In the modern business world, cloud-based services have become increasingly popular. In Telecom we’re constantly hearing about two of the most common cloud-based services that are being used today. Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS). While these two services on the surface appear to share many similarities, they are designed for different purposes and offer different features. That’s why its important to compare and contrast UCaaS and CPaaS to provide a better understanding of the differences between them.
UCaaS
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is an all-in-one cloud-based communications solution. It integrates multiple communication tools, such as voice, video, text, and chat, into a single platform. UCaaS enables users to make and receive calls, send and receive messages, and collaborate with remote teams. It also provides additional features such as voice and video conferencing, call recording, text messaging, call reporting, voicemail and many more features.
CPaaS
Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) is a cloud-based communications platform that enables developers to quickly and easily build applications that include communications capabilities. It provides a comprehensive set of tools, such as voice and text messaging APIs, to allow developers to incorporate them into custom applications. CPaaS also provides developers with the capabilities to make communications possible by offering easily configurable functions like call routing, origination, termination, number selection, call analytics, security and more. Some CPaaS providers offer only audio based API’s while others offer messaging, video and more.
Comparison
Both UCaaS and CPaaS are cloud-based services, but they are designed for different purposes. UCaaS is designed for users that need an all-in-one communications platform, while CPaaS is designed for developers who need a platform to incorporate communication into their services and applications.
The Market Today
The market place for UCaaS and CPaaS is very crowded and overlapping. Up until a few years ago the players were very distinct and the dividing lines very clear. Companies like Twilio, Nexmo, Pilvo and others were in the CPaaS league, while 8×8, Vonage, RingCentral, Dialpad and more were in the UCaaS category.
UCaaS leader Vonage bought Nexmo, and the lines got blurred. Today, 8×8 has a CPaaS group in-house, while companies like white-label UCaaS player SkySwitch offer CPaaS features to their resellers to deliver to customers. They’re not alone as other UCaaS players do that as well.
But for app developers, the CPaaS world is still led by Twilio, with upstart Signalwire (from the team that brought the industry FreeSwitch) as well as Cinch, Infobip, Message Bird, VoxImplant and more are all of whom are worthy challengers.