Available in 47 countries, Zoom Phone is a popular cloud communication platform. It is ideal for businesses with remote workers and a global presence. Zoom Phone services include voice/video calling, messaging, live call monitoring, call recording, transcriptions and select app integrations. The availability of these services depends on the plan chosen. Zoom Phone offers 3 plans with a monthly subscription. Irrespective of the plan chosen, Zoom Phone services can be accessed from mobile and desktop devices.
Ring Central is a cloud communication service provider comparable to Zoom Phone. It is aimed at helping small and large businesses improve their internal and external communication. RingCentral offers unlimited calls to numbers within the USA and Canada and access a host of other features such as call monitoring, call recording, call analytic reports, etc. based on the plan subscribed to. To access these services, businesses can subscribe to one of 4 MVP (messaging, video, phone) plans and 4 contact center plans or an exclusive video communication plan. These services can be accessed through smartphone and desktop apps or certain IP desk phones.
Priced at $120 per user per year, the Zoom Phone Metered Pack offers unlimited international calling from numbers with an American/Canadian code and metered outgoing calls. This pack also includes services such as IVR call routing, voicemail transcriptions, call recording and select app integrations.
The Unlimited Pack by Zoom Phone is priced at $180 per user per year. This includes all the features of the Metered pack as well as unlimited regional calls in the USA and Canada. An add-on pack allows businesses to make unlimited calls to 19 other countries as well.
Unlike ZoomPhone, RingCentral does not require an annual commitment. RingCentral plans are available on monthly subscriptions.
If you need only basic calling and messaging features, the RingCentral Essential plan priced at $19.99 per user per month is a good solution. This is however limited to 20 users. It includes unlimited calling within the USA and Canada.
Monthly user license fees for the Standard plan start at $22.99 and go up to $27.99 depending on the number of users. It includes all the features of the Essential plan as well as features such as video meetings with up to 100 participants, quality-of-service reports and select app integrations.
Subscribing to the Premium plan can cost between $32.99 and $34.99 per user per month depending on the number of users. This gives subscribers access to many exclusive features such as live call monitoring and automatic call recording.
In the office, you can make and receive calls on a Zoom Phone number through a desk phone or desktop app.
ZoomPhone and RingCentral services can be accessed through similar interfaces.
Ringcentral has a free app for Windows and Mac devices, web browser extension and deskphone interface.
Irrespective of whether you use an Android or iOS device, you can make and receive calls with the Zoom Phone app.
ZoomPhone and RingCentral offer similar out-of-office connectivity.
Smartphone apps by RingCentral for Android and iOS devices can be used to make and receive calls.
Zoom Phone subscribers can use IVR menus or auto attendants to route incoming calls.
While ZoomPhone offers universal access to its auto-attendant feature, RingCentral offers limited access.
The RingCentral auto-attendant feature is limited to the Standard and Premium plans. It is not available to Essential plan subscribers. The Ring Central auto-attendant routes incoming calls based on keystroke responses.
Zoom Phone users can choose a greeting from their audio library or upload custom audio greetings.
1. Login as an administrator and click on Call Handling from the Settings menu.
2. Select a file from the audio library or add a new recorded message
RingCentral gives subscribers a wider range of greeting customization options as compared to ZoomPhone.
RingCentral account admins can customize greetings for all incoming calls from the RingCentral web browser or the desktop app.
Step 1. Select Company set up> Review Company Call Flow menu>edit
Step 2. Choose Custom Greeting and click on Record. Record a new message via a phone call/ computer microphone or upload recording.
Zoom Phone call monitoring services can be used on common phones, shared line groups, call queues and all other phone users. Supervisors can listen to live calls, speak to agents without the other party knowing it, join conversations and take over calls if required.
RingCentral offers the same call monitoring features only in the upgraded plans.
To help agents prioritize call follow-ups, The Essential plan gives subscribers access to voicemails and voicemail transcriptions in English, French, German and Spanish. These messages can be previewed in the user’s email inbox.
Supervisors of teams subscribed to the Standard plan can also get reports on call analytics such as the total number of calls made and received, call duration, etc. In addition, live call monitoring features are available to the Standard and Premium plan subscribers.
Live call monitoring allows supervisors to listen in to live calls without the agent or the caller’s knowledge, whisper to agents to guide them through query resolution, join in a conversation to speak to both call participants and takeover calls from agents. This feature is available on the desktop apps and IP desk phones.
Zoom Phone gives businesses an easy way to monitor calls for call quality. Calls made on shared line groups, common phones, etc. can be monitored by supervisors in real time. Supervisors can listen in to calls, whisper to agents, join calls or take over calls from agents. Only 1 supervisor can listen to a call at a time. Calls that cannot be monitored in real time can be recorded for later analysis. This feature needs to be manually enabled.
Zoom Phone's call recording capabilities give it an edge over RingCentral. Call recording is not included in the RingCentral Essential plan. Standard plan subscribers can record calls manually while all calls made and received by Premium plan subscribers are automatically recorded.
For the metered plan, Calls to 150+ countries are billed on a per minute rate based on whether the number being called is a landline or mobile number and the call destination. For example, calls to landline numbers in Argentina are billed at $0.1156 per minute while calls to Argentinian mobile numbers are billed at $0.5623 per minute.
Unlimited outgoing calls to numbers in the USA and Canada are included in the unlimited plan. add on plans for calling numbers in 19 other countries can be bought. Calls to numbers in countries not included in this list are billed at a per minute rate.
Unlike ZoomPhone, all RingCentral plans include unlimited calls to numbers within the USA and Canada.
All calls made by RingCentral subscribers apart from calls made to numbers in the USA and Canada are billed at a per minute rate. These call rates depend on locations and number types. For example, calls to Costa Rica are billed $0.068 per minute while calls to India are billed at $0.059 per minute.
ZoomPhone Metered plan subscribers are billed on a per-minute rate for all calls while the Unlimited plan subscribers are billed only for international calls.
Zoom Phone accounts can be set up online on the Zoom Phone website. You can apply for a new number or port an existing number. Once the account is set up, Zoom Phone services can be accessed through smartphone or desktop applications as well as certain desk phones. These desk phones are available with retailers or on the Zoom Phone website.
Both Zoom Phone and RingCentral users can set up their accounts online. Subscribers can create an account on the RingCentral website with their email addresses or Google accounts. User extensions, call handling rules, etc. can be customized directly from the RingCentral dashboard. Users can then download and install the RingCentral app for their desktop, laptop or smartphone and login to start making and receiving calls. RingCentral services are also available with certain IP desk phones. You can configure existing desk phones to work with RingCentral or order cordless, receptionist and conference desk phones on the RingCentral website.
