Published July 25, 2025 in Guides

7 best Dialpad alternatives for AI calling and UCaaS in 2025

Amogh Sarda

Amogh Sarda

Founder

Dialpad has made a name for itself as a solid Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform, especially with its built-in AI features. But let’s be real, no single tool is the perfect fit for every team. Many businesses start searching for Dialpad alternatives when they run into roadblocks like limited integrations, realize the AI is a little too focused on voice, or find that the pricing doesn’t scale well. Sometimes, it’s as simple as service stability.

If any of that rings a bell, you’re in the right spot. We’re going to walk through the seven best Dialpad alternatives for 2025, giving you a straightforward look at what else is out there. We’ll compare their strengths, weaknesses, and what they’ll cost you.

We’ll also look at this problem from a different angle. Instead of tearing out your entire communication setup, what if you could just add a smarter AI layer on top of what you already have? Stick around, and we’ll show you how.

What are Dialpad alternatives and why look for them?

Before we jump into the side-by-side comparisons, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.

What is a UCaaS platform in the world of Dialpad alternatives?

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is a fancy way of saying all your communication tools are bundled into one cloud-based service. Think voice calls, video meetings, team chat, and file sharing, all in a single app. Dialpad is a popular UCaaS provider that leans heavily on its homegrown AI, DialpadGPT, for cool features like real-time call transcriptions and summaries. The whole point is to make talking to customers and teammates feel less disconnected.

Common reasons to look for Dialpad alternatives

Dialpad is a capable tool, but it’s not without its weak spots. Here are a few common reasons teams start looking around for a change:

  • Not enough integrations: Dialpad connects with the big names like Salesforce and Google Workspace, but if your team uses more specialized software, you might feel stuck. Competitors like RingCentral have a much bigger app library, giving you more room to connect your tools.
  • The AI is a bit of a one-trick pony: Dialpad’s AI is fantastic at analyzing voice conversations. But what about everything else? Its AI smarts for chat, email, and social media aren’t nearly as strong. If you need your automation to work across every channel, you’ll probably feel boxed in.
  • The price gets steep: A per-user, per-month fee adds up quickly as your team grows. Some alternatives have more flexible plans. Others, like eesel AI, use an interaction-based model that doesn’t charge you more just for adding people to your team.
  • Spotty uptime: Reliability is everything. As a Sprinklr review pointed out, some users have experienced service outages. For any business where every call counts, this is a good enough reason to explore other options.
  • A tricky setup: If you don’t have a dedicated IT team on speed dial, getting Dialpad’s advanced features working just right can be a real headache. Some alternatives are much simpler to get up and running.

How we chose the best Dialpad alternatives

To keep this comparison useful, we didn’t just throw darts at a board. We picked these seven platforms based on what really matters to businesses that need a communication system they can rely on.

Our evaluation criteria for Dialpad alternatives

  • AI and automation features: We looked beyond basic transcription. How deep do the AI features go? We checked for smart analytics, automatic call routing, and tools that genuinely help agents do their jobs better.
  • Unified communications: A tool needs to do more than just place calls. We focused on platforms that bring voice, video, and messaging together without feeling clunky or taped-together.
  • Integration ecosystem: Your communication hub can’t be on a desert island. We prioritized tools with a healthy library of third-party integrations, especially for CRMs and helpdesks.
  • Pricing and value: The price tag needs to make sense. We looked for clear pricing that delivers real value, without a ton of hidden fees or expensive add-ons for basic stuff.
  • User reviews and reliability: We rolled up our sleeves and read what real users are saying on sites like Gartner and G2, and checked that against public data on platform stability.

Comparison of the top 7 Dialpad alternatives in 2025

Here’s a quick-glance table to see how the top contenders stack up.

FeatureRingCentralNextivaZoom Phone8×8AircallVonageMicrosoft Teams
Best ForLarge, global teamsAll-in-one reliabilityVideo-first businessesFeature-rich UCaaSSales & Support TeamsCustomizationMicrosoft 365 users
Starting Price$20/user/mo$17.95/user/mo$10/user/mo$24/user/mo$30/user/mo$14/user/moIncluded w/ M365
Key AI FeatureAI-powered transcriptions & insightsAI-powered automation & insightsAI Companion for summariesAI-powered analyticsCall transcription & analyticsAI-powered virtual assistantCopilot for summaries & actions
Free TrialYesYesNoYesYesYesYes (with M365 trial)

A detailed look at the 7 best Dialpad alternatives

Alright, let’s zoom in on what makes each of these platforms a solid option.

1. Dialpad alternatives: RingCentral

RingCentral is one of the biggest names in the game, offering a robust suite of tools designed for global companies. It’s known for being incredibly reliable and having one of the largest integration libraries around, with over 300 apps.

Why it’s a good alternative: It has Dialpad beat on a few key stats. It supports video meetings with up to 200 people and gives you local numbers in over 100 countries, which is a major plus for businesses with international customers.

  • Pros:
    • A massive marketplace of integrations to connect your tools.
    • Excellent features for large, remote, or distributed teams.
    • High reliability with industry-leading uptime guarantees.
  • Cons:
    • It can be more expensive than Dialpad, particularly for smaller teams.
    • Its contact center solution is actually a resold product, which can sometimes feel a bit disconnected from the main platform.

Pricing: Plans start at $20 per user, per month for the Core plan.

2. Dialpad alternatives: Nextiva

Nextiva gets a ton of praise for its rock-solid reliability, with a claimed 99.999% uptime. It’s a true all-in-one platform, mixing a great VoIP system with its own CRM and analytics tools.

Why it’s a good alternative: Its pricing is much more straightforward and often cheaper than Dialpad’s. Things that Dialpad makes you pay extra for, like toll-free numbers and unlimited online faxing, are often included in Nextiva’s standard plans.

  • Pros:
    • Outstanding network reliability you can build your business on.
    • Clear pricing that offers a lot of bang for your buck.
    • Great customer support, even on the cheaper plans.
  • Cons:
    • Its AI features feel a little behind Dialpad’s specialized voice intelligence.
    • The back-end setup can get a bit complex for more advanced call center needs.

Pricing: Starts at $17.95 per user, per month.

3. Dialpad alternatives: Zoom Phone

Built on the back of the video platform everyone knows, Zoom Phone is a cloud VoIP solution that fits neatly into the wider Zoom ecosystem.

Why it’s a good alternative: If your team already lives in Zoom for meetings, adding Zoom Phone is a pretty easy decision. It’s familiar and simple to use. Its AI Companion is also pretty handy, offering good post-call summaries and pulling out action items automatically.

  • Pros:
    • Slips right into the Zoom interface your team already uses.
    • Strong AI features for summarizing meetings and calls.
    • The entry-level plan is priced very competitively.
  • Cons:
    • It’s not as focused on deep contact center features as Dialpad is.
    • The platform has had to answer privacy and security questions in the past, though it has made major improvements.

Pricing: The metered plan starts at just $10 per user, per month.

4. Dialpad alternatives: 8×8

8×8 gives you a single, unified platform for voice, video, chat, and your contact center. It’s a versatile tool that’s designed to work for everyone from small teams to large enterprises.

Why it’s a good alternative: For businesses with customers all over the world, 8×8 is hard to top. Its higher-tier plans come with unlimited international calling to dozens of countries, something Dialpad doesn’t offer. It also supports huge video meetings with up to 500 people.

  • Pros:
    • A true all-in-one native platform for both unified communications and contact center needs.
    • Amazing for companies that make a lot of international calls.
    • Powerful analytics and reporting dashboards to track performance.
  • Cons:
    • Some users report that it has a steeper learning curve than other options.
    • The starting price is higher than many other competitors.

Pricing: Starts at $24 per user, per month when billed annually.

5. Dialpad alternatives: Aircall

Aircall is a cloud phone system built specifically for modern sales and customer support teams. Its whole focus is on being easy to use and connecting deeply with the tools those teams use every day.

Why it’s a good alternative: It really shines in an area where Dialpad can be lacking: deep CRM and helpdesk integrations. Aircall connects smoothly with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk, putting rich customer history at your fingertips with every call. Most people also find its interface much more intuitive.

  • Pros:
    • Best-in-class integrations with CRMs and helpdesks.
    • Super user-friendly and can be set up in minutes.
    • Great features for call coaching and analyzing team performance.
  • Cons:
    • It’s just a phone system; you don’t get native video conferencing or team chat.
    • At $30 per user per month, its starting price is on the higher side of the list.

Pricing: Starts at $30 per user, per month.

6. Dialpad alternatives: Vonage

Vonage provides a highly flexible and customizable cloud communications platform. It’s really three services in one, with strong offerings for unified communications, contact centers, and programmable APIs for developers.

Why it’s a good alternative: Its biggest strength is how much you can customize it. If you have a developer on your team, you can use Vonage’s APIs to build totally custom communication workflows that do things Dialpad simply can’t out of the box.

  • Pros:
    • Incredibly flexible thanks to a powerful set of APIs.
    • Strong global network with reliable call quality.
    • Its lower-tier plans offer a great mix of features and value.
  • Cons:
    • Its built-in AI features aren’t as advanced or polished as Dialpad’s.
    • Setting up custom solutions can get complicated without some technical help.

Pricing: Starts at $14 per user, per month.

7. Dialpad alternatives: Microsoft Teams Phone

For any company that already runs on Microsoft 365, Teams Phone is the natural choice. It adds full-blown VoIP calling directly into the Teams app your staff already has open all day.

Why it’s a good alternative: It pulls everything into one place. There’s no need to switch to a separate app for calls when they can happen right next to your chats, meetings, and files. Plus, its connection to Microsoft Copilot brings powerful AI help.

  • Pros:
    • Perfectly integrated into the Microsoft 365 world.
    • Very affordable if you already have a compatible M365 license.
    • Uses the power of Copilot for AI-driven summaries and action items.
  • Cons:
    • It doesn’t make much sense if you’re not already a Microsoft shop.
    • Managing it can be complex if you don’t have Microsoft-specific IT knowledge.

Pricing: Included with some Microsoft 365 plans; Teams Phone Standard is available as an add-on.

Supercharge your support with AI instead of switching to new Dialpad alternatives

Hold on a second. Looking at all these Dialpad alternatives, it’s easy to get lost in the feature-by-feature weeds. But it’s worth asking a more basic question first.

The pain of ripping and replacing: A risk with Dialpad alternatives

Switching your company’s entire communication system is a massive undertaking. It’s expensive, it’s risky, and it means retraining every single person on your team. So, what if the problem isn’t your phone system at all? What if the real issue is that you don’t have truly smart automation layered on top? For a lot of teams, the hunt for a Dialpad alternative is really a hunt for better, more flexible AI.

Introducing eesel AI: A smarter option than traditional Dialpad alternatives

This is where a different approach, like the one we take at eesel AI, fits in. It’s not another UCaaS platform trying to get you to switch. Instead, it’s an AI platform that plugs into your existing helpdesk (like Zendesk or Intercom) and communication tools (like Slack or Microsoft Teams).

The idea is simple: get world-class AI automation without the headache and cost of switching systems. eesel AI works by training on your actual company knowledge. We’re not just talking about public help articles. It learns from your past support tickets, internal wikis in Confluence or Google Docs, and your team’s saved replies. The result is AI that gives far more accurate and relevant answers than the generic AI built into most communication platforms.

With tools like our AI Agent for fully automated support, AI Copilot for real-time agent help, and AI Triage to automatically route tickets, you can solve the very problems that sent you looking for an alternative in the first place.

Pro Tip: With eesel AI’s simulation feature, you can test its performance on your past tickets before you ever turn it on, giving you clear data on how many tickets it can handle and what your return on investment will look like.

How to choose the right Dialpad alternatives for your business

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the options? Here’s a simple way to think through the decision.

  • Figure out how you actually talk: Are you a voice-first team that lives on the phone, or do you need a solution that’s great at video and chat? Be honest about where your team and customers spend most of their time.
  • List your must-have integrations: Make a list of your non-negotiable tools (CRM, helpdesk, etc.) and check which alternatives offer deep integrations, not just a flimsy connection.
  • Think about your AI needs: Do you just need basic transcription and summaries? Or are you looking for smarter automation, like AI that can triage tickets, handle custom workflows, and give replies based on your internal knowledge? A specialized tool like eesel AI is built for that second one.
  • Run a real cost analysis: Look past the advertised price. Factor in per-user fees, what you’ll pay if you go over your limits, and the cost of any add-ons you’ll need. An interaction-based pricing model can often be more predictable and easier to scale.
  • Always do a trial: There’s no better way to know than to try it yourself. Sign up for free trials to test call quality, see how easy it is to use, and get a feel for how it fits into your team’s daily rhythm.

Find the right Dialpad alternatives for your team’s needs

Choosing from the many Dialpad alternatives out there comes down to what your business really needs. If you’re a global enterprise, RingCentral is a powerhouse. If your company lives and breathes Microsoft 365, Teams Phone is a no-brainer. And for sales-focused teams, Aircall’s deep CRM connections are a huge win.

But this brings us back to the main question: do you really need to replace your whole system, or do you just need to make it smarter? For many businesses, the high cost, risk, and training involved in a full switch just isn’t worth it.

eesel AI is the smart move for businesses that want top-tier AI automation without the migration nightmare. By layering on top of the tools you already use, you get more accurate, more customizable, and more affordable automation that actually solves your team’s biggest headaches.

Ready to see how AI can transform your support without a painful migration? Book a demo of eesel AI or start a free trial to see how you can automate support, help your agents, and make your customers happier.

Frequently asked questions

Aircall is a standout option as it’s designed specifically for sales and support workflows. It offers powerful, deep integrations with essential CRM platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot, giving teams critical context on every call that some broader platforms may lack.

While competitors like RingCentral and Zoom offer strong AI for transcription and summaries, Dialpad’s AI is deeply specialized in real-time voice intelligence. For broader automation based on your company’s unique internal knowledge, a specialized AI layer like eesel AI will provide more accurate assistance.

Most full-featured UCaaS platforms operate on a paid, per-user model to cover advanced features, reliability, and support. While some tools have limited free tiers, you typically won’t find completely free Dialpad alternatives that offer the comprehensive features a business needs.

Yes, absolutely. All reputable providers, including every one mentioned in this article, support a process called number porting. This allows you to migrate your existing business phone numbers to the new service seamlessly, ensuring continuity for your customers.

Businesses choose these options for specific, high-value features that justify the cost. For example, 8×8 offers unlimited international calling to many countries, while Aircall provides best-in-class CRM integrations, which can significantly boost a sales team’s productivity and ROI.

Share this post
Amogh undefined

Article by

Amogh Sarda

Founder of eesel AI. Love all things product, robotics, ukulele and improv comedy.