Dialpad leads with AI-powered collaboration for cloud-native teams. Sangoma covers cloud, hybrid, and on-premises deployment with full ownership of the stack underneath it. The right pick depends on which of those two things your operations actually need more.
Why Compare Sangoma and Dialpad?
Dialpad and Sangoma both show up on cloud phone shortlists, but they solve different problems. Dialpad is built for teams that want AI-first collaboration on a clean cloud-only setup. Sangoma delivers cloud, hybrid, and on-premises deployment from the same platform, with AI-powered analytics and transcription, full-stack hardware ownership, and one vendor accountable for the entire communications environment.
Three questions run through the rest of this comparison. Can your sites keep running voice during an internet outage, or is cloud-only sufficient? Does pricing stay predictable as you add contact center and sales dialing, or does the invoice fragment across separate products? And when something breaks, are you reaching a human or a chatbot?
This guide compares the two on pricing predictability, deployment options, hardware control, support model, and survivability.
Sangoma vs Dialpad: Key Differences at a Glance
Dialpad has a genuine AI-powered collaboration story. Transcription, post-call summaries, live coaching, and DialpadGPT are real capabilities worth acknowledging. The table below reflects both platforms honestly.
| Feature/Factor | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment options | Cloud, hybrid, on-premises | Cloud only |
| Local survivability during outages | Yes (StarBox appliance) | No |
| POTS / 4G failover | Yes | No |
| Pricing model | Per-seat, all-inclusive | Tiered; CC and Sales are separate products |
| Hardware ownership | Sangoma-manufactured phones, gateways, SBCs | Relies on Poly, Yealink, third-party |
| AI features | Standard transcription and analytics | Advanced: DialpadGPT, live coaching, sentiment analysis |
| Support model | 24/7 human support, all plans | AI/chatbot-first; 24/7 tied to Enterprise tier |
| Vertical depth | Healthcare, retail, hospitality, manufacturing | Horizontal SaaS |
| Uptime SLA | 99.999% | 99.9% |
Deployment Flexibility
Sangoma supports cloud, on-premises, virtual machine (VMware/Hyper-V/AWS), and hybrid deployments from the same underlying platform. Switching between deployment models does not require retraining staff or rebuilding configurations. Dialpad offers cloud only, which is straightforward to set up but leaves no path to a hybrid or on-prem model for organizations that need one.
| Deployment Option | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud-hosted UCaaS | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid (cloud + on-prem) | Yes | No |
| On-premises | Yes | No |
Reliability and Local Survivability
The deployment gap has direct consequences for reliability. Dialpad is cloud-only, so when the internet goes down, so do calls. It can reroute calls externally, but it has no mechanism for keeping local office communications running during a WAN outage: no local PBX continuity, no native POTS failover, no LTE/4G branch survivability.
Sangoma’s StarBox appliance addresses this directly, as part of Sangoma’s hybrid UC. It keeps internal calls running, provides POTS and secondary internet failover, and supports optional 4G/5G failover. For a healthcare facility, a retail chain, or a distributed business with locations in areas with unreliable connectivity, the difference is not theoretical.
User reviews also report dropped calls, delayed ringing, Bluetooth instability on mobile, and inconsistent voice quality across Dialpad’s platform.
| Reliability Factor | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Local survivability during WAN outage | Yes | No |
| POTS failover | Yes | No |
| 4G/5G failover | Yes | No |
| Branch survivability architecture | Yes | No |
| Uptime SLA | 99.999% | 99.9% |
How Does the Pricing Compare?
Dialpad’s entry pricing is low, but the total cost of ownership shifts considerably once contact center, analytics, or advanced support capabilities enter the picture. Sangoma’s model is per-seat and all-inclusive from the start.
How Dialpad Pricing Works
Dialpad Connect starts at $15/user/month on the standard plan. The structure fragments from there. Contact center (Dialpad Support) runs $80–150/user/month. The sales dialer (Dialpad Sell) adds another $39–150/user/month. CRM integrations are locked behind the Pro tier. Outbound SMS has volume caps on lower plans. International calling is metered, and per-minute charges apply in the contact center. For a team that starts on Connect and grows into contact center and sales dialing, the invoice at renewal looks very different from the original quote.
How Sangoma Pricing Works
Sangoma’s Business Voice and Business Voice Plus plans are priced per seat and include voice, video, messaging, collaboration, and 24/7 support without add-ons. Contact center capability is built into the platform with no separate product license. There are no per-ticket support fees, no hosting surcharges, and no surprise line items at renewal.
| Pricing Factor | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Base UCaaS pricing | Per-seat, all-inclusive | From $15/user/month (Standard) |
| Contact center | Sangoma CX (separate license) | $80–150/user/month (separate product) |
| Sales dialer | Included | $39–150/user/month (separate product) |
| 24/7 support | Included on all plans | Enterprise tier only |
| CRM integrations | Included | Pro tier and above |
| Outbound SMS | Included | Volume caps on lower plans |
| International calling | Included | Metered |
| Per-minute CC charges | No | Yes |
Related: UCaaS Pricing: What You Should Know in 2026
Hardware and Infrastructure
Dialpad’s hardware story depends on third-party manufacturers, primarily Poly and Yealink. Firmware updates, survivability integrations, and hardware roadmap decisions sit with vendors Dialpad does not control. When something breaks, support responsibility can shift between the UCaaS provider and the hardware manufacturer.
Sangoma manufactures its own phones, gateways, and session border controllers, with firmware aligned directly to the software roadmap. The full-stack picture extends further: managed SD-WAN, managed firewall, managed Wi-Fi, native SIP trunking via SIPStation, and survivability appliances, all under one vendor and one support line.
| Hardware / Infrastructure | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Desk phones | Sangoma-manufactured | Poly, Yealink (third-party) |
| Gateways and SBCs | Sangoma-manufactured, plus Poly and Yealink support | Third-party |
| Survivability appliance | StarBox | None |
| Managed SD-WAN | Yes | No |
| Managed firewall | Yes | No |
| Managed Wi-Fi | Yes | No |
| SIP trunking (native) | Yes (SIPStation) | No |
| Firmware control | Direct | Third-party dependent |
| Vendor relationships | Single vendor | Multi-vendor |
AI Features
Both platforms invest in AI, but the focus differs. Dialpad built DialpadGPT, a proprietary LLM that transcribes calls in real time, scores sentiment, generates post-call summaries, and coaches agents mid-conversation with live prompts. Inside sales teams and coaching-driven contact centers get the most out of DialpadGPT because the real-time guidance directly improves rep performance on active calls.
Sangoma took a different route. Instead of coaching agents on live calls, Sangoma’s AI rworks two ways: cutting the number of calls agents handle, and speeding up the ones they do. CX can run AI virtual agents and chatbots through a Google Dialogflow integration, letting callers handle routine requests themselves rather than waiting for an agent. In hospitality, that means guests booking rooms or asking about amenities; in healthcare, patients getting answers without sitting on hold. Agents get transcription and sentiment scoring automatically and ready-to-edit draft replies across SMS, WhatsApp, and email. An internal knowledge bot (@ASKSangoma) pulls answers from Sangoma documentation, so support teams spend less time searching for product documentation.
| AI Capability | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time transcription | Yes | Yes (DialpadGPT) |
| Post-call summaries | Yes | Yes |
| Live call coaching | Standard | Advanced |
| Sentiment analysis | Yes | Yes |
| Conversational IVR | Via Google Dialogflow add-on | Yes |
| Internal knowledge bot | Yes | No |
| Proprietary LLM | No | Yes (DialpadGPT) |
| Agentic AI platform | No | Yes |
| AI replaces survivability | No | No |
Contact Center and Sales Dialer Fit
For basic call queues, both platforms work. For full contact center or outbound dialing, Dialpad requires separate products: Dialpad Support for contact center and Dialpad Sell for the sales dialer, each on its own pricing tier and invoice. Sangoma CX runs on the same platform, licensed separately from UC seats.
| Capability | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Basic call queues | Yes | Yes |
| Full inbound contact center | Sangoma CX (same platform, separate license) | Dialpad Support (separate product) |
| Outbound sales dialer | Click-to-call via Sangoma CX add-on | Dialpad Sell (separate product) |
| Workforce management | Yes | Yes |
| AI coaching and transcription | Yes | Yes (more advanced) |
| Single platform for UC + CC | Yes | No |
| CRM call logging | Yes | Pro tier and above |
Compliance and Security for Regulated Industries
Sangoma’s cloud runs on a PCI-certified, HIPAA-compliant private network with a 99.999% uptime SLA. Security patching and system updates are managed by Sangoma, making it a fit for healthcare, retail, food services, and any organization where uptime and compliance posture are both non-negotiable.
Dialpad documents HIPAA support, but its 99.9% uptime SLA and cloud-only infrastructure raise the risk bar for clinical deployments. A 99.9% SLA allows for roughly 8.7 hours of potential downtime per year; 99.999% allows for roughly 5 minutes.
| Compliance / Security Factor | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| HIPAA compliance | Yes | Yes |
| PCI certification | Yes (native, private network) | Via PCI Pal integration (separate account, paid setup) |
| Uptime SLA | 99.999% | 99.9% |
| Private network | Yes | No |
| Security patching | Managed by Sangoma | Customer / platform-managed |
Quality of Support
Dialpad’s support model leans on AI chatbots, and user reviews on G2 and Trustpilot flag slow escalations and difficulty reaching knowledgeable humans as recurring frustrations. Porting and billing disputes surface frequently in the same review threads. Human 24/7 support is tied to the Enterprise tier, meaning smaller accounts work within a more limited support structure. Customers also remain responsible for their own local networking, ISP troubleshooting, and Wi-Fi quality.
Sangoma includes 24/7 human support on every plan, with white-glove onboarding and a local partner ecosystem. The numbers behind that commitment are specific: CSAT improved from 73.8% to 94.6% within a year of Sangoma’s customer experience initiative, NPS increased by nearly 29 points over the same period, and the number of support agents below Sangoma’s internal 85% CSAT goal dropped from 56 to 17. Rich Hackel, Sangoma’s VP of Global Customer Care, attributed the improvement to daily coaching using real-time feedback data. Full details are in this Sangoma case study.
Sangoma takes responsibility for the full communications environment, not just the application layer. When something breaks, there is one call to make.
| Support Factor | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | 24/7, all plans | 24/7 at Enterprise tier only |
| Support model | Human-first | AI/chatbot-first |
| CSAT score | 94.6% | Not published |
| Onboarding | White-glove, guided | Self-directed |
| Network / ISP ownership | Sangoma-managed | Customer responsibility |
| Uptime SLA | 99.999% | 99.9% |
| Telecom expertise | 40+ years | SaaS-first |
Integrations and Platform Flexibility
Both platforms cover major CRMs and productivity tools. The difference is where access starts. Dialpad’s CRM integrations require Pro tier or above on Connect. Sangoma includes native Microsoft Teams integration, SIPStation trunking, and full hardware interoperability across its own device range.
| Integration Factor | Sangoma | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Yes | Yes (Pro tier) |
| HubSpot / Zendesk | Yes | Yes (Pro tier) |
| Google Workspace / M365 | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Teams | Yes (native) | Yes |
| Open API | Yes | Yes |
| SIP trunking (native) | Yes (SIPStation) | No |
| Hardware SIP support | Full (own devices) | Third-party only |
Why Businesses Pick Sangoma Over Dialpad
Calls keep running when the internet goes down. StarBox and local survivability mean a WAN outage does not become a communications outage. Dialpad has no equivalent.
Predictable costs from day one. Contact center, dialer, and UC are not on separate invoices. No product-line fragmentation, no feature gated behind an upgrade.
Full features without tier-gating. Voice, video, messaging, collaboration, and contact center ship with every seat.
One vendor, one support contact. Phones, gateways, SBCs, software, trunking, and 24/7 support all come from Sangoma. Multi-vendor troubleshooting is not part of the picture.
NetOps operational visibility. Sangoma gives IT teams visibility across the entire communications environment: phones, gateways, network services, and UC analytics. Dialpad’s monitoring stops at the software.
Built for operational verticals. PCI-certified, HIPAA-compliant private network for healthcare, retail, hospitality, and manufacturing.
Support that owns the whole problem. Sangoma takes responsibility for the full communications environment, not just the app layer. 24/7 human support on every plan.
Switching From Dialpad to Sangoma
The transition covers three areas: number porting, hardware, and platform continuity. Sangoma’s white-glove support and partner network handle number porting and deployment configuration, so the process is guided rather than self-directed.
On hardware, Dialpad customers typically run Poly and Yealink devices, which can be evaluated case by case during transition planning. Switchvox Cloud seats include a Sangoma P325 desk phone, which offsets part of the hardware replacement cost.
Because Sangoma runs the same underlying software across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises deployments, organizations that start in the cloud and later move to a hybrid architecture do not need to redeploy or retrain.
The Dialpad Alternative Built for Real-World Operations
Dialpad works well for teams where AI-first collaboration and a straightforward cloud setup are the priority. For organizations where voice is mission-critical, sites need to stay operational during outages, costs need to remain predictable as the business grows, and support needs to be reachable at any hour, Sangoma is the more complete answer.
To see how Sangoma fits your specific environment, schedule a demo with the team.
Sangoma vs Dialpad FAQs
What happens to phone calls if a location loses its internet connection?
With Dialpad, calls can be rerouted externally, but local office communications go down. With Sangoma, the StarBox appliance keeps internal calls running, supports POTS and secondary internet failover, and includes optional 4G/5G failover so that a WAN outage does not become a voice outage.
Does Dialpad offer on-premises or hybrid deployment?
No. Dialpad is cloud-only. Sangoma supports cloud, hybrid, on-premises, and virtual machine deployments from the same platform, with a straightforward migration path between them.
How does Dialpad’s pricing compare to Sangoma at scale?
Dialpad starts at $15/user/month, but contact center capability runs $80–150/user/month as a separate product. Sales dialing adds another $39–150/user/month. CRM integrations are gated to Pro tier. Sangoma’s per-seat model includes all of these capabilities with no product-line fragmentation.
Which platform is better for healthcare or other regulated industries?
Sangoma operates on a PCI-certified, HIPAA-compliant private network with a 99.999% uptime SLA. Dialpad documents HIPAA support but carries a 99.9% SLA and cloud-only infrastructure, which limits its fit for clinical environments where uptime and data residency are compliance requirements.
Does Sangoma have AI features comparable to Dialpad?
Both platforms offer transcription, sentiment analysis, and post-call summaries. Dialpad goes further on live call coaching with DialpadGPT, a proprietary LLM that prompts agents in real time during active calls. Sangoma goes further on operational automation with conversational IVR that handles routine inbound calls without human involvement, AI-drafted replies across SMS, WhatsApp, and email, and an internal knowledge bot for support teams. Dialpad’s AI requires cloud; Sangoma’s runs on cloud, hybrid, and on-prem.
How difficult is it to switch from Dialpad to Sangoma?
Sangoma’s white-glove onboarding and partner network handle the migration, including number porting, hardware transition, and deployment configuration. Every Switchvox cloud seat includes a free P325 desk phone. The process is guided rather than self-directed.
Which platform handles multi-location businesses more effectively?
Sangoma is built for multi-location environments. StarBox provides local survivability at each site, 4G/5G and POTS failover keep branches connected during outages, and Sangoma’s managed networking services give IT teams visibility across the full communications environment. Dialpad’s cloud-only model means each location’s voice reliability depends entirely on its internet connection.