Customer Experience 
When companies hunt for new contact center software, Cisco inevitably comes up. With millions of agents using its technology, Cisco is a legacy giant in the industry. But as you look into its offerings, you can run into a potential challenge: understanding its products and pricing can be complex.
Which product is right for you — UCCX, UCCE, or the newer Webex Contact Center? What features do they include, and how much will it actually cost once you factor in hardware, support, and hidden fees?
This article explores Cisco’s contact center portfolio, focusing primarily on UCCX (Cisco Unified Contact Center Express). We’ll clarify the differences between the key products, detail their core features, analyze the total cost of ownership (TCO), and compare them with a powerful, modern, and straightforward contact center solution.
First, Which Cisco Product Are You Looking For?
Cisco offers multiple contact center solutions for different business sizes. It’s important to understand the options before considering costs.
- Cisco Webex Contact Center: This is Cisco’s cloud product. As a subscription-based CCaaS platform, it doesn’t require you to own servers or incur high IT support costs and is comparable to modern cloud providers like Nextiva.
- Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX): This is an on-premises system designed for small and medium-sized businesses with up to 400 agents. It runs on your own servers, so you’ll need the corresponding IT staff and Cisco equipment. Businesses that already use Cisco phones and infrastructure often choose UCCX for its native integration.
- Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE): UCCE is the more advanced version for large companies with thousands of agents. It’s built for organizations that require highly customized setups, multi-site deployments, and complex integrations with other business systems. It offers granular control but requires significant IT resources to manage.
Cisco Contact Center Features and Capabilities
Given Cisco’s reputation, it’s no surprise that its platforms are powerful. While features vary by package, here are the key capabilities you can expect:
- Omnichannel support: Agents can manage customer interactions across voice, email, web chat, and messaging from a single interface.
- Interactive voice response (IVR): You can set up customizable IVR systems to guide callers through self-service menus, improving efficiency and freeing up agents for more complex tasks.
- Skills-based routing: Ensures customers are connected to the best available agent by directing their calls based on predefined agent skill sets and availability.
- Computer telephony integration (CTI): Integrates your phone system with an agent’s desktop applications (like a CRM), enabling features like click-to-call and “screen pops” that display customer information during an incoming call.
- Reporting and analytics: Cisco offers real-time and historical data reporting, providing managers with insights into contact center performance, agent productivity, and customer satisfaction.
- Workforce optimization (WFO): These tools help forecast staffing needs, schedule agents, and monitor performance to ensure optimal staffing levels at all times.
How Much Does a Cisco Contact Center Cost?
Cisco doesn’t publicly disclose its pricing because each offering is carefully customized. However, you can analyze the model and available third-party data.
While you must get a custom quote, reseller estimates provide a baseline. An annual license for Cisco UCCX can range from around $1,359 per agent for a basic package to over $2,288 per agent for an enhanced feature set.
But the licensing fee is just the beginning.
To truly understand the price, you must calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes several factors not listed in the initial quote:
- Hardware and infrastructure: For on-premise solutions like UCCX and UCCE, you must purchase and maintain your own servers, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
- Professional services: Cisco solutions aren’t plug-and-play. You’ll pay substantial one-time fees for certified partners to handle the complex setup, implementation, and integration.
- Ongoing maintenance and support: A separate, mandatory, and costly support contract (like Cisco’s Smart Net Total Care) is required to get support and software updates.
- Training and IT staff: You’ll likely need to invest in specialized training for your team or hire IT staff with specific Cisco certifications to manage the system.
- Lack of flexibility: On-premise solutions like UCCX are rigid. You can’t easily scale seats up or down to match seasonal demand without significant cost and effort.
- No free trial: Cisco doesn’t offer a free trial. Once you purchase a license, you’re committed for the entire term, making it impossible to test the platform beforehand.
When you add these factors together, the initial license price can easily double or triple.
Nextiva vs. Cisco UCCX At a Glance
| Feature | Nextiva Contact Center | Cisco UCCX |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Transparent, public-facing entry-level plans | Opaque, quote-based. Requires contacting sales. |
| Total cost | Predictable monthly bill. All-inclusive features. | High TCO with separate costs for licensing, hardware, support, and professional services. |
| Deployment | Fast, cloud-native setup. Live in days. | On-premises, complex and lengthy. Can take weeks or months. |
| Ease of use | Intuitive, user-friendly interface. | Complex to manage. Requires dedicated, certified IT staff. |
| Included features | Omnichannel, WFO, AI, Analytics included. | Features are tiered and require expensive add-on licenses. |
| Support | Omnichannel, WFO, AI, and Analytics included. | Support is a separate, mandatory, and costly contract. |
| Flexibility | Ideal for remote/hybrid teams. Scales instantly. | On-premises and rigid. |
Why Nextiva Is the Clear, All-in-One Cisco Alternative
Given the complexity and high total cost of ownership of a Cisco system, many businesses are opting for a more all-in-one cloud solution. Nextiva’s cloud contact center offers powerful, enterprise-level features without the hidden costs and administrative overhead.
While the Cisco model requires you to bundle licenses, hardware, and support contracts, Nextiva offers a transparent, all-inclusive platform. You benefit from predictable pricing and a range of features—including omnichannel communications, AI-powered tools, and workforce optimization — in one plan.
👉 Transparent pricing: Nextiva offers three different pricing plans that have clearly laid-out features. This makes it easy to choose the plan you need at the best price. With Cisco, on the other hand, you need to directly contact their sales team or a reseller partner to get a quote, and the prices can vary significantly.
👉 Inclusive features: With Nextiva, you don’t need to mix and match contact center features. Its plans include a wide range of features, all available out-of-the-box and at no additional cost.
👉 Ease of use: Nextiva is an incredibly intuitive platform that requires minimal technical support. Setup and onboarding take very little time, and its user-friendly agent desktop requires minimal training. This keeps setup and support costs low while minimizing any delays or difficulties during onboarding.
👉 Remote and hybrid flexibility: Nextiva works across any network and can be configured for different types of teams and staff, including remote and hybrid work. This gives contact center agents and managers the flexibility and independence to work as they please.
👉 Scalability: Contact centers will often need to adjust their seats throughout the year or expand as their company grows. Nextiva offers scalable cloud-based solutions with flexible service adjustments, enabling organizations to add or remove seats as needed without paying any extra costs.
👉 Customer support: Nextiva’s customer support has been praised for its speed, helpfulness, and overall quality. Each Nextiva Contact Center plan includes exceptional customer support, so you’ll always be able to get the help you need whenever you need it.
If you’re looking for a great contact center solution, you can’t go wrong with Nextiva.
Is Cisco UCCX a Smart Investment Today?
While Cisco is an established provider with a powerful feature set, its on-premise solution brings forth challenges for modern businesses. Its confusing product portfolio, opaque pricing, and high hidden costs make it a complex and expensive choice.
For businesses seeking powerful features without the operational overhead, a cloud-native solution is the clear choice. Nextiva offers a simpler, more powerful, and more cost-effective path to modernizing your customer experience — a predictable investment with a faster return.
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Level up every customer interaction with Nextiva’s contact center solution.
