Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Compare The Best HR Outsourcing Services

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best HR outsourcing service for most people is Rippling or Paychex.

Human resources are a vital part of every company. But not every company has the budget to staff an in-house human resources department. That shouldn’t stop you from getting the help you need or having access to the best solutions. 

Compare the 9 Best HR Outsourcing Companies

HR outsourcing allows you to be flexible with some or all of your HR-related workload. These HR professionals can take care of everything from payroll taxes to benefits administration.

Read on for reviews of each of the services listed below, plus a methodology framework to help you find the service most suited to your business needs.

  • Rippling – Best For Saving Time on HR Tasks
  • Paychex — Best HR outsourcing for complex payment cycles
  • Insperity — Best HR outsourcing service that runs itself
  • ADP — Best HR outsourcing to handle some (or all) of your HR needs
  • TriNet — Best for big business benefits on small business budgets
  • Zenefits — Best HR platform to wrangle your current HR systems together
  • Engage PEO — Best HR outsourcing for unique compliance needs
  • G&A Partners — Best HR outsourcing for employee training and development
  • Tandem HR — Best HR outsourcing for minimizing your risk liability

You’ll find that some of these options allow you to offload HR tasks one by one, whether it is payroll, benefits administration, or something else.

Alternatively, you can outsource all your HR responsibilities to a professional employer organization (PEO). If that sounds like something intriguing, take a look at my recent review of the best PEO service providers.

For the list I’ve compiled here, though, I’ve included a mix of HR outsourcing services, including those that offer PEO-type services. I offer an in-depth reviews of each, covering their features, benefits, and other key considerations.

I also included a summary of the criteria I used to review each product. Read on to find the best service for you.

Best HR Outsourcing Services Reviews

There are a lot of services that will help your organization manage its human resources tasks. I’ve reviewed them all and only included the best of the best. Here’s the skinny on each service that made my list.

Rippling – Best For Saving Time on HR Tasks

  • All-in-one HR & IT platform
  • 500+ app integrations
  • Workflow automations
  • Fast implementation
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The details you don’t know about are what can sink a business, generate huge fines, and even create tension between employees and management. It can take years to perfect HR & IT management. 

That’s where Rippling comes in. This service handles onboarding, off-boarding, payroll, taxes, and reviewing state regulations no matter the state. 

The platform has everything integrated you need to separate HR and IT but still keep all your data unified for your workforce. Rippling is your single source of truth. And it’s just $8 per month per user to be able to control all the major parts of workflow for your business. 

Plus, practically every workflow you have can be automated with the Rippling Automator, such as adding new hire information, application reviews, employee compensation, and even updates for engineering documentation. 

Even if you don’t know anything about managing IT or HR, it’s all laid out for you. Plus the Rippling resource help center provides you with best-in-class information about every nook and cranny involving how to get the best out of this platform. 

Even better, Rippling has recipe templates. These make it easier than ever to just point and click and get things done. 

Whether it’s for reporting, workflow, or GitHub pull requests, it’s dead simple to implement. Rippling is ranked #1 in workforce global management in HR and IT services for a reason. 

Save yourself more than just time and get started with Rippling today.

Paychex — Best HR Outsourcing for Complex Payment Cycles

  • Wide range of HR services
  • Pricing based on # of employees
  • Great for smaller organizations
  • Knowledgeable HR professionals
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Ensuring error-free payrolls for your workers is one of the most important tasks for any HR department. True to its name, Paychex is one of the best online payroll services on the market today.

Paychex excels at this because it offers solutions to handle virtually any payment situation you can think of. Do you have:

  • A mixed workforce of contractors and full-time employees? Paychex handles that with ease.
  • A unique payment cycle goes beyond the typical “twice a month paycheck” routine? Paychex can handle that, too.
  • Employees that want to be paid via prepaid debit cards? Paychex makes it simple to honor those requests.
Paychex homepage.

Beyond payroll processing, Paychex also delivers fantastic HR outsourcing services. So if you’re in need of more than accurate payroll processing, Paychex is also a great option for:

  • Retirement services
  • Insurance services
  • HR professionals
  • Benefits administration
  • Compliance services

Paychex offers a solid mobile app that can be used to track things like hiring, labor costs, and employee turnover. Employees can also easily use the app for self-service and training. For mobile and remote workforces, this is a huge win.

For businesses with an existing HR department in place, Paychex can act as an extension of this department by providing a dedicated outsourced HR manager. This professional can assist with hiring, onboarding, and retaining top-level talent.

They can also manage workforce analytics, benchmarking, corporate culture strategy, benefits, and basic employee training. It’s everything you need in an HR manager, without the overhead of hiring a full-time, in-house employee.

If all this sounds good, you can learn more at Paychex. For a limited time, you can get three months free, too.

Insperity — Best HR Outsourcing Service That Runs Itself

  • Full-service HR solution
  • Individual & custom HR packages
  • In business 35 years
  • Best for mid-sized organizations
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Insperity offers excellent PEO and HRO services. But the astonishing thing about them is how they offer to bundle services, making this provider a true “set it and forget it option” for HR task management. Find your bundle and you’re done.

While it does offer individual HR offerings like other products covered here, Insperity is a real winner because of their full-service solutions. Their offerings are often bundled, which gives you broader HR services in one package. For example, payroll comes with their human capital management software.

With everything you could need under one umbrella, all your HR tasks will work seamlessly with each other. But it’s the bundling in my opinion that allows you to fully customize your HR package.

Insperity homepage.

Insperity also offers your employees great benefits including medical, vision, and dental coverage, and lets you outsource processing payroll, handling W-2s, W-4s, and employment verification.

It’ll also help you with liability insurance, workers’ compensation, and other areas of risk management. This service provider helps with HR-related compliance for things like unemployment claims and government reporting.

Insperity also assists with talent retention, by helping you create recognition programs and an employee handbook, and improving your employee training process.

I recommend Insperity to mid-market organizations. While it has solutions for businesses of five to 149 employees, its main focus and expertise is for companies with 150+ workers.

In addition to the full-service HR packages, you can also use Insperity for individual solutions including:

  • Recruiting
  • HR consulting
  • Retirement
  • Payroll
  • Performance reviews
  • Expense reports
  • Time and attendance
  • Insurance
  • Accounting and bookkeeping

With more than three decades of expertise under its belt and over 70 offices across the country, Insperity is a top consideration for HR outsourcing that your midsize organization will never have to worry about.

ADP — Best HR Outsourcing to Handle Some (or All) of Your HR Needs

  • Full-service HR solutions
  • Flexible plans and services
  • Solutions for any size business
  • Top notch customer service
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ADP offers a full-service suite of HR software and solutions.

However, I really like this company because it’s also great for companies that need piecemeal HR services.

It is truly an a la carte HR solution. You might not need the full spread of payroll from retirement to insurance—and ADP allows you to choose one service, all of them, or only what you need right now.

This is great for small businesses that might not have the budget for everything under the sun. As you grow, you can add more until it makes sense to go with their PEO arrangements.

ADP homepage.

ADP also offers enterprise plans for companies with more than 1,000 employees.

Some of ADPs HR services include:

  • Payroll
  • Time and attendance
  • Retirement plans
  • Insurance
  • Recruitment
  • Consulting
  • Employee management
  • Benefits

ADP offers business insurance as well, along with group health insurance for your employees. Since ADP is such a large company, they have leverage and bargaining power with all major health insurance providers.

I also love ADP’s support team of knowledgeable HR professionals who can be reached via phone, email, or live chat. These pros can create and distribute all of the necessary forms, policies, and job descriptions for your organization. You can even create a custom employee handbook in compliance with local and federal laws.

From benefits packages to compliance and setting up employee self-service tools, ADP has it all.

Its pricing is not shared on the website, but you can get a free quote from them today.

TriNet — Best for Big Business Benefits on Small Business Budgets

  • Full-service HR solution
  • Wide range of industries
  • Comprehensive HR platform
  • Flexible plans and services
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TriNet is another full-service HR outsourcing solution. It provides flexible plans and services to meet the needs of any sized business.

What makes TriNet really stand out though is its ability to provide some of the most competitive benefits on the market. This is a surefire way to attract top talent to your business.

TriNet has partnered with some of the biggest health insurance carriers throughout the country to help you get the highest quality coverage for your employees. Some of these top carriers include MetLife, Kaiser Permanente, Transamerica, Aetna, Aflac, MassMutual, and UnitedHealth Group.

TriNet home page

It also offers premium benefits for dental, vision, life, disability, retirement, and transit insurance along with a massive list of voluntary benefits like home policies and even pet insurance. That’s right. When you use TriNet, your employees can make sure that Fido is set up, too.

TriNet’s 401k plans are flexible and transferable. TriNet also gives you a ton of discounts for computers, books, office supplies, and even services from places like Verizon, AT&T, and AVIS.

And, of course, you get key HR services beyond benefits administration, like HR consulting, benefit options, payroll services, and risk mitigation. You’ll also benefit from TriNet’s comprehensive HR platform. The platform contains tools for employee self-service and mobile access, too.

The best part is that TriNet caters specifically to startups and small businesses. This means your small company gets very competitive rates for very big-league benefits.

If you want to offer your employees the same level of service and convenience that the Fortune 500 workers expect, get started today at TriNet.

Zenefits — Best HR Platform to Wrangle Your Current HR Systems Together

  • Best HR software
  • Built for small businesses
  • Streamline your HR tasks
  • Pricing starts at $8/month
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Zenefits is a bit unique compared to some of the other options on our list.

That’s because, technically, Zenefits is not an outsourcing service—it’s software for human resources.

The platform offers a way for you to integrate and centralize your HR systems into one intuitive platform. It serves the same purpose as an outsourced service in terms of ease and cost reduction. It’s also a cheaper alternative than a full-service outsourcing firm.

Zenefits homepage.

The best part is that it streamlines everything. You and your employees will be able to take a look at your org chart, access your benefits, request time off, and take care of onboarding all from one easy-to-navigate dashboard.

Zenefits’ software has everything you need to get your HR tasks and administration in order:

  • Creating compensation packages and sending them to new hires
  • Self onboarding for new employees
  • Employee management tools
  • PTO policies and managing time off requests
  • Intelligence reports for your workforce
  • Mobile accessibility (for administration and employees)

They also offer dozens of integrations out-of-the-box. The platform also has options for payroll, employee benefits, employee scheduling, and time tracking.

Most HR outsourcing services require you to get a custom quote from the provider. But, because this is software, Zenefits’ pricing is straightforward and available on the website.

  • Essentials: $8/employee per month. Includes core HR features, time & scheduling, integrations, and a mobile app.
  • Growth: $14/employee per month. Includes all of Essentials, plus compensation and performance management.
  • Zen: $21/employee per month. Includes all of the above, plus engagement surveys, employee well-being, and Zenefits People Hub.

You can also add modules for payroll, HR advisement, and third-party benefits administration separately for monthly fees.

If your small business needs to improve the way you handle HR tasks but don’t have the funds to completely outsource the service, Zenefits is the perfect solution for you.

Engage PEO — Best HR Outsourcing for Unique Compliance Needs

  • Full service PEO provider
  • Manage complex HR legal needs
  • Every consultant is an attorney
  • Strict compliance standards

>> Compare Quotes

Engage PEO is a full-service professional employer organization. They provide a PEO experience that always aims to put the client’s needs first with its innovative business model.

What makes Engage PEO so unique as an HR services provider? It’s the people…who are also all lawyers.

Seriously. Every member of their HR consulting team is an attorney. These legal professionals have significant experience with labor and employment law.

Engage PEO homepage.

It also means that they’ll make all of your nitty gritty compliance headaches disappear like a magical ibuprofen for annoying legal issues.

That makes this a perfect solution for companies with complex HR legal needs. We’re talking about industries with strict compliance like construction, marijuana, healthcare, security, finance, and more. Engage PEO will be a top choice for you to consider.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the top outsourced HR functions offered by this provider:

  • Employee policies
  • Employee handbook
  • EEO, ADA, and FMLA compliance
  • State and US Department of Labor and Hour compliance
  • Administration of unemployment claims
  • Hiring and recruitment assistance
  • Background check and drug screening
  • Employment practices liability insurance
  • Employee training

As a PEO provider, Engage PEO also offers payroll and tax administration, workers’ compensation, risk management, employee benefits, and integrated technology solutions.

Bottom line: If you have complicated compliance matters, Engage PEO is your choice.

G&A Partners — Best HR Outsourcing for Employee Training and Development

  • In business for 20+ years
  • Full-service or รก la cart
  • Payroll, recruitment, & more
  • Best for niche industries

>> Compare Quotes

G&A Partners offers full-service HR outsourcing for things like payroll, benefits, compliance, workplace safety, performance management, and recruitment.

There are two different ways that your company can work with G&A Partners—you can also work with them through a PEO or an ASO (administrative services only) model. So there’s a little bit of flexibility in terms of what you’d like them to help you out with.

But, what I really like about G&A Partners is that it offers an automated training and development system for all of your employees. This gives you access to almost 1,500 training courses that can be scaled and customized to your company’s exact needs and specs.

G&A Partner homepage.

You can assign any number and combination of courses to your employees, and track their progress as they learn. This is a great centralized way to develop and train your employees no matter where they are in their careers.

There are also plenty of reporting tools and dashboards for you and your employees, so you all know exactly what they need to work on.

Training content includes things like quizzes, videos, interactive assignments, and AICC and SCORM courses.

Is there something you want that G&A doesn’t offer? You can work external training into its programs as well.

Overall, it’s a great option if employee training and development are important to your company (and they should be).

Another unique standout of G&A Partners is its employee development services. This HR function includes candidate sourcing, job description, job postings, resume screening, and pre-hire assessments.

Once an employee is hired, this outsourced firm can handle onboarding, benefits enrollment, and performance management as well.

In addition to human resources, G&A Partners offers payroll services, benefits packages, and HR technology. They’re a particularly great and experienced choice for these types of industries:

  • Nonprofits
  • Health care
  • Manufacturing
  • Professional services
  • Franchises

Boost your employees’ ability from the moment they’re hired by utilizing G&A Partners.

Tandem HR — Best HR Outsourcing for Minimizing Your Risk Liability

  • Fully customized plans
  • Easy to scale
  • Wide range of services
  • Full-service PEO provider

>> Compare Quotes

Tandem HR offers a wide range of human resources solutions for small businesses. This provider has the tools and expertise to help small businesses as they scale.

What sets them apart is their standout risk management solution. They give you solutions such as safety audits, OSHA record keeping, accident investigations, and more to make sure that your company is ready for the worst-case scenario.

Tandem HR homepage.

And if things go bad, they even offer you worker’s compensation conversation and claims resolution services.

Remember: a safer workplace is a better workplace is a cheaper workplace. It benefits not only your employees, you, and your business, but it also helps everyone’s pocketbook. That’s like a quadruple win.

As a full-service PEO provider, Tandem HR also has tools and solutions for:

  • Payroll
  • Human resources
  • Benefits
  • Risk management
  • Technology

These custom HR solutions will help you save time, save money, boost employee productivity, retain talent, and remain compliant at the state and federal levels. Get started with Tandem HR here.

How to Choose the Best HR Outsourcing Service For Your Business

With so many options at your disposal, how can you be sure which HR service is the best for your needs?

This is the methodology we use at Quick Sprout. You can use it as well to help narrow down your choices.

A Hands-On vs. Hands-Off HR Partner

Some companies on our list are PEO (professional employer organization) providers. They provide business services like HR, payroll, benefits administration, and worker’s comp. Some PEOs even go the extra mile to assist with recruiting and onboarding.

Many PEOs are considered “co-employers” of workers—meaning if there’s a legal issue, both your business and the PEO provider are responsible. This hands-on role taken by the PEO provider means things are more hands-off for you.

Other providers on our list fall into the ASO (administrative service organization) category. 

Unlike PEOs, ASOs are not co-employers of your workforce, and they don’t typically offer the same comprehensive range of services as a PEO. 

Both PEOs and ASOs typically come in at the same cost. So It’s just a matter of how much responsibility you’d like to assume when it comes to administering employee benefits. 

Customizable and Sweeping Service Packages

The HR provider you choose will ultimately determine how many (or how few) services you can offer your employees.

For example, ADP TotalSource is great if you’re looking for a comprehensive PEO with payroll, time trackers, recruiting, retirement plans, medical/vision/dental insurance, and more.

G&A Partners offers a great ASO service that allows you to pick-and-choose HR services in an a la carte fashion. That is great for building out an HR package if you have specific needs you want to prioritize.

Whatever unique circumstances your business might have, there is usually a human resource outsourcing service that specializes in it.

You should also consider how intuitive the new employee onboarding process is. Things like time off request approvals and employee self-service for insurance information are key.

Always request a demo before committing to a service so you can see what the dashboard looks like for both admins and employees.

Current Level of HR Maturity

The level of HR systems a business currently has in place should play a big role in outsourcing considerations.

Your business might be a startup looking to offer employees medical insurance and 401ks. Or your business could be an enterprise-grade operation that wants to supplement (or replace) the HR department with a good third-party solution.

Outsourcing firms typically have experience working with certain types of businesses. It all really boils down to if you have an HR system already and, if you do, how long you have had it in place.

For example, if you’re a small business owner with no HR infrastructure, you want to choose a service that has experience building from the ground up with smaller organizations, such as Tandem HR.

Large companies might not need that type of assistance. Instead, a larger business might just need a certain role or task outsourced. TriNet is a good solution for flexible HR services. ADP is another good one if you already have a few HR systems but just want a platform to manage it all from a single dashboard.

No matter what, decide whether or not you’re looking to simply add onto your current HR infrastructure or if you’re looking to fully outsource it.

Prompt Customer Support 

Like a jumper cable or toilet paper, the worst time to realize you don’t have adequate customer support is when you need it but don’t have it.

Some common headache-inducing examples include:

  • Your employee can’t access their health insurance group ID and policy information—and have a medical emergency they need addressed ASAP.
  • You need to recruit and onboard a new employee to fill a role quickly.
  • There’s an issue with an employee’s or contractor’s recent paycheck.
  • A global pandemic just hit and you need to completely reorganize your employee structure immediately.

That’s why the level of customer support played a large role in determining our list of HR outsourcing services.

Some HR service providers are on hand at all hours to help you at all hours of the day such as ADP. They have live payroll support available 24/7/365 to help answer any questions you might possibly have.

Paychex also has 24/7 customer support along with a massive HR online library that gives you resources and tools for everything you might need related to HR.

Also worth noting is whether the HR service you’re considering gives you a dedicated account manager. If they don’t, who is your point person when issues come up?

Be sure to note how support is doled out throughout each of the HR providers you research. Some of them offer the same level of support no matter what pricing plan you choose. Others, such as Gusto, offer more intensive, hands-on support with more expensive pricing plans.

The Top HR Outsourcing Services in Summary

Rippling, Paychex, Insperity, and ADP provide the best human resources outsourcing services. Whether you need an entire HR department or just need to outsource a single function, the best HR outsourcing services in this guide have you covered.

From payroll assistance to benefits administration and HR software, there’s an option for every business to lighten its load.

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Compare The Best Call Center Software

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best call center software for most people is Nextiva or RingCentral.

With the right software, you can set up your call center without running any new wires or waiting months to deploy. Phone, video, chat, text–choose the channels you need and get your team set up in hours, not months.

All of my recommendations here just need the internet–there’s no expensive hardware to buy. You may even be able to use your existing devices to manage your call center needs.

The 9 Best Call Center Software of 2022

  • Nextiva — Best overall (For a limited time get 25% off, plus a free phone, when you sign up!)
  • RingCentral — Easiest deployment for SMBs
  • Cloudtalk — Best call center software for remote teams
  • Freshdesk Contact Center — Simple contact center software for teams of all sizes
  • 8×8 — Best contact center software for enterprise-grade security
  • Five9 — Best all-in-one contact center software
  • CrazyCall — Best call center software for outbound sales
  • Zendesk Talk — Best call center software for support and automated ticketing
  • Talkdesk — Best call center software for end-to-end customer experience
How to choose call center software for your business. Quicksprout.com's methodology for reviewing call center software for business.

I focused on finding call center software that is easy enough to use for employees and administrators. You shouldn’t have to call the vendor to add an extension or switch up a phone tree. Maybe 10 years ago that was normal, but today’s call center software is a lot more approachable.

As we continue through this guide, I’ll give you an in-depth review of each provider on this list. I’ll discuss the features, benefits, pricing, and other considerations so you can make an informed decision for your business.

Best Call Center Software Reviews

Nextiva – Best Overall

  • Affordable call center software
  • Supports voice, chat, video, SMS, and Email
  • Easy call administration
  • Intelligent call distribution
Get started today

Nextiva is a popular business communications company with excellent software for call centers. All of their products are competitively priced, and the Nextiva platform takes no time for new agents to learn.

If you just need voice communication, Nextiva can set you up with the essential features. If you want to add chat, text, and email, you can do that, too.

Because it can support these additional channels, it’s marketed as Nextiva Contact Center rather than just call center.

Because it’s a cloud-based call center, deployment is quick and there’s no hardware required. This is definitely one of the faster, more economic ways to get a call center off the ground.

Nextiva landing page for contact center software

And it’s way less of an IT headache. Agents sign into their Nextiva account to make or answer calls. Rather than rely on your phone system and security, they can rely on Nextiva. This is a dream if you have remote workers.

The thing I like most about Nextiva is that most of the setup is stuff you can handle on your own. Setting up a phone tree or an auto-attendant? Any administrator can build these out quickly on the Nextiva platform without having to call IT.

Every plan they offer can fully support a call center. Voicemail, call routing, call recording–everything is handled in the web-based platform.

You can integrate landline phones by using Nextiva’s business phone service if you want, but call centers are definitely trending towards the cloud.

You’ll have to get in touch with Nextiva for pricing, though they advertise prices as low as $50/agent per month. They offer the following packages for their Contact Center solution:

Nextiva pricing for call center software

Larger call centers will definitely from the workforce management features and QA tools that come with Enterprise plans. Administrators will get more tools to dig into agent performance to find out who’s doing well and who needs support.

Nextiva offers a built-in CRM, but you can connect a ton of the most popular solutions out there with pre-built integrations.

This is a no-fuss call center solution. You can reach out to Nextiva’s expert customer service 24/7, but you may not need to call them. Getting a CRM hooked up to a call center is never a picnic, but the Nextiva team is there to help.

Get in touch with Nextiva today to find out more about their award-winning call center solutions.

RingCentral – Easiest Deployment for SMBs

  • Great for sales & service teams
  • 40+ robust features
  • 99.99% guaranteed uptime
  • Wide range of options
Get started today

RingCentral can help you create a call center without spending a ton of money or waiting months before you can actually use the phones.

You can support any channel, but if you just want voice, RingCentral has that at a great price. If you want to add channels over time, it’s a simple upgrade.

RingCentral has tons of pre-built integrations with popular software and runs on virtually any technology. This is going to minimize disruption and surprise spending.

RingCentral landing page for call center software and customer experience.

You can connect your call center to your CRM, ERP, or marketing automation software to RingCentral. Put critical customer information and powerful tools in the hands of every employee without having to build the whole integration out yourself.

It’s also a great option for remote and work-from-home employees. Everyone is signing right into RingCentral, so your company doesn’t have to worry about maintaining a firewall or setting up VPNs for employees on-the-go.

There’s just a lot less for your team to worry about when it comes to deploying RingCentral. Sure, it’ll take some time to tune everything up with your CRM, but a lot of the traditional call center headaches are off your plate.

It’s also very easy for people to learn. You don’t have to be some telecom guru to set up a phone tree.

RingCentral Contact Center has more than 40 robust features like intelligent routing, call queueing, and workforce management tools. You’ll also benefit from administrative and management features like surveys, call recording, and analytics.

RingCentral is safe, secure, and reliable. They have a guaranteed uptime of 99.99%, and the software gives your agents the ability to work from anywhere.

Here’s a quick glance at the RingCentral Contact Center plans:

RingCentral pricing plans with options for Essentials, Standard, Premium, and Ultimate plans

Now let’s take a closer look below the surface to see what each plan offers:

List of what each RingCentral pricing plan offers

You’ll need to contact the RingCentral sales team to get a quote for your business.

But as you can see, they have options for everyone. Smaller teams that only need solutions for inbound calls can use the Basic plan. The standard call routing capabilities will be more than enough for a simple phone tree.

If you want omnichannel inbound call center support, the Advanced option will be best for you. For both inbound and outbound calling, you’ll need the Ultimate plan.

This is going to centralize every channel your team uses–talk, text, voice, video, and chat–within a single dashboard. It makes your employees lives a lot easier.

RingCentral is a trusted name in the VoIP phone and video industry. Their call center software is consistent with the high-level quality you’d expect from this provider.

Cloudtalk – Best Call Center Software for Remote Teams

  • Great for remote teams
  • Smart IVR feature guides callers where they need to go
  • Starts at $20 per user per month
  • Salesforce integration with Expert plan
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Cloudtalk offers remote-ready phone center services at a great price.

With more than 2,500 call centers powered by Cloudtalk, They’re trusted by businesses like Fujitsu, Mercedes-Benz, Booksy, DHL, and more. So you’ll be in good company if you use them.

They stand out because they allow you to run virtual call centers from anywhere in the world. As the name suggests, they leverage cloud technology to give you a secure calling experience.

Cloudtalk Homepage

Cloudtalk’s intuitive platform also includes a great dashboard that gives you insight into your customer when their call is in the queue. This gives you a chance to anticipate their needs before you even speak with them.

Cloudtalk’s Smart IVR is a standout feature. It is an interactive voice response system that routes calls to exactly the people who need to take them. You’ll also be able to choose language preferences and map out the customer journey with their drag and drop call flow designer.

Here’s a look at their annual plans:

Cloudtalk pricing plans

Starter — $25 per user per month

  • Unlimited inbound and intercompany calls
  • Click to call
  • Automated call distribution
  • Mobile app
  • Unlimited call queuing
  • International numbers

Essential — $30 per user per month

  • All features in the Starter plan
  • Advanced analytics
  • Real-time client dashboard
  • Integrations with other systems
  • Open API
  • Skill-based routing
  • Smart queueing
  • SMS messaging
  • Workflow automation

Expert — $50 per user per month

  • All features in the Essential plan
  • Salesforce integrations
  • Power dialer
  • Smart dialer
  • Call monitoring
  • Wallboards
  • Account manager
  • Speech to text
  • Sentiment score
  • Unlimited concurrent calls

Cloudtalk also offers enterprise-grade custom plans for remote teams with unique needs. This includes developer support, custom reporting, and SLA.

I’d go with the Essential plan at a bare minimum. The integrations and analytics tools alone make it worth the extra five bucks per user a month. Overall though, this is a solid investment for any remote or distributed teams.

>> Compare Quotes

Freshdesk Contact Center – Simple Contact Center Software For Teams of All Sizes

  • Free 21-day trial
  • Cloud-based solution
  • Wide range of features
  • Used by 50,000+ customers

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Freshdesk Contact Center, formerly known as Freshcaller, is call center software provided by Freshworks. They’re another well-known, trusted, and established name in the world of business solutions.

Like other Freshworks products, Freshdesk Contact Center is a cloud-based solution that’s both simple and modern. It’s easy for any business to use, regardless of its size and technical expertise.

More than 50,000 businesses use Freshdesk Contact Center’s software for a call center. It’s used by inbound sales agents as well as customer support teams.

Freshdesk home page

Pricing for Freshdesk Contact Center is a bit unique. You’ll pay a monthly rate for the plan you select based on the features offered. But you’ll also pay per minute based on usage.

Let’s take a look at those plans first before we dive into the usage rates.

Freshdesk Contact Center pricing plans

Free — $0

  • Inbound caller ID
  • Custom greetings
  • Desktop notifications
  • Call metrics

Growth — $15 per agent per month (billed annually)

  • Up to 2000 incoming minutes per month free
  • Basic call queues
  • Number porting
  • Wait queues
  • Voicemail
  • Warm transfer
  • Call recording
  • Pre-built reports

Pro — $49 per agent per month (billed annually)

  • Up to 3000 incoming minutes per month free
  • Advanced call metrics
  • Agent extensions
  • Call center agent statuses
  • Routing automation
  • Power dialer
  • Call monitoring
  • IVR (phone trees)
  • Call conferencing
  • Bring your own carrier
  • Call tagging

Enterprise — $79 per agent per month (billed annually)

  • Up to 5000 incoming minutes per month free
  • Abandoned call metrics
  • Service level monitoring
  • Omnichannel routing
  • Speech-enabled IVR (phone trees)
  • Voicebot
  • Includes 5000 bot sessions per month

From startups to growing teams and global companies, Freshdesk Contact Center has an option for everyone.

Call rates are based on factors like device (browser vs. phone), country, and whether or not the call is incoming or outgoing. Incoming rates start as low as $0.014 per minute, and outgoing rates start at $0.022 per minute.

To see an estimate for your needs, try the Freshdesk Call Center Estimator to help calculate the cost for the average calls per month, duration, plan, number of agents, location, and more.

You can try Freshdesk Contact Center for free with a 21-day trial.

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8×8 – Best Contact Center Software For Enterprise-Grade Security

  • Customized Solutions
  • Omnichannel routing
  • Real-time analytics
  • Improve agency productivity
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The longstanding communications provider 8×8 offers a complete contact center solution. Tie together all of your channels in a single location to give your employees the best possible footing

Top features include skills-based call routing, queued callback, web callback and IVR (interactive voice response). 8×8 also has inbound chat, email, and social channel contact solutions for your call center software.

This means that your call center agents will be able to communicate with customers on any channel from within a single platform. In today’s world, it’s so important to give your teams the ability to see the entire customer conversation across every channel.

8x8 (eight-by-eight) landing page for their call center and contact center software

You’ll also benefit from real-time analytics and reports. This information is available from any device. It details customer journeys and wait times for every customer across all channels.

8×8 also helps you improve productivity. A private knowledge base, expert connect, simple interface, and comprehensive communication hub ensures that all customer communication is handled quickly and efficiently.

Your 8×8 Contact Center integrates with CRMs like Zendesk, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and more.

8×8 is a top solution for large businesses and enterprises. It has advanced features with a global reach.

The 8×8 Contact Center has exceptional security. It’s compliant with HIPAA, FISMA, and more. 8×8 has tools to ensure privacy for sensitive data entry fields as well.

You’ll need to contact the 8×8 sales team for a custom quote on your solution.

Five9 – Best All-In-One Contact Center Software

  • All-in-one contact center solution
  • Cloud-based solutions
  • Work from anywhere
  • 2,000+ business customers

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Five9 is an all-in-one contact center solution.

The Five9 Intelligence Cloud Contact Center gives your customer service agents the power and flexibility to work from anywhere.

Five9 home page

Five9 is completely customizable. It’s built to meet the needs of your business, regardless of your size or industry. The software delivers crystal clear voice, strong security, and a 99.99% uptime rate.

The top features and benefits of an all-in-one contact center software include:

  • CRM integration
  • Open platform APIs
  • Call routing
  • Omnichannel support
  • Global voice
  • Self-service tools
  • Analytics
  • WFO
  • Predictive dialing

Five9 has a wide range of solutions based on the type of business you have. They provide call center software for sales, telemarketing, customer service, collections, outsourcers, small business, medium-sized businesses, and enterprises.

The Five9 contact center is fast, reliable, affordable, and easy to use. Contact their sales team to request a demo and get a custom quote.

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CrazyCall – Best Call Center Software For Outbound Sales

  • 14-day free trial
  • Plans start at $11/month
  • Makes sales calls more efficient
  • Great solution for sales teams

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CrazyCall is a top call center solution for sales teams. It offers features like auto dialing, call monitoring, call script, call transfers, click to call, and a callback widget.

Their features are tailormade to optimize your call center’s sales.

CrazyCall has other solutions for ecommerce shops, small businesses, and support teams, but the sales features are still the highlight of this software. It even has tools for lead generation on your website. That’s an incredibly useful tool.

Here’s an overview of the CrazyCall plans and prices:

CrazyCall pricing plans, which includes Plus for $30 per user per month and Standard for $20 per user per month

All plans come with a free phone number, API and integrations, and 24/7 customer support. The free minutes each month apply to 122 countries. Beyond that, calls to US landlines start at just $0.01 per minute.

You can try CrazyCall for free with a 14-day trial.

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Zendesk – Best Call Center Software For Support and Automated Ticketing

  • Free lite plan
  • Upgrades start at $19/mo
  • Cloud-based solution
  • Integrates with Zendesk Support

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Zendesk Talk is a cloud-based call center solution is built directly into the ticketing system for Zendesk Support.

Your agents will have access to the full customer history and additional features like call recording and automatic ticket creation.

The software is designed to improve your support process, while eliminating unproductive tasks. Your agents can focus on solutions, conversions, and customers, as opposed to workflow bottlenecks.

Zendesk home page

Top features of Zendesk Talk include:

  • Inbound and outbound calling
  • Custom greetings
  • Local and toll-free numbers
  • Browser-based calls
  • Call forwarding to phones
  • Call blocking
  • Conference calling
  • Group routing
  • Callback from queue
  • Inbound and outbound SMS
  • Advanced analytics
  • Real-time dashboard
  • Call recording and call record permissions

Similar to other call center software on our list, Zendesk Talk is based on a combination of your plan and usage.

Zendesk Talk has a wide range of plans for you to choose from. The list and features for each one are quite extensive. So rather than giving you a complete overview of those, I’ll just quickly cover the starting prices to give you an idea of the cost.

  • Lite — Starting at $0
  • Team — Starting at $19 per agent per month
  • Professional — Starting at $49 per agent per month
  • Enterprise — Starting at $89 per agent per month

Zendesk offers a paid partner edition starting at $9 per agent per month. This is for every agent taking calls with Zendesk Support. To estimate your usage rates, Zendesk Talk has a calculator tool that you can play around with.

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Talkdesk – Best Call Center Software For End-To-End Customer Experience

  • End-to-end customer experience
  • Omnichannel support
  • Customized solutions
  • Used by 1,800+ businesses

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Talkdesk offers tools and software for things like customer engagement, workforce engagement, and reporting.

But their contact center software is their most popular product — and for good reason. It’s an end-to-end customer experience solution designed the meet the needs and expectations of the modern customer.

These people have a certain expectation when they call your company. Talkdesk will help you improve productivity while reducing costs and increasing the customer experience.

Talkdesk home page

Top features of Talkdesk include:

  • Outbound dialer
  • Customer self-service
  • Omnichannel support
  • Agent desktop and mobile agent tools
  • Call recording
  • Integrations with Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.
  • AI virtual assistant
  • Reporting and analytics

For the most part, Talkdesk is used by businesses across a handful of major industries. This includes retail, ecommerce, financial services, healthcare, travel, and hospitality.

Talkdesk has solutions based on call center type (sales, support, BPO) and business size (small, mid, enterprise).

Contact the Talkdesk sales team today for a quote. Join the 1,800+ businesses like Peleton, IBM, and Dropbox using this call center software.

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How to Choose the Best Call Center Software For Your Business

This is the methodology that we use and recommend here at Quick Sprout. The guidelines below will decide which call center solution is the best fit for your company.

Omnichannel Support

The best call center solutions give you multiple ways to connect with your customers.

Leads, customers, and prospects will have more flexibility to reach you— helping to ensure high satisfaction rates.

Decide if you want to integrate communication tools like email, live chat, and social media into your call center solution. These integrations allow your agents to better serve the needs of your customers at each stage of the support process.

Call Center Type

What type of call center are you running? This answer to this question plays a big factor in determining the best option for you.

For example, are you an inbound call center? Or do your agents need outbound dialing capabilities? Not every solution offers both.

The purpose of these calls will also have an impact on the software you choose. Some call center solutions are better for sales, while others are better for customer support, troubleshooting, and ticketing.

Integrations

Look for call center software that integrates with your CRM solution. 

So whether you’re getting an inbound call or your agents are dialing out, you’ll have the complete caller history in front of you, complete with purchases and other brand interactions.

Some of the options on our list have their own full-service CRM systems as well. So you could potentially get an all-in-one solution from the same provider.

Pricing

It’s important that you have a clear understanding of how you’ll be billed for customer call center software. 

But call center software pricing isn’t always so transparent when you’re looking at options online. 

In most cases, you’ll pay based on a combination of usage and support agents. The majority of call center solutions have different plans for different features you need. Make sure to find one that best fits your needs and budget.

Compare Quotes From The Best Call Center Software

Get matched up with the call center software that fits your specific needs.

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The Top Call Center Software in Summary

The world today is digital—but phone support still plays a crucial role in customer service. That means having good call center software to power your support. Nextiva and RingCentral are the best call center software solutions on the market.

Every business providing phone support for customers can benefit from call center software. From startups to enterprises and everything in between, you can find what you need using our guide and methodology.



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