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Nextiva vs. Dialpad

Nextiva and Dialpad are popular business phone systems. Evaluate them side by side to see which is the best solution for your business.

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Written by: Jeff Hale, Senior AnalystUpdated Aug 09, 2024
Business News Daily earns compensation from some listed companies. Editorial Guidelines.
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Businesses in nearly every industry need reliable and effective communication tools for voice calling, video conferencing and messaging. Modern business phone systems have evolved to help facilitate better conversations with smart features and tools like automatic note-taking and sentiment analysis. However, with the numerous options available, selecting the best all-in-one phone platform can be challenging.

Nextiva and Dialpad are two of the industry’s most popular business phone platforms for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Both providers offer highly reliable service. They also boast a wealth of communication features and tools to help small businesses save time and improve customer outcomes. We’ve compared many of these competitors’ features to help you identify the best phone platform for your business.

Nextiva vs. Dialpad

Criteria

Nextiva

Dialpad

Price

$18.95 to $60 per user per month

$15 to $25+ per user per month

Ease of use

Very easy to implement and use

Easy to implement and use

Video conferencing

Up to 250 participants

Up to 10 participants

AI-powered features

Some

Many

Third-party integrations

20

70

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
TipTip
Check out our detailed Nextiva review for more information about this platform's unique tools for multisite retail establishments and healthcare businesses.

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
TipTip
Read our Dialpad review to learn more about this platform's robust voice intelligence tools and other features.

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.

Best for Pricing
Dialpad
Dialpad is one of the most affordable all-in-one business phone systems we've reviewed. Plus, its pricing structure is straightforward and easy to understand.

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 mobile app

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.

Best for Ease of Use
Nextiva
Nextiva is one of the industry's easiest phone systems to set up and use, especially if it's your first time managing a business phone system.
Did You Know?Did you know
If ease of use is a priority for your business phone system, you may also want to consider Ooma. Our Ooma review details this platform's exceptionally user-friendly interface and features.

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.

Nextiva video meeting

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 conference calls

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

Best for Video Conferencing
Dialpad
Despite its participant limits, Dialpad offers a more engaging video product with better productivity tools. This helps you host more productive videoconferences.

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 AI powered insights

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 meeting recaps

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

Best AI-Powered Features
Dialpad
Dialpad is the clear winner in this category because of its many excellent AI-powered features. While Nextiva has improved its AI offerings, you must pay for higher-level tiers or add-ons to access them.

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

Best Third-Party Integrations
Dialpad
Dialpad's app marketplace offers far more third-party integrations than Nextiva.
Did You Know?Did you know
Nextiva is also considered among the best phone systems for medical offices because of its features and ease of use.

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.

FAQs

Nextiva is one of the best phone systems for small businesses, earning high marks for its ease of use. If usability is a concern, you should also check out our 8x8 review to learn more about this user-friendly platform.
RingEX has recently added several new AI-powered communications tools, bringing its service more in line with Dialpad's robust offerings. Check out our RingEX vs. Dialpad comparison for more information on these two business phone systems.
One Nextiva disadvantage is the lack of voicemail transcription across all service levels. This tool is usually included free through business phone providers. However, with Nextiva, it's only available in higher-level plans — and only as an add-on in the highest plan if you want complete transcription and summarization functions.
Dialpad has minimum seat requirements and limitations on the number of office locations with some plans. Customer support hours are also limited for entry-level subscribers.
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Written by: Jeff Hale, Senior Analyst
Jeff Hale is a communications and content marketing expert with extensive experience leading teams as a managing editor. He has deep knowledge of B2B communications technologies, including business phone systems and customer relationship management (CRM) software. Jeff is also an entrepreneur who knows the realities of launching and managing a small business, where he serves as a Content Director and SEO Consultant. At Business News Daily, Jeff primarily covers business technology, including VoIP phone systems, remote PC access software and CRMs. Jeff is also an entrepreneur who knows the realities of launching and managing a small business, where he serves as a Content Director and SEO Consultant. In his role as an entrepreneur and professional, Jeff has identified new market opportunities for Fortune 500 clients and developed communications strategies and digital branding for tech startups and small businesses. Jeff holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California, Irvine, and an MBA from Chapman University.
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