Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) has become essential for modern businesses that want to facilitate effective communication and collaboration from anywhere. Most organizations that haven’t already switched from legacy phone systems to cloud solutions are at least weighing their options: By the end of this year, the 2024 State of Disruption report from AVANT Analytics estimates that more than 80 percent of companies will evaluate UCaaS solutions.
However, the vast and volatile UCaaS marketplace can prove challenging to navigate. With so many options available and the landscape evolving rapidly in terms of top providers, how can you be sure you’re making the right choice? In one Gartner survey, 56 percent of organizations expressed regret over their largest technology purchase during the preceding two years.
That’s where our trusted technology advisors come in. With over 20 years of experience in telephony and unified communications, the latest market data, and extensive experience assisting businesses of all sizes with UCaaS selection and deployment, we can efficiently identify the top 3 to 5 solutions out of dozens of options, saving you a significant amount of time and money you’d otherwise spend making sense of the marketplace on your own.
An essential component of our advisory arsenal is a tool that rapidly generates thorough comparison matrices illustrating how suppliers stack up side-by-side. In this “versus” blog series, we aim to demonstrate the value of these objective matrices in the UCaaS solution selection process.
This blog entry examines Vonage versus Zoom in terms of UCaaS offerings. Before you dive into the matrix, here’s some vital background info about each provider.
UCaaS supplier profile: Vonage
Vonage, founded in 2001 and based in Holmdel, NJ, provides unified communications and contact center solutions in addition to communications APIs. Vonage – which became a subsidiary of Ericsson in 2022 – offers an advanced UCaaS platform with over 50 features and facilitates communication and collaboration via messaging, voice calls, video conferencing and more.
Notable benefits of Vonage Business Communications offerings include reliability, security and compliance, and ease of use. This provider also offers SD-WAN solutions to support high-quality video conferencing and enhance the performance of UCaaS and other applications.
UCaaS supplier profile: Zoom
Since 2011, Zoom has provided leading video communication solutions for businesses and individuals. This San Jose, CA-based company surged in popularity during the pandemic as people sought convenient ways to stay connected despite physical distance. Zoom’s UCaaS platform facilitates collaboration from anywhere with an intuitive interface. This offering promotes productivity and efficiency with HD video and audio. Key benefits include reliability, scalability, and security, among others.
If you want to replace your on-prem PBX with a cloud phone system, Zoom can hold considerable appeal if your team members already have experience using the platform for video calls. This supplier’s UCaaS offering makes it easy to add telephony users to your meetings and includes native enhanced emergency calling and compliance recording.
| Provider | link to provider’s Pathfnder profle | Vonage Business | Zoom |
| HQ | Location of headquarters | Homdel, NJ | San Jose, CA |
| # of Employees | in-house staff | 2,500 | 6,000 |
| Public / Private | Privately owned or publicly traded | Public: ERIC | Public: ZM |
| Seats in Service | Number of licenses deployed | 1M | 7M (Zoom Phone) |
| Minimum Seat Count / MRC | # of seats or MRC minimum required to engage | no minimum | no minimum |
| Sweet Spot | Ideal opportunities for the provider | 10-10,000 seats | 150-2,500+ seats |
| Key Acquisitions | Companies acquired and integrated into the supplier’s offering | Acquired by Ericcson iCore, NewVoiceMedia, Nexmo, Over.AI, Simple Signal, Telesphere, TokBox, Vocalocity | Keybase, Kites, Solvvy |
| Datacenter Locations | Location of supplier’s data centers APAC: Asia-Pacifc EMEA: Europe, Middle East, Africa LATAM: Latin America NA: North America | AWS Data Centers APAC: Singapore, Sydney Canada: Calgary, Montreal EMEA: Dublin, Frankfurt, Jerusalem, Paris UK: London US: Atlanta, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Scottsdale | APAC: Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Melbourne, Mumbai, Osaka, Singapore, Sydney, Tianjin, Tokyo Canada: Toronto, Vancouver EMEA: Amsterdam, Frankfurt LATAM: Queretaro (Mexico), São Paulo US: Denver, Newark, New York City, San Jose, Virginia |
| International Full PSTN Replacement | local DID + in-country calling experience, number portability, access to emergency services | 90+ Countries | 47+ Countries |
| Compatible Handsets | IP phones supported and/or resold by supplier | Cisco, Panasonic, Poly, Yealink | Algo, Cisco, Grandstream, Logitech, Poly, Snom, Yealink |
| Platform | Does provider leverage a proprietary/native platform or leverage a platform via third-party partnership? | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Microsoft Teams Integrations | Supplier’s capability with Microsoft Teams | Middleware Direct Routing – Bundled PBX Embedded Dialer | Direct Routing – Bundled PBX Direct Routing – Microsoft PBX Embedded Dialer |
| Compliance | Compliance standards the provider has met or is capable of assisting a cloud customer in meeting. | CPNI, GDPR, HIPAA, HITRUST, ITAR, ISO 27001, NIST 800-53, PCI, SOC 2, SOX Additional Compliances: FINRA | CCPA, CPNI, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), FedRAMP, GDPR, HIPAA, HITRUST, ISO 27001, SOC 2 Additional Compliances: FERPA, IAPP, NCSC DOD IL2, PIPE/PHIPA; Full List |
| Contact Center | Contact center solutions the supplier offers | CX Express and CX Elevate for basic call center features and non-CRM integrated users. Vonage Omni-Channel Contact Center (VCC) is available for Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk Microsoft Dynamics 365 and more. | Proprietary |
| Key System Emulation | Can imitate Key Phone System functionality | Yes | Yes |
| SIP Trunking Available | Does the supplier offer SIP trunking services for on-premises PBXs? | Yes | Yes |
| Line of Business App Integrations | 3rd-party SaaS solutions the supplier has integrated with | Athena, Bullhorn, Cerner, EPIC, Fiserv, Google Workspace, HubSpot, Jack Henry, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Offce, NetSuite, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, SugarCRM, Zendesk, Zoho Additional Integrations: Clio, Connectwise, Job Diva, Prodoscore, Workplace, Zapier | Cerner, EPIC, Google Workspace, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Offce, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, SugarCRM, Zendesk, Zoho Additional Integrations: Full List |
| AI Capabilities | Artifcial Intelligence tools incorporated in the provider’s solution | Assign Action Items Live Language Translation Note Taking & Summarization Real-Time Transcription Sentiment Analysis | Assign Action Items Live Language Translation Note Taking & Summarization Real-Time Transcription Sentiment Analysis |
| SD-WAN Offerings | SD-WAN technologies that these providers offer and manage themselves. | VMware SD-WAN (VeloCloud) | none |
| Circuits Offered | Do these suppliers offer Dedicated Circuits for UCaaS traffc only, Internet circuits, and/or SIP trunking? If yes, please specifc which ones. | no | no |
| Bring Your Own MPLS | If MPLS is supported, can the client bring any MPLS provider? Additional cost likely to apply. | yes | yes |
| Top Customer Verticals | Verticals in which supplier has historically had the most success | Finance, Healthcare, IT, Retail | Education, Healthcare, Professional Services, Technology |
| On-Site Implementation / Training | Does the supplier charge extra for these services? | Additional Charge | Additional Charge |
| Implementation Overview | Description or link providing further detail | Read more here | Read more here |
| Dedicated Customer Support | Does the supplier provide dedicated support personnel? If so, is this included or is there an additional cost? | Included | 24/7 global access included. Premier/Premier+ packages available for additional charge. Read more here |
| Collaboration Solutions Available | Native and/or 3rd-party resale options offered by supplier | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Case Studies | link to provider’s case studies page | Read more here. | Read more here. |
| Differentiators | unique features of the technology | Own the entire technology stack from Applications (UCaaS, CCaaS) and Programmable Communications (APIs). Omni-channel Contact Center solutions embedded into and optimized for Salesforce, ServiceNow and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Integrations into customer’s existing productivity tools, and solving unique communication with custom solutions. | All-in-one platform for Contact Center, AI, Virtual Agent, Phone, E-mail, Calendar, Video Meetings, Room Systems, Digital Signage, Content Sharing, Whiteboarding, Team Chat, Events, Webinars and more with over 2,000 app integrations with rich APIs and SDKs. |
As a trusted partner of both Vonage and Zoom, our team can help you determine which UCaaS supplier makes more sense for your business based on an in-depth evaluation of your needs and goals. Get started today by calling 877-599-3999 or emailing sales@stratospherenetworks.com.
