Dialpad Support vs. Five9

What to consider when evaluating contact center platforms

If you are comparing Dialpad Support and Five9, you are likely looking at more than routing capabilities and supported channels. More important questions are about how each platform approaches AI, how contact center and communications fit together in your overall stack, and whether the platform can grow with your operation over time.

This guide covers some of the criteria worth examining.

AI architecture

How AI is built into a contact center platform has become one of the more consequential factors in an evaluation. The question is not just whether a platform offers AI features, but how those features are integrated and when they activate.

Questions to ask:

• At what point in the interaction does the platform's AI activate, and what can it act on in the moment?

• Is AI built into the core platform, or delivered through a separate product or add-on?

• How does AI inform routing decisions, agent support, and supervisor visibility during live interactions?

• Does the platform draw on proprietary data to inform its AI, and if so, how does that affect accuracy and relevance?

AI agents

AI agents are a common part of contact center evaluations, and the term covers a wide range of capabilities depending on the vendor.

Questions to ask:

• Can the AI agent handle multi-turn conversations and reach resolution for appropriate issue types?

• When an AI agent escalates to a human agent, what context carries over, and is it enough for the agent to continue without asking the customer to repeat themselves?

• How can teams set guardrails, review AI agent behavior, and validate performance before deploying to customers?

• How does the platform support the ongoing optimization of AI agent deployments over time?

Conversation intelligence

Contact center platforms generate significant volumes of conversation data. Where platforms differ is in what they do with it, and when.

Questions to ask:

• What percentage of interactions does the platform analyze, and how does that affect what teams can learn at scale?

• At what point do insights become available, and how quickly can teams act on them?

• How can agents, supervisors, and business stakeholders access those insights?

• How does conversation intelligence connect to coaching, quality management, and workforce workflows?

Contact center and communications in one stack

If your evaluation includes both customer-facing contact center and internal business communications, it is worth asking how each platform handles that combination and whether those capabilities are delivered natively or through partnerships and integrations.

Questions to ask:

• Does the platform include native business communications alongside contact center, or does that require a separate product or integration?

• How does data and context move between communications and contact center workflows?

• If the platform relies on partnerships to cover both areas, what does that mean for administration, support, and total cost of ownership?

Channel coverage and cross-channel context

Most contact center platforms support voice and digital channels. A more important question is whether those channels share context and how consistently AI operates across them.

Consider whether a customer who contacts via different channels across separate interactions would need to re-explain their situation each time. Ideally, agents should have a unified view of prior interactions regardless of channel.

Questions to ask:

• Which channels are natively supported, and which (if any) are added through third-party integrations?

• Can agents see a complete interaction history across channels?

• Do AI capabilities apply across voice and digital, or does coverage vary by channel?

Workforce management and quality management

Contact centers with complex scheduling, compliance, or coaching requirements will want to evaluate workforce and quality management capabilities carefully.

Questions to ask:

• What workforce management capabilities are included natively, and what requires an additional product or integration?

• How does the platform support quality management, including call scoring, evaluations, and coaching workflows?

• How configurable are these tools for your team's structure and operational requirements?

Reporting and operational visibility

Contact center reporting serves dual audiences: operational teams managing performance day to day, and business leaders making decisions about staffing, process, and CX strategy.

What to evaluate:

• Real-time dashboards. Supervisors need visibility into what is happening in the moment.

• Historical reporting granularity. Look for the ability to segment by queue, agent, team, and interaction type. Granular segmentation can help identify what is driving performance.

• AI-generated insights. Platforms that surface patterns and insights proactively give teams more time to act on them.

CRM and business system integration

Contact centers connect to CRM, ticketing, workforce management, and other systems. When evaluating platforms, look at the depth of those integrations, not just the list.

• Bidirectional CRM integration. Agents should be able to see customer data from the CRM during an interaction. It is also worth evaluating whether call data and outcomes write back to the CRM, and how that affects agent workflow.

• Pre-built vs. custom. Pre-built integrations with platforms like Salesforce and Zendesk help reduce implementation time. If connecting to your core systems requires significant custom development, factor that into total cost and timeline.

Deployment and administration

Implementation and administration costs are often underestimated. It is worth evaluating early:

• How long does it realistically take to go live, and what does vendor support look like during that period?

• Can operational changes like updating routing logic, adding a queue, or modifying agent assignments be made by a non-technical administrator, or do they require professional services engagement?

• As your contact center grows, how does the platform scale without requiring you to rebuild your configuration?

• What is the total cost of ownership, including implementation, professional services, and ongoing administration?

Security and compliance

Contact centers handle sensitive customer information, and compliance requirements vary by industry and geography.

Look for:

• Data handling and residency. Where is data stored, and does the platform support data residency requirements for the regions where you operate?

• Compliance certifications. Common certifications include SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR readiness. For healthcare use cases, HIPAA-ready infrastructure may be required.

• Role-based access and audit logging. Can access to recordings and transcripts be restricted by role? Is there an audit trail for administrative actions and data access?

Dialpad's security and compliance posture is documented at the Dialpad Trust Center.

Disclaimer: This comparison is based on publicly available information as of the date of publication. Features, pricing, and capabilities of third-party platforms are subject to change. This content is provided for informational purposes only.

Updated July 2026