Nextiva Review: Top Nextiva Competitors and Alternatives 2020
If you're in the market for a business phone system or cloud call center software, there's a pretty good chance you've stumbled upon Nextiva. Nextiva is one of the largest providers of business VoIP services, providing their services to over 100,000 customers.
Through Nextiva is a great option for business VoIP, unified communications, and cloud contact center software, they may not be a perfect fit for everyone. In this post, we will review a number of things surrounding Nextiva, including:
- Nextiva's product offering and features
- Pricing of Nextiva's software
- Top Nextiva alternatives and competitors
We understand that choosing a business phone system can be confusing and overwhelming, which is why we decided to write this post. With a ton of different options on the market today, it can be hard to tell what the differences are.
Overview of Nextiva
Nextiva is a business phone system provider, who offers an entire suite to help keep your office connected to customers and each other. Nextiva offers three main types of products: their business communication suite (business phone system and call center software), customer relationship suite, and team collaboration suite. For the purpose of this post, we will be focusing on their business communication suite. That's not to take away from their other products however, we're sure they're excellent products!
Nextiva produces communication software for small companies and large enterprises in the United States. They offer virtual local phone numbers in most major area codes, as well as toll free virtual phone numbers and vanity phone numbers. Nextiva bills customers based on whether they have a month to month agreement or a contract, as well as the number of users. As with most VoIP providers, the more users you have, the less your monthly bill will be.
Review of Nextiva's VoIP Features
Regardless of if you get a simple VoIP number or opt for their call center software, you'll get a large array of features, including:
- Unlimited calling in North America
- Unlimited business text messaging
- Auto attendants
- Call routing
- Call queuing
- Call forwarding
- Call parking
- Call analytics
- Call screening
- Voicemail forwarding
- Number porting
- Priority alerts
- Conversational AI
- Plus many more!
Nextiva has one of the better standard feature sets on the market. All the features we just listed are included in their VoIP plans, with the call center software plans having even more advanced features! That being said, Nextiva doesn't make it abundantly clear which features are included in their VoIP vs call center packages, so it's best to reach out to get a clearer idea.
Below, we will dive into some of their most popular VoIP features that almost any provider should have, and how they can benefit your business.
Local and Toll Free Numbers
Nextiva offers both local and toll free virtual phone numbers, which can do a number of things for your business. A local virtual number gives your business a local presence, even if you are located halfway across the world.
A virtual toll free number gives your number a professional appearance, even if you only have a handful of employees, and allows non-local customers to easily reach you.
Business Texting (SMS)
In today's increasingly mobile world, it's hard to not be able to communicate with your customers via text message. Nextiva allows you to send and receive unlimited SMS messages to your local or toll free number via their app or desktop application.
Call Recording
Call recording is critical, especially when you run a call center. Being able to go back and listen to recordings to coach your employees is key to their professional growth. With Nextiva, you can also use analytics to take a deeper dive into the conversations, to measure things such as quality assurance, overall customer satisfaction, and the health of your business.
Auto Attendant/IVR
Having an auto-attendant that allows your customers to direct themselves to the correct department is key to running your business efficiently. An auto-attendant or IVR empowers your customers, and allows them to quickly get in touch with the correct party.
With Nextiva, they even take it one step further, offering conversational AI, meaning customers calling in can speak in their natural language to explain the reason for calling in.
Call Analytics and Business Intelligence
Gaining insight into your employees calls with customers is easy with Nextiva's call analytics. You can easily see data such as calls taken, average talk time, customer cases, and more! Call analytics software allows you to confidently make business decisions based on real-life data.
Review of Nextiva's Call Center Features
If a simple VoIP phone system isn't quite going to cut it for your business, you might want to consider looking into Nextiva's call center software. If you choose to get their call center software, you'll get all the features we just listed above, plus some more advanced customizable features for your call center. While we won't go in-depth on all their features, you should strongly consider reaching out to fully understand the full scope of what they offer. Some of their popular call center features include:
- Queue entrance announcement
- Estimated wait time/location in queue
- Comfort greetings
- Assign agents/supervisors
- Bandwidth and quality of service settings
- Call distribution options
- Agent reports
- Call forward (always or selective)
- Plus many more!
Again, this is only a very small sample of Nextiva's call center software features. If you're interested in their call center software, it's highly recommended that you reach out to them directly to discuss your exact requirements and get a plan that fits your business best.
Nextiva VoIP and Call Center Software Pricing
Nextiva has different plans you can choose from, in both their VoIP services as well as their call center software. One thing to note is that Nextiva only offers United States numbers, so you may need to look at different providers if you require an international virtual number.
Nextiva VoIP Pricing
Nextiva offers three different packages with their VoIP services - Basic, Pro, and Enterprise. As we pointed out earlier, their pricing depends on whether or not you pay month to month or sign a contract, and how many employees you have on the service. For this post, we will assume you are paying month to month, and have 1 - 4 users (this is the most expensive their VoIP plans will be, so it will only get less expensive from here).
Basic: $35/month per user
Pro: $38/month per user
Enterprise: $55/month per user
Their lowest plan, if you sign a contact and have more than 100 users is $20/month per user.
Nextiva Call Center Software Pricing
Nextiva also offers a call center software if a simple VoIP service isn't advanced enough. They offer two different plans - Pro and Enterprise. Similar to their VoIP service, they offer different tiers of service depending on the exact needs of your call center.
Pro: $50/month per user
Enterprise: $100/month per user
Per Nextiva's website, these plans start "as low as" the listed prices, but do not make it clear what might increase the monthly price.
Top Nextiva Competitors and Alternatives
So you've read through all that and decided that maybe Nextiva isn't the best fit for your business. That's okay! No one company is going to be a perfect fit for literally everyone, which is why we are going to provide you with some of the top Nextiva alternatives and competitors, along with some use cases and what each provider excels at.
Below, we have provided a comparison table for some quick comparisons with some top Nextiva competitors. We will compare monthly plan pricing, inbound calling rates, and if the provider offers call center software as well as regular VoIP software.
| Competitor | Plans Start at | Inbound Rates Start at | VoIP and Call Center? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nextiva | $20/month per user | Free unlimited | Both |
| RingCentral | $22.99/month per user | Unlimited to USA/CA | Both |
| 8x8 | $12/month per user | Unlimited in USA/CA* | Both |
| Grasshopper | $26/month per user | Unlimited in USA | VoIP only |
| AVOXI | $4.49/month per user | $0.0079 per minute | Both |
*8x8 offers unlimited calling in up to 47 countries, if you choose their X4, X6, or X8 plans.
RingCentral
If you're looking for a great Nextiva alternative, you should strongly consider RingCentral. RingCentral has a feature set that can compete with Nextiva, as well as a price that is similar to Nextiva. Like Nextiva, their monthly pricing depends on whether or not you pay annually or monthly, and how many users you will have. They offer three different plans - Office Standard, Office Premium, and Office Ultimate For the purpose of this post, all pricing will be monthly and with only 1 user, so their pricing will only get lower as you add users or pay annually. Their plans are priced as follows:
Office Standard: $49.99/month per user
Office Premium: $54.99/month per user
Office Ultimate: $69.99/month per user
If you choose to pay annually, and have 100+ users, their lowest-priced plan, Office Standard, starts at $22.99/month per user.
RingCentral offers an all-in-one business communication suite, as well as a standard VoIP solution that only offers VoIP calling. Their all-in-one communication suite, depending on which plan you choose, offers features such as unlimited calling to the United States and Canada, call recording, quality of service reports, multi-level auto attendant, call monitoring, SMS messaging, plus much more.
If you're considering RingCentral, it's best to reach out directly to get a better grasp on their exact features for the plan you are considering. Like Nextiva, they also offer inbound and outbound call center plans, but you will need to contact sales to get the full details and pricing of these plans.
One major difference between Nextiva and RingCentral is that RingCentral offers international phone numbers in more than 100 countries, whereas Nextiva does not.
RingCentral is best for companies that need advanced business features and an all-in-one communication solution. Their wide range of plans also make them great for small business and enterprises alike.
8x8
Much like RingCentral and Nextiva, 8x8 is a VoIP software and contact center provider, offering their services in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France.
They offer 4 different VoIP phone plans, as well as a larger plan that can be used in a contact center, which includes an outbound predictive dialer. Like the other providers we've already mentioned, their pricing depends on how many users you plan to have. Here is their pricing VoIP plans for small business, for 1 - 99 users:
8x8 Express: $12/month per user
X Series X2: $25/month per user
X Series X4: $45/month per user
X Series X6: $110/month per user
They have one plan for contact centers, the X Series X8, which will cost $172/month per user.
Their feature offering is strong, especially when it comes to calling. They offer unlimited calling in up to 47 countries, depending on which plan you choose, which is fairly uncommon. They also offer features such as business SMS, voicemail transcription, call analytics, skills-based routing*, IVR, post-call survey, reporting, and much more!
8x8 is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses who can expect to make a lot of international calls, and teams who to easily stay connected with each other. Their unlimited calling to certain countries really sets them apart from almost any other provider.
*Not all features are included in every plan
Grasshopper
Grasshopper is a small business communication provider, who provides virtual phone systems to the United States. They carry local, toll free, and vanity phone numbers, or you can port your own if you choose to. Their product is a little different than some of the companies that cater to larger customers, as they include multiple numbers with their plans. They offer 3 different plans - Solo, Partner, and Small Business. These plans are priced as follows*:
- Solo: 1 number, 3 extensions, $29 per month
- Partner: 3 numbers, 6 extensions, $49 per month
- Small Business: 5 numbers, unlimited extensions, $89 per month
*Prices are lower if you choose to be billed annually. Their Solo package is priced at $26 per month when billed annually.
They offer a great set of features for small businesses, such as unlimited SMS messaging, reporting, custom greetings, virtual faxing, call forwarding, and more! Unlimited calling, as well as unlimited business texting, really making Grasshopper a strong candidate for anyone with high expected call volume or who wants to easily communicate with customers in multiple mediums.
Grasshopper is best for entrepreneurs or small businesses that are expecting to grow in the near future. They may not have the same amount of flexibility in terms of numbers, but offering extensions means all your employees can stay connected.
AVOXI
AVOXI is a cloud contact center and virtual phone number provider, offering local, toll free, national, and vanity numbers in 160+ countries. AVOXI's cloud contact center software, AVOXI Genius, has two different plans, Genius Essentials and Genius Contact. Genius Essentials costs $4.99/month per user, and Genius Contact costs $24.99/month per user. In addition to contact center software, AVOXI provides virtual phone numbers with five different plans, which vary depending on location, number type, bundled minutes, and add on features.
AVOXI's virtual number packages start as low as $4.49 per month for pay as you go. Larger packages, which include bundled talk minutes, vary greatly depending on the location of your virtual number.
AVOXI offers a ton of different features to accompany both their cloud contact center software as well as their virtual phone numbers. Some popular features include*:
- Call recording
- Business SMS
- IVR/Virtual attendant
- Call forwarding
- Time of day routing
- Call queues
- Call whisper/barge
- Analytics
- Plus many more
*Not all features are included in every plan
AVOXI is a provider that is best for their expansive inventory of local, national, and toll free numbers. AVOXI offers phone numbers in 160+ countries, so you can have a local presence in over 80% of countries worldwide! So if you need a local presence in a smaller country, AVOXI might be the best choice as your VoIP or cloud contact center provider.
Final Thoughts
Nextiva offers a great product for small businesses and enterprises alike. They are considered one of the innovators in the VoIP and unified communications field, offering new and groundbreaking technologies before many other providers. Whether you need a simple VoIP solution to stay in touch with your customers, or an entire contact center solution, you should strongly consider looking at Nextiva as your provider.
We hope you found this Nextiva review and breakdown of their top competitors and alternatives helpful! We realize that it can be overwhelming to choose a new VoIP or contact center software, so we tried to make an easy to understand and comprehensive list. If you feel as if we missed something or left off a competitor, please reach out! We are constantly updating our content to be as up to date and helpful as possible.
Start managing your calls within minutes when you buy your business phone numbers online. After your purchase, an AVOXI representative will contact you to confirm your account details and test your new phone number.
US/Canada: 1800 394 1980
Australia: 1800 834 558
Germany: 0800 000 0476
Israel: 1809 465 062
Singapore: 800 852 6179
United Kingdom: 0800 652 5029
