# RingCentral

> Cloud phone system with texting, fax, video meetings and team chat

RingCentral's RingEX is a cloud phone system that puts calling, business texting, fax, team chat and video meetings in one app. Each user gets a direct number with unlimited calling in the US and Canada, and an AI assistant takes call notes, transcribes calls and drafts messages. An AI Receptionist that answers and routes calls is sold as an add-on or inside the higher bundles.

- **Category:** Business Phone Systems
- **Made by:** RingCentral
- **Website:** https://www.ringcentral.com
- **Runs on:** Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

RingCentral is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $20 per user / month for 1-5 users, billed annually ($30 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 14-day free trial for new subscribers; texting is not included in the trial.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Core | $20 per user / month, billed annually ($30 billed monthly) | Price for 1-5 users. Unlimited US and Canada calling, on-demand call recording, 100 toll-free minutes, 25 texts per user a month and 300-person meetings. |
| Advanced | $25 per user / month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly) | Price for 1-5 users. Adds CRM integrations, multiple sites, automatic call recording, reports, 1,000 toll-free minutes and 100 texts per user a month. |
| AI CE Bundle with AIR | Custom | AI Customer Engagement Bundle: adds AI Receptionist, the SMS and call queue boosters, Webinar, 10,000 toll-free minutes and 200 texts per user a month. |
| AI CE Bundle with AIR and ACE | Custom | Adds AI Conversation Expert: call scoring, coaching, automatic call summaries and multi-level reporting on top of the bundle above. |

Read from https://www.ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with RingCentral before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Save up to 33% by paying annually** (Annual discount): The pricing page lists Core at $20 per user a month billed annually against $30 billed monthly, and Advanced at $25 against $35. Source: https://www.ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html

## Key features

- **Calling and numbers:** Unlimited calling within the US and Canada. The plan includes one company number; each extra local or toll-free number costs $4.99 a month.
- **Business texting:** Texts from the business number: 25 per user a month on Core, 100 on Advanced and 200 in the bundles. SMS needs carrier (TCR) registration first.
- **Call menus and routing:** Multi-level phone menus, call queues and rules by business hours or availability, managed for several locations from one admin portal.
- **Video meetings, chat and fax:** The same app runs video meetings for up to 300 people, team messaging with file sharing, and fax from the business number.
- **AI assistant:** Included at no extra cost: real-time call and meeting notes, transcription, meeting summaries, and help writing and translating messages.
- **AI Receptionist:** Answers calls around the clock, handles FAQs, books appointments and routes callers to staff. An add-on starting at $39, included in the bundles.

## Good for

- Businesses that want calls, texts, meetings and chat in one app
- Teams spread over several offices or locations
- Companies using Microsoft Teams that want RingCentral calling inside it

## Worth knowing

- The listed prices are for 1-5 users; the page switches to other prices for 6-100 users, and 100+ users must contact sales.
- Automatic call recording and CRM integrations need Advanced; Core records calls on demand only.
- Add-ons are extra: AI Receptionist from $39, Business SMS Booster $25 and Call Queues Booster $35, as shown on the pricing page.
- Texting needs TCR registration, which may carry fees, and is not available during the free trial.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 3.0 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. RingCentral is the do-everything option: calls, texts, fax, video meetings and team chat in one app, with an AI assistant that takes call notes at no extra cost. It's $20 a person a month for a team of five on yearly billing. The catch is texting: Core gives each person just 25 texts a month.

- **Value for money: C.** $20 a head for a team of five on Core, billed yearly ($30 monthly), which is the price for 1-5 users. That's just past this category's dearer quarter ($19.99), so middle of the road, not cheap. Automatic recording and CRM links need Advanced at $25.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** A 14-day free trial for new subscribers, with texting left out of it. No free plan, and the listing doesn't say whether the trial needs a card.
- **Features: B.** Unlimited US and Canada calls, phone menus, call queues, fax, 300-person video meetings, team chat and an AI assistant for call notes. That's the whole phone job, though Core's 25 texts a person a month is stingy.
- **Ease of use: A.** 4.83 from about 78,000 App Store ratings, which is about as good as it gets for a work phone app.
- **Platforms and integrations: A.** Web, Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace and Slack on the integrations list.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from RingCentral's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among business phone systems

- RingCentral's GPA of 3.0 is higher than 18 of the 19 other business phone systems we grade, and level with 1.
- It stands best on ease of use (A, above 16 of 19) and worst on value for money (C, above 3).
- Its paid plans start at $20 a month for each person, against a middle price of $19 for the category: 13 of the 16 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.7 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/business-phones

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace RingCentral you would be making phone numbers and calls carried over the phone network. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.0 is higher than 18 of the 19 other business phone systems we grade. It costs $240 a year.

- You could not: Phone numbers and calls carried over the phone network.
- You could not: Video calls.
- You could not: Chat that a whole team counts on staying up.
- You could not: Texts from a business number, registered with the carriers.
- You could not: Speech turned into text you can trust.
- You could not: Apps for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android that stay in step with each other.
- You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Salesforce, HubSpot and Zendesk among them, and has an API.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.8 out of 5 from 78,015 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id715886894

## Works with

Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack

**Tags:** Business phone line, Business texting, Video calls, Team chat, Transcription, AI features, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Dialpad](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dialpad): AI business phone with live call transcripts and call summaries. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/dialpad-vs-ringcentral)
- [Nextiva](https://toolgpa.com/tools/nextiva): Business phone, texting and video with an optional AI receptionist. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/nextiva-vs-ringcentral)
- [8x8](https://toolgpa.com/tools/8x8): Cloud phone system with team chat, meetings and a receptionist console. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/8x8-vs-ringcentral)
- [Vonage Business Communications](https://toolgpa.com/tools/vonage): Business phone lines with texting, video meetings and team chat. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ringcentral-vs-vonage)
- [Zoom](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zoom): Video meetings bundled with team chat, phone and AI notes. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ringcentral-vs-zoom)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://www.ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html
- https://www.ringcentral.com/shared/datasource/pnp/mvp.exporter.json
- https://www.ringcentral.com/ringex.html
- https://www.ringcentral.com/download.html

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/ringcentral
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).