A quick search on Google for a business phone service, and you’ll find the name ‘RingCentral’ pop up frequently.
This isn’t surprising, considering RingCentral has a noteworthy market presence spanning over two decades.
But in terms of cost, user experience, and flexibility, is it really worth it?
Some users on G2 seem to disagree with some saying —
- “Dialing out features and incoming call features were not very user friendly.”
- “The set up is mind-numbing and still does not always function as it should.”
- “Calls getting dropped during transferring.”
Given all these, opting for an alternative with better functionalities is a more viable option.
However, the big question is: Is there a better alternative to RingCentral with similar features, flexible pricing, and a simpler setup?
To answer this, we reviewed six notable competitors, comparing their features, pricing, customer support, integration capabilities, and overall user satisfaction.
What Users Typically Like About RingCentral
Here’s why top companies choose RingCentral as their business communication platform.
Extensive feature set
RingCentral provides many communication tools, including phone systems, video conferencing, and collaboration platforms, suitable for various business needs. Unlimited calling and team conference calls are common features included across RingCentral’s pricing plans.
The company also offers a contact center solution that enhances agent efficiency and customer experience for larger teams.
RingCentral’s communication solutions allow for the centralized management of multiple communication channels, such as voice, email, fax, and SMS, supporting remote team collaboration.
Global footprint
RingCentral supports companies with rigorous international calling demands:
- Local PSTN support is available in 46 countries, including the U.S. and Canada.
- Toll-free numbers and local numbers are available in over 100 countries.
- Eighteen languages are supported across the organization’s desktop and mobile apps.
Integration capabilities
RingCentral supports numerous third-party integrations, enhancing its business communication system. A couple of examples include Salesforce integration for data-driven customer personalization and Microsoft Teams integration for in-app cloud calling.
Scalability
RingCentral offers several solutions to fit your business needs, avoiding the need for frequent service changes. Its various pricing plans cater to different business sizes and growth stages.
Why Businesses May Seek an Alternative to RingCentral
Despite its market presence, RingCentral might not be the right VoIP phone system for many organizations.
1. Cost
With annual prepaid pricing plans becoming the standard, RingCentral might be too expensive for many small businesses. RingCentral’s monthly cost ranges from $30 to $45 per user per month.
The toll-free number inbound minutes feature is limited to 100 minutes on the Core plan, while on the Advanced plan, you only get 1,000 minutes.
As a small business, you’ll likely have no use for most of RingCentral’s features beyond phone calls — for instance, analytics for IT administrators, international calling, and access to its APIs. In other words, you’re spending money on features you don’t need.
And, over time, there are a lot more add-ons. Additional local numbers will cost $4.99/month, webinar licenses $40/month, and vanity numbers $30/month — you get the idea.
2. Reliability & usability
The company has a pretty decent network, but it’s not flawless. Throughout the U.S., it has two data centers for its users to share. This can result in higher call latency and reduced redundancy.
Additionally, some users may find the user interface challenging, especially when they’re new to the platform. According to reviews posted on G2, a number of critical customer reviews noted the difficulties of the administrative features and maneuvering between the web and desktop apps.
3. Customer service
When you look through reviews about RingCentral, you’ll find that the company has many frustrated customers. From account managers who are hard to reach and billing or renewal concerns to slow support response times, service quality remains a top reason why people seek out a RingCentral alternative.
Unfortunately, RingCentral drops the ball here. Some users report wait times as long as multiple weeks:
“Customer service was atrocious. You had to make a request and wait for a callback from a person in a totally different time zone. If you missed the call, you had to wait for that agent to call you back, nobody else. When I canceled and wanted to port my numbers, it was a multi-week saga where I could not get a response from anyone.”
Stephanie Y.
The good news is that you have many options for business communication tools.
Let’s take a look at some potential RingCentral competitors worth checking out.
Top 6 Alternatives to RingCentral
Want to switch from RingCentral to another VoIP phone service? Here are the best RingCentral alternatives to consider.
1. Nextiva
Nextiva is one of the most well-rounded business phone systems you’ll find on the market. It provides business VoIP phone services, video conferencing, team messaging, and unified communications capabilities. On top of those, it offers both inbound and outbound contact center solutions.
What makes Nextiva stand out is its exceptional customer service, which is pretty rare in the business communications world. Issues are resolved on time, and the support team is always patient with users.
Here’s how one user described their support experience with Nextiva:
“No more robo calls, great auto attendants, lots of extra features, Customer support is 24/7, easy to use and I use it all the time. Nextiva keeps all of my calls from 12 different numbers well organized. They have it set up where I see the caller’s ID and also see from which auto attendant they are calling. This is vital.”
Robert H.
Nextiva is also more affordable than RingCentral for small and growing businesses. It starts at $18.95 per user per month for 20–99 users. Finally, Nextiva has a reliable service with 99.999% uptime from its eight redundant data centers across the U.S.
In addition to a lower cost, Nextiva offers many advanced phone features included with each plan at no additional charge. We’ll get to that in a moment.
Why Choose Nextiva?
VoIP Services
- Core Features. Nextiva’s VoIP services offer more than just voice communication. They include advanced call management features such as auto attendants, call queuing, call routing, and multi-level IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems, which are crucial for handling high call volumes efficiently. Voicemail to email, call recording and caller ID customization further enhance its functionality.
- Call Quality and Reliability. Nextiva prioritizes call quality and reliability. It does this through a robust network infrastructure to give you clear, uninterrupted calls. Plus, Nextiva’s voice services are engineered to reduce latency, packet loss, and jitter, which are critical for maintaining professional communication standards.
- Unified Communications. Beyond traditional VoIP, Nextiva offers a unified communications suite that integrates voice, video conferencing, messaging, and file sharing.
CRM Integration
- NextOS Platform. NextOS provides a unified view of customer interactions across voice, email, chat, and social media, enabling businesses to deliver personalized customer experiences.
- Automation and Analytics. The platform includes automation tools that streamline workflows and customer interaction processes. Analytics and reporting tools offer insights into call metrics, agent performance, and customer satisfaction.
- Integration with External CRMs. For businesses already invested in another CRM system, Nextiva offers seamless integration capabilities with leading CRM software like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Scalability
- Easily Scalable Infrastructure. Nextiva’s cloud-based architecture is designed for easy scaling, accommodating businesses as they grow. Adding new users, lines, or features can be done without significant infrastructure investments.
2. Vonage
Vonage is the preferred business phone system for organizations that want to customize their communication workflows extensively. It has a wide range of custom APIs you can use to connect your VoIP phone system to different native and third-party applications.
Despite its extensive integration capabilities, Vonage is easy to set up and use. One user said they didn’t require any training to use the phone system: “My experience with Vonage was good because their app is user-friendly and visually appealing. It was simple to use and didn’t require any training from what I recall.”
Vonage also provides a robust suite of features, including voice calling, SMS, team messaging, and video conferencing. If you’re looking for an easy-to-use business phone system with extensive features and great call quality, you should definitely check it out.
3. Ooma
Ooma is a great VoIP phone service for small businesses on a budget. It provides all the essential features you’ll need to get your business communication needs off the ground — CRM integrations, hot desking, and call management capabilities such as call routing.
Here’s how one user described their experience with Ooma:
“I am now saving hundreds of dollars per year! The quality of the VoIP service is outstanding, and no one would be able to tell the difference between this digital system and an analog system. It has an app that is feature-rich and is an excellent backup to have in the event of an internet failure. I can also modify account settings from right within the app.”
If you’re looking for a straightforward solution without the complexity of more extensive phone systems, Ooma is definitely one to try.
4. Aircall
Aircall’s cloud-based call center software works best for small and mid-sized businesses. You get essential features and capabilities such as call queuing, analytics, and integrations to help you administer a lean call center.
What users love best is Aircall’s data analytics feature, which allows you to view data sets per user for more granular insights. The integration capabilities also work well, especially in how Aircall syncs with HubSpot. You can make calls to customers directly from your CRM.
Overall, Aircall is particularly appealing for teams looking for a simple yet powerful call center solution with a strong emphasis on collaboration and integration.
5. Dialpad
Dialpad is a budget-friendly, AI-powered contact center solution. It offers a range of AI-driven capabilities, such as transcriptions and real-time analytics.
Dialpad’s interface and user experience stand out. For example, you can organize call centers by teams and track callbacks using voice AI.
If you’re a tech-savvy small team looking for a sleek and modern VoIP service, you’ll likely find Dialpad attractive.
6. Grasshopper
Grasshopper is ideal for solopreneurs and small businesses that don’t want to be held back by a complex VoIP phone with extensive features they don’t need. It has features such as virtual phone numbers, call forwarding, and voicemail transcription.
Here’s how one user described their experience with this virtual phone system:
“Grasshopper was very user-friendly. It was easy to use, and we never really had a need to contact customer support. The implementation was easy, and we loved that we could use it on a line/VOIP or also log into the Grasshopper app and answer on the go.”
If you need a simple, no-frills virtual phone system that’s easy to set up and manage, Grasshopper is worth checking out.
Why Nextiva Is the Best Alternative to RingCentral
Nextiva offers more affordable pricing, excellent customer support, and extensive VoIP capabilities, making it the best alternative to RingCentral.
✅ Flexible pricing plans
Nextiva has more flexible pricing plans than RingCentral.
Nextiva’s standard plan, the Essential bundle, starts at $18.95 per user per month. On the other hand, RingCentral’s Core package costs $20 per user per month.
In addition, you can customize your plan based on the number of users. The more users you have, the lower the price. Nextiva also offers more toll-free minutes and includes unlimited online fax in all plans.
Core features such as call recording and auto-attendant are not on RingCentral’s basic plan, so you’ll have to upgrade to access them. This makes the business phone system even more expensive for smaller teams.
✅ Superior ease of use and setup
A handful of our customers made the switch from RingCentral to Nextiva because of how easy Nextiva is to use. In one user’s words:
“I recently changed from RingCentral to Nextiva for several reasons, one of which was to make things SIMPLER. So far, using Nextiva has been remarkable. It’s everything and more than I previously imagined. If you are looking into a VoIP provider, I highly suggest you take a close look at Nextiva.”
Nextiva offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to set up and manage your VoIP system, including complex tasks such as call flows and voicemail workflows. The platform is intuitive and easy to navigate, allowing you to quickly make changes to your system and add new users as needed.
Nextiva also provides comprehensive training and support materials to onboard you quickly, and the support team is always on deck to answer your questions and resolve any issues.
✅ Amazing customer support
Nextiva has a stellar 9.0 customer support rating on G2 compared to RingCentral’s 7.6 rating. Our support team is available 24/7 across multiple channels to help customers resolve issues.
One user said Nextiva’s support function beats that of most of the other VoIP phone services on the market:
“I’ve used many VOIP service providers over the years. It always seems like they overpromise and underdeliver, and the customer service is terrible if you’re a small account. With Nextiva, it has been the opposite. The setup was easy. The tech support through chat is responsive and knowledgeable. Short wait times and the IT support knows the product well.”
✅ Stellar performance and reliability
Nextiva’s cloud architecture guarantees 99.999% uptime. In other words, you’ll only experience, on average, six minutes of service downtime in an entire year. RingCentral users reported, on average, 43 minutes of downtime in 2023.
Unlike RingCentral, which is built around two data centers in the U.S., Nextiva has a redundant data architecture across eight North American locations. This spreads the data service bandwidth evenly, limiting congestion and latency.
✅ Robust unified communications features
Beyond core VoIP features, Nextiva has additional unified communication capabilities to improve your overall experience.
Call Pop, for example, lets contact center agents see callers’ customer data, such as account value and customer experience score, before and during the conversation. This helps them personalize interactions for a better customer experience.
That’s not all. Nextiva offers a comprehensive business intelligence add-on tool that provides insights into call performance for data-driven decision-making. It lets you track advanced metrics, such as call volume and total talk time, and generate reports to give you a bird’s-eye view of your business communication status.
✅ Overall customer satisfaction
A VoIP comparison survey by GetVoIP found that Nextiva is the best-rated VoIP phone service when compared with alternatives, including RingCentral.
Nextiva outperformed RingCentral in six core categories, namely quality, installation, support, reliability, features, and price.
Level Up Your Business Communications
While RingCentral offers an extensive range of capabilities and features, upgrading to Nextiva will give you access to a more comprehensive suite of features, better customer support, and more reliable performance.
