8×8 Pricing, Plans, & Features: Is the Cost Worth It?

Considering a cloud-based business phone system? 8×8 offers a feature-rich solution for managing communication and team collaboration.

8×8 goes beyond traditional desk phones, providing voice, video, and messaging accessible from desktops, mobiles, and even on-premises handsets. This flexibility works for remote or hybrid teams.

But is 8×8 the right fit for your growth trajectory? This article dives into 8×8’s features and pricing plans to help you choose the right phone system for your use case. We’ll also explore potential alternatives to ensure you find the communication and collaboration solution that best scales with your needs.

What Is 8×8?

8×8 is a cloud-based business phone system that integrates features like voice calls, SMS, chat, video conferencing, and mobility into a single platform. It allows businesses of all sizes to operate with a scalable and easy-to-manage communication system, where employees can use any device to stay connected from anywhere.

8×8 Pricing and Plans

8×8 offers a variety of Unified Communications (called XCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions. It offers tiered plans with varying features catering to different business sizes and needs.

To get a specific quote tailored to your requirements, contacting their sales team is recommended as plan details and pricing might not be readily available online.

8×8 pricing considerations

Let’s look at some pricing considerations before we get a breakdown:

• While core features are listed for each plan, in-depth details about specific functionalities within a plan might be limited.
• Integrating 8×8 with your existing business applications may incur additional fees.
• For larger businesses, getting a final quote for enterprise plans might involve negotiation after contacting sales. 8×8 does provide information on features offered in their higher tiers (X6-X8) for contact centers.

Here’s a closer look at 8×8’s plans, highlighting key features and target audiences:

UC plans (X Series For Seamless Collaboration)

Ideal for hybrid and remote teams, 8×8’s UC plans provide a central hub for streamlined communication and collaboration.

X2 Plan: Core UC Features

Best for: Small and growing businesses

• Standout features: Unlimited voice calling to 14 countries regions (US, Canada, Mexico, and more), HD video and audio conferencing for up to 500 participants, Microsoft Teams integration, voicemail, SMS/MMS, and team chat.
• What’s missing: Advanced call analytics, supervisor or call monitoring tools (barge, whisper), and international calling to more countries.

X4 Plan: Advanced Collaboration

Best for: Mid-sized businesses with complex communication needs

• Standout features: Everything in X2, plus unlimited calling to 48 countries, secure in-meeting payments, a front desk for receptionists and operators, supervisor analytics for call management, and call recording.
• What’s missing: Omnichannel support (social media, chat), advanced meeting features like co-browsing, and speech analytics.

Contact Center Solutions (For Customer Support Teams)

8×8 offers a range of contact center plans catering to mid-sized and enterprise businesses. These plans go beyond basic call handling, focusing on improving customer experience and agent productivity.

X6 Plan: Voice-Centric Contact Center

Best for: Mid-sized businesses building a customer support foundation

• Standout features: Everything in X4, plus call routing, queuing, recording, post-call surveys, CRM integrations, and HD voice.
• What’s missing: Omnichannel support, co-browsing, advanced analytics, and quality management tools.

X7 Plan: Omnichannel Engagement

Best for: Businesses needing multi-channel customer engagement (voice, chat, social media)

• Standout features: Everything in X6, plus co-browsing, social media, chat support, and advanced meeting capabilities.
• What’s missing: Advanced analytics, quality management tools, and auto-dialer (present in X8).

X8 Plan: Enterprise-Grade Contact Center

Best for: Large organizations with complex contact center needs

• Standout features: Everything in X7, plus speech and text analytics, real-time monitoring, quality management tools, robust app integrations, and auto dialer.
• What’s missing: This is the most comprehensive plan.

Choosing the Right 8×8 Plan for Your Business

Finding the ideal 8×8 plan for your business goes beyond picking a price point. Here are some potential roadblocks to navigate:

• Limited plan details: While the core features are listed, detailed information on specific features within each plan can be limited. This can make it challenging to compare plans and understand exactly what you’re getting for your money.
• Integration costs: The listed price might not include the cost of integrating 8×8 with your existing business applications. Factor in potential additional fees when considering the overall cost.
• Enterprise plan pricing opacity: The lack of clear pricing for the Enterprise plan can make it difficult to determine the true cost for larger businesses. Be prepared to request quotes and negotiate to get a clear picture of the total investment.

How to choose a plan:

• Business needs assessment: Start by outlining your communication needs. How many users? International calls? Video conferencing frequency?
• Plan feature breakdown: Do a side-by-side comparison of features offered in each plan to see which best aligns with your needs.
• Scalability: Consider if you might need to add users or features in the future. Choose a plan that allows for easy scaling.
• Demo: Consider a demo to test features and user experience before committing.

8×8 Pricing & Features Compared To Competitors

Nextiva is a popular alternative to 8×8. While both 8×8 and Nextiva offer robust business communication and contact center solutions, Nextiva’s transparent pricing, CRM integration, self-service options, and advanced features make it a compelling choice for businesses seeking a more streamlined and cost-effective solution.

Why choose Nextiva over 8×8

1. Transparent and flexible pricing

Unlike 8×8, Nextiva clearly displays the pricing for its various plans on its website, allowing you to easily evaluate the costs based on your number of users.

Its pricing is also more scalable, with lower per-user rates for larger teams.

• Essential Plan: Starts at $18.95/user per month (billed annually) for 20-99 users. Core features include unlimited internet fax, voicemail, calling within the U.S. and Canada, app integrations, toll-free numbers, and 24/7 customer support.
• Professional Plan: Starts at $22.95/user per month (billed annually) for 20-99 users. Includes all Essential features plus unlimited conference calls, video meetings, screen sharing, auto-attendant, and integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot.
• Enterprise Plan: Starts at $32.95/user per month (billed annually) for 20-99 users. Includes all Professional features plus unlimited voice/video conferencing participants, call recording, voicemail transcription, Microsoft Teams integration, and single sign-on.

2. Unified Communications with CRM integration

While both platforms offer omnichannel support, Nextiva takes it a step further by bridging the gap between your CRM and phone system. Unified communications allow agents to leverage customer journey insights from your CRM to personalize interactions and provide a more seamless experience.

3. Advanced IVR and self-service options

Nextiva’s advanced IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system provides multiple self-service options, including cloud-based agents, voice command call flows, intelligent call routing, and skills-based routing. This can lead to faster issue resolution and improved customer satisfaction compared to 8×8’s more basic IVR capabilities.

4. Mobile-ready and remote workforce support

With the NextivaONE app, your team members can stay connected and productive from anywhere, on both iOS and Android devices. This is particularly beneficial for businesses with remote or mobile workforces, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration on the go.

5. Comprehensive support and setup assistance

Nextiva offers 24/7 customer support and amazing service across all plans, along with dedicated assistance from its support team to help you set up your business phone system quickly and smoothly. This can be a significant advantage over 8×8, especially for businesses with limited IT resources or those transitioning from a legacy system.

Note: 8×8 offers integrations and some of these other advanced features but in its higher tiers (X4 and above).

Here’s a detailed feature comparison of the two solutions.

Functionality or Feature	Nextiva	8×8	Comparison
Pricing	Starts at $23.95 per user monthly (1-4 users; billed annually)	Plans start at various prices	Nextiva presents its pricing structure more transparently with a wider range of plans compared to 8×8.
Contact sales	Not required	Required	Nextiva offers a self-service setup, which can be helpful for businesses with limited IT resources or those transitioning from a legacy system. 8×8 requires contacting sales, which can add to the implementation time.
Plans	Up to seven plans	Up to five plans	Nextiva offers a wider range of plans to choose from, which can be helpful for businesses of all sizes.
Meeting participants	Up to 25 active video + 250 audio participants	Up to 500 participants	Nextiva’s meeting capabilities are sufficient for most businesses. 8×8 offers a higher participant limit, but this may not be necessary for all businesses.
First-party hardware	✅	❌	Nextiva offers the option to purchase first-party hardware, whereas 8×8 requires compatible devices from other vendors.
Call quality	Excellent (99.999% uptime per year)	Some users report frequent dropped calls	Call quality can vary depending on user experience and network conditions. While Nextiva boasts excellent uptime, user reviews for 8×8 call quality report disruptions and downtime issues.
Seamless setup	✅	Complex: geared toward enterprise users	Nextiva is easy to set up, even for businesses with limited IT resources. 8×8 is a little complex to set up and is geared toward enterprise users.
Toll-free minutes	Up to 12,500 minutes	Up to 100 minutes	Nextiva offers a significantly higher allotment of toll-free minutes compared to 8×8.
Outlook and Google Calendar integration	✅	✅	Both Nextiva and 8×8 offer integration with Outlook and Google Calendar.
Comparable features	Single sign-on Call queuing Advanced IVR Omnichannel support Mobile app	Single sign-on Call queuing Advanced IVR Omnichannel support Mobile app	Both Nextiva and 8×8 offer these advanced features for managing your business phone system on the go.
Live chat	✅	❌	Nextiva offers live chat while 8×8 doesn’t.

Choosing the Right Provider

The ideal communications provider depends on your specific needs, budget, and team size. Consider factors like the number of users, international calling requirements, video conferencing frequency, and desired level of scalability.

Consider not just the base price but also the features included in each plan. Nextiva’s plans seem transparent and offer a range of features based on your needs. 8×8 might require more research to understand the exact features at their price points.

Go with 8×8 if…

Your business is large with substantial global calling needs, you have a generous budget, and you are looking for an advanced business communication platform to support your complex workflows. 

With 8×8’s international calling, omnichannel support, advanced analytics, and AI-powered features, it’s a worthwhile investment for enterprises with plenty of monetary resources that are looking to boost call center efficiency at scale.

Go with Nextiva if…

If you’re a high-growth business seeking affordability, ease of use, and features like robust CRM integration.

Also, if you want to make the most of your budget by investing in a business phone service with the core UC and contact center capabilities, and you’re looking for something easy to set up and use. 

Nextiva offers competitive pricing plans, scalability, generous toll-free minutes, solid CRM integrations, and 24/7 customer support, making it a great choice for small and medium-sized businesses. 

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Final Verdict: Is 8×8 Pricing Worth It?

8×8 is a strong contender for businesses requiring global calling functionalities. Its feature-rich plans can offer good value depending on your usage patterns.

However, the lack of readily available pricing information and potentially higher starting costs can be drawbacks, especially for smaller businesses.

Pros:

• Feature-rich: 8×8 offers a good range of features, including unlimited US/Canada calling, HD video conferencing, and unlimited SMS (US/Canada), starting from basic plans.
• Scalable: 8×8 offers tiered plans that grow with your business. As you add more users, the price per user goes down.
• Potentially good value: If your business makes frequent video calls and uses a lot of team messaging, 8×8 can be a good value compared to plans with limited minutes or messaging.

Cons:

• Higher starting price: The base price per user is slightly higher than some competitors.
• No public pricing: 8×8 doesn’t publish their prices directly on their website, so you need to contact them for a quote.
• May be overkill for small businesses: If your business doesn’t need all the features offered by 8×8, there might be more cost-effective small business options available.

Choosing a competitor like Nextiva helps you overcome a lot of 8×8 limitations.

8×8 Pricing FAQs