While Nextiva is very powerful and can serve as a unified communications solution, its steep price tag, occasionally unresponsive support staff and complexity can be a big no-no for small businesses. This article will give you the five best Nextiva competitors with similar features but better support and interface while offering more value for the money you pay. 

5 best Nextiva competitors & alternatives

Ringblaze

Nextiva competitors and alternatives: Ringblaze

Ringblaze is a powerful yet super-simple-to-use communications platform that will connect you with your customers and allow them to contact you in no time. 

Opposite to Nextiva, Ringblaze offers all its features in one affordable plan, so you won’t have to worry about consistently upgrading your subscription to unlock its best features.

Features list

  • Shared dashboard: Your entire team will have access to a single dashboard, making support efforts much more effective as they can see all incoming calls from a single place.
  • Real-time interactions: Customers can continue browsing your site while your staff provides live business VoIP service phone support, which will simplify the process and improve customer experience.
  • Premium support: Ringblaze support staff is super-responsive, and you can reach them via chat or email at any time or use the help center.
  • Advanced call features: Call history, custom phone numbers, auto attendant, group calling – Ringblaze has all the features a modern call center needs to satisfy customers.
  • Sleek interface: You just need to install the Ringblaze plugin, and it’s ready to start receiving calls. Your call center agents can use a cloud-based phone system, SaaS or desktop versions, available for both Windows and MacOS.

Pricing

Not only does Ringblaze have a simple pricing structure, with only one plan, but it’s also incredibly affordable considering the number of essential features you get for the money you pay:

  • $19 per user per month (billed monthly) – includes unlimited calling to US & Canada (international calling toll-free number available), free local number, advanced features, desktop app

RingCentral

Nextiva competitors and alternatives: RingCentral

Image source: PCMag

RingCentral compares to Nextiva quite well, as it is also an all-around business communication platform with many features you can deploy in various scenarios, making it a good option even for large companies. 

But, just like Nextiva, RingCentral isn’t cheap, and users sometimes report connection difficulties.

Features list

  • A large toolbox: Besides calling and chatting, RingCentral supports video calls and lets you send SMS messages, but also organizes HD video conferencing and meetings with up to 200 participants and screen sharing, creates webinars and records calls. RingCentral also has push-to-talk support, an excellent option for teams with staff deployed on the field.
  • Good analytics: RingCentral automatically collects call data and puts it into a visually appealing form that lets you draw conclusions quickly and improve your workflows.
  • Great interface: While RingCentral has many features, you will rarely feel overwhelmed and confused about where to start, as it has an intuitive interface. Also, RingCentral has an excellent team dashboard and supports team messaging, which makes your team communication swift and easy.

Pricing

If your main issue with the Nextiva phone system was pricing, RingCentral is not an ideal replacement, as it can also get costly if you want to use all it has to offer:

  • Business communications: $30-45 per user per month – basic calls, meetings and messaging
  • Contact center solutions: pricing upon request – advanced CX solutions, workforce management, artificial intelligence, CCaaS
  • Video conferencing capabilities: free-$49 per room per month – AI video conferencing features, webinar support, multiple rooms
  • Conversation intelligence: pricing upon request – AI-powered sales revenue intelligence platform

See also: RingCentral alternatives

Dialpad

Nextiva competitors and alternatives: Dialpad

Image source: PCMag

What sets Dialpad apart is that it is an entirely AI-powered customer engagement and business communications platform. As such, it will save you a lot of time, as artificial intelligence can aid and even replace your support staff and help close tickets faster. 

While it is a modern phone system when it comes to its AI-powered features and unified communications, users usually complain about the outdated interface and customer support that can be slow to respond.

Features list

  • AI contact center features: Dialpad AI features help you in direct customer communication as it offers automatic voicemail transcription, file sharing, real-time feedback and coaching, as well as scraping and analytics.
  • AI sales: You can also use Dialpad to help your sales teams be more efficient through live recommendations, object handling and native CRM integrations (Zendesk, HubSpot, Zoho).
  • AI-powered customer engagement: Artificial intelligence will enable you to set up chatbots available around the clock, even outside business hours. That can cut support times, as customers can find the answers themselves instead of waiting for an agent to get in touch with them. Because it’s based on the latest large language models, the chatbot can reply to customers using natural language. 
  • AI CSAT: Every call will automatically show the customer satisfaction score obtained by AI, letting you see how your staff is performing in real time.
  • AI voice, messaging and meetings: Dialpad keeps all your business communication streamlined and available from a single dashboard powered by AI features to keep you better organized.

Pricing

While Dialpad phone system isn’t the cheapest app on the list, considering it has some modern AI-powered features, its price tag isn’t that steep:

  • Standard: $23 per user per month – Unlimited voice calling, messaging features, AI transcriptions, Google Workspace and MS integrations, unlimited video calls and video meetings
  • Pro: $35 per user per month – Standard + local numbers, multiple phone numbers, 25 departments, 10 office locations, global SMS, CRM integrations, APIs, 24/7 support
  • Enterprise: pricing upon request – Pro + 100% uptime, unlimited office locations and departments, dial-by, SSO integrations, data retention policies, priority support

See also:

8×8

8x8

Image source: Comparisun

8×8 is another premium business phone system that can serve as the foundation for all contacts large businesses have with their customers. 

But, as we suggested in our 8×8 competitors article, it also has some flaws related to its unreliable performance, unresponsive support team and steep pricing.

Features list 

  • All-in-one contact center: With 8×8, the entire customer and employee experience goes through a single platform. That means you can make calls, send messages, chat, use video conferencing calls, organize meetings and do everything inbound and outbound from one app.
  • In-depth analytics: 8×8 offers real-time feedback and detailed statistics and graphs that will enable you to improve your processes by making data-driven decisions.
  • Good integrations and API support: 8×8 works with many popular tools such as Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot, FreshDesk and Zendesk, which means it will fit into your existing workflow without any issues.

Pricing

While 8×8 does cover pretty much every feature a modern contact center needs to have, that is only the case for its best plans, which makes it quite an expensive solution:

  • x2: $28 per user per month – voice, video meetings and chat
  • x4: $57 per user per month – x2 plus call handling and analytics
  • x6: $85 per user per month – voice contact center 
  • x7: $110 per user per month – one interface for voice and digital interactions
  • x8: $140 per user per month – advanced contact center, QM, analytics

For more information, check out our Nextiva vs 8×8 comparison.

Vonage

Vonage

Image source: FinancesOnline

Vonage business communications system does a good job streamlining your customer touchpoints across different platforms, enabling you to intercept business calls straight from your mobile device via their app, wherever you are. 

Even though it does have a solid feature set, it has some annoying flaws – to unlock even some basic features, you will need to purchase add-ons, which ramps up the pricing very quickly.

Features list

  • Multiple modes: Vonage works as a desktop app but is also available via mobile apps, and you can connect it to desk phones and use it for video conferencing.
  • Solid calling features: Vonage ensures you never miss phone calls with call forwarding, simultaneous call handling, call follow-up and do-not-disturb modes. It also allows international business phone service, call queues, automatic call recording and more.
  • Good employee experience and customer engagement capabilities: Vonage admin portal will serve as the focal point of all your employee and customer-oriented activities. Plus, you can use the app center to extend its feature set and customize it to tailor your needs (although you will have to pay extra for every additional feature).

Pricing

While Vonage is incredibly flexible, it quickly becomes pricey:

  • Mobile: $19.99 per line per month + taxes and fees: Mobile and desktop apps, unlimited calling and SMS, Vonage App Center, Unlimited Team chat and team messaging
  • Premium: $29.99 per line per month: Mobile + unlimited meetings with up to 100 participants, CRM integration, multi-level auto attendant, IP desk phone capability
  • Advanced: $39.99 per line per month: Premium + call recording (on-demand), group calls, visual voicemail

The problem is with the add-ons. For example, a call recording service will cost you $49.99/mo, and toll-free numbers for international calling will be $39.99/mo, which every basic phone system needs to have.

See also: Vonage alternatives and RingCentral vs Vonage

Nextiva competitors & alternatives: Comparison table

PlatformFeaturesPricing starts atBest for
NextivaGood collaboration features
Social media management
AI and automation capabilities 
$30 per user per monthLarge businesses that need all its advanced features (conference bridge, call pulling, push to talk, custom music on hold etc.), as it is pretty expensive 
RingblazeSimple and affordable
Real-time call features
Custom, toll-free numbers for international calling
Excellent support
$19 per user per monthSmaller businesses and those with limited budgets 
RingCentralSeveral customer contact options
Good call and video conferencing features
Detailed analytics
Push to talk 
$30 per user per monthLarger businesses who need its powerful but expensive feature set
DialpadGreat set of AI customer support tools
Contact center, sales and customer management
AI capabilities
Flexibility
$23 per user per month Businesses that can fully use all its AI features
8×8All-in-one contact solution
Advanced feature set and multiple contact options
Many integrations
$28 per user per monthLarge businesses that need to handle a large volume of customers
VonageMultiple working modes, either from desktop or mobile apps
Many calling features to ensure nothing gets by unnoticed
Flexible solution
$19.99 per user per monthSmaller businesses that can get the most out of their plans without add-ons as the pricing increases rapidly

See also: Nextiva vs Grasshopper

Conclusion

As you can see, Nextiva has fierce competition. All five Nextiva alternatives we have suggested have something going in their favor, and the ultimate choice will depend on your preferences and business needs.

We believe Ringblaze provides unique value as it is a simple-to-use but powerful customer communication app with more than fair pricing, making it a great alternative to Nextiva. As such, Ringblaze won’t burden your budget from the get-go, making it an excellent option even for small businesses or those who are just starting, especially because it is absolutely free to try.

Nextiva competitors: FAQs

What is the alternative to Nextiva?

Our article offers the best Nextiva alternatives, but we believe that Ringblaze has everything a capable business phone system needs to have to be named the best Nextiva alternative, as it is:
– Simple-to-use
– Affordable
– Feature-rich

Is Nextiva a VoIP provider?

Yes, among other features, Nextiva offers VoIP phone service with messaging capabilities.

Is Nextiva better than CallHippo?

It is hard to tell, as it will depend on your business needs. But, generally speaking, CallHippo is better tailored towards smaller businesses, as it has a free version and some cheaper plans, while Nextiva will show its full potential in larger organizations that can afford all of its best features.