7 Genesys Alternatives to Make Scaling Your Contact Center Easier

Reading reviews and comparing prices are important steps in any buying process, especially when it comes to contact center software. 

This software will be the heart of your processes, keeping your teams organized and on task. It’s not easy to replace it if you make the wrong choice, so it’s always best practice to do the heavy lifting up front and research top competitors.

Genesys provides customer experience and contact center solutions. It offers software to manage customer interactions across phone, email, chat, and social media messaging channels.

Let’s cover everything you need to know about Genesys, including its pros and cons and the best alternatives.

What Are Some Strengths of Genesys?

A company must be doing something right to be named in a Gartner Magic Quadrant. Here are Genesys’ major strengths:

Omnichannel support

Genesys Cloud allows businesses to manage customer interactions across multiple channels in a single place, providing a consistent customer experience.

Channels include:

• Voice
• Video
• Email
• Web chat
• Social media
• SMS

Advanced analytics

With even the most basic package, you get powerful analytics tools to track and review customer interactions. 

This helps businesses understand customer needs and behaviors, without requiring expensive consultants or manual data models in Excel.

Customization and scalability

As with all cloud contact centers, Genesys offers a tailored solution to match specific business needs. The nature of the cloud opens the door to flexible packaging and mixing and matching across agents and supervisors.

Genesys is scalable to accommodate changes in demand. This could be in response to seasonal rushes, staff turnover, or unplanned growth. If you need more or fewer licenses, you can scale without a major fuss.

AI and automation

Proving that artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just a buzzword, Genesys has fed new processes and technologies into features like workforce engagement and speech analytics. The aim is to optimize customer interactions and improve efficiency for contact center agents.

Reliability and security

Genesys applies service credits of 10% if its uptime dips below 99.99% (you must request these within 30 days).

In general, the platform is considered reliable and secure, even by critical customers:

Why Customers Look for an Alternative to Genesys

On paper, Genesys is a strong option when choosing a cloud-based contact center solution. But, as with any software, a few hiccups cause concern.

Pricing

While being open to a high level of customization, Genesys comes with a high initial investment. In larger deals, there’s also a significant upfront investment to cover professional services and set-up costs for highly technical implementations.

In comparison, most competitors (especially cloud-based SaaS companies) offer simpler, pre-packaged solutions that include a monthly fee only.

In February 2020, Genesys also introduced usage-based pricing. While plans that start at $0.68/user/hour sound easy on your budget, this often leads to unpredictable costs for businesses with variable call volumes.

Overly complex

They say too many cooks spoil the broth. In Genesys’ case, too many call center features often get in the way of initial implementation and maximum efficiency. Some reviews suggest the over-complication of features overshadows the need for basic phone system features, including call park, paging, and hunt groups.

For call centers whose most-used channel is voice, Genesys might be too bloated for your requirements.

Lengthy implementation

Perhaps as a result of its large feature set, Genesys can have a time-consuming implementation process. 

Genesys’ contact center software may require significant IT resources and expertise, which some businesses may not have readily available.

Top 7 Alternatives to Genesys

1. Nextiva

Strengths 

Nextiva is known for its friendly user interface and excellent customer support, making it accessible and helpful for businesses of all sizes. 

Nextiva is a unified communications company and a provider of contact center solutions, meaning it can be your one-stop shop for internal and external communications needs.

Offering similar base functionality to Genesys, Nextiva also integrates contact center AI without being overwhelming. There’s no pressure to make everything virtual and leave robots to run your operations. Although, there’s plenty of call center automation and machine learning to take advantage of.

On the whole, Nextiva’s pricing is simpler than Genesys’. What you see is what you get. There’s nothing hidden, and it’s easy to budget.

Key features 

Nextiva provides inbound and outbound contact center solutions, VoIP phone services, seamless CRM integration, and automated workflows — improving productivity and CX management.

Setup takes only minutes, and you can scale up and down without the fear of wasting an upfront investment.

Who uses Nextiva?

Nextiva is especially suitable for small and medium businesses looking for a comprehensive and integrated communications platform. 

The platform can also support high-growth and large contact center operations, with integration requirements to back-end team members.

It also includes an outbound dialer option for sales and market research teams.

Why is Nextiva a good Genesys alternative?

Its streamlined approach is particularly helpful for smaller teams that need a straightforward, all-in-one communications solution.

Integrating unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS) is simple via internal APIs.

Whether you’re using Nextiva for both your telephony and your contact center or integrating another contact center, such as Five9, with Nextiva’s business phone system, you get a streamlined experience for contact center agents, built-in video conferencing, a mobile app for on-the-go accessibility, and competitive pricing plans.

2. CloudTalk

Strengths

CloudTalk offers customizable call flows and advanced analytics, allowing businesses to tailor their phone systems to their specific needs.

If you’re looking for virtual call center software, rather than a multichannel contact center, CloudTalk provides plenty of features to create a fluid operation.

Key features

CloudTalk performs the basic VoIP call center features very well:

• Intelligent call routing
• Click-to-call functionality
• CRM integrations (e.g., Salesforce, Zendesk, and Pipedrive)
• Custom call flows and detailed reports on customer behavior, making up for a lack of other supported digital channels

Who uses CloudTalk?

CloudTalk is best for remote teams and businesses that need a high degree of flexibility in call management and customer support.

If you’re looking to implement remote or hybrid work in the contact center, CloudTalk works for users in any location and on any device, routing calls wherever an agent may be and whenever they’re available.

Why is CloudTalk a good Genesys alternative?

It’s no surprise CloudTalk is a cloud contact center solution, but it’s always been a cloud solution. There’s no leftover legacy of on-premises equipment and thinking. This means it’s an agile company with flexible pricing, scaling, and features.

CloudTalk’s specialized features for managing remote workforces make it an appealing choice for businesses with distributed teams.

3. Aircall

Strengths 

Aircall is easy to set up and has an intuitive interface, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise.

As the name might suggest, Aircall specializes in calling rather than digital channels. It does so by complementing its call center software with AI transcription and integration into popular tools like Zendesk, HubSpot, and Intercom.

Key features 

Aircall allows for real-time modifications and lets its AI take care of agent tasks, including notetaking and wrap-up activities. 

You can get automatic voicemail and call transcripts, allowing you to search and skip to important parts of calls. This is especially useful for quality assurance purposes.

Who uses Aircall?

Aircall is particularly well-suited to startups and companies that need a simple but scalable solution for their communications needs.

If calls are your primary method of customer contact, Aircall can help you achieve higher call center productivity with a quick turnaround time.

Why is Aircall a good Genesys alternative?

Aircall focuses on simplicity and ease of use, making it a great choice for smaller teams that might find more complex systems overwhelming.

If your Genesys implementation has stalled, or there are simply too many features that you won’t use, Aircall is a great alternative.

4. Five9

Strengths

Five9 is known for its robust analytics and strong omnichannel capabilities that allow businesses to manage customer interactions across multiple channels efficiently.

As one of the pioneers in adding AI into contact centers, Five9 has the advantage of patented technology and a highly experienced team of executives tasked with its direction.

Key features

Five9 includes intelligent routing, seamless CRM integrations, and AI-powered automation, enhancing customer service and operational efficiency.

This solution was one of the first contact center platforms to roll out conversational IVR and voicebots. Its advancements in natural language processing have led to mature features such as agent assist, call summaries, and virtual agents.

Who uses Five9?

Five9 is best suited for enterprises that need advanced contact center features to manage large volumes.

If your contact center management plan focuses on reducing manual errors and automating menial tasks, Five9 could be the right option for you. 

Why is Five9 a good Genesys alternative?

Five9 offers extensive analytics and AI capabilities, making it a suitable choice for larger organizations that need a sophisticated contact center solution. 

If you’re looking to migrate away from Genesys to another cloud contact center, there is clear parity in the scalability and feature set.

Related: The 7 Best Five9 Alternatives That Are Easy to Use

5. NICE CXone (formerly InContact)

Strengths

Recent additions to the NICE portfolio include Enlighten Copilot and Autopilot, leading the charge for automated companions for contact center agents. Agents can ask questions and get feedback on tasks they carry out.

NICE can also provide professional services, business consulting, and contact center training. 

Key features

NICE offers omnichannel routing, workforce optimization, and AI analytics, providing a complete solution for managing customer interactions.

There’s a heavy focus on self-service and automation, helping agents gain back time and provide a more human experience where needed.

Who uses NICE?

NICE is most helpful to large enterprises and businesses with complex contact center requirements. NICE’s team of consultants and engineers is significantly larger than most Genesys competitors. 

If you have a technical contact center deployment and need expert assistance, NICE is a solid option.

Why is NICE a good Genesys alternative?

CXone provides a wide range of features and scalability options, making it an excellent option for complex, large-scale operations.

NICE has the internal resources to back up its technology claims, helping you implement a hybrid or cloud contact center.

6. Talkdesk

Strengths

Talkdesk stands out for its innovative AI features and high degree of customizability, allowing businesses to tailor the system to their specific needs.

Talkdesk’s marketing and branding are modern and user-friendly. The experience when using its contact center tools is straightforward and appealing to younger agents.

Key features

Talkdesk features include intelligent routing, real-time reporting, and integrations with major business apps including Microsoft Teams, Dynamics, Salesforce, and Zoom.

As Talkdesk’s phone system product is immature in the market, there’s a major focus on tight integration with other PBX apps.

Who uses Talkdesk? 

Talkdesk is best suited for businesses looking for a modern, AI-driven contact center solution that can be customized to their unique requirements.

If you’re looking for a standalone contact center platform to pair with your existing phone system, Talkdesk is a good option.

Why is Talkdesk a good Genesys alternative?

Talkdesk’s AI features and customization options make it a compelling choice for businesses seeking a more tech-savvy solution.

7. Avaya

Strengths

Avaya has a deep history in telecoms and can provide several different contact center systems. Its main experience is in on-premises and hybrid deployments, but it also has several offerings for cloud contact centers.

Key features 

Avaya offers a multichannel contact center, video conferencing, and UCaaS, providing a comprehensive suite of tools for business communication. 

The platform has a wide range of complementary tools, either in-house or via reseller models, to provide bolt-on services like workforce management, handsets, and professional services.

Who uses Avaya?

Avaya is used by large businesses and enterprises in need of a comprehensive communication solution through a trusted telecom brand.

If you’re an existing Avaya customer for PBX or VoIP, keeping everything under one umbrella may have significant discount benefits.

Why is Avaya a good Genesys alternative?

Avaya’s robust, enterprise-grade solutions make it a viable alternative for organizations requiring a full-featured system.

If your industry requires software or data to remain on site, Avaya offers several on-premises and hybrid contact center options.

The Final Verdict: Why Nextiva Wins

If your contact center platform isn’t easy to use, you can’t expect improved agent productivity or customer engagement. With small, medium, or large businesses, Nextiva provides an intuitive interface that eases adoption.

Boasting 99.999% uptime, Nextiva is reliable to the nth degree. There is no other vendor in the market providing a higher uptime. And if things go wrong, Nextiva’s helpdesk and support team have accolade after accolade for customer service.

From a feature perspective, the all-in-one platform includes all your VoIP and unified communications needs, alongside a full-featured contact center solution. 

What’s more, it’s fully scalable and cost-effective. You can modify your number of users according to demand, and pricing starts at $50/user/month.

Nextiva is the intelligent cloud contact center with seamless connectivity via the Nextiva Business Phone Service.

Related: Top 6 NICE CXOne Alternatives for Your Contact Center