Large enterprises or call centers that handle high volumes of customer interactions across multiple channels	WFO tools Predictive dialer for outbound campaigns Omnichannel routing	From $175 per month
8×8	SMBs seeking an all-in-one communications platform with integrated call center functionality	AI-driven predictive dialing Advanced security features, including encryption and compliance certifications Analytics dashboard	Custom pricing
Talkdesk	Mid-sized to large enterprises looking for a customizable and scalable call center solution	AI automation Real-time call analytics Omnichannel support for voice, chat, email, and SMS	From $85 per user/month
Dialpad	Small to mid-sized businesses looking for an easy-to-use, AI-powered platform	AI-powered voice intelligence Omnichannel support Third-party integrations	From $95 per user/month

1. Nextiva: Best for call centers handling high call volumes

Built for scale, Nextiva provides reliable cloud call center solutions that enable organizations to efficiently handle high call volumes. It offers interactive voice response, advanced call routing, and other automation capabilities, allowing call center agents to coordinate multiple inbound and outbound interactions without unnecessary wait times.

Nextiva’s call center software is fully integrated with its unified communications platform, enabling agents to coordinate customer interactions across multiple channels from a centralized dashboard. It also offers a user-friendly interface, reliable customer support, and flexible pricing — making it a top choice for organizations looking for call center software that grows with their business.

Top features

• AI-driven insights, voice analytics, and real-time dashboards
• Seamless CRM integration and auto-responders
• 24/7 support and built-in compliance features for regulatory requirements
• Cloud-based call center with omnichannel support (voice, email, and chat)

Pricing

Nextiva has three monthly pricing plans:

• Essential: From $129 per agent
• Professional: From $159 per agent
• Premium: From $199 per agent

2. Five9: Best for large enterprises with multiple customer communication channels

Five9 is a decent choice for large organizations with complex contact center workflows. It provides AI-powered analytics, integrations, and workforce management features to help you coordinate interactions across multiple channels while optimizing agents’ performance for call center efficiency.

While Five9 offers a strong core product, some standard reporting features are lacking. For example, you can’t combine data from different sources into a single table to create a holistic reporting dashboard, and you can’t create reports for SMS data.

Top features

• Cloud-based call center with advanced AI capabilities, omnichannel routing, and real-time performance monitoring
• Integrated WFO tools and predictive dialer for outbound campaigns
• Strong analytics and AI-driven automation for customer interactions

Pricing

Five9 has five pricing packages for different communication channels and contact center capabilities. However, pricing is only available for its Digital and Core plans on the website — you’ll have to contact its sales team for a quote for the others.

• Digital-only: $175 per month
• Core (voice-only): $175 per month
• Premium (digital + voice): Custom pricing
• Optimum (digital + voice + WEM): Custom pricing
• Ultimate (digital + voice + WEM + analytics): Custom pricing

3. 8×8: Best for small businesses looking for an all-in-one communications platform

8×8 is a cloud contact center solution that empowers small businesses to deliver outstanding customer experiences across all touchpoints. It offers unified communications tools, allowing you to integrate voice, social, and email channels into a central platform for more efficient contact center operations.

However, some 8×8 users say the platform has frequent downtimes that disrupt their call center operations for several hours. Also, customer support isn’t very helpful, and reported issues often go unresolved.

“Support is horrible. They have never experienced the issue that you have, so they have to start at the beginning and never seem to resolve [it]. Sometimes, the issue doesn’t happen again, so the ticket simply gets closed.”

Top features

• AI-driven predictive dialing, CRM integration, and analytics dashboards
• Advanced security features, including encryption and compliance certifications
• Strong focus on security and compliance, making it suitable for regulated industries

Pricing

8×8 offers custom pricing for all its plans. This means you have to contact the sales team for a quote. It also charges extra for add-on features like third-party integrations.

4. Talkdesk: Best for mid-sized to large enterprises looking for a customizable and scalable call center solution

Talkdesk is an AI-powered customer experience platform that offers more flexibility and customization options than Cisco. This makes it a popular choice for businesses looking to deliver personalized customer experiences at scale across multiple channels.

What stands out for Talkdesk users is how easy the platform is to deploy and use. As one user says, “Talkdesk is easy to navigate. The Live screen is easy to customize to keep track in real time of the metrics you want to monitor. You can assign voicemails to specific agents easily. When there are any issues, they quickly respond and repair.”

Despite its ease of use, Talkdesk has significant drawbacks, including frequent downtime leading to call center disruptions.

Top features

• Cloud-native call center with AI automation, real-time call analytics, and workforce management tools
• Omnichannel support for voice, chat, email, and SMS, with seamless CRM integrations
• Low-code/no-code interface for easy setup and customization

Pricing

Talkdesk has four monthly pricing plans:

• CX Cloud Digital: $85 per user
• CX Cloud Essentials: $85 per user
• CX Cloud Elevate: $115 per user
• CX Cloud Elite: $145 per user

5. Dialpad: Small to mid-sized businesses looking for an easy-to-use, AI-powered platform

Dialpad focuses on real-time call insights with a strong AI component, making it ideal for businesses that want deeper insights into customer interactions. It also integrates with productivity tools, like Google Workspace and CRM software, making it suitable for contact centers that want their agents to be more efficient.

However, one downside of Dialpad AI Contact Center is that the AI features, like transcription and sentiment analysis, can sometimes be inaccurate, which might lead to misunderstandings during calls.

Top features

• AI-powered voice intelligence offering real-time transcription, sentiment analysis, and keyword tracking
• Omnichannel support with seamless integration into tools like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
• Simple, user-friendly interface and robust analytics capabilities

Pricing

Dialpad has three monthly pricing plans:

• Essentials: $95 per user
• Advanced: $135 per user
• Premium: $170 per user

Honorable mention: Avaya

Originally a VoIP phone provider, Avaya has slowly evolved into cloud contact center software — providing unified communication features, automation capabilities, and workforce management tools.

It is becoming a popular Cisco alternative for enterprise businesses looking to blend traditional VoIP features with more modern contact center technology.

However, Avaya’s high price point often discourages organizations from making the switch. So if you’re looking for a cost-effective Cisco alternative offering modern cloud and AI solutions, Nextiva might be a better option.

Get the Nextiva Advantage

To recap, here’s what makes Cisco alternatives stand out:

• Nextiva for high-volume call centers
• Five9 for omnichannel support
• 8×8 for unified communications
• Talkdesk for customizable AI solutions
• Dialpad for real-time voice insights

Each contact center software offers standout features depending on your business needs. However, if you’re looking for a unified contact center solution that offers advanced features and reliable customer support at great pricing, Nextiva should be your top choice.

With powerful AI, easy CRM integration, and a focus on customer experience, Nextiva provides a robust, scalable solution without the complexity or high cost of Cisco Call Center software.

Learn more about Nextiva’s UCaaS features to see how we help businesses like yours efficiently scale their contact center operations. 👇