In the standoff of 8×8 vs Nextiva, the winner will depend on your business communications needs. For example, 8×8 is global-friendly; unlike Nextiva, it has international numbers as well as unlimited calling to almost 50 countries. Nextiva, while slightly more expensive, is a powerhouse when it comes to toll-free minutes and its innovative Cospace application.
Our 8×8 vs Nextiva comparison breaks down how these voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) providers differ based on several key criteria that benefit your business. This will help you decide which better fits your needs.
- 8×8: Better for companies looking to expand globally or that already have a set global customer base.
- Nextiva: Better for businesses focusing on collaboration and looking for a single-platform communications system.
For businesses in need of integrations, neither 8×8 nor Nextiva are particularly robust. We found a great alternative for those who need strong connectivity with third-party apps:
- RingCentral: Best for companies in need of robust integrations with third-party applications
8×8 vs Nextiva at a Glance
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Monthly Pricing (per User) | $15* | $30.95** |
Free Trial | 30 days*** | 7 days |
Unlimited Domestic Calling | ✓ | ✓ |
Unmetered International Calling | ✓ | ✕ |
Uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA) | 99.999% | 99.999% |
International Phone Numbers | ✓ | ✕ |
Included Toll-free Minutes | ✕ | ✓ |
Volume Discounts | ✕ | ✓ |
Video Conferencing Capacity | Up to 500 | Unlimited |
Mobile & Desktop Apps | ✓ | ✓ |
For More Information |
*8×8 pricing is based on one to 10 users with the 8×8 X1 plan.
**Nextiva pricing is based on one to four users.
***With 8×8, service is free for the first 30 days.
Best Alternatives
Both 8×8 and Nextiva deliver solid features, but there are other options available that might be more appropriate to your company’s speed. For example, while either provider has reasonable integrations, neither is the market leader. In the end, there are several solid reasons to choose either Nextiva or 8×8, but for the best fit for your company, it’ll be worthwhile also to consider some key alternatives.
A few Nextiva and 8×8 alternatives include:
- RingCentral: This is one of the leading business phone systems on the market. If your team needs integrations, RingCentral is one of the few providers with hundreds of integrations as well as application programming interface (API) support for teams with IT staff. It also rivals Nextiva when it comes to collaboration features. Monthly pricing starts at $30 per month, with options for annual discounts. Learn more in our RingCentral review.
- Ooma: Ooma is a VoIP platform with unified communications features that incorporates features like virtual faxing, auto-attendants, and text messaging. It also stands out because it has a free plan for making calls with the purchase of its Telo device, which converts landline phones to VoIP. Service plan monthly pricing starts at $19.95 per user. Find out more about what this provider offers in our Ooma review.
- Vonage: Vonage’s business communications service has 50-plus business phone features as well as an uptime agreement that rivals both Nextiva and 8×8 (99.999%). Vonage is also a strong contender because of its collaboration features, which allow you to quickly create team huddles at a moment’s notice. Monthly pricing starts at 19.99 per user. Learn more about their offerings in our Vonage review.
Best for Monthly Pricing: 8×8
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Save up to 23% with annual billing. |
Pricing is for one to four users, with volume discounts as users increase. Save up to 22% with annual payment. |
When it comes to the monthly pricing, at first glance, you would think that 8×8 wins in a landslide. However, it’s important to note that the X1 plan, which isn’t even presented on their site, is fairly bare-bones. This plan is missing features that businesses might need, like call queues, video conferencing, and SMS. Still, even at the most comparably featured plan, 8×8 still comes out ahead, which is why it’s featured in our guide about the best cheap VoIP services.
This X2 plan is set at $28 per month for each user, and Nextiva’s base plan starts out at $30.95. While $3.00 is a fairly nominal difference, it adds up over the course of a contract. It’s definitely noteworthy that Nextiva also offers a few discounts to bring pricing down significantly. But for the purpose of this breakdown, we’re looking at plan prices without adjustments. To reduce pricing down to 8×8 levels, you’ll need to have 20 to 99 users with a 36-month contract.
Best for Call Management: Nextiva
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For standard VoIP features, both platforms are pretty comprehensive for handling inbound and outbound calls. 8×8 and Nextiva both allow you to set up call forwarding and routing rules through their user consoles. This makes the process of sending calls to the right party very simple. Your agents will also have no issue sending calls to colleagues via call transfer, and there’s also the ability to set availability to take calls when needed with both providers.
Skills-based routing, which helps your customers reach the most qualified agents and call groups, are both baseline. Quality of life features, such as music on hold and call queues, are also available at even base-level plans.
Where 8×8 falls behind is in its incoming call management. Rather than having a full-fledged interactive voice response (IVR) system in its business communications plan, 8×8 goes with an auto-attendant system. While the provider offers an IVR in its X6, X7, and X8 contact center plans, it’s noticeably missing in its business phone system.
Nextiva, on the other hand, really focuses on its customer management systems and delivers an IVR experience at any plan tier as an add-on. With this feature, you can provide more complex experiences for inbound callers. For example, self-service options like bill pay, appointment scheduling, and reminders are fully available to your customers without the need to engage your agents.
Taking this a step further, Nextiva also has its proprietary interactive voice assistant (IVA), which adds artificial intelligence (AI) to the IVR experience. Using conversational AI and natural language processing, more detailed self-service options become available. As we cover in our guide to the best IVR systems, 8×8’s contact center has many of these features, but paying for a contact center solution just for access to IVR might be outside of the needs of small businesses.
Best for Integrations: 8×8
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Integrating your unified communications as a service (UCaaS)/VoIP provider with various third-party programs delivers a means to improve the performance of the platform. Both of these services integrate with popular programs, such as Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, and Zendesk. However, 8×8 comes out ahead in sheer numbers. Compared to Nextiva, the provider more than doubles the number of integratable applications.
The better integration experience is especially noticeable in the 8×8 Sameroom connector. This software will pull messages from disparate chat platforms into the 8×8 Work app. This creates a “one-stop shop” style of communication for those looking to combine conversations from third-party providers like Telegram, Skype, and Slack.
Additionally, 8×8’s integration support comes at a lower plan level than Nextiva. For example, Microsoft Teams integrates with the X2 plan on 8×8, but this is only available in the Enterprise plan on Nextiva. If you’re considering 8×8 for its robust integrations, check out our 8×8 review for more details about this aspect of the service.
Best for Video Conferencing: Nextiva
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Unlimited video conferencing capacity at Enterprise tier | 500 video conferencing attendees with the X4 plan |
When it comes to video conferencing, Nextiva is the clear winner, thanks to its hefty participant caps. At the maximum, 8×8 allows up to 500 attendees, which is high in the industry, but Nextiva has raised its prior 250-participant cap to unlimited participants in both voice and video conferencing. This is very useful for businesses looking to broadcast developments and offers. This unlimited cap is currently only available to Enterprise subscribers, but this is a relatively low cost of entry when compared to other providers that have lower caps.
Video conferencing has become integral to a business. Nextiva’s raised cap will be very valuable for those looking to improve their interaction with both customers and colleagues. Curious about video conferencing’s value? Check out our video conferencing statistics guide to learn more.
Best for Collaboration: Nextiva
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When it comes to standard collaboration, distributed teams will find that Nextiva also comes out ahead. When comparing Nextiva vs 8×8, both deliver a strong unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform with strong team collaboration with inbound and outbound calling features. However, on-premise and remote teams are better served with Nextiva, thanks to its Cospace app. The app is a unified platform for voice calling, video conferencing, texting, and task management, and it also has a team calendar.
Nextiva’s Cospace application works on both desktop and mobile. (Source: Nextiva)
With it, you can invite an unlimited number of guest users, which makes it a strong tool for businesses working with external clients. There’s also a persistent chat room feature for team huddles—which 8×8 lacks. This helps generate an in-office feeling for distributed coworkers. Check out a more in-depth look in our Nextiva review.
Best for Analytics: Nextiva
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VoIP analytics helps businesses break down the performance of both agents and the business communications system in general. When it comes to this key functionality, both Nextiva and 8×8 provide robust features. For example, Nextiva delivers voice analytics, which provides real-time and historical data using call summary reports. This provides maps and graphs that deliver a visual representation of what’s happening on your business phone system.
A look at Nextiva’s Voice Analytics platform (Source: Nextiva)
8×8 also has in-depth reporting through its 8×8 Works application that helps users glean trends across employees as well as track and understand customer behavior. Its company summary dashboard helps users ascertain your company’s business phone system usage. This is useful for determining inbound and outbound traffic patterns, which can help you lock in optimal times for outreach, customer behavior, and times when there are lulls in business.
8×8’s Conversational IQ stands out because it helps you decipher customer sentiment after and during the call. Conversely, Nextiva’s built-in business intelligence grants access to call recordings in reports. It also employs gamification features, which makes achieving optimal key performance indicators (KPIs) a company-wide pursuit. For example, the analytics platform has the capability to grant points to agents who make the most calls in a preset period of time.
Overall, Nextiva just tells a more complete story when it comes to analytics. While conversational AI is useful, the reports coming from Nextiva’s Voice Analytics platform are just better presented than its competitor.
Best for Building an International Presence: 8×8
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With Nextiva, businesses looking to embrace international customers will start to see the limitations. As we’ve covered in our article on international calling costs, Nextiva provides reasonable rates to hundreds of countries, especially when compared to landline calling. Still, the most important factor about this is its metered nature—you can always expect to spend at least 1 cent per minute with the provider.
With 8×8, you have a completely unmetered calling to either 14 or 48 countries, depending on the plan you select. This is especially beneficial for businesses that make regular calls to these countries since you can expect the same pricing no matter how often you call. On top of this, 8×8 has metered calling to countries outside of the 48, which provides a significant value for those looking to make international inroads.
In addition, Nextiva is sorely lacking international direct inward dialing (DID) numbers, which are also known as virtual numbers. These numbers give your potential international customers local numbers in their jurisdictions to reach you. 8×8 has these numbers in 120 countries so that your business can create a local presence, even when you don’t have branch offices in those countries. To cement the win, 8×8 has customer support for more languages than Nextiva offers.
How We Evaluated 8×8 vs Nextiva
For our comparison, we looked at 8×8 vs Nextiva to determine the pros and cons of each provider. Our evaluation considered several factors, including per-user prices, general and advanced features, and the overall value of the platform. We also looked for unique features that could set one service ahead of the other.
Here’s a complete breakdown of these factors:
- Pricing: For small businesses, pricing is a major consideration. For this criteria, we took a look at the costs per user as well as the presence of annual and/or volume discounts. We also looked at pricing for international calling and free trial length.
- General features: Our comparison looked at standard features, such as an auto-attendant, voicemail, faxing, and texting. We also checked for number types (toll-free, international, and local) and call management options.
- Advanced tools and niche features: Not every feature is needed for every business. Still, some might need more advanced options, such as multi-level auto-attendants, voicemail transcription, and video conferencing. We also explored call reports and mobile apps.
- Expert score: The expert score factors in the platform’s ease of use, from setting up the account to accessing features on mobile and desktop apps. We gave extra points for unique features and scored each provider based on overall value for the money and customer service.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, but only some Nextiva and 8×8 features are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). 8×8’s compliance extends to fax, video conferencing, and text messaging. Nextiva has a few more limitations. Nextiva chat, app-based short message service (SMS), customer relationship manager (CRM), Cospace, and surveys are not HIPAA-compliant.
Yes, 8×8 and Nextiva provide softphone applications for iOS and Android devices. Simply install the correct app on your mobile device and log into your VoIP account. After that, you can use your cell phone to communicate via voice, video, and messaging.
Yes, it is possible to use analog devices with 8×8 and Nextiva phone services, but you’ll need an adapter for your fax machines to send data over the internet. Both companies sell analog telephone adapters (ATAs) and VoIP gateways, which convert your analog signals into digital ones. Alternatively, you can purchase devices from a third-party provider.
Bottom Line
When comparing Nextiva vs 8×8, you’ll notice many of the features small businesses require for daily business communications are present and refined. Nextiva works well for any business that needs strong collaboration, video conferencing, and scalable pricing plans. 8×8 delivers a strong platform for any business with current or intended business overseas that need strong integrations.
Still, there has to be a winner. In this VoIP battle, we give the edge to Nextiva. Not only is the video conferencing functionality some of the best in the industry, but its hearty team collaboration features are excellent for distributed teams. Its call management is agile and with robust functionality. Take advantage of Nextiva’s seven-day free trial to decide if it’s the best phone system for your company.
