Table of Contents

What is 8×8

8×8 is a cloud communications platform that unifies contact center, global telephony, video messaging, and low-code APIs into a single AI-enabled solution. It centralizes interaction data and communications tools so teams can manage voice, chat, email, SMS, and video from one platform and apply analytics and automation across channels.

Compared with competitors, 8×8 focuses on combining enterprise telephony with contact center capabilities in one product. RingCentral offers a broad UCaaS and contact center suite with clear per-user tiers that emphasize telephony and messaging, while Genesys focuses heavily on enterprise contact center orchestration and workforce engagement. Five9 concentrates on cloud contact center functionality with deep agent tooling. 8×8 positions itself between those approaches by including unified communications, PSTN services, and developer APIs in the same platform.

All of this makes 8×8 well suited to organizations that want one vendor for both communications and CX data. It does particularly well at reducing vendor sprawl for distributed teams, and it is a fit for companies that need programmable voice and APIs to embed communications into existing business applications.

How 8×8 Works

The platform routes customer interactions into a unified interface where supervisors and agents can see the full conversation history regardless of channel. Interaction data is captured centrally and fed into analytics and AI models for sentiment analysis, quality monitoring, and recommendation engines that assist agents in real time.

Deployment options include cloud-hosted telephony with global PSTN coverage, cloud contact center configurations, and soft clients for desktop and mobile. Teams commonly integrate 8×8 with CRM systems and productivity suites, then use low-code APIs to automate call flows, notifications, and post-call processing.

8×8 features

The platform combines telephony, contact center routing, AI analytics, programmable voice, and integrations into a single product set. Core capabilities include omnichannel interaction handling, AI-powered insights, global calling infrastructure, workforce engagement, and developer APIs to extend or embed communications.

Omnichannel Contact Routing

Interactions from voice, chat, SMS, email, and social channels are consolidated into unified queues so agents can handle multiple channel types from the same workspace. This reduces context switching and allows routing rules to prioritize contacts based on skills, customer data, or SLAs.

AI and Analytics

Embedded AI provides real-time transcription, sentiment analysis, and agent assist suggestions to speed resolution and improve consistency. Supervisors can use analytics dashboards for volume forecasting, quality scoring, and root-cause analysis to guide coaching and process changes.

Unified Communications

Enterprise telephony, team messaging, video meetings, and presence are available in the same platform, enabling internal collaboration and external customer conversations without separate vendors. This simplifies administration and provides a single source for user management and billing.

Global PSTN and Carrier Services

Cloud-based telephony with international numbers and PSTN termination supports multi-country rollouts and local number presence. Built-in carrier services reduce the need for third-party SIP trunks and simplify regulatory compliance across regions.

Low-Code APIs and Developer Tools

APIs and SDKs let teams embed calling, SMS, and contact center capabilities into CRM systems, portals, and mobile apps. The developer portal provides documentation, sample code, and webhook options to automate interactions and integrate event data into downstream systems. See the developer documentation for endpoint details and examples.

Integrations and Ecosystem

Prebuilt connectors and native integrations link 8×8 with popular CRMs and collaboration suites including Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and common helpdesk platforms. These integrations bring contact context into agents’ workflows and let organizations keep their existing business systems. Explore the Microsoft Teams integration for details.

With these capabilities, the biggest benefit is unified visibility. Teams get consistent telephony, contact routing, and analytics in one platform which streamlines operations and reduces the number of separate tools to manage.

8×8 pricing

8×8 follows a subscription and enterprise pricing approach that is tailored to deployment scope, number of users, and feature bundles rather than a single public price list; organizations typically select unified communications, contact center, or combined bundles and then agree enterprise terms. For specific plan details and current rates, see the vendor’s platform and contact options on the 8×8 platform overview.

What is 8×8 Used For?

8×8 is used to consolidate customer and employee communications onto one platform, which reduces tool fragmentation and centralizes interaction data. Common scenarios include enterprise contact centers that need omnichannel routing, sales and support teams that require local numbers and global calling, and IT teams that want a single vendor for UCaaS and CCaaS.

Organizations also use 8×8 to embed voice and messaging into business applications via APIs, to run remote-first collaboration with integrated meetings and messaging, and to apply AI to call analytics for coaching, compliance, and CX optimization.

Pros and cons of 8×8

Pros

  • Unified communications and contact center together: Having UCaaS and CCaaS in one platform reduces vendor management and simplifies billing, provisioning, and reporting.
  • Global telephony footprint: Built-in PSTN services and international number support make multi-region deployments easier to manage and provision.
  • Developer-friendly APIs: Low-code and API tooling let teams embed voice, SMS, and contact workflows directly into CRM and custom apps, which speeds integrations and automation.

Cons

  • Enterprise sales and deployment model: Organizations that prefer self-serve pricing or public per-user rates may find the enterprise negotiation approach slower than transparent per-user plans.
  • Feature overlap with third-party apps: Customers that already have best-of-breed point solutions for either UC or contact center may not need the full combined suite and could face redundant features.
  • Learning curve for advanced analytics: Teams that want to extract maximum value from AI and workforce engagement features may require additional configuration and training resources.

Does 8×8 Offer a Free Trial?

8×8 provides demo and trial options tailored to business needs. Prospective customers can request product demonstrations, pilot programs, or trial access through the vendor’s sales and contact channels; use the contact sales and demo options to start a trial or arrange a pilot deployment.

8×8 API and Integrations

8×8 offers developer APIs and SDKs for programmable voice, messaging, and contact center events, with a public developer portal containing API documentation and example workflows. The developer documentation outlines authentication, webhooks, and common integration patterns.

The platform also supports native and third-party integrations with CRMs such as Salesforce, collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, and ticketing systems to pass contact context and automate follow-up processes.

10 8×8 alternatives

Paid alternatives to 8×8

  • RingCentral — Cloud communications and contact center provider with published per-user subscription tiers and broad telephony and messaging features.
  • Genesys — Enterprise-grade contact center platform focused on orchestration, AI routing, and workforce engagement for large operations.
  • Five9 — Cloud contact center specialist with deep agent tooling, outbound dialing capabilities, and workforce optimization features.
  • Cisco Webex Contact Center — Enterprise contact center and unified communications solution integrated with Cisco collaboration products.
  • Zoom Phone + Zoom Contact Center — Unified meetings, telephony, and contact center products that work closely with Zoom meetings and meetings infrastructure.
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service (with Voice) — Contact center capabilities tightly integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Teams for organizations on the Microsoft stack.
  • Avaya OneCloud — Communications and contact center platform aimed at large enterprises with strong global telephony features.

Open source alternatives to 8×8

  • Asterisk — Open source telephony PBX framework used to build custom voice and IVR systems that can be combined with other tools for contact center features.
  • FreeSWITCH — Telecom platform for building voice, video, and messaging solutions with high customization for organizations willing to self-host.
  • Kamailio — Open source SIP server for large scale voice routing and signaling that serves as the foundation for custom communication stacks.
  • Jitsi — Open source video conferencing and communication stack that can be extended for collaborative voice and video workflows.

Frequently asked questions about 8×8

What is 8×8 used for?

8×8 is used to run unified communications and cloud contact center operations. Organizations use it to handle omnichannel customer interactions, manage global telephony, and centralize interaction analytics.

Does 8×8 integrate with Microsoft Teams?

Yes, 8×8 provides integration options for Microsoft Teams. The integration lets organizations add telephony and contact center capabilities to Teams without replacing existing collaboration workflows; see the Teams product page for details.

Can 8×8 be extended via APIs?

Yes, 8×8 offers developer APIs and SDKs. The developer portal includes API documentation, webhook events, and code samples to embed voice, messaging, and contact events into custom applications.

How does 8×8 handle international calling and numbers?

8×8 provides global PSTN services and local numbering options. This allows businesses to provision local phone numbers across multiple countries and centralize billing and compliance for international operations.

Is 8×8 suitable for large enterprise contact centers?

Yes, 8×8 is designed for mid-market and enterprise deployments. It provides features such as workforce engagement, real-time analytics, and global telephony that scale for distributed and high-volume contact center operations.

Final verdict: 8×8

8×8 stands out for combining unified communications, global telephony, and contact center capabilities on one AI-enabled platform. Its strengths are consolidated interaction data, built-in PSTN services for international reach, and developer APIs that let teams embed communications into business systems.

Compared with RingCentral, which publishes per-user subscription tiers and emphasizes transparent per-seat pricing, 8×8 focuses on a consolidated enterprise approach that bundles UC and contact center capabilities. If your priority is a single vendor for both telephony and contact center with programmable integrations and centralized analytics, 8×8 is a strong candidate; if you need clearly published per-user pricing and fast self-serve signup, a provider like RingCentral may be easier to evaluate for small deployments.

For implementation details, pricing discussions, and trials, review the platform overview and contact options on the 8×8 platform page.