6 Best Call Monitoring Software 2020

Call monitoring software provides the ability to record conversations, log call data, and allow managers to listen in on call activity over your network. This information can be used for reference, quality assurance, or to make better staffing and scheduling decisions. We looked at the best call monitoring systems on the market and evaluated them based on cost, functionality, and ease of use.

What Call Monitoring System is Best for You?

What Is Call Monitoring Software

Call monitoring is typically a standard feature in both specialized call center solutions and mainstream voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services. The feature provides a means of tracking call activity, provides that data to authorized users and, in some cases, can record calls for follow-up purposes.

How We Evaluated Call Monitoring Software

Leading business phone services for call centers offer the ability for managers to track and monitor calls. However, other functions of this software, which can set a system apart from the rest, can include other call management features like “call whisper” and “barge” that, when combined, allow managers to ensure agents are responding promptly to calls and providing the best level of customer service.

To determine the best call monitoring systems for call centers, we evaluated the following:

• Pricing
• Ease of use
• Call tracking functionality
• Call management and call monitoring capability
• Available bonus call center features
• Call quality
• Customer support

Based on the above, we find that Freshcaller is the best call monitoring system for most small business users. It comes with the ability to record and track call data, and it comes with other essential call management features such as an auto-attendant and multichannel support. The system is also easy enough to use for employees of all technical skill levels.

Freshcaller: Best Overall Softphone App

What it is: Freshcaller is a business phone system designed to help call centers manage their workload. There is a free version as well as paid editions starting at $15 per user, per month on an annual basis.

Why it is great for businesses: Freshcaller comes with a range of helpful monitoring features, including call queue visibility, agent presence, live monitoring, and customer interaction history. It also offers affordable pricing plans, which makes it our top overall pick.

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Freshcaller Pricing

• Sprout: Free with custom greetings, call metrics, and email channel support
• Blossom: $15 per user, per month with chat channel support, 1,000 call minutes per month, call metrics, data export, and call queuing*
• Garden: $29 per user, per month with interactive voice response (IVR), live monitoring, real-time agent activity reports, and real-time queue visibility*
• Estate: $45 per user, per month with advanced call metrics, call barging, agent availability reports, and automatic call recording*
• Forest: $69 per user, per month with abandoned call metrics, service-level monitoring, and optional smart answer voice bot*

*Pricing is on an annual basis. Month-to-month pricing is available for paid plans as well.

Freshcaller Features

• Call monitoring functionality: In the Garden version and above, Freshcaller lets you listen in on whatever calls your agents are making.
• Metrics: Even the free version of Freshcaller comes with canned reports on how many calls your team made, what the average call time was, and what time the calls were placed. Advanced versions provide insights into call abandonment rates and individualized agent performance reports.
• Call barging: The Estate version and above of the platform allow managers to enter any call on the network. This can be helpful for training new agents.

For more details on what Freshcaller can do for your company, check out our Freshcaller user reviews page.

Five9: Best AI-assisted Call Monitoring Solution

What it is: Five9 is a popular contact center suite that comes with its Genius artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, which can pull up customer data and suggest actions to your staff during calls. The service offers no concrete information.

Why it is great for businesses: Serving the customer can be difficult at times, because your data might be buried under various menus and submenus. Pulling up that information, like previous service and purchase history, can be time-consuming. Five9 comes with its Genius assistant, which can help your agents see customer data and make the best possible decisions based on Genius’ recommendations. It’s great for teams that want to use modern technology in their daily workflows.

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Five9 Pricing

• Five9 does not offer public pricing information on their website. You will have to reach out to their sales team in order to receive a quote for your business.

Five9 Features

• Call monitoring capabilities: Five9 comes with what it calls its workforce management tools. These include live call monitoring and reports on all of your agents’ call activity.
• AI assistant: Five9 comes with its Genius assistant, which can automatically pull up customer information based on their phone number. It can also give agents advice, such as forwarding a customer who’s called about billing in the past to the billing department.
• Call management: Five9 comes with all of the call center management tools of its competitors, such as call waiting, caller ID, and call queuing to make sure that your callers are served on a first-come, first-served basis.

You can learn more about the services features on our Five9 reviews page.

Zoho Desk: Most Scalable Call Monitoring Solution

What it is: Zoho Desk is a contact center platform with channel support for email, chat, phone, and social media. There is a free version available with paid editions starting at $12 per user, per month.

Why it is great for businesses: Zoho is a market leader when it comes to all things business software. Throughout all of their solutions, including Desk, they have designed their offerings to make it fast and easy to add more users onto a plan as businesses grow. If you are looking for a contact center system for your rapidly growing company, then Zoho Desk might be perfect for you.

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Zoho Desk Pricing

• Free: Email ticketing, help center capabilities, mobile app access, no monitoring
• Standard: $12 per user, per month with social media channel support and customer happiness ratings*
• Professional: $20 per user, per month with multidepartment ticketing, telephony channel support, call monitoring, and round-robin ticket assignment*
• Enterprise: $35 per user, per month with global reports, Zia artificial intelligence, and role-based data sharing*

*Pricing is on an annual basis. Month-to-month pricing plans are available for an extra fee.

Zoho Desk Features

• Call monitoring capabilities: With the Professional tier and above, Zoho Desk allows you to track your agent’s phone activity and listen in on calls.
• Software integrations: The system comes with the ability to connect call data with Zoho CRM, Cliq, Analytics, and other popular Zoho apps.
• Social media support: Zoho can connect with Facebook and Twitter so that your team can handle customer tickets directly from those platforms.

Zoho Desk is just one of a number of business tools that can be found within the Zoho software suite. One of these tools is its Bigin CRM, which can be seamlessly integrated with the Desk software for a more comprehensive customer management experience. For more information about its other business software, visit our Zoho Bigin CRM reviews page.

Twilio Flex: Best Call Monitoring System for Overall Customization

What it is: Twilio Flex is a fully customizable call center solution priced on a pay-as-you-go or monthly basis. Pricing starts at $1 per active user hour.

Why it is great for businesses: If you have a capable development team in your organization, then you may find Twilio Flex intriguing because its look, feel, and even features can be completely customized. While it provides a basic template of a contact center system, it’s also a set of tools for effectively building your own bespoke solution for your organization’s unique needs.

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Twilio Flex Pricing

• Names user per-seat pricing: A flat monthly rate of $150 per seat
• Active user per-hour pricing: $1 per-hour rate for active users

Twilio Flex Features

• Full customization: Every single thing about Twilio Flex—from its interface to colors, fonts, and what features are available—are completely customizable. A skilled developer can make Flex feel like it was designed just for your company.
• Call monitoring: Twilio Flex comes with a full set of tools for listening in on calls and viewing reports on how efficiently your team members are working.
• Custom integrations: The open-ended nature of Twilio Flex means that you can add any features you want, like custom integrations with niche business software. This is great for teams that feel limited by other options.

For more information, go to our Twilio Flex user reviews page.

Google Voice: Best Free Phone Service With Call Monitoring

What it is: Google Voice is a free virtual phone service that comes with automatic call recording, call logs, and other features that could be useful to solo workers, freelancers, and very small teams.

Why it is great for businesses: If your business is just starting out, then a paid contact center suite is likely overkill. If you are simply looking for a way to keep track of your daily call traffic, Google Voice provides a free local number, automatic call recording, and call logs of all of your conversations. It is great for teams that are just looking for the basics.

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Google Voice Pricing

• Google Voice is free with any free Google account.

Google Voice Features

• Call recording and logs: Google Voice comes with automatic call recording and logs for when all of your calls took place, at no cost. While it’s not a contact center system, it can serve as a decent alternative for monitoring your team’s call activity.
• Free local phone number: The system lets you adopt a local phone number from nearly any area code in the country.
• Unlimited talk and text: Google voice comes with unlimited calling within the U.S. as well as unlimited SMS messaging.

For more details on what Google Voice can do for your team, go to our Google Voice user reviews page.

8×8: Best Traditional VoIP Service With Call Monitoring

What it is: 8×8 is a traditional VoIP phone service that comes with call center features such as call monitoring. Pricing starts at $12 per user, per month.

Why it is great for businesses: 8×8 serves as a blend of both a traditional VoIP service for everyday workers and call center found in most sales and service environments. With that, it also comes with call recording, call queuing, and other features that are great for general teams with high call volumes.

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8×8 Pricing

• Express: $12 per user, per month for unlimited domestic calling and a basic automated attendant
• X2: $25 per user, per month for unlimited calling for up to 14 countries, VoIP faxing, call reports, and call recording
• X4: $45 per user, per month for up to 47 countries

8×8 Features

• Call monitoring capabilities: With the X2 and X4 packages, 8×8 offers detailed call reports, team presence notifications, and call historical analysis of your call activity to help you make better scheduling and staffing decisions.
• International calling: Depending on which package you choose, 8×8 lets you make calls to numbers in nearly 50 countries at no additional cost.
• Automated attendant: 8×8’s auto-attendant can greet and route all of your incoming callers without any human intervention.

For more information on 8×8, go to our 8×8 user reviews page.

Bottom Line

You can’t be observing your staff at all times, even if you are worried about how well they handle their customer-facing calls. Fortunately, today’s leading business phone services come with live call monitoring as well as reporting modules to give you a better understanding of what your staff is doing and how well they are doing it. This can give you peace of mind, as well as point out issues in your team.