The best Dialpad alternatives in 2026

Why Teams Look for Dialpad Alternatives in 2026

Dialpad is a good phone system. Dialpad Connect puts AI transcripts and post-call summaries on every plan, includes IVR on the cheapest tier, and costs $15 per user per month on annual billing.

So why do teams shop around? The reasons are usually specific, and they show up on Dialpad's own pricing and help pages:

• The monthly price is much higher than the annual price. Connect Standard is $15 per user per month billed annually, but $27 billed monthly. That is 80% more for the same plan. Pro is $25 annual or $35 monthly. Annual purchases are not refundable.
• Texting is pooled and small. Dialpad's feature comparison lists 250 outbound SMS for Connect, pooled at the account level, not per user. Messaging on shared lines carries per-message fees. When the account runs out of SMS credits, external texts stop until credits are added.
• AI needs grow past what Connect includes. Connect has transcripts, AI Recaps and action items. Live sentiment and real-time assist sit in Dialpad's contact center and sales products, and AI agents are a separate product, Dialpad Resolve, sold through sales.
• A contact center means a second product. Connect does not include contact center licenses. Dialpad Support starts at $89 per user per month on annual billing.
• Integrations and recording need Pro. Standard has no Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack or Microsoft Teams integrations, no APIs and no automatic call recording.

None of these is a reason to leave on its own. But if one matches your situation, an alternative may fit better. This guide compares Dialpad with RingCentral, Nextiva, 8x8, Quo (formerly OpenPhone), Aircall and Zoom Phone, and matches each one to the reason you are leaving.

Dialpad review

Dialpad Connect is Dialpad's business phone system. Dialpad also sells Dialpad Support (contact center), Dialpad Sell (sales dialer) and Dialpad Resolve (AI agents).

Key features

• Dialpad AI on every Connect plan: real-time transcripts, AI Recaps (shareable post-call summaries), action items, transcript snippets and speech coaching
• Unlimited calling in the US and Canada, excluding toll-free, with a direct line for each user
• Departments on every plan: simultaneous, longest-idle, round-robin and fixed-order routing, business and holiday hours, and a Department IVR
• CRM and app integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Slack, Microsoft Teams) and APIs on Pro

Pricing

• Connect Standard: $15/user/month billed annually, or $27 billed monthly
• Connect Pro: $25/user/month billed annually, or $35 billed monthly
• Connect Enterprise: contact sales (adds SSO with Okta, Azure and OneLogin, and unlimited office locations)
• Dialpad Support (contact center): Essentials $89, Advanced $119, Premium $149 per user/month on annual billing; $109 and $145 monthly for Essentials and Advanced; Premium is annual only
• Dialpad Resolve (AI agents): contact sales, priced per conversation
• US toll-free numbers: $15/month on an annual plan or $17/month on a monthly plan, plus $0.02 per minute inbound
• 14-day free trial of Connect; no free plan

Pros

• AI transcripts and summaries are included, not an add-on
• IVR and routing on the cheapest plan
• Low annual price for what you get
• No porting charge for US and Canadian local and toll-free numbers

Cons

• Monthly billing on Standard is $27, compared with $15 on annual
• 250 outbound SMS pooled at the account level; shared-line messages cost extra per message
• Standard has no CRM integrations, APIs or automatic call recording
• No refunds on annual purchases

Who should stay on it

Teams that can commit to a year, text lightly, and value AI call notes. For a 10-person team on Standard with annual billing, Dialpad is hard to beat on price.

Who should leave

Teams that need month-to-month flexibility, send a lot of texts, or need contact center tools without buying a second product.

RingCentral review

RingCentral's phone system is now called RingEX. It is the closest like-for-like replacement for Dialpad: phone, video meetings and team messaging in one app, with AI features included and a long list of add-ons.

Key features

• Unlimited US and Canada calling on every plan, multi-level auto attendant, shared lines and call queues
• AI Assistant included on all plans: call transcription, real-time notes, meeting summaries, translation and AI writing for SMS and messages
• 99.999% uptime SLA listed on all plans
• Microsoft Teams telephony, Google and Slack integrations, and APIs on all plans; Salesforce and Zendesk CRM integrations on Advanced

Pricing

• RingEX Core: $20/user/month paid annually, or $30 monthly
• RingEX Advanced: $25/user/month paid annually, or $35 monthly
• AI Customer Engagement Bundles and accounts over 100 users: contact sales
• AI Receptionist add-on: from $39/month with 100 minutes, then $0.50 per extra minute
• Conversational Intelligence: from $60
• RingCX AI Contact Center: from $65/user
• Extra local or toll-free numbers: $4.99/month
• 14-day free trial; SMS is not available during the trial

Pros

• Monthly billing is $10/user more than annual, a smaller gap than Dialpad Standard's $12
• AI Assistant is included on Core
• Clear upgrade path to AI receptionist and a contact center

Cons

• Core includes only 25 SMS per user per month (100 on Advanced)
• Text registration fees are passed through: $19 brand registration, $15 campaign vetting, and $1.50 or $10 per campaign per month
• CRM integrations and automatic call recording start on Advanced
• Taxes and regulatory fees are added on top

Who should use it

Teams leaving Dialpad for a bigger, broader platform: multi-site companies, Microsoft Teams users, and teams that expect to add an AI receptionist or a contact center later.

Who should avoid it

Teams leaving because of texting. On Core, 10 users get 250 texts a month in total (25 each), the same total as Dialpad's pooled 250.

Nextiva review

Nextiva bundles phone, video, SMS, team chat, a shared customer inbox and social and review management into one product. Its pricing page now leads with three small-business plans: Core, Engage and Scale.

Key features

• Voice, video, SMS and team chat in one app on every plan
• Per-user text allowances: 100 per user per month on Core, 500 on Engage, unlimited on Scale
• Toll-free number with up to 2,000 free minutes on Engage and up to 10,000 on Scale
• XBert AI, an AI employee that handles customer conversations; AI transcription and summaries on Scale
• Contact center tiers with skills-based routing and predictive dialing

Pricing

• Core: $15/user/month with a 12-month or longer term, or $23 month to month
• Engage: $25/user/month with a term, or $50 month to month
• Scale: $75/user/month on either billing
• Contact Center Essential: from $75 per agent/month; Professional and Premium are contact sales
• XBert AI plan: $99/month for 100 AI conversations, 1 user
• Annual pricing is for businesses with 1 to 100 employees. No free plan and no advertised free trial.

Pros

• Per-user texting: 10 users on Core get 1,000 texts a month in total, four times Dialpad's pooled 250
• Unlimited texts on Scale
• Contact center on the same vendor when you need it

Cons

• The $15 and $25 prices need a 12-month or longer term, which brings back the commitment problem
• Engage month to month is $50, double its term price
• Only Core can be bought online; Engage and Scale need a sales demo
• Call recording, toll-free and CRM integrations are add-ons on Core, with no listed prices

Who should use it

Customer-facing small businesses that text a lot and are happy to sign a 12-month term. Also teams that want reviews, social messages and phone in one inbox.

Who should avoid it

Teams leaving Dialpad to get away from annual commitments. Nextiva's low prices come with a longer commitment, not a shorter one.

8x8 review

8x8 sells a unified communications product, 8x8 Work, alongside 8x8 Contact Center and 8x8 Engage. It is aimed at larger and multinational organizations.

Key features

• Calls, video meetings, team messaging and file sharing in one app
• Native phone service in 50+ countries
• 99.999% uptime SLA across calls, meetings and contact center
• One platform for the phone system and the contact center, with a shared data model
• AI built into 8x8 Work with no separate tier: meeting summaries, live transcription, chat recaps, post-call insights; AI Studio for custom AI voice and digital agents

Pricing

8x8 does not publish prices. Its pricing page lists 8x8 Work, Contact Center and 8x8 Engage, each with "Request a Quote" or "Chat with Sales", and says you can mix and match products into a custom plan. No free plan or free trial is shown. Some older 8x8 pages still show starting prices, but the current pricing page has none, so get a written quote.

Pros

• Phone system and contact center on one platform
• Native phone service in 50+ countries
• AI features included without a separate AI tier

Cons

• No public prices, so you cannot compare costs without a sales process
• No free trial shown
• Heavy for a small team that just wants a phone number and an app

Who should use it

Organizations that need a real contact center, often across several countries, from the same vendor as their phones.

Who should avoid it

Small teams and anyone who wants to sign up online, see a price and start the same day.

Quo review

Quo is the new name for OpenPhone. It is a shared phone system for small businesses, built around numbers that the whole team can answer and text from.

Key features

• Shared numbers for up to 10 users on Starter and unlimited users on Business and Scale
• Unlimited US and Canada calling and texting under a Fair Use Policy
• AI call transcripts and summaries for all calls on Business and Scale
• Sona AI agent that answers calls when the team cannot: 10 calls a month free, then $1.00 per call or a credit tier from $25/month
• Phone menus, ring orders, call transfers and automatic recording on Business

Pricing

• Starter: $15/user/month billed annually ($180/user/year), or $19 monthly
• Business: $23/user/month billed annually ($276/user/year), or $33 monthly
• Scale: $35/user/month billed annually ($420/user/year), or $47 monthly
• Extra numbers: $5/month each on annual billing
• Number porting: free
• 7-day free trial; no free plan; no long-term contract stated

Pros

• Unlimited US and Canada texting instead of a pooled account allowance
• Starter is $4 more on monthly billing, not $12
• Integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce (Business and up), Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Slack, Zapier and more

Cons

• On Starter, AI summaries cover only calls handled by the Sona agent; summaries for all calls need Business
• Not a contact center: no power dialer or advanced queue tools
• Starter is email support only; phone support is on Scale
• US texting is blocked until A2P 10DLC registration is approved, which can take from a day to 30+ days

Who should use it

Small teams leaving Dialpad because of the 250-text pool or the monthly price gap. Home services, property management, law firms, sales teams and anyone who handles customers by text.

Who should avoid it

Teams that need contact center tools, high-volume outbound dialing, or phone support on the entry plan.

Aircall review

Aircall is a phone system built for sales and support teams that work in a CRM or help desk. It sits between a business phone system and a contact center.

Key features

• Unlimited US and Canada outbound calls on all plans; inbound and internal calls unlimited (toll-free excluded)
• SMS and MMS with unlimited inbound and up to 4,000 outbound SMS per user per month
• Professional: smart routing using CRM and help desk data, queue callback, Power Dialer (up to 1,000 numbers), outbound campaigns, whisper and barge, live monitoring, full API access
• AI Voice Agents on every plan (50 minutes a month on Essentials); AI call summaries, sentiment and key topics on Professional

Pricing

• Essentials: $30/license/month billed annually, or $40 monthly
• Professional: $50/license/month billed annually, or $70 monthly
• Enterprise: custom pricing, 25-license minimum
• 3-license minimum on Essentials and Professional, so the smallest account is $90/month on annual billing or $120/month on monthly billing
• Add-ons: AI Assist Pro $49/seat/month, extra numbers $6/month
• Free access to test the platform; no free plan

Pros

• Built around CRM and help desk workflows
• 4,000 outbound texts per user per month
• Power Dialer, queue callback and live monitoring without a separate contact center product
• AI Voice Agents included on every plan

Cons

• Highest list prices here: $30 to $70 per license
• 3-license minimum
• International outbound calling is not included on Essentials or Professional

Who should use it

Sales and support teams leaving Dialpad because they need contact-center style tools but do not want to buy a full contact center. Compared with Dialpad Support at $89/user annual, Aircall Professional at $50 annual covers routing, dialing and monitoring for many teams.

Who should avoid it

Solo users, very small offices and general staff who mostly take internal calls.

Zoom Phone review

Zoom Phone is Zoom's cloud phone system. You can buy it on its own or bundled with Zoom Workplace.

Key features

• US & CA Unlimited: unlimited calling in the US and Canada, one domestic number, domestic SMS and MMS, and 50 pages a month of online fax
• Workplace bundles that add Zoom meetings, chat and whiteboards
• AI Companion: post-call summaries, voicemail prioritization and task extraction
• Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Teams and contact center platforms such as Genesys, Five9 and Twilio Flex

Pricing

• US & CA Unlimited: $16/user/month billed annually, or $18 monthly
• Pro Plus (Workplace Pro + Phone): $20.50/user/month billed annually, or $24 monthly
• Business Plus (Workplace Business + Phone): $24.50/user/month billed annually, or $29 monthly
• International calling is metered
• No free Zoom Phone plan; the pricing page offers a free trial

Pros

• Smallest annual-to-monthly gap in this list: $2 per user
• Pro Plus gives you phone and Zoom Workplace Pro for $20.50 annual
• AI Companion call summaries
• Porting "with no hidden fees", per Zoom

Cons

• Team SMS features need the paid Customer Engagement Pack, with no price shown
• Live phone support only for accounts spending over $200/month; live chat over $10/month
• No contact center in the phone plans

Who should use it

Teams leaving Dialpad because of the monthly billing gap, and any team that already runs meetings on Zoom.

Who should avoid it

Teams that need shared team texting at no extra cost, or a contact center from the same vendor.

Head-to-Head: Which Alternative Fits Which Reason for Leaving

Reason 1: You want to pay monthly

Dialpad Standard on monthly billing is $27 per user. Zoom Phone is $18 monthly, Quo Starter $19 and Nextiva Core $23. RingCentral Core is $30 monthly, but that includes more than Dialpad Standard: AI Assistant, 100 toll-free minutes and a 99.999% uptime SLA.

Best fit: Zoom Phone for the lowest monthly price, Quo if you also text a lot.

Reason 2: You text customers a lot

Dialpad Connect lists 250 outbound SMS for the whole account. For a 10-person team that is 25 texts per person per month on average.

• Quo: unlimited US and Canada texting under a fair use policy
• Aircall: 4,000 outbound SMS per user per month
• Nextiva: 100 per user on Core, 500 on Engage, unlimited on Scale
• RingCentral: 25 per user on Core, 100 on Advanced
• Zoom Phone: domestic SMS and MMS included; team SMS features need the Customer Engagement Pack

Best fit: Quo for small teams, Aircall for sales and support teams.

Reason 3: You need more AI

Dialpad already includes transcripts and summaries, so moving only for call notes rarely makes sense. The difference is in AI agents and receptionists:

• RingCentral: AI Receptionist from $39/month with 100 minutes
• Quo: Sona AI agent, 10 free calls a month, then $1.00 per call
• Aircall: AI Voice Agents on every plan (50 minutes a month on Essentials)
• Nextiva: XBert AI plan at $99/month for 100 AI conversations
• 8x8: AI Studio for custom voice and digital agents

Best fit: RingCentral for published AI receptionist pricing on a full platform, Quo for a small team that wants a metered AI answering agent.

Reason 4: You need a contact center

Dialpad Support starts at $89 per user per month on annual billing. The alternatives:

• RingCentral RingCX: from $65/user
• Nextiva Contact Center Essential: from $75 per agent/month
• 8x8 Contact Center: quote only, on the same platform as 8x8 Work
• Aircall Professional: $50/license annual, with routing, Power Dialer and live monitoring but not a full omnichannel contact center

Best fit: 8x8 or RingCentral for a full contact center, Aircall for phone-first sales and support teams.

How to Choose the Right Dialpad Alternative

Step 1: Name the reason you are leaving

Write it down in one sentence. "We pay monthly and $27 is too much" points to a different tool than "our support team needs queues and a dialer".

Step 2: Price your real team on your real billing cycle

Use the monthly price if you will pay monthly. Add numbers, toll-free lines, AI add-ons and texting registration fees. Include the license minimum (3 on Aircall).

Step 3: Check your texting volume

Look at how many texts your team sent last month. Compare it with each plan's allowance: pooled (Dialpad), per user (RingCentral, Nextiva, Aircall) or unlimited under fair use (Quo).

Step 4: Plan the move

Quo lists number porting as free, and Zoom says it ports compatible numbers "with no hidden fees". Ask the others about porting fees in writing. Keep your Dialpad account active until ports finish, and remember that annual Dialpad licenses are not refunded.

Red flags

• A low headline price that needs a 12-month term when you wanted month to month
• "Unlimited" texting with no mention of a fair use policy or registration
• Toll-free numbers, recording or CRM integrations listed as add-ons without prices
• No public prices at all, if you need to budget before talking to sales

What to test in a trial

• Port a test number, or at least start the porting paperwork, to see how long it takes
• Start A2P 10DLC registration on day one; it can take days or weeks
• Check whether AI summaries land where your team works (CRM, Slack, email)
• Set up your real IVR and routing, not a demo flow
• Ask support one real question and time the answer

Trials are short: 14 days on Dialpad and RingCentral, 7 days on Quo. Nextiva does not advertise one, and 8x8 does not show one.

The Verdict

Dialpad is still a strong choice for teams that pay annually, text lightly and want AI call notes included. At $15 per user per month, few rivals match it.

If you are leaving, pick by the reason. Zoom Phone fixes monthly billing. Quo fixes texting. RingCentral gives you a broader platform with AI add-ons. Aircall suits sales and support teams. Nextiva suits text-heavy teams that accept a contract. 8x8 suits organizations that need a full contact center across countries.

Conclusion

Most teams do not leave Dialpad because it fails. They leave because one part of its pricing does not fit: the $27 monthly price, the 250-text pool, or a second product for contact center. Each alternative fixes one of those problems and brings its own trade-off.

Start with the reason, price your real team on the billing cycle you will actually use, and run a short trial that includes porting and text registration. That will tell you more than any feature list.