Overview

8x8 Work is a unified communications platform that bundles phone, video conferencing, team messaging, and contact center capabilities into a single subscription. On its own merits, the video conferencing is competent but unremarkable -- it will not win any head-to-head comparisons against Zoom Workplace or Microsoft Teams on meeting features alone. What makes 8x8 worth a serious look is the one thing no competitor has meaningfully replicated: unlimited international calling to 48 countries, included in every plan without per-minute surcharges or add-on fees.

For organizations with distributed teams across multiple countries, that single feature can justify the entire subscription cost. A company with employees in the UK, Germany, Australia, and Japan would spend hundreds or thousands of dollars per month on international calling through traditional VoIP providers or carrier plans. 8x8 collapses that into a flat per-user fee. The video conferencing, AI meeting summaries, and team chat are effectively bundled at no marginal cost on top of the calling value. The platform also carries strong compliance credentials -- HIPAA and GDPR certifications that matter for regulated industries. The honest trade-off is that the AI capabilities trail the leaders, the pricing is opaque (you will almost certainly need to talk to a sales rep), and there is no free tier to test-drive the experience before committing.

Features Deep-Dive

Unlimited International Calling

This is the feature that defines 8x8's market position, and it deserves scrutiny because the value it delivers is genuinely substantial for the right buyer. The 48-country unlimited calling list covers the major business markets: the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, and most of Western Europe, along with several key Asia-Pacific and Latin American destinations. For context, RingCentral charges per-minute rates for international calls outside of the US and Canada, Zoom Phone offers international calling add-on bundles that cover far fewer countries, and Microsoft Teams Phone requires separate Calling Plans or Operator Connect for international reach.

The math is straightforward. If your organization makes regular calls to three or more international markets, 8x8's flat-rate model eliminates the budgeting unpredictability of per-minute billing. Sales teams calling prospects across Europe, support teams handling customer inquiries from multiple regions, or distributed engineering teams with daily standups across time zones -- these are the use cases where the savings compound. The call quality is consistently solid, running over 8x8's own globally distributed infrastructure with local points of presence in the covered countries, which means calls route through nearby data centers rather than bouncing across continents.

AI Meeting Intelligence

8x8 has invested in AI features across its platform, applying meeting intelligence capabilities to voice calls, video conferences, and messaging channels. Meeting summaries are generated automatically after calls, capturing key discussion points and action items. The AI also provides sentiment analysis and conversation insights that surface trends across multiple interactions -- useful for sales teams or customer success managers tracking account health over time.

The honest assessment: these AI features are functional but not category-leading. Zoom's AI Companion 3.0 produces more nuanced summaries with smart chapter segmentation, and Dialpad's transcription engine (trained on over 3 billion minutes of conversation data) delivers meaningfully better accuracy, especially for industry-specific terminology. 8x8's AI feels like a generation behind the dedicated leaders -- it covers the basics competently but lacks the depth of agentic workflows, real-time coaching, or contextual follow-ups that Zoom and Dialpad have shipped in recent releases. For organizations where AI meeting intelligence is the primary purchasing criterion, 8x8 will feel underwhelming. For teams that view it as a useful complement to the calling and UCaaS capabilities, it is good enough to check the box without requiring a separate tool.

Security, Compliance, and Unified Platform

8x8 carries a compliance portfolio that positions it well for regulated industries. HIPAA compliance is fully supported, which opens the door for healthcare organizations that need video and voice communications under a Business Associate Agreement. GDPR compliance is built into the platform architecture, with data residency options for European customers. The platform also holds SOC 2 Type II certification and supports TLS/SRTP encryption for all communications. For organizations operating in financial services, healthcare, or government-adjacent sectors, these certifications reduce the procurement friction that can stall software purchases for months.

The unified platform story is where 8x8 aims to differentiate beyond calling. Phone, video conferencing, team messaging, and contact center all run on the same infrastructure, share the same admin console, and present a single user experience. In practice, the integration between these channels is tighter than bolting together separate best-of-breed tools -- a customer call can escalate from chat to voice to video without context switching, and the admin experience for managing users across all channels is consolidated. The contact center capabilities, in particular, are more mature than what RingCentral or Vonage offer at comparable price points, making 8x8 an appealing option for mid-market companies that need both UCaaS and CCaaS without managing two separate vendor relationships.

Pricing Analysis

8x8's pricing starts at approximately $24/user/month, but the precise figure comes with a significant caveat: 8x8 does not prominently publish its pricing on its website. You will likely need to contact the sales team or request a demo to get an actual quote, and the final price will vary based on contract length, user count, and which features you need. This opacity is a meaningful negative. In a market where Zoom, Google Meet, and even RingCentral list their pricing publicly, requiring a sales conversation to learn what you will pay creates friction and erodes trust before the relationship even starts.

For context on value: at $24/user/month, 8x8 is more expensive than Zoom Pro ($13.33/user/month), Google Meet via Workspace ($7/user/month), and roughly on par with RingCentral's Standard plan. However, the comparison is not apples-to-apples. 8x8's price includes unlimited international calling to 48 countries, a feature that would cost significantly more as an add-on with any competitor. If you are currently spending even $5-10/user/month on international calling, 8x8's all-inclusive pricing becomes competitive. If your organization makes exclusively domestic calls, you are paying a premium for capability you will never use. The lack of a free tier means there is no low-commitment way to evaluate the platform -- you are committing budget before you have confirmed the product fits your workflow.

Who Is This For?

• Global businesses with distributed teams making regular calls to multiple international markets -- the unlimited calling to 48 countries is not just a feature, it is the economic engine that makes the entire subscription worthwhile compared to per-minute alternatives
• Mid-market companies needing UCaaS and contact center in one vendor -- 8x8's integrated contact center capabilities are more mature than most UCaaS competitors, and consolidating both under a single platform simplifies administration and reduces vendor management overhead
• Regulated industries (healthcare, finance) requiring compliance certifications -- HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2 Type II compliance are built in, not bolted on, which shortens procurement timelines for organizations where security review is a gate to software adoption

Who Should NOT Use This

• Teams that primarily need video conferencing without significant international calling requirements -- at $24/user/month with no free tier, you are paying a premium for calling capabilities you may never touch, and Zoom or Google Meet deliver a better video-first experience at lower cost
• Organizations where AI meeting intelligence is a primary purchasing criterion -- 8x8's AI features are serviceable but trail Zoom AI Companion, Dialpad, and Teams Copilot by a meaningful margin in summary quality, transcription accuracy, and agentic capabilities
• Small teams or startups that need to evaluate before committing -- the absence of a free tier combined with opaque pricing that requires a sales conversation creates a high barrier to entry for organizations that want to trial the product before signing a contract

Bottom Line

8x8 Work is a platform defined by a single, genuinely differentiated feature: unlimited international calling to 48 countries at a flat per-user rate. For global businesses where that capability aligns with their communication patterns, the value proposition is compelling and difficult to replicate with any competitor. The video conferencing is solid, the compliance credentials are strong, and the unified platform consolidates multiple communication channels without requiring separate vendors. But outside of that global-calling sweet spot, 8x8 asks you to accept less advanced AI, opaque pricing, and no free tier in exchange for capabilities that may not match your actual usage patterns. Know what you need before you call the sales team -- if it is international calling bundled with UCaaS, 8x8 is a top contender. If it is video-first collaboration, look elsewhere.

FAQ

How does 8x8 Work's international calling actually work?

The 48-country unlimited calling is included in the standard subscription -- there are no per-minute charges, no calling bundles to purchase separately, and no hidden caps on usage. Calls route through 8x8's globally distributed network with local points of presence, so a call from New York to London connects through a nearby data center rather than traversing the public internet end-to-end. The covered countries include the major business markets across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. If your calling patterns extend beyond the 48-country list, standard per-minute rates apply for those destinations, but the core list covers the vast majority of international business communication needs.

Is 8x8 Work's AI competitive with Zoom or Teams?

Functionally, yes -- 8x8 provides meeting summaries, action items, and conversation insights across voice, video, and messaging. Qualitatively, it lags behind the leaders. Zoom AI Companion 3.0 produces more structured summaries with smart chapters and is beginning to offer agentic follow-up actions. Dialpad's transcription accuracy is measurably better for specialized vocabulary. Teams Copilot integrates deeply with Microsoft 365 documents. 8x8's AI is best understood as a competent baseline that prevents you from needing a separate tool, rather than a reason to choose the platform. If AI meeting intelligence is your top priority, Zoom or Dialpad are stronger choices.

Why does 8x8 not publish its pricing publicly?

This is a common practice among enterprise-focused UCaaS vendors, though it is increasingly out of step with market expectations. The likely reason is that 8x8 prices vary significantly based on contract terms, user volume, and feature requirements -- enterprise deals of 500+ seats may receive substantial discounts compared to the list price. The practical impact for buyers is that you cannot easily comparison-shop without engaging the sales process, which adds friction. If transparency in pricing matters to your evaluation process, this is a legitimate frustration. Plan to allocate time for a sales conversation and, ideally, negotiate -- published estimates suggest starting prices around $24/user/month, but your actual quote may differ.