Five9 Review: Features, Alternatives & Pricing for 2023

Five9 is a cloud-based contact center solution supporting omnichannel customer service—voice calling, messaging, email, and video in one platform. In this Five9 review, the contact center earned a high rating of 4.25 out of 5, getting perfect scores on features, customer service, and ease of use. It received a lower score on pricing because it doesn’t offer a free plan and its subscription packages are more expensive than competitors.

Five9 Review: At a Glance

Overall Score: 4.25 / 5

RATING CRITERIA	Pricing		2.00 out of 5
	General Features		5.00 out of 5
	Niche Features		5.00 out of 5
	Customer Service		5.00 out of 5
	Ease of Use		5.00 out of 5
	Expert Score		4.00 out of 5

What We Liked

• Integrates with popular customer relationship management (CRM) tools, such as Salesforce and Zendesk
• Real-time call transcriptions guide agents' interaction with customers
• Intelligent routing and self-service solutions enable faster customer service
• 99.999% uptime service level agreement (SLA)

What's Missing

• No free trial or free plan, unlike competitor Freshdesk
• Some users reported complicated reporting
• More expensive subscription compared to 8x8 and Freshdesk

When to Use Five9

• When you need an omnichannel contact center: Five9 supports different communication channels, including voice, messaging (chat, SMS, and social media), email, video, and mobile. This provider is suitable for you if you want to streamline all customer interactions in one place.
• Want to streamline outbound calling campaigns: The provider features different kinds of auto-dialers: predictive, power, progressive, and preview dialers. These tools ensure efficiency when conducting marketing and sales calls.
• Currently use collaboration apps, like Microsoft Teams: If you want to continue using Microsoft Teams, Five9 facilitates a smooth transition as it integrates with this unified communication (UC) tool. With a UC feature, agents connect easily with subject matter experts in the organization whenever they need additional guidance when handling customer concerns.
• Promote healthy competition among agents: Five9 has gamification features that highlight performance goals and top performers, allowing managers to introduce a fun competition among team members.

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When to Use an Alternative

• Requiring a ticketing system in your contact center software: Five9 doesn’t have a native ticketing system, unlike Freshdesk. To use this feature, you need to integrate the system with third-party apps like Zendesk.
• Frequently making international calls: Five9 automatically blocks calls to countries outside the United States and Canada. If you need to maintain communications with a global audience, opt for these best voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) providers for international calls.
• Looking for an affordable contact center: Five9 has more expensive subscription fees than other providers. Check out the starting prices of the best call center phone systems here.

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Five9 Deciding Factors

Five9 is a contact center software equipped with tools for call management, workforce optimization, and customer engagement. While the provider doesn’t have a free plan, it has four subscription tiers, giving businesses multiple options with varying inclusions. The base plan costs $149, which is costlier than competitors Freshdesk and 8×8. Nonetheless, its omnichannel support makes it suitable for businesses with several customer service channels.

Five9 Alternatives

While Five9 has comprehensive features for a contact center system, its pricing and limited integrations are a deal-breaker for some businesses. The best small business voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services, which can handle customer interactions, come with more affordable subscription packages and robust integration capabilities.

Five9 doesn’t offer native team chat and customer relationship management (CRM) functionalities either. If you think these constraints will affect your contact center operations, consider the best business phone systems instead or these alternative platforms:

Best For	Small businesses looking for an affordable call center system	Organizations requiring a contact center with native UC features and a CRM system	Companies needing a broader range of integrations and application programming interfaces (APIs) in their contact center system
Monthly Starting Price	Free; $18 per user	$85 per user	Pricing available upon request
Learn More	Freshdesk Review	8x8 Contact Center Review	RingCentral Contact Center Review

Five9 pricing earned a score of 2 out of 5 primarily because its subscription plans are more expensive than competitors. Unlike Freshdesk, it doesn’t offer a free plan. It doesn’t have an annual billing option with discounts, while competitors RingCentral Contact Center and 8×8 do provide it. In addition, you have to pay more for valuable features like the intelligent virtual agent and social engagement, as they are only available as add-ons.

Aside from the features offered in Five9 pricing plans, the provider has these add-ons:

• Intelligent virtual agent
• Agent assist
• Social, video, and SMS engagement and automated outreach
• Workforce optimization recording data protection
• Performance dashboard
• Gamification
• Admin assist
• Agent and supervisor consoles
• Connectivity, Security, (TFN), and (DIDs)
• CRM connectors
• Extra storage
• Interactive voice response with speech recognition
• Operational intelligence
• Secure payment capture

Five9 Features

Five9 earned perfect scores on general and niche features as the provider has robust call management and omnichannel support tools, boosting efficiency in delivering customer service. These capabilities are easily accessed through the user-friendly Five9 Agent Desktop.

Learn more about Five9’s features below:

In this Five9 review, the provider earned a perfect score on general features, as it ticks off all the essential features businesses usually look for in a contact center. For one, it has an automatic call distribution (ACD) system, which uses intelligent call routing. This boosts overall contact center efficiency, as the calls are routed to the agent who can best handle a particular customer concern.

Here are other features provided by Five9:

• Inbound and outbound calling
• Interactive voice response (IVR)
• Omnichannel support
• Call quality monitoring
• Call center statistics
• Call recording
• Call transfer
• Call parking
• Do Not Call compliance
• Toll-free numbers

Five9 allows agents to see call information. (Source: YouTube)

Five9 got a perfect score on niche features as it’s packed with advanced capabilities businesses are looking for in a contact center system. This includes an intelligent virtual agent, which enables businesses to address customer issues quickly and accurately without human intervention.

Click on Five9’s notable niche features below:

Web Callback Service

Agent Assist

Agent Assist features real-time guidance cards and checklists containing tips for improving customer conversations and reminders for important next steps. It also includes real-time transcription, which allows team members to focus on the call at hand and not worry about taking down notes. Agent Assist boosts team members’ confidence while increasing compliance with professional standards and regulatory requirements.

Agent Assist provides a conversation transcript and guidance cards containing important reminders for agents. (Source: Five9)

Gamification

Create an exciting work environment for agents with Five9’s gamification elements. The contact center lets team members create avatars and receive rewards like coins and badges for increased productivity.

The system also has a marketplace wherein agents exchange rewards for goods, gift cards, and other exciting items. Five9’s gamification feature integrates with the performance dashboard, which displays key performance indicators (KPIs).

Five9’s gamification elements include avatars, leaderboards, games, and fun challenges. (Source: Five9)

Secure Payment Capture

This solution allows contact centers to collect customers’ payments while complying with data security standards. This works in two ways: self-service IVR and agent-assisted call flow.

In the self-service IVR capture, Five9 collects payment card data as customers input information through IVR prompts. The system uses dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones or speech-to-text features to facilitate self-service.

Meanwhile, in the agent-assisted call flow, the agent triggers the IVR when the customer is ready to provide payment card information. The agent is placed on hold during the process, keeping confidential data private.

With Secure Pay, agents are able to facilitate customer payments while maintaining data privacy. (Source: Five9)

Integrations

Five9 connects seamlessly with popular CRM systems, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle, and Zendesk. In addition, the platform integrates with phone systems and unified communications tools, namely Zoom Phone, Microsoft Teams, and RingCentral.

Five9 integrates with the popular CRM system Salesforce. (Source: Five9)

Operational Intelligence

In this Five9 review, the provider earned a score of 5 out of 5 as it offers customer support in various channels, including phone, email, and live chat. The communication lines are open 24/7, allowing businesses to reach out on their most convenient schedule.

Five9 has a resource center that contains case studies, tutorials for using specific features, and announcements of new products and services. It has a status page providing real-time updates about system performance. In addition, its add-ons include technical account management, helping businesses maximize the platform’s features.

Five9 has an intuitive interface, which makes it easy to navigate. On the left panel of the contact center system, you’ll find icons for different communication channels: call, voicemail, chat, email, and social. The contact book and activity history are the last two icons featured on the panel. Through this panel alone, agents have one-click access to customer interactions across different channels.

Five9’s interface is easy to navigate, thanks to the main menu on the left side of the platform. (Source: Five9)

Based on Five9 reviews on third-party sites, users appreciate the system’s call management features, including call transfer, screening, and auto-dialers. Some liked the platform’s integration with popular CRM tools. Others praised how easy it is to use the tool and to reach out to the provider’s customer support team. There are some, however, who had a hard time using the reporting features.

Learn more about the user ratings for Five9 below:

• G2: 4 out of 5 stars based on 351 reviews
• GetApp: 4.2 out of 5 stars based on 439 reviews
• TrustRadius: 7.9 out of 10 stars based on 86 reviews

How We Evaluated Five9

To evaluate Five9, we looked at critical areas businesses consider when choosing a contact center system. We also referred to verified users’ ratings and reviews on third-party platforms.

Click on the tabs below to know how we evaluated Five9:

Bottom Line

For its robust omnichannel support and agent productivity tools, Five9 makes for an excellent contact center solution for businesses wanting to improve efficiency in handling multiple customer service channels. Take advantage of the platform’s call management, workforce optimization, and AI features. Try Five9’s entry-level subscription plan and see if it fits your needs.

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