How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Genesys Cloud CX and NICE CXone are the enterprise grade swaps, publishing tiers from 75 and 110 dollars per agent per month respectively.
- Talkdesk, Dialpad and RingCentral RingCX cut the entry price for mid market teams, with RingCX posting the lowest published omnichannel seat at 65 dollars.
- Amazon Connect removes the seat fee entirely and charges per minute, which suits seasonal and spiky contact volumes.
- Five9's concurrent licensing and 50 seat minimum are the real reasons most teams shop around, so compare licensing models before features.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Genesys Cloud CX | Enterprise journey orchestration | $75 per user per month | No |
 NICE CXone | Enterprise AI and workforce tools in one bundle | $110 per agent per month | No |
 Talkdesk | Industry tuned contact centers | $85 per user per month | No |
 Dialpad Support | Mid market teams wanting AI built in | $80 per user per month | No |
 RingCentral RingCX | Lowest published omnichannel seat price | $65 per user per month | No |
 Zoom Contact Center | Zoom shops adding a contact center | $69 per user per month | No |
 Amazon Connect | Pay per use on AWS | Pay per use | No |
 8x8 Contact Center | Global voice and combined phone system | See website | No |
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The best Five9 alternatives
#1Genesys Cloud CX
Best for: Enterprise journey orchestration4.4/5 on
G2 (1,577 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit genesys.com
Starting price$75 per user per month
Free planNo
What we like- Genesys Cloud CX is the platform enterprises pick when the contact center is one stop on a longer customer journey. Published tiers run from 75 dollars for CX 1 to 240 dollars for CX 4 per user per month billed annually, with voice at the base and digital channels, workforce engagement and AI orchestration layered in as you climb. Licensing can be named, concurrent or hourly, which gives shift heavy operations the same flexibility Five9 buyers value. Its routing and journey analytics depth are the strongest in this list.
Watch out for- The entry tier is voice only, so the real starting price for an omnichannel operation is the 115 dollar CX 2 tier. AI features are metered in tokens on top of licences, which makes costs harder to forecast than a flat bundle. Implementation is a project measured in months, and small teams will find the platform more than they can administer without a dedicated owner.
#2NICE CXone
Best for: Enterprise AI and workforce tools in one bundle4.3/5 on
G2 (1,730 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit nice.com
Starting price$110 per agent per month
Free planNo
What we like- NICE CXone publishes its whole ladder: suites from 110 dollars per agent per month for omnichannel routing up to 249 dollars for the Ultimate tier with AI agents included, billed monthly in arrears rather than prepaid annually, which finance teams notice. Its workforce engagement suite, quality management, scheduling and analytics, is homegrown rather than partnered, and it is the deepest in this list. For regulated industries that record and score nearly every interaction, CXone is usually on the final shortlist.
Watch out for- The AI agent capability sits in the top tier plus a per session charge, so the headline 110 dollars buys a strong traditional platform, not the AI story in the marketing. The platform is large and dated in places, and administration typically needs specialists. Total cost at the Complete and Ultimate tiers is the highest here, which pushes mid market teams toward Talkdesk or Dialpad.
#3Talkdesk
Best for: Industry tuned contact centers4.4/5 on
G2 (2,586 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit talkdesk.com
Starting price$85 per user per month
Free planNo
What we like- Talkdesk aims at the space between mid market and enterprise: Digital Essentials starts at 85 dollars per user per month and Voice Essentials at 105, with industry clouds for retail, healthcare, financial services and others at 225 that ship prebuilt workflows, terminology and integrations for those sectors. Deployment is faster than Genesys or NICE in most comparisons, measured in weeks rather than quarters, and the AI tooling for agent assist and automation is woven through the standard product rather than sold as a separate platform.
Watch out for- The industry clouds that make Talkdesk distinctive cost more than double the entry tier, so price the edition you actually need. Some advanced workforce features trail NICE. Reporting depth in the base tiers gets mixed reviews, and per user pricing on top of usage charges still requires a careful model before signature.
Starting price$80 per user per month
Free planNo
What we like- Dialpad Support, the contact center arm of Dialpad's communications platform, starts at 80 dollars per user per month billed annually for Essentials and reaches 150 for Premium. Its AI is native rather than acquired: live transcription, real time agent assist cards and post call summaries come from the same system that runs the calls, and teams already using Dialpad for business phone lines consolidate two vendors into one contract. Setup is measured in days to weeks, the fastest of the full platforms here alongside Zoom.
Watch out for- The workforce management and quality tooling is lighter than NICE or Genesys, and very large operations may find the analytics ceiling. Dialpad's contact center is younger than its phone system, and some enterprise compliance buyers will want a longer track record in their sector. Digital channel depth has improved but still trails Talkdesk at the same money.
#5RingCentral RingCX
Best for: Lowest published omnichannel seat price4.4/5 on
G2 (116 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit ringcentral.com
Starting price$65 per user per month
Free planNo
What we like- RingCX posts the lowest published omnichannel seat in this list: Standard at 65 dollars per user per month billed annually, Professional at 95 and Elite at 145. It covers voice and the main digital channels with AI summaries and quality tools, and it sits inside the RingCentral account many companies already run for office phones, so numbers, users and billing are already in place. For a multi location business rolling store and support lines into one system, that consolidation is worth real money.
Watch out for- RingCX is the newer of RingCentral's two contact center offers, and the older Contact Center product still exists in the catalogue, so confirm exactly which platform a quote describes. Advanced workforce optimisation is thinner than NICE. Some features differ between the RingCX tiers in ways that push growing teams to Professional sooner than they planned.
#6Zoom Contact Center
Best for: Zoom shops adding a contact center4.4/5 on
G2 (73 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit zoom.com
Starting price$69 per user per month
Free planNo
What we like- Zoom Contact Center starts at 69 dollars per user per month billed annually for Essentials, with Premium at 99 and Elite at 149, and its pitch is familiarity: agents work in the same client the rest of the company uses for meetings, with video as a native channel rather than an integration. For support teams that solve problems better face to face, such as product onboarding or telehealth intake, that video first design is a genuine difference. Bundling with Zoom Workplace can also soften the price in negotiation.
Watch out for- Outside Zoom centric companies the case weakens: the platform is younger than Genesys or NICE, with a thinner integration catalogue and workforce tools that are catching up. Digital channels beyond chat and video are less deep than Talkdesk's. If your company runs Teams or Google Workspace, the familiarity argument disappears and you are comparing a newer platform against proven ones at similar money.
Starting pricePay per use
Free planNo
What we like- Amazon Connect deletes the seat fee. You pay per minute for voice, around 0.038 dollars a minute plus telephony charges, and per message for chat and SMS, so a seasonal team of 200 agents for six weeks costs usage, not 200 annual licences. It is built on the same infrastructure as Amazon's own retail support, connects naturally to AWS services for transcription, analytics and AI, and engineering led teams can shape flows, routing and integrations in code rather than inside a vendor's admin screens.
Watch out for- You are buying a platform to build on, not a finished contact center. Workforce management, quality scoring and polished agent desktops come from configuration, partners or your own developers, and the implementation bill lands in engineering time instead of licence fees. Telephony and per minute charges make costs variable in a way finance teams must model carefully. Without AWS skills in house, Connect is the most demanding option here.
#8
8x8 Contact Center
Best for: Global voice and combined phone system
Visit 8x8.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- 8x8 sells the contact center and the company phone system as one product, with its strongest card being international voice: bundled calling plans and local numbers across many countries suit support teams whose customers and agents are spread across borders. Speech and interaction analytics, co browsing and post call surveys are included in the platform, and a single vendor for telephony removes the carrier arguments that plague multi vendor setups. Pricing is quote based, so we list see website.
Watch out for- Quote only pricing and bundled editions make like for like comparison slow work. The platform's depth in workforce engagement trails NICE, and the interface draws mixed reviews for density. Companies in one country gain less from 8x8's global voice advantage and may find RingCentral or Dialpad simpler value at published prices.
How we chose
We compared cloud contact center platforms that cover the channels Five9 covers, voice plus at least the main digital channels, with routing, recording and agent tooling as core product rather than add ons. Every entry publishes pricing or a clear pricing model, except 8x8, which we included for its global voice position and marked see website rather than repeat a directory figure. We excluded helpdesk tools that add voice to a ticketing product, since that is a different purchase, and we excluded Five9 itself. AI pricing models differ so much between these vendors that we flag the model in each entry instead of pretending one number compares them.
Price the licensing model before the feature list. Concurrent licensing suits shift work where three agents share one seat across a day; named licensing suits steady teams; per minute pricing suits seasonal spikes. The same platform can be cheapest or dearest depending on which shape your operation is, and vendors know it, so bring your real roster and your real minutes to the first call.
Then run a pilot on one queue with your hardest integrations live, usually the CRM screen pop and the payment flow, because those are where migrations stall. Measure the AI costs on your own contact mix: summaries are cheap, resolved contacts are where per session fees build. Finally, negotiate the exit: number porting timelines, recording export formats and data retention after termination. A contact center holds your customers' voices, sometimes literally, and you should be able to take them with you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest Five9 alternative for a mid sized team?
On published prices, RingCentral RingCX at 65 dollars and Zoom Contact Center at 69 dollars per user per month are the lowest omnichannel seats, with Dialpad Support at 80 dollars close behind. Amazon Connect can undercut all of them for low volume or seasonal work because there is no seat fee. In every case the real bill adds telephony, AI usage and implementation, so compare modelled totals, not entry tiers.
Is Genesys or NICE better than Five9?
They are broader platforms rather than simply better ones. Genesys leads on journey orchestration across channels and touchpoints, NICE leads on workforce engagement and quality tooling, and both publish deeper enterprise suites than Five9's bundles. Five9 remains strong for outbound and blended operations. The right answer depends on whether your pain is routing, workforce management or price, which is why pilots beat feature matrices in this category.
How long does it take to migrate from Five9 to another platform?
Published comparisons put mid market platforms such as Dialpad, Talkdesk and Zoom at days to roughly twelve weeks, and enterprise platforms such as Genesys and NICE at two to nine months. The software is rarely the slow part: number porting, CRM integration, IVR redesign and agent retraining set the timeline. Running both platforms in parallel for one queue is the standard way to de risk the cutover.
Do these platforms charge extra for AI?
Usually, yes, in one of three ways: a higher tier that includes AI agents, a per session or per resolution fee, or metered tokens on top of licences. Agent assist and summaries are increasingly bundled, while autonomous AI agents are the priced extra. Ask each vendor to price your five most common contact types handled by AI end to end, and get the number in the contract rather than the slide deck.
Can a small team under 50 seats use these platforms?
Five9's published minimum is 50 seats, which is one reason smaller teams look elsewhere. RingCentral, Zoom and Dialpad sell happily below that line, and Amazon Connect has no seat minimum at all. Below about ten agents, also price helpdesk led tools with voice add ons before committing to a full contact center, since several support teams that size are buying queues and recording, not a platform.
Sources we checked (0)
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.