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8×8 Review

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8×8 is a reliable cloud-based unified communication solution promising SMBs smarter, more efficient ways to connect with customers and employees. It comes packed with a rich menu of features—all at an amazingly affordable price. In addition to high-speed internet connections, the company also offers VoIP features and quality phone service to ensure small businesses have everything they need in a phone system. While it can fare better with a few improvements, 8×8 is an excellent option if you’re looking for a solution that lets you communicate and serve anybody from anywhere.

Top of 8x8 cloud communications homepage

Comparing 8×8 to the Best Business Phone Systems

8×8 is a leading supplier in the communications industry that makes it easier to keep in touch via voice, chat, or video—both nationally and internationally. 

Thanks to its unmetered international calling, we believe it’s one of the best business phone systems for making free and clear international calls. No other business phone system solution offers international calling to 14 countries on the lowest plan (and 47 countries in other), giving you the peace of mind to make and receive international calls without breaking the bank.

But that doesn’t mean 8×8 is the only option to consider. We researched several business phone provider systems to choose the nine best options that offer the right mix of features, support, and flexibility to accommodate every business’s unique needs. Learn more about our top picks to find your best match.

8×8: The Good and the Bad

The Good

Budget-Friendly National and International Calling Facility: 8×8 offers plans that can fit nearly any budget and scale as the company scales. Its Express plan is built with small businesses in mind, while the X2 and X4 plans are more suitable for medium-sized and large-sized organizations, especially those conducting business internationally. While the Express plan offers unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada, X2 adds unlimited calling to 14 or 48 countries.

Feature-Rich Plans: 8×8 is an excellent Unified-Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) platform that allows teams to seamlessly communicate and collaborate on multiple channels, thanks to the terms of features on offer. Regardless of whether you choose the least expensive or the highest priced 8×8 plan, you get standard VoIP features that include a business phone number, caller ID, call blocking, auto-attendant, custom greetings, and visual voicemail. There is also the unlimited domestic calling and texting within the U.S. and Canada facility that can be useful for collaborating nationally. 

Easy Setup and Management: Getting started with 8×8 isn’t very complicated. Regular users will find a platform intuitive and user-friendly. For those struggling with setup, 8×8 offers training courses covering basics (performing common 8×8 work tasks on desktop), intermediate-level topics (using 8×8’s analytics functions to identify key trends), and advanced-level topics (creating call flows with intelligent interactive voice response (IVR)). Beginner-level courses are generally free, but the advanced courses are paid.

Seamless Video and Audio Conferencing: 8×8 provides customers with excellent conference call solutions for up to 500 people who can conference with each other (both audio and video) with no time limitations or restrictions. It offers unique dialing numbers for more than 500 countries, including 11 toll-free phone numbers. HD audio and video ensure voices and images don’t get distorted, ensuring a good conferencing experience. Other features include meeting recordings and transcription, custom backgrounds and logos, and mobile and desktop screen sharing.

Easy Team Collaboration: Keep your team connected to multiple channels, including remote team members with 8×8. They can join live collaborations and sessions, share screens and other content—plus, use presence detection to see which co-workers are available to resolve doubts and ask questions. What’s more, integration with Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace accounts is also possible, which will come in handy to boost team productivity and eliminate time wastage caused due to task switching. Other collaboration tools offered by 8×8 include three-way calling, team and one-on-one messaging, file sharing, and unlimited media storage.

Amazing Plan Scalability and Flexibility: 8×8 is one of the most scalable solutions offering per-user pricing and flexible plans. No wonder its clientele consists of small businesses as well as global corporations (McDonald’s, Shimano, and MOBI). For enterprise customers, 8×8 offers a virtual office that lets users segment the primary cloud-based communication systems to unique physical locations—all the while keeping each location fully integrated with the single unified communications platform. Not only does this help with cost savings, but also provides a single place to manage and monitor all communications.

Well-Rounded Security Features: Security will never be an issue with 8×8. Its phone services comply with Federal Communications Commission Requirements, ISO/IEC 27001 for data security, Federal Information Security Management Act Encryption Standards, Cyber Essentials Plus from the U.K. government, Privacy Shield Framework, and SOC Types I and II. In addition to this, 8×8 business phone services also comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which lays out protection protocols for the use and storage of personal data in the U.S. healthcare sector.

The Bad

Poor Customer Service: If there is one aspect where 8×8 really needs to level up is its customer service. Many customers have complained of a lack of support during setup—and if they do get through a support agent, the level of efficiency is poor. Users often struggle with troubleshooting, slow response times, and several other problems that can be very frustrating. That said, 8×8 has a comprehensive knowledge base, filled with how-tos and guides to answer common questions and answers. If you need 1:1 support, you can opt for the live chat support available 24/7.

Inconsistent Calling Experience: Some customers have also reported that 8×8’s call quality can sometimes suffer, even with an excellent internet connection. The audio also tends to cut out and echo during online meetings at times. That said, the same users pointed out drastic improvements in call quality, with the issue of plaguing the mobile app less and less.

Poor Better Business Bureau Rating: The Better Business Bureau Rating has given 8×8 an F rating, which is most likely for failing to respond to unresolved complaints. This is unfortunate as otherwise, this business phone system is one of the best solutions you can get your hands on.

8×8 Pricing and Options

One of 8×8‘s biggest virtues is its affordability for small businesses. The base price on the company‘s Express plan is (way) lower compared to its competitors. If you’re looking for more advanced features and are ready to pay the higher price, there are other options too.

8x8 main pricing page for business phone systems and communications plans

Currently, 8×8 offers three plans, each differing in features and price:

Express

Costing $15 per user per month, the Express plan is an excellent small business phone system. It is suitable for up to 10 users and offers tons of features, including: 

  • Unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada
  • Voicemail
  • An auto-attendant
  • Business text messaging
  • Team messaging
  • Caller ID
  • Present indicators
  • Call forwarding
  • Ring groups
  • Mobile and desktop apps
  • HD voice, HD audio, and video meetings for up to 100 people
  • Integrations with Google Workspace and Office 365
  • Meeting recording and transcription

A 30-day free trial is available for this plan.

X2

Costing $24 per user per month, the X2 plan includes everything in the Express plan, along with additional features like:

  • Unlimited calling in 14 countries
  • An advanced auto-attendant
  • Advanced caller analytics
  • Ring groups
  • Hold music
  • Voicemail transcription
  • Hotdesking
  • Call recording
  • Cross-platform messaging
  • Unlimited online faxing
  • CRM integrations
  • Unlimited conference recordings stored for 30 days
  • Up to 500 video meeting participants
  • 99.999% uptime

X4

Costing $44 per user per month, the X4 plan is great if you’re looking for advanced call handling and analytics. In this plan, you can expect all the features of the X2 plan, along with:

  • Barge, whisper, and monitor
  • Operator switchboard
  • Unlimited international calling to 47 countries
  • Supervisor analytics

Besides the above, you also get unlimited media storage for 130 days.

In addition to the three business plans, you can choose from three other plans if you’re looking for contact center services. Contact Centre plans start from $85 per user per month and go up to $140 per user per month.

8×8 Business Phone

8x8 business phone product page

With 8×8‘s cloud-based business phone product, you can elevate the quality and reliability of your business phone to gain a competitive advantage. You can integrate business apps, like your CRM and Microsoft Teams, with your cloud phone system and enjoy amazing voice quality in the office or on the go.

In addition to the usual features like call recordings and unlimited calling, SMS, and fax, you get special call handling and call management functionalities. These enable your team to easily manage incoming and outgoing phone calls and distribute incoming calls efficiently to facilitate smooth customer conversations. Call productivity features allow you to connect with your team and customers from anywhere, anytime on any device.

8×8 Contact Center

8x8 contact center product page

8×8‘s contact center is a secure and complete cloud-based solution that allows you to easily connect and collaborate with agents and strengthen experiences for improved customer success. 

Thanks to the 99.999% uptime SLA and a unified toolset, you’re assured a reliable and secure way to communicate. The platform’s Workforce Engagement Management lets you deliver great customer experiences by empowering agents with a powerful combination of time-saving and flexible tools to optimize results.

Another great feature of 8×8‘s contact center is the analytics. Customizable reports reduce the effort required to manage and monitor your contact center, whereas automatic notifications always keep you in the loop regarding key trends, customer behavior, and agent activities.

8×8 Video Conferencing

8x8 video conferencing features page

8×8 offers one of the best video conferencing solutions for businesses of every size. It can support up to 500 participants and is fully reliable and feature-packed—all while being incredibly easy to use.

Invite meeting participants from within a meeting or dial in from 50+ international countries. You can also record the audio, video, and desktop from a meeting and save it later in the cloud to send it to those who could not attend or to reference it later.

Customizing meetings is another possibility, thanks to the virtual backgrounds. 

Participants can blur their backgrounds or select an image they want. You can also enjoy advanced moderation control, such as meeting lock, host delegation, participant lobby, and participant permissions for a seamless experience. The option to activate end-to-end encryption for any meeting ensures that only allowed participants with the shared key can enter.

How 8×8 Ranks

8×8 is one of the best business phone systems you can trust, regardless of your organization’s size. It offers a diverse range of excellent features and communication capabilities to help you empower every employee and delight every customer. The unmatched affordability, especially when it comes to international calling, is another reason why you should consider giving this service a shot.

If you’re looking for a solution that also offers excellent 24/7 customer support, it’s worth trying out some of the other best business phone systems.

  1. Nextiva – Best for most businesses
  2. RingCentral – Best no-sweat integrations
  3. Ooma – Best low-risk solution for small businesses
  4. Freshdesk Contact Center – Most reliable call center phone system
  5. Dialpad – Best automated call coaching
  6. 8×8 – Best for free and clear international calling
  7. Mitel – Best for global call quality
  8. Intermedia Unite – Best ongoing support
  9. Line2 – Best setup for solopreneurs

Summary

8×8 is a Crazy Egg-approved business phone solution.

With dozens of calling features that allow users to easily communicate with each other in any way they choose, collaboration is easier than ever with 8×8. While we would love more efficient customer support, its flexible pricing that can fit any budget and able to scale up for organizations of all sizes.


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