Pros
- Numerous features & add-ons
- Excellent security & compliance features
- Strong mobile apps
- Stable & reliable phone service
- 24/7 customer support
Cons
- Add-ons can make monthly bills expensive
- High early termination fees
- Customer service is hit-or-miss
What Is RingCentral?
RingCentral is a cloud-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider that uses AI to provide businesses with more than just reliable phone service. RingCentral offers a suite of services that help businesses connect with their customers through calls, messaging, and more while also improving intraoffice communications with features like audio and video conferencing.
RingCentral has a solid public reputation, a wide selection of phones and equipment, and competitively priced base plans. However, pricing can get expensive with multiple add-ons, and there have been some complaints about customer support and getting the system set up.
Despite these complaints, RingCentral offers a solid product that is scalable and robust enough for businesses of nearly any size.
RingCentral Pricing
RingCentral has three plans available that are priced competitively, especially considering the number of features included in even the lowest-tier plan.
Overall, we’re impressed with RingCentral’s pricing, although it would be nice to see discounts for new customers. Despite this, we give RingCentral a 4.2/5 for its pricing.
RingCentral EX Plan |
Price |
When To Use |
Core |
$30/month per user |
If you need unlimited domestic calling |
Advanced |
$35/month per user |
If you need unlimited calling plus integrations and additional features |
Ultra |
$45/month per user |
If you need unlimited calling plus customizable analytics |
Here’s what you can expect with each plan.
RingCentral Core
RingCentral’s Core plan is priced at $30/month per user (or $20/month per user if paid annually). This plan includes:
- Unlimited domestic calling
- HD voice & AI noise cancellation
- Business phone or toll-free phone numbers
- E911
- Caller ID
- Auto attendant
- Interactive Voice Response call menus
- Basic call queues
- SMS & MMS messaging
- Visual voicemail
- Quality of Service reporting
- Integrations with Google & Microsoft
- Video meetings for up to 100 participants
- API & custom integrations
- End-to-end encryption
- iOS & Android apps
RingCentral Advanced
RingCentral Advanced is priced at $35/month per user (or $25/month per user if paid annually). This plan includes everything from Core, plus:
- Advanced call monitoring
- Automatic call recording
- Advanced call queues
- Unlimited online faxing
- Multi-site management & customization
- CRM integrations
- Custom user roles & permissions
- Analytics
RingCentral Ultra
RingCentral Ultra is priced at $45/month per user (or $35/month per user if paid annually). This plan includes everything from Advanced, plus:
- Customizable business analytics
- Video meetings for up to 200 participants
- Device analytics
- Unlimited storage
A 14-day free trial is available to test out the service. The free trial supports up to 20 lines and two desktop phones. All features, with the exception of SMS messaging, are available during the trial.
Special packages are also available for hybrid and virtual classes, schools, and districts.
RingCentral Extra Costs & Fees
There are several add-ons available for your RingCentral phone service.
RingCentral Add-On |
Price |
Additional Local Or Toll-Free Numbers |
$4.99/month per user |
Additional Vanity Numbers |
$30 one-time fee |
Additional International Numbers |
Starts at $5.99/month per user |
Additional International Toll-Free Numbers |
$25 one-time fee + $14.99/month per user |
RingCentral Rooms |
$49/month per room (or $468/year) |
High Volume SMS |
$.01 per message sent or received |
Push To Talk |
$5/month per user |
RingCentral Webinar |
Starts at $40/month per organizer |
RingCentral Events |
Starts at $750/year per license |
RingSense For Sales |
$60/user |
AI Contact Center |
$65/user |
You can add additional local, toll-free, international, international toll-free, and vanity phone numbers to your account for a monthly and/or one-time fee.
You can also add push to talk (PTT) if you need a walkie-talkie function for your employees.
Other add-ons include:
- RingCentral Rooms: A conference room solution with screen-sharing, HD video, and more
- RingCentral Webinar: Lets you easily host webinars and includes AI-powered setup, interactive polling, and post-event reporting
- RingCentral Events: An AI-powered solution for on-site, virtual, and hybrid events
- RingSense For Sales: AI-driven coaching, performance analysis, insights, reporting, and more
- RingCX AI Contact Center: Contact center solution with summaries, transcripts, coaching, feedback, and more
RingCentral Equipment
RingCentral sells a wide variety of phones and equipment from brands including Cisco, Unify, Mitel, Yealink, and Polycom. Here’s a breakdown of the types of VoIP phones available through RingCentral:
- VoIP desk phones range from around $100 to $500+.
- Cordless phones are also available starting at less than $200 per device.
- Receptionist phones with expansion modules can be purchased for $300+ per device.
- Conference phones can be purchased for $600+ per device.
Headsets from Poly, Jabra, and Yealink can also be purchased.
If you prefer to use your old analog phones, an analog telephone adapter (ATA) is available for purchase.
RingCentral offers discounts on retail pricing. You can also rent phones and equipment for a monthly fee if you sign a multi-year contract. To avoid signing a long-term contract and paying more over time, we recommend purchasing your equipment outright whenever possible.
Because RingCentral offers a wide assortment of equipment, discounts, and financing options, we rated it a perfect 5/5 score in this category.
RingCentral Features
One area where RingCentral really shines is its features. If a feature isn’t available in one plan, it’s available in another or as an add-on. Its wide variety of features makes it ideal for businesses of all sizes with needs that range from basic phone lines to a more complex communications system.
This is why we’ve given it a perfect 5-star rating for features.
Here’s a look at everything that RingCentral has to offer.
Standard Features
RingCentral has all of the standard features you would expect in a business phone system, including:
- Unlimited domestic calling in the U.S. and Canada
- Domestic & international business numbers
- Domestic & international toll-free numbers
- Vanity numbers
- Visual voicemail
- AI noise cancellation
- E911 emergency calling
- Call queues
Advanced Features
RingCentral provides more than just your standard calling features. Based on your plan (and add-ons), you may have access to more advanced features including:
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR) call menus
- Auto attendant
- Automatic call recording
- Internet fax
- Advanced call monitoring
- Dynamic call routing
- Call whispering
- Call barging
- Multi-site management
- Custom user roles & permissions
Unified Communications
RingCentral makes it easy to create a suite of services that allow businesses to communicate with employees and customers beyond just a simple phone call.
Standout features include:
- SMS & MMS messaging
- Mobile apps
- AI-powered video meetings with support for up to 200 people
- Video recording
- Audio conferencing
- Voicemail to email
- Push to talk (PTT)
- Team messaging & file sharing
- Breakout rooms
Reporting & Analytics
Based on your subscription level, you’ll have access to various call reports and analytics, including:
- Call logs
- Quality of Service (QoS) analytics in real-time
- Adoption and usage (A&U) analytics
- Cloud storage archiver
- Customizable analytics & storage
- Interactive business analytics
- Device status analytics & alerts
- Video AI with transcriptions, summaries, & highlights
- Live reports for queue management
Integrations
All RingCentral plans integrate with Microsoft and Google programs. CRM integrations and integrations with over 300 apps are available on Advanced and Ultra plan. Here’s a sampling of the integrations available through RingCentral:
- Microsoft Teams
- Google Calendar
- Google Chrome
- Salesforce
- Hubspot
- Zendesk
- Zoho CRM
- Slack
- Mailchimp
- Zapier
An API is available for developers.
RingCentral Security
RingCentral offers seven layers of enterprise-level security to keep your system safe. You won’t have to worry about downtime with your system, as the company boasts a 99.999% uptime with less than six minutes of downtime per year.
Additional security features include:
- Single sign-on: Company credentials can be used to sign in automatically and integrates with most Identity Providers
- Encryption: End-to-end encryption for privacy and protection against attacks
- Global regulation compliance: RingCentral complies with global regulations, including HIPAA, PCI, HITRUST, and GDPR
RingCentral is very upfront about its security and privacy through the RingCentral Trust Center. It also provides all information about its global certifications through its compliance site.
The security features and the transparency surrounding security resulted in another perfect 5-star rating.
RingCentral Customer Service
RingCentral offers 24/7 support. Unlimited chat and phone support is available with every plan.
RingCentral Support |
Availability |
Phone Support |
|
Email Support |
|
Support Tickets |
|
Live Chat |
|
Dedicated Support Representative |
|
Knowledge Base or Help Center |
|
Videos & Tutorials |
|
Company Blog |
|
Social Media |
|
In addition to live chat and phone support, you can submit a support case after logging into your account.
RingCentral also offers other great support resources, including free on-demand training through RingCentral University and a community forum where you can connect with other RingCentral users.
FAQs about RingCentral’s products are available, and you can also check out the company blog. RingCentral maintains social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, and TikTok.
The company also offers a wide variety of professional services outside of standard customer support, including consulting and implementation.
The only deduction we made was in regards to customer reviews that didn’t have a good experience with customer service reps. RingCentral’s customer service still came out with a 4.7/5 rating for this category.
RingCentral User Reviews
RingCentral overall receives positive reviews from current and past users of its services. The company is rated across numerous sites across the web:
- Gartner: 4.4/5 (based on 750+ reviews)
- Consumer Affairs: 3.9/5 (based on 750+ reviews)
- Trustpilot: 2.4/5 (based on 800+ reviews)
- Google Play Store: 4.6/5 (based on 26,500+ reviews)
- App Store: 4.8/5 (based on 54,600+ reviews)
Based on the user reviews across the web, we’ve given RingCentral a 4/5 score in this category.
Negative RingCentral Reviews & Complaints
While the majority of RingCentral’s reviews are positive, there are also quite a few complaints that should be addressed, including:
- Poor Customer Service: Dropped calls with agents and long hold times are noted several times.
- Extra Fees: Some users complained about high early termination fees while under contract. Others complained about hidden fees.
- Difficult Setup: Some customers have complained that setting up the system is difficult and have struggled to get basic functions (such as their business name showing up on caller ID) to work correctly.
- Business SMS Issues: Several customers reported lengthy waits and issues with registering with The Campaign Registry (TCR) to comply with regulations surrounding text messaging.
- Problems With App Updates: There are complaints regarding the functionality of features following app updates.
- Pricing Increases: Users who have been with RingCentral for some time have complained about pricing increases throughout the years.
Positive RingCentral Reviews & Testimonials
Though it has its fair share of complaints, most users are satisfied with RingCentral. Here are the areas where customers say that the company shines:
- Good Customer Support: While there are some complaints about the quality of customer service, many customers are pleased with the level of support they receive and say that their problems are resolved quickly.
- Numerous Features: Many customers are pleased with the number of features available and state that features work as they should without issues.
- Reliable Phone Service: Customers are pleased with the stability and reliability of making and receiving calls with RingCentral.
- Competitive Pricing: While there are complaints about extra fees and increasing prices, many customers feel that RingCentral offers competitive pricing for all of the features they have access to.
- Good Intraoffice Communications: Customers like that RingCentral’s video, audio, and messaging features have improved communications with employees.
- Excellent For Remote Employees: Businesses like how easy it is to get remote employees set up and connected.
Final Verdict: Is RingCentral Worth It?
As far as business VoIP goes, RingCentral checks all of the boxes for everything you’d want in a phone system. It’s loaded with features, offers great security to protect your data, has numerous support options, and can hook you up with the equipment you need for systems of all sizes. To top it off, it’s all available at a competitive price.
There are a few shortcomings to at least keep in mind. Some users have reported a few bugs and glitches along the way, which is to be expected. And although pricing is pretty competitive, early termination fees, multiple users and add-ons, and rising prices over the years have all been issues customers have with RingCentral.
Customer service is also hit-or-miss, according to some users, although RingCentral offers many support options, including free training and its community forum.
Overall, RingCentral has everything you’re looking for. While not perfect, we found it to be pretty close during our review, giving the company an overall score of 4.7 out of 5.
While RingCentral has our Merchant Maverick recommendation, we recognize that this might not be the best solution for every business. That’s why we invite you to check out our list of the best VoIP phone systems to find the right option for your business.