RingCentral Review 2024: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons

RingCentral’s cloud-based phone system and video and audio conferencing solutions allow customers to network better with employees and customers. Its dashboard and tools are easy to navigate and have a relatively low learning curve for new users. Also, the company’s integration offerings are among the best in the industry. All of RingCentral’s packages include the following features:

• Unlimited calls across the United States and Canada
• Business phone or toll-free number at no additional cost
• Interactive voice response (IVR)
• Carrier-compliant SMS and MMS
• HD audio and video conferencing tools
• Single Sign-on (SSO)
• Analytics for IT administrators
• Some integration access to Google, Microsoft and APIs

RingCentral is a solid fit for most small businesses looking for a new phone system. During our hands-on experience, we found the system powerful enough for most smaller teams and easy to use across a range of devices.

According to RingCentral’s support section, the most its system can handle at once is several calls, and if there are six calls, you can only make one call out. If a company anticipates a dozen or more at any given moment and also needs to place outbound calls, this setup will be quite limiting. As such, we believe RingCentral’s capabilities are best for sole proprietors and small business teams; midsize and large companies should look for a platform that can scale to their needs.

RingCentral is a cloud phone system that provides business calling and text messaging options by allowing you to connect an existing phone number to a new business or toll-free number. You also have the option to buy desktop and cordless phones, headsets, conferencing tools and other equipment.

Hardware phones range between about $100 and $1,300, or you can lease phones for $5 per month. If you aren’t interested in new hardware, you can download RingCentral’s app to your existing desktop and smartphone devices for no additional charge. RingCentral lets small businesses function professionally from multiple locations, making it a great option for companies with remote or hybrid models.

RingCentral Features

RingCentral’s core features include:

• Business or toll-free phone numbers
• Unlimited calls or texts within the U.S. and Canada
• Business SMS
• 100 to 10,000 toll-free minutes, depending on plan
• Voicemail-to-text
• Visual voicemail and voicemail-to-email
• File sharing
• Team messaging
• Call management and phone system administration
• Call log reports
• Internet fax
• Video meetings for 200 or more participants
• Call recording
• Multi-level auto attendant
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
• Single sign-on (SSO)
• Extensions with site codes
• Hot desking
• Advanced call-handling tools
• Real-time analytics
• Access to popular and custom integrations
• Developer platform
• Device status reports and alerts
• Unlimited storage

It is important to note that some plan features changed when RingCentral rolled out new service plans and pricing in April 2023. For instance, RingCentral’s lowest service tier now includes HD video meeting tools, something previously only accessible via an upgrade to a higher-priced plan.

Featured Partners

Advertisement

1

RingCentral

Pricing from

$20 per user, per month (paid annually)

Toll-free numbers

Yes

Voicemail transcription

Yes

1

RingCentral

Learn More

On RingCentral's Website

2

Zoom Phone

Pricing from

Starts at $10 per user, per month

Toll-free numbers

Yes

Voicemail Transcription

Yes

2

Zoom Phone

Learn More

On Zoom's Website

3

Nextiva

Pricing From

$18.95 per user, per month

Toll-free numbers

Yes

Voicemail transcription

Yes

3

Nextiva

Learn More

On Nextiva's Website

After testing RingCentral’s features, we believe the software best suits sole proprietors and smaller teams. The following sections break down who RingCentral is best suited for overall, and why some may prefer an alternative service.

RingCentral is best for:

• Easy installation and use: We were able to quickly set up and start using RingCentral within the hour across multiple desktop and smartphone devices.
• Remote and hybrid-friendly companies: Our testing showed the platform worked well for team members working from home in multiple locations across the U.S.
• High-quality video and audio conferencing: The sound quality was good and the video was clear. There was no lagging or delay.
• Consistent communication across multiple devices: We held video meetings with or contact devices in multiple locations, both using smartphones and desktop devices.
• Smaller businesses seeking an affordable voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) service: We found RingCentral’s platform and pricing strongly favor small business owners who work alone or with few staff members.

We do not recommend RingCentral for:

• Larger businesses: While RingCentral’s video conferencing features can be unlimited with add-ons, its phone system isn’t nearly as robust, handling up to several calls at once. As such, RingCentral is more suited to smaller business teams.
• Businesses that don’t need extensive automation: Though we found RingCentral’s use of automation helpful, we recognize that not all businesses are interested in heavily automated services and might not be interested in these tools.

A major standout for RingCentral is its interactive voice response (IVR) system, which allows businesses to automate the process of answering the phone and connecting the caller to their department or individual of choice. This saves your employees from the tedious work of having to pick up the phone themselves and lets them focus more on their other duties.

What is especially useful is that this complex system offers multilingual support, allowing companies to provide the same system instructions across many languages without wasting time with manual adjustments. While other phone systems offer similar functionality, RingCentral allows users to build out their phone trees quickly, and we found it exceptionally easy to use.

Ease of Use

You can begin using RingCentral’s features almost as soon as you finish setting it up on your chosen devices. We found it very easy to make calls, send texts or start meetings via a simple taskbar on the left side of the app’s interface.

Setting up video or audio meetings and adding guests is a simple process; RingCentral lets you quickly send the meeting link or an invitation email.

Hardware

RingCentral’s phone system uses dedicated telephony hardware that it provides for purchase or lease through its website. While we used desktop and mobile apps for this review, we do appreciate that the company offers a solid range of devices for those who want them.

Hardware options include devices from major brands: Poly, Mitel, Unify, Cisco, Yealink, and more. Additionally, RingCentral gives helpful details about its hardware options, making it easy to decide on affordability and avoid compatibility issues.

• Desktop phones: Starts at $100; lease for as low as $4.50 per month
• Cordless phones: Begins at $179; leasing price starts as $7 per month
• Receptionist phones: As low at $273; leasing prices begin at $11 per month
• Conference phones: Starts at $548; leasing starts at $23.50 per month

RingCentral is also compatible with headsets from Jabra, Poly and Yealink.

If you prefer using your existing telephony hardware, RingCentral does provide some accommodations, but they must be compatible and properly set up to work with the software.

Software

We found that RingCentral’s software worked well across multiple platforms. For this review, we used the device on multiple desktops and smartphones and in Google Chrome.

RingCentral designed its app to be compatible with Windows and Mac machines, provided they have at least 8 GB of RAM. RingCentral’s app is downloadable to iOS and Android devices. Additionally, RingCentral’s web browser-based app is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and the Edge Chromium.

Confirm your device or browser’s current tech setup is compatible with RingCentral’s software. Also, be aware that RingCentral frequently updates its software, so system requirements could change at any time.

Call Quality

Because RingCentral uses the internet to send and receive calls, the strength of your internet connection will play a factor in your overall call quality. When we tested the call quality, we had a 301 Mbps download speed and 20.9 upload speed on desktop; on mobile, we had a 95.5 Mbps download and 2.82 Mbsp upload speed.

During the tests, there were no issues or lagging. We maintained calls without interruptions. We found that if devices are too close together during a call or meeting, you may experience echoes or mild delays. But overall, provided that your connection is good and your device’s software is up-to-date, you should expect a good quality call experience.

Uptime

Uptime refers to the percentage of time in a specific period that a cloud-based app is up and running. Downtime is often measured across days, weeks, months, or the course of a year. Communication providers like RingCentral offer a service level agreement (SLA) in which they aim to commit to an ideal uptime percentage and reduce downtime by as much as possible.

According to RingCentral, its SLA is based on the “five nines,” or a guarantee of 99.999% uptime. This level of availability equates to about 26 seconds of downtime per month. By comparison, a 99.9% SLA would equal about 43 minutes of downtime per month, or nearly 10 minutes of downtime per week. RingCentral considers “five nines” to be the gold standard and set up a multi-cloud, multi-network point of design (PoD) to ensure minimal downtime.

RingCentral’s system is designed to hold up for users, even if capacity were to double overnight. Additionally, RingCentral relies on “geo-redundant data centers” to maintain service even in the event of outages. For instance, a data center becomes unavailable, another can take over.

Security

RingCentral’s software employs Transport Layer Security, or TLS, as well as Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol, or SRTP, encryption as a means of protecting customer data from interception by unwanted third parties. RingCentral also uses SSAE 18 and ISO 27001-audited data centers and electronic prevention systems. On-site, information and infrastructure is protected and monitored by engineering specialists and security guards.

The software also employs a series of infrastructure-related measures, including firewalls and session border controls, fraud analytics and frequent vulnerability scans. Overall, RingCentral has taken multiple steps to ensure customer data and session security while providing administrative features to enable customers to further protect themselves against any threats. For instance, you may lock video meetings and allow access strictly through passwords.

Third-Party Integrations

RingCentral provides hundreds of opportunities for software integration; we found that it is perhaps the most integration-friendly cloud communications platform on the market. Popular choices include:

• Salesforce
• Google Workspace
• Microsoft Teams
• Zendesk
• HubSpot
• Slack
• Skype
• Zoho
• Mailchimp
• BullHorn

It is easy to connect popular CRMs, analytics, ERPs, customer support and other applications as long as you already have accounts with the desired services. For instance, we were able to set up the RingCentral for Google extension in Chrome, which allowed us to make and receive calls. We had access to features such as call holding, which included hold music and call transfer. The integration worked well, making it an ideal alternative to Google’s Voice.

If you do not already have an account with company software available for integration with RingCentral, you’ll need to first sign up or make use of any available product trials before you can move forward with integration and use.

*Pricing is shown on an annual basis. Month-to-month plans are available at a higher cost.

Core

RingCentral’s Core plan is a combination of the now-defunct Essentials and Standard tiers. Starting as low as $20 per month (for an annual plan), Core not only provides unlimited domestic calling and SMS but also access to high-definition video and audio conferencing tools.

As with the previous Essentials plan, the Core package offers fewer integrations than more advanced plans. To get the most out of your integration needs, you are still better off with the Advanced or Ultra tiers. Another holdover from the previous structure is needing to upgrade for access to internet faxing and automatic call recording. Additionally, this tier limits you to 100 toll-free minutes.

Core is better suited to small teams and companies that only need a few key features such as a business phone line and video conferencing software. If you would prefer access to RingCentral’s vast library of integrations, e-fax capabilities, or services for a team larger than 100 members, then it would be a good idea to sign up for the Advanced plan.

Advanced

The Advanced plan has everything included in the Core package, plus access to hundreds of integrations such as Salesforce, Zendesk and HubSpot. You also gain access to features including internet faxing, automatic call recording and adoption and usage analytics. Additionally, this tier offers 1,000 toll-free minutes.

This level lets you place a special emphasis on customer service and understand how successful your engagement efforts actually are. Though Core improved over Essentials, for customers in need of access to capabilities, Advanced offers a fuller range of access to integrations, making it worth the upgrade.

Ultra

RingCentral’s Ultra service plan expands on features offered at lower tiers. For instance, Ultra customers get unlimited file sharing. Moreover, under old subscription terms, the most people allowed in a video meeting at once was 200, Ultra now provides a large meeting add-on feature, letting you host a potentially limitless number of participants. Ultra also lets you record meetings for up to 100 hours and retains the data via cloud storage for up to a year.

Add-On Features

Though the Core, Advanced and Ultra plans will likely provide as many features as most customers want or need, RingCentral lets you incorporate a few additional tools into your selected service plan for an additional fee.

• RingCentral Webinar: Starts at $75 per month, per host
• International Numbers: Begins at $5.99 per user, per month
• Additional International Toll-Free Numbers: Starts at $14.99 per month, per user
• High volume SMS: Rates start at $0.0085 per message sent or received
• RingCentral Rooms or Room Connector Licenses: $49 monthly per concurrent endpoint or $468 annually

While it would have been nice to see these features come standard with all bundles, we also understand that they aren’t necessarily must-haves for many customers. Having them available as individual charges could be beneficial.

Featured Partners

Advertisement

1

RingCentral

Pricing from

$20 per user, per month (paid annually)

Toll-free numbers

Yes

Voicemail transcription

Yes

1

RingCentral

Learn More

On RingCentral's Website

2

Zoom Phone

Pricing from

Starts at $10 per user, per month

Toll-free numbers

Yes

Voicemail Transcription

Yes

2

Zoom Phone

Learn More

On Zoom's Website

3

Nextiva

Pricing From

$18.95 per user, per month

Toll-free numbers

Yes

Voicemail transcription

Yes

3

Nextiva

Learn More

On Nextiva's Website

RingCentral offers a multifaceted approach to customer support, addressing common concerns through the website while providing avenues to real-time support by phone or chat if existing articles do not address your specific needs. However, real-time or live support features are largely AI-based, which means it might take a considerable amount of effort to reach an actual person with your questions or concerns.

To access customer support features during testing, we needed to log in to our account or have account information, including a pin, available to confirm our identity. For general issues or common problems, support was available through the AI-powered chat or the support articles found on RingCentral’s website. Otherwise, we were referred to 1-888-528-7464 for assistance; the system requires various steps to get beyond AI to reach a person.

During chats and phone calls, we found that the AI often misunderstood our question or did not provide a complete answer. Such issues could cause a delay in getting the help you need, which can be understandably frustrating—particularly when facing a time-sensitive issue.

In testing RingCentral’s customer service features, we also encountered difficulty in having questions answered or issues addressed by a person. It is important to note that automation can solve simple problems and reduce redundancy. However, it doesn’t solve everything. For instance, AI is not a viable solution for communicating your feelings about a service. And if your specific need can’t be understood by the AI, naturally, you’ll want to talk to a live representative.

Though there are similarities in features available across the range of products, some options may be more suitable than RingCentral, or RingCentral could be the better option. We compared these services in the sections below.

RingCentral vs. Nextiva

At $17.95, Nextiva’s starting price is lower than RingCentral. However, it requires at least 100 users to take full advantage of the discount. Each service provides a free business or toll-free number, though Nextiva provides 1,500 toll-free minutes to start; you would need to upgrade to RingCentral’s highest tier to get more minutes. Nextiva also provides internet faxing to start, while you need to upgrade to RingCentral’s Advanced plan to get this feature.

Though the services are comparable, RingCentral comes across as the more balanced service in terms of support for building out a complex phone system and the capacity to scale video and audio conferencing features. RingCentral is also more automation-friendly, especially with its implementation of IVR.

RingCentral works for very small teams and seems to be better poised at helping them scale, especially after abandoning the very limited Essentials plan and embracing a more complete starting service tier.

RingCentral vs. Vonage

Vonage starts as low as $14.99 per user per month. However, once you require service for more than 99 users, you must reach out to its sales team for a specific price quote. RingCentral’s pricing transparency means you should know upfront how much you can expect to be charged for RingCentral’s services.

RingCentral provides access to over 300 integrations, far more than Vonage, which is limited to 22 integrations. That said, Vonage’s standard plan lets customers access integrations in its gallery without having to upgrade. While RingCentral’s IVR allows customers to save time through automation, Vonage’s communication services appear more robust. RingCentral can only handle several calls at once; Vonage helps you manage as many as 50 simultaneous calls.

Based on our experience, RingCentral is the better option for very small teams. Vonage, meanwhile, is better poised to help midsize and larger companies. Please read our Vonage vs. RingCentral article for a more in-depth comparison of these two services.

RingCentral vs. 8×8

With a starting price of $24 per month, per user, 8×8 is slightly more expensive than RingCentral. Because its structures are aimed at larger brands, 8×8 customers get access to unlimited voice calling across 14 countries. RingCentral reserves unlimited calling and texting for customers located within the U.S. and Canada.

8×8’s standard service plan includes immediate access to public or private streaming of meetings through YouTube, and its meetings encourage maximum engagement through features such as hand raising, polls and emojis. RingCentral retains meeting data for longer, up to a year in the cloud versus 30 days with 8×8.

RingCentral is, across its plans, better suited for small businesses that are fine with the basics or that may plan to grow eventually. Larger companies prefer 8×8 and get the most out of its two plans.

We found that RingCentral delivered on its claims of being an easy-to-set-up and use cloud phone system. The call and video are high-quality, and it provides a number of call controls such as who you allow into meetings. Additionally, the transcript feature was accurate; we could see it adjusting in real time to capture what was being said during the call.

RingCentral makes great use of automation when it comes to its software features. While the customer support could use a bit more work, the software was a great starting point for small business owners and those new to VoIP products as a whole. The interface is uniform across devices, so it is very easy to start on your laptop and pick up use on a smartphone without feeling confused as to where options are.

We also appreciated the use of two-factor authentication for account access as password-protected meeting access; these features provided a sense of security, while also making us feel in direct control of who accessed the account and meetings.