RingCentral Pricing, Plans, & Feature Breakdown

RingCentral is a cloud-based communication platform offering a suite of business solutions. As a cloud phone system, it lets businesses ditch traditional landlines in favor of a more flexible and scalable solution. But how much does it all cost? And is it worth it?

In this guide, we’ll explore RingCentral’s pricing structure and help you decide if it’s the right fit for your business communication needs. We’ll also discuss scenarios where alternative solutions might be a better match.

RingCentral Plans and Pricing

RingCentral offers VoIP services, virtual meetings, call centers, and AI solutions. It’s a common choice for organizations looking for a business phone system, particularly mid-sized businesses and enterprises.

RingCentral’s phone system offering, RingEX, has three core plans: Core, Advanced, and Ultra. Earlier these plans were part of RingCentral’s MVP offerings, but are now rebranded under RingEX.

Here’s a quick comparison chart of RingEX’s main plans.

Feature	Core	Advanced	Ultra
Price per user (per month, billed monthly)	$30	$35	$45
Ideal for	Small businesses	Growing businesses	Large enterprises
Included minutes (US & Canada)	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
PBX features	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auto attendant	Yes	Yes	Yes
Team messaging	Yes (limited storage)	Yes (limited storage)	Yes (unlimited storage)
Unlimited online faxing	No	Yes	Yes
Video conferencing	Up to 100 participants	Up to 100 participants	Up to 200 participants
Call recording	On-demand	Automatic /on‑demand	Automatic / on‑demand
Voicemail transcription	Yes	Yes	Yes
Advanced analytics	No	Limited	Yes

Note: These are starting prices, and the exact cost may vary depending on the number of users and specific features you choose. RingCentral also offers a discount for annual billing, so you can save money by paying for a year upfront.

All three plans add or upgrade features from the prior tier.

While this structure enables organizations to purchase a plan that best meets their size and business needs, there are some features only available as add-ons for an extra charge, regardless of the plan.

Let’s look at each plan in detail:

Core plan

RingCentral’s Core plan begins at $30/user/month if paid monthly or $20/user/month when paid annually. This is their most standard offering, including basic call features, limited team messaging, and file-sharing capabilities, as well as:

• Unlimited domestic phone calls in the US and Canada
• 100 toll-free minutes
• Call queues with basic rules and routing
• Voicemail to email
• AI-powered noise cancellation
• 24/7 phone support and professional implementation
• Integrations with Google and Microsoft apps
• Access to APIs

RingCentral’s first pricing tier covers the basics for a small business just getting started. However, it’s pretty limited when it comes to functionalities that allow businesses to be flexible in today’s work environment, including hot desking, custom roles and permissions, and advanced analytics.

Advanced plan

Moving beyond the Core plan, RingCentral’s Advanced plan adds features and upgrades such as enhancements to its team messaging and file-sharing capabilities. This comes at a higher cost, with a price tag of $35/user/month if paid monthly or $25/user/month when paid annually.

RingCentral’s Advanced plan includes everything in the Core plan, plus:

• Advanced call handling features, including automatic call recording and advanced call monitoring
• 1,000 toll-free minutes
• Enhanced administration and analytics features
• Integrations with popular apps and CRM platforms such as Salesforce and Zendesk
• Video meetings for up to 100 participants

RingCentral’s middle tier is the most popular plan according to their website. This plan is built for established companies that are looking for a solution to grow and scale their business, as it includes more features focused on system management and admin.

There are a few notable downsides to the Advanced plan, including the lack of device-specific analytics and limited storage for files, messages, and recordings.

Ultra plan

RingCentral’s third tier has the most features but is also the most expensive. The Ultra plan is available at $45/user/month if paid monthly or $35/user/month when paid annually. 

This tier includes everything from the Advanced plan, plus:

• Unlimited internet fax
• Unlimited storage for files, messages, and recordings
• Unlimited HD video, whiteboards, and messaging
• 10,000 toll-free minutes
• Up to 200 video-meeting participants
• Enhanced business analytics
• Device analytics and alerts
• Customizable business insights

RingCentral’s highest tier includes all the advanced features you would need to implement and manage a communication system for a large business. The biggest advantage for businesses using the Ultra plan is the ability to centralize communications, including phone calls, video, chat, SMS, and fax, into one app.

Options and add-ons

Given the price of the Ultra plan, you might assume that it includes everything RingCentral has to offer, but that’s not actually the case. RingCentral has options that are available as add-on features to any plan, albeit at a higher price.

These add-ons include:

• RingCentral Webinar for hosting online presentations and seminars, starting at $40/host/month
• Additional vanity phone numbers for a one-time fee of $30/number
• Additional international numbers, starting at $5.99/user/month
• RingCentral Rooms licenses, available at $49/room/month or for an annual cost of $468
• Push-to-talk license for $5/user/month
• High-volume SMS for organizations sending a large number of messages, starting at $0.01 per message sent or received

While it’s convenient to add these features to any plan, it can quickly push you over budget. With add-ons, you need to make sure you have a process for license and seat management so you’re not overpaying for users who don’t need these features.

Notable exclusions per plan

While each RingCentral plan offers a respectable number of features, there are still some key capabilities they lack. Organizations looking for these specific features may have to either spend extra for a higher tier or look elsewhere.

For the Core plan, there’s no access to advanced business analytics. This is an important feature for business communications platforms, and its exclusion is worth noting.

Additionally, this plan only offers limited team messaging and file sharing, so collaboration may be challenging. Automatic call recording is also only available as an on-demand feature.

While the Advanced plan has more features than the Core plan, it still only offers limited storage for team messaging and file sharing. And while there are business analytics capabilities, they’re not as comprehensive as those in the Ultra plan, making it hard to fully manage your business communications system at this middle tier.

RingCentral Contact Center Plans and Pricing

RingCentral Contact Center (RingCX) is an omnichannel contact center that allows customers to connect with a business across voice and over multiple digital touchpoints.

It offers features such as workforce engagement management, which includes quality management, conversation analytics, and workforce management. It can also be used for outbound sales, collections, and proactive support.

The plans start at $65, but no clear pricing structure is available on RingCentral’s site. You need to contact their sales team for a custom quote.

RingCentral’s Pricing Compared To Competitors

Now that we understand what RingCentral’s plans provide, it’s time to explore some RingCentral alternatives and glean how much value RingCentral provides compared to its competitors.

We’ll take a look at Nextiva’s business plans — RingCentral’s top competitor — and see how they compare.

Note that what’s shown below is the monthly price — you can save even more on annual plans.

“I recently changed from RingCentral to Nextiva for several reasons, one of which was to make things SIMPLER. So far using Nextiva, it has been remarkable. It’s everything, and more than I previously imagined. If one is looking into a VoIP Provider, I highly suggest you take a deep look at Nextiva.”

~ Miranda S, Nextiva customer since 2022, G2 Reviews

Essential plan

Nextiva’s Essential plan offers business communications necessities for $25.95/user/month if paid monthly or $18.95/user/month when paid annually. This includes a wide array of important features for VoIP calling and omnichannel communications:

• Unlimited calling and fax within the US and Canada
• Voicemail-to-email services
• 1,000 toll-free minutes per month
• Free number porting
• Auto attendant for basic call routing
• Integrations with Outlook and Google Contacts
• 24/7 customer support for any troubleshooting or questions

Professional plan

One tier up from the Essential plan is the Professional plan, which is ideal for growing companies with larger business communications needs. This plan is available at $30.95/user/month if paid monthly or $22.95/user/month when paid annually.

The Nextiva Professional plan includes everything in the Essential plan plus:

• Unlimited audio conferencing and business SMS messaging
• 2,500 toll-free minutes per month
• One free professionally recorded greeting
• Team presence visibility
• Advanced integrations, including Salesforce and other CRM platforms
• A mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which includes cloud communications features

Enterprise plan

Last but certainly not least, Nextiva’s Enterprise plan is aimed at big businesses with big communication requirements. This plan, available at $40.95/user/month if paid monthly or $32.95/user/month when paid annually, provides the most features, toll-free minutes, and integrations, making it a great choice for larger organizations. 

The Nextiva Enterprise plan includes everything in the Professional plan plus:

• 10,000 toll-free minutes per month
• Unlimited video conference participants
• Call recording
• Voice analytics to provide deeper insight into agent/rep performance and customer satisfaction
• Advanced call flows with more customization options to direct calls to the right person each time
• Additional integrations, including Zendesk and HubSpot
• Single sign-on to make accessing everything simple and convenient

Common features across all plans

While each tier adds and improves upon the last, some features are universal. Whether you only want the essentials or are looking for enterprise communications, you’ll find these in every plan:

• Call pop with customer information, providing key context about the caller at a glance
• Customizable call routes to direct inbound calls to the right place or person
• Advanced call management features, including call forwarding, call transfers, call waiting, and call hold
• Voicemail-to-text service, turning voice messages into easily accessible text messages
• Unlimited virtual faxing
• 24/7 customer support via chat or phone

With Nextiva, there are several features you can always expect. All users across every plan have access to amazing service 24/7, making sure Nextiva is easy to use and stress-free so you can focus on your business. 

Notable exclusions per plan

Nextiva’s plans are packaged based on common business scenarios and use cases. Some features are saved for higher tiers, so customers looking for specific features might want to consider upgrading.

The Essential plan doesn’t include conference calls, SMS, or CRM integrations (although it does integrate with Outlook and Google Contacts). It also has fewer toll-free minutes than the higher tiers.

The Professional plan doesn’t include call recording or voice analytics, which are reserved for the Enterprise plan. It also has fewer toll-free minutes than the Enterprise Plan, although it has more than the Essential plan.

Top Features of RingCentral and Nextiva

Now that we understand what RingCentral and Nextiva offer, we can break their plans down into their top features and see what value each can bring to businesses, teams, and employees working in the office or on the go.

“We had RingCentral and changed to Nextiva. Nextiva’s service has been top-notch so far compared to RingCentral. It’s made our business so much easier, and we look forward to growing our business with them. Before, we were always scared of our service going down and being stuck again.” 

~ Tom W, TrustPilot review

RingCentral

The most important features of RingCentral’s communication solution include:

• Unlimited enterprise-grade HD video: RingCentral’s unlimited HD conferencing capabilities are a good fit for larger businesses that need video conferencing, as they enable high-quality communication and collaboration across enterprises and organizations with remote locations.
• Advanced call management: RingCentral offers call management features such as call routing, call monitoring, call whisper, and call barge as part of RingCentral Contact Center, providing organizations with sophisticated tools for handling customer service and internal communications.
• Integration capabilities: RingCentral’s UCaaS platform can integrate with a wide array of applications, including Salesforce, Zendesk, and several other apps and platforms. This allows businesses to connect their VoIP phone systems with their CRM and other business tools.
• Analytics and insights: RingCentral provides comprehensive analytics and reporting tools, which businesses can use to gain insights into their communications, manage training and compliance, and make data-driven decisions.
• Customizability and API access: Businesses in need of a tailored solution can access RingCentral’s developer platform and APIs to create custom integrations and workflows.

Nextiva

Nextiva’s top features are quite impressive, with an array of tools to improve business communications and the customer experience. These include:

• Voice analytics: Nextiva’s Enterprise plan includes voice analytics, providing businesses with deeper insights into their call data. This helps create new strategies to optimize customer interactions as well as improve internal communications.
• Unlimited participants in video conferences: The ability to allow unlimited participants is vital for companies that conduct large-scale meetings, webinars, or training sessions.
• Call recording: Nextiva offers call recording — an important tool for organizations of all sizes. Recordings can be used for quality assurance, compliance, training, and dispute resolution, making them vital for contact centers, sales teams, and more.
• CRM integrations: Nextiva’s integrations with major CRM systems, such as Salesforce, let employees easily create call logs and access customer information. This is essential for organizations that rely on CRM data for their sales, marketing, and customer service.
• Unlimited SMS and conference calling: For businesses with large workforces, unlimited SMS and conference calling can ensure that communications remain uninterrupted, no matter how many conferences or text messages they require.

Nextiva vs. RingCentral Comparison Table

Feature or functionality	Nextiva Essential	Nextiva Enterprise	RingCentral Core	RingCentral Ultra
Monthly price (billed annually)	$18.95	$32.95	$20	$35
User capacity	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Unlimited voice & video calling (US & Canada)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Mobile apps (iOS & Android)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Toll-free minutes	1,500	12,500	100	10,000
Video conferencing participants		Unlimited		200
Video meeting recording	✅	✅		✅
Meeting scheduling and calendar integrations	✅	✅	✅	✅
Team messaging	✅	✅	✅	✅
Voicemail to email	✅	✅	✅	✅
Toll-free numbers	✅	✅	✅	✅
Unlimited internet fax	✅	✅		✅
Auto attendant	✅	✅	✅
SMS/MMS		✅
Call recording		✅		✅
Multi-level auto attendant		✅		✅
Salesforce and HubSpot integrations		✅		✅
Call queues		✅		✅
Voicemail transcription		✅		✅
Advanced analytics and reporting		✅		✅
Microsoft Teams integration		✅	✅	✅
Single sign-on		✅		✅

Key findings:

• Cost: Nextiva offers a slight edge on price, with their Essential plan starting at $18.95 per user per month compared to RingCentral’s Core at $20 per user per month.
• Video conferencing: Nextiva allows for more participants in video meetings across all plans (250 vs 100 for RingCentral on most plans).
• Call recording: Nextiva includes call recording in all tiers, whereas RingCentral requires an additional fee for this feature on most plans.
• Toll-free minutes: Nextiva offers a significantly higher number of free toll minutes in their basic plans (1500 vs 100 for RingCentral).

Which Provider Is Right for Your Business?

Now that it’s clear what RingCentral and Nextiva have to offer, we can weigh the pros and cons for each to see what they bring to businesses.

RingCentral

RingCentral provides a good selection of features for businesses looking for:

• Advanced features and integrations: RingCentral has an extensive list of integrations, including over 300 apps, which can be beneficial for businesses that need a wider range of integrations with other software and services.
• International presence: RingCentral has a broad scope of international calling and office locations, which larger enterprises with a global footprint might find preferable.
• High-volume communications: RingCentral’s plans offer a high number of toll-free minutes and call-handling features, which are useful for businesses with high call volumes.
• Comprehensive analytics: RingCentral’s advanced analytics capabilities can provide valuable insights into communications performance and customer interactions.

Nextiva

Nextiva is an excellent choice for organizations that want:

• Cost-effectiveness: Nextiva’s competitive pricing (particularly for the entry-level Essential plan) provides a budget-friendly option for businesses keeping an eye on their bottom line.
• Simplicity and user-friendly service: Nextiva’s Essential plan offers a straightforward feature set, including unlimited calling, faxing, and voicemail to email, which is great for businesses looking for ease of use.
• Scalability: Nextiva offers a scalable cloud communications platform, so businesses can move to new plans with more advanced features (such as CRM integrations and voice analytics) as they grow.
• Reliability and customer support: With 24/7 customer support and a reputation for high reliability and quality of service, Nextiva customers can rest assured that they don’t have to worry about downtime and can reach customer service whenever they need it.
• Integrated communications: Nextiva’s Enterprise plan offers extensive CRM integrations, making it a great choice for sales-driven organizations that rely on CRM solutions and need to tie their communications tools to their customer data.

Final Verdict on RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral offers a feature-rich cloud communication platform with various plans to suit different business needs. Here’s a breakdown of the key points:

Pros:

• Wide range of features, including video conferencing, call management, integrations with many CRMs, and analytics.
• Scalable plans for businesses of all sizes.
• Strong international presence for global enterprises.
• High volume communication capabilities.

Cons:

• Can be expensive compared to competitors like Nextiva, especially with add-on features.
• Some core features like call recording require extra fees on lower tiers.
• Limited storage space for messaging and files on some plans.

RingCentral vs. Nextiva: Nextiva Edges Out on Price

While both RingCentral and Nextiva offer competitive services…

Nextiva is the best choice for both growing small businesses and larger organizations that are looking for a cost-effective solution to scale.

And with Nextiva’s recent expansion in the contact center software space, you’re sure to have everything your company needs to stay connected, serve customers, and scale faster. 

Nextiva’s Essential plan provides all the necessary tools and features businesses need for excellent communication and collaboration, with an intuitive user interface.

Learn more about Nextiva’s enterprise communications platform and what it brings to your business.