RingCentral vs Zoom Business Phone Systems 2022

RingCentral is a business communication company founded in 2003 that combines calling, video conferencing, and team messaging in one platform. Its business phone system allows you to collaborate via mobile device, computer, or VoIP phone with a choice of four service plans.

Best known for its widely used video conferencing platform created in 2011, Zoom also offers a cloud-based business phone system. You can choose from a pay-as-you-go or unlimited plan for phone calls in the U.S. and Canada, or a global plan with unlimited domestic calling from one of more than 40 countries.

RingCentral offers four tiered plans, starting with Essentials for $29.99 per user per month on a month-to-month contract. This plan supports up to 20 users and includes unlimited calls within the U.S. and Canada. The other three plans have no limit on the number of users and add 24/7 support, video meetings, and integrations with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, and other third-party software.

RingCentral also offers a la carte pricing for additional toll-free, international, or local numbers and vanity numbers. You can also take advantage of a 15-day free trial of a RingCentral phone plan limited to five users with 50 minutes of talk time per user.

Zoom Phone offers slightly more complicated pricing plans than RingCentral. The company’s basic phone plans include both a metered and unlimited U.S. and Canada calling plan, as well as a global domestic calling plan.

All month-to-month Zoom Phone plans offer contact center, Salesforce, Slack, Microsoft, and Google integrations and a desktop and mobile app. You can also elevate any call to a Zoom Meeting or transfer it to a physical Zoom Room conference room workspace.

Zoom also offers three Zoom United plans ranging from $25 to $30 per user per month that combine Zoom Phone, Zoom Meetings, and Zoom Chat. Depending on the plan, you get unlimited calling within U.S. and Canada and unlimited one-on-one or group video meetings with between 100 to 500 participants. All Zoom United plans also support live meeting streams on social media and include live chat support.

All but the lowest-tier RingCentral plan integrates calling, chat, and video conferencing in one platform. Here is a list of features common to each plan:

RingCentral Premium & Ultimate

Unlike RingCentral, all three Zoom Phone plans offer all of the following business phone features:

Additionally, Zoom’s United plans add the full range of features from the company’s widely-used video meeting platform, including:

Zoom gives RingCentral a run for the money when it comes to value, offering unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada for $15 per user per month compared to RingCentral’s Essentials plan which starts at $29.99 per user per month, depending on the total number of users.

Even at the base price of $25 per user per month, Zoom’s United Plans offer more phone, chat, and meeting collaboration features for less money than RingCentral, and all on a platform that set the standard for video meetings.

RingCentral is a good option for businesses with high monthly call volumes since it offers generous toll-free minutes as well as unlimited calls within the U.S. and Canada. Starting at $29.99 per user per month, however, its base Essentials plan can be pricey for small businesses.

RingCentral’s Essentials plan also gives you many standard business phone features like voicemail-to-text, visual voicemail, voicemail-to-email, team messaging chat, and a mobile app. You’ll have to upgrade to more expensive plans to get more advanced features, including multilevel auto-attendant, call recording, hot-desking, and advanced call handling like whisper and barge.

Small businesses with limited video meeting needs can get by with RingCentral’s Standard, Premium, and Ultimate plans, which support between 100 to 200 attendees. The company’s 24/7 customer service and 15-day free trial also make it easy to take the platform for a test drive and get everything set up the way you want.

Though a newcomer to the VoIP space, Zoom has quickly created a full-featured business phone system that seamlessly integrates with its popular video conferencing software. While the base $10 per user per month Zoom Phone plan can’t be beaten for price, it’s really only best for businesses with very low call volume due to its metered rate pricing.

However, for just $15 per user per month, you can get unlimited calling within the U.S. and Canada and a host of other features that are more expensive with RingCentral. These include voicemail with transcription, unlimited auto attendants, advanced call handling (barge, monitor, whisper, takeover), holiday and business hours routing, call recording, and call park.

Companies with large remote teams and more robust video conferencing needs can choose one of Zoom’s United plans at either $25 or $30 per user per month. You’ll get all of the same calling features plus unlimited group and one-on-one video meetings, private and group chat, whiteboards, live social streaming, and real-time transcription. You can also use the Zoom Phone app to turn a call into a Zoom Meeting with the touch of a button.

Unlike RingCentral, Zoom Phone only offers ticket and phone support with no online chat or 24/7 customer service options.

The choice between RingCentral and Zoom Phone mostly comes down to your video conferencing needs. Though both offer monthly plans with unlimited phone calls within the U.S. and Canada, you’ll pay almost twice as much with RingCentral (starting at $29.99 per user per month) than with Zoom Phone ($15 per user per month) for basic small business phone features.

For between $25 to $30 per user per month, Zoom Phone gives you full access to Zoom Meetings, a far more familiar and robust video conferencing platform than anything RingCentral offers. However, Zoom Phone only offers limited ticket and phone support, so if you need help setting up a cloud-hosted or an on-premise phone system, RingCentral might be a better choice.

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