By Myroslav Orshak · Updated September 2026 · how we test and make money
Dialpad sells one idea very well: your calls are transcribed and summarized automatically, included rather than charged as an extra. If your team genuinely uses that, it is hard to beat and this page will probably talk you out of leaving.
The businesses that shop around are usually the ones who bought it for the AI and then found they do not read the summaries. At that point they are paying a platform price for a feature nobody opens, and a plainer phone system does the job for less.
If your team reviews call summaries, coaches from transcripts, or hands notes to a CRM, stay. Every alternative below either charges extra for that or does not offer it, and the per-user saving will not cover the time your team spends writing up calls by hand.
Transcription and automatic summaries are excellent for sales teams reviewing conversations and useless for a front desk booking appointments. Buying a phone system for a feature your staff do not use is the most common reason people move on.
Compared with older platforms, some administrative depth is missing — the granular routing rules and reporting that a larger office eventually asks for. Growing companies tend to hit this rather than choose it.
Speech recognition handles a clear headset well and struggles with speakerphones, background noise and strong accents. If your calls happen in a busy space, the summaries you are paying for are the ones least likely to be accurate.
As with most of this market, the advertised per-user figure is the annual-billing price. Monthly billing costs more, so the headline number is really the price of a year-long commitment.
Every one of these is ranked in our main comparison. What follows is why each suits somebody leaving Dialpad specifically — and what you give up by going.
Cheaper, and the obvious move if you are already on Zoom
At around $10.50 per user it undercuts Dialpad while covering the essentials properly. For a company already running Zoom meetings, the phone system stops being separate software and becomes part of something staff already have open.
What you give up: No included AI notes. If transcription mattered even a little, price the add-on before you compare the headline figures.
Simplest path for a small office that just wants phones
Around $20 per user, set up by a non-technical owner in an afternoon, virtual receptionist included, and it works with analog phones through a small adapter. For a business that bought Dialpad for features it never used, this is the honest opposite.
What you give up: Deliberately basic. Detailed reporting, deep integrations and complex routing are not on offer at any tier.
The step up when you have outgrown the controls
If you are leaving because Dialpad cannot express the routing or reporting your growing business needs, this is the platform with the administrative depth and the integration catalog to absorb it.
What you give up: More expensive and considerably more complex. You are buying a platform, and small teams often find it heavier than they wanted.
For teams that would rather call a human than read a summary
The same $15 per user on annual billing, and cheaper month-to-month ($23 against Dialpad's $27), with a small-business support reputation built on US-based staff who stay with a problem.
What you give up: You give up Dialpad's transcription and call summaries on the base plan, unless you confirm the Nextiva plan you're buying includes them.
Export anything you want to keep first. Call recordings, transcripts and summaries generally do not transfer, and access usually ends with the account.
Start the number port while the account is still open. Canceling first is the reliable way to lose a business number permanently.
Check the renewal date on an annual plan, because leaving mid-term can mean paying the balance regardless of whether you use the service.
Test with one number and one user for a week before moving anybody who takes customer calls.
Move the main published number last, on a quiet day, once everything else is proven.
One rule outranks the rest: never cancel before the numbers have moved. Our guide to number porting covers the paperwork that causes most delays.
Tell us what you need and our team will reply with a shortlist that fits. Free, no obligation.
Several offer them, but generally as a paid add-on rather than on the base plan, which is exactly the gap Dialpad built its pricing around. If you use the feature daily, add the cost of the equivalent add-on before comparing headline prices, because it often erases the saving.
Assume you lose access when the account closes, because you usually do. Export anything you need for training, disputes or compliance before you cancel, and check whether your industry requires you to keep call records for a set period.
On the headline per-user figure, yes, roughly a third less. Whether it is cheaper for you depends on whether you replace the AI features with a paid add-on somewhere else. For a team that never used them, the saving is real and immediate.
Usually, if they support the SIP standard and are not locked to a provider. Ask the new provider whether they support your exact model, and confirm the handsets are not locked, before you assume the hardware carries over.