1:1 comparison · Verified August 27, 2026 Cisco Webex is the enterprise communications platform for organizations already standardized on Cisco infrastructure, CUCM on-premises, Cisco IP phones, Cisco switching and routing, and years of corporate purchasing through Cisco Smart Licensing. Webex Calling is the cloud migration path for those customers. Webex Contact Center is the CCaaS layer on top.
DialPhone is the AI-native challenger with no hardware dependency, published pricing at every tier, and AI built into the base plan rather than licensed separately. The decision largely comes down to your existing infrastructure position: deep Cisco shop migrating to Webex cloud, or greenfield/partial migration where a purpose-built AI UCaaS+CCaaS wins on capability and simplicity.
Every Cisco figure below is taken from Cisco’s own US pricing pages and checked on 27 August 2026, and is listed with its source at the end of this page.
Side-by-side comparison
| Capability | DialPhone AI Pro | Cisco Webex |
|---|---|---|
| UCaaS starting price | $24/user/mo (Core, annual) | ~$17/user/mo (Webex Calling basic) |
| UCaaS full-suite price | $54/user/mo (Ultra) | ~$32/user/mo (Webex Suite) |
| CCaaS pricing | $95/agent/mo (published) | Primarily quote-based |
| AI transcription | ✓ All plans | ✓ Webex Suite tiers |
| AI meeting summaries | ✓ | ✓ Webex Suite |
| AI Receptionist (voice) | Smart Virtual Concierge, $59/mo add-on | Cisco publishes an AI Receptionist for Webex Calling |
| Proactive Workflow Automation | ✓ Advanced+ | Not available |
| Video meetings | ✓ Up to 200 participants | 100 on Free, 200 on Meet and Suite, up to 1,000 on Enterprise |
| Business SMS | ✓ All plans | ✓ |
| Online fax | ✓ | Not available |
| Team messaging | ✓ | ✓ Webex App |
| Omnichannel CCaaS | ✓ 20+ channels | ✓ Webex Contact Center |
| Workforce management | ✓ WFM lite | ✓ (Webex WFO add-on) |
| Salesforce integration | ✓ Native bi-directional | ✓ |
| Microsoft Teams integration | Direct Routing; Operator Connect status not publicly confirmed | Cisco Call for Microsoft Teams |
| Cisco hardware support | Via SIP (limited) | ✓ Native |
| HIPAA BAA | BAA offered on Advanced and higher (HIPAA) — a contract, not a certification | ✓ Qualifying enterprise plans |
| FedRAMP | Not authorized. Roadmap only (FedRAMP); verify any vendor status in the FedRAMP Marketplace | Cisco publishes FedRAMP authorized security on Webex Enterprise; verify current status in the FedRAMP Marketplace |
| SOC 2 | Contact DialPhone for current status, scope and documentation (SOC 2) | Request the current report and scope from Cisco |
| Published uptime commitment | 99.999% monthly uptime target with service credits (Terms §6) | Cisco publishes a 99.999% SLA for Webex Calling |
| Published pricing | Every tier below Enterprise | Meetings and Suite published; Calling, Contact Center and CPaaS priced separately, Enterprise contact-sales |
Pricing comparison
DialPhone (per user, annual billing):
- Core: $24/user/mo
- Advanced: $34/user/mo
- Ultra: $54/user/mo
- Contact Center Professional: $95/agent/mo
Cisco Webex (published on Cisco’s US pricing page, 27 August 2026):
- Webex Free: $0
- Webex Meet: $144/user/year, which Cisco also states as $12/user/month. AI Assistant included
- Webex Suite (Meet + Call): $270/user/year, stated as $22.50/user/month. AI Assistant included
- Webex Enterprise: contact sales. Up to 1,000 attendees, FedRAMP authorized security
- Add-ons: Call Me domestic $48/licence/year, Call Me international $429/licence/year, Real-Time Translation $300/licence/year
- Webex Calling, Webex Contact Center and Webex CPaaS are priced on separate tabs
Cisco is currently running an offer of six months free with five or more licences.
100-seat team, annual billing, list prices
- DialPhone Core: 100 × $24 × 12 = $28,800/year
- Webex Suite (Meet + Call): 100 × $270 = $27,000/year
- Webex Meet only (no calling): 100 × $144 = $14,400/year
On published list price, Webex Suite is below DialPhone Core at this seat count, not above it. Earlier versions of this page put Webex Suite at $38,400 a year and concluded DialPhone Core was “meaningfully cheaper”. Both the figure and the conclusion were wrong and have been corrected.
Two caveats on the comparison, in both directions. Webex Suite is a Meet + Call bundle; a calling-heavy configuration priced from Cisco’s Calling tab may differ. And neither figure includes contact centre, which is a separately priced product for both vendors.
AI capabilities
Included AI features
DialPhone Core ($24/user/mo): real-time call transcription, AI meeting summaries, sentiment scoring, noise suppression, AI-assisted call routing.
Webex: Cisco publishes the AI Assistant as included on Webex Meet ($144/user/year), Webex Suite ($270/user/year) and Webex Enterprise, and publishes AI-powered summaries, context and insights for Webex Calling. Cisco does not publish a per-feature AI breakdown below that level.
AI Receptionist
DialPhone’s Smart Virtual Concierge is a dedicated packaged AI Receptionist: inbound call answering, intent detection, appointment booking (Salesforce, Calendly, Google Calendar), follow-up SMS, multilingual (English, Spanish, French), HIPAA BAA eligible, at $59/month standalone or bundled.
Cisco publishes an AI Receptionist for Webex Calling, described as an always-on virtual receptionist on the front line. Earlier versions of this page stated Cisco had no equivalent product; that was wrong and has been corrected. What Cisco does not publish is a price for it, or the CRM booking integrations DialPhone names, so compare the two on a demo rather than on published feature lists.
Contact center AI
Both Webex Contact Center and DialPhone Contact Center offer AI agent assist, real-time transcription, post-call analytics, and virtual agent capabilities. Webex CC’s AI is mature at enterprise scale with Cisco’s investment in Webex AI and third-party integrations. DialPhone’s CCaaS AI focuses on mid-market accessibility with published per-agent pricing.
Microsoft Teams integration
DialPhone: Teams Direct Routing, with Teams as the calling endpoint and DialPhone providing PSTN, SMS and contact centre underneath. Operator Connect status is not publicly confirmed; verify with DialPhone before relying on one-click provisioning in the Teams Admin Center.
Cisco Webex: Cisco publishes Cisco Call for Microsoft Teams, which it describes as integrating Webex Calling into Microsoft Teams for a unified enterprise communication experience. Webex and Teams do compete as collaboration clients, but Cisco does publish a Teams calling integration, and an earlier version of this page was wrong to imply otherwise.
Compliance and security
| Requirement | DialPhone | Cisco Webex |
|---|---|---|
| HIPAA BAA | BAA offered on Advanced and higher (HIPAA) — a contract, not a certification | ✓ Enterprise qualifying plans |
| SOC 2 | Contact DialPhone for current status, scope and documentation (SOC 2) | ✓ |
| GDPR | DPA and EU data residency (GDPR) — not a certification | Request the current DPA from Cisco |
| PCI DSS | Contact DialPhone for current status, scope and documentation (PCI) | Request the assessed scope from Cisco |
| FedRAMP | Not authorized. Roadmap only (FedRAMP); verify any vendor status in the FedRAMP Marketplace | Cisco publishes FedRAMP authorized security on Webex Enterprise; verify current status in the FedRAMP Marketplace |
| ISO 27001 | Contact DialPhone for current status, scope and documentation | Request the current certificate and scope from Cisco |
FedRAMP is the clearest gap. Cisco publishes FedRAMP authorized security against Webex Enterprise. DialPhone is not FedRAMP authorized and does not appear in the FedRAMP Marketplace; it has a roadmap only. If you need FedRAMP today for a federal or SLED deployment, DialPhone does not meet the requirement. Verify Cisco’s current status and impact level in the FedRAMP Marketplace rather than from any vendor page, ours included.
Migrating from Cisco CUCM or on-premises Webex
The common migration path is organizations running Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) on-premises that are evaluating cloud options. Options:
- Webex Calling: Native Cisco migration path. Preserves Cisco endpoint compatibility, Cisco admin tooling, and Cisco support infrastructure. Best if you want to retain Cisco hardware.
- DialPhone: Clean break cloud migration. Free number porting, white-glove migration for 25+ seats, parallel cutover window. Best if you want to exit Cisco hardware dependency and gain AI-native capabilities.
Many organizations use DialPhone’s Direct Routing support to run a hybrid cloud+on-premises state during the transition window before full CUCM decommission.
Who should pick which
Pick DialPhone if you are not locked into Cisco hardware, want published per-agent contact-center pricing at three tiers, want business phone and contact center on one agreement, or want a named and priced AI receptionist product.
Pick Cisco Webex if you are invested in Cisco hardware and Cisco Unified Communications Manager, need FedRAMP authorized security, need the 99.999% SLA and 180+ market coverage Cisco publishes for Webex Calling, need survivability or Dedicated Instance options, or want up to 1,000 meeting attendees.
Where DialPhone is weaker: it is not FedRAMP authorized, has no on-premises or dedicated-instance option, caps meetings at 200 participants against Webex Enterprise’s 1,000, was founded in 2024, and lists above Webex Suite on published price at 100 seats.
Where Cisco Webex is weaker: the published Suite price is a Meetings-plus-Calling bundle, with Calling, Contact Center and CPaaS priced on separate tabs, so a full configuration takes assembling. Webex Enterprise, which is where FedRAMP authorized security sits, is contact-sales with no published price.
What the higher price buys. Being more expensive is only a problem if nothing comes with it, so here is what does, stated as inclusions rather than savings. DialPhone Core at $24 carries unlimited US and Canada calling, HD video for up to 200 participants, AI live captions and transcription, business SMS, online fax, free number porting and 24/7 support. Advanced at $34 adds AI SMS drafting, Proactive Workflow Automation, CRM integrations and a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement at no surcharge.
Contact Center is published per agent at $65, $95 and $145 and sits on the same agreement as the phone system, covering more than 20 digital channels alongside voice. Teams of 25 seats or more get white-glove migration including call-flow recreation and parallel cutover. The 99.999% monthly uptime target with service credits is contractual, in Terms §6. None of that makes DialPhone the cheapest option, and this page does not claim it is.
Hybrid migration: Direct Routing support allows DialPhone to coexist with existing CUCM during a phased migration. Contact the DialPhone migration team for a no-cost architecture review.