What Other Phone Services Are Similar To Grasshopper And How Much Does It Cost

If you lot run an online business concern, you know how important information technology is to have a reliable way to communicate with your customers.

While website conversation has been on the rise, at that place is one matter that people love more texting – talking to other homo beings.

Business telephone systems that function on VoIP have been around for a while and they are by far the best and easiest mode to talk to your customers.

One app has been prominent in the VoIP manufacture – RingCentral. Similar to Slack in the advice niche, this SaaS application has been the go-to solution for companies that want a robust way to provide support for their customers.

Today, we'll take a look at some of the best RingCentral alternatives to meet what makes them amend or worse than RingCentral.

Moreover, nosotros'll see which alternative works best for your use case.

Let'southward get started. But showtime…

Why RingCentral?

There may be a few reasons why RingCentral has remained one of the top VoIP providers for a variety of businesses.

The company was founded all the mode back in 2003 and launched equally a business phone service.

Moreover, RingCentral developed a variety of features aiming at small, medium-sized businesses and enterprise companies.

RingCentral offers telephone support for a lengthy list of countries, starting with the USA and Canada, all the way to France, Australia, Frg, and many others.

Too phone support, its offering expands to SMS, call management, cyberspace fax and many other means for customers to go in bear upon with your business organisation.

Moreover, RingCentral has numerous integrations with other apps such equally Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, Zapier, Zendesk, and others, making it easy to connect all of your work apps in i place.

While RingCentral has a pretty complex pricing construction, yous can get the near basic parcel for as little equally $19.99 per user per month.

Prices depend on what features you need, how many users you have on your team and whether y'all are paying monthly or annually.

However, for the sake of comparison, we'll utilize the well-nigh popular RingCentral plan, called Premium, which starts at $34.99 per user per calendar month, when paid annually.

The tiptop RingCentral alternatives

Hither are our top RingCentral alternatives:

Ringblaze
GrassHopper
Nextiva
Vonage
8×eight

The entries on this list are based on several criteria. We chose the apps based on several criteria, including:

– Functionality

– Pricing

– Ease of use

– Online reviews

– Call quality

– Call limitations (international calls)

– The number and quality of integrations

– Aid documentation availability

– Client back up quality

– Etc.

The apps we chose as RingCentral alternatives are based on our own experience with testing them for at least three weeks. Let'southward dive in.

1. Ringblaze vs RingCentral

When launching Ringblaze three years ago, we had one goal in listen – setting up a phone business solution that works well for small businesses and that has the pick of international phone calls and numbers at low prices.

So far, we've been able to exercise that.

Ringblaze aims at a very specific, niche market – modest and medium businesses that have a stiff need for phone support.

Some of the industries that the app serves include eCommerce, travel agencies, marketing agencies, figurer support agencies and all other businesses with a strong focus on phone sales and back up.

What makes information technology better than RingCentral

The start feature that sets Ringblaze apart is that information technology allows for multiple phone numbers inside a unmarried app.

That way, 1 customer support or sales agent tin can brand and receive calls from more than one number. On the other hand, RingCentral gives you ane number per app.

Moreover, Ringblaze works for all companies effectually the world and it doesn't require a specific location. On the other hand, RingCentral requires you to exist in the US, Canada, UK or Puerto Rico to be able to fifty-fifty sign upwardly for their app.

You tin can utilise Ringblaze with international phone numbers as soon as you lot register, while RingCentral has the option, but you have to go far touch with them to activate the feature.

1 of the all-time features in RingCentral is its dashboard for team collaboration. Unfortunately, the dashboard is a large-ticket detail available merely in the telephone call center solution for enterprise. Small businesses simply tin can't afford it.

Moreover, you accept to request the feature by contacting the RingCentral support beginning. On the other mitt, Ringblaze has a shared dashboard for small teams, no matter how small the team is. Dissimilar RingCentral, enjoying a dashboard feature in Ringblaze doesn't toll an arm and a leg.

There are some swell features that Ringblaze offers and which don't come in RingCentral. One of them is call assignment – the ability to assign calls to individual agents.

Moreover, you can leave comments on calls within the dashboard. Finally, yous can record calls in Ringblaze, even in the cheapest plans, while RingCentral locks this feature for simply the highest tiers in their pricing plan.

Finally, Ringblaze is easier to fix and apply, particularly compared to setting upwards a larger squad in RingCentral.

Ane excellent Ringblaze feature missing in Ringcentral (and all of the competitors below) is the click-to-call widget or, but put, "Call usa" website button.

Basically, the customer browsing the website can click a push button at whatever time and phone call you. One click is all it takes – this kind of super simple user interface is something that all other Ringcentral alternatives don't have.

Moreover, Ringblaze lets you generate a call-widget link that yous can add together anywhere – your website, your email signature or even to your blog article.

This widget is extremely useful, no matter what your business concern is and what yous sell. You can apply it to engage with your clients more hands, talk to them while they scan your website, improve your customer care and retention and in general, meliorate your conversion rates significantly.

Ringblaze pricing

I of the things that people really love about Ringblaze is pricing. There's only ane crystal clear programme where all you lot pay is $15 per user per month when paid annually which includes unlimited calls to US and Canada, free local number, telephone call widget and all the other features mentioned to a higher place. One thing is clear: it'due south much easier to choose a plan in Ringblaze than it is in RingCentral.

Ringblaze summary

Overall, Ringblaze is a capable newcomer that packs a lot of punch for a very pocket-sized price compared to RingCentral.

If you want to start using a capable concern telephone service that is more than functional, easier to use and more affordable than RingCentral, sign upwardly for Ringblaze today!

2. Grasshopper vs. RingCentral

I of the all-time-known RingCentral alternatives, Grasshopper has been around for virtually the same time and it serves a very similar target market place.

With ii of its currently available products (Grasshopper and Grasshopper Connect), the app covers a variety of different industries and utilize cases.

Yet, their key focus is small businesses and individuals who desire to set up a business phone service and have a more than professional appearance online.

What makes information technology better than RingCentral

By far, the near useful Grasshopper characteristic is that yous tin become unlimited texts, domestic calls and voicemails.

It comes with a robust desktop and mobile apps so you can be bachelor no matter where y'all are.

Another nifty feature that makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to have a 24/7 service is Grasshopper's automated attendant.

Information technology functions like an answering machine that interacts with your callers when you're not around. You can record your ain messages for the attendant or y'all can fifty-fifty hire a professional to do voiceover work for you.

This feature is present in RingCentral too, but the Grasshopper version is easier to use and set up.

Voicemail transcription is another great feature that Grasshopper offers. It allows you to automatically transcribe your inbound voicemails so that they are kept as a written recording.

If you desire to accept a searchable database of letters, this feature is really useful.

When it comes to onboarding and ease of use, Grasshopper excels and is definitely the meliorate choice over RingCentral.

When you sign upwardly, y'all can choose a number and they offer lots of variety. Toll-complimentary, vanity, local numbers or fifty-fifty porting your own numbers – Grasshopper has lots of options for different utilise cases and needs.

Grasshopper pricing

When it comes to pricing, Grasshopper is the more expensive of the two contenders. The bones programme starts at $29 per user per month, compared to $19.99 with RingCentral. However, beingness the cheapest plan, information technology doesn't accept many of the features that RingCentral offers.

Moreover, yous demand a phone line before signing up for this plan – you don't get any numbers from Grasshopper unless y'all upgrade.

This is probably one of the biggest downsides of Grasshopper because you have to pay more to get the equivalent service. As well, it can take quite a bit of fourth dimension to go the initial setup and your number ported.

Grasshopper summary

Overall, Grasshopper is an excellent selection for companies and individuals that want the choice of unlimited calls, letters, and even faxes, with a large diversity of phone number options to cull from. We are not convinced that it'southward the meliorate RingCentral culling, merely it is a worthy opponent. Check out our blog commodity on Grasshopper alternatives as well.

3. Nextiva vs. RingCentral

When you ask around for the all-time in class with business phone providers, Nextiva is the name that is most likely to pop upwards next to RingCentral.

No wonder, since information technology's been around since 2006 and used by minor businesses and enterprise companies effectually the USA.

In fact, there are currently over 150,000 companies using Nextiva as their VoIP solution.

At the moment of writing, Nextiva has three key offers: Business Communication Suite (which is what interests u.s.), Customer Relationship Suite and Team Advice Suite.

What makes information technology better than RingCentral

1 of the features that we appreciated about Nextiva is that collaboration is at the very centre of the app.

Within the same dashboard, you lot can access customer and team communication so you can effortlessly switch from communicating with your customers to talking with your team.

Nextiva offers unlimited calling and SMS letters, much like its chief competitor. In that location is a desktop and mobile app so y'all can communicate on the go and switch back and forth betwixt the two apps.

It is clear from the very offset that Nextiva wants to achieve one thing – create a unified communication platform for customers and teams, all in one app.

Much like the others on this listing, there is a focus on serving remote teams, which Nextiva does very well with its team advice suite and a system they call NextOS.

In that location are nigh two dozen integrations in Nextiva, just they insist that you don't need whatsoever integrations at all. While that may be truthful, you will accept to pay an additional $10-30 per month if yous want to use their own Customer service CRM or Sales pipeline CRM.

The proficient news is that there is a good choice of integrations with the bones plans, including Salesforce, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Hubspot, and others.

If things become stuck, Nextiva has an fantabulous customer back up system with phone support over 12 hours per twenty-four hours. No matter what time zone you lot're in, yous will be able to catch an agent to assistance y'all.

Besides getting them on the phone, yous can send a support ticket, read their knowledge base of operations or accomplish out through live chat on their website.

Nextiva pricing

The cheapest plan is similar to RingCentral at $19.95 per user per month, offering yous unlimited calls in the The states and Canada, as well as a free local and toll-free number. There is a cap on 1,000 toll-free minutes.

What is really odd is that the next program is Professional, at $20.95 per user per month, only a dollar more. That dollar gives a lot of value because it means 2,500 toll-free minutes instead of 1,999, likewise as unlimited business SMS messages per calendar month.

It also unlocks some absurd features, such as unlimited sound briefing calls for upward to 40 participants. Overall, this is the all-time plan in terms of value for money.

Nextiva summary

Overall, Nextiva is a great choice for pocket-size and mid-sized businesses that similar the functionalities of RingCentral and desire to pay a like price, but they want to feel more connected with their team while going about their daily tasks.

4. RingCentral vs. Vonage

On the basis of numbers alone, Vonage is a force to be reckoned with. Founded in 2001, Vonage has over i.3 million subscribers at the moment of writing this article.

Promising 99.99% reliability, Vonage offers a business organization telephone system coupled with unlimited calls, SMS messages, squad collaboration tools, and over 50 dissimilar telephone features.

It's 1 of the biggest players in the game and a great RingCentral alternative.

What makes it better than RingCentral

Too the phone business solution, you lot can too employ Vonage to stay in touch with your internal team. In fact, starting with their Premium program, you get access to features such as chat, video conferencing and file sharing, for upwards to 100 people.

If you're non already using a business communication tool like Slack, this is a great style to get 2 (or even more) tools for the cost of ane subscription.

Another thing we liked was the numerous integrations. Some of them include Chiliad Suite, ConnectWise, Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, SugarCRM and others.

Vonage pricing

When it comes to pricing, the cheapest program is called Mobile and it'southward $nineteen.99 per month per line and it comes with unlimited calls and SMS messages and that's near it. Oh yeah, you also accept to add taxes to that toll, too as any additional fees.

Their second nigh expensive plan is called Premium (for some reason) and information technology comes with everything from Mobile along with some extras. You become video conferencing tools, chat and file sharing for up to 100 people.

Actually, while Vonage does offer a more comprehensive fix of features for different sorts of communication, we have a difficult time recommending it based on price alone. Everything that comes free in RingCentral requires an upgrade in Vonage.

For example, toll-free numbers are free in RingCentral and they toll an boosted $39.99 per month in Vonage. You accept to pay $4.99 extra for call recording and the auto attendant is not available in the cheapest plan.

Vonage summary

Overall, Vonage is very robust and capable and offers everything that RingCentral has to offering plus some more than. If you don't mind paying the extra few bucks per each business relationship, it'southward a skilful choice, albeit amend suited for the enterprise sector, rather than SMBs. Check out our blog article on Vonage alternatives besides.

five. eight×8 vs. RingCentral

The company 8×8 has been around longer than some of its about faithful customers – information technology was founded in 1987. Yet, they only started getting into the VoIP scene in 2000.

At the moment of writing, 8×8 has over one million customers in over 100,000 different businesses around the globe.

What makes it better than RingCentral

Let'due south get the most important thing out of the manner first – viii×8 offers unlimited international calls in all of its plans, while RingCentral only has this feature for calls in the U.s.a. and Canada.

About other features are comparable, such every bit the unlimited number of SMS letters, call recording, 24/7 support, desktop, and mobile apps, etc.

One neat element of 8×8 is the option of local presence and numbers for each of the 47 available countries. That way, your international customers can call you locally without being charged expensive rates for international calls. However, (unlike in Ringblaze for example) there is an additional fee to employ this characteristic.

Finally, something that is not bad merely not useful for our own testing was the speech analytics feature. It does exactly what it promises – analyzes your calls to spot keywords and then groups conversations around topics that come up up frequently. If you lot want to find out what your agents and customers talk virtually often, this is a superb feature to have.

eight×8 pricing

Prices start at $25 per month per user, which is slightly more expensive than RingCentral. Nevertheless, at that place is one major difference – 8×8 gives you unlimited calls in equally many as 14 countries, fifty-fifty in its cheapest plan.

If you lot upgrade to the next i (a plan called X Series X4), you get unlimited calls to 47 dissimilar countries, which is a hard offer to vanquish at $45 per calendar month. The nigh expensive program comes in at $175 monthly. In that location is a 30-day free trial to try out, only only for the most basic plan.

eight×8 summary

Although the features are on par with RingCentral, from our own personal use, we constitute that RingCentral is much more than intuitive. The layout looks busy and you'll wander to their FAQ section quite a bit in the early days of using the app. However, things are pretty easy from that indicate on.

The verdict – which is the best RingCentral culling

The field of concern phone providers is very competitive. From onetime-time foes similar Nextiva and Vonage to up-and-coming companies like Ringblaze, there are plenty of competitors who are out to have RingCentral'southward crown.

If yous are looking for a tool that is reliable, affordable, fast, packed with lots of features, has a super simple pricing plan and is extremely easy to use, we suggest giving Ringblaze a effort.

It perfectly meets the needs of the SMB sector and has most of the RingCentral features (and a few extras), at a more than affordable price. Sign up today and see why Ringblaze is the best RingCentral alternative out there!

P ublished on January 28, 2021. Updated on May ane, 2022.