How Much Does Call Recording & Voice Analytics Cost In 2023?

Are you trying to get an idea of the general cost of contact center software solutions in the market? Are you frustrated that you cannot find reliable pricing information anywhere? 

Here at MiaRec, we get asked this question many times over, and while it isn't easy to give a one-size-fits-all price for all the different contact center solutions available on the market right now, we strive to provide unbiased, honest, and transparent advice to our prospective customers so they can make a decision that is right for their organization.

In this article, we go over the most common pricing models, look at average price ranges for basic call recording to advanced Voice Analytics, and analyze what factors make software costs go up or down. By the end of the article, you will have a better understanding of what to expect in terms of the actual pricing, licensing terms, and any possible hidden fees to look out for. 

Please note: all pricing information as of Feb. 2023 (date of publishing).

Topics covered in this article:

• Different Contact Center Software Pricing Models
  • Software-a-as-Service (SaaS) vs. Perpetual Pricing
  • Tiered vs. A-La-Carte Pricing
  • User- vs. Consumption-Based Pricing
• Average Price Ranges For Call Recording & Voice Analytics
  • Average Call Recording Prices: $10/Month/User For Basic, $25/Month/User For Advanced Call Recording
  • Advanced Voice Analytics Runs, On Average, Between $50-$125/User/Month
• Extra Add-Ons & Additional Fees To Look Out For
  • Extra Add-on Fees
  • Additional Fees To Look Out For

The Different Software Pricing Models available at contact center market

There are various ways to price out a contact center software tool, depending on whether the solution is on-premise-based (perpetual license) or in the cloud (Software-as-a-Service license), or whether the vendor prefers to license their software on a user or consumption basis. 

Software-a-as-Service (SaaS) vs. Perpetual Pricing

SaaS Pricing: If the solution you want to buy is cloud-based, you will almost always pay a monthly subscription price with an annual contract. Most of the time, there will be an additional one-time setup fee that covers implementation, integration, and some professional services to configure your solution to your organization's needs. This flexible pricing model allows you to quickly expand or contract the number of seats you need throughout the seasons. Some vendors will be willing to provide discounts for longer, multi-year contracts. Observe.AI, Calabrio, Dubber, and MiaRec are offered as SaaS licenses. 

Example SaaS Pricing: MiaRec Cloud-Based (Source)

• $12/month/user for standard call recording
• $20/month/user for advanced call recording
• $35/month/user for advanced call recording plus quality management
• $65/month/user for advanced call recording plus quality management, and Voice Analytics (incl. unlimited storage and 2,000 transcribed minutes per month)

Example SaaS Pricing: Dubber for Compliance Teams (Source)

• $14.95/month/user to monitor, store and review recordings
• $19.95/month/endpoint to monitor, store and review recordings, transcriptions and AI-enriched insights, alerts, search and sentiment analysis

Example Annual Subscription Pricing: CallCabinet (Source)

• Core Recording License (call recording): $179.40/user per year
• Business Intelligence License (Includes Analytics Recording features plus Voice Analytics and other advanced features): $2,160.00/user per year

Perpetual Pricing: On the other hand, if you are purchasing an on-premise tool, you might be looking at perpetual pricing models, although monthly subscription models with annual contracts are also standard. A perpetual license allows you to pay the license fee upfront and then use the software for the agreed license term. In addition, expect to pay 20% of the annual license cost for maintenance and support every year. Also, there might be additional fees for setup, integration, etc. 

Tiered vs. A-La-Carte Pricing

Another way to structure pricing is by how many choices you, as the customer, have in selecting the product you want.

A-La-Carte Pricing: On-premise-based solutions have historically used a-la-carte licensing, which benefits the customer by allowing them to choose exactly all the products and features they want. However, it quickly gets very complicated, overwhelming, and harder to compare between vendors. For example, NICE pricing has more than 400 line items (on tens of pages). Most vendors are phasing out this pricing model. 

Tiered Pricing (SaaS-based pricing is also often tiered): Other vendors offer tiered pricing that groups features, functionality, and products/modules together in specific tiers (Call Recording, Quality Management, Voice Analytics). This has the advantage of simpler and more streamlined pricing, but you might have to purchase functionality you aren't using (yet).

Calabrio was one of the first companies that started using a simple packaging licensing model, which consisted of three packages: Recording, Quality Management (QM), and Advanced QM. As a separate product, they offer Advanced Reporting (Call Analytics) and Workforce Management (former Teleopti product). Tiered pricing is almost always also user-based and often offered as a SaaS subscription.

User-Based vs. Consumption-Based Pricing

Consumption-Based Pricing: Another way to distinguish pricing models in the Contact Center Software market is by using user- vs. consumption-based models. While the vast majority of vendors use a user-based model, some vendors charge by the number of hours recorded, mined, transcribed, stored, or in other ways processed. Consumption-based models usually start at $15,000 per year and can be scaled upwards from a minimum baseline in incremental steps.

Example Consumption-Based Pricing: CallMiner (Source)

• Mandatory minimum purchase of 1,500 hours of call audio mining per month: $1,275/month or $14,535/year. This translates to comparatively $28/user/month: 1,500h x 60 min / 2,000 min (average # of min a contact center agent records a month) = 45 agents, $1,275 / 45 users = $28/user
• Additional consumption can be purchased in 500-hour packs at $425/month or $4,845/year
• It is not entirely clear, but we believe this pricing is for their base package, which doesn’t provide all the analytical capabilities.
• It is worth noting that on the Talkdesk marketplace, CallMiner pricing for speech analytics without call recording is listed as $89/user/month (Source).

Example Consumption-Based Pricing: Tethr (Source)

• Consumption-based pricing with an unlimited user license model
• Pricing starts at $15K/year and scales up based on interaction volume

💡Key Takeaway:

As contact centers increasingly move to the cloud, pricing is becoming SaaS (per user/month) based. This not only simplifies call recording cost comparisons but makes it easier for organizations to plan their budgets, as SaaS pricing is predictable and usually doesn't require large, up-front investments.

Average Price Ranges For Call Recording & Voice Analytics

It is hard to determine the average monthly cost per user for call recording, Automated Quality Management, and Voice Analytics because every vendor offers slightly different packages, including different features. Having said that, below are some average price ranges that give you a good idea of what to expect. 

Average Call Recording Prices: $10/Month/User For Basic, $25/Month/User For Advanced Call Recording

Let's start by looking at call recording.

You can expect to pay $10-$15/month per user for basic cloud-based call recording, and $25/month per user for more advanced call recording in the cloud, including advanced compliance features, security, and storage.

For more advanced cloud-based call recording that includes agent evaluation, speech analytics, etc., expect to pay $100/user/month on average. This depends on the brand or market segment the vendor is operating in, and it is almost always part of another solution. 

It is worth noting that some CCaS and UCaS vendors, like Five9 and RingCentral might offer free 30-day call recording but it might be very limited and sometime not automatic call recording. Although this solution might work for some business cases, it will not work for compliance and quality management purposes.

If you are looking at perpetual pricing for an on-premise call recording solution, expect to pay, on average, $300 as a one-time fee plus 20% of the annual license fee ($60) for maintenance and support every year. If you do the math for a 3-year usage ([$300+(3x$60)]/36 months = $13.33/month), you come out to about the same as the cloud license cost, but you will have to add the additional infrastructure and administration costs as you are running the solution in-house.

Advanced Voice Analytics Runs, On Average, Between $50-$125/User/Month

Voice Analytics solutions are mostly charged per user, meaning every recorded agent needs a seat. Voice Analytics solutions can range from $50/user/month on the low end to $125/user/month on the higher end. 

Voice Analytics pricing is largely driven by the high cost of transcription services averaging at about $0.05 per minute if done with Google or Microsoft. This can be substantial, e.g., if you are recording 1,000 minutes per agent a month, transcription services only (without analytics) cost $50. In addition, the pricing depends on how advanced the Voice Analytics features are, whether or not call recording and Automated Quality Management are included, and the brand and niche the vendor is operating in.

Example of Voice Analytics Only Pricing: Observe.AI 

• ​Voice Analytics only, no call recording: $75/month/user (Source)
• All-inclusive license: $119/user/month ($89 + $30) (Source)

Example of Voice Analytics Incl. Call Recording Pricing: Calabrio (Source)​

• Calabrio One Suite (incl. call recording, quality management, workforce management, and analytics licenses): $1,500/user for a 12-months subscription which equals $125/month per user

Extra Add-Ons & Additional Fees To Look Out For

By now, you know that contact center software pricing isn't cut and dried across the board. While there are some industry averages you can orient yourself by, you will encounter possible additional fees and costs you might not have expected at first. 

Feature Add-Ons

Some additional functionality might not be included in the call recording, Automated Quality Management, or Voice Analytics license, as you might only want to pay for a few people in your organization to have access to these special features, or most organizations do not need them. This can include:

• Advanced Reporting,
• Advanced Security, and
• Screen Recording (around $25-50/month).

Additional Fees To Expect

There might be some additional fees you will have to account for in addition to your license. These will depend on the type of solution you buy (e.g., on-premise solutions will require a more involved setup than cloud solutions) as well as the vendor's business model.

They can include the following:

• Storage Fees (for every minute per month [see Twillio] or for additional storage requirements exceeding your original license agreement)
• Transcription Fees (for every minute per month [see Twillio] or after you reach a certain threshold like we do here at MiaRec)
• Set-Up Fees (very common to account for the initial setup of your solution; be sure to ask what is included)
• Server License (you might be required to pay for a server license to run the solution on-premise in addition to the per-user price; usually minimal)
• Integration Fees (can largely vary depending on the vendor)
• API Fees (can largely vary depending on the vendor)
• Professional Services

Example Consumption-Based Pricing: Twillio (Source)

• Call Recording: $0.0025 min/month (10,000min/month = $25)
• + Storage: $0.0005 min/month (10,000 minutes are included, 10,000min/month = $5)
• + Transcription: $0.05 min/month (10,000min/month = $500)

Conclusion

To summarize, it is hard to make a one-to-one comparison of the pricing of different call recording, quality management, and Voice Analytics products because vendors offer different sets of features and use various pricing models. Some products do not include call recording, while others include only basic speech analytics compatibilities. But it is safe to say that, for cloud solutions, the price range from $10 (for basic call recording) up to $125 (for advanced analytics) per user and month is reasonable.