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Dialpad review July 2024: Features, call quality, integrations and more

Corey McCrawSmall Business Expert

Corey McCraw specializes in writing about voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and unified communications as a service (UCaaS). Corey has been working and writing in the business communications space for more than a decade, and holds a degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Dialpad is a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) provider that works as a feature-rich unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solution. Dialpad currently has more than 48,000 companies using the platform to create telephony-based calls to customers and colleagues.

Dialpad has plans for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and there’s a plan dedicated to enterprise-level companies. Additionally, Fortune Recommends ranks Dialpad as one of the best VoIP services. In this guide, we’re going to highlight some of the features of Dialpad as well as answer your questions about the provider. All rates and fees are current as of April 24, 2024, and are subject to change. 

Dialpad

Price: Starting at $23 per month, per user
Features: Calling within the U.S. and Canada…
Best add-ons: e-fax, conference room lines…
Noteworthy integrations: Salesforce, Google Workspace, ServiceNow…

Pros

  • Unlimited video meetings included in base plan and above
  • 100% uptime guarantee
  • Dialpad has its own AI solution

Cons

  • Meetings limited to 10 participants, regardless of plan
  • Extensions are not available until Enterprise plan
  • Integrations aren’t very robust
Dialpad is good for businesses looking to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) in their day-to-day activities. Dialpad’s aptly named AI solution, Ai, automatically transcribes conversations performed through VoIP, in meetings, and in voicemails. Additionally, the software uses Ai to perform sentiment analysis that helps prompt agents who are on calls to manage customer interactions better. Dialpad also has DialpadGPT, which uses Ai to craft content based on the patterns generated from company data. With its Ai system, Dialpad is one of the few providers on the market offering post-call summaries, which they’ve branded as Ai Call Summaries or Ai Recap. This serves as a breakdown of key talking points during the conversation, the overarching purpose of the call, and the call outcome. Toward the goal of improving customer interactions, Ai provides live speech coaching. Using natural language processing (NLP) during calls, the system prompts agents to help improve performance and bolster interactions.
Companies that merely need a business telephony solution. Not every business needs unified communications (UC). For example, some solopreneurs are only looking for a business phone number and a few calling features to manage their inbound customer inquiries. Dialpad is also lacking anything more than local numbers without paying an add-on fee. For businesses looking for toll-free or vanity numbers as a default option, there are several provider options available.

Dialpad service plan overview

Dialpad has a relatively standard three-tiered plan structure that covers small- to enterprise-level businesses. For those looking for the best value, the Pro plan is fairly feature-rich with the most integrations. Reduce the price of any tier of service by selecting the annual pay option. AI is the standout feature of Dialpad. With it, sentiment analysis is performed on various conversation points from various sources. 

PlansPricingFree Trial or Plan Available?Features
Standard$23 per user per monthYes; 14-day free trialUnlimited AI-supported meetings for up to 10 individuals
Multilevel auto attendant
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)/business associate agreement (BAA) compliance
Pro$35 per user per monthYes; 14-day free trialGlobal short message service (SMS) capabilities
Local numbers in 70-plus countries
24/7 live support
EnterpriseContact salesNo100% uptime guarantee
Unlimited ring groups and office locations
Priority live support
Standard
Pricing$23 per user per month
Free Trial or Plan Available?Yes; 14-day free trial
FeaturesUnlimited AI-supported meetings for up to 10 individuals
Multilevel auto attendant
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)/business associate agreement (BAA) compliance
Pro
Pricing$35 per user per month
Free Trial or Plan Available?Yes; 14-day free trial
FeaturesGlobal short message service (SMS) capabilities
Local numbers in 70-plus countries
24/7 live support
Enterprise
PricingContact sales
Free Trial or Plan Available?No
Features100% uptime guarantee
Unlimited ring groups and office locations
Priority live support

Best Dialpad VoIP plan for small businesses: Standard

For SMBs and solopreneurs, the best plan is the Standard plan. This plan delivers a free local number, unlimited calling within the United States and Canada, SMS and MMS messaging, transcription using Dialpad Ai, and several integrations. Dialpad seamlessly integrates with both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. This means that smaller businesses that need to coordinate the platform with calendar solutions or cloud-based office document software will easily get set up.

Other small business-friendly options include number forwarding and call routing, which is useful for solopreneurs needing to go out in the field; automatic spam call detection, which helps businesses avoid time-wasting spammers; and AI-assisted call recording, which is useful for info warehousing. Dialpad has an option for setting personal work to send customers to voicemail at the end of the workday.

Pros

  • Unlimited calling in U.S. and Canada
  • Real-time analytics capabilities
  • SMS and MMS texting
  • AI-enabled call recording and voicemail transcription

Cons

  • Only covers meetings for 10 attendees
  • No international number support
  • Popular integrations unavailable until Pro plan

Other services Dialpad offers 

Aside from the core VoIP offerings of VoIP calling, virtual phone, and texting, Dialpad offers these additional services to improve business communications:

  • Ai call summaries: Once a call is complete, NLP gives an accurate breakdown of the conversation and any action items.
  • Video conferencing: Dialpad video conferencing supports up to 10 attendees, regardless of plan. Limitations only allow you to hold these meetings for a maximum time of five hours.  
  • Self-service chat: Using Ai, Dialpad provides an AI-based option for chatting with customers. Using NLP and machine learning (ML), Dialpad’s conversational Ai answers customer queries and uses auto-dialogue to create authentic-sounding responses. 
  • Internet faxing: Internet, or e-fax, is a useful feature for businesses that need to send faxes from time to time. This faxing doesn’t require a full-fledged fax machine and transmits faxes through VoIP rather than traditional landlines.
  • Voicemail-to-email: Using Ai, Dialpad can transcribe voicemails and transmit them to your email. This saves time by not requiring customers to have to sit down and listen to recordings.
  • Meeting transcriptions: During meetings, Dialpad Ai transcribes what’s being said. This allows for detailed meeting summaries, including action items, and the transcripts are searchable so that it’s easy to navigate what’s been said.

The Dialpad platform and customer support 

Overall, the user interface (UI) of the Dialpad platform, on both the website and the app, is very clean-looking. It’s extremely easy to navigate using icons that are recognizable easily. Setup only takes minutes to manage and is simplified using the step-by-step instructions provided in the knowledge base. 

For customer support, several channels are offered to support those with a subscription. Phone, live chat, email, knowledge base, and community forums are available. However, phone support is not offered via the Standard plan. Additionally, live support is only available 24/5 with the standard plan. With an upgrade to a higher subscription, support is available 24/7. 

Is Dialpad secure?

Data is best protected while in transit and at rest. When protecting user data while it’s stored and at rest, Dialpad employs AES 256-bit encryption that works off of the Google Cloud Platform. As data packets are transmitted from user to user, transport layer security (TLS) is employed. For further security, Dialpad uses single sign-on (SSO) technology through several providers. Finally, for those managing protected patient health data, Dialpad is a VoIP provider delivering HIPAA compliance to users.

Dialpad user reviews

When looking at reviews for Dialpad, we noticed that many of them were positive with high compliments about their AI capabilities, transcription options, and their ease of use. Looking at Software Advice, Dialpad received a score of 4.3 out of 5. Some of the negative reviews point to the app slowing down when updates occur. Dropped calls also occurred occasionally during these updates.

Pro tip

I enjoyed using Dialpad’s collaborative software, especially on PC. The interface feels very modern and sleek. I also like how it incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) into its products but still manages to make its customer engagement feel human and empathetic. It’s a great, affordable option for small businesses that want an all-in-one communication hub.

Toni Matthews-El, Fortune Recommends contributor

Compare Dialpad alternatives

The Dialpad logo.
Dialpad
The RingCentral logo.
RingCentral
The Vonage logo.
Vonage
Standard pricingStandard pricingStandard pricing
$23.00$30.00$13.99
Unlimited domestic calling and texting?Unlimited domestic calling and texting?Unlimited domestic calling and texting?
YesYesYes
International calling supported?International calling supported?International calling supported?
YesYesYes
Read our RingCentral review

Frequently asked questions

Is Dialpad free to use?

No, Dialpad is not free to use. With each available plan, Dialpad charges a per-user, per-month fee. It’s important to note that Dialpad does have annual pricing, which can reduce the cost of each plan significantly. Additionally, Dialpad offers several add-on features that will increase the monthly per-user price.

Is Dialpad like Zoom?

Dialpad has some similar features to Zoom, but Zoom Video is more of a dedicated video conferencing solution while Dialpad rolls video conferencing into its large list of features. As a result, Dialpad has a maximum attendee limit of 10, which is far less than Zoom offers. With a business Ai meeting plan, Dialpad extends the participant limit to 150, which is only 50 more participants than is offered in the Zoom free tier of service.

Does Dialpad record calls?

Dialpad does record calls using its Dialpad Ai system. As each call is made Ai transcribes and records the call through the provider’s automatic call recorder.  Both of these features are easy to set up in the Dialpad app, and each is sent to the in-app Dialpad inbox.

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About the contributors

Corey McCrawSmall Business Expert

Corey McCraw specializes in writing about voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and unified communications as a service (UCaaS). Corey has been working and writing in the business communications space for more than a decade, and holds a degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE: The advice, opinions, or rankings contained in this article are solely those of the Fortune Recommends editorial team. This content has not been reviewed or endorsed by any of our affiliate partners or other third parties.