8×8 Phone System Review and Pricing

Why We Chose 8×8 for Growing Businesses

Not every Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system offers international numbers or supports non-U.S.-based workers, which is prohibitive for companies growing their business. However, this is where 8×8 shines. Its global reach extends to direct inward dial (local numbers) in over 55 countries and virtual phone numbers for more than 120 countries.

8×8 goes the extra mile by offering international deployment and multilingual customer service teams. This global support is invaluable for companies looking to establish an offshore call center or handle 24-hour customer service calls. We also appreciate the convenience of the mobile and desktop administrative controls. From a single administrative interface, you can quickly serve users, configure the system and manage sites no matter where your team is located.

Cost is always a concern when opening another business location. That’s why we appreciate 8×8’s flexible and affordable packages. Its mix-and-match plans cater to various roles, including receptionists and omnichannel customer service agents. Depending on your subscription, you can reduce international calling costs by taking advantage of unmetered calling to 14 or 48 countries.

It’s not only about cost savings — 8×8 delivers value for growing businesses. All voice plans come with advanced call management, video conferencing and messaging tools. The service integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, and there’s also a no-license Microsoft Teams option. We also love that 8×8’s Experience Communications as a Service (xCaaS) platform is designed to keep your workforce connected as your company expands. Its reliability, scalability and feature-rich services make it one of the best business phone systems on the market. 

For context, Market.us research shows that 67 percent of enterprises now use VoIP systems for their communication needs, with 93 percent of businesses that switched to VoIP platforms reporting increased productivity. That means that while your company is dealing with the busyness of expansion, it can gain efficiencies as it uses 8×8.

Ease of Use

According to Coherent Market Insights, the global VoIP services market is expected to reach $413.36 billion by 2032, with rapid growth driven by the increasing popularity of cloud-based technologies across industries. Cloud PBX (public branch exchange) systems like 8×8 let employees interact with co-workers and customers using any internet-connected device. We found 8×8’s desktop client user-friendly and comparable to RingEX or Vonage. Its light and dark themes, special action icons and sound library let you customize your experience to suit your needs.

We like that 8×8 allows you to add a custom status message in addition to standard presence data. It syncs to your calendar, and you can select which message to display when you have an event. However, the iOS and Android apps could be more intuitive. Some business users mentioned having problems transferring and parking calls. We found that Nextiva and Ooma have more straightforward and usable mobile apps.

8×8 integrates with some of the best CRM software platforms, as noted above. We found it easy to activate these apps from the 8×8 settings integration panel. In contrast, some competitors, like Nextiva, require a third-party integrator tool to connect the phone system to a help desk or CRM software. Notably, 8×8 has more limitations when it comes to on-site integrations. We prefer Ooma for seamless connection to analog paging systems and fax machines. Learn more in our Ooma Office review.

8×8 x Series Features

8×8’s flexibility and advanced capabilities make it ideal for growing businesses. As your company expands, you can enable optional functions for users or departments or enforce them company-wide. Below, we identify the 8×8 x Series features that can support your organization’s growth and development.

Multi-Location Management

All VoIP phone systems have online admin portals, but not all providers or plans are multisite or globally compatible. We were thrilled that 8×8 added mobile administrative tools in late 2023. The apps fully sync to the main 8×8 Admin Console, displaying time-critical alerts and a performance analytics dashboard. This addition allows companies to manage several locations from a single admin platform on desktop or mobile devices.

When testing the 8×8 platform, we liked the time-saving features, like standardized rules and auto-site generation. Establishing a new site’s phone system was quicker than with some competitors’ software that required us to start from scratch. We could also update all office lines simultaneously instead of applying changes manually.

8×8 meets industry security standards, including HIPAA compliance, when properly configured with encryption and secure data handling protocols. For healthcare organizations, this ensures patient communications remain protected according to federal regulations. The platform also supports PCI DSS compliance for businesses handling payment information.

Multilevel Auto-Attendant

8×8’s multilevel automated receptionist supports the complex call flows that are standard with larger organizations. Rival Nextiva provides only a basic virtual receptionist (simple IVR) on its base plan, whereas 8×8, RingEX and Dialpad include full multilevel auto-attendants with all their subscriptions. With 8×8, you can configure the auto-attendant’s submenus and create multisite ring groups.

We also appreciate 8×8’s built-in configurations for alternate menus. These allow administrators to immediately switch to a substitute auto-attendant during an unplanned event that affects phone service. You can designate alternate menu greetings and call-forwarding rules to ensure business continuity, even if one or more of your locations cannot accept calls.

Analytics for 8×8 Work

Data analytics, like 8×8’s unreturned calls or quality trends reports, are invaluable to growing businesses. Analytics data for 8×8 Work provides historical and real-time information for hardware and extensions across your organization. We liked the customization and filtering options. The platform displays granular details from any device in a table or graph.

8×8 call activity and supervisor analytics come with the x4 unified communications plans and higher. In comparison, in our RingEX review, we noted that this vendor includes essential business analytics on its midtier subscription while offering analytics for IT administrators on the base package.

Integrations

Because 8×8 offers both phone and call center features on one platform, we love that it also supports integrations at the base and contact center levels. It syncs with core CRM, service, productivity and support applications. For instance, 8×8 can store contact call data in HubSpot and Zoho CRM while providing call controls.

Although 8×8 integrates with fewer applications than RingEX and Zoom, we were impressed that all x Series licenses include multiple Microsoft Teams integration options. 8×8 offers both a Phone App for Teams that requires no Teams Phone license and a Voice for Teams solution that does require Microsoft licensing. We appreciate that 8×8, along with peers RingEX, Dialpad and Vonage, all provide license-free Teams integration options that don’t require expensive Teams Phone licenses. RingEx offers this through their embedded app approach, Dialpad provides License Free Routing (LFR), and Vonage offers both VBC for Teams and VBC Voice for Teams integration packages. Learn more about the latter in our Vonage review.

Audio and Video Conferencing

8×8’s VoIP solution has a 500-person audio and video conferencing limit — higher than most competitors, including Dialpad and Nextiva. Still, RingEX supports 1,000 audio meeting attendees. Like Dialpad and RingEX, 8×8’s platform now boasts AI-generated meeting summaries, action items and highlights for video conferences. This feature saves businesses time and increases productivity, which is critical as your workforce expands.

We like that 8×8 allows livestreaming to YouTube. The meeting application has advanced moderation controls and encourages engagement through instant polls, emoji reactions and hand raising. You can share videos in meetings and chat with participants.

Call Handling and Management

8×8’s softphone apps help employees deliver exceptional caller experiences with tools such as call transfer, forwarding and parking. Admins can distribute calls for more efficient customer service by leveraging ring groups and call queues. We also like that 8×8 offers Frontdesk app functionality for receptionists and operators. Notably, RingEX’s receptionist console is available on its base plan, whereas 8×8 requires you to sign up for the x4 plan to get this capability.

8×8 x Series Pricing and Plans

The 8×8 x Series includes five service plans: two for unified business communications and three for contact centers. The vendor provides custom quotes and discounts for annual prepayment, extended contracts and high-volume license purchases. We were disappointed that 8×8 stopped listing specific pricing information on its website in late 2023, requiring businesses to contact the company’s sales team for detailed quotes.

Still, based on our recent research and industry comparisons, 8×8’s unified communications plans (x2 and x4) remain competitively positioned within the RingEX and Nextiva price range. However, Dialpad has a cheaper option with annual billing, and Zoom Phone’s metered subscription costs less. 

We appreciate that 8×8 includes these VoIP and contact center features regardless of the package you choose:

• 8×8 Work: Unified mobile, desktop and web app
• Presence detection
• Unlimited extension-to-extension calling
• Voicemail transcriptions
• Team messaging with document sharing
• HD audio and video conferencing with screen-sharing for up to 500 active participants
• Integrations with key productivity, service and support applications
• Single sign-on

Beyond those standard components, here’s a breakdown of what you get in each plan:

Businesses can add several features to boost their phone system’s functionality. For example, unified communications users can choose media cold storage for long-term archival purposes, and quality management and speech analytics can be added for non-x8 users. We especially like 8×8 Secure Pay, a payment processing tool that lets your customers add their payment information through a secure interface.

Implementation and Onboarding

As with other cloud-based phone systems, 8×8 doesn’t require the special wiring and hardware necessary for traditional landline solutions. Once the software is configured, employees can access team messaging and calling tools using a desktop client, browser or mobile app. When we set up our system, we liked the option to clone employee or administrator roles and bulk-upload new users.

Otto, 8×8’s AI-powered assistant, helps with training and onboarding. It works in the 8×8 admin portal, knowledge base and 8×8 support portal (My 8×8). 8×8 also provides free online training and paid courses through 8×8 University, similar to what RingEX offers. However, we preferred Vonage’s free live training sessions and found Nextiva’s support center easier to navigate.

That said, we found 8×8’s free tutorial pages helpful. These materials include guides, short videos and interactive demos. The complimentary self-paced learning modules help new users get up to speed without disrupting workplaces.

Customer Support

Although the 8×8 x Series comes with 24/7 customer support for all accounts, customer reviews and our experiences suggest it’s difficult to reach and understand some agents. Users can submit a support ticket, chat online or call 8×8, but the availability and knowledge levels of the vendor’s customer service representatives vary. For example, you’ll have to jump through a few hoops (roughly seven to eight mouse clicks) to reach a human via the live chat tool.

We found 8×8 often routes callers to the virtual chatbot during peak hours. Indeed, when comparing Nextiva to 8×8, we felt Nextiva’s agents were more responsive and better equipped to answer our questions. However, we love the recent updates to 8×8’s knowledge base. The addition of screenshots helped us navigate system configuration and basic troubleshooting without having to contact the support center.

The platform maintains 99.9999 percent uptime, according to 8×8’s official SLA, which meets industry standards for enterprise VoIP reliability. This level of uptime is crucial for growing businesses that depend on consistent communications infrastructure.

Limitations

Some 8×8 features — like auto-dialer functionality — are found only in the platform’s pricier plans, which may make this solution less financially feasible for budget-conscious businesses. We also felt that 8×8 is falling behind competitors with its AI offering. The AI video meeting tools are a nice touch, but we’d like to see the vendor enable AI-generated summaries for audio calls.

8×8’s support is also concerning for businesses without a robust IT and administrative team, although the company isn’t alone in this problem; we encountered it several times when researching and testing VoIP services. However, our review of Nextiva highlights that our support experiences were noticeably better with this vendor than with many rivals.

Prospective users should also be aware that 8×8’s mobile apps can be buggy, especially after software updates, which affects user experience for remote and hybrid teams. Some users report call quality issues when using Wi-Fi connections, though the system typically defaults to carrier data for stability.

Methodology

For this 8×8 review, we tested the 8×8 Work application and administrative console and evaluated the platform’s features, pricing structure and user experience. Our process involved:

• Hands-on testing of the desktop and mobile applications
• Evaluation of the platform’s core functionality (call management, video conferencing, etc.)
• Analysis of the administrative interface
• Assessment of the vendor’s customer support and training resources
• Competitive research against other phone systems we tested
• Studying market research reports and official vendor documentation

To find the best business phone system for growing companies specifically, we also focused on scalability, international calling options and costs, integration possibilities and communication tools for distributed workforces.

Bottom Line

We recommend 8×8 for …

• Organizations with growing remote, on-site and hybrid teams.
• Companies that need high-capacity video conferencing.
• Businesses with international customers or employees.

We don’t recommend 8×8 for …

• Businesses that need monitoring features at a low price.
• Companies with 10 or fewer users.
• Solopreneurs looking to add a second phone number.