Are you fed up with overspending on your corporation telephone system? Or possibly you’re a startup in search of an economical answer that also has all of the options you want?
RingCentral is a good possibility for a lot of firms and entrepreneurs (in truth, we frequently suggest it to WPBeginner readers). Nonetheless, it’s not the right answer for each single enterprise.
That’s why I’ve carried out the analysis for you, testing a ton of enterprise telephone methods to search out the perfect RingCentral options. I checked out all the things from pricing and ease of use to name high quality and buyer help, specializing in options appropriate for every kind of enterprise house owners.
Whether or not you’re in search of superior options or simply need one thing easy and reasonably priced, I’m assured I’ve discovered a RingCentral various to suit your wants.
Fast Choose – The Finest RingCentral Options
In a rush? No worries! Check out my high picks so you’ll be able to rapidly select the appropriate RingCentral various on your web site.
| Rank | RingCentral Different | Finest For | Value monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Nextiva | Companies of all sizes, particularly distant groups | $20 per consumer |
| 🥈 | Ooma | Small companies on a good finances | $19.95 |
| 🥉 | Grasshopper | Solo entrepreneurs within the US and Canada | $14 |
| 4 | Zoom Telephone | Groups that require video conferencing and group messaging | $15 per consumer |
| 5 | Telephone.com | Companies that function globally, particularly healthcare | $15 per consumer |
| 6 | Vonage | Name facilities and bigger companies | $13.99 per line |
How I Examined & Reviewed Ring Central Options
I do know that discovering the appropriate communication platform could be daunting and high-stakes. Make the incorrect choice, and your distant group could wrestle to collaborate. Even worse, you would possibly miss pressing buyer queries, present a horrible buyer expertise, or lose out on potential leads.
With a lot at stake, I’m dedicated to providing you with the very best recommendation about RingCentral options.
That mentioned, right here’s how I examined the completely different choices on this article:
- We now have truly used them at WPBeginner: As an illustration, we’ve got used Nextiva for our personal enterprise telephone system for a few years and Zoom for firm conferences. This real-world expertise means we perceive how these instruments carry out in an actual enterprise, and never simply in an ideal demo setting.
- I put the preferred ones to the check: I dug deep into these options, analyzing them based mostly on the stuff that actually issues: How straightforward are they to make use of? What options do they provide? Have they got any time-saving synthetic intelligence instruments? And naturally, how a lot do they value?
- I attempted customizing them: Your online business is exclusive, so your communication system needs to be, too. With that in thoughts, I personally examined every RingCentral various to see whether or not you’ll be able to customise the decision flows, greetings, and total expertise. For instance, do you have got the flexibleness to fine-tune the VoIP or communications answer to higher swimsuit your corporation, or are you caught with the default settings?
- I categorized them: The reality is, there’s no single ‘greatest’ RingCentral various that’s excellent for everybody. I perceive {that a} small startup has completely different wants than a big name middle. With that in thoughts, I categorized every answer that will help you discover the appropriate platform on your distinctive wants.
Why Belief WPBeginner?
As somebody who’s been a part of the WPBeginner group for some time now, I’ve seen firsthand how vital good communication is for any enterprise, together with ours!
We use instruments like Nextiva throughout our complete enterprise to handle our communications, so we’ve got first-hand expertise with how they work.
As well as, everybody at WPBeginner follows a strict editorial course of to verify our critiques are at all times useful and reliable.
So, once you learn my ideas on these RingCentral options, know that they arrive from somebody who makes use of these sorts of instruments every day, understands the communication wants of a enterprise like yours, and is dedicated to serving to you discover the appropriate answer.
6 Finest RingCentral Options
Now, let’s take a look at the perfect RingCentral options you must take into account for your corporation.
1. Nextiva – Finest for Distant Groups
I can confidently say that Nextiva is a superb enterprise telephone service, particularly for distant groups. Because it’s a cloud-based platform, you’ll be able to reply calls from anyplace utilizing an app in your laptop or telephone.
We additionally use it throughout our personal enterprise. We finally selected Nextiva as a result of it supplied the perfect steadiness of options, ease of use, and affordability for a enterprise telephone system, particularly for distant groups like ours.
You may try our Nextiva overview for extra info.
One other standout characteristic is Nextiva’s capacity to deal with a number of communication channels, together with telephone, SMS, stay chat, video, group messaging, and social media.
This makes it notably well-suited for buyer help, because it permits for seamless buyer interactions.
Nexitva’s IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system can be extremely helpful. This automated telephone menu permits callers to work together with Nextiva utilizing their keyboard or voice.
When you’ve ever rang a telephone quantity and heard a pre-recorded greeting say one thing like “Press 1 for…” then you definately’ve encountered an IVR system earlier than.
This characteristic allows you to route callers to the appropriate division or individual routinely, permitting you to higher deal with excessive name volumes. By automating easy routine duties like this, you’ll be free to give attention to extra complicated buyer points.
Plus, Nextiva has some nice name analytics and experiences. These name metrics can help you see what number of calls your group can deal with and enhance your customer support and gross sales groups.
General, Nextiva’s characteristic set may be very spectacular and consists of automated reminders, video calls, an auto-attendant, and display screen sharing.
It additionally integrates easily with different enterprise instruments like HubSpot, Zendesk, Zoho, and Salesforce.
✅ Execs of Nextiva:
- Cloud-based enterprise telephone service that’s excellent for distant work
- Inexpensive VoIP telephone service
- Automated name forwarding based mostly in your schedule
- Constructed-in contact administration options
- Helps video chat, together with display screen sharing and file sharing
- Handles a number of communication channels
- E-mail and textual content voicemail transcription
- Detailed name analytics
- Simply connects with different enterprise instruments
❌ Cons of Nextiva:
- It doesn’t matter what plan you purchase, you’ll have to pay for every extra consumer. This may occasionally make Nextiva tough to scale, particularly when you’re a quickly increasing firm that usually onboards new workers.
- The desktop app makes use of many assets and may decelerate your laptop.
Why I like to recommend Nextiva: As distant work continues to develop, I’m listening to from increasingly more companies that want a dependable cloud-based telephone answer. If this sounds such as you, then Nextiva could also be your perfect answer.
It permits you to reply calls from anyplace utilizing an app in your laptop or telephone, so it’s excellent for distant groups. I may also see this being possibility in case your workers usually journey or work within the discipline.
Pricing: Plans begin at $20 per consumer monthly for the Digital Plan and go as much as $60 per consumer monthly for the superior Energy Suite plan.
Swap from RingCentral and save as much as 50%. As a trusted various to RingCentral, we’re providing our WPBeginner readers an enormous low cost on their Nextiva subscription.
2. Ooma – Finest for Small Companies on a Tight Price range
For small companies, each greenback counts. Fortunately, Ooma presents superior options like auto-attendant, name forwarding, and voicemail transcription at a surprisingly budget-friendly value.
Considered one of Oooma’s standout options is its digital receptionist, which helps you to create customized messages with normal info akin to your corporation hours and areas. It is going to then learn these messages to anybody who calls your corporation quantity.
This helps callers get important info immediately, even when you don’t have an enormous help group obtainable 24/7.
However right here’s the place Oooma will get actually sensible.
The Digital Receptionist isn’t just a few primary answering machine. It may truly work out who the caller wants to talk with and routinely ahead them to the appropriate individual or division. For instance, the digital receptionist can ask callers to press completely different buttons for particular extensions, akin to “Press 1 to talk with our refunds division.”
This makes your corporation look extremely environment friendly and arranged, permitting you to compete with the massive guys (even when you’re a small group behind the scenes).
I additionally appreciated the drag-and-drop name move designer, making it straightforward to create customized name flows. Even when you don’t have a technical professional on workers, you’ll be able to nonetheless create customized name routes in minutes.
Throughout my testing, I discovered Ooma’s name high quality to be persistently clear and dependable. The cellular app can be fairly helpful, permitting you to make limitless home calls.
Even higher, it can save you as much as 90% on worldwide name charges once you dial by the app. That’s a large saving when you name abroad quite a bit!
The Ooma app additionally makes use of your telephone’s Wi-Fi or information connection to make calls. Which means you’ll be able to chat away with out worrying about utilizing up all of your cellular information or sacrificing name high quality.
✅ Execs of Ooma:
- Toll-free quantity with 500 minutes of inbound calls every month.
- Assign a number of units to the identical consumer.
- Automated name forwarding based mostly on a schedule.
- The Caller Data Match characteristic routinely fetches buyer info from sources like LinkedIn, Fb, Google, HubSpot, ServiceNow, or Zoho.
- Helps video chat, together with noise suppression, host muting, and HD streams.
- Handy ‘meet now’ hyperlink for fast digital conferences.
- Computerized voicemail transcription, plus a voicemail-to-email possibility.
- Simply connects with different enterprise instruments, together with Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zoho, FreshDesk, and Salesforce Lightning.
❌ Cons of Ooma:
- A number of customers have skilled points organising the cellular app.
- Some options, such because the IVR system, could be complicated to arrange and require technical experience.
Why I like to recommend Ooma: When you’re a small enterprise or have a restricted finances, then Ooma Workplace Necessities is a good place to begin. Its user-friendly interface makes it straightforward to arrange and handle your telephone system, even when you don’t have a group of technical specialists on workers.
Ooma can be designed to be reasonably priced. It consists of limitless calling to the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, so it’s an incredible, budget-friendly answer when you usually name these areas.
Pricing: Ooma Workplace Necessities is priced at $19.95 monthly, and is our advice for startups, small enterprise house owners, and WP freelancers.
Nonetheless, you’ll be able to unlock extra options akin to name recording and name blocking, voicemail transcriptions, and video conferencing by upgrading to both Ooma Workplace Professional ($24.95) or Ooma Workplace Professional Plus ($29.95).
3. Grasshopper – Finest for Solo Entrepreneurs within the US/Canada
Establishing and sustaining an expert telephone system could be overwhelming, particularly once you’re flying solo. That’s the place Grasshopper is available in.
It is a highly effective digital enterprise telephone service particularly designed to assist solo entrepreneurs set up a powerful model picture and talk successfully with prospects.
Solo entrepreneurs usually do business from home or remotely, which may make it tough to determine an expert telephone presence. Grasshopper solves this downside by permitting you to create a toll-free quantity, a conceit quantity, or an area quantity in any metropolis of your alternative.
I notably like the choice to create an area quantity, because it helps you attraction to prospects outdoors of your instant space. You may probably take your solo enterprise worldwide!
Even higher, the Grasshopper app lets prospects and potential leads attain you at any time. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re working from residence, your native espresso store, or on the go. The app helps you develop your corporation by making certain you don’t miss vital calls.
The perfect half? You don’t want to purchase any extra telephones or gear—your current smartphone or laptop will do. This makes it an reasonably priced answer for solo entrepreneurs who want to determine a dependable telephone system on a restricted finances.
It’s additionally possibility for startups and even some small companies that will not have invested in skilled gear but.
To verify prospects at all times get a response, Grasshopper can routinely ship a textual content to new callers when you’ll be able to’t reply them immediately. This characteristic is particularly helpful once you’re flying solo – even probably the most devoted solo entrepreneur can’t be obtainable 24/7.
Nonetheless, take into account that Grasshopper is barely obtainable to prospects within the US or Canada.
✅ Execs of Grasshopper:
- Ship and obtain texts in your Grasshopper enterprise quantity.
- Ahead any incoming calls to a number of telephones directly.
- Computerized voicemail transcriptions.
- Use your web connection when cell reception is poor.
- Obtain faxes as PDF attachments, despatched straight to your e mail inbox.
- Monitor your corporation with detailed name experiences and analytics.
❌ Cons of Grasshopper
- No superior options like video conferencing or group messaging.
- Restricted integrations with different software program (Skype and Google Voice solely).
- $500 deposit is required to allow worldwide outgoing calls.
- Solely obtainable within the US and Canada.
Why I like to recommend Grasshopper: With Grasshopper, you don’t have to fret about difficult technical setup, upkeep, or gear. This makes it possibility for startups and small companies, however I notably suggest it for solo entrepreneurs.
Grasshopper’s alternative of toll-free, vainness, and native numbers helps you determine an expert telephone presence, whereas the app lets you reply calls from any location at any time.
The top consequence? Your online business tasks a extra polished {and professional} picture, which is crucial for constructing belief and driving gross sales.
Pricing: Begins at $14/ month for the True Solo plan. This plan consists of 1 consumer, 1 telephone quantity, and 1 extension – principally, all the things it is advisable help a solo-person enterprise.
4. Zoom Telephone – Finest for Video Conferencing & Group Messaging
Managing calls, video conferencing, and group chat could be a problem for any enterprise. Nonetheless, it’s notably difficult for distant groups the place a lot of the communication occurs just about.
Zoom Telephone presents an answer to this downside by offering an all-in-one platform for managing all of your communication wants. This consists of answering buyer calls, following up on leads, internet hosting video conferences, and chatting with group members.
As a 100% distant group, we use Zoom for a few of our giant firm conferences.
We’d like a dependable and environment friendly platform with built-in group chat and video conferencing. That is important for retaining our workers related throughout completely different time zones.
With Zoom, we’ve got hosted one-on-one critiques, city corridor conferences, group chats, and even team-building social calls, all from the identical platform.
Regardless of being a complete all-in-one platform, Zoom Telephone is extremely straightforward to arrange. Merely select a cloud telephone plan, and you can begin making calls instantly utilizing the Zoom cellular or desktop app.
Moreover, Zoom has an AI Companion that may streamline your workflows with superior options like assembly and name summaries, real-time AI queries throughout conferences, and AI-powered whiteboard technology.
These options are perfect for video conferences typically, however they’re notably helpful for distant groups the place most communication occurs by way of video conferences. They allow you to maintain everybody within the loop, together with individuals who couldn’t attend the video chat.
I additionally like the flexibility to modify between voice and video calls with one click on. As soon as once more, that is perfect if it is advisable deal with a mixture of buyer calls, inside conferences, and distant collaboration.
✅ Execs of Zoom Telephone:
- Unified interface for telephone, video, and chat.
- One-click swap between voice and video calls.
- Handy, centralized admin portal (monitor customers, name high quality, utilization information, and extra).
- Helps a number of units and apps.
- Limitless auto-attendants.
- Name queuing with automated name distribution.
- Integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, Contact Middle, Slack, and different widespread options.
❌ Cons of Zoom Telephone:
- No free trial obtainable (though there’s a free model that’s restricted to 40-minute name durations and 100 individuals).
- The metered worldwide calling charges are a bit costly for small companies.
Why I like to recommend Zoom Telephone: With its superior video conferencing and group chat options, Zoom Telephone is a good possibility for groups that host common digital conferences. It’s notably good for distant groups that depend on chat and video conferencing to work collectively successfully.
Pricing: Zoom plans begin at $15 per consumer, monthly for home US and Canada calling, with costs going as much as $22.49.
5. Telephone.com – Finest for Worldwide Companies
Do you have got prospects everywhere in the globe? Telephone.com presents aggressive worldwide calling charges to speak along with your current prospects and discover new ones with out breaking the financial institution.
One other characteristic that caught my consideration was Telephone.com’s AI-powered Reply Bot service. This service can decide up the telephone utilizing your organization’s identify and provides a pre-written reply. It is a improbable option to make your corporation seem extra skilled.
It’s additionally an incredible addition in case you have prospects in numerous time zones, however don’t have name middle workers obtainable 24/7. With Telephone.com’s Reply Bot service, you could be assured that callers at all times get some type of response.
Do you’re employed within the healthcare business? Then I actually suggest testing Telephone.com’s HIPAA compliance options.
Preserving affected person information personal is a big deal, and Telephone.com understands this. For instance, if a affected person tries to contact you by way of SMS, then Telephone.com can routinely inform them to contact your workplace otherwise to debate medical info. It’s because textual content messaging often isn’t HIPAA compliant.
Establishing Telephone.com can be pretty easy. Their dashboard is user-friendly, so you’ll be able to customise name routing, voicemail, and different settings with none problem. They also have a sensible name routing system the place you’ll be able to outline customized guidelines based mostly on the time of day, caller ID, and extra.
As soon as once more, these options could be notably helpful for worldwide companies that need to present customized service to prospects in numerous areas. For instance, you would possibly route callers to a customer support agent who speaks their most popular language.
✅ Execs of Telephone.com:
- Low charges for worldwide calling.
- Connect with any conventional analog phone.
- HIPAA compliance options.
- Observe your high performers and busiest hours with built-in analytics.
- Get extra insights by way of name logs and name recording.
❌ Cons of Telephone.com:
- Customer support response occasions can generally be gradual.
- Solely consists of name analytics and CRM integrations in the costliest plan.
Why I like to recommend Telephone.com: Whereas Telephone.com has limitations, together with slower customer support response occasions, it’s nonetheless a wonderful possibility. Its aggressive worldwide calling charges, specifically, make it a very engaging platform for firms with prospects everywhere in the globe.
And right here’s a little bit one thing further that actually stood out to me: when you work within the healthcare discipline, then Telephone.com has devoted HIPAA compliance options. This instantly makes it stand out from each different answer on this record.
When you’re keen to miss some minor drawbacks, then Telephone.com might be your excellent answer, particularly for companies that promote or function globally.
Pricing: Customers can select between Fundamental ($15), Plus ($22.50), and Professional ($33.33), with all plans billed per consumer, monthly.
6. Vonage – Finest for Name Facilities
As a well-established identify in VoIP, Vonage is a superb possibility for name facilities and bigger companies. After attempting out their enterprise telephone service, I used to be impressed by its wide selection of options and capabilities.
I used to be actually shocked by how straightforward it was to handle firm telephone numbers from my admin dashboard. You may even generate native and toll-free numbers instantly from the dashboard (though you have to to contact Vonage to generate worldwide numbers).
Vonage is a good possibility for name facilities as a result of options akin to group messaging, video conferencing (with as much as 200 individuals!), name recording, and auto-dialing.
It additionally helps VoIP desk telephones, so you need to use conventional workplace telephones alongside the desktop and cellular apps.
Nonetheless, it’s value noting that Vonage is without doubt one of the costlier choices on this record. So, when you’re a startup or small enterprise, then you might be higher off with a special RingCentral various.
✅ Execs of Vonage:
- Seize extra potential leads with Name Forwarding and Simultaneous Ring.
- Devoted dial-in numbers from 60 nations.
- Report inbound and outbound requires all or any customers inside your group.
- Name center-specific options like name logs, name recordings, AI routing, and superior name analytics.
- Admin portal for name administration.
- Connects with Buyer Relationship Administration (CRM) and different instruments.
❌ Cons of Vonage:
- Costly for small companies.
- Lengthy contract intervals.
Why I like to recommend Vonage: Vonage has some severely superior options constructed explicitly with name facilities in thoughts. That makes it a improbable decide when you want a rock-solid VoIP answer that may deal with the calls for of a busy customer support group.
Nonetheless, whereas Vonage presents many highly effective options, it’s pricier than another choices. If finances is a significant concern for your corporation, then I’d undoubtedly suggest selecting one of many different RingCentral options on this information.
Pricing: Vonage’s base plan begins from $13.99 monthly, per line, and goes all the way in which as much as $27.99 monthly, per line.
What Is the Finest RingCentral Different?
After completely testing and evaluating numerous enterprise telephone methods and platforms, I’m excited to share my high decide for the perfect RingCentral various: Nextiva.
It’s a dependable, versatile, and safe platform with a formidable characteristic set. It’s additionally a cloud-based answer, so your group can reply calls utilizing any laptop or telephone. General, Nextiva is an ideal match for distant groups or workers who journey quite a bit, or even perhaps work within the discipline.
Nextiva may also routinely ahead calls based mostly on every group member’s schedule. This might help distant group members work collectively extra seamlessly, even once they’re unfold throughout a number of time zones.
However what about different choices?
When you’re a small enterprise with a restricted finances, then Ooma and Grasshopper are each nice beginning factors. They each supply reasonably priced plans, they usually’re straightforward to make use of, making them perfect for solo entrepreneurs, startups, and small companies alike.
Nonetheless, the perfect RingCentral various for your corporation will finally rely in your particular wants and necessities. I like to recommend contemplating components like finances, scalability, options, and consumer interface that will help you make the appropriate choice for your corporation.
Finest RingCentral Options: Regularly Requested Questions
I’ve been a part of the WPBeginner group for some time, so I’ve undoubtedly heard my justifiable share of questions alongside the way in which.
That will help you out, I’ve put collectively solutions to a few of the commonest questions we get requested about RingCentral and potential options.
Why ought to I keep away from RingCentral?
The principle problem I hear from companies is that RingCentral is significantly costlier than different VoIP suppliers. Typically, this implies it merely isn’t an possibility for solo entrepreneurs, startups, and small companies, since they sometimes have smaller budgets.
RingCentral additionally has many options, so its studying curve tends to be steeper than its rivals. As soon as once more, this tends to be an issue for smaller companies, as they’re much less more likely to have a technical professional who might help them arrange and preserve RingCentral.
Don’t get me incorrect: RingCentral remains to be an incredible platform. The truth is, it has all of the options you’d count on from a complicated communication device, together with name forwarding, quantity sharing, name ready, and name administration. It additionally integrates with widespread CRMs like Salesforce and Zendesk.
So, whereas Nextiva is my high advice, RingCentral is a improbable device that I nonetheless suggest to bigger companies with greater budgets or extra complicated wants.
If you wish to be taught extra, then you’ll be able to see our detailed RingCentral overview for a deeper dive.
And when you do determine that RingCentral is the appropriate match for you, then you definately’re in luck – we’ve got a RingCentral coupon, so you will get a reduction.
Is there a free model of RingCentral?
Whereas there isn’t a very free model, RingCentral does supply a free trial. This implies you’ll be able to see if the platform is best for you earlier than investing in a paid plan.
What’s the greatest RingCentral various?
In my expertise, Nextiva is the perfect digital enterprise telephone service in the marketplace. It’s loaded with superior options, presents really glorious help, and is designed to scale as your group grows.
We use Nextiva throughout our firm, and in our opinion, it’s the perfect cloud telephone system and platform in the marketplace, particularly in case you have a distant group.
Which is healthier, Nextiva or RingCentral?
In terms of discovering the best possible VoIP telephone supplier and platform for small companies, all the things factors to Nextiva.
Nextiva presents aggressive pricing, a ton of options, the perfect name high quality, decrease charges for worldwide calls, and a variety of numbers to select from (native, worldwide, toll-free, and vainness numbers).
Curious to be taught extra? Our in-depth put up compares Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma, exploring their key options.
Disclaimer: I’ve tried all the highest RingCentral options, together with MightyCall, Google Voice, Freshcaller, Microsoft Groups, and lots of others. Nonetheless, I made a decision to not embrace them on this record that will help you keep away from alternative paralysis.
Bonus: How you can Get Began With Your Enterprise Telephone System
Selecting which communication platform to make use of is an enormous step, so nice job deciding! Now that you simply’ve received that sorted, let’s aid you arrange a seamless enterprise telephone system.
We’ve put collectively some helpful guides that may present you the right way to arrange name forwarding, voicemail greetings, and different important options to verify prospects and potential leads can attain you with ease:
I hope this text has helped you discover the perfect RingCentral various for you. Subsequent up, you would possibly need to try our information on the right way to add a WhatsApp chatbox and share buttons in WP or the right way to get a digital WhatsApp quantity for your corporation.
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