Conclusion:
If you don't need more than 10 extensions, RingCentral’s Pro plan offers good value and a lot of monthly minutes. This plan gives you 10 extensions and 300 minutes for $9.89. If you sign up for an annual contract, the monthly price drops to $8.29. Their higher level plans are also an excellent value. They offer a free trial for 30 days and give you 300 minutes. They offer Find Me/Follow Me (which sets forwarding rules) and an auto attendant (which is a custom menu that directs calls). They also offer voicemail-to-email alerts, but they do not offer voicemail-to-text transcription. You can store unlimited voicemails for up to 30 days. They include Internet fax service, which is also Market Standard. RingCentral has high quality phone, email and live chat support that is available 24/7.
Pricing
RingCentral’s Pro plan comes with 300 minutes and up to 10 extensions for $9.89 per month, which works out to almost 10 cents per minute. In addition, they charge another $1.77 per month on top of their quoted prices to cover tax and telecommunication fees. RingCentral also offers higher level plans with more minutes, such as their ProUnlimited plan that includes an unlimited number of local and long distance minutes, and 1000 included toll-free minutes each month.
Phone Numbers
RingCentral provides a local or 888, 877, 866 toll-free number with a monthly subscription. They offer 800 numbers and vanity numbers as well, but these numbers require a $15 and $30 setup fee, respectively. Porting an existing number into your PBX system is free with RingCentral. The service does not offer any international numbers.
Online Interface
RingCentral provides a setup wizard for easily customizing their high quality online interface. The online interface in a virtual PBX system enables you to set up all facets of your phone system in one easy-to-use web platform. The interface grants access to call logs and allows you to make a block call list for numbers you want to stop receiving calls from. RingCentral’s interface also will let you record calls. This service gives you the ability to create an online address book, but you cannot import your Outlook contacts directly into your interface. You can set call handling rules, such as the routing order to have calls sent to specific phone extensions or to a dial-by-name directory, but this feature costs an extra $4.99 a month with the Pro plan.
Voicemail
RingCentral allows you to store voicemails for 30 days. You can receive your voicemails by email or download them directly from the interface to your computer. But, the service does not offer voicemail-to-text transcription.
Call Handling
RingCentral offers a Find Me/Follow Me handling system that redirects calls from one extension to another when the call is not answered, which meets our Market Standard for virtual PBX systems. One of the main functions of a PBX system is to set rules on how calls are handled when your number is dialed. While on a call, you can transfer, record, or place a caller on hold by only using the phone’s keypad. RingCentral also offers call screening, which lets you see who is calling before connecting, and Do Not Disturb, which allows you to turn an extension off when you are out of the office or too busy to take calls. You can also set up a custom menu or auto attendant, which lets people who call into your PBX system decide which department they need to be routed to (e.g. Dial 1 for Sales, 2 for Customer Support, 3 for Billing, etc.). RingCentral also lets you define how long someone sits in a queue before they are routed elsewhere.
RingCentral allows you to make calls from outside of the U.S. through the PBX system, which could save you money on long distance charges if you are on an international business trip. RingCentral’s call quality is clear with no static. A unique feature that RingCentral offers is that their service works with a softphone, which is a computer being used as a phone.
Conference Calling and Mobile Apps
Although many virtual PBX services will bill conference calls by multiplying the number of people on the call by the number of minutes used, RingCentral charges only by the number of minutes used in the conference call. However, you cannot have multiple extensions from your PBX system in a conference call. The service also gives your moderator features to let you control all aspects of the conference and comes with a reference guide for moderator keypad shortcuts. In addition, the service includes the ability to send and receive faxes. They also have a mobile application for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.
Customer Support
RingCentral has high quality customer service, as they have a well-informed staff. Their phone support is available 24/7 and they offer online searchable FAQs and tutorials accessible to all users at any time.
