RingCentral is a cloud business communications and collaboration software consistently named as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader in the UCaaS space and trusted by more than 400.000 companies.

In addition to helping companies achieve a TCO savings of 30% or more, RingCentral solutions provide a user-friendly interface and a highly responsive support team.

In this post, we’ll break down what each RingCentral product has to offer, available pricing plans, best business VoIP features, and more.

 

Table of Contents

 

An Overview of RingCentral Products

 

RingCentral has four core products:

  • RingCentral MVP: (RingCentral Message, Phone, and Video)
  • RingCentral Video
  • RingCentral Fax
  • RingCentral Contact Center

Note that RingCentral MVP contains business telephony, SMS communications, chat messaging, faxing capabilities, and video communications. However, both RingCentral Fax and RingCentral Video are also available as standalone communication tools, so we’ll cover them separately.

We’ll also discuss available RingCentral integrations, the RingCentral App, available analytics tools and metrics, overall user experience, and RingCentral security and support.

 

RingCentral MVP (Formerly RingCentral Office)

RingCentral MVP (formerly RingCentral Office) is an all-in-one business communications solution that streamlines team chat messaging, VoIP services for phones, and video calling into a single platform (Internet fax and SMS texting are also available.)

It prevents needless switching between multiple mobile and desktop apps throughout the day, offers team collaboration features like file sharing and editing for stronger internal communication, and provides advanced real-time and historical analytics that offer insights into team member and client behavior.

 

RingCentral MVP Pricing and Plans

RingCentral MVP offers a free trial for up to 5 users and two desktop phones, with a maximum of 50 minutes of domestic calls per user.

The below tables outline the available pricing and plans for 2-10 users, and a more complete pricing breakdown is available on the RingCentral website. Note that selecting the annual plan as opposed to the month-to-month option provides a 33% cost savings.

 

Paid Add-Ons Include:

  • Additional Toll-Free or Local Numbers for $4.99/number per month
  • Additional Vanity Phone Numbers for a $30.00 one-time fee
  • Additional International Phone Numbers from $5.99/user per month
  • High Volume SMS from $0.007/message sent and/or received
  • RingCentral Rooms License: $49.00/user per month or $468.00/user per year

 

RingCentral MVP

RingCentral MVP Pricing & Plans – As of July 6th, 2021

 

 

Plan Essentials  Standard Premium Ultimate
Pricing
  • $29.99/user per month on a monthly plan
  • $19.99/user per month on the annual plan
  • $37.99/user per month on a monthly plan
  • $27.99/user per month on the  annual plan
  • $44.99/user per month on a monthly plan
  • $34.99/user per month on annual plan
  • $59.99/user per month on a monthly plan
  • $49.99/user per month on annual plan
Maximum Number of Users 20 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Business and Toll-Free Phone Numbers In over 100 countries In over 100 countries plus up to 8-digit extensions  In over 100 countries plus up to 8-digit extensions 
Unlimited Calls in the US and Canada
Toll-Free Minutes/Month 100 1,000 2,500 10,000
Call Recording X On-Demand On-Demand and Automatic On-Demand and Automatic
Multi-Level Auto-Attendant  X
Call Barge, Call Whisper, Advanced Call Monitoring X X
Unlimited Business SMS
Team Chat Messaging and File Sharing
Voicemail-to-Text, Visual Voicemail, and Voicemail-to-Email
Unlimited Online Faxing X
Unlimited Audio Conferencing X
Video Meetings Download RingCentral App for free Video meetings for up to 100 participants with a 24-hour maximum duration Video meetings for up to 200 participants with a 24-hour maximum duration Video meetings for up to 200 participants with a 24-hour maximum duration
Integrations X X
Unlimited Storage X X X
Analytics and Reporting Standard Historical Analytics Standard Historical Analytics Real-Time Analytics Real-Time Analytics 
24/7 Support and Professional Implementation X
Developer Platform and RingCentral APIs X X

Now, let’s take a look at the individual communications features of RingCentral MVP.

 

RingCentral MVP Team Messaging

RingCentral Messaging

 

RingCentral Team Messaging is much more than just a team chat app.

It’s an internal and external collaboration solution designed to increase productivity, prevent miscommunications, and keep all your messages and conversations up-to-date on individual tasks and overall workflow.

Users can exchange real-time, one-on-one, private direct messages and create ad hoc message groups and channels. Admins can create message teams, (for example, department-specific or project-specific chats) and assign members. Teams can be public or private, and users can invite external team members (like customers.)

Key messages can be pinned, so that all members see these important messages at the top of their screens, or bookmarked, meaning that individual users can save messages important only to them. Messages can be edited or deleted, and users can create a task directly from a message. Users can also directly reply to specific messages, mention/tag other users, and, yes, react to messages with emojis.

Chat participants can also instantly transition any conversation to a video or phone call with one click.

Team collaboration functionalities are also included in the message interface.

First, users can attach files to messages or share them directly. Images, videos, and documents can be pulled from computer storage or Google Drive to share in a chat, and attachment previews are also available. Users can comment on files in real-time, allowing for a seamless editing process. Files are stored and can be searched by keyword, name, or team.

The team messaging tool lets users take notes directly within groups, teams, and direct messages — and anyone that these notes are shared with can edit and access them.

Task management features let users assign tasks to themselves or other users, name tasks, assign tasks to multiple users, and even choose a task category. Users can also set due dates and due times, set task dependencies, assign repeating tasks, attach relevant files to tasks, and write task descriptions.

Task status can be updated at any time or crossed off in a checklist format to ensure that everyone stays on top of their responsibilities and to understand how the project is progressing.

 

MVP’s Business Phone System

RingCentral Business Phone

 

RingCentral’s cloud PBX business phone system is a device-agnostic calling solution that provides HD audio calling on smartphones, laptops, tablets, or compatible desk phones.

Local presence phone numbers in more than 200 area codes, toll-free numbers, vanity numbers, and international calls in over 100 countries are all available for purchase. Users can also port existing phone numbers into RingCentral. Shared lines, which let users share up to 8 lines and 16 desk conference phones per group, let users share a phone number across multiple devices and locations to increase the percentage of answered calls.

All business phone numbers can make/receive calls, unlimited SMS texts, and unlimited online faxes, and all plans include unlimited calling in the United States and Canada.

Call presence, which lets team members set their current status to let others know if they’re busy, available, or on hold, is also available for smartphone, softphone, and desk phone users. Cross-device presence monitoring increases the chances of connecting callers with available team members and shortens hold/wait times. A Busy Lamp Field is also available.

Admins can also create answering rules via voice or touch-tone multi-level IVR, (Interactive Voice Response) ACD, (Automatic Call Distribution) and advanced call routing options like skills-based routing, priority routing, simultaneous ringing, round-robin routing, time-based routing, or list/fixed order routing.

Remember, since the VoIP phone system is part of the MVP Suite, users can transition from a phone call to a video call and chat with team members in the messaging app at any time.

Additional RingCentral phone system capabilities include:

  • Call Forwarding to automatically direct calls to another phone number if the first one isn’t answered
  • On-Demand and Automatic Call Recording and Recording Storage
  • Call Screening and Caller ID
  • Call Flip for real-time device switching while on a call
  • Hot Desking to let team members take calls on any office workspace, not just their assigned “desk”
  • Intercom for company-wide announcements
  • RingOut one-click calling from desktop computers and phones
  • Automatic Voicemail Transcriptions, Voicemail-to-Text, and Voicemail-to-Email
  • Custom Greetings
  • Call Monitoring, Call Barge, (takeover a phone call from the current agent) and Call Coach (offer guidance to an agent while they are on the call without the client being able to hear it)
  • Online Faxing and SMS/MMS Messaging
  • Call Logs to view call history
  • Mobile App for iPhone iOS and Android (more on that later)

 

RingCentral MVP Messaging and SMS

 

RingCentral MVP Messaging & Chat Capabilities

 

RingCentral MVP also includes business SMS and MMS texting capabilities to and from the same RingCentral business telephone numbers used for voice calls and faxing.

Messages to and from RingCentral numbers or extensions can be up to 1,000 characters in length, and texting is accessible from smartphones/tablets as well as RingCentral’s desktop computer softphone app. Team members can message both each other and external clients from any business or personal device.

Other capabilities that help meet business needs include:

 

  • Send/receive images, videos, and files
  • In-line media previews
  • Send one-click links to websites, audio conferences, and video calls (no access code required)
  • US/Canada RingCentral customers can send/receive SMS messages of up to 160 characters to/from international numbers
  • Number blocking and spam blacklisting

 

RingCentral Video

 

RingCentral Video

 

RingCentral Video Pro is a no-download video calling tool that can be used as a standalone free app or as a part of RingCentral MVP.

RingCentral Video Pro is free to use, but businesses needing a higher meeting participant capacity can upgrade to the paid RingCentral Video Pro+ for $11.99/user per month.

It lets a maximum of 200 participants meet for up to 24 hours and can be accessed on both desktops and mobile phones (users can even switch between devices during meetings.) Chat messaging is available during video calls, and attendees can be invited via chat, the phone “Call Me” feature, SMS, or email via a shared link or calendar invite.

Video meetings also have essential team collaboration features like screen sharing, remote control, and whiteboarding.

Users can share entire screens, individual applications, or singular files on desktop and mobile devices, and can annotate shared screens.

Whiteboarding offers a digital version of the traditional office whiteboard, and RingCentral lets users add text, select from preconfigured shapes, draw on, and add multiple pages to whiteboards. Whiteboards can be saved and exported, and users can create and switch between multiple whiteboards in a meeting.

Hosts can schedule meetings, select meeting topics, set a meeting duration, and determine if the meeting should be recurring. Meeting hosts also have control over other participants. For example, the host can mute some or all participants, enable or disable video streaming and screen sharing, require a meeting password, and enable or disable the Join Before Host feature. Meetings can be edited, rescheduled, or canceled.

The below image from the RingCentral website better outlines the differences between paid and free video communications plans.

 

RingCentral Video Pricing

 

RingCentral Fax

 

RingCentral Faxing

 

RingCentral Fax can be purchased as a standalone product for $17.99/user per month with a maximum of 1,500/pages for a month included in the pricing (additional faxes can be purchased.)

However, it’s most often obtained as a feature/functionality that is included in the bundled RingCentral MVP plans, as it offers unlimited faxes as a part of the MVP Suite.

It allows users to send virtual faxes over the Internet via computer, smartphone, and tablets as opposed to a fax machine. All faxes are encrypted for security purposes, and users can block inbound faxes from senders without a caller ID.

Users can send faxes to groups or individuals, fax notifications are delivered in real-time, and all fax logs are available for view in the online fax log or email inbox. Users can receive faxes on business phone numbers from RingCentral or keep their existing ones — and there will be no interruptions to regular phone service when using RingCentral Fax.

RingCentral Fax also integrates with cloud storage tools like Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and more.

 

RingCentral Contact Center

 

RingCentral Call Center

 

RingCentral Contact Center is an inbound, outbound, and omnichannel cloud contact center to improve customer service and customer engagement.

RingCentral Contact Center has three paid plans — Basic, Advanced, and Ultimate. Pricing is unlisted and is provided only via a customized quote. The below table outlines the feature differences between the plans, and all Contact Center plans contain all RingCentral MVP features and functionality.

 

Plan Basic – Inbound Voice Only Advanced – Inbound Voice and Omnichannel Ultimate – Inbound, Outbound, and Omnichannel
Voice Inbound Voice Only, Basic IVR and ACD Inbound Voice, Advanced IVR, ACD Inbound Voice, Advanced IVR, ACD
Omnichannel Capabilities X Omnichannel communication and routing for chat, SMS, social media, and email Omnichannel communication and routing for chat, SMS, social media, and email
Outbound Dialer  X X Preview, Progressive, Predictive, Campaign Management
CRM Integrations X
Analytics Basic Analytics Advanced Omnichannel Analytics and Workforce Optimization Advanced Omnichannel Analytics and Workforce Optimization

 

The Inbound Contact Center is primarily designed to improve customer service by ensuring that callers connect with the most qualified agent as quickly as possible — on the channel of their choice.  Omnichannel features like skills-based routing, agent schedule optimization, agent and call management, and real-time agent insights make this possible.

The Outbound Contact Center allows agents to maximize productivity, increase up-sell and cross-sell rates, and better promote current offers thanks to its Outbound Dialing tool with 4 dialing modes. Personalized agent scripting ensures that every team member knows exactly what to say — and how to respond — to clients. Custom workflows also help guide agents in the right direction while on a call.

The best part is RingCentral’s Digital Customer Engagement Center, an omnichannel platform that lets customers and agents speak across multiple communication channels like messaging apps, social media, phone, live chat, email, and more. The Engagement Center uses AI and Machine Learning to automate and improve the customer experience, ensuring that the right agents connect with the right customers — without having anyone wait on hold.

Chatbots free up agents and give customers instant answers to common questions.

Other RingCentral Contact Center features include:

 

  • Messaging capabilities on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS/MMS, Engage Messaging, and more
  • Chatbots in 72 languages and AI digital routing that recognizes message intent, message type, text semantics, and more
  • Automated callback or voicemail
  • Compliance risk mitigation
  • Campaign list management
  • Workforce optimization and workforce management tools
  • Dynamic reply assistance to prompt agents with automatic suggestions to customer queries
  • Co-browsing
  • Availability status

 

RingCentral Pros and Cons

 

The table below outlines the most consistent pros and cons mentioned in current RingCentral reviews, as well as an evaluation of the quality and capabilities of the features.

 

Pros Cons
24/7 phone and live chat support is available for all customers, regardless of the specific plan they choose Integrations with key software like Salesforce, Zendesk, and more are available only on two most expensive RingCentral MVP plans
Advanced native team collaboration features, including team chat, whiteboarding, task management, and live file-sharing/editing Maximum of 200 video conference attendees, meaning that larger-scale webinars aren’t possible without a paid webinar add-on or third-party integration
Overall ease of use: navigation and interface are intuitive, user-friendly, and uncrowded Frequent updates (many users say too frequent) interfere with the ability to use the software as the app is updating

 

RingCentral Integrations

 

RingCentral Salesforce

 

RingCentral’s App Gallery is filled with third-party software app integrations that allow users to combine multiple business communications and collaboration tools into the RingCentral interface.

Note that integrations are not available on the RingCentral MVP Essentials Plan and that only basic integrations are available with the Standard Plan. Those that need more industry-specific integrations, such as Canvas or Smarsh, should upgrade to the Premium Plan.

Top integrations include:

  • Salesforce
  • Microsoft Teams
  • G Suite and Gmail
  • Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Outlook
  • Google Chrome Extension
  • Slack
  • Asana
  • Google Workspace
  • HubSpot
  • Zoho CRM
  • Zendesk
  • Google Drive
  • EverNote
  • OneDrive
  • Box
  • Dropbox

 

Developers can also build their own apps via the RingCentral API Center, which includes a Developers Support Forum, Developer Guide, and Developer Community of GameChangers.

Developer SDK libraries are available in many coding languages, including C#, Java, Python, Javascript, and PHP.

 

RingCentral Analytics

 

RingCentral-Analytics

 

The RingCentral Analytics Portal provides RingCentral MVP users with real-time and historical insight into client, individual agent, or team/department behavior.

Reports provide a summary of RingCentral activity for the past day, past 7 days, past work week, and past month. Reports can be customized and sent via email on configurable dates.

Available pre-made report topics include:

 

  • Adoption and Usage (Data on how your team uses RingCentral)
  • Company Numbers (Percentage of answered calls, percentage of calls sent to voicemail, percentage of missed calls, average call duration and call handle time, and the number of transferred, abandoned, or put on hold.
  • Live Reports (Real-time data of user activity with over 30 available metrics)
  • Performance Reports (User performance, predictive analytics, KPI trends, call data per agent/department, meeting attendees and meeting performance)
  • Quality of Service Reports (Monitor and manage user escalation, identify potential problems, view call/meeting quality)

 

Users can filter reports according to their preferences and can export reports via Excel or any spreadsheet application.

RingCentral Contact Center offers the above Analytics Portal data in addition to more thorough reporting thanks to its Feedback Management Application.

The Feedback Management tool is used to review CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) levels and study customer service responses to look for trends. The tool also offers peer benchmarking, the ability to identify clear negative and positive agent patterns, and the chance to create department-specific coaching plans.

 

RingCentral App

 

RingCentral-App

 

The RingCentral App is a downloadable application for desktop and mobile devices that provides a central, unified interface for all the RingCentral products teams are using.

The App lets teams work from anywhere, on their preferred devices, and eliminates the need to switch between apps or work directly from a web browser. It’s available for Apple iOS and Android phones and tablets as well as Mac and PC desktop computers/laptops.

All data is automatically synced within the app, so users can pick up right where they left off even if they’ve switched between devices. Users can make/receive audio and video conferencing via the softphone, share their screens, view and manage tasks, and enjoy a high level of functionality on mobile devices that is uncommon with other SaaS providers.

 

RingCentral Security and Customer Support

 

RingCentral offers a 99.999% uptime, 24/7 platform monitoring, and 7 layers of security.

Communications and TLS and SRTP encrypted between all endpoints, and firewalls, session border controls, multi-factor authentication, and fraud analytics are all included. Geographic redundancy and SSAE 18 and ISO 27001-audited data centers are also a part of RingCentral’s security strategy. Real-time system updates, disaster recovery plans, and internet outage resilience are included.

RingCentral offers a robust onboarding guide and video series for those who wish to set up their systems themselves. However, RingCentral Professional Services provides personalized implementation support including data migration, integration with existing apps, team training, API workflow customization, and more.

Ongoing Advanced Enterprise and Contact Support are also available, which include additional prioritized customer support including a dedicated account manager and 24/7 live phone, web, and chat support.

Standard support for all RingCentral customers includes 24/7 Live Chat support and 24/7 Phone Support. Users can also file a support case online.

 

Who Should Use RingCentral?

 

RingCentral’s array of products mean there are solutions for both small businesses and enterprise-level contact centers.

Teams looking for an all-in-one contact solution for geographically diverse remote or blended teams will likely get the most out of RingCentral. Though the native team collaboration solutions are ideal for a flexible remote work environment, they likely won’t be as useful to traditional, in-office teams.

RingCentral is also popular in the below industries:

 

  • Healthcare: Useful for telehealth visits, medical research teams, and healthcare insurance providers
  • Retail: Used by food/drug merchants to chat with shoppers in real-time, provide pickup/delivery/refill/substitution alerts, and restaurants for taking reservations and booking events
  • E-Commerce: Used to provide shipping and delivery updates, SMS sale alerts, access customer order history, and connect with vendors
  • Education: Used to offer virtual classrooms, distribute and collect assignments, collaborate with students one-on-one with digital whiteboard
  • Nonprofit: Used for fundraising management, event planning, connect with communities and volunteers, and collaborate on funding proposals, etc.
  • Government: Stream community events/meetings, review and develop budget proposals, phone system to support citizens

 

If RingCentral isn’t the right fit for your company, our interactive comparison tables on VoIP Business Phones and Call Center Software will provide you with information on potential alternatives, including pricing, available features, user experience/reviews, and more.

RingCentral’s pricing structure depends on the products you purchase, as well as the maximum number of users you need.


RingCentral Office ranges in price from $19.99/user per month to $49.99/user per month. RingCentral Glip offers one free plan and a paid plan that costs $11.99/user per month and up. The RingCentral Contact Center is priced individually, so users need to contact a representative for a quote. 


Users can purchase up to 20 phone lines. If additional lines are needed, contact your RingCentral representative. 


Note that there are no setup or activation fees associated with RingCentral. 


A more complete pricing breakdown is available in the above post, or on the RingCentral pricing and plans page.

As of this writing, RingCentral Office offers a free trial period of 30 days. Additionally, any hardware purchased from RingCentral has a 30-day return policy.

According to the RingCentral website, the minimum requirements are: 


For Windows 7 or later: 


  • 2 GHz (32-bit or 64-bit) processor

  • Minimum of 1 GB of RAM

  • 300 MB of hard drive space

For Mac OSX Yosemite or later: 

  • Intel®  processor

  • Minimum of 1 GB of RAM

  • 300 MB of hard drive space

No, RingCentral does not charge for number porting. 

The minimum suggested bandwidth for VoIP calling in RingCentral is 92Kbps per call. 

Yes. Meetings is an online video calling platform, while Conferencing is mostly an audio-only meeting tool. Click here to learn more about the differences between the two. 


What is the suggested bandwidth for VoIP calling with RingCentral? 


The minimum suggested bandwidth for VoIP calling in RingCentral is 92Kbps per call.