6 Best Talkdesk Alternatives for 2022
Corey McCraw is a staff writer covering VoIP and Unified Communications. Corey has over a decade of experience in marketing, tech writing, and corporate communications and has even penned content for the former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
Rain is a staff writer at Fit Small Business focusing on sales, such as VoIP and video conferencing.
This article is part of a larger series on VoIP.
Talkdesk is known for its robust artificial intelligence (AI)-powered contact center tools, but its pricing lacks the transparency and flexibility other providers offer. To find the best Talkdesk alternatives, we looked for providers with similar functionality at more competitive price points and those offering things like unlimited calling and wider international phone number coverage. We then identified the best Talkdesk competitors based on overall value and ease of use.
According to our research, the best Talkdesk competitors include:
- 8×8 Contact Center: Best overall Talkdesk alternative for global businesses wanting to mix and match reliable contact center plans
- Zendesk Suite: Top Talkdesk competitor for companies looking for a platform that supports an extensive range of customer experience channels
- Genesys Cloud CX: Best Talkdesk alternative for businesses looking for a robust contact center platform with outbound campaign tools
- RingCentral Contact Center: Top Talkdesk competitor for teams handling high domestic call volumes
- NICE CXone: Best Talkdesk alternative for extensive third-party software integrations, with RESTful APIs [representational state transfer application programming interfaces] and prebuilt connections available
- Nextiva Contact Center: Top Talkdesk alternative for ease of use and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) integrations
Talkdesk & Best Alternatives at a Glance
Talkdesk and Alternatives | Starting Price | Key Features | Free Trial | FSB Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | $75 per user, monthly* |
| ✕ | |
 | $125 per user, per month |
| ✕ | 4.40 out of 5 |
 | $59 per agent, per month |
| 14 days | 4.36 out of 5 |
 | $75 per user, per month** |
| 30 days | 4.32 out of 5 |
 | — |
| ✕*** | 4.29 out of 5 |
 | — |
| 60 days | 4.06 out of 5 |
 | — |
| ✕ | 4.01 out of 5 |
*Rates are based on a three-year subscription term and must be paid in full at the beginning of the billing cycle.
**Prices are applicable for annual contracts and fees are paid in full yearly.
***RingCentral doesn’t offer a free trial for its contact center solution. It does provide a 15-day free trial for its MVP product to a maximum of five users and two desktop phones.
8×8 Contact Center: Best Overall Talkdesk Alternative
8x8 Contact Center
Overall Score: 4.40 OUT OF 5 iOur score is based on a weighted evaluation of dozens of similar products and services conducted by our experts.
What We Like
- Reliable contact center platform with 99.999% uptime guarantee
- Unlimited calling to 48 countries
- Supports omnichannel routing across channels, including voice, text, email, and social media
- Video conferencing with screen sharing for up to 500 participants available
- Wide range of certifications and compliance to industry standards, such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
What's Missing
- Quality management and intelligent interactive voice response (IVR) features require extra fees
- Monthly fees are higher than alternatives, including Talkdesk
- Has fewer third-party app integrations, unlike alternatives with more than 300, such as RingCentral Contact Center
How It Compares to Talkdesk
- 8×8 Contact Center’s monthly fees ($125 per user) are steeper than Talkdesk’s ($75 per user)
- Talkdesk provides quality management features in some plans, unlike 8×8 Contact Center that charges extra fees for these tools
- Both Talkdesk and 8×8 Contact Center are omnichannel platforms that support digital channels, including social media, email, and texts
- 8×8 Contact Center features video conferencing for up to 500 participants which Talkdesk lacks
- Both Talkdesk and 8×8 Contact Center come with a 99.999% uptime guarantee, however, Talkdesk provides a 100% uptime service-level agreement (SLA) in some plans
8×8 Contact Center is a reliable omnichannel platform that boasts a 99.999% uptime guarantee—helping businesses ensure that there’s no customer interaction missed. It’s the best among all Talkdesk competitors on the list due to its comprehensive plans. It has AI-powered tools for both customers and agents, as well as workforce management features to ensure optimized operations. Additionally, it allows users to mix and match subscriptions based on their needs.
8×8 Contact Center is also an excellent choice for those with high call volumes in global locations. Unlike other providers that charge by the minute, it offers unlimited calls to 48 countries. While Talkdesk offers more phone numbers in about 160 countries, 8×8 still has great phone number coverage for more than 120 countries.
8×8 Contact Center Pricing at a Glance*
- X6: $125 per user, monthly with contact center, collaboration, and analytics features, such as skills-based routing, customer experience (CX) journey mapping, and video conferencing
- X7: $138 per user, monthly with support for interactions across digital channels, such as social media, chat, text, email, and cobrowsing
- X8: $175 per user, monthly with auto-dialing and quality management tools, like speech analytics, real-time multiscreen monitoring, and screen recording
*Fees are based on subscriptions on a monthly basis. Annual contracts come with discounted rates.
8×8 Contact Center Features
8×8 Contact Center comes with a live monitoring feature that helps coach agents and track their performance. (Source: 8×8 Contact Center)
- Omnichannel routing: Connect with your customers in their preferred channel with 8×8 Contact Center. It features intelligent IVR, digital channel support, and predictive dialers.
- Workforce engagement management: Empower your teams to deliver ideal customer experiences with quality management, workforce management, call and screen recording, and customer surveys.
- Contact center analytics: Optimize customer experiences by analyzing accurate data highlighting your key team’s performance, agent activities, trends, and customer behavior. 8×8 Contact Center comes with IVR journey maps and speech and customer experience analytics tools.
Zendesk Suite: Best Talkdesk Alternative for Multichannel Support Teams
Zendesk Suite
Overall Score: 4.36 OUT OF 5 iOur score is based on a weighted evaluation of dozens of similar products and services conducted by our experts.
What We Like
- Integrated customer experience platform that supports a wide range of channels, including live chat, social media, voice, texts, and bots
- Third-party app connections through 1,000+ prebuilt integrations and open APIs
- Access to unified staff and workflow management tools for all users
- Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) toolkit available
What's Missing
- Has less global phone number coverage in 40+ countries
- Essential tools, like IVR, phone trees, call monitoring, and barging, are locked in higher tiers
- Highest possible call usage uptime 99.95% is locked in the most expensive plan
- Custom live dashboards are exclusively for Enterprise users only
How It Compares to Talkdesk
- Zendesk Suite has a lower monthly rate of $59 per agent compared to Talkdesk’s $75 that requires a minimum of a three-year contract
- Talkdesk has wider global phone number coverage―around 160 countries―compared to Zendesk Suite at more than 40 countries
- Talkdesk has slightly better uptime SLA (up to 100%) than Zendesk Suite (up to 99.95%)
- Zendesk Suite allows month-to-month billing, unlike Talkdesk that requires a minimum of a three-year contract
Zendesk Suite is an integrated customer experience platform that comes with various products, such as Zendesk Talk, Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, and Zendesk Chat. It’s the best Talkdesk alternative in this list for companies looking for a wide range of supported channels. Its platform lets businesses manage conversations through bots, social media, voice, texts, email, live chat, messaging, community forums, and a help center. With its varied capabilities, it also landed a spot on our list of the best call monitoring software.
Additionally, it’s more budget-friendly for those with tight budgets as it allows month-to-month billing and has lower monthly fees that start at $59 per agent, unlike Talkdesk. However, there are certain features that are locked in the higher tiers, such as live dashboards, call barging, and phone trees. Businesses must look into which features are provided in their plans to ensure that they’re choosing a platform that has a good balance of price and the features they need.
Zendesk Suite Pricing at a Glance*
- Suite Team: $59 per agent, monthly with open API access and support for various channels, including voice, email, social media, and bots
- Suite Growth: $99 per agent, monthly with access to custom apps and integrations and additional channels, such as community forums
- Suite Professional: $125 per agent, monthly with private conversation threads and up to 100 light access licenses to keep them informed about tickets
- Suite Enterprise: $199 per agent, monthly with guided workflows mode, advanced knowledge management tools, and custom roles and permissions.
*Reflected fees are applicable on a monthly billing cycle. Discounts are available for subscriptions with annual contracts.
Zendesk Suite Features
Zendesk Suite lets businesses connect with their customers in their preferred channel. (Source: Zendesk)
- Omnichannel communication management: Zendesk Suite allows users to manage conversations and address customers’ needs through a wide range of channels, including voice, help centers, community forums, texts, emails, and social media.
- Automation and AI: Save time with prebuilt responses and rules to ensure prompt customer service. Zendesk Suite also comes with AI-powered suggestions for your knowledge base and article recommendations.
- Workflow management: Ensure an optimized workflow by creating rules that run immediately once a ticket is created. Other features include skills-based conversation routing, SLA management, and ticket sharing.
Genesys Cloud CX: Best Talkdesk Alternatives for Outbound Marketers
Genesys Cloud CX
Overall Score: 4.32 OUT OF 5 iOur score is based on a weighted evaluation of dozens of similar products and services conducted by our experts.
What We Like
- Flexible payment options, such as by-the-hour, concurrent users, and named users’ pricing
- Wide range of self-service channels, including bots, IVR, and inbound call flows
- Workforce features available, including speech and text analytics, screen recording, and quality management
- Speech-enabled IVR included in the base plan
What's Missing
- Expensive starting fees compared to other providers like Zendesk Suite
- AI-powered customer engagement tools are not available in its entry-level plan
- Short message service (SMS) and messaging app routing is only available in highest tier
How It Compares to Talkdesk
- Talkdesk and Genesys Cloud CX both support digital and customer self-service channels
- Talkdesk and Genesys Cloud CX both charge starting monthly fees of $75 per user, but Genesys Cloud CX requires shorter contract length of one year compared to Talkdesk’s three years
- Talkdesk provides AI-powered customer engagement features in its entry-level plan, unlike Genesys Cloud CX
- Both Talkdesk and Genesys Cloud CX provide third-party app integrations and open APIs in all plans
Genesys Cloud CX is a cloud-based contact center platform that helps manage customer and agent experiences in one platform. It comes with a comprehensive set of outbound campaign tools, such as personalized and prompt alerts, AI-powered predictive engagement features, and inbound/outbound blending.
Additionally, it’s one of the best IVR systems on our list for its robust voice recognition features. Its IVR utilizes AI, including both natural language understanding (NLU) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) to ensure appropriate routing. Other providers, such as RingCentral, don’t come with both technologies, making Genesys a better option for an IVR system with voice recognition.
Genesys Cloud CX Pricing at a Glance*
- Genesys Cloud CX 1: $75 per user, monthly with outbound campaigns, unified communications, speech-enabled IVR, app integrations, and APIs
- Genesys Cloud CX 2: $110 per user, monthly with chatbots, screen recording, IVR and web callback, and advanced outbound campaigns
- Genesys Cloud CX 3: $140 per user, monthly with SMS and app messaging, workforce management, cobrowsing, screen sharing, and maximized IVR minutes
*Prices reflected are applicable for annual contracts.
Genesys Cloud CX Features
The Genesys Cloud CX platform comes with gamification features to empower agents. (Source: Genesys Cloud CX)
- Omnichannel routing: Genesys Cloud CX supports a variety of channels, such as self-service, digital, and voice. This feature lets businesses connect with their customers in their preferred channels.
- Workforce management: Aside from customer experiences, Genesys Cloud CX provides tools for ideal employee experiences to increase empowerment and efficiency. It comes with gamification, scheduling, workforce forecasting, and performance management features.
- AI-powered IVR: Genesys Cloud CX utilizes ASR and NLU to lessen misrouting instances and improve the understanding of the customers’ behavior when navigating through menus.
RingCentral Contact Center: Best for Managing High-volume Local Calls
RingCentral Contact Center
Overall Score: 4.29 OUT OF 5 iOur score is based on a weighted evaluation of dozens of similar products and services conducted by our experts.
What We Like
- Workforce, performance, and quality management tools available
- Supports 30+ digital channels, such as voice, email, in-app messaging, and social media
- Drag-and-drop IVR designer
- Integrated RingCentral MVP capabilities, like unlimited domestic calling
What's Missing
- Less third-party app integrations (300+) than alternatives like the Zendesk Suite (1,000+)
- Lacks transparent pricing for its contact center plans
- Some features, such as interaction analytics, come with additional fees for all plans
How It Compares to Talkdesk
- Both Talkdesk and RingCentral Contact Center offer a drag-and-drop IVR visual editor
- RingCentral does not provide transparent pricing for its Contact Center subscriptions, unlike Talkdesk that displays estimated rates on its website
- Talkdesk offers wider international coverage providing phone numbers to up to 160 countries compared to RingCentral Contact Center’s over 70 countries
- Talkdesk bills usage by the minute unlike RingCentral Contact Center that includes unlimited local calling minutes in all of its plans
RingCentral is among the top UCaaS and contact center as a service (CCaaS) providers that offer reliable services with 99.999% uptime guarantee. Its contact center platform is one of the top Talkdesk competitors for businesses with high local call volumes as it provides unlimited minutes, unlike most providers that charge metered rates.
RingCentral is also a great option for companies looking for a scalable platform as it lets users purchase extra features as add-ons when needed. While its list of supported third-party app integrations is shorter than Talkdesk, it’s still worth considering, especially if your needed software is covered. Besides, not all businesses need a lot of integrations, given its comprehensive set of features.
RingCentral Contact Center Pricing at a Glance*
- Essentials: The plan comes with ACD with skills-based routing, advanced IVR with visual flow designer, and more than 90 real-time and historical reports.
- Standard: It provides an advanced voice recording feature and support for more than 30 digital channels.
- Premium: It offers quality management and screen recording capabilities.
- Ultimate: The plan comes with workforce and performance management tools.
*RingCentral Contact Center’s pricing isn’t published on its website. Those interested may contact its sales team to request a quote.
RingCentral Contact Center Features
RingCentral Contact Center generates performance reports and utilizes gamification in motivating agents. (Source: RingCentral Contact Center)
- Omnichannel routing: Like other providers in this list, it supports conversation management across voice and more than 30 digital channels.
- Real-time and historical reports: RingCentral Contact Center lets you monitor performance and contact center activity with real-time insights. It lets you customize visual reports and dashboards for a more optimized experience.
- Integrated RingCentral minimum viable product (MVP) features: RingCentral Contact Center also includes essential features from its MVP plans, such as global phone numbers, team communication and collaboration, and real-time metrics alerts.
Visit RingCentral Contact Center
NICE CXone: Best Talkdesk Alternative for Extensive Integrations
NICE CXone
Overall Score: 4.06 OUT OF 5 iOur score is based on a weighted evaluation of dozens of similar products and services conducted by our experts.
What We Like
- AI-powered platform with predictive analytics
- Supports 30+ digital channels, such as chat, WhatsApp, text, and Facebook, like RingCentral Contact Center
- Customer analytics and workforce engagement tools available
- Prebuilt customer relationship management (CRM) and UCaaS integrations and RESTful APIs for custom connections to any virtual third-party software
What's Missing
- Doesn’t publish its rates, requires interested users to request a custom quote
- Lacks a quick glance of all specific and itemized list of features
- Lower uptime (99.99%) than most providers that offer 99.999% or above
How It Compares to Talkdesk
- Talkdesk has less yearly downtime of about 0 to 5.26 minutes with its 99.999% up to 100% SLA than NICE CXone with about 52.56 minutes of yearly downtime with their 99.99% uptime guarantee
- Both Talkdesk and NICE CXone comes with AI-powered features, like virtual agents
- Talkdesk provides an estimated monthly fee for a minimum of a three-year contract, which NICE CXone lacks
- Both Talkdesk and NICE CXone offer workforce management features—ideal for companies with larger or distributed teams
NICE CXone is a cloud-based contact center software that helps companies ensure great customer experiences. It’s one of the top Talkdesk competitors and the best predictive dialer providers on our lists for providing extensive software integrations through RESTful APIs and prebuilt connections.
NICE CXone has AI-powered features to automate repetitive tasks. These capabilities enable agents to have more time dealing with more relevant work in serving their customers, such as resolving their issues in real-time. For example, it provides an AI-powered virtual attendant—that you can pair with each agent—to notify them when there’s an unattended task or to provide them with real-time guidance.
NICE CXone Pricing at a Glance
NICE CXone doesn’t publish its pricing and requires users to request a customized quote. Estimated monthly fees start at $100 and rates are based on the features needed by the users.
NICE CXone Features
NICE Employee Virtual Attendant (NEVA) analyzes on-screen activity and provides real-time next-best-action suggestions or automates tasks. (Source: NICE CXone)
- Self-service IVR and chatbots: Help your customers solve their problems when they don’t want to reach an agent through conversational virtual assistants that are available on any channel 24/7.
- Customer analytics: NICE CXone generates actionable insights that can help identify opportunities for improvement in both agent performance and customer experience.
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Eliminate repetitive routine agent desktop tasks with RPA. It automates processes and provides real-time guidance during calls.
Nextiva Contact Center: Best Talkdesk Alternative for Easiest Unified Communication
Nextiva Contact Center
Overall Score: 4.01 OUT OF 5 iOur score is based on a weighted evaluation of dozens of similar products and services conducted by our experts.
What We Like
- Omnichannel platform that supports conversation management across voice and digital channels
- Workforce optimization and workflow automation features available
- Intelligent virtual agent (IVA) add-on available
- Partners with other providers, such as Five9, for deep UCaaS integrations
What's Missing
- No public pricing information and requires extra effort to request quotes
- Less feature add-on options, unlike RingCentral Contact Center
- Not a lot of prebuilt and custom third-party app integrations, unlike Talkdesk or RingCentral
How It Compares to Talkdesk
- Talkdesk offers more add-ons, including integrations, services, and features, unlike Nextiva Contact Center’s limited add-on options
- Nextiva doesn’t publish fees for its contact center platform while Talkdesk provides an estimate for plans with a three-year contract
- Talkdesk offers more third-party software integrations (1,000+) than Nextiva Contact Center (fewer than 20)
- Both Nextiva Contact Center and Talkdesk provide a 99.999% uptime guarantee; however, Talkdesk offers a 100% uptime SLA in higher plans
Nextiva Contact Center is a reliable platform for managing customer experiences in a single platform. It’s one of the best Talkdesk alternatives for its deep integrations with other UCaaS platforms, such as Five9. Businesses looking for a comprehensive yet easy-to-use platform may look into its plans as it doesn’t overwhelm users with complex features.
If pricing is a factor that your business prioritizes, Nextiva may disappoint those looking for instant information as its contact center pricing page lacks a lot of details, like monthly fees. It also isn’t as comprehensive as other providers like Talkdesk, so its plans’ inclusions aren’t that clear. While it requires you the extra step of contacting their expert, it may be a good one as you’ll be guided to determine which plan works best for you.
Nextiva Contact Center Pricing at a Glance
Nextiva Contact Center doesn’t publish its pricing information on its website and quotations are available upon request. However, it displays four plans with the following inclusions:
- Core: A cloud-based platform with call center features
- Premium: A contact center platform that supports voice and digital channels
- Optimum: An omnichannel contact center platform with workforce optimization features
- Ultimate: An omnichannel contact center platform with workflow automation tools
Nextiva Contact Center Features
Nextiva Contact Center lets users work from anywhere as it can be accessed across devices. (Source: Nextiva Contact Center)
- Omnichannel communication: Nextiva Contact Center features intelligent skills-based routing—supporting a variety of channels, such as voice, email, text, chat, and social media.
- Workforce optimization: Ensure ideal customer experiences by monitoring agent performance and training opportunities through quality and workforce management features and interaction analytics.
- Workflow automation: Provide automated outreach to your customers on their preferred channels, such as phone, social media, email, or text. You can also set automated workflows, analyze real-time visualizations, and utilize prebuilt integrations.
How We Evaluated the Best Talkdesk Competitors
Contact center platforms provide features for different use cases and business sizes. To determine the top Talkdesk alternatives, we examined other contact center software that offers similar inclusions, such as ACD, IVR, and an excellent uptime guarantee. We also assessed the costs of the plans they offer, as well as user reviews and our experience with each platform.
Learn more about how we determined our scores by clicking on the following tabs:
15%
Pricing
30%
General Features
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More Niche Features
25%
Expert Score
15% of Overall Score
We compared each provider’s pricing plans to see which platforms provide the most value for money. We looked at their monthly rates and offers like trials, annual discount agreements, volume pricing discounts, and per-hour login pricing options.
30% of Overall Score
The best Talkdesk alternatives offer essential call management tools, such as ACD, IVR, and a reliable uptime guarantee. We also gave points to those that provide call recording, self-service portal support, and software integrations.
30% of Overall Score
To determine the top Talkdesk competitors, we evaluated providers that include workforce management, international phone numbers to 140 countries, and digital engagement in their subscription plans. We also scored providers that offer custom reporting and screen recording.
25% of Overall Score
We looked into user reviews and our personal experience for each Talkdesk alternative and evaluated them with their standout features. We also scored each platform based on its ease of use, value, and overall popularity.
*Percentages of overall score
Bottom Line
Talkdesk is a reliable contact center platform with numerous high ratings from its actual users. However, it lacks essential inclusions, such as unlimited calling and wider international phone number coverage, provided by some Talkdesk alternatives. Additionally, it doesn’t work for solopreneurs or freelancers looking for a simpler VoIP solution.
8×8 Contact Center is the best Talkdesk competitor with a 4.40 out of 5 rating. It provides unlimited calling to 48 countries, virtual phone numbers in more than 120 countries, and multilingual contact centers—ideal for global businesses. While its monthly fees are higher than Talkdesk, it still offers cost savings for those handling high call volumes as it doesn’t charge by the minute like most providers. You can also learn more information in our 8×8 review which highlights its business phone system offering.
