A business can cut communication expenses by as much as 75% by switching to a VoIP phone service. These savings aren’t something most companies can ignore, but the choice of platform is essential, and you should make it carefully.
Consider 8×8 vs Nextiva, for example. Which of these tools is better? How do they differ? This article is here to answer these burning questions and many more!
What is 8×8?
Image source: Capterra
The 8×8 experience communications platform is a cloud-based tool that offers voice, video, chat and contact center solutions. It enables businesses to communicate and collaborate effectively with their customers, partners and employees, focusing on the first of these groups. The 8×8 tool is easy to use, secure, reliable and scalable.
If you want to learn how 8×8 stacks up against other tools, read our detailed 8×8 competitors overview.
What is Nextiva?
Image source: G2
Nextiva is a cloud-based communication platform designed first and foremost for small and medium-sized businesses. It enables users to manage voice, video, chat and email communications from a single company summary dashboard. Nextiva also provides features such as analytics, automation and CRM integration.
For more information on Nextiva and similar platforms, see our Nextiva competitors analysis, as well as Nextiva vs Grasshopper and RingCentral vs Nextiva comparisons.
8×8 vs Nextiva: How they compare
Now that we’ve introduced both solutions, let’s examine them more thoroughly – focusing on features, integrations, pricing options, customer support and opinions on popular review aggregate websites.
Features
The 8×8 platform offers the following key features:
- Intelligent customer assistant – A user-friendly, AI-enabled assistant that helps improve the self-service experience.
- Omnichannel routing – Connect to users on whatever digital communication channel they prefer.
- Agent workspace – Streamline customer interactions thanks to a well-designed interface.
- Supervisor workspace – Personalized workspace that provides tools for performance optimization.
- Contact center analytics – Powerful analytics and reports to better understand key performance metrics and optimize customer satisfaction and experience.
- Workforce engagement management – Evaluate the quality of interactions and performance and gather insights via customer surveys.
- Business phone line – A cloud-based PBX system with auto-attendant, voicemail transcription and global coverage.
- Video meetings – A secure and reliable business video conferencing solution.
- Team chat – The team messaging system allows you to connect to people within the company or on an external chat application.
- 8×8 work app – One app provides access to essential business communication options.
- Frontdesk – An optimized solution for operators and receptionists.
- Conversation IQ – Speech analytics that provide conversation insights to your team members.
Nextiva has the following feature set:
- Business phone service – Communicate on various channels, including calls, video conferences, SMS messages etc.
- Nextiva analytics – Access hidden insights regarding your communications and business operations.
- Business VoIP phones – Wireless, conference and desk phones for your business.
- Enterprise SIP trunking – Reliable voice connectivity via the Internet based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
- VoIP call center – Manage flows and volume and monitor performance.
- Nextiva mobile apps – A mobile device can replace a desk phone if you want.
- Customer surveys – Get feedback directly from your customers.
- Business text messaging – Send messages from the business phone number.
- Nextiva vFAX – Paperless, unlimited internet fax delivered to the device inbox of choice.
The platforms provide similar, solid features. Both provide plenty of options for calls and call management, including auto-attendants, call routing, voicemail with transcription etc. 8×8 offers unlimited international calling in 48 countries (Nextiva only in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico), which is a significant advantage for companies operating globally.
8×8 is the more robust of the two platforms. It provides more tools that help with analytics and optimizing user engagement, customer experience and employee performance. Plus, it offers more powerful call center management features. However, it’s a bit harder to learn and use than Nextiva.
Nextiva also provides some analytics-related features and allows you to run a VoIP call center, but in general, it focuses on facilitating and optimizing business communication without overcomplicating things. It’s a better option for small businesses that simply need a tool to optimize call management and unify communication channels within the company.
Integrations
8×8 provides several powerful APIs and 59 useful integration options, including tools like Salesforce, Freshdesk, Zendesk, Azure and Okta. It also offers dedicated mobile and desktop apps (phone and voice) for Microsoft Teams with additional functionalities.
Nextiva’s integration list is shorter. It features 19 of them on the website, including Zoho, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk and Microsoft Outlook.
Pricing
8×8 offers several plans that focus on communications or contact center management. However, they don’t provide pricing details on the website. The plans are:
- X2 – Voice, video conferencing and chat functionalities.
- X4 – Access to analytics and advanced call handling.
- X6 – Voice contact center.
- X7 – Multi-channel communication management.
- X8 – Advanced features for contact centers.
Nextiva has three plans, but their prices depend on the number of users. With 1-4 users, they look like this:
- Essential – $30.95/user/month. Starting plan with basic functionality.
- Professional – $35.95/user/month. The option for small teams.
- Enterprise – $45.95/user/month. Complete feature set, suitable for small and medium teams.
The price/user drops as the number of users increases. You can also save 22-28% if you pay annually. With the discount and over 100 users, Nextiva’s Essential plan costs $17.95/user/month. However, it’s worth pointing out that the company sells cloud contact center tools separately (they don’t provide details on the website).
Customer support
8×8 has a dedicated support page, and the company offers paid in-person training, which allows you to learn the platform’s various features.
If you need further help, you can open a ticket after logging in to the portal. The company presents contact information on the website, so you also have the option of contacting them via phone, chat and email – but it’s unclear if they offer any support via these channels.
Nextiva has a support center and a forum where you can ask the community for help. In case of problems, you can submit a case on the website or contact them via chat. You also have the option of emailing their HR team or calling the company (calls are mainly used for sales purposes, however).
User rating
| Tool | Score on G2 | Score on Capterra | Score on Trustpilot |
| 8×8 | 4.1 (652 reviews) | 4.1 (263 reviews) | 2.1 (378 reviews) |
| Nextiva | 4.5 (2712 reviews) | 4.4 (392 reviews) | 4.6 (2188 reviews) |
Ringblaze: 8×8 and Nextiva alternative
8×8 and Nextiva aren’t your only options. There are alternatives on the market that offer similar or better feature sets at a great price.
Take our Ringblaze as an example. It’s a great business phone system for small and medium-sized companies that optimizes communication with clients and business partners worldwide and helps you bring customer support to the next level.
Our tool lets you manage everything through a shared dashboard that supports interactive and dynamic conversations. You can also treat calls as tickets and assign them to specific team members. Moreover, you get plenty of additional features, such as call recording, website call widgets, auto-attendant and many more.
Why choose Ringblaze over 8×8 and Nextiva?
There are at least five good reasons to choose Ringblaze over 8×8 and Nextiva:
- Ease of use – Our tool is very user-friendly. You’ll set the entire system up in less than 15 minutes.
- Customer support – We provide email and chat support, a dedicated account manager and one-on-one onboarding sessions.
- Platform deployment options – Our Ringblaze is available on Macs and Windows PCs.
- Cloud-based – Ringblaze is a SaaS (Software as a Service) tool you can use anywhere and on various devices (a cell phone, tablet etc.).
- Transparent pricing – Rinblaze has just one pricing option at $15/month when paid annually or $4 more for monthly payments.
8×8 vs Nextiva vs Ringblaze: Comparison table
Here’s a comparison of all three tools described in this article.
| Platform | Features | Pricing |
| Ringblaze | Create Phone Numbers Forward Calls Record Calls Team Collaboration Global Inbound and Outbound calls Business texting Manage open and resolved issues Hunt Group Call Widget Access to Customer History Access on desktop and mobile Auto-attendant | Starts at $15 |
| 8×8 | Intelligent customer assistant Omnichannel routing Agent workspace Supervisor workspace Contact center analytics Workforce engagement management Business phone Video meetings Team chat 8×8 work app Frontdesk Conversation IQ | No information |
| Nextiva | Business phone service Nextiva analytics Business VoIP phones Enterprise SIP trunking VoIP call center Nextiva app Customer surveys Business text messaging Nextiva vFAX | Starts at $17.95/user/month (when you have 100+ users) |
8×8 vs Nextiva: Conclusion
Image source: Pexels
8×8 and Nextiva are good VoIP phone systems. The choice between them will depend on your business requirements. For example, if your company operates worldwide, you’ll likely prefer 8×8 with its unlimited calling supported in 48 countries. The feature set also seems oriented more towards enterprises. It offers more, but it’s not as user-friendly as Nextiva, and many companies may not necessarily need some of these options.
However, there are great alternatives on the market. If you’re looking for an affordable but powerful, feature-rich VoIP system with excellent customer support, Ringblaze may be the answer. And the best thing? You can set the entire solution up in 15 minutes. Interested? Create a free account and check Ringblaze out!
8×8 vs Nextiva: FAQs
Here are answers to some common questions regarding 8×8 and Nextiva.
It’s a solid business phone system, especially for companies that operate in various countries around the world.
8×8 works internationally with a reliable internet connection and a compatible device. With their X4 plan, you get unlimited calling to 48 countries.
Yes. 8×8 is a cloud-based business communications platform that offers voice, video, chat and contact center solutions. As such, you can characterize it as a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) system. 8×8’s virtual PBX system doesn’t require hardware or maintenance on the customer’s premises.
