Communications Platform-as-a-Service MetriRank 2023

Authors: Diane Myers, Principal Analyst; Beth Schultz, VP of Research & Principal Analyst

Metrigy’s global Customer Experience MetriCast 2023 market size and forecast study, conducted with 1,695 companies, finds that 38.5% are using communications platform as a service (CPaaS), enabling them to customize their customer experience (CX) offerings programmatically. Another 32.5% have plans to adopt CPaaS by the end of 2024, and 12.5% are evaluating whether to adopt it. Only 11.2% of companies have no plans at all for CPaaS—underscoring the value companies see in using the technology to customize their customer engagement features and add cloud-based apps for improved CX. Using APIs offered by CPaaS providers, companies may add real-time, cloud-based communications channels such as voice and video calling, messaging, and live chat to their contact center platforms. They may also use CPaaS to introduce advanced functionality, such as analytics and artificial intelligence (AI); create customized integrations; or, via no- or low-code workflow builders, add in automation that eliminates tedious but important manual processes. In this CPaaS MetriRank report, Metrigy examines the leading providers.

The global market for CPaaS was $9.2 billion in 2022, up 28% year-over-year. Metrigy forecasts the market to grow at an 12% CAGR from 2022 to 2027, reaching $16.1 billion by 2027. The CPaaS market is highly competitive, with providers of varying sizes, capabilities, and reach—some are global, and others are regional. Some providers are large and have broad portfolios, and others are smaller, with niche offerings.

In determining companies in the CPaaS MetriRank, market share is important to overall leadership score, but financial strength, product mix, and customer sentiment are significant at setting providers apart in the rankings. Having the right mix of features and capabilities is critical, although most of the top-tier providers share common capabilities today. AI, in particular, will become a significant factor moving forward as providers continue to seek differentiation.

Toward that end, leading providers have begun to incorporate AI into their offerings and roadmaps. The advantage of the CPaaS approach is the ability to embed advanced capabilities within a single API. For example, an enhanced video API could include AI capabilities for live captions, translations, and transcriptions. A messaging AI could include the ability to generate personalized messages. Additionally, a generative AI-driven summary could be included in an automated workflow handing off a customer from bot to live agent, while developers could describe a workflow they’d like to build in natural language, and have generative AI do the build.

The top five leading CPaaS providers are as follows:

• Infobip is the leader in this inaugural CPaaS MetriRank, with above-average scores in all but one measure, that being financial strength. Infobip earned maximum scores for product mix and customer sentiment—the only MetriRank provider to do so in each of these—and it is second in market share.
• Grabbing the second spot is Cisco, with the strongest financials plus above-average scores in product mix and customer sentiment. Cisco has the eighth-largest CPaaS market share, and its market momentum in CPaaS is just below average.
• Twilio is the undisputed market share leader and has the highest market momentum. Its product mix and customer sentiment score are above average, as well. However, weaker financials and a poor showing in customer business success drop it into the third slot overall.
• Fourth-ranked Sinch is the third-largest provider in terms of market share, behind Twilio and Infobip. Its above-average positioning in financial strength, product mix, and customer business success secure its spot in the top five. In fact, Sinch earned the highest possible score for customer business success.
• Fifth-ranked Kaleyra sits only one-tenth of a point ahead of Cisco as seventh-largest CPaaS provider in the market share score. It earned its spot in the top five with above-average scores in financial strength, market momentum, and customer sentiment. And, it is average with its product mix. (Kaleyra’s acquisition by Tata Communications in October 2023 does not factor into this ranking.)

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• About the Study
• CPaaS Leadership
  • Top Providers
  • Providers to Watch
• CPaaS Provider Profiles
  • Infobip
  • Cisco
  • Twillio
  • Sinch
  • Kaleyra
  • Bandwidth
  • Vonage
  • 8x8
  • Alibaba
  • MessageBird
• Appendix
  • Methodology
  • Leadership Metric Definitions
  • Further Reading
• Working with Metrigy