RingCentral vs 8X8 | Quick Comparison [+Bonus Choice]

RingCentral vs 8×8 – Aah! A tough choice to make.

Both of these tools have a good reputation for numerous reasons. For instance, we found that customers love the stability and simplicity of the RingCentral contact center ( now RingCX). And 8×8 is known for its excellent voice quality.

At the same time, both of these otherwise good CCaaS solutions have some downsides that force existing customers to switch once the contract ends.

In this article, we have covered both of these tools so that you get a clear picture of what these two bring to the table. We also touched on how Enghouse CCaaS can be a compelling alternative to RingCentral and 8×8.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

RingCentral vs 8×8 – A Side-by-Side Comparison

An Overview of 8X8

8X8 initially led the market with their UCaaS platform. However, in 2023, the company refocused to CCaaS emphasizing AI-powered innovations for customer-obsessed communications moved its focus to CCaaS. With the introduction of AI capabilities, the 8X8 contact center application has become an attractive cloud contact center solution that includes elements of unified communication, APIs, and integrations.

Source – 8×8

Features

The main features of 8X8’s contact center are ACD, omnichannel routing, agent workspace, call and screen recording, workforce management, call center analytics, virtual agents, and more.

Here is a brief discussion of a few key features:

• Intelligent customer assistant: This AI-based feature guides customers during their self-service experience and resolves their problems. It frees up your human agents to focus on more complex queries.
• Contact center analytics: Contact Center Analytics capture overall customer experience, agent performance, and overall state of the operation. You can use analytics insights to improve CX and optimize agent productivity.
• Speech text analytics: This AI feature sorts incoming calls into different categories, making it easier to see which issues are important and where your agents might need assistance.

Why Customers Love 8×8

• Voice quality is one of the 8X8 CCaaS platform’s strengths. Users also like other calling features. Based on submitted reviews, features like autodialer, call recordings, and call tracking are super useful.
• Many users feel that 8×8’s extensive reports provide a complete overview of agent productivity, customer satisfaction, and operation.
• 8×8 listens to customers and updates its offerings regularly.

Why 8X8 Might Not Be the Right Choice

• Complaints about CRM integration issues are common.
• Many users are not fully satisfied with their onboarding.
• However, the biggest red flag is the cancellation policy. According to some recent reviews on ConsumerAffairs, cancellation is a big headache, and customers don’t receive adequate assistance.
• According to reviews on Trustpilot, silent autorenewals often increase the cost, and users are not happy about this.

Pricing

8X8 contact center has three pricing plans: X6, X7, and X8. X6 is a voice contact center plan that offers all the voice features but does not cover other channels. If you are looking for a voice-based contact center solution, this one is perfect.

You get omnichannel support when you upgrade to the X7 plan. On top of that, features like advanced IVR, auto-dialer, and 8×8 pay are available with additional fees.

X8 is the enterprise plan that gets you everything 8×8 has to offer.

Please note that the exact pricing for these plans isn’t available. You should contact 8×8 sales for more information.

An Overview of RingCentral

If you are looking for an AI-based cloud content center solution, RingCX by RingCentral deserves to be mentioned. It comes with 20+ digital communication channel access, workforce management, AI-powered self-service functionalities, and more.

Source – RingCentral

Note: RingCentral also offers another contact center solution for enterprise clients.

Features

RingCentral offers a long list of features that most contact centers need. Here are some noteworthy features.

Omnichannel routing: This feature empowers customers to reach out using the most convenient channel. Alternatively, your agents can see customers’ entire omnichannel communication history on the agent interface dashboard.

AI digital routing: The AI tech behind RingCX can detect the language and sentiment of customers’ messages and route them to the right agents.

AI-enabled virtual agents: AI-enabled virtual agents allow your customers to get their queries answered/get the problems solved without needing any human intervention.

Reports: Like any decent contact center solution, RingCX offers prebuilt reports. These reports offer insight into customer experience, Agent performance, and KPIs such as AHT and FCR.

Real-time interaction Guide: This feature guides your agents during difficult customer calls by providing more info.

In addition to the above features, you will have an IVR designer, WFM, scripting, text-speech analysis, and many more.

Things Customers Like About RingCentral

According to user reviews, RingCX users like the application for the following reasons:

• Some users appreciate the platform’s stability. Prolonged downtime and technical glitches are rare occurrences.
• Another big plus for RingCX is its ease of use. Some users feel that someone without knowledge of contact center applications can figure out the platform.
• RingCX is marketed to small businesses. Therefore, it’s not surprising that many find it affordable. 
• Users also love features such as IVR, chat, and call queues.

Things Customers Don’t Like About RingCentral

• RingCentral’s customer service leaves so much to be desired. Some users complained about slow customer service and a lack of communication from RingCentral.

Source – SoftwareAdvice

• Some integrations, especially Hubspot integration, don’t work properly. There are also complaints about limited customization options.
• RingCentral promotes RingCX’s AI abilities. However, the brand doesn’t discuss how its generative AI models use customer data. This can be an issue if your business has to be GDPR-compliant( also from an ethical standpoint).

Pricing

RingCX costs $65/agent/month. This plan includes core features such as ACD, IVR, voice, 20+ other channels, reports, CRM integration, and call recordings. To access AI capabilities, you need a Ringsense AI subscription. For additional charges, intelligent virtual agents, Dialers, and workforce management are available.

For Enterprise Contact Center pricing, contact the RingCentral sales team.

Enghouse – A Compelling Alternative to RingCentral and 8×8

If you are considering RingCentral or 8X8, Enghouse CCaaS deserves your attention. Enghouse CCaaS has a few significant edges over the other two:

• The Enghouse team has almost 35 years of experience assisting clients with their contact center needs. That experience makes a difference while deploying Enghouse CCaaS, educating your tech team, and customizing the platform to fit your needs. This Hitachi Case study will provide more insight into the effectiveness of Enghouse’s processes.
• Enghouse CCaaS also offers powerful AI features to maximize CX impact. EnghouseAI solutions strategically leverage AI technology in ways to ensure a real business benefit. For a better understanding of the EnghouseAI suite, feel free to read this in-depth guide.Practicality, affordability, and security are important aspects of any AI-related discussion. The EnghouseAI suite addresses all three aspects while delivering solutions that improve agent productivity, provide important business insights and reduce costs. In a recent webinar, Steve Nattresss, VP of product management, explained how to get started on your journey to mindfully and securely apply AI to improve CX.

• Enghouse CCaaS comes with reliable and readily available tech support.

Source – Capterra

• Another advantage Enghouse CCaaS has over 8×8 and RingCentral is flexibility. The Enghouse team can deploy a hybrid (on-premise+cloud) solution upon request. If you want to keep your data on-premise or integrate a part of your legacy system with a cloud contact center, Enghouse is the best option.

Final Thoughts

8X8 and RingCentral – each has its own perks. For example, omnichannel communication is available with RingCentral’s basic plan, while 8X8 is known for its great audio quality.

However, these two fall short in several cases. Unless we are talking about contact centers for super-small businesses, Enghouse CCaaS is a great alternative. It has all the core features, accurate AI capabilities, and robust customer support. Feel free to review Enghouse case studies to understand how it transforms businesses.

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Disclaimer – The insights presented in this article are sourced exclusively from publicly available information and customer reviews. Feel free to reach out if you require any modifications or updates to the content.