Pricing
subscription
Best For
Global businesses with teams or customers in multiple countries that need unlimited international calling
Rating
7.8/10
Last Updated
Mar 2026
TL;DR
8x8 is the international calling champion. If your business operates across multiple countries, 8x8's global reach with local numbers in 100+ countries and unlimited calling to 48 countries is hard to match. The XCaaS (Experience Communications as a Service) platform bundles phone, video, chat, and contact center into one license. Call quality is reliable. The admin portal is more intuitive than RingCentral's. Pricing is competitive at $24-44/user/month. The trade-off: brand recognition is lower, and the mobile app occasionally hiccups.
What is 8x8?
The Global Calling Powerhouse
8x8 has been in the VoIP game since 1987 — longer than most people realize. They've evolved from hardware to a full cloud communications platform serving over 3 million business users. Where 8x8 separates from the pack is international calling. Unlimited calling to 48 countries is included in the top-tier plan. No per-minute charges. No surprise bills. For companies with teams or customers spread across the globe, that alone justifies the switch.
XCaaS: Everything in One License
8x8 coined "XCaaS" — Experience Communications as a Service. The idea is simple: one platform, one license, one vendor for voice, video, team messaging, and contact center. You don't buy separate products and integrate them. A sales rep on the phone can transfer a call to the contact center, which escalates to a video conference, all within the same app.
Video meetings support up to 500 participants on higher plans. The quality is solid — not quite Zoom-level polish, but more than adequate for daily business use. Team chat works for quick messages and file sharing.
Where 8x8 Earns Its Keep
The admin portal is genuinely easier to navigate than RingCentral's. Setting up auto-attendants, call flows, and ring groups takes fewer clicks. Analytics dashboards show call volumes, quality metrics, and agent performance without needing a data analyst to interpret them.
The contact center add-on is competitive with standalone CCaaS platforms. Omnichannel routing, workforce management, quality monitoring, and speech analytics are all available. For mid-market companies that need both UCaaS and CCaaS, buying both from 8x8 is simpler and cheaper than running two platforms.
The Rough Edges
The mobile app has reliability issues. Calls occasionally drop when switching networks. Push notifications sometimes arrive late. These aren't daily problems, but they happen enough to frustrate road warriors. The integration ecosystem has about 60 native integrations — decent, but significantly fewer than RingCentral's 300+. And while 8x8 is well-known in the UCaaS industry, brand recognition with end users is lower than RingCentral, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Unlimited international calling to 48 countries on X4 plan eliminates per-minute charges for global teams
- XCaaS platform bundles UCaaS and CCaaS under one license simplifying vendor management
- Admin portal is more intuitive and easier to configure than RingCentral for call flows and routing
- Video meetings support up to 500 participants on higher plans with solid audio and video quality
- 99.999% uptime SLA with geo-redundant data centers across North America, Europe, and Asia
Cons
- Mobile app has reliability issues — occasional dropped calls and delayed push notifications
- Integration ecosystem has roughly 60 native apps, significantly fewer than RingCentral at 300+
- Lower brand recognition than RingCentral, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams among end users
- Only two pricing tiers limits flexibility — no budget option for teams that just need basic calling
- Customer support response times are inconsistent with some tickets taking 48+ hours for resolution
8x8 Pricing
X2
- Unlimited calling to 14 countries
- HD video meetings (500 participants)
- Team messaging
- Auto-attendant
- Call recording
- Microsoft Teams integration
X4
- Unlimited calling to 48 countries
- Everything in X2
- Advanced call analytics
- Supervisor analytics
- 8x8 Frontdesk for receptionists
- Call barge/whisper/monitor
Pricing last verified: March 25, 2026
Who is 8x8 Best For?
- Global businesses with teams or customers in multiple countries that need unlimited international calling
- Mid-market companies wanting UCaaS and contact center from a single vendor under one license
- Organizations that found RingCentral's admin portal too complex and want an easier setup experience
- Companies with 50-500 employees that need a reliable phone system with built-in analytics
Technical Details
The Bottom Line
8x8 scores 7.8/10. It stands out for unlimited international calling to 48 countries on x4 plan eliminates per-minute charges for global teams. Best suited for global businesses with teams or customers in multiple countries that need unlimited international calling. Keep in mind that mobile app has reliability issues — occasional dropped calls and delayed push notifications.
Frequently Asked Questions
Based on editorial analysis