Nextiva vs. Dialpad

Nextiva vs. Dialpad

Who Do We Recommend Nextiva For?

Nextiva is an excellent solution for small businesses seeking an easy-to-use phone system. It’s also terrific for any business with multiple office locations or medical records retention and HIPAA requirements. This reliable, all-in-one communication platform provides all the phone features small businesses need to project a professional image. It even includes tools for tracking social engagement and customer reviews.

Nextiva’s business phone services are available in several categories, including Essential, Digital, Core, Engage and PowerSuite. We like that you can also mix and match plans between users or locations. All subscribers enjoy 24/7 support, and most plans include mobile and desktop apps and unlimited domestic calling.

We were impressed that, upon request, Nextiva can implement key safeguards to protect sensitive patient information in healthcare settings. These safeguards include HIPAA-compliant services and features for phone, fax and video conferencing. Not every competitor in the space offers these services.

Some of Nextiva’s most impressive features include the following:

• Easy setup
• HIPAA-compliant features
• The ability to mix and match service plans between employees or locations
• Unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada
• Support for video conferences with numerous attendees

Who Do We Recommend Dialpad For?

We recommend Dialpad for any small business that wants to adopt new technologies to increase efficiency and improve customer outcomes. This modern unified communications platform boasts excellent AI-powered tools across voice, video and messaging. Also, it’s highly affordable — starting at $15 per user per month for the standard service and $25 for the professional version.

We were impressed by Dialpad’s effective voice intelligence tools. These are designed to increase employee engagement during meetings and provide valuable support to sales or service teams during calls. The AI tools function like virtual assistants that can take real-time meeting notes, log action items and send detailed summaries after each meeting. It can also detect a caller’s sentiment during a conversation and offer suggestions to improve your phone etiquette in real time.

Some of Dialpad’s top features include the following:

• Quick setup
• Unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada
• Local business phone numbers in more than 70 countries
• Platform-wide AI-powered features and tools
• Monthly and annual contracts

Nextiva vs. Dialpad Comparison

Nextiva and Dialpad are two of the best business phone systems on the market. However, their price structures, ease of use, features and integrations differ. Here’s how they compare.

Pricing

Nextiva

Nextiva’s pricing structure has changed from legacy plans to newer contact center plans with more customer engagement tools. Its Essential plan, a holdover from its legacy plans, is still offered and starts at $18.95 per monthly user. Its newer plans include Digital, which is $20 per user per month after an annual discount. Also included in the newer plans are Core ($30 per user per month), Engage ($40 per user per month) and Power Suite ($60 per user per month). We like that Nextiva lets customers mix and match plans. This allows you to provide essential features and tools to team members who need them while saving on phone costs for others.

Dialpad

Dialpad starts at $15 per monthly user for the Standard plan and $25 per monthly user for the Pro plan with an annual subscription. The company does not list pricing for its top-tier Enterprise plan, which is only available for companies purchasing at least 100 user licenses. Dialpad offers discounts of up to 33 percent for annual subscribers and accepts all major credit cards.

Ease of Use

Nextiva

Nextiva is an exceptionally user-friendly business phone system. It feels like it’s built around usability — it has an intuitive drag-and-drop call flow builder anyone can use to route calls based on the time, day of the week, office location and extension. Advanced routing settings — like round-robin ringing for commission-based sales teams — are also easy to implement and manage. They boast effective drop-down menu options to help walk you through each new process. Other helpful features like Call Pop make it easy to jump into conversations quickly by providing a caller’s previous interactions, total account value, survey responses and satisfaction score.

Nextiva’s ease of use extends to its mobile app, which lets you take your entire business phone system with you. Source: Nextiva

Dialpad

If you’re not waiting to port a business phone number, you can set up and start using Dialpad the same day you buy it. The platform’s usability is bolstered by its AI-powered tools that can eliminate tedious tasks. Such chores of the past include taking detailed notes during meetings and emailing everyone action items before moving to a new task. Building and editing IVR workflows to route calls is accomplished through a visual editor; though, this could be challenging to understand if it’s your first time working with such tools. But, Dialpad offers an excellent selection of video guides to fill potential knowledge gaps. Some of Dialpad’s advanced tools have a slightly steeper learning curve. However, the platform is generally easy to use and has many valuable features and tools.

Video Conferencing

Nextiva

Nextiva’s video offerings vary by plan. Video meetings are limited to 45 minutes for Essential subscribers. However, subscribers to the Core plan and higher tiers enjoy unlimited audio conferencing and video meetings. Meeting size also varies from 25 to 250 depending on your service plan. However, there is a limit of 16 on the screen at one time. The platform integrates with Microsoft and Google scheduling. Also, it includes an option for impromptu meetings without requiring participants to download any software. Other nice features include screen sharing, drag-and-drop file sharing, video recording and built-in chat.

Participants can log in from anywhere to participate in a Nextiva video meeting. Source: Nextiva

Dialpad

Dialpad’s included video conferencing features and tools are essentially the same as what you’d receive with the company’s free Meetings video conference product. This version limits video calls to 10 participants per meeting. While that’s quite restrictive compared to many other business phone providers we’ve reviewed, it’s likely more than adequate for most small businesses. We think Dialpad makes up for the meeting size with strong features. Such features include an interactive whiteboard with Micro integration, screen sharing, virtual backgrounds, waiting rooms, video recording, in-meeting chat and scheduling tools for Google and Microsoft calendars.

Dialpad makes it easy for users to join conference calls from any internet-connected device. Source: Dialpad

AI-Powered Features

Nextiva

Nextiva has upped its AI game to include AI-powered features in its Core, Engage and Power Suite plans. These plans all feature smart call routing and voicemail with AI transcription. The Engage and Power Suite plans also include AI tools for even more intelligent inbound call routing. They also have the ability to access caller history to improve conversations. The Power Suite plan includes add-on options for AI-based skills-bound routing. This helps route calls to agents based on language, hard skills and more. Also, it has AI-based transcription and summarizing tools. However, we noted that many competitors offer these features for free.

Nextiva’s AI-powered insights provide access to caller history to help agents better assist customers. Source: Nextiva

Dialpad

Dialpad feels like it’s designed around its excellent AI-powered productivity features. Even the least expensive plans include high-end features like voicemail transcription and automatic note-taking; the latter has the ability to track action items, keywords, and caller sentiment. Dialpad’s real-time speech coaching tool is another excellent feature that ensures customer support and sales teams communicate effectively. During a call, this software helps you eliminate filler words such as “you know,” “um,” and “like.” It can also show you when you’re speaking too quickly or monopolizing the conversation.

Dialpad helps you automatically share your meeting recaps with attendees, co-workers and managers. Source: Dialpad

Third-Party Integrations

Nextiva

Nextiva integrates with about 20 essential business applications for productivity, help desks, ERPs and CRMs. While the number of integrations is relatively small, you’ll find many business essentials. These include Salesforce CRM, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, Oracle Sales Cloud, NetSuite, HubSpot, Zoho and Zendesk.

Dialpad

Dialpad’s app marketplace offers about 60 integrations for its voice product. These cover many major business software applications and suites; such suites include Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk, Zapier and Slack. If you have access to a skilled developer, you can use Dialpad’s development sandbox to test APIs for voice, SMS, user management and analytics.

Dialpad offers dozens of free integrations for voice, messaging and meetings. Source: Dialpad

Nextiva vs. Dialpad Recap

Choose Nextiva if:

• You want to mix and match service plans between different employees.
• You need HIPAA-compliant features and tools.
• You’re looking for a business phone system that’s especially easy to use.

Choose Dialpad if:

• You want to implement advanced voice intelligence features and tools.
• You need a service-level agreement that guarantees zero phone system downtime.
• You’re looking for help improving efficiency with time-saving automation powered by AI.