Experience the ultimate rivalry: 8x8 vs. Google Voice. Uncover the perfect phone system for your business. Let the competition commence!
Meet 8x8: Elevate business communication with cloud solutions. Consolidate voice, video, text onto one platform. Enjoy unlimited calling, team messaging, call monitoring, analytics. Opt for 3 business communication plans and 3 contact center options.
Facing off against our first contender, we have in the opposing corner Google Voice: VoIP mastery for companies in 14 nations. Connection made simple via web, mobile, or desk phones. Seamlessly blend with Google apps. Voice, video, and more, complemented by texts, voicemail transcriptions. Discover their three plans.
| 8x8 | Googlevoice | |
| Pick up plan |
|
|
| Price for users | /month | /month |
| Channels | ||
| Key features | ||
| Support Channel | ||
| Pros and Cons | ||
| Best For |
The 8x8 communication services are accessible through desktop apps, IP desk phones and web browsers.
Like 8x8, Google Voice subscribers can make and receive calls through a web application or deskphone.
Smartphone apps for Android and iOS devices can be used to access 8x8 services.
While they look different, the 8x8 and GoogleVoice apps have similar functions. Google Voice offers a free mobile app for Android and iOS users to make and receive calls.
The X2 and X4 plans offer call routing and allow users to create multi-level call menus. Call flows depend on customer size, location, etc.
GoogleVoice has limited call routing options as compared to 8x8. IVR and auto attendant facilities are not included in the Google Voice Starter plan. Subscribing to the Standard and Premier plans gives businesses access to a multi-level auto attendant that can be set up to route calls to different agents and ring groups.
To customize greetings, account admins must sign in to the admin console. Step 1. Select Auto attendant and click on the pencil icon. Step 2. Choose one of the following: Weekdays/ Holidays/ Alternate from the Call Handling Menus. Step 3. Choose between Open Hours Menu/ Closed Hours Menu/ Lunch Hours Menu. Step 4. Select Create Audio Files. You can then call a number to record a new greeting or upload a prerecorded message.
In the case of both 8x8 and GoogleVoice, admin users can customize greetings from the mobile app or a web browser. Step 1: Select Voicemail greetings from the Settings menu. Step 2: Click on the Record button to start recording your message.
Though they cannot monitor live calls, supervisors can study status reports to assess agent productivity. They can see which lines are free and busy at any given point of time as well as when and how agents log in to their accounts. The 8x8 X2 plan gives team supervisors a wide range of options to assess agent productivity and monitor calls. They can view status updates as well as get updates on when agents are free to take a call, busy or unavailable. In addition, they can read voicemail transcriptions from their email inbox to prioritize follow-ups. During audio/video meetings, supervisors can moderate participant mics and camera access. Subscribing to the X4 plan is the only way 8x8 business communication team supervisors can monitor live calls. They can listen to calls, whisper to agents to coach them, join a call to make it a conference call or take over calls. They can also access advanced call analytics reports.
When it comes to the advanced pans, 8x8's inclusion of live call monitoring gives it an edge over GoogleVoice. Along with giving team supervisors access to reports on call logs and usage, the Google Voice Starter plan includes access to voicemail transcriptions. This helps prioritize responses and follow-ups. Agents can also transfer calls to other agents or supervisors if required. Subscribing to the Standard plan gives businesses access to eDiscovery. This helps them find specific conversations from calls, text messages and voicemail records. The plan also includes ad-hoc call recording. This allows them to assess calls at a later date. Automatic call recording is an inbuilt feature of the Premier plan. Subscribing to this plan also includes access to advanced call reports and all the Starter and Standard plan features.
X2 and X4 subscribers can record all incoming and outgoing calls for compliance and quality control.
Both the 8x8 and GoogleVoice starter plans do not include call recording. Call recording is available only to Standard and Premier plan subscribers. It is available on an ad-hoc basis for the Standard plan and automated for the Premier plan.
The cost of making international calls varies from country to country. Rates are set on a per minute basis with call durations being rounded up to the next minute. For example, rates for calls to Italy start from $0.03 per minute while rates for calls to India start from $0.06 per minute
Irrespective of the plan chosen, there are similarities in the way calls are billed for 8x8 and GoogleVoice subscribers. GoogleVoice subscribers can make and receive unlimited calls between other Google Voice accounts and numbers within the USA and Canada. Per minute international call billing rates vary by location. For example, calls to Cook Islands are billed at $0.8 per minute.
Businesses can set up an 8x8 account through the service provider’s website. For this, you need a valid email address. Once the registration process has been completed, you can set up user profiles and start using the 8x8 service through iOS and Android smartphone and MAC and Windows desktop applications, the web browser or IP desk phones. The latter are available on the 8x8 website.
While there may be differences in the steps involved, both 8x8 and GoogleVoice accounts can be created online. All subscriptions can be set up from the Google Voice app or web browser. You can use your existing google account. Once the account is set up, services can be accessed through desk phones with Obi Edition firmware, web browsers or a smartphone application.
