RingCentral Review: 2025’s Most Complete Phone System?

RingCentral is one of the most feature-rich VoIP platforms we’ve tested, especially for medium to large US businesses. Its Advanced and Ultra plans deliver excellent call handling, AI-powered video, and deep software integrations – although its Core plan feels somewhat limited by comparison, and pricing climbs quickly if you want its best tools.

In the review below, we break down where RingCentral stands out, where it falls short, and how it compares to top alternatives like 8×8 Work, Nextiva, and Zoom Phone.

RingCentral Review: Key Features

RingCentral is packed with advanced features across calling, video, messaging, and integrations, especially on its higher-tier plans, where it truly stands out from most VoIP competitors. Let’s dive into them one by one, starting with its call management features.

Call management

RingCentral offers extensive call management tools that support diverse business communication needs. It scored perfectly in our research and testing assessment for both its Advanced and Ultra plans, while still achieving one of the highest scores around for its Core plan.

Easily found under “Phone System” in the admin panel, one of RingCentral’s most useful tools is its virtual receptionist. It provides automated call answering and routing using an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Users can configure custom greetings, specific call routing pathways, and departmental options.

This feature received high marks on Advanced and Ultra plans, matching competitors like Zoom Regional Unlimited. It is more niche routing rules based on things like time zones, caller history, or departments missing from competitors like GoTo Connect’s Phone System plan.

In terms of use, we especially enjoyed how, as you can see above, the IVR is easily adapted in a visual tree format compared to some more basic display choices we’ve used, such as 8×8 Work, which uses drop-downs. However, it’s worth noting that the Core plan has fewer customization options by comparison, placing it behind Zoom and net2phone Essentials in small business tests.

Another strong call management feature is RingCentral’s queuing abilities. Available under the “Call Handling” settings, call queues organize incoming calls into digital waiting lines. Its Advanced and Ultra plans have excellent ease of use and reliability as we found its clear setup instructions and intuitive user prompts to be highly effective. The Core plan, however, lacks comprehensive call queue analytics and reporting seen in more advanced plans, trailing solutions like Nextiva Core in this area.

Located within “Call Handling and Forwarding”, RingCentral’s call screening suite includes caller ID, voicemail screening, and automated nuisance call blocking. Testing showed RingCentral Advanced and Ultra plans performed exceptionally well, offering complete automatic screening capabilities, superior to competitors like 8×8 Work which misses out on automatic and voicemail screening capabilities.

Again, the Core plan misses certain advanced blocking functionalities, falling slightly short of Dialpad Standard in small business evaluations, so you won’t get these features from its cheapest VoIP plan.

Training features

RingCentral’s training capabilities are also a notable strength. Supervisors can discreetly monitor and coach during calls without interrupting the conversation using call whisper functionality. Found in “User Settings”, this feature proved intuitive and responsive in testing, while managers can also take over calls from an operator after monitoring.

There are also more basic but still crucial tools for training and monitoring purposes, like call recording. RingCentral’s higher-tier plans showed excellent accuracy in transcriptions and straightforward retrieval processes, bettering competitors such as Google Voice according to our tests. The Core plan, however, only offers basic recording capabilities without transcription features.

Its Advanced and Ultra plans received perfect scores here since they offer all the features we looked for, aligning with equally high performers like Zoom Phone. However, you’ll miss out on monitoring, barge, and whisper functions, plus advanced analytics, with the Core plan.

Communication channels

RingCentral effectively consolidates various communication channels into its top cloud phone plans for voice calling, including video conferencing, SMS, and team messaging.

Video conferencing

RingCentral’s video conferencing feature comes built into all of its business phone plans, with particularly strong capabilities on the Advanced and Ultra tiers. You can host unlimited HD video meetings, with a maximum of 200 participants on Core and up to 500 per call on Ultra.

In testing, RingCentral Video performed reliably on both desktop and mobile, with browser-based joining also available for external guests – no downloads needed.

Its built-in AI assistant is a clear differentiator. Included even on lower-tier plans, it generates real-time transcriptions and captions in multiple languages. There are also searchable post-meeting summaries with speaker-based playback, with auto-captured highlights, although this is only available with its Ultra tier.

RingCentral also has a range of meeting collaboration features. Interactive whiteboards, shared meeting notes, and instant screen sharing are all built in. You can co-edit documents in real time, split into breakout groups, and set custom meeting branding for your company.

While platforms like Ooma Office lack video conferencing on their base plan, have lower participant limits on higher ones (25 and 100 for Ooma’s other two tiers), or rely on third-party integrations for some of the extra features discussed here, RingCentral delivers everything natively. That makes it an appealing, all-in-one solution for larger businesses that want the best features on the market, ready to go.

Team messaging

Alongside video, RingCentral includes real-time team messaging within the RingCentral app, also available across all plans.

This is a fairly common feature of VoIP software, so it’s one we expected to see, but it’s notable how intuitive we found the interface. It’s comparable to tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, with the added ease-of-use bonus that you can call or video meet from any chat thread in one click – ideal for hybrid or remote teams needing quick collaboration.

Messaging features include:

• One-to-one and group messaging
• File and image sharing
• @mentions and threaded replies
• Message search and pinning
• Notifications with custom priority levels
• Availability status and typing indicators

There’s also a persistent message history, so teams can refer back to decisions and shared files at any time.

These features align well with other top-ranked cloud phone software like 8×8 Work and far outperform the likes of net2phone. For instance, net2phone’s messaging limits you to one-to-one conversations on its base plan, while all its plans are without any additional functionality in team messaging beyond sending images and emojis.

SMS

Unlike many VoIP providers, RingCentral includes robust SMS and internet faxing capabilities across all plans, making it a standout choice for US businesses needing fast, flexible text-based communication.

At a basic level, you can send and receive business texts through your dedicated number, either from the mobile app or desktop interface. However, RingCentral goes far beyond that with advanced SMS tools for both support and marketing use cases.

Key SMS features include:

• Shared team inboxes, allowing multiple team members to access and manage conversations so nothing slips through the cracks
• The ability to claim, transfer, and resolve SMS threads, which helps teams collaborate on customer requests without confusion
• Internal notes for context-sharing within your team
• Consent tracking and opt-out management tools to help maintain Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) compliance

For marketing and sales, RingCentral supports:

• Personalized SMS campaigns with advanced audience segmentation rules
• Promotional and transactional texts, like order updates, alerts, and follow-ups
• Instant payment requests via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or credit card, sent directly through SMS
• Easy-to-use templates for quick replies to frequently asked questions or support requests

This combination of manual and automated tools makes RingCentral’s SMS platform particularly effective for service businesses, healthcare providers, and sales teams.

You can also automate your SMS workflows to save time, with out-of-hours replies or instant follow-ups, appointment reminders and rescheduling prompts, and RingCentral’s own SMS IVR (Interactive Voice Response) flows for routing or responding to common customer needs.

Compared with 8×8 Work, we’d argue RingCentral offers slightly more powerful SMS capabilities. While 8×8 supports SMS in the US and Canada, it lacks team inboxes, campaign tools, and advanced automation. For marketing and personalized support workflows, RingCentral is the stronger choice.

Are there other communication channels in RingCentral?

Faxing, or e-fax, is also available on all RingCentral plans, with digital faxes delivered directly to your inbox. That is useful for organizations in healthcare, law, or finance that still rely on secure document transmission. Faxing isn’t possible with all VoIP providers, such as Google Voice, which requires pairing with another service.

However, RingCentral doesn’t support direct social media messaging (e.g. Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs) within its core platform, but you can build custom integrations using RingCentral’s developer tools or third-party platforms like Zapier.

For more advanced omnichannel needs, such as WhatsApp, live chat, and social media support, you’ll need to upgrade to RingCentral Contact Center – a separate product built for larger teams with customer service operations.

Software integrations

One of the main areas where RingCentral significantly stands out from other VoIP software is in software integration (on the Advanced and Ultra plans).

RingCentral offers seamless integrations with popular customer relationship management (CRM) platforms such as Salesforce, as well as more niche platforms like IndusTrack, totalling over 110 options. Thereafter, users can simply log call activities, synchronize customer data, and streamline workflows directly from the CRM.

Besides CRM tools, there are over 400+ pre-built app integrations in total, for areas including audience engagement (e.g. Slido or Capsule), automation (such as bot applications, lead conversion tools or workflow software), collaboration (such as Google Drive, Zapier and Mailchimp) and communication (including Microsoft Teams and Slack).

There are even apps for specific sectors, such as financial services, legal and healthcare professions, as well as the ability to integrate for areas RingCentral is lacking natively, like e-faxing and social media like Instagram and Facebook. And should native apps not be a perfect fit, RingCentral also supports API integrations for potential custom solutions.

Compared to VoIP software with more limited integration options like Nextiva, RingCentral’s comprehensive capabilities could significantly improve operational efficiency for medium to large enterprises already using a variety of other tools.

However, it’s worth noting that 8×8 Work and, to a lesser extent, Dialpad also offer plentiful integration options. Ultimately, it depends on the exact tools you already use or plan to use in the future, so it’s worth checking precisely what systems are supported. Plus, if you were thinking of starting on RingCentral’s Core plan, you’ll find that you’ll miss out on CRM, industry-specific and archive-related integrations.

Hardware integrations

RingCentral demonstrates excellent hardware compatibility, supporting an extensive range of VoIP phones, conference devices, headsets, and video room systems.

Configuring and managing hardware devices such as Poly, Cisco and Yealink is straightforward via the admin portal under “Phones & Devices”. Our testing highlighted RingCentral’s device integration as quick and reliable, with firmware updates and security settings easily managed remotely.

Compared to many VoIP providers, RingCentral also stands out for the breadth of supported devices. You’ll find full compatibility with popular desk phones such as:

• Poly (formerly Polycom): Full support for the VVX and Edge E series, covering everything from basic office models to high-end touchscreens.
• Cisco: Models like the 6821, 7841, and 8851 are plug-and-play with RingCentral.
• Yealink: Including popular T-series models like the T42S and T57W, known for their business-ready UI and reliability.

By contrast, the likes of Ooma Office have limited support outside of their own proprietary devices, which could restrict flexibility for businesses with existing hardware.

RingCentral also offers strong support for conference phones and cordless models, including the Poly Trio and Yealink CP series. The platform also integrates seamlessly with RingCentral’s own Rooms appliances (e.g. all-in-one Poly and Yealink video bars), making it easy to build out Zoom Room-style setups without needing separate licenses or apps.

Vonage and net2phone provide basic hardware support but lack RingCentral’s streamlined admin tools, making large-scale provisioning more cumbersome. Nextiva offers good hardware integration for desk phones, but does not support video room systems to the same depth.

Additionally, RingCentral gives you the flexibility to either purchase devices outright or opt into a Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) model if you want to avoid upfront costs while keeping hardware up to date. This is an option not currently offered by all competitors; for instance, 8×8 supports a wide range of devices but doesn’t offer a monthly hardware leasing plan like RingCentral does, according to our research.

Security options

RingCentral offers a multi-layered security framework to protect customer data and communications, making it a particularly strong choice for regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and legal services.

At the network level, RingCentral provides end-to-end encryption for calls, with TLS (Transport Layer Security) and SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol) helping to prevent interception and tampering across VoIP channels. Firewalls, session border controllers (SBCs), intrusion detection systems, and real-time fraud analytics are all built in, with multi-level authentication helping to prevent unauthorized account access.

On the physical side, RingCentral operates out of SSAE 18 and ISO 27001-audited data centers, equipped with 24/7 monitoring, on-site security, and geographic redundancy to ensure failover and business continuity in case of disruptions.

It also checks all the compliance boxes you’d expect from an enterprise-grade platform:

• SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3 audited
• HIPAA-compliant features for US healthcare providers
• PCI DSS compliance for secure payment processing
• HITRUST-certified for handling protected health information (PHI)
• FINRA-aligned controls for financial services firms

Few VoIP platforms offer RingCentral’s level of certified and transparent security posture. 8×8 Work also delivers strong security and compliance capabilities, including HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II compliance. However, it does not currently hold HITRUST certification, and support for certain controls, like FINRA alignment, may require additional configuration.

RingCentral Review: Pricing Plans Explained

RingCentral offers three pricing plans in the US market for its Business Phone software: Core, Advanced, and Ultra, each catering to distinct business needs and scales. Here’s a detailed breakdown to help you identify the best fit.

Pricing and feature comparison

Here’s a table for a topline comparison of RingCentral’s plans before we compare them (and their respective value) in greater detail:

Core plan

RingCentral’s Core plan, priced at $20 per user, per month, is primarily designed for small businesses or startups. It includes essential features such as basic call management, voicemail, call forwarding, and call screening.

• Strengths: Affordably priced for smaller budgets, providing reliable call handling and security features suitable for smaller organizations.
• Limitations: Lacks advanced integrations, detailed analytics, and sophisticated call training features available in higher-tier plans.

Compared to similarly priced providers, like net2phone Essentials and Dialpad Standard, RingCentral Core offers solid fundamental features but falls slightly behind on advanced customization and analytics. We’d argue that, of the three RingCentral plans, Core is the least attractive in terms of value, since many of the other cheapest VoIP plans for small businesses have more features for your spend (whereas RingCentral keeps them for Advanced and Ultra).

Advanced plan

The Advanced plan costs $25 per user, per month and targets medium-sized businesses requiring improved communication functionalities.

• Strengths: Comprehensive call management (including virtual receptionist and customizable routing), detailed analytics, robust training features, and extensive integrations with CRM platforms like Salesforce.
• Limitations: Slightly more expensive compared to other mid-tier options like Dialpad Pro and Zoom Regional Unlimited, which offer comparable feature sets.

In our testing of VoIP packages for medium-sized businesses, RingCentral Advanced scored impressively, particularly excelling in software integrations and advanced call management, placing it as a strong contender against competitors like Zoom Phone Regional Unlimited. It just took top spot away from that Zoom plan due to its more extensive feature-set (although Zoom Phone Regional Unlimited is a better value pick in our view).

Ultra plan

Priced at $35 per user, per month, RingCentral’s Ultra plan is aimed at larger enterprises with complex communication needs and high call volumes.

• Strengths: Offers an expansive range of communication tools, deep integrations, advanced analytics, and comprehensive call monitoring and training capabilities. Its security features and hardware compatibility also stand out significantly.
• Limitations: Higher price point makes it less accessible for smaller companies or those with tight budgets.

RingCentral Ultra emerged as one of the top performers in our best enterprise phone system evaluations for larger businesses. It achieved near-perfect scores in each category, and surpassed competitors like Vonage Advanced and 8×8 Work in terms of overall capabilities and integration support.

RingCentral Review: Help & Support

When it comes to help and support, RingCentral offers a comprehensive range of resources. We tested the platform’s support options, accessibility, and responsiveness – all critical factors for any business relying on VoIP communications.

Support channels available

• 24/7 phone support: Available on all plans, RingCentral provides round-the-clock phone support for immediate troubleshooting, which we found responsive during our tests.
• 24/7 live chat support: Accessed easily via the dashboard or RingCentral’s website, chat support provided helpful responses within minutes, making it ideal for quick queries.
• Community forum: A public forum where users can share issues and tips, as well as get responses from both verified RingCentral staff and user peers.
• Knowledge base: Comprehensive self-service documentation, including step-by-step guides, video tutorials, and troubleshooting articles.
• Ticket submission: For non-urgent matters, users can also submit a ticket via the portal and expect a response within 24–48 hours.

Plan-specific support improvements

There are only slight differences in the types of customer support you get with each RingCentral plan, which keeps the provider an appealing option no matter your level of investment. Let’s break those differences down.

• Core: Includes access to all basic support channels – phone, chat, knowledge base, and community.
• Advanced plan: Adds priority ticket handling and access to premium knowledge resources.
• Ultra plan: Includes everything in Advanced, plus enhanced support services such as dedicated technical account management (TAM) and faster SLAs on response times.

How was RingCentral’s support in our testing period?

Our testing found RingCentral’s help center clear and easy to navigate. Articles are well-categorized, search functionality is strong, and video tutorials effectively simplify complex tasks. Phone support staff demonstrated good product knowledge, resolving test issues efficiently.

Businesses needing highly specialized support – like advanced API troubleshooting – may find the Ultra plan’s dedicated technical support worthwhile too, especially compared to competitors like Ooma or Vonage, which limit advanced support to their top-tier plans.

RingCentral Review: VoIP Phone Alternatives

While RingCentral is a market leader for VoIP and cloud phone systems, our research found several strong competitors that may better suit specific business needs – whether that’s a tighter budget, simpler software, or improved video and global calling capabilities.

To provide the best view for most businesses, we’ll look at plans suitable for medium-sized businesses primarily in this comparison. Let’s look at an overview first, before diving into some specific comparisons further down.

➡️ Zoom Phone Regional Unlimited – Zoom Phone stands out for offering a highly affordable VoIP solution while still delivering impressive functionality. At just $15 per user, per month, it’s the cheapest plan in our Best VoIP Phone Systems recommendations. Businesses can make unlimited calls within the US and Canada, host video meetings for up to 500 participants, and access plenty of in-meeting features like chat, reactions, and annotations (as you might expect from video-calling connoisseurs like Zoom).

Our testing also highlighted Zoom’s ease of use and intuitive design, especially via its Zoom One Portal software. Plus, it has all the live coaching tools to train staff, such as call whisper and barge.

However, Zoom falls short in areas like advanced analytics, which isn’t nearly as detailed as RingCentral’s most advanced suite of reporting and widget tools. Additionally, while Zoom offers basic screening tools like caller ID and blocking, it lacks RingCentral’s AI-powered call screening.

➡️ 8×8 Work – For businesses with global communication needs, 8×8 Work is one of the best picks on the market, offering unlimited calling to up to 48 countries. It also supports local numbers in over 100 countries, a major advantage for international teams. With RingCentral, all plans have variable international calling rates and adding international numbers starts from $5.99 per month.

8×8 Work’s video conferencing matches Zoom and RingCentral’s 500-participant capacity too, and we were also impressed with its robust security credentials, including TLS/SRTP encryption and multilingual 24/7 support.

However, 8×8 Work has downsides – notably opaque pricing and limited hardware compatibility. While it includes call recording and analytics, 8×8 also lacks voicemail screening and can feel a jot less intuitive than RingCentral during use.

➡️ GoTo Connect Phone System – At $26 per user, per month, GoTo Connect’s Phone System has some appealing benefits. We found it has wider hardware compatibility (including Poly, Yealink and Cisco) than any other provider we assessed, offering Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) flexibility to integrate with most hardware options. It also has unlimited international calling to 50+ countries, and notably, GoTo is one of the few providers offering integrated e-fax capabilities, should that be essential to your operations.

However, GoTo lacks call whisper and barge tools, AI-driven call analytics, and automatic call screening. Its CRM integrations are fewer than RingCentral or 8×8, which may hinder businesses looking for deep software integrations, too.

➡️ Nextiva Engage –  Nextiva Engage uniquely integrates social media channels like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram natively into its platform. This makes it a strong choice for ecommerce or marketing-driven businesses handling multichannel communications.

That said, Nextiva Engage is quite expensive at $40 per user, per month and lacks call whisper/barge features. There’s also no unlimited international calling option, and its 20 CRM integrations pale in comparison to RingCentral’s 300+. Still, for teams prioritizing social media customer engagement, Nextiva holds a unique position in the US market at present.

How We Reviewed RingCentral

It’s worth stating from the get-go that each of RingCentral’s plans had slightly different assessment criteria applied to them based on the type of customer we expect them to have.

For instance, RingCentral’s Core plan was assessed under our “Small Business” criteria, since it is RingCentral’s cheapest and most base-level plan. Meanwhile, RingCentral Advanced and RingCentral Ultra were assessed under our “Medium-sized Business” and “Large Business” criteria, respectively.