The Best RingCentral Alternatives for Your Business

What Is RingCentral?

RingCentral is one of the leading voices over internet protocol (VoIP) solutions on the market. Along with being one of the leading, as it was launched in 2003, it was one of the first VoIP providers to enter the market. RingCentral launched as a business phone service aimed at providing an affordable service designed to provide small to medium-sized businesses with access to a wide range of features.

Along with offering a feature-rich solution, RingCentral has a number of integrations with apps such as Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, Zappier, and Zendesk. RingCentral is also available in a number of countries such as the US, Australia, Germany, the UK, Canada, and more.

RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral is known for having a complex pricing structure, with the basic package starting at $19.99 per user per month and $34.99 for the most popular Premium plan if you pay annually. However, the pricing goes up if you pay monthly and as you add on features, such as video conferencing. But the biggest problem is that RingCentral only offers unlimited plans, which means that you have to pay for unlimited minutes for all users, regardless of how much talking they are going to actually do. For example, if you have 30 employees, of which only 5 are really going to need a large amount of call minutes, you will still have to pay $44.99 per month for each employee on a Premium plan. Plus, to buy extra phone numbers for your employees you would need to pay:

• $4.99 per toll-free or local number per month
• $5.99 per international number per month
• $14.99 per international toll-free number per month, plus $25 one-time fee per number
• $30 one-time fee for a vanity number

While RingCentral may be cheaper than traditional landline systems, with the business VoIP sector ripe for competition, there are a number of competitors who are much more affordable and offer the same amount or, in some cases, more features. Let’s look at 5 RingCentral alternatives.

• Inperium: Best for affordability with a wide range of features.
• Dialpad: Better for advanced but expensive AI features
• Aircall: Better for call centers
• Grasshopper: Better for easy setup, basic solution
• Nextiva: Better for large enterprises

Inperium

Inperium Talk is a feature-rich, cloud-based phone solution that is powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Aimed at providing an affordable solution for SMBs, Inperium Talk takes a different approach to most, more cost-effective packages that offer minutes that are tailored to the individual minutes’ needs. Whereas, RingCentral, which like most VoIP providers, only offers the option to buy unlimited packages. This means you have to pay for an unlimited plan for all employees when in reality only a few employees in the company need that amount of minutes.

Inperium Talk Pricing

• The monthly base fee for a selected plan:
• Essential: $25/$20 (billed monthly / annually)
• Professional: $99/$79.20 (billed monthly / annually)
• Enterprise: $199/$159.20 (billed monthly / annually)
• $5 per user per month on all plans, regardless of whether you are billed monthly or annually
• $5 per additional phone number on all plans, regardless of the type of the number and billing cycle
• Extra minutes packages that add more call minutes to your plan and make price-per-call-minute lower:
• Small, 500 min: $19.50
• Medium, 1,000 min: $39
• Large, 2,500 min: $75
• X-Large, 5,000 min: $139.50 These extra minutes packs are paid per pack and their minutes are available for all tenant users, so those who talk more will use up more minutes, and those who are rarely on the phone – less. And the good thing, each user only costs $5 per month, as stated above.

Pros

• More affordable solution for SMBs allowing them to pay for what they use;
• Easy to set up and use, can be used by those who are not tech-savvy;
• A flexible solution, you can use your existing equipment, connecting from anywhere in the world;
• Robust infrastructure, with high-quality calls;
• Powerful and advanced business phone system features.

Cons

• No video conferencing;
• Do not connect to SIP hardware phones;
• No SIP Trunking support.

Dialpad

Dialpad Talk is a cloud-based solution that works in conjunction with their other offerings which include a contact center, and video conferencing. Along with being a multi-tiered communication platform, Dialpad also offers AI-powered voice intelligence features that are not available on RingCentral. Another benefit of Dialpad is that unlike RingCentral it can be used at any location on any device.

Pricing

• Standard: at $15 per user per month, 1 license minimum;
• Pro: at $25 per user per month, with 3 licenses minimum;
• Enterprise: pricing available on request, with 100 licenses minimum.

*Pricing is based on an annual payment plan; monthly plans are available at an additional cost.

• Along with Dialpad Talk, if required you will need to pay additional costs for their other services. $15 per user for Uber Conferencing;
• $95 for Dialpad Sell;
• Dialpad Support, pricing available on request.

Pros

• Flexibility, as you can work from any location on any device;
• AI features such as voicemail transcription, call records, and call analysis;
• Easy integration with Office 365 and GSuite;
• Access to video conferencing with UberConference and a contact center with Dialpad Sell.

Cons

• Users complain of poor call quality;
• Hard to set up, even for those who are tech-savvy;
• Expensive solution if you want to use all features including UberConference and Dialpad Sell;
• Only offers unlimited plans, meaning you pay the same price per employee, even those who barely use the phone.

Aircall

Aircall is easy to deploy, scale and manage a cloud-based VoIP system, that is focused on supplying an inbound and outbound contact center solution. While it may have fewer inbuilt features, like RingCentral, Aircall provides a wide range of integrations, however, Aircall does offer more with over 40 different business and CRM options that are designed to support modern businesses and offer a high-quality seamless experience.

Pricing

• Essentials: at $30 per user per month, 3 users minimum, and maximum 3 teams;
• Professional: $50 per user per month, 3 users minimum and unlimited teams;
• Custom: pricing available on request, unlimited teams.

*Pricing is based on an annual payment plan, monthly plans are available at an additional cost

Pros

• Easy to use, one-click integrations;
• Simple and easy to use interface;
• Quick set up, easy to scale making it ideal for contact centers;
• Wide range of numbers to make international phone calls.

Cons

• No video conferencing;
• No text messaging;
• Users report some instability with call quality.

Grasshopper

Grasshopper has been around for almost as long as RingCentral and services a similar target market. While Grasshopper is an easy-to-use virtual phone system aimed at solo entrepreneurs and small businesses. While it doesn’t have as many features it does have all the necessary business features such as virtual receptionist, voicemail, and toll-free number, the downside is that it does require an existing phone line that you can forward calls from.

Pricing

• Solo: $26 per month per user, with three extensions;
• Partner: $44 per month for three phone numbers and six extensions;
• Small Business: $80 per month for five phone numbers and unlimited extensions.

*Pricing is based on an annual payment plan, monthly plans are available at an additional cost.

Pros

• Unlimited tests, domestic calls, and voicemails on all plans;
• You can use your existing equipment, eliminating the need to buy or rent additional equipment;
• Robust mobile and desktop apps designed to be user friendly;
• Voice-to-text capabilities let you read or download your voicemail messages as texts.

Cons

• Limited features, limiting scalability;
• Video conferencing isn’t offered;
• No international calling option is included in any of the service tiers;
• Unlimited plans mean that you have to pay the same price per employee regardless of how much they use the phone.

Nextiva

Nextgevia has been operating since 2006 and is often compared with RingCentral as they have a very simple offering providing a feature-rich VoIP service. One of the key differences to RingCentral is that Nexgiva is known to be better for larger enterprises, offering a robust conferencing system that supports larger conferences as well as better volume discounts.

Pricing

• Essential: $21.95 per user, per month for unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada, 1,500 toll-free minutes, and unlimited internet fax;
• Professional: $25.95 per user, per month with unlimited conference calling for up to 40 participants, video calling, and 3,000 toll-free minutes;
• Enterprise: $35.95 per user, per month for unlimited conference calling and participants, call recording, and 12,500 toll-free minutes;
• Ultimate: $65.95 per user, per month for automated surveys, customer journey analytics, and 12,500 toll-free minutes.

Pros

• Users report an excellent level of customer service;
• High-quality phone calls, regardless of the amount of users on the system;
• A robust infrastructure that can support enterprises;
• Easy to integrate with a wide range of providers.

Cons

• Hard to solve issues internally;
• Hard to access business voicemail remotely;
• Hard to set up, requires assistance from a tech team;
• Users report that aspects of the system are clunky and hard to use.

The Verdict

VoIP solutions are packed with features, cost-effective and scalable solitons that allow businesses to work from anywhere in the world. The benefits of swapping to a VoIP provider are undeniable, however, when it comes to choosing the business telephone for your business the best advice is to choose a provider that caters to your business’s unique needs and that offers a good pricing structure.

Since VoIP first entered the market, as you can see above there are the RingCentral competitors that offer a more feature-rich platform, that offers AI technology all at a more affordable price. While Inperium Talk is one of these, unlike all the options listed above, Inperium Talk is the only provider that offers a pricing package that does not require you to purchase unlimited plans for all customers, meaning you can access a much more affordable pricing structure while still getting access to a wide range features.

*All pricing reflects the time of writing.