7 Best Five9 Alternatives & Competitors for 2023
This article is part of a larger series on VoIP.
The best Five9 alternatives improve call center operations with a robust ticketing system, international calling capabilities, unified communications features, and omnichannel engagement tools. They offer solutions at affordable rates or flexible subscription plans. After assessing different customer service and contact center platforms, we came up with our top Five9 alternatives:
- CloudTalk: Best overall for companies establishing or maintaining a global presence
- Nextiva: Ideal for businesses that rely heavily on customer relationship management (CRM) systems
- RingCentral Contact Center: Solid choice for teams operating multiple customer support channels
- 8×8 Contact Center: Best for companies providing video-based technical support
- Freshdesk: Top pick for businesses that want to organize support ticket management
- Talkdesk: Ideal for organizations that need to streamline call center operations with artificial intelligence (AI)
- Vonage Contact Center: Best for teams that prefer a customizable contact center platform
Five9 & Best Alternatives at a Glance
Five9 & Best Alternatives | Monthly Starting Price (per User) | Contact Center Features | Free Trial | FSB Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | $149 |
| Not available (N/A) | 4.34 out of 5 |
 | $25 |
| 14 days | 4.55 out of 5 |
 | $50 |
| N/A | 4.24 out of 5 |
 | Customized quote |
| N/A | 4.22 out of 5 |
 | $85 |
| N/A | 4.18 out of 5 |
 | $18* |
| 21 days | 4.16 out of 5 |
 | $75 |
| N/A | 4.13 out of 5 |
 | Customized quote |
| N/A | 4.08 out of 5 |
Take our quiz to find out which Five9 alternative is best for you.
Which Five9 alternative is right for you?
*Freshdesk also offers a free version with limited functionality.
Explore Five9’s features and pricing with our in-depth Five9 review. Take note of its pros and cons to learn if it’s the right solution for your communication requirements.
CloudTalk: Best Overall Five9 Alternative
Overall Score:
4.55 / 5
What We Like
- Call queueing and recording are available across all plans
- Unlimited number of callers in queue
- Ring on speakers feature minimizes the likelihood of missed calls
Where It Falls Behind
- Call transcription is an add-on that requires an additional fee
- Only the most expensive subscription plan has the service level agreement (SLA) uptime guarantee
- Lacks collaboration tools, like team messaging and video meetings
How It Compares to Five9
- Five9 offers a per-concurrent-user pricing model, while CloudTalk has a per-seat scheme. CloudTalk’s entry-level plan, which costs $25 per user, is more affordable than Five9’s, priced at $149 per concurrent user.
- Unlike Five9, CloudTalk includes one free local phone number across all its plans.
- Five9 doesn’t offer international numbers, whereas CloudTalk has this feature in all its subscription packages.
- CloudTalk offers VIP queues, while Five9 doesn’t.
CloudTalk is our top pick in this list of the best Five9 competitors because it features robust call center capabilities and allows businesses to get phone numbers in over 160 countries. Some countries covered are Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, New Zealand, and Singapore. Choose among local, national, toll-free, and mobile numbers.
With CloudTalk, you can maintain communications with clients overseas without racking up international call charges. The platform’s intelligent call routing system further helps manage large call volumes from your audience abroad. The system has the following call management tools:
- Automatic call distribution (ACD): Receive all inbound calls automatically and distribute them to available agents.
- Interactive voice response (IVR): Gather information from customers through attendant-guided key presses and assign calls to the proper departments.
- Ring groups: Ring several phone numbers or devices to ensure that all calls are accommodated.
- VIP queues: Allow high-value clients to skip the virtual line and connect to you faster.
- Preferred agent: Assign agents to specific clients to help them build a better understanding of customers’ concerns over time. With this, callers won’t have to keep repeating information whenever they reach out to you.
Unfortunately, CloudTalk doesn’t have collaboration tools, such as team messaging and video conferencing. If these are essential features for you, it’s better to choose other platforms, particularly RingCentral Contact Center or 8×8 Contact Center.
CloudTalk Monthly Pricing at a Glance
- Starter: $25 per user for call queueing, ring groups, extensions, and call recording
- Essentials: $30 per user for personalized greetings and music, call masking, caller-based routing, and IVR menu
- Expert: $50 per user for VIP queues, smart detection of resolved missed calls, and power and smart dialers
- Custom: Customized quote for custom reporting, dedicated account manager, and SLA
CloudTalk Features
Reduce customers’ waiting time by enabling auto-answer or auto-pickup. (Source: CloudTalk)
- Preferred agent: Assign a specific agent for each caller. As company representatives build rapport and learn more about the customer over time, the service becomes faster and more personalized.
- Automatic call redirection: The phone system automatically forwards incoming calls to a chosen phone number when agents are busy or unavailable. This reduces clients’ waiting periods.
- Auto-answer: Distribute incoming calls automatically to the first available agent. Customer service representatives won’t have to press “Accept,” as they will be automatically connected to the caller.
Our CloudTalk review explores the pros and cons of this business phone system. It is the right solution if you want to make telemarketing efforts more efficient and facilitate self-service through an easy-to-use, multi-level IVR system.
Nextiva Inbound Call Center: Best for Teams Relying on CRM Systems
Overall Score:
4.24 / 5
What We Like
- Unlimited call queues
- Call center thresholds help businesses manage operations better
- Call flow builder is easy to use
Where It Falls Behind
- Doesn’t have robust call monitoring features
- Lacks outbound dialers
- Difficult to set up, according to some users
How It Compares to Five9
- Unlike Five9, Nextiva is compatible with various voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phones, such as Poly, Cisco, and Panasonic.
- Nextiva accommodates up to 500 calls in a queue. It’s unclear how many calls Five9 supports.
- Unlike Five9, Nextiva enables priority routing, wherein the system determines which calls must be served first to agents when representatives become available.
- Both providers offer phone, chat, and email support.
The Nextiva Contact Center is built on the Five9 contact center platform, offering the same features as Five9. However, the provider has an inbound call center, which is focused on managing incoming calls efficiently through a robust ACD system. Among the best Five9 alternatives, Nextiva Inbound Call Center is the most suitable for companies wanting to streamline customer service through a robust, built-in CRM system.
The CRM tool powers the screen pop feature, allowing users to view customer profiles during calls and better understand the context of requests and concerns. The screen pop contains an evaluation of the client’s last interaction, experience score, last survey response, and account value.
These insights help the agents discern how a caller perceives the business and plan their communication approach. Aside from the built-in CRM system, Nextiva integrates with various third-party tools, like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho CRM.
Before subscribing to Nextiva, note that its plans are more expensive than other Five9 competitors. If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly option, choose Freshdesk, which has a forever-free plan. Its support desk platform costs $18 per user, per month only.
Nextiva Inbound Call Center Monthly Pricing at a Glance
- Professional: $50 per user for unlimited call queues, a maximum of 500 queued calls, and intelligent call distribution
- Enterprise: $100 per user for dialed number identification service (DNIS), call dispositioning, and priority routing
Nextiva Inbound Call Center Features
Nextiva lets users decide when and how to record calls. (Source: Nextiva)
- Call recording: Record and revisit calls to evaluate agent performance and develop effective training programs. Nextiva keeps all inbound call recordings for up to six months.
- VoIP phone numbers: Secure local and toll-free numbers for your call center operations. If you have existing numbers you want to maintain, port them into the Nextiva platform.
- Analytics: Track call center metrics, such as the total number of calls, average talk time, and the number of missed calls. The total number of calls is segmented according to inbound, outbound, international, toll-free, missed, and answered.
If you’re curious about the provider’s omnichannel contact center system, read our comprehensive Nextiva Contact Center review. The platform earned perfect scores on general features, customer service, and ease of use.
RingCentral Contact Center: Best for Companies Providing Omnichannel Support
Overall Score:
4.22 / 5
What We Like
- Provides access to collaboration features via the RingCentral MVP
- Real-time AI coaching speeds up customer service delivery
- Intuitive call flow designer
Where It Falls Behind
- Pricing isn’t as transparent as other call center system providers
- Auto-dialers are offered as add-ons
- Doesn't have a built-in ticketing management tool
How It Compares to Five9
- RingCentral offers more than 300+ application programming interfaces (APIs) for third-party integrations. It’s unclear how many Five9 provides.
- Unlike Five9, RingCentral provides international numbers.
- Both providers have built-in WFM and interaction analytics tools.
- RingCentral and Five9 have AI-powered virtual agents. RingCentral’s chatbot is SmartAssist by Amelia, which understands voice and chat queries.
RingCentral Contact Center ranks high on this list of the best alternatives to Five9 because of its robust omnichannel support. The provider accommodates over 30 digital channels, including live chat, email, and social media messaging. This drastically simplifies customer engagement since all communications are accessible in one place.
Even if customers move to a different communication platform, the system recognizes the same customer identity. Thus, agents keep up with conversations quickly regardless of the channel used. RingCentral offers various excellent tools, including a unified communications platform that topped our list of the best business phone systems.
If you regularly launch telemarketing campaigns, note that RingCentral Contact Center requires an additional fee for auto-dialers. Consider CloudTalk as an alternative, as its outbound dialers are already included in its third-tier subscription plan, which costs $50 per user.
RingCentral Contact Center Monthly Pricing at a Glance*
All RingCentral Contact Center plans have customized quotes.
- Essentials: ACD with skills-based routing, IVR, basic call recording, and APIs
- Standard: Advanced call recording and omnichannel routing
- Premium: Quality management and screen recording
- Ultimate: Workforce management (WFM) and performance management
*All plans include integrated RingCentral MVP capabilities, such as free domestic calling, global number procurement and management, and collaboration tools.
RingCentral Contact Center Features
Send post-interaction surveys to customers through RingCentral’s Feedback Management.
(Source: RingCentral Contact Center)
- Digital channel surveys: Gather customer feedback immediately after an interaction. These surveys are sent through the same communication channel clients used to contact the business.
- Call monitoring: Observe ongoing calls to evaluate agent performance. If necessary, join the call through the barge and takeover options and speed up customer service delivery.
- Auto-dialers: Maximize the predictive, progressive, and preview dialers to make your telemarketing campaigns more efficient. However, take note that this feature requires an additional cost.
In our RingCentral Contact Center review, we discuss the provider’s features in depth. Check it out before signing up for any subscription plan.
8×8 Contact Center: Best for Teams Offering Video-based Customer Support
Overall Score:
4.18 / 5
What We Like
- Unlimited internet fax is available across all contact center plans
- Omnichannel routing covers voice, chat, email, SMS, social media, and messaging apps
- Wide range of third-party integrations
Where It Falls Behind
- More expensive subscription packages than other competitors for Five9
- Auto-dialers are locked in the highest-tier subscription package
- 8x8 Voice’s integration with Microsoft Teams costs an extra fee on top of the subscription plan
How It Compares to Five9
- Unlike Five9, 8×8 Contact Center supports hotdesking and offers the feature across all its contact center plans.
- Both providers feature Secure Pay, a tool that allows agents to trigger payment collection through the IVR or keypad tones.
- 8×8 has a native team messaging feature, while Five9 relies on integrations with Slack or Microsoft Teams for chats.
- Five9 and 8×8 Contact Center offer a 99.999% uptime guarantee, with 8×8 providing SLA in every subscription package.
8×8 is a reliable small business VoIP service, and its contact center platform is the best Five9 alternative if your team frequently offers video-based customer support. It features co-browsing, where agents are able to assist clients through a shared browser. Depending on the customer’s need, choose among three co-browsing modes:
- Full-control: This mode lets you have total control of the customer’s browser, allowing you to move the cursor to different parts of the screen, highlight sections, and fill out a form on their behalf.
- Partial control: Navigate through the screen and point out different sections, but you won’t be able to fill out a form.
- No control: With this, you won’t be able to make changes on the shared browser. You’ll only see the customer’s screen and provide coaching as the customer explores and makes changes.
Aside from co-browsing, 8×8 Contact Center offers video conferencing for up to 500 participants. One disadvantage of using this platform is that integrating its voice platform with Microsoft Teams requires an additional fee.
8×8’s subscription rates are already in a high range. If you plan to connect Microsoft Teams to your call center system without the high cost, Freshdesk is the better option. Its entry-level omnichannel plan, priced at $35 per user, per month, comes with robust third-party integrations.
8×8 Contact Center Monthly Pricing at a Glance
- X6: $85 per user for skills-based routing, third-party integrations, call monitoring, and call queues
- X7: $110 per user for omnichannel and skills-based routing and co-browsing
- X8: $140 per user for auto-dialer, quality management, and speech analytics
8×8 Contact Center Features
8×8 Contact Center features a predictive dialer. (Source: 8×8 Contact Center)
- Auto-dialer: 8×8 Contact Center has different types of outbound dialers: preview, progressive, and predictive. With these tools, your agents will make more phone calls and focus less on the manual work of dialing several numbers.
- Queued and web callback: Reduce the wait time on long queues by giving callers the option to request a callback. In addition, allow website visitors to leave their contact details on a form and get a call from one of your representatives.
- Multi-level auto-attendant: Personalize your call flows based on customer location or inquiry. Channel your unique brand identity in the customized caller greetings.
To learn more about this contact center system’s capabilities, refer to our comprehensive 8×8 Contact Center review. We recommended the platform to businesses that need various industry compliance certifications.
Freshdesk: Best for Managing Support Tickets Efficiently
Overall Score:
4.16 / 5
What We Like
- Affordable entry-level subscription plans
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys are customizable
- AI bot helps resolve customer requests faster
Where It Falls Behind
- Doesn't include a local and toll-free number in its subscription plans
- Service level monitoring for the omnichannel solution is exclusively offered in the most expensive package
- Phone trees are limited to five only
How It Compares to Five9
- Unlike Five9, Freshdesk has a forever-free plan.
- Freshdesk hosts collaboration tools, whereas Five9 requires integrations with messaging apps.
- Five9 only has 150+ third-party integrations, while Freshdesk works seamlessly with 1,000 apps.
- Unlike Five9, Freshdesk allows businesses to build a knowledge base and community forums to further strengthen customer support.
Freshdesk is a great Five9 alternative if you’re looking for a customer support platform with a built-in ticket management system. It allows you to sort ticket conversations according to recency, merge tickets when a customer reaches out in multiple channels, and monitor ticket resolution progress.
The platform features Freddy AI, an intelligent chatbot that suggests answers to agents when resolving specific customer concerns. It speeds up the process of addressing tickets and helps maintain professional communications.
If you plan to use this platform, note that the subscription plans don’t include phone numbers, whether on the support desk or omnichannel suite. If you want a free local number or additional numbers at an affordable price, consider CloudTalk instead.
Freshdesk Monthly Pricing at a Glance*
Support Desk:
- Free: $0 for up to 10 agents, integrated ticketing across email and social, knowledge base, and team collaboration
- Growth: $18 per user for task automation, third-party integrations, SLA management, and time tracking of tickets
- Pro: $59 per user for support ticket templates, standard and customizable CSAT surveys, multiple SLA policies, and knowledge base analytics
- Enterprise: $95 per user for advanced ticket scope, skills-based ticket assignments, and flexible hierarchy on the knowledge base for better navigation
Omnichannel Suite:
- Growth: $35 per user for the incoming call allowance of 2,000 minutes per month, unlimited call queues and concurrent calls, call masking, and call recording
- Pro: $71 per user for the incoming call allowance of 3,000 minutes per month, pause call recording, real-time call summary, and call monitoring
- Enterprise: $119 per user for the incoming call allowance of 5,000 minutes per month, abandoned call metrics, and service level monitoring
*Pricing is based on monthly billing. When you choose annual billing, the entry-level paid plan’s fee is reduced from $18 to $15 per user, monthly.
Freshdesk Features
Create different help resources using Freshdesk’s knowledge base. (Source: Freshdesk)
- Knowledge base: Enable customers to find answers to commonly asked questions related to your business. Fill your help center with frequently asked questions (FAQs), step-by-step guides for resolving issues, and video tutorials.
- Help widget: Embed customer support articles and a contact form within your website. Facilitating faster self-service, this feature reduces wait times and long queues on your phone system.
- Social channel support: Connect your Facebook and Twitter to Freshdesk to get alerts whenever someone asks for help in these channels. The platform automatically converts posts and comments related to your company into tickets, making managing inquiries easier.
If you plan to adopt this platform in your business communications, check out our Freshdesk review first. We discussed its features, customer service, and ease of use in the article.
Talkdesk: Best for Streamlining Customer Service Using AI
Overall Score:
4.13 / 5
What We Like
- Easy-to-configure multi-level IVR
- Power and preview dialers are integrated with Salesforce
- Industry-specific subscription packages
Where It Falls Behind
- Mobile app isn't available in the entry-level plan
- WFM is provided as an add-on
- Limited out-of-the-box integrations
How It Compares to Five9
- Talkdesk provides a 100% uptime SLA, while Five9 offers 99.999% only.
- Five9 offers its virtual agent as an add-on. Talkdesk includes this feature in all its subscription packages.
- Unlike Five9, Talkdesk features a knowledge management tool, providing a centralized information repository for customer service representatives.
- Both providers have APIs and software development kits (SDKs) that allow users to extend the contact center platform’s functionality.
Talkdesk is an excellent Five9 alternative for teams aiming to boost productivity through artificial intelligence (AI). The platform automates self-service options and improves agent performance through machine intelligence. One of its features, Talkdesk AI Trainer, is a no-code AI tool that non-technical agents use to improve AI models. It corrects the bot’s vocabulary to produce accurate transcripts and enhance the suggestions on the agent’s screen during a call.
Aside from the AI Trainer, the provider features a virtual agent that uses natural language understanding (NLU) technology to process conversations on voice and digital chat channels. With this, you provide faster, always-present customer service that satisfies clients.
One disadvantage of using Talkdesk is that you must choose higher-tier subscription plans, which start at $95 per user, monthly, to unlock the Conversations Mobile App. If you want a more affordable omnichannel solution with access to a mobile app, Freshdesk is a better choice.
Talkdesk Monthly Pricing at a Glance
- CX Cloud Essentials: $75 per user for call routing, real-time and historical reporting, virtual agent, and no-code AI model training tool
- CX Cloud Elevate: $95 per user for omnichannel engagement, screen recording, quality management, and conversations mobile app
- CX Cloud Elite: $125 per user for custom reporting, performance management, and one add-on among four options: WFM, customer experience analytics, agent assist, and proactive outbound engagement
- Experience Clouds: Customized quotes for industry-specific solutions for banking, insurance, retail, and healthcare businesses
Talkdesk Features
Keep all your online customer communications in one place with Talkdesk’s digital engagement. (Source: Talkdesk)
- Digital engagement: Provide customer service across different online channels: email, live chat, and social messaging. Since all customer communications are in one place, agents respond faster, and no inquiries go unanswered.
- Quality management (QM): Ensure that customer service meets your standard quality goals. Create a QM form with agent assessment questions to make performance evaluation faster and easier.
- Real-time dashboards: Track service level, average abandon time, average wait time, and the number of agents logged in. Customize live reporting metrics based on your call center operations priorities.
Given its 100% uptime guarantee, this contact center is a highly reliable platform suitable for businesses that provide uninterrupted service to clients. Learn more about its capabilities in our Talkdesk review.
Vonage Contact Center: Best for Its Customizable Contact Center System
Overall Score:
4.08 / 5
What We Like
- Offers queued callback, which helps reduce the number of callers waiting in the queue
- Provides different APIs for improving call center functionalities
- Features emergency call routing
Where It Falls Behind
- Outbound dialing is limited to power and preview dialers
- Unified communications features are provided as add-ons
- Pricing isn’t transparent, like other call center systems
How It Compares to Five9
- Unlike Five9, Vonage offers a native single sign-on solution for users.
- Vonage and Five9 feature call monitoring tools that enable managers to guide agents during a live call.
- Vonage offers a global calling plan, while Five9 doesn’t.
- Both providers help businesses measure customer satisfaction with post-call surveys.
For teams that want the flexibility of adding bells and whistles to the contact center platform, Vonage is the most suitable Five9 alternative. Its subscription plans include the essentials: skills-based routing, IVR, call monitoring, call recording, auto-dialers, and omnichannel engagement. But if you want to customize the phone system and extend its functionality with more features, Vonage has a wide range of add-ons:
- Speech analytics
- Virtual assistant
- WFM
- Post-call surveys
- Gamification
- Visual engagement
- Screen recording
- Integrated unified communications
- Web and mobile chat
- CRM integrations
- Vonage APIs
However, Vonage Contact Center’s outbound dialers are limited to power and preview dialers. In contrast, RingCentral and 8×8 have preview, progressive, and predictive dialers. Meanwhile, CloudTalk features a smart dialer that works with its click-to-call extension, compiling phone numbers from websites and CRM systems and adding them automatically to a call queue. It makes telemarketing initiatives more efficient.
Vonage Contact Center Monthly Pricing at a Glance
All Vonage Contact Center plans have customized quotes.
- Priority: Skills-based routing, single sign-on, auto-dialer, and omnichannel engagement
- Premium: Dynamic routing, whisper coaching, post-call survey, and APIs
Vonage Contact Center Features
Review inbound call metrics through Vonage’s conversation analyzer, integrated with Salesforce.
(Source: Vonage Contact Center)
- Gamification: Use leaderboards and badges to motivate your team members to be more productive. Vonage’s gamification feature integrates with Salesforce, making sales-related wins more visible.
- Conversation analyzer: This feature transcribes and analyzes customer conversations, helping you flesh out important insights for improving communication strategies. This also helps in ensuring agent script compliance.
- Dynamic routing: Assign callers to customer service representatives according to their priority level and history with previous agents. This helps personalize customer service and make delivery more efficient.
This contact center has more features promoting a smooth agent and customer experience. But if you’re interested in exploring its phone system, check out our Vonage Business Communications review.
How We Evaluated the Best Five9 Alternatives
To qualify for the list of best Five9 substitutes, the providers must have affordable and flexible pricing, robust call management features, and tools that facilitate efficient contact center operations. They must be easy to use, and technical assistance should be accessible.
On top of these considerations, we included our expert score, which includes our evaluation of each provider’s value for money and popularity. Learn how we assessed the best substitutes for Five9 by clicking on the tabs below:
15%
Pricing
30%
General Features
20%
Advanced Features
10%
Ease of Use
10%
Customer Support
15%
Expert Score
15% of Overall Score
To determine the platform’s affordability, we looked at the cost of the base-level plan, giving more points to those that cost $70 per user a month or less. We checked the number of available subscription packages and if the provider offers annual and volume discounts.
30% of Overall Score
We looked at basic call management capabilities: ACD, call activity analytics, and call monitoring. We included omnichannel support in our evaluation, assigning more points to providers accommodating a wide range of channels.
20% of Overall Score
The specialized features we checked were AI-powered virtual assistants and WFM. We favored those with robust outbound dialers and third-party integrations.
10% of Overall Score
We evaluated ease of use by determining the expertise required to set up and operate the phone system. We also assessed if providers have an intuitive interface.
10% of Overall Score
The variety of customer communication channels was part of our evaluation. We gave more points to providers with email, phone, and live chat support. We considered the time these channels are active and operational.
15% of Overall Score
This includes our evaluation of the provider’s standout features, value for money, and ease of use. We checked user ratings in third-party review sites to gauge the platform’s popularity.
*Percentages of overall score
Bottom Line
Five9 is an excellent platform for teams needing an omnichannel customer support solution. However, some businesses are better off exploring alternatives if you’re concerned that it lacks a ticketing system, international calling capabilities, and global phone numbers. Consider other providers if you want more robust unified communications features and affordable subscription rates.
Among the alternatives we evaluated, CloudTalk stands out as the best primarily because it allows businesses to maintain a strong international presence and cater to more audiences without the expensive cost. The platform lets users create tickets and integrates with productivity tools like Slack, facilitating collaboration among agents. Sign up for CloudTalk’s 14-day free trial today.
