Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS): Hosted, multitenant service used for placing and receiving calls across the PSTN, sold on a per-seat subscription basis; aggregates telephony, presence, messaging/chat, collaboration, and meetings

What We Count

In this service, we count vendor’s and provider’s relative revenue in US$ recognized during the calendar year for every category. We do not include revenue from management systems, service, or support within individual product categories.

UCaaS seats: number of business users supported

Regions

Metrigy has published its annual ranking of UCaaS providers as well as our MetriStar awards for UCaaS provider customer sentiment and business success. In this episode we’ll chat with MetriRank lead author Diane Myers, and MetriStar lead author Irwin Lazar about the results and what sets each provider apart.

Cloud-based communication tools continue to play a central role in how work gets done the world over, with more than 75% of businesses globally using unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solely or in a hybrid combination with an on-premises or private cloud hosted system, according to Metrigy’s soon-to-be-published global Workplace Collaboration MetriCast 2026 study.

UCaaS popularity stems from its ability to deliver cost-effective services with sophisticated product features for companies of all sizes and across verticals. Microsoft remains the undisputed leader on market share, but Cisco, No. 2 in market share, sits atop Metrigy’s UCaaS MetriRank 2026 ranking of the top 10 providers. It surpasses Microsoft in the MetriRank with high marks across other evaluation criteria, including the highest scores for market momentum and product mix, solid financials, and notable customer sentiment and business improvement scores. 

This latter criteria—customer sentiment and customer business success—serve as the basis for our annual MetriStar Award program, UCaaS among the product categories included. This week, in fact, we’re sharing the results of our 2026 UCaaS MetriStar Award program, which evaluates providers based on customer ratings and quantitative metrics that tie product usage to measurable business success. We drew this customer data from the above-mentioned Workplace Collaboration MetriCast study, this year with 1,437 participating companies globally.

In the study, participants report how their primary UCaaS providers impact business metrics like revenue, operational costs, and employee efficiency. Providers score an average of 199.3 points in our business success calculations. Improvements in employee efficiency account for 87.2 points of that average, making it an area where vendors perform exceptionally well. For example, 30.2% of companies report a significant increase in employee efficiency, and 43.6% report a modest increase. Additionally, 48.5% report a significant increase in revenue, while 58.7% report a modest increase, and nearly half report either a significant (13.2%) or modest (35.3%) decrease in costs. 

Participants also to rate providers on a 1 to 10 scale across various categories, such as AI capabilities, analytics, integrations, and reliability. The overall average customer sentiment score for UCaaS providers this year is 8.28. 

We group our MetriStar recognitions into three categories:

Congratulations to the 10 UCaaS providers recognized in this year’s program!

Enterprises have historically used UCaaS to reduce operating costs. No longer. Today, due in part to AI, companies view UCaaS as the most efficient way to boost collaboration.

There is no question that unified communications as a service now dominates the workplace collaboration landscape.

Consider: Almost 59% of companies surveyed in Metrigy’s “Workplace Collaboration MetriCast: 2025″global research study of 797 organizations labeled unified communications as a service (UCaaS) as their primary platform for calling, meetings and messaging. Of those using on-premises UC applications, 33% also used UCaaS or planned to do so by the end of 2025.

UCaaS adoption drivers have shifted. Reduced operating costs is still a primary consideration, but access to improved collaboration features, especially those driven by AI, is the primary reason why companies adopt UCaaS.

To that end, here are seven key UCaaS features, in no particular order, which will help boost productivity and employee efficiency within your organization.

1. AI virtual assistants

Continue reading at techtarget.com.

A one-size-fits-all UC platform isn’t always the best choice. Explore the unique communications needs of different industries and how leading vendors are tailoring their services.

While most unified communications providers offer a core set of common services, such as calling, messaging and video conferencing, a one-size-fits-all platform approach may not meet the highly specialized needs of many industries.

Healthcare, financial services, and educational institutions, for example, require specialized capabilities tailored to their operating environments. As a result, a growing number of unified communications (UC) providers are delivering offerings customized for specific vertical needs.

How vertical UC requirements may differ

Continue reading at techtarget.com.

Metrigy’s third-annual UCaaS MetriRank study introduces its new Leadership Landscape, plotting the market position of the ranked providers.

June 11, 2026 – Research and advisory firm Metrigy released its UCaaS MetriRank 2026 report, identifying Cisco as No. 1 among Top 10 providers leading the market today and best positioned for long-term success. Providers are evaluated on financials, market share, product, and customer insights to assess long-term market sustainability and success.

Market share is the gating factor for inclusion in the UCaaS MetriRank, with a handful of large providers in a broad marketplace comprised of lots of options with Microsoft, Cisco, Zoom and RingCentral leading. According to Metrigy’s workplace collaboration market share and forecast report, the global market for UCaaS was $23.0 billion in 2025, up 6% year-over-year. Metrigy forecasts the worldwide market to grow at a 4% CAGR from 2025 to 2030, reaching $28.0 billion by 2030. This continuous growth highlights a mature enterprise environment, where Metrigy’s benchmark research shows that 58.6% of businesses worldwide now deploy UCaaS as their sole phone and workplace collaboration platform. 

In this report, we introduce the new Leadership Landscape. Based on the evaluation criteria listed above, scores are measured and plotted into three categories: foundation, customer, and market. The result is Cisco, Zoom, Microsoft, RingCentral and Verizon in the Leaders segment. Cisco and Zoom have strong and balanced foundation and customer scores. Microsoft has the strongest foundational score. RingCentral and Verizon have the strongest customer scores.

“The five leaders within the UCaaS MetriRank Landscape have had long-term success in the market through a focus on product development, go-to-market momentum, and customer success. Cisco has earned the overall top ranking with continue growth migrating businesses to the cloud,” said Diane Myers, senior research director and principal analyst responsible for Metrigy’s MetriRank reports as well as market share and forecasting. 

Metrigy 2026 UCaaS MetriRank Highlights

Following the Leaders listed above: 

Additionally, UCaaS providers that did not make the 2026 ranking but are on Metrigy’s watchlist due to strong performance in specific verticals include: Comcast, Dialpad, Fusion Connect, Google, Intermedia, Sangoma, Wildix, and Windstream. 

Metrigy defines UCaaS as a cloud-based suite of integrated communications and collaboration applications that, at a minimum, provides public switched telephone network (PSTN) connectivity. Offers may be sold as telephone-only services or bundled with other enterprise capabilities, including video meetings and team messaging. 

The full report, including all of our methodology, scoring indicators, standard deviations, deep-dive profiles on each provider, and much more, is available for purchase. 

If you are interested in Metrigy’s UCaaS MetriRank study, please reach out to [email protected].

The UCaaS market is going through a rapid evolution as it matures, and as AI redefines capabilities and interfaces. Against this backdrop buyers face increasing pressure to minimize costs, assure security and compliance, and deliver new collaboration capabilities. During this session we’ll share Metrigy’s latest insight into UCaaS market and buyer trends, specifically answering:

– Are buyers changing providers, and if so why?

– What criteria do buyers use to evaluate UCaaS vendors?

– What features are necessary versus nice to have?

– How will UCaaS spending change in the coming years?

– What should buyers consider going forward?

Workplace Collaboration Expert Insights Series 1, Ep.1 – A UCaaS Reality Check: What Buyers and Vendors Need to Know

Presented by: Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst

Date and Time: May 28, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

View Replay

Metrigy releases Workplace Collaboration 2025 & 4Q25 Market Shares

April 28, 2026 – Metrigy has published its Workplace Collaboration MetriCast 2025 and 4Q25 market shares and updated forecasts. The categories include enterprise session border controllers (eSBCs), IP desk phones, on-premises PBX, SIP trunking, and UC as a service (UCaaS). Highlights include:

“Voice and collaboration tools remain important to businesses and with over half of users now on a UCaaS platform, overall revenue growth for the market has slowed. UCaaS is now a commodity market with little differentiation on core service capabilities. There are still a number of smaller providers but the Big 4—Microsoft, Cisco, Zoom, RingCentral—comprise 53% of the total market,” says Diane Myers, Metrigy senior research director.

MetriCast forecasts and market shares are a core part of Metrigy’s MetriCast Service, which also includes detailed end-user adoption studies; MetriRank vendor ratings across select categories; and the annual MetriStar Awards for vendors earning top customer sentiment ratings and whose customers achieve top business success. For more information, visit http://www.metrigy.com/metricast/. 

Sticking with a status-quo UCaaS platform might hinder an enterprise’s bottom line. Recent research shows that UCaaS reassessment gets rewarded.

Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is not exactly a new technology. The first services appeared on the market more than 25 years ago. Since then, UCaaS has rapidly replaced on-premises and private-hosted services as the communications platform of choice for most organizations (though private solutions still have their place in the market).

Today, though mature, the UCaaS market is in a state of flux. No longer is the conversation focused on selling the benefits of cloud versus on-prem, or on targeting those remaining on-prem customers for migration. Now, the battle lines in the market are focused on refresh cycles and cloud-to-cloud migration, with AI and integrations as the key product differentiations.

Metrigy’s latest Workplace Collaboration MetriCast study of 775 global IT leaders highlights a market that is far from stagnant. Organizations aren’t just buying dial tone anymore—they are evaluating whether their current providers can keep pace with a world obsessed with AI, security, collaboration improvements and contact center integration.

The Spending Surge

Continue reading at nojitter.com.

Tune in to discover which vendors have earned our prestigious MetriStar Top Provider Award across two workplace collaboration technology categories, UCaaS and Meeting Devices, and which additional providers get the nod on earning high customer sentiment ratings and a high percentage of companies in the category success group–and share in our big round of applause to all winners!