Nextiva

Nextiva is a business communications and customer experience platform built around VoIP calling. Its pitch – all your business conversations in one place – covers business phone, video, SMS/MMS, team messaging, live chat and a shared inbox, with AI features (branded XBert AI) available across the plans and an optional AI employee add-on for automated customer handling.

The VoIP core covers what most small and mid-sized businesses need: unlimited voice and video calling, business SMS/MMS allowances per user, skills-based routing, team collaboration and a shared team inbox, with desktop apps (Windows, macOS, Linux) and mobile apps for iOS and Android so one business number works everywhere. Nextiva says over 1 million users trust the platform, and every plan includes 24/7 customer support.

Where Nextiva pushes beyond a phone system is the customer experience layer: even the entry plan includes a basic CRM and ticketing system, a CX journey builder and quotas of AI transcription, summarization and answer assist. Higher tiers add live chat and chatbot, toll-free numbers with bundled minutes, SSO, virtual fax, directory sync and supervisor monitoring – so a business can grow from phone service toward contact-center territory without changing vendor.

Pricing for small business plans is published: NEXT Core at $15 per user per month, NEXT Engage at $25 (marked most popular) and NEXT Scale at $75, all at annual billing rates with monthly options at higher prices (Core $23, Engage $50). XBert AI usage is metered at $1.50 per conversation, and a standalone XBert AI Employee product starts at $99 per month for teams that want AI handling on top of an existing helpdesk. There is no self-serve free trial – evaluation runs through a demo, with no credit card required – and enterprise plans are quoted separately.

Watch-outs: the headline prices assume annual billing and drop significantly from the monthly rates, so check which basis you are comparing. The AI conversation metering means heavy AI usage adds cost beyond the per-user price. And teams wanting a free trial to self-serve will need to go through the demo process instead.

Integrations are broad for a small-business phone system: Nextiva’s official integrations page lists Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Dynamics, Google and Outlook calendars, Shopify, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Oracle NetSuite and Square, so call records and customer context can flow into the systems a sales or service team already runs. Support access is refreshingly direct for the category: Nextiva publishes a support address (support@nextiva.com) alongside its sales and support phone lines, and the 24/7 coverage applies from the entry plan up.

For businesses that want a proven VoIP provider with a clear path into AI-assisted customer experience, Nextiva is a strong shortlist pick: the phone fundamentals are mature, the CX extras are unusually broad for the price, and 24/7 support on every plan suits teams without in-house telecom expertise.