Dialpad is a cloud communications platform built around the phone. Its plans cover business calling, a contact centre, sales calling and AI agents, priced per user. Cue is an omnichannel customer service platform built around WhatsApp. Email, web chat and Messenger sit in the same inbox, and since October 2026 phone calls do too, on the same customer record.

So the question is less "which is better" and more "what sits at the centre of your service". If it's the phone, look hard at Dialpad. If it's WhatsApp and messaging, with calls alongside, Cue is built for that.

Dialpad vs Cue at a glance

Dialpad details are from dialpad.com, checked 26 October 2026.

What Dialpad does well

Dialpad started as a cloud phone system, and the phone is still where it's strongest.

Business calling. Its Connect plans are its business phone system, for the whole company rather than one team.

A voice contact centre. Its Support plans are built for teams that handle most of their contact by phone.

Sales calling. Its Sell plans are built for sales teams. Outbound sales calling is a different job from customer service, and Cue doesn't try to do it.

AI agents for voice and chat. Dialpad prices its AI Agent product by conversation. You buy credits, and Dialpad says a conversation is only billable when the AI retrieves information or takes an action. It lists autonomous voice and chat agents with handoff to people.

If you need one phone system for the whole business, run a call-heavy contact centre, or want AI to answer calls, Dialpad is the stronger fit.

What Cue does

Cue is built for service teams whose customers would rather message. It's at its best where WhatsApp carries most of the conversation and calls need to sit alongside it.

• WhatsApp at the centre. A shared inbox on the WhatsApp Business Platform, with broadcasts, chatbots and Flows.

• Every channel on one record. WhatsApp, email, web chat, Messenger and phone in one inbox, with each conversation saved on the contact.

• Unlimited seats. Everyone who needs to help a customer can work in the inbox, with no per-user charge.

• AI Agents on digital channels. They answer from the content you approve and hand over to a person when they can't help.

Cue isn't a company-wide phone system. It doesn't give every employee an extension or desk phone, and it isn't built for sales dialling.

Phone in Dialpad vs phone in Cue

This is the comparison that matters now Cue takes calls.

Dialpad is a phone-first platform. Calling, the contact centre and AI voice agents are the core of the product, and messaging is built around that.

Cue Phone is a channel inside a customer service platform. Calls arrive in the same inbox as WhatsApp, and the caller is matched to their contact by phone number, so the agent can see the WhatsApp conversation before answering.

What Cue Phone covers:

• a greeting and a keypad menu with up to 12 options

• calls shared by round robin, least calls today or longest idle

• hold, plus warm and cold transfer

• opening hours per location, with an out-of-hours message that can point callers to WhatsApp

• calls recorded and transcribed, with recordings and transcripts on the contact record next to WhatsApp, email and chat history

• one-to-one outbound calls to UK and EMEA numbers, including South Africa

You can get a new number through Cue in the UK or elsewhere in EMEA, including South Africa, or bring your existing number across.

What it doesn't do:

• AI doesn't answer calls. Calls in Cue are answered by your team.

• Cue Phone isn't a dialler or a campaign calling tool.

• It doesn't route by speech, only by keypad.

Our guide to inbound call handling goes through how that set-up works day to day.

Dialpad vs Cue pricing

Dialpad prices its phone, contact centre and sales plans per user. Its AI Agent product is priced separately by conversation, using credits. Prices as shown on dialpad.com, checked 26 October 2026:

Dialpad's page says prices vary by region and currency, and doesn't say which billing period these figures reflect. Check dialpad.com for your market.

Cue prices by the number of customers you talk to each month, not by user. Every plan includes unlimited seats.

Prices are for 1,500 monthly active contacts on a 12-month contract and exclude VAT. Connect has a one-off £249 onboarding fee; onboarding is free from Automate.

Phone is included in every plan. Connect comes with one phone number, Automate with three and Scale with five, and every plan includes 50 free outbound minutes a month, with call recording and transcripts. Extra minutes start at £35 a month for 1,000 outbound minutes, with the same number of inbound minutes free. WhatsApp message charges are shown separately from the plan price. See Cue pricing, or pricing in rand for South Africa.

The structural difference: a per-user phone system gets more expensive with every person who needs a line. Cue gets more expensive as you talk to more customers, however many agents you have.

When to choose Dialpad, and when to choose Cue

Choose Dialpad if:

• you need one phone system for the whole business, not just the service team

• most of your customer contact is by phone

• you run outbound sales calling

• you want AI to answer calls

Choose Cue if:

• most of your customers contact you on WhatsApp

• you want calls and messages handled by the same team on one customer record

• you need a large or growing service team without per-user pricing

• you send broadcasts and service updates on WhatsApp as well as answering inbound

Or use both. Some businesses keep a phone system for office and internal calls and run customer service calls through the service platform. We cover that split in PABX or a customer service phone system?, written for South African businesses but relevant anywhere.

See how Cue handles calls and messages together

Cue brings WhatsApp, phone, email, web chat and Messenger into one inbox, with unlimited seats. See Cue pricing, or book a demo to talk through your own call and message volumes.

You can also compare Cue with Talkdesk and Zendesk, or see all our comparisons.