I was very impressed with RingCentral’s quality of calling service and the ease with which I could coordinate communication across channels, shifting from voice and text to chat and video conferencing. Moreover, RingCentral offers hundreds of third-party integrations, further strengthening one’s ability to create a truly comprehensive VoIP experience.
Bob Mesas, Vice President of Sales for Central Business Systems, also noted RingCentral’s robust service: “RingCentral is probably the most refined VoIP application on the market in terms of the features it offers. You can put it on a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. It also integrates with Microsoft Teams directly, and there are a lot of different plugins for CRM applications, such as Salesforce.com. If you are working in Salesforce, you can dial right out of Salesforce into RingCentral with the click of a button. It’s a very scalable solution, whether you have a couple of people or hundreds or thousands. It’s a little pricier than some of the others, but I think RingCentral more than makes up for it in features and support.”
General Features
RingCentral offers local and toll-free business numbers at sign-up and unlimited calling across the United States and Canada. When testing the service, I found the audio to be high-quality; this was also true when I later used RingCentral’s video conferencing software.
Some other features include carrier-compliant multimedia messaging service (MMS) and short messaging service (SMS). I received frequent reminders to register with The Campaign Registry (TCR), a sign that RingCentral takes carrier compliance seriously and is working toward messaging transparency. Other useful features include interactive voice response (IVR), advanced call handling features such as whisper or barge, and internet faxing.
While the entry-level Essentials plan comes with most of the features necessary for a decent VoIP service experience, some features like call recording and third-party apps such as Canva or Smarsh require a higher plan to gain access.
Additional Features
In testing RingCentral, I primarily focused on the standard features of my chosen plan. That said, RingCentral offers several add-on features to further expand your business’s communication experiences. For voice, get a free phone or non-geo number starting at $19.99 per month. You can add unlimited outbound minutes to your service for $10 per month per user, which is very convenient for companies that expect to place many calls in any given month.
RingCentral Webinar starts at $63 monthly per host and comes with a free trial for new subscribers, which lets you get the most out of the service without immediately committing to the add-on. Licenses, such as for push-to-talk, start at $7 per month.
Customer Reviews
RingCentral is an extremely popular VoIP service, with thousands of customer comments across various websites. Satisfied customers appreciate the wide range of call, text, chat and video features. Their feedback largely aligned with my own experience using the service. Additionally, the satisfied customers mentioned that RingCentral saved them money, and they found it to be a very convenient all-in-one platform.
Meanwhile, the negative feedback from customers repeatedly mentioned their unpleasant support experiences. For instance, some mentioned a lack of available agents or inconsistent communication.
Pricing
Compared to other VoIP service providers, RingCentral’s $20 per month starting price is more expensive than some. For instance, both Google Voice and Zoom have free plans as well as premium plans that start at $10. However, RingCentral offers more comprehensive features and the potential to incorporate hundreds of third-party apps into your service experience.
The range of features, I think, could ultimately make it good value for money, and if your company has the budget, RingCentral is worth consideration.
Mobile and Desktop Apps
When testing RingCentral, I downloaded the apps for mobile and desktop use. In my experience, the app functioned uniformly across all platforms; I was able to start communication on my laptop and continue on my smartphone without missing a beat. I think this level of flexibility is very convenient for situations where you begin communicating on one device but need to resume a call or chat on another.
Customer Service
I am not sure it’s fair to say that RingCentral has 24/7 support—unless you count an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot as an agent. While the chatbot is perpetually available, in my experience, it did not always provide the exact information I needed. I also found that it difficult to connect to a live support agent.
Who Should Use It?
RingCentral is best for businesses that need a comprehensive VoIP solution with robust features.
Learn more: Read our full RingCentral review.
