Krishi Chowdhary has half a decade of experience writing buying guides and product reviews for numerous leading technology websites. He spent two years writing for…
Amy Clark is a quality-driven managing editor who has extensive knowledge of the SaaS market. She started her journey managing and supporting the content at…
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Our Verdict
8x8 is a top choice for advanced call management capabilities
8×8 offers an all-in-one VoIP solution that’s highly recommended for medium and large-sized businesses. For starters, it’s incredibly reliable, with 99.999% uptime.
It also boasts a native payment gateway, loads of integrations, and advanced features like being able to listen in on live calls for training, for example.
It’s also a solid option for video conferencing needs, as you can host calls with 500 participants and get handy features like polls and break rooms for 1:1 training.
That said, as we explore in this 8×8 review, it can be expensive for small businesses compared to some rivals. Whether it’s worth it depends on your specific needs.
In this 8×8 review, we take a deep dive into this popular business communication platform that’s tallied over 3 million customers. We’ve put it through vigorous testing to give you what you need to know before deciding if it’s right for you. The good (and the bad), its pricing, features, and how it compares to rivals are all covered here.
8×8, unlike most, doesn’t reveal its pricing. This is only available upon request. That said, the starting price is around $25/month, making it one of the pricier entry-level VoIP solutions. Here are the main differences between all of the 8×8 plans:
X2
X4
X6
X7
X8
Starting Price
$24/user/month (annual plan)
$44/user/month (annual plan)
$85/user/month
$110/user/month
$140/user/month
Unlimited Domestic Calling
Unmetered in 14 countries
Unmetered in 48 countries
Metered and unmetered bundles
Metered and unmetered bundles
Metered and unmetered bundles
Unlimited Domestic Texting
Team messaging only
Team messaging only
All types of chats
All types of chats
All types of chats
International Calling
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
Numbers
International, Local, Toll-free (not available for free)
8×8’s X2 plan is the most basic in its offering, but it does allow unlimited users. Along with that, you also get some helpful features, including media storage, plus:
Unlimited fax
Hot desking to turn any device into a shared desk phone
Presence detection for agents to add their status to their profile
If you have a small, growing business, the X2 plan has enough features to cater to your needs. However, as we noted above, it does come at a higher cost than rivals like MightyCall, for example.
X4 Plan — $44/user/m (Annual)
The X4 plan has all the features included in the X2, plus other benefits, including:
Frontdesk for receptionists and operators
The ability to listen in on any active calls
These are the standout features, but this is by no means the full extent of the X4. This plan is ideal for small and mid-sized businesses after a little more oomph.
X6 Plan — $85/user/m
The X6 plan isn’t too different from the X4 except for the call management features, which is the real difference maker. Unlike the X4, the X6 plan offers:
Post-call surveys
Skill-based call routing to ensure the best person answers a call
Web callback, where callers request callbacks if they leave the call queue
These are the standouts that caught our eye, but there are ample more Contact Center features to enjoy with this plan. Plus, there are add-ons like 8×8 Secure Pay and Intelligent Customer Support.
X7 Plan — $110/user/m
The X7 plan is the most popular plan for a number of reasons. It contains all the other features in the previous plans along with additional benefits like the Chrome Enterprise Recommended (CER) contact center solution.
Beyond this, you get integrations with some of the best CRM tools, plus options for additional productivity, service, and support applications.
X8 Plan — $140/user/m
X8 is the only plan where you’ll get features like:
Auto-dialer that negates the need to manually dial numbers
Quality management and speech analytics
However, what’s interesting is that despite being the high-end plan, it doesn’t boast all the benefits that 8×8 has to offer. The Intelligent Customer Assistant and Microsoft Teams calling are add-ons.
8×8 is one of the best VoIP services, but that doesn’t mean it’s the ideal choice for everyone. Here’s what we found in our analysis of its key features.
Calling Functions
8×8’s call quality is simply impeccable. You can expect 100% HD quality and 99.999% uptime. You’ll also get to park calls — putting it on hold on one line and picking up where you left off on another.
You also Hunt Groups, where a call is circulated to different agents (or groups of agents) until someone answers. Plus, the popular Ring Groups, is available, where it simultaneously rings multiple lines.
As you’d expect, calling is available for both customers (i.e., outbound calls) as well as extension-to-extension calling among the team. Overall, we found 8×8’s calling features were impressive.
However, we did find that it’s lacking in diversity. Some platforms like Ooma can make your phone double up as a pager or intercom. RingCentral, too, offers walkie-talkies as an add-on.
Video Conferencing
8×8 is more than just a calling platform – it’s equally good at video interactions as well. It lets you host video conferences where you can share your screen with up to 500 participants.
For added fun, 8×8 offers features like hand-raising (similar to Google Meet), instant polls, live emojis, and virtual breakout rooms for training — plus, you can experiment with fun backgrounds.
8×8’s video conferencing works on desktop and mobile, and you can also call and invite people from within the meeting. What’s more, you can even livestream these video meetings on YouTube.
While 8×8 allows more participants than Ooma, you’re capped on every plan — even the most expensive one (500). In comparison, Nextiva offers unlimited video participants in the Professional plan.
Apart from calls and video meetings, 8×8 can also seamlessly handle messages, social media chats, and faxes. In fact, every user on 8×8 qualifies for unlimited internet fax.
Call Analytics
Call analytics play a key part in improving your customer’s experience, helping you understand the hidden grievances and obstacles faced by your customers to improve it.
An 8×8 call report will include the call duration, conversion rate, and abandonment rate, which helps pinpoint weak areas in your service, and your best-performing agents.
8×8 even lets managers listen in on calls between agents and customers — without interruptions or the client knowing — or listen to recorded calls, both of which are great for training or upskilling your team.
Plus, you can send post-call surveys for feedback on their experience. We also liked the call quality management and speech analytics, although these are add-ons unless you’re on the X8 plan.
Team Management Functions
8×8 also offers fantastic features to help better manage your team. For instance, presence detection tells you the current status of a team member — online, offline, away, on a call, or in a meeting.
This helps to know your team’s availability to assign and delegate tasks more swiftly, and you can use it to check who’s being more productive and who’s slacking.
Another amazing team management feature is skill-based routing. This helps you route incoming calls from customers to the person more suited for handling the matter.
For instance, if you’re getting a call from a VIP customer, you can directly route it to one of your senior agents. It’s time-saving and ensures that your customers can quickly get their problems sorted.
8×8 Secure Pay
Unlike most, 8×8 offers secure native payment processing, which as a bonus, expedites financial remittances. For example, instead of sending payment links, you can guide clients to the built-in 8×8 interface while on the call.
Beyond this, instead of having to jot down payment details, you can give clients access to a virtual dial pad where they can enter their details first-hand — which adds to the security.
Most of 8×8’s rivals, including Nextiva, Ooma, and RingCentral, don’t have their own native payment gateway – you’ll either have to rely on integrations or manage separate payment software.
8×8 seamlessly integrates with several other tools, enabling you to centralize your business processes. We found sourcing the integrations easy, as you can even filter through the categories.
We were impressed with the amount of options, too. For conversation AI, for example, you can choose Cognigy, Logicdialog, Syndeo Assist-Me, or Conversation AI by Engage Hub.
8×8 is fairly ahead of rivals, with 65 native integrations, while some, like Phone.com, only offer 4. You can connect more apps through Zapier, but it’s not the same as having native integration.
Is 8×8 Safe?
8×8 is certainly an extremely safe platform. You don’t have to worry about your data or the system’s security. Plus, 8×8 gets independently audited every year.
Having their security verified by unbiased third parties backs up their security claims. Also, its data centers are mirrored, secure, and geographically diverse, ensuring your data’s safety on them.
To top it off, there are security protocols at every step, along with meeting industry standards and certifications, such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and GDPR, and it has a built-in fraud detection tool.
8×8 has received excellent reviews online. For instance, on TrustRadius, 8×8 has a total score of 8.6/10 based on 687 reviews.
Most users have given it a 9 and above points for availability, usability, performance, and ease of integration.
On others like Gartner, 8×8 has received similar feedback, securing a rating of 4.5/5 based on 214 reviews, and out of this, 51% have given it a 5-star rating, and 36% have given it a 4-star rating.
On diving deep into the reviews, we found that most people like that 8×8 is easy to use and reliable, offering stability in the sense that you’ll almost never experience significant outages or call dropping.
Some customers have complained about the customer support team, though. Although they’re helpful, it can take some time before you reach someone.
That said, the feedback on customer support is mixed, as is the case for many of the top internet phone services, but overall, 8×8 is highly reputable, and you’ll find more positives than negatives.
8×8 is best for call analytics and audio calls. Not only does it provide crystal clear audio and solid uptime, but there are ample call management features to make calls convenient and easy.
Pair this with quality management and speech analytics reports, and you’ll know everything there is to know about how your customers feel and how your customer service team is performing.
If recorded conversations aren’t going to cut it for you, your managers will also have the opportunity to jump on a call and quietly listen to the conversation incognito to better support with in-house training.
Overall, 8×8 boasts everything most companies need to create a spectacular calling experience, both in-house and for customers. That said, it can be a bit expensive for small businesses.
8×8 vs Top Competitors
Our 8×8 review isn’t complete without comparing it to rivals. Below, we put it side-by-side with its top competitors to help you zero in on the best option for your use case:
Unlimited audio conferencing and calls, voicemail transcription, free number porting
Money-Back Guarantee
❌
30 days
30 days
30 days
30 days
8×8 vs RingCentral
RingCentral has some of the best calling features in the industry. You get AI-powered noise cancellation, and while 8×8 provides metered calling, RingCentral offers unlimited audio conferencing.
8×8, on the other hand, makes up for it by allowing more participants in your conferences. RingCentral allows 200, while 8×8 allows 500 participants on all its plans.
It also offers a 30-day free trial, while RingCentral’s is half that. So, all in all, which one is better really depends on your specific needs and your budget.
One thing you might like about Nextiva is its transparent pricing. Also, unlike 8×8, which offers metered calling, Nextiva, as with RingCentral, offers unlimited audio calling, even in its basic plan.
However, 8×8 offers voicemail transcriptions with the starter plan, unlike Nextiva. What’s more, you don’t have to remain in a set plan, either – 8×8 gives you the freedom to mix plans as needed.
To conclude, if you’re looking for more flexibility, 8×8 is clearly the way to go.
8×8 vs Ooma
Our Ooma review and this 8×8 review uncover a lot of similarities. However, 8×8 has the edge on analytics as, simply put, the options here are class-leading and comprehensive.
Plus, your managers get a lot of control over the conversations between agents and customers, including listening in on calls with detailed call reports and recordings for the same.
Ooma, on the other hand, has more unique features. You get free toll-free numbers, and your business phone can double up as a pager and intercom line — plus, Ooma’s cheaper, making it a top choice if you want the best small business VoIP.
Verdict – Is 8×8 Worth it?
After careful analysis and testing, we’ve found 8×8 to be one of the best VoIP platforms this year. From spectacular call quality and tons of nifty features to a native payment processing mechanism.
It offers a complete package. The platform is a delight for beginners, too, offering easy-to-use apps and interfaces across various devices. The only area that might bother you is that it’s not the cheapest.
It also doesn’t come with any money-back guarantee, unlike most others. On the bright side, though, there’s a generous 30-day free trial, so you can try 8×8 on for size without risking a single penny.
Our team of experts has spent the last 13+ years researching, reviewing, and comparing the best tech products. We’ve tested dozens of VoIP solutions to offer our readers guides like this.
This allows us to know where the bar in the industry is and what to look for in our review of 8×8. We spent 2 weeks running our own tests, evaluating the platform to see if it’s as good as it claims to be.
We also check the usability of the interface and customer support. Last but not least, we also consider the feedback given in other 8×8 reviews to ensure we offer a good overview of what you can expect.
After all, VoIP solutions are a significant investment for your business, which is why we make sure that we only recommend options that are class-leading and reliable in the long run.
How to Choose the Best VoIP Provider
Here are a few factors that you need to consider while you’re out shopping for a VoIP provider for your company:
PriceScalabilityEase of UseIntegrationsCustomer SupportUptimeHidden Cost
Your budget is one of the most important aspects to consider when selecting the right VoIP for your business. You’ll want to match the features you want with what you’re willing to pay. That said, most, including 8×8, offer various plans for various needs and budgets.
It’s important to choose a platform that can grow with you. A good VoIP platform is one that can handle your needs when you have 20 customers and when you have 20,000 customers. If it isn’t scalable, you’ll have to move to a new platform (a tedious and troublesome process) every time you get more customers.
A new platform can be effective in improving your business only if your employees can make the most out of it, which can only happen if it’s beginner-friendly. We’d recommend that you opt for platforms that are easy to use, with simple and navigable interfaces. For this, we recommend making use of any free trials and demos.
A single product can’t cater to all the needs of a business, so you need a platform that lets you integrate with a variety of other apps so that you can centralize your business. As we’ve discussed in this 8×8 review, some VoIP services only offer certain integrations on higher-end plans.
There’s always a chance that you may run into an issue—making customer support vital to the running of your business. A good VoIP platform should have round-the-clock assistance and offer multiple mediums of contact, such as chat, email, and phone support.
If you’re using this VoIP platform as your primary source of communication, make sure that the platform has close to a 100% uptime guarantee. It’s worth noting that even a 99% uptime, which may look like an excellent offering, equates to around 3.65 days of downtime per year. 99.999% is a must.
Sometimes, a company might increase the prices of its plans after renewal or remove basic functions from the original plan and force you to buy them separately as an add-on. These are all hidden costs that can severely hamper your budget.
FAQs
What is 8×8?
8×8 is a popular unified business communication platform that centralizes customer-to-company communication with voice/video calls or text.
Can 8×8 be trusted?
8×8 is currently trusted by over 3 million users across the globe. The platform is very secure and complies with all industry standards. It also has its own firewall and intrusion detection and prevention systems to prevent system attacks.
Is 8×8 a good phone system?
8×8 is a top-shelf VoIP solution, and most reviews are positive. It’s safe and offers excellent call quality and a 99.999% uptime guarantee – plus a simple interface.
Does 8×8 give you a phone number?
8×8 provides every user with a pool of numbers to choose from. You can pick one to assign to your team. The types of numbers supported include local, toll-free, and international.
Can I use 8×8 on my cell phone?
Yes, you can use 8×8 on your phone as long as you have an extension. You can make/take calls and send messages, too. Currently, it works on iOS, Android, iPad, Android tablets, and even Amazon Fire tablets.
Techopedia’s editorial policy is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.
Krishi Chowdhary has half a decade of experience writing buying guides and product reviews for numerous leading technology websites. He spent two years writing for Business2Community.com before joining Techopedia.com. He has a degree in Commerce and extensive experience in the technology industry. He's also the key driver behind TechReport.com's news content, delivering expertise insight into the latest tech and cybersecurity news daily.
We uphold a strict editorial policy that focuses on factual accuracy, relevance, and impartiality. Our content, created by leading industry experts, is reviewed by a team of seasoned editors to ensure compliance with the highest standards in reporting and publishing.
Disclosure
When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn how our funding model works. By using this website you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy.
When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn 
