UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service)

10 Best UCaaS Providers in 2024

There is a good reason why unified communications products are so popular today. They allow businesses to gather all their interactions in one place and facilitate the team to work on the same worktable with the same set of data as the source of truth.

In short, UCaaS brings operations together and keeps things streamlined.

Let’s dive straight into understanding what UCaaS means and which tools are topping the markets today.

What is UCaas?

UCaaS is the acronym for Unified Communications as a Service. Much like the name suggests, Unified Communications as Service providers assist your business to get its communications unified in a single location.

Doing this helps to streamline all the business communications and keep them organized in a single digital shelf if you will.

Unified communications and collaboration solutions aid your business in getting rid of a multitude of communication apps, like telephony, messaging, emailing, etc., and unify everything into one consolidated solution.

Thinking of it that way, you can implement unified messaging platforms as a significant leap towards efficient business communications in a modern, digital, and cloud-based way.

 How Does UCaas Work?

The main function of UCaaS is to unify all the communications operations and bring them on a single, integrated platform. It helps to drastically simplify communications and also helps to add value to every single interaction a business has with its customers.

With that said, UCaaS voice doesn’t leverage any kind of telephony hardware because it runs on the power of the internet. That makes VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol – the spinal cord of how UCaaS voice works.

VoIP doesn’t represent everything that a UCaaS is, but it is a major part of how it works. It basically converts sound into packets of data that can be transmitted over the internet to the other end.

This is what UCaaS voice apps utilize.

By eliminating the reliance on telephony systems to place and receive calls, cloud-based unified communications provide high-quality voice and video calling based on VoIP technology.

Furthermore, businesses don’t need any kind of infrastructure to operate UCaaS. There are several reasons:

  • It is cloud-based; therefore, the applications can be accessed from any device. This encourages a hybrid work culture.
  • It does not require a telephony setup, which means the agents don’t have to carry any SIM cards or stay rooted with cables to make or receive calls.
  • There is no requirement for dedicated, sound-proofed offices to house your customer agents or employees using the UCaaS.

The UCaaS has a truly decentralized method of working by providing the entire workforce with modern communication methods without all the associated complications. The only requirement is a reliable network that can be used to transmit the call data from one end to another.

The Top UCaaS Providers of 2023

If you are planning to implement a UCaaS ecosystem at your business, you need to consider the top contenders in the industry. Discussed below are the best UCaaS providers of 2023.

1. JustCall

JustCall is among the best Ucaas services on the market with its package of essential unified call features. It allows you swift integrations with all the other enterprise apps, allowing for a unified setup regardless of the number of the software you use.

2. Zoom

Perhaps one of the most popular unified CX platforms out there is Zoom. The platform really shined after the pandemic confined the white-collar workforce to their homes. Zoom provides excellent communication features:

  • Centralized management for users
  • Intelligent monitoring for business interactions
  • State-of-the-art cloud calling systems for video calls, audio calls, conferences, and more
  • Intelligent call routing, recording, IVRs, and shared lines through PBX integration
  • Virtual meetings, with screen sharing, captioning, in-video chat
  • Digital whiteboards
  • Emails and calendars

The reason that businesses around the world prefer Zoom is that it allows easy signup, easy setup, and easy communications as well.

3. Nextiva

Nextiva is a more comprehensive business solution for communications operations. This brand provides contact center solutions, VoIP, and many other tools. Some of the UCaaS features that Nextiva supports are as follows:

  • Unified communications on a single dashboard – calls, SMSs, messaging, emails, meetings, and more
  • Team collaboration tools with favorite contacts, rooms, conversations, and more
  • Meeting notes, reminders, schedulers, and more
  • Floating call widgets for uninterrupted dashboard interactions
  • Omnichannel customer communications
  • Analytics, customer automation, and journeys call pops

Nextiva is an enterprise-grade solution and is better suited for use by larger businesses.

4. RingCentral

RingCentral provides a robust infrastructure for UCaaS setup for your business. Enable your employees to communicate from any device, from anywhere, over any channel.

Some of RingCentral’s interesting features include the following:

  • Collaboration tools that let you share files do real-time document editing, schedule group meetings, and more
  • Advanced administration capabilities like call recording, cloud PBX, call routing, and more
  • Integrations with Google and Microsoft solutions for enhanced functionality
    Access administrations for enhanced data security with definable permissions and roles

RingCentral allows your business to efficiently bring all communication functionalities onto a single dashboard.

5. GoTo Connect

If your business is struggling to maintain uptime for its communications solutions, GoTo connect is the right UCaaS solution for you. It packs robust communications features that facilitate 99.99% uptime:

  • Built-in video meeting and chat modules
  • Virtual phone system with toll-free numbers, unlimited extensions, and more
  • Integration with productivity apps like Slack and customer-focus apps like Salesforce
  • Call flow customizations Dial Plan editor, call volume analytics, and more
  • Customer interactions with surveys, campaigns, and team inboxes
  • 24 x 7 support

GoTo Connect is the ideal solution for small and medium-sized businesses that want to bring their operations to one place.

6. Dialpad

One of the best-known names in the UCaaS niche, Dialpad combines the power of artificial intelligence with business communications to deliver cutting-edge, streamlined operations. Some of its features include:

  • AI voice and AI messaging allow your business to be flexible, scalable, and smart with communications
  • AI meetings feature allows you to transcribe all the meetings on the platform effortlessly
  • One-click calling, unlimited video meetings
  • No downloads are required UCaaS service

For businesses looking to add more value to their comms operations, Dialpad is the ideal choice.

7. 8×8

8×8 is the right UCaaS platform to choose if your business objective is to convert communications into experiences for the customers and the employees. The following features make this UCaaS platform a worthy competitor:

  • One application gives your business global connectivity with local numbers and extensions
  • All video calls are high definition with desktop and screen sharing
  • Communication APIs let you create your own customer interactions using a variety of channels

8×8 has more interesting features that include contact center functionality as well.

8. Vonage Business Communications

Vonage’s unified phone system solutions offer you an affordable suite that is feature-rich, versatile, and utilitarian. Some of its features are as follows:

  • Strong integration capabilities that offer coupling with Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Slack, Zoho
  • CRM, Office 365, Clio, and more
  • Video, voice, and messaging collaboration tools
  • Desktop app that makes access easy
  • Desk phones and mobile apps for easy calling
  • Whiteboarding, reactions, privacy features, and much more

Additionally, Vonage also promises 99.99% uptime for its services.

9. Mitel

Mitel UCaaS solutions focus on helping your business deliver exemplary customer experiences to the target audience. It has resilient features that let you capitalize on unified operations:

  • MiVoice Business feature for collaboration, conferencing, mobility, voice, and video
  • Flexible deployment modes to suit your needs – cloud-based or data-center based
  • Feature selection and customization
  • Cloud migration customization and assistance for unified communications
  • MiVoice Office 400 solutions for small businesses

Mitel is a flexible solution for all sizes of businesses.

10. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is one of the most well-rounded solutions for business communications. Everyone is familiar with the Microsoft name; the Teams suite comes equipped with amazing features:

  • Meetings and conferencing that include screen sharing, custom backgrounds, hot desking, virtual events, webinars, and more
  • Teams phone that includes VoIP, PBX, contact center, business phones, video calling, and more
  • Chat and collaboration features for instant messaging, file sharing, chats, and more

This suite comes with the familiarity of the Microsoft interface.

11. 3CX

If you would rather opt for a business communications solution that is app-free, you should implement 3CX for unified communications. Its features are top-of-the-line:

  • Presentation and remote assistance
  • Polling, chats, document sharing
  • PBX for calls, messaging, and more
  • Unlimited users
  • Management option for hosted or on-premise solutions
  • WhatsApp Business messages

3CX is a simple unified communications software that can be set up quickly.

What to Consider When Choosing the Best UCaaS Providers?

You need to consider several things when looking to implement a UCaaS solution. Various unified communications as service providers have different sets of apps and solutions that you may need to look over individually to find the best fit for your business.

In a nutshell, listed below are a few points you can consider to partner with the best UCaaS vendors.

1. Security and Compliances

One of the major considerations when choosing UCaaS vendors is the matter of data security. Since UCaaS solutions are housed on the cloud, any exposure of the cloud to risks or vulnerabilities can expose your organization’s data to the same trouble as well.

Consider what security procedures, methods, systems, and compliances the vendor has in place.

2. Costs

Neither the cheapest nor the costliest solution is the worst or the best on the market. It all depends on the needs of your business and the vendors who can fulfill them with the least investment.

A reputable vendor will provide you with a transparent cost sheet that lets you adjust your recurring expenses for using the UCaaS setup.

You need to consider the expenses over the lifetime of the contract with the UCaaS provider.

3. Integrations

Every business has its own ERP setups that do not need to change. Instead, see if the UCaaS solution you have selected consists of integration capabilities with your incumbents.

Ideally, an API is a necessary tool to have with the UCaaS solution. If the vendor does not provide an API or integration module, then it should at least support third-party bridges like Zapier.

4. Scalability

No business is ever static – it is constantly growing. Your business will gain more employees and users as it progresses and becomes more mature.

The UCaaS solution should also be able to reflect these changes by providing increased management and storage capacities when needed.

5. Support system

The top UCaaS providers ensure that they give your business complete support whenever needed.

Whether it is troubleshooting, reconfiguration, problems with a module, or a walk-through, the UCaaS vendor of choice needs to have a robust support system in place.

CCaaS, UCaaS or VoIP?

Before we jump into differentiating between the three technologies, let’s understand what they mean first.

  • UCaaS is a unified communications platform
  • CCaaS is a contact center solution
  • VoIP basically means using the internet to place calls

Tabulated below are the subtle differences between these technologies that can help you choose better for your business.

Property/Technology UCaaS CCaaS VoIP
Calling Uses VoIP Uses telephony Uses internet
Platform For all business communications For customer support and service For placing internet-based calls
Specialty Unifies all communications on a single platform Provides the digital infrastructure for omnichannel customer service Eliminates telephony-based calling and uses the internet.

The Business Benefit of Choosing UCaaS

Every business has tremendous benefits to realize from adopting unified communications solutions. Some of the major ones are discussed below.

1. A Truly Hybrid Workforce

Agility and resilience are the most important buzzwords for every business today. In order to ensure that business operations do not come to a standstill even in adversities, your hybrid workforce must have access to the tools they need.

By providing your communications teams with an efficient unified communications platform, you give them the power to work from anywhere. It helps unhinge the productivity of your staff and truly leverages the benefits of a SaaS communications system that allows them to be flexible.

In fact, one study shows that 70% [1] of professionals prefer flexible working options today.

By including UCaaS in your business, you would be able to attract and retain the top hybrid talent in the industry.

2. Unhindered Collaboration

As more and more businesses adopt hybrid work environments, it is nearly impossible to get all the team members of a project in one place to discuss the project’s progress.

Not only is that wasteful of resources, but also of employees’ time.

UCaaS facilitates collaboration between your scattered workforce by centralizing all communication and resources in a single digital space. This enables all the team members to access the same workboard, modify it, and instantly update the other team members on the changes made.

All the resources remain commonly accessible, the versions can be easily tracked, and all the team members can simultaneously work on the project on the UCaaS platform.

3. Stellar Savings in Long-Term Costs

Traditional communications setup requires a whole load of hardware, software, peripherals, electricity, housing room, routine maintenance, etc., to own. Then there are the troubleshooting and repair costs to consider.

Not to mention the costs involved with technology obsoletion.

A legacy setup can incur unprecedented costs for your business to own.

On the other hand, with UCaaS, almost the entire setup is cloud-based, taking away the responsibility of maintaining it or getting dedicated hardware for it.

You always get access to the latest technology without investing a dime for the upgrades. There is no maintenance or troubleshooting to be done on your part either, so that is an additional cost saved.

In the long term, all of this adds up to a significant chunk of the technology budget.

4. Reduce the IT Load and Burden

Any cloud-based solution is bound to provide your IT teams with relief. An efficient unified collaboration platform provides a combined tech stack for all the communication operations of your business, taking that much load off of the IT team.

Instead of managing and maintaining countless applications meant for communication, IT only has to concern itself with one solution – the UCaaS. Even then, if you opt for a managed UCaaS platform, your IT team would be completely freed from managing and maintaining the platform.

You would only be required to visit it occasionally to check for configurations. Perhaps your cloud engineer could keep checking in to verify that it is working at optimal costs.

5. Increase Productivity

A multitude of scattered business applications usually makes the employees log in to different dashboards to fetch a variety of data. It consumes a lot of precious time and isn’t efficient in the long run.

On the other hand, unified communications products integrate everything into a single user interface. This eliminates the need to log in to different apps.

The employees only need to log in to their UCaaS interface, and they can access all the communications data they need.

Some UCaaS applications also include indicators that let them see who else is simultaneously viewing the same information, enabling proactive teamwork by providing internal communications tools as well.

Wrapping Up

Unifying all business communications in one place isn’t only more efficient but also more convenient and agile. Considering all the customer dynamics, it makes sense to equip your business with solutions that enable you to serve better.

In times of tough competition, the extra bit of edge can make or break your business goals. Treat the list above as a guide to help you implement the most suitable option at your office.

If you want to work with a contact center, you can consider looking at JustCall. It is a holistic contact center solution that comes loaded with multichannel and collaboration features that make it one of the best on the market.

To know how JustCall can help you, visit the website.

Frequently Asked Questions

Give an example of UCaaS

A few examples of UCaaS functions are listed below:

  • Telephony operations like call forwarding, call waiting, call recording, and automated routing of calls
  • Video calling services like one on one videos calls or group calls
  • Real-time messaging
  • Collaboration environment like project management
  • A digital space for the employees to work
Is UCaaS platforms SaaS or PaaS?

UCaaS can be thought of as a SaaS because it is based on a cloud-first delivery of services to businesses. However, this includes more than just typical software.

Therefore, it gets its own name in the niche. It includes telephony services and video conferencing as well, which makes it a unique cloud-based offering.

Is UCaaS cost-effective?

Yes, UCaaS operates on a cloud-based delivery model, which makes it increasingly cost-effective. Especially for enterprise-grade organizations that need a huge amount of manpower, systems, and hardware space to house their contact centers, UCaaS can prove to be a game-changer.

In addition to saving real estate costs, it helps you save on equipment costs.

What are some common features of a unified communications platform?

The most common features of a UCaaS service are listed below:

  • Conferencing on audio or video from remote locations
  • Voice and telephony features that are cutting-edge
  • Instant messaging features across the enterprise
  • Unified database for easy access

UCaaS is changing the communications landscape for businesses with state-of-the-art features that eliminate gaps.

Does UCaaS improve user experience?

Yes, it does. UCaaS offers a seamless customer journey which helps to deliver an exemplary customer experience. All the communications with a customer can be unified on a single user interface, enabling call agents to view holistic information about the customers.

This makes it easier to address customer queries or help them in other ways that are personalized for their needs.

Vijaya heads the Global Support team at JustCall, where he has played a pivotal role in expanding the support team and diversifying its channels and services. Under his guidance, the team consistently earns top customer satisfaction scores. With a passion for team-building, Vijaya is committed to empowering his staff to deliver unparalleled customer experiences. In addition to his managerial responsibilities, he is a certified Leadership Coach, specializing in helping leaders overcome their unique challenges to achieve success.

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