Contact centre quotes are hard to compare because no two providers bill the same way. One charges per person who might log in, another per person logged in at once, a third adds a charge per queue and a fourth bundles minutes you may never use. The platforms are often similar. The pricing model is where the real difference in cost lives, and it is worth understanding before you look at a single feature list.
The 30-second version
- Named user pricing charges for everyone who has an account, whether they are working or not.
- Concurrent user pricing charges for how many are logged in at once, which suits shift patterns.
- Calling is usually separate from the platform, either bundled or per minute.
- Queues, channels and numbers can each carry their own charge, and this is where quotes quietly diverge.
- The extras are where budgets go: recording, reporting, workforce management and integrations are rarely included.
On this page
Named users versus concurrent users
This is the single biggest variable in a contact centre quote, and it is the one most likely to be glossed over.
Named user pricing means a licence for every person with an account. If forty people can log in, you pay for forty, regardless of how many are working at any given moment.
Concurrent user pricing means you pay for the number of simultaneous sessions. If forty people work across shifts but only fifteen are ever logged in together, you pay for fifteen.
| Model | You pay for | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Named user | Every person with a login | Teams where most people work the same hours, and where headcount is stable |
| Concurrent user | The number logged in at once | Shift patterns, part time staff, seasonal peaks, and anywhere headcount is much larger than the number on at once |
| A mix of both | Core staff named, overflow concurrent | Larger operations with a stable core and a variable edge |
For a business running shifts, the difference between these two models can be larger than every other line on the quote put together. It is the first question to ask, and if a provider is vague about it, that is informative in itself.
The calling itself is usually separate
The platform licence gets you the software. Actually making and receiving calls is normally charged on top, and there are two common approaches.
- Bundled minutes. A set allowance per user per month. Predictable, and usually fine, but check what happens when you exceed it and whether unused minutes pool across the team or expire per person.
- Per minute. You pay for what you use, at different rates for landline, mobile and international. Honest, but harder to budget for, and outbound heavy teams can be surprised.
- Inbound numbers. Non-geographic numbers, 0800 numbers and the like frequently carry their own monthly charge and their own call costs, and 0800 means you pay for the caller’s call rather than them.
Ask this one specifically
What does an average month look like in minutes, and what does a bad month look like? A provider who knows their platform can answer that from your call volumes. One who cannot is quoting you a platform without having looked at how you use it.
Queues, channels and the things charged per item
Beyond users and minutes, providers charge for the structure of the operation itself, and this is where two quotes for the same platform stop resembling each other.
| Charged item | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Per queue | Each routing queue carries a fee. Businesses with many small queues by department or product can find this adds up faster than expected |
| Per channel | Voice, email, web chat, WhatsApp and social are often licensed separately rather than as one omnichannel price |
| Per IVR or call flow | Some platforms charge for each automated menu or routing flow you build |
| Per number | Each inbound number on the platform, separate from the calls made to it |
| Platform or tenant fee | A base monthly charge before any user licence, which makes small deployments proportionally expensive |
The extras that are rarely in the headline price
- Call recording, and separately the storage and retention period. Regulated sectors need longer retention, and that is usually chargeable.
- Reporting and analytics beyond the basic dashboard, including historical data and how far back it goes.
- Workforce management, meaning forecasting and shift scheduling. Often a separate product entirely.
- Quality monitoring and scoring, for supervisors reviewing calls.
- CRM integration, which may be included for common systems and chargeable for anything else.
- Onboarding, configuration and training, normally a one off cost that is easy to leave out of a comparison.
None of these are unreasonable charges. The problem is that different providers include different ones in the headline figure, so comparing two quotes on the per user price alone tells you very little.
The questions worth asking before you sign
- Is this named or concurrent? Then work out your own number for both and compare.
- What is included in the user licence, and what is a separate product? Ask specifically about recording, reporting and workforce management.
- How is calling charged, bundled or per minute, and do bundles pool across the team?
- Are queues, channels, call flows and numbers charged individually? If so, price the setup you actually want rather than a basic one.
- What is the minimum term and the minimum commitment? Some contracts fix a user count you cannot reduce even if the team shrinks.
- What does it cost to add ten people for three months? The answer tells you how the contract behaves in the real world.
And whether you need a contact centre at all
Worth asking, because the answer is sometimes no. A good business phone system already handles queues, hunt groups, out of hours routing and basic reporting, and for a team answering a manageable volume that is frequently enough.
A contact centre platform earns its cost when you need several channels in one place, real visibility of what is happening across a team, and routing that goes beyond ringing everybody at once. If none of those apply, you are paying contact centre prices for phone system features. Our comparison of what a contact centre does that a phone system cannot goes through the difference.
Comparing contact centre quotes?
Send us what you have been quoted and tell us how your team actually works, including shifts. We will translate the pricing models into a like for like comparison, even where the quotes are not ours.