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CF20: 2024's Top UCaaS Providers You Should Know
No provider can touch Microsoft's dominance in UCaaS, analysts tell Channel Futures for our latest CF20 list. Avaya, RingCentral and 8x8 also made the list. See who else did.
![CF20: Top UCaaS providers 2024 CF20: Top UCaaS providers 2024](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt92d86ca5292f6185/6523ecacab64d4e6decd3416/Gold-Twenty.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
JÖRGE RÖSE-OBERREICH/SHUTTERSTOCK
Arnold and Kelly said Avaya remains among top UCaaS providers. Last May, Avaya emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with approximately $650 million in liquidity. And in March, Zoom and Avaya announced a strategic partnership designed to deliver enhanced collaboration experiences to global enterprises.
![J Arnold-and-Associates' Jon Arnold J Arnold-and-Associates' Jon Arnold](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt57cbbe4e058c7659/6523ea3b31b6122046e913dc/Arnold-Jon_J-Arnold-and-Associates.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
J Arnold-and-Associates' Jon Arnold
“You can't rule them out just simply because their install base is so big,” Arnold said. “You’ve got to keep them in if it’s who's on the list and who's out. They're still in.”
Castanon, Arnold and Kelly cite Microsoft as a behemoth in the field of best UCaaS providers.
“Microsoft [No. 1] one, and it’s everybody else,” Arnold said. “I don't think anybody expected Microsoft to come out on top so much. What resonates for me is that Microsoft won this game because they gave it away. Teams was free during the pandemic, and that's what married Office 365 and Teams into a total solution now that they've won the game. Now they're charging for AI and everybody else is not charging. So ... the script has totally flipped now that they have the market and they're making you pay, so what are you going to do? Are you going to move away from Microsoft to start paying for Cisco or RingCentral, or Avaya, and then getting the AI for free? Or are you going to just suck it up and start paying Microsoft and getting even more tightly connected to them? So I don't know how it's going to play out. I just find it interesting that they completely flipped the script.”
Alianza remains a strong UCaaS contender with its partner-centered strategy, Castanon said. Arnold and Kelly also cite Alianza as a top contender. Last November, Alianza announced it raised $61 million in new growth equity and debt financing. The latest round reflects a 70% increase in valuation for the company since March 2021.
Zoom has had “great success” with UCaaS, Arnold said. And Kelly cites Zoom as a UCaaS leader.
“They have a brand cachet in the market that if you're even a little bit unhappy with Microsoft, Zoom is an easy plan B,” Arnold said. “There's a lot to like about Zoom. So I think if anyone can gives Microsoft a run for their money, it's probably them because they can keep pace with what Microsoft is doing and they don't have the inherent weaknesses that Microsoft has with telephony or with contact center.”
Intermedia is also a strong contender with a partner-centered strategy, which includes an exclusive partnership with NEC, with an extensive reach globally, Castanon said. Kelly also said Intermedia is a UCaaS leader.
“Intermedia is doing a really good job,” Arnold said. “I like that they are partner-first. Not only do they provide partners a great white-label platform, but they round it out with deep enablement capabilities and solid partner support. Given the success they're having, I think they belong there.”
RingCentral is noteworthy among the best UCaaS providers, Arnold and Kelly said. In March, RingCentral, which now bills itself as a provider of AI-driven cloud business communications, contact center, video and hybrid event solutions, unveiled what it's calling "transformative" AI for RingEX. That's the new name for its flagship offering, previously known as RingCentral MVP.
Zoho is a UCaaS provider worth watching, Arnold said. Kelly also cited Zoho as a noteworthy provider.
“Zoho is more like Google in the sense that they offer platforms for everything, so it's not just collaboration or contact center,” Arnold said. “They have workflows and spreadsheets, and project management. They're a little bit of a Swiss Army knife. They have everything, but collaboration is definitely one of their key focus areas. They're a bit of an under-the-radar company that people just don't know that much about. And they're not like a premium brand, but they do very well.
Arnold, Castanon and Kelly said 8x8 is among the best UCaaS providers. In February, 8x8 announced the availability of 8x8 Engage, an AI-powered, tailored solution that enables cross-organization customer engagement for enhanced customer experiences. 8x8 Engage bridges an organization’s CX journey gaps, and empowers this user base with the tools and capabilities for delivering consistent, successful outcomes.
Vonage, following its acquisition by Ericsson, is introducing numerous innovations leveraging network capabilities, making its road map of particular interest to communication service providers, Castanon said. And Arnold and Kelly said Vonage is among top providers.
In March, Vonage announced the launch of generative AI for Vonage Conversational Commerce, powered by Jumper.ai. Leveraging generative AI capabilities that are integrated with its Conversational Commerce solution, Vonage is providing businesses with the tools to create real-time and personalized connections with customers across platforms.
Castanon and Kelly said Nextiva certainly should be on this list of best UCaaS providers.
“They've been around a long time and their roots are very much in the telephony/VoIP space,” Arnold said. “So by extension, they have to offer a collaboration solution. They're in that SMB, very price-competitive market space.”
Cisco Webex provides a portfolio comprising CPaaS, CCaaS and UCaaS, with significant R&D investments in AI, Castanon said. And Arnold and Kelly include Cisco among the best UCaaS providers.
“With respect to new entrants, this is a crowded market with a lot of big and small competitors,” Kelly said. “A new entrant would likely have difficulty succeeding unless it had some compelling price point or some patented new functionality that proved necessary that others couldn’t readily copy. Now, there may be room for new entrants if they focus on creating a super solution in a specific vertical.”
Arnold and Kelly said GoTo is among noteworthy UCaaS providers. In March, GoTo unveiled significant enhancements to its solutions with the introduction of AI innovations and more than 60 new offerings, capabilities and features throughout its portfolio.
“There are these companies that were initially meeting platforms," Arnold said. "Now they've expanded and they're going to be collaboration platforms. GoTo would be a good example of that.”
Arnold said Sangoma is among top UCaaS providers.
“Just like 2600Hz and Ooma have joined forces, Sangoma has made some acquisitions (Star2Star, NetFortris) ... and they've been around a long time,” he said. “They have these capabilities, so they're worth noting more for the small end of the market.”
In all, Sangoma has expanded through 11 acquisitions.
Dialpad has evolved with a cloud-native platform architecture and proprietary AI technology, Castanon said. Kelly rates Dialpad among the best UCaaS providers.
“Dialpad is still very much in the game,” Arnold said.
In March, Dialpad announced the general release of Ai Recaps and a three-year extension of the exclusive partnership between the two companies. Ai Recaps leverages over 6 billion minutes of Dialpad’s proprietary conversational data to provide precise, customized insights.
Google has an advantage in UCaaS given its comprehensive collaboration and productivity portfolio, and extensive investment in R&D, Castanon said. And Kelly cited it as a leader.
“I had a really good briefing with the Google folks at Enterprise Connect; I was really impressed,” Arnold said. “I really liked how they integrate everything, how they make everything work, and I had no idea their user base was so big. Google certainly has the means because of their size if they really want to push hard in this market and be disruptive.”
Arnold and Kelly said AWS belongs among the best UCaaS providers. In February, AWS launched a partnership with RingCentral to offer new employee and customer communications tools to its client roster.
“I would keep AWS on the list just because it's a head-scratcher,” Arnold said. “Every analyst will tell you the same thing. They never show their hand. If and when they feel they need to be in this market, we'll know about it.”
Arnold counts BCM One among noteworthy UCaaS providers.
“BCM One is a company that has done a lot of acquisitions,” he said. “They've rolled up a lot of smaller players. CoreDial was one of them that they bought a couple of years ago. We've featured them earlier … and I'm sure they're still very much in the game.”
Arnold and Kelly cite Mitel on the list of best UCaaS providers. Last October, Mitel completed its acquisition of Unify, the UCC services businesses of the Atos group. Mitel said the move created a “global powerhouse in UC." The transaction cements the combined company with a No. 2 position in global market share for enterprise UC, and increased regional leadership with a No. 1 position in EMEA and more than 10 individual countries.
Evolve IP is one to watch in UCaaS, Arnold said.
"Clearly video meetings with screen sharing and messaging are parts of all of these solutions,” Kelly said. “Many support shared team workspaces as part of their messaging platforms, where teams can meet together, message the group, share files, etc. Many UCaaS platforms will allow you to add telephony to their solution, unifying the platform so that you have phone, meetings and messaging all from the same interface.”
One of the interesting data points Omdia tracks is that more than 60% of organizations actually use three or more UCaaS platforms in their operations. This may be because they need to work with other divisions, or with partners or suppliers who use a different UCaaS solution. There has been some, but not too much consolidation within organizations to a single platform.
Evolve IP is one to watch in UCaaS, Arnold said.
"Clearly video meetings with screen sharing and messaging are parts of all of these solutions,” Kelly said. “Many support shared team workspaces as part of their messaging platforms, where teams can meet together, message the group, share files, etc. Many UCaaS platforms will allow you to add telephony to their solution, unifying the platform so that you have phone, meetings and messaging all from the same interface.”
One of the interesting data points Omdia tracks is that more than 60% of organizations actually use three or more UCaaS platforms in their operations. This may be because they need to work with other divisions, or with partners or suppliers who use a different UCaaS solution. There has been some, but not too much consolidation within organizations to a single platform.
The best UCaaS providers are seeing strong demand due to the shift to cloud-based communications and a trend toward integrated productivity and collaboration suites.
UCaaS remains a highly competitive market with little room for newcomers. And the best UCaaS providers are continuously adding new capabilities to keep up with competitors.
This is our fourth annual “CF20” focused on UCaaS providers, and the seventh if you count our previous CP lists. Analysts share their views on what it takes to succeed with the technology. It includes an updated list and fresh views on changes in the competitive landscape.
According to Spherical Insights, the global UCaaS market was worth almost $53 billion in 2022 and should reach nearly $312 billion by 2032. That’s a compound annual growth rate of more than 19%.
Raul Castanon, unified communications and collaboration (UCC) analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said while the concept of “unified” communications has been around for many years, we’re now seeing a new phase that’s characterized by a tight integration between applications and AI-enabled enhancements. Examples of this include Excel Live and Google Meet API, which bring together productivity applications with real-time communications and collaboration.
Best UCaaS Providers Expanding Into Adjacent Areas
The UCaaS market has gone through a consolidation phase, Castanon said.
![S&P Global Market Intelligence's Raul Castanon S&P Global Market Intelligence's Raul Castanon](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt9592aa69c9772fc0/6523fef4f2d8795f741c0196/Castanon-Martinez-Raul_451-Research.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
S&P Global Market Intelligence's Raul Castanon
“There have been several M&A transactions that have had a significant impact in the market,” he said. “However, these are not a continuation of the consolidation stage from previous years. Rather, we are now seeing UCaaS vendors expanding into adjacent areas to provide a more comprehensive portfolio. Examples of these include Ooma’s acquisition of CPaaS vendor 2600Hz, RingCentral’s acquisition of events platform Hopin, and Zoom’s acquisition of employee experience platform Workvivo. These are also examples of how the UCaaS market is evolving, giving way to a new definition of ‘unified’ communications.”
Brent Kelly, principal analyst of digital workplace at Omdia, which shares a parent company with Channel Futures (Informa), said the major change for the best UCaaS providers has been the addition of AI capabilities added to the UCaaS solutions.
![Omdia's Brent Kelly Omdia's Brent Kelly](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltf50f5970db264a80/66195d8f2513934c591fb2b0/Kelly_Brent_Omdia_2024.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Omdia's Brent Kelly
“Now meetings, and in some cases phone calls, can be immediately summarized using AI, action items extracted, transcripts created, translation of text into different languages, etc.,” he said. “Some of these UCaaS solutions also provide AI-assisted text creation for when one is typing in a chat space or a shared team space.”
M&A Has ‘Major’ Impact On UCaaS Market
M&A has definitely had a major impact on the market, Kelly said. In recent years, much of the M&A has gone into rounding out platform portfolios with functionality that was not there. These were generally small acquisitions. However, there have been major acquisitions over the years that have disrupted the market. Examples would be Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype some years ago or Cisco’s acquisition of BroadSoft.
“In addition to M&A, there are also many partnerships in play,” he said. “For example, RingCentral has partnerships with several major mobile carriers including AT&T and Vodafone who resell RingCentral. It also has partnerships with incumbent PBX companies (Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya and Mitel) to resell RingCentral to the SMB base in these companies that want a cloud solution. In the service provider space, there aren't UCaaS providers that sell white-label solutions to service providers that can be custom-branded. In these instances, the service provider is able to maintain the customer relation, maintain their own branding and charge what their specific markets will bear. Examples of UCaaS vendors who sell their solutions wholesale to others include Alianza, Enreach and Intermedia.”
Microsoft 'Unbeatable'
Jon Arnold, principal of J Arnold & Associates, said for a lot of the best UCaaS providers, it's not so much about growth as it is protecting their base because “Microsoft is going to steal everybody's business if we don't pay attention to it.”
“It's more about protecting your base, so for a lot of these vendors, [growth] is almost like a bonus,” he said. “If I protect my business customers, I'm OK. You have to concede that's probably as good as you can expect in this marketplace.”
Nobody’s going to beat Microsoft when it comes to UCaaS, but there are ways to gain market share, Arnold said.
“The UC platforms are all getting more AI-based, and if they can emerge with a stronger AI story that’s as good as or better than what Microsoft is doing, that could swing some momentum in their favor for sure,” he said. “Another one is this idea of marrying UC and contact center. If that combined platform can get more momentum, Microsoft doesn't have that. So you're looking for vulnerabilities. If the game plan is how do we beat Microsoft, that’s one way to do it.”
Based on feedback from analysts and recent news reports, we’ve compiled a list, in no particular order, of 20 best UCaaS providers that are making the most of the competitive landscape and charting success. The list in the slideshow above offers a mix of well-known providers as well as lesser-known companies that are making big strides in UCaaS.
Go here for access to our downloadable feature on this year's top UCaaS providers.
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