Dialpad vs. 8x8: communications and contact center evaluation guide

What to consider when evaluating communications and contact center platforms

Dialpad and 8x8 are both cloud-based platforms that combine unified communications and contact center capabilities. Both offer voice, messaging, video, and customer engagement tools, and both have invested in AI features in recent years. This guide focuses on Dialpad Support and Dialpad Connect on Dialpad's platform compared to 8x8's XCaaS platform.

Where they may differ is in how AI is built into the system, how the UCaaS and CCaaS capabilities work together, what the administration and deployment experience looks like, and how the platform scales with an organization's needs over time.

This guide covers some of the criteria worth examining.

AI architecture

How AI is built into a communications and contact center platform has become a meaningful factor in evaluations. The depth of that integration, and how early in the interaction it activates, has real implications for what agents and supervisors can act on.

Questions to ask:

• At what point in the interaction does the platform's AI activate, and what can it act on in the moment?

• Is AI built into the core platform, or delivered through a separate product, add-on, or third-party partnership?

• How does AI inform routing decisions, agent support, and supervisor visibility during live interactions?

• Does the platform draw on proprietary data to inform its AI, and if so, how does that affect accuracy and relevance?

AI agents

AI agents are a common part of contact center evaluations, and what vendors mean by the term can vary considerably.

Questions to ask:

• Can the AI agent handle multi-turn conversations and reach resolution for appropriate issue types?

• When an AI agent escalates to a human agent, what context carries over, and is it enough for the agent to continue without asking the customer to repeat themselves?

• How can teams set guardrails, review AI agent behavior, and validate performance before deploying to customers?

• How does the platform support the ongoing optimization of AI agent deployments over time?

Conversation intelligence

Contact center platforms generate significant volumes of conversation data. Where platforms can differ is in what they do with it, and when.

Questions to ask:

• What percentage of interactions does the platform analyze, and how does that affect what teams can learn at scale?

• At what point do insights become available, and how quickly can teams act on them?

• How can agents, supervisors, and business stakeholders access those insights?

• How does conversation intelligence connect to coaching, quality management, and broader operational workflows?

UCaaS and CCaaS in one system

Both Dialpad and 8x8 offer UCaaS and CCaaS capabilities. If your evaluation includes both internal business communications and customer-facing contact center, it is worth understanding how each platform handles that combination.

Questions to ask:

• How deeply are communications and contact center integrated within the platform, and what does that mean for data sharing, context continuity, and administration?

• What does the experience look like for agents who need to move between customer-facing and internal communications workflows?

• How configurable is each area, and can changes be made without technical resources?

Channel coverage and cross-channel context

Most platforms in this category support voice and digital channels. A more important question is whether those channels share context and how AI capabilities apply across them.

Consider whether a customer who contacts via different channels across separate interactions would need to re-explain their situation each time. Ideally, agents should have a unified view of prior interactions regardless of channel.

Questions to ask:

• Which channels are natively supported, and which (if any) are added through third-party integrations?

• Can agents see a complete interaction history across channels?

• Do AI capabilities apply across voice and digital, or does coverage vary by channel?

Global and multi-region support

8x8 has a strong track record in multi-region and global deployments. If your organization operates across multiple countries or time zones, it is worth confirming that any platform supports your geographic footprint.

Questions to ask:

• Which countries and regions does the platform natively support for calling and local numbers?

• What compliance frameworks and data residency options are available for the markets where you operate?

• How does call quality hold up across geographies, and what infrastructure does the platform rely on?

Reporting and operational visibility

Reporting needs to serve multiple audiences: supervisors managing performance in real time, teams identifying trends, and business leaders making decisions about staffing and CX strategy.

What to evaluate:

• Real-time dashboards. Supervisors need visibility into what is happening in the moment across queues, agents, and channels.

• Historical reporting granularity. Look for the ability to segment by queue, agent, team, and interaction type. Granular segmentation can help identify what is driving performance.

• AI-generated insights. Platforms that surface patterns and recommendations proactively give teams more time to act on them.

CRM and business system integration

Contact center and communications platforms connect to CRM, ticketing, workforce management, and other systems. When evaluating platforms, look at integration depth rather than just the list of supported tools.

• Bidirectional CRM integration. Agents should be able to see customer data from the CRM during an interaction. It is also worth evaluating whether call data and outcomes write back to the CRM, and how that affects agent workflow.

• Pre-built vs. custom. Pre-built integrations with platforms like Salesforce and Zendesk help reduce implementation time. If connecting to your core systems requires significant custom development, factor that into total cost and timeline.

Deployment and administration

How quickly a platform can be deployed and how much ongoing administration it requires are worth evaluating early in the process.

Questions to ask:

• How long does it realistically take to go live, and what does vendor support look like during that period?

• Can operational changes like updating routing logic, adding a queue, or modifying agent assignments be made by a non-technical administrator?

• As your organization grows, how does the platform scale without requiring you to rebuild your configuration?

Security and compliance

Communications and contact center platforms handle sensitive customer information, and compliance requirements vary by industry and geography.

Look for:

• Data handling and residency. Where is data stored, and does the platform support data residency requirements for the regions where you operate?

• Compliance certifications. Common certifications include SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR readiness. For healthcare use cases, HIPAA-ready infrastructure may be required.

• Role-based access and audit logging. Can access to recordings and transcripts be restricted by role? Is there an audit trail for administrative actions and data access?

Dialpad's security and compliance posture is documented at the Dialpad Trust Center.

Disclaimer: This comparison is based on publicly available information as of the date of publication. Features, pricing, and capabilities of third-party platforms are subject to change. This content is provided for informational purposes only.

Updated July 2026