8x8 Work vs. Google Hangouts (Classic)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
8x8 Work
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
8x8 Work is a collaboration hub for phone, video, and messaging. It brings secure unified communication and collaboration experiences to every employee.
$24
per month
Google Hangouts (Classic)
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
The classic version of Google Hangouts is a communication platform that includes messaging, voice, VoIP, and video call capabilities. It was part of Google’s G Suite offering and integrated with applications such as Gmail and Google+. Users of the classic version of Hangouts will be migrated to the new Hangouts Chat collaboration tool, and Google continues to support conferencing via the new Hangouts Meet.N/A
Pricing
8x8 WorkGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
8x8 WorkGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
8x8 WorkGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
8x8 WorkGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Cloud PBX
Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Product A and Product B
8x8 Work
8.6
395 Ratings
7% above category average
Google Hangouts (Classic)
6.3
57 Ratings
24% below category average
Hosted PBX9.0218 Ratings6.915 Ratings
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)8.876 Ratings7.725 Ratings
User templates8.8243 Ratings5.122 Ratings
Call reports7.9308 Ratings9.034 Ratings
Directory of employee names8.5357 Ratings3.045 Ratings
Call Management
Comparison of Call Management features of Product A and Product B
8x8 Work
8.6
442 Ratings
3% above category average
Google Hangouts (Classic)
8.0
66 Ratings
5% below category average
Answering rules9.0398 Ratings8.033 Ratings
Call recording8.8343 Ratings7.937 Ratings
Call park8.7318 Ratings7.018 Ratings
Call screening8.3301 Ratings9.036 Ratings
Message alerts8.4385 Ratings8.058 Ratings
VoIP system collaboration
Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Product A and Product B
8x8 Work
8.1
320 Ratings
2% above category average
Google Hangouts (Classic)
8.6
84 Ratings
8% above category average
Video conferencing7.6202 Ratings9.179 Ratings
Audio conferencing7.8275 Ratings9.179 Ratings
Video screen sharing8.4145 Ratings7.248 Ratings
Instant messaging8.7215 Ratings9.152 Ratings
Mobile apps
Comparison of Mobile apps features of Product A and Product B
8x8 Work
8.7
385 Ratings
8% above category average
Google Hangouts (Classic)
8.1
85 Ratings
0% above category average
Mobile app for iOS8.7318 Ratings8.173 Ratings
Mobile app for Android8.7248 Ratings8.071 Ratings
Best Alternatives
8x8 WorkGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Small Businesses
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 8.5 out of 10
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 8.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 8.5 out of 10
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 8.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
8x8 WorkGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(464 ratings)
8.0
(91 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(30 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(104 ratings)
8.0
(7 ratings)
Availability
8.8
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.8
(142 ratings)
8.0
(36 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.8
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.9
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.6
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
9.0
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.8
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.7
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.5
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.5
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
8x8 WorkGoogle Hangouts (Classic)
Likelihood to Recommend
8x8, Inc.
If you are a larger enterprise with a global span of offices equipped with a moderate to large IT department, you may prefer one of the more technically heavy/advanced solutions from others in this marketspace. The presumption there is that you may be looking for more customized, granular control of the application, its GUI and quite possibly- tinkering with certain coding or capabilities. You may also already have a large SaaS rollout already in place and 8x8 Work may either be redundant or lighter than the implementation you already have. If you are (i) a small to medium sized organization dependent on an outsourced IT and/or (ii) have a heavily non-IT user base who need access to more intuitive, end-user friendly tools that shorten the learning curve for them- without sacrificing strong security and data privacy compliance standards (US and EU standards); then this is a solution well worthwhile to consider adopting.
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Google
Had I completed this review a couple years ago, I would have given a rating of 9 or 10 as Hangouts (Classic) is an excellent product. However, now that Google Chat has succeeded Hangouts, I would not recommend that any new users begin using it where other more modern options are available. Android users who want an internet based instant messaging that also supports calling and video calling could benefit from using Hangouts (Classic) as Google Chat requires the user to also have Google Meet installed to make video calls and there is no voice only calling option.
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Pros
8x8, Inc.
  • Automatically routes incoming calls to the available agent with the appropriate skills, ensuring that customers are served promptly.
  • Integrates with email systems to provide a unified view of customer interactions.
  • Allows sales representatives to share their screens with customers and prospects, demonstrating products and services effectively.
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Google
  • Google Hangouts (Classic) is embedded within Gmail's scheduler, so setting up the link is as quick as a click of the button. It's a one-step process.
  • Google Hangouts (Classic) is user-friendly and [has] features to share screens easily.
  • Google Hangouts (Classic) is much easier to use than its competitors.
  • Google Hangouts (Classic) have [a] good connection time and there are few glitches.
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Cons
8x8, Inc.
  • A transcript of voicemails would be a great addition for those with auditory processing issues.
  • When a call comes in on my personal device and I choose to ignore it, the pop-up for the incoming call does not go away; I can continue using my device until the call ends.
  • The ease of communication with customer service could have been improved. It was not terrible, but it could have been more helpful.
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Google
  • I would like to see improved video support, so that saved videos can be sent back and forth via Hangouts more easily, without having to start a separate meet chat
  • More pronounced notifications of messages would be helpful; pop up notifications are good, but once there is one, additional messages do not pop up
  • Custom muting times would be great, so that if I am in a 90 minute Zoom meeting, I can set it for that time; right now, it is 1 hour or 2 hours. Easy to forget.
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Likelihood to Renew
8x8, Inc.
All our employees love this product. No one has ever had an issue, whether it be the phone or fax. Great during the winter when employees have to work from home because of the snow. Never had an issue with the phone app. Highly recommend this product
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Google
No answers on this topic
Usability
8x8, Inc.
The 8x8 service has boosted productivity and allowed for a 100% remote work environment. Before 8x8, our phone system was more expensive and had fewer features, and it made employees dependent upon sending mass amounts of emails to each other for the simple task of ending a link or a message. The call queues and loops have made it easy for service and support departments to distribute calls evenly.
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Google
The tool is almost self-implemented. It is likely to be available in every pc or mobile device a user or potential user might have, and all you need to do is adding the company's account and you are done. Once you are setted up, you have almost all actual communication methods available in one tool
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Reliability and Availability
8x8, Inc.
As mentioned before, we have not had an outage with the phone system per say, There was an issue with the call center where we did have an outage, but it was quickly and promplty handled by 8x8 support, they got us up and going again within 24 hours. The 8x8 hard phone and softphone side of things have been rock solid, I couldn't ask for anything more seeing we are in health care and it's exactly what we were looking for. When and if there is an issue 99% of the time it's user error
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Google
No answers on this topic
Performance
8x8, Inc.
None of the features that are available slow down the application. The reports (even the ones with hundreds of records) complete very quickly and the web interface as well as the mobile application never struggle to load or complete a task. The analytics will sometimes take some time to reflect the online status of users but it is to be expected due to connection speeds.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
8x8, Inc.
We have had multiple negative experiences with our chat support, which has been non-responsive or failed to function as intended. In a particular incident, we encountered difficulty in receiving calls from a support call center, as it was unable to connect with our phones. Following several hours of back and forth, we were forced to resort to having them call our cell phone, but the issue remained unresolved. Even our 8x8 representative confirmed that they were aware of the inadequacies of their support service. I don't know if they provide varying levels of support to their larger clientele; however, our experience has consistently been subpar.
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Google
Google Hangouts works great and does not require a lot of work to troubleshoot. Everything is simple and easy to use. Google provides all of the tools that one requires to utilize Google Hangouts and any information can be found in the built-in help tools. There is also a forum for users to report issues and typically, Google responds well and will try to work out any issues.
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In-Person Training
8x8, Inc.
The person giving the training was very engaged, He also listened and answered all the questions. He created a video for our company while he was training in case we needed to reference it again in the future. The questions he could not answer were answered within 24 hours via an email to the IT support staff here so we could share the answers with the rest of the group
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Google
No answers on this topic
Online Training
8x8, Inc.
online (video) training is good. No issues.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
8x8, Inc.
The implementation of 8x8 X was rather smooth. We had training prior to getting the system. The IT company did a good job on the training. The whole system is wonderful. Saves me so much time with the faxing, as i can just let it go by itself and not have to make sure pages don't get skipped, as with a regular fax machine.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
8x8, Inc.
As stated earlier, one major advantage was support for older equipment that other providers could not guarantee or were incompatible. 8x8 Work also seems to cater to our size and type of company where our call center is key to customer satisfaction and delivery. The deep level of customization on profiles and lines, ingratiation with our SSO/SAML tools, and dedicated rep to assist along the way, helped us decide on 8x8 Work for our organization.
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Google
Google is the white cotton socks of the conferencing world. It’s a great ad-hoc tool, but not too much more. If you are not looking to spend money or operate completely on WiFi (without data charges), it’s a great free option as well. The benefit of being free and open is also the liability. It doesn’t have a great integration story with other corporate tools, but [it doesn’t have to] if you aren’t looking for that. All in all, it’s as helpful and ubiquitous as a public payphone…without the pay…and with a video capability.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8x8, Inc.
At this time, we’re very happy with the pricing model that we have worked out and they have provided for us. Just be sure to do your homework, and use your comparisons to work out your cost with 8x8. They will be very straightforward with you on what they can
adjust for you.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Scalability
8x8, Inc.
8x8 100% suits Business needs to connect with from anywhere and everywhere. The Softphone features is very light and very easy to use also very reliable with Zero Downtime. Can also be set personal Voicemail over softphone at anytime and logs everything is very easy to find.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
8x8, Inc.
PS had all the users etc. set up by our go-live date. All hard phones were activated and when we received them, all we had to do was set them up and punch in the activation code to activate them.
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Google
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
8x8, Inc.
  • Right now, we are experiencing a negative impact to our business due to the poor service surrounding our texting capabilities.
  • When we are in a "status quo" mode, we experience a positive ROI due to the price point and structure of our agreement.
  • The ease of using the mobile app certainly provides a benefit to the remote team member through ease of use and the updated technology.
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Google
  • I believe it was part of the google suite that was purchased. It was worth the cost as it was cheaper. I believe it is now free, but also becoming deprecated. It is much better to use Teams, Discord, Telegram, etc. Google does not provide enough support or features to make using hangouts worth it these days.
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ScreenShots