If you are considering a new cloud communications solution for your business, where do you start? Simply perform a Google search for this and you're presented with so many potential options with descriptions all so similar that your eyes can gloss over. RingCentral is frequently at the top of these search results so it is clearly the best option for you to choose, right? Obviously that is not always the case. Let's take a look at some competitors to RingCentral to help you decide if its services are the best choice for your company.
Why is RingCentral Service So Popular?
RingCentral currently serves over 300,000 companies and offers cloud communications solutions that consist of VoIP based desktop phone service, inbound call routing, Internet Fax and cloud based contact center services. The flagship Office product comes with audio, video and web conferencing capabilities in addition to featuring multiple different CRM integrations (Salesforce, ZoHo, SugarCRM, etc), making it an attractive unified communications (UC) offering. Plans range from $24.99 to $44.99 per user per month depending on number of seats required and length of contract.
In contrast to the Office plan, the Professional plan is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) inbound calling solution with pricing starting at $12.99 per month for 300 minutes supporting 2 extensions.
Let's now look at some of the top alternatives and competitors to RingCentral.
Top 10 RingCentral Competitors and Alternatives
Vonage Business
When it comes to RingCentral competition, Vonage is right up there as one of the fiercest competitors. With defined plans and the option to "build your own" plan, there is a lot of flexibility. Their solutions offer very sophisticated call management and even include a nice click to call feature that can be used to call from a browser window. Set plan prices start at $14.99 for a metered or virtual extension while build your own plans start at $39.99 per line.
Jive Communications
Jive also gives small companies a good set of services to select from. With five levels of plans ranging from $19.95 to $29.95 per month, the pricing is very competitive. The plan pricing is based on the number of users with the most expensive plan being for one user and the least expensive plan being for 50 to 100 users. This service also offers integration with other systems such as CRM platforms.
8x8
The 8x8 solution may be overkill for companies that only require a few seats and have simpler needs. This solution is highly robust and very targeted on global enterprises. Its focuses heavily on network security and infrastructure and it touts a 99.99% guaranteed level of uptime with an average realized level of uptime of 99.997%. That being said, 8x8 should still be considered as a viable alternative to RingCentral for any size of company.
Nextiva
From small to big, Nextiva has something for every business it seems. Individual BYOD VoIP solutions, call center setups and PBX trunks are all part of the offering. VoIP plans start at $19.95 per month with no additional costs to get going. They are very committed to service and you'll see this reiterated over and over again on their website.
Phone.com
Phone.com offers a somewhat different VoIP package at least in the manner in which it is marketed to prospective customers. From low prices (how does $9.99 per month sound to you?) for a single line, you'll get a solid cloud-based solution. That also includes unlimited extensions, 100 calling minutes and a mobile app. While this low advertised pricing is certainly intriguing, you need to dig deeper to get a better feel for the overall costs of the service. For a true comparison with RingCentral, you will need to upgrade your extension with an unlimited minutes bundle for $23.99 per month. So the total cost of an unlimited extension is $33.98 per month. Phone.com touts its range of options and features that, coupled with a relatively low price, can be an interesting option for small companies with very low call volumes.
Mitel MiCloud
If you are a small or medium sized business, never fear Mitel MiCloud is here. This offering is more basic and focuses on a solid softphone and VoIP service. Outstanding call quality is a big feature for them as is their promise of 100% lifetime support.
Shoretel Sky
Shortel Sky delivers robust unified communications to larger businesses. Offerings include cloud-based or onsite systems. A hybrid system is also available. Mobile functionality and workgroup collaboration are key things enabled with Shortel Sky's solutions. Pricing information is not clearly presented on the website but after some research we found some numbers for you to compare to RingCentral. The Shoretel Sky fully featured seat comes in at $40 per month while a plan with a subset of these features is currently available for $32 per seat per month.
Ooma
For solo business operators or really small teams for whom price is a primary concern, Ooma delivers unless you want robust international calling options. The basic service is free and the premier service is $9.99 per month after one time device costs of $249.99. Both services give you unlimited calls within the United States. Calls outside the U.S. are also free if they are made to other Ooma users. Beyond that, the international calling rates are very high and not competitive with the majority of other providers. The feature set is also very limited when compared to other providers.
Grasshopper
Owned by Citrix, you can bet that Grasshopper is a major player in the VoIP world and is here to stay. They offer basic VoIP functionality and are really well-suited for small businesses. Their solution only offers a limited number of actual phone numbers but the plethora of extensions they allow may just well make up for that. If conferencing is important to you, you may be disappointed as this is limited here. Basic plan costs are low, starting at $14 per month but high overage fees are something to watch out for. Grasshopper is on this list as a competitor as it is reasonable alternative to RingCentral's BYOD professional plans. It is traditionally an inbound calling service that routes calls to different cell phones and does not offer the typical desktop IP Phone solution. Only recently has grasshopper supported outbound calls via its mobile app.
Five9
Five9 is on this list as it competes with RingCentral's cloud call center software offering. It offers solutions for inbound or outbound calling as well as a blended solution with both features. Five9 is one of the more popular contact center services with a deep feature set that includes ACD, IVR, and CTI on the inbound side and multiple different dialer options on the outbound side. While no pricing is available directly from the Five9 website, RingCentral's offering starts at $99.99 per user per month. Suffice to say that if you primarily want VoIP service, this may not be your best bet. If you're looking for a full call center solution, you might want to check them out.
Other Alternatives to RingCentral
There are literally hundreds of services to choose from and the above list is a very small sample of some of the more popular solutions. Many small companies also choose to use their local cable or Internet company for their business phone service. These are companies such as Comcast, CenturyLink, Verizon, Time Warner, Frontier and AT&T among many others. Going in this direction is most likely a matter of convenience as you can then bundle both your Internet and phone service into one bill. The major downside with this option is that your voice service is most likely going to cost you a lot more than it would if you kept it separate from your Internet service, in addition to having access to a lot less calling features.
For comparsion purposes, the below table includes our top 5 most popular providers for you to consider.
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Conclusion
So, there you have it. There's no clear-cut answer to which one is right for you, but understanding which provider best matches your business size and needs can go a long way toward setting you in the right direction.
It's always important to do your research and compare every detail. No two companies will have plans or features packaged alike, making it hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison. Find out what you need and want, what's available and match from there. Our Provider Features Comparison Tool can go a long way towards helping you sort through all the information and compare features that important to you.
Another aspect to research are reviews. We have thousands of user submitted reviews and you can use our Provider Ratings Comparison Tool to select multiple providers to compare side-by-side.
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