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RingCentral vs Nextiva: Which Is Better for International Businesses?

If your business is based in the US, but your clients, customers and partners are located in various locations across the world, you can now communicate with them irrespective of wherever they are with your US-based phone system.

Today, with phone systems becoming cloud-based, they are also international by default. These cloud-based systems allow you to link your US and international offices and also let you route calls to employees who are always on the move. Also, switching from a traditional landline phone system to a cloud-based one is sure to save your business money.

VoIP-based phone service providers such as Ringcentral and Nextiva connect businesses with their offices based in the US with offices, employees and customers abroad. In this article, we will discuss the various features and pricing of both these service providers, so can choose the best for your business.

Service Plans

RingCentral

RingCentral has 4 service plans – Essentials, Standard, Premium and Ultimate. The charges and features vary according to the plan. RingCentral does not require you to sign a contract, offers a 30-day free trial and allows you to cancel the service any time at all. With every plan, you get free toll-free and local numbers, unlimited call minutes (with a reasonable use policy). You also get 1,000 to 10,000 toll-free minutes depending on the plan and if these levels are exceeded, you will receive a bill.

All the RingCentral plans offer a variety of features that can be customized according to the requirements of your business. However, one thing to remember about the RingCentral service is that each user is considered a device and every device which is configured to work on the RingCentral network is charged according to the monthly rates and there is no difference between a mobile, telephone or a softphone, they are all considered as users and are hence billed.

RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral offers 4 pricing plans:

Essentials (Per Month)
  • 1 User: $39.99
  • 2-99 Users: $29.99
  • 100-999 Users: NA
  • 1,000-1,999 Users: NA
Standard (Per Month)
  • 1 User: $49.99
  • 2-99 Users: $34.99
  • 100-999 Users: $32.99
  • 1,000-1,999 Users: $29.99
Premium (Per Month)
  • 1 User: $54.99
  • 2-99 Users: $44.99
  • 100-999 Users: $42.99
  • 1,000-1,999 Users: $39.99
Ultimate (Per Month)
  • 1 User: $69.99
  • 2-99 Users: $59.99
  • 100-999 Users: $52.99
  • 1,000-1,999 Users: $49.99

Nextiva

Nextiva offers 3 plans – Office Pro, Office Pro Plus and Office Enterprise. Nextiva does not offer a free demo but offers unlimited calling and virtual faxing minutes. Nextiva does not have a fixed contract and does not charge setup fees. The charges of Nextiva is per user; however, the prices reduce as the number of users/devices increases, thereby offering a better deal and better value for money if you require several extensions.

Nextiva Pricing

Nextiva offers 3 pricing plans:

Office Pro
  • Cost: $19.95/ month
  • No setup fees
  • Unlimited calling
  • Unlimited virtual faxing
Office Pro Plus
  • Cost: $20.95/ month
  • Includes all features of Office Pro
  • Conferencing
  • Nextiva’s mobile app
Office Enterprise
  • Cost: $27.95/ month
  • Includes all features of Office Pro Plus
  • 3 professional greetings
  • Call recording

Service Availability

Both RingCentral, as well as Nextiva, are based in the US and hence this is their main focus. However, both the service providers allow you to receive calls and make calls to international numbers anywhere in the world.

The difference between RingCentral and Nextiva is really the ability to make international calls but the availability of different numbers in various countries. For instance, while RingCentral offers different phone numbers in the US, Canada, Mexico and a few countries in Europe, Asia and the Pacific and the Middle East; Nextiva only offers US and Canada-based numbers.

While both RingCentral and Nextiva allow you to receive and make international calls, with Nextiva, you can send phones to say Europe and link them to your account, but the calls will be made or received using a US-based number.

So, RingCentral states that their Office platform is available in several countries across the globe; however, Nextiva’s service is available only in the US, but includes unlimited calling to Canada.

Features

RingCentral

RingCentral is an extremely popular VoIP services provider, with over 350,000 customers across the globe. They offer a wide range of features and here, we will discuss only the ones that differentiate both the service providers.

Number Availability

RingCentral offers inbound numbers in over 70 countries and offers toll-free numbers in different ranges such as 800, 855, 866, 877 and 888. RingCentral offers local numbers in over 200 areas, which enables your business to have a local presence in any place in the US and offer local calling rates to your customers. All the RingCentral numbers are listed in both local, as well as national business directories.

Cloud PBX Features

RingCentral offers a wide array of cloud PBX features such as access control that is based on the employee roles, multi-level IVR, user templates, call analytics, SSO (single sign-on), global office (which essentially means that all local, national, remote or international calls which are between extensions are free). RingCentral offers excellent service when it comes to bridging your various global offices virtually.

RingCentral offers unified communication platforms like voice, chat, email, video and other collaboration tools like shared whiteboards, desktops, etc. GLIP is a collaboration tool that allows team sharing and engagement to be more productive, faster and easier. It also supports call conferencing, video conferencing up to 200 participants and voice conferencing with over 1,000 participants.

RingCentral allows the phone system to be integrated seamlessly with other business applications such as Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, DropBox, Desk.com, Zendesk, to name a few. The service plans of RingCentral also include a BYOD-enabled phone app for iOS and Android devices that you can use to make calls and also for system administration. The phone system also offers unlimited business SMSes and conferencing along with the unlimited calling and virtual faxing.

RingCentral also offers some premium features in its higher plans like HD voice, caller name recognition, call recording, multi-level auto-attendant, automatic call distribution, find-me-follow-me, etc.

Nextiva

In recent years, Nextiva has upgraded its services in order to stay competitive in the business space. Apart from the regular features offered by Nextiva, it also has several unified communication tools which support remote and mobile workers through the Nextiva app. And, these tools offer voice, mobile, web and video collaboration under one multimedia system that supports various platforms such as email, SMS, chat, social media, video and comments. It also offers enhanced conferencing features, which can accommodate up to 9 participants and comes with team presence tools.

The cloud-based phone system offers features such as auto-attendant, personalized greetings, IVR, call transfer and forwarding, etc. All the plans offer unlimited calling and faxing, HD voice, call parking, push to talk, voicemail to email, multi-level auto-attendant, and individual presence on several devices but the conferencing facility, personalized greetings, mobile app, team presence, call recording, attendant console, the Nextiva toolbar and silent call barge features are available only in the higher plans like Office Pro Plus and Office Enterprise.

Administration

RingCentral

You can configure all your settings and generate reports via RingCentral’s online portal from any device that has an internet connection. You can also use the mobile app to configure the system, making it extremely simple to set up. You can configure your mobile apps, extensions, contacts, call logs, etc. via the portal using a smartphone or a computer. The reporting in RingCentral is quite basic and is based on the call logs. It provides the data in a spreadsheet form instead of a graphical format and you can modify the data as you want.

Nextiva

Nextiva offers a web interface that is extremely user friendly, which allows you to log on and get your data or you can get the reports mailed to you directly. You can also configure your extension and preferences via the website and also use it for reporting. Nextiva also gives you all the data in a simple spreadsheet format that you can work on.

Reliability

RingCentral

The network design of RingCentral is fully redundant and it has servers in 2 locations, which means that if one fails for some reason, the service will be continued by the 2nd location. RingCentral offers an SLA of 99.99%, which essentially means that the downtime of the system will be less than 5 minutes a year.

Nextiva

Nextiva has servers across 10 locations and claims an uptime of 99.99% in case of an emergency; however, this is not backed by an SLA guarantee.

Customer Support

RingCentral

RingCentral offers very good customer support and you can contact the customer service team via call, chat or email. RingCentral also has several online articles along with videos, a blog and a forum for any query or extra help you need.

Nextiva

On the other hand, Nextiva claims fantastic customer support and that 95% of the time, your calls will be answered by the 2nd ring. You can contact customer support via email, chat or an online form and also access Nextiva’s wide collection of videos, self-help literature and FAQs.

It is very easy to understand why both RingCentral and Nextiva are always contending for the No. 1 position. RingCentral is a firm favorite of businesses of all sizes as it provides a wide array of calling features, tools for collaboration and CRM integration, call management and reporting functions for contact centers.

Nextiva, on the other hand, is more popular with small- and medium-sized businesses which need standard voice features such as receiving and forwarding calls and want to pay only for the features they require. So, Nextiva’s low-cost basic feature phone plans are ideal that can help to keep your budgets low when you’re just starting your business.

In terms of international calling, both phone service providers allow you to make calls to international numbers and also receive overseas calls; it is the international number availability of RingCentral and Nextiva that make them different. While Nextiva is restricted to only the US and Canada and you need to use a US number, RingCentral has a more global presence and is available in many countries outside the US and Canada.

So, if you have a business with a lot of international calling and you need a greater presence abroad, then it is a better idea to go with RingCentral, especially if your business requires international numbers.

The post RingCentral vs Nextiva: Which Is Better for International Businesses? appeared first on CleverLeverage.com.



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RingCentral vs Nextiva: Which Is Better for International Businesses?

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