Get Even More Visitors To Your Blog, Upgrade To A Business Listing >>

3 Good RingCentral Alternatives (that are cheaper & better)

Unhappy with RingCentral’s Professional Phone plan pricing? Or maybe you just want something a little more streamlined and easy to use? No matter your reason, there are several companies that are good alternatives to RingCentral. If price is your major gripe, I think you’ll be happy to know there are two services listed below that I personally use myself, that are cheaper than RingCentral’s Office plan. If you want something more sophisticated with fail-over support or to run a call center with, we have good solutions for that too. By the end of this article, you’ll have a good idea of some products similar to RingCentral’s virtual platform, and easily be able to decide which substitute is best for you.


Summary

I added a quick cliff notes section here, so if you’re in a hurry and just want to know which virtual phone number services are good replacements for Talkroute, here’s a short synopsis for each:

  • Grasshopper – 50% less than Talkroute’s cheapest plan, #1 rated alternative phone forwarding service
    • Pros: backed by Cisco, excellent reliability and easy to use custom greetings
    • Cons: doesn’t have unlimited minutes
  • Phone.com – also cheaper than Talkroute, allows you to add phone hardware
    • Pros: more advanced features for call tracking, higher end phone system
    • Cons: hardly any, this is my #1 recommendation for most business owners for it’s ultimate flexibility
  • RingCentral – a business voip phone system
    • Pros: lets you support multiple locations, with office desk phone
    • Cons: pricing starts at $25/mo

Today we are still on the search for a great VoIP program that will help your small Business succeed like the big boys. We want keep improving that productivity, and keep improving your bottom line! Here is what I have dug up for you guys today, get ready for one scary ride! Actually, I am just kidding, but let’s get to it. First, we will be taking some copious notes on the company called Nextiva. After explaining the pros and cons of using their services we will move forward with discussing MightyCall, and finally, Telzio.

VOIP Alternatives To RingCentral Compared

Nextiva

Before I jump into the features of this company and what it has to offer you guys I want to give you some answers straight from the consumers themselves. I genuinely want you guys to hear what other people are saying to try and give an unbiased approach to this review. The information regarding these reviews are coming directly from https://getvoip.com/reviews/nextiva/#reviews in case anyone wants to read them for themselves. GetVoiIP.com gave Nextiva a solid four stars. On their website there has been a total of forty eight reviews and I will go over both the good and the bad like usual.

According to most customers, Nextiva has great after sale support along with a solid pricing sytem. Great support, and not gouging customers is definitely a good way to start a wonderful business relationship. Saving money and pricing is probably the most reoccurring pro listed in most of the reviews, now let’s get to what we don’t want to hear.

Moving on, if we continue to read further we start to see an existing trend with the customers who are writing bad reviews. This trend boils down to the fact several people are experiencing dropped calls, low quality reception on the receiver’s end, and Nextiva refusing to take the blame for many faults in its service. Also, Nextiva faces poor mobile application execution for Apple users along with low quality voice mail.

Furthermore, another customer writes that he tried to opt out of their service, but Nextiva is trying to hit them with numerous penalty fees so he will remain bound to his contract with them. Finally, the last complaint I read was about their sketchy tech support. Are you eager to know what I have came to find? Well, I called Nextiva to try and see if they had good customer service, answered questions, or if the conversation just felt like sub par service.  When I called their business number I was greeted by an automated voice asking for my name and my phone number, because someone would get back to me shortly. I agree this was Saturday night at 7:55pm; however, most companies are usually open twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week when they are in this kind of business. That kind of pushed me away from viewing their company in a more positive manner. Customer service is important, and as small business owners I am sure you guys agree that every customer counts. Question, what happens if your Nextiva services goes out next Saturday at 7:55pm, but you can’t get anyone to call you back or help you because they are closed, then what do you do? I will tell you what you do, absolutely nothing. Why? Because you are then in between a rock and a hard place. All you will have to do is be patient, and hopefully receive that call back within a reasonable time frame. Of course, after you read further down the list of reviews more and more people start to vouch for Nextiva and their customer service, so guys what do you think? How should we interpret the mixed reviews in total? I believe I already have an idea, and you might say, “Ryan, you are one wishy washy review guy”? Perhaps, but technically I want to tell you guys everything I learn about a company, in order to be completely fair to them, and you, as I have stated many moons ago. As of right now I am going to suggest we wash the review slate clean with Nextiva, and move on to what they can offer us as small business owners, then, and only then we will be able to accurately judge them as a whole. Sound fair, I think it sure does!

RingCentral VS Nextiva

For starters, Nextiva offers an option to scale your users to your business VoIP service. For those that don’t know what scaling means, it basically means the ability to add or remove users is fully adjustable. They also offer the same awesome feature of a phone line being fully operational whether your internet, or power is out of service. That is a big business quality for our small business needs, nice! Also, your employees can be reached through one unified system no matter where they might be! If you need that ever convenient text option, that is a feature too Nextiva has also implemented and you can even have HD video conversations with others through their platform. Their application also grants admins using the app to grant other users extension numbers which I find to be a pretty sick feature! Now we discussed their phone support a little bit earlier, at least their phone support; however, apparently, I made a huge mistake because Nextiva offers support via Social Media, online chat, or even e-mail. They were even given the Frost and Sullivan Award for Customer Service Leadership along with Stevie Awards for innovation in the Customer Service Department of businesses (http://fitsmallbusiness.com/ringcentral-alternative/). Moreover, Nextiva claims to offer a unique, user friendly GUI with their NextOS technology. That is very good for those who don’t want to, or have time to fiddle with newer technology. This GUI will allow you to even manage every single inbound, and outgoing call with the click of your mouse! This company also has pretty straight forward pricing for their business options, which we always love. Everybody clap, they aren’t trying to hide anything! As for small businesses, their pricing options are totally affordable, and the basic version which is called Office Pro starts at just $19.95 a month. They do offer an Office Pro Plus version and an Office Enterprise version. The differences between the most expensive package versus the cheapest package are few; but, we will list them for you all so you know exactly what you are missing out on. Office Pro Plus allows you to have a professionally recorded welcome greeting for you consumers, but only one. Next, this option also allows the Call Me Now! Feature that will allow consumers to contact your small business via your website! Very cool, but not a typical feature that most small businesses use. Furthermore, Office Plus Pro will give you and nine members of your choice the ability to have a conference call, and you also have the ability to use instant messaging, screen and video sharing, and able to use it via your mobile device or desktop computer. For the sake of being thorough I will include what features comes in the enterprise version, although as I stated before, most small businesses probably won’t need this software package. The most expensive package will allow you to have up to three professionally recorded greetings for your company done by Nextiva, so that is a cool customizable option, but buyer beware, if you want additional recordings they are twenty-five dollars each. The second new feature added in the enterprise package is the ability to record incoming and outgoing calls.

RingCentral VS Grasshopper VS Nextive

Related Reading:

  • 8×8 VS RingCentral Enterprise VOIP
  • Google Voice Compared To Grasshopper: Which Is Better?
  • Grasshopper VS Vonage: Who Offer The Most Bang For Your Buck
  • Is Talkroute Any Good?
  • Kall8 Virtual Numbers Reviewed

Finally, the enterprise version allows you to connect let’s say your mobile device and have it ring as your actual office phone if you choose as well as make calls from it, and show up as your actual office phone. This feature is known as Nextiva Anywhere. Let’s go ahead and rewind back to some features that come with basic Office Pro which would more than likely suit your small business.

First, we have the all mighty cloud technology, yada yada, everyone has this now, and Nextiva also offers free phone number porting so you can keep your old number when you transfer to the Nextiva service. You will also receive a free local number along with a free toll free number that also includes unlimited calling! That is always a great feature whether you are a small business, or a big business, either way it is a win! If you choose, you will also be able to send unlimited virtual faxes. The final options in the basic Office Pro are called, HD Music on hold which is obvious, Voicemail to text, and this feature is similar to Google Voice’s feature of voice translation, and finally we have another option known as Barge In. Barge In is like call recording upgraded, because it allows managers to interject in phone conversations that their employees and customers are having. Very cool! I am really satisfied with these features, and with the great price listings as well. Way to go Nextiva. Should the bad reviews from the previous website change your thoughts regarding this topic? As for now, no; but, to make sure I did a little more snooping around so I will give you the scoop on what other review sites have said about Nextiva. I decided to visit https://virtualphonesystemreviews.com/reviews/nextiva/ to see what they had to say about Nextiva, and low and behold, remember that customer that said he was getting penalized, because they required a contract? Well that is totally false, and apparently it was just an irate customer making a false review. That is a really good thing for any company! This website also made light of the fact, that Nextiva stands behind their thirty-day money back guarantee, also another plus for them, but they offer no support for Canada. This website listed only six reviews; however, I managed to find two that matched a similar complaint in the review website mentioned earlier. That complaint was strictly with the company’s downtime, and service outages. The other four reviews were extremely positive so I am going to close the case on this one and give Nextiva four stars! They could have easily obtained five if I could have trusted their support team response when their outages roll around, but that might not be the case. Anyhow, I would recommend this for a small business. Job well done!

Who’s Next?

The next VoIP alternatives we will be checking out is Mighty Call and Telzio. I haven’t actually heard of these companies myself, so this should be an interesting time learning to see what one has to offer versus the other one. Maybe we will find something very innovative and revolutionary for small businesses! Sorry, I don’t want to get up your hopes, but it could happen, and it did with Nextiva!

Mighty Call

As soon as we land on Mighty Call’s website we see their ultra-low price for small businesses at forty-nine cents a day. If you multiply that by thirty it comes out to be $14.70 a month. That’s a little lower than Nextiva, but the more important question is “does their features match that of Nextiva”? We will know before the end of this article, and I can guarantee that. This company allows you to start calling two minutes after you signup, and this speedy setup is due to the need not to have any extra hardware. That is definitely a star earned for speed! Also, like most companies they promise that you can keep your existing number, but they also give you the option to have a vanity number at no additional cost as well. That is definitely pretty cool, especially if you want to brand your phone number! Good thinking guys! Moreover, when you have a text, receive a call, or receive a request via social media site, they will be turned into tasks via the application. This keeps things very organized for you which I think is another nice feature to have. Mighty Call will also include a professional greeting and voice menu just as Nextiva will. I am getting the strange feeling that these two companies will be offering very similar features, and we might have to leave the better decision up to the past consumers who have left reviews. I guess we will know soon enough, right? Well, after checking out their pricing page I think we can guess the loser between these two services right away, and unfortunately, I believe it will be Mighty Call. Do you hear that? It is the sound of you being led down the path of excellence because I’m not about to let you get ripped off by some cheesy company trying to make a quick dollar. Thank you for the applause; however, it isn’t needed. I am happy to keep you guys in the loop about which companies are best for your small business, and I want to know that I helped you make the right choice, and not the wrong one. Well the good news is that Mighty Call offers three different pricing plans just as Nextiva does. Okay, Ryan, tell us more. Sure, the pricing isn’t very affordable for personal use, or small businesses in general. Basic is $14.92 per month and comes with a whopping five hundred minutes, no texting features, and you can only have two team members added, but you do get a toll free number. That reminds me of old school cell phone plans, no thanks. The standard plan is $37.49 per month and that comes with three thousand minutes, five hundred text messages, and you can have up to seven team members, and the option of having three toll free numbers. Since their third option, called Ultimate, isn’t really suited for our needs I won’t be going over that. To be honest, it really isn’t worth going over to begin with. I mean, how the hell can you charge a small business owner for an old school cell phone plan. Sorry, that really makes me laugh out loud, literally. It’s like they are selling track phone plans except I don’t really think those are too popular anymore. So, in the pricing department Mighty Call is getting knocked out of the ball park by Nextiva. See you later, Mighty Call! The ridiculousness doesn’t stop yet boys and girls. In case you are stoned out of your gourd and tell yourself, “Yes! I need Mighty Call!” be prepared to spend about fifteen dollars for every two hundred text messages that you send or receive. I’m telling you guys that isn’t a whole lot of texts and I can run through that many with just my wife in a day or so.

Additionally, extra numbers will cost you five bucks a piece, having an international number will also cost ten extra dollars, and let’s not forget if you need that Voice to text feature, that is also another ten dollars a month. However, there is one more feature you could add to your monthly bill, that is, if your wallet can afford it. That feature happens to be Call recording, and that will cost another fifteen dollars. Holy cow, how much are we going to pay for this no name mediocre crap? Hell, you might as well get the Ultimate package from these buffoons. Remember, if you do get the Ultimate package, when you run out of those four thousand texts per months you will still pay that extra fifteen dollars for two hundred and fifty more. If you guys are interested in bankruptcy this is definitely the way to go.

Sadly, if the prices and minute plans weren’t so outrageously stupid they do offer some other sweet features. I’ll mention them of course just to keep things fair between these competitors; however, I doubt it will make a bit of difference because it is not 1998 guys! Track phones are long gone! This probably would have been a better idea for Mighty Call to list these features some where underneath their prices like they listed their minutes, and so on and so forth; but, they are actually listed under a different page. With Mighty you can expect crystal clear quality sound, that is another cliché that all of these services use, so don’t pay attention to this; because, this should be expected because you are paying for good quality sound! Also, they will include an auto receptionist, a custom greeting, and of course multiple extensions if you need them. Wait, what if you only have the basic package? Oh, you only will receive two extensions, and I guess that counts as multiple, technically right? I did find something we don’t come across to often with most of these VoIP services however, and that is Mighty Call will allow you to have call ques. This feature uses an actual algorithm that uses the first in first out approach. That is definitely something cool to try and swing things back on the right track. They go on to explain that this option is a great way to increase customer service, and yeah that it is, but it is also a no brainer.

Related Reading:

  • Get A Toll Free Number Through Google Voice
  • The 3 Least Expensive VOIP Business Phone Services On The Planet
  • Where To Buy An 800 Number For Your Business
  • How To Pick A Virtual Number Provider

Furthermore, you can also have the option of either transferring calls with Mighty Call, or having them transferred into your do not disturb modes. Very efficient for our small business needs, but the pricing can’t match other competitors. This company would have definitely been a competitor with the big boys if it wasn’t their outdated pricing strategy. Even with their semi pro looking website and all, they could have easily competed at the top levels in VoIP, but the pricing is very important to our small businesses. Remember folks, we aren’t big corporations, we can’t sink hundreds of dollars a month into something that we could find way cheaper elsewhere. I wish we could, and I also wish I could afford a six hundred dollar pair of Robin Jeans, but I can’t. If you want to keep your business afloat, save wherever you can, and especially when it is absolutely necessary.

The Bottom Line: RingCentral VS Mighty Call

I am sorry to give Mighty Call a terrible two-star rating, but it uses too many outdated pricing strategies along with offering what just about everyone else does, so sorry guys. This company might have great software, and I am sure it does; however, it does not fit the pricing needs of small businesses, and the extra nickel and diming is definitely not a crowd pleaser either. Honestly, I call it being unprofessional. Companies like Mighty Call who can churn out software from teams of developers like this don’t need to charge by the minute, and I bet if they took a good look at their project they could see that too. Time to move on folks. Let’s start to discuss another underdog, Telzio.

Is Telzio The Best Substitute For RingCentral?

Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s give a big hand to the final competitor in this VoIP showdown, Telzio. Do you think they have what it takes to please our niche of small business owners? This is a question I frequently ask, because it is the most important question I can ask, because it is related to every one of you reviewing this material. Telzio’s title page hits us with the most over used phrase in many businesses as of lately, and that phrase is, “Cloud Phone Systems for Everyone”. How many times are we going to hear the word cloud? I think I have heard that phrase on every billboard, every commercial, and every radio advertisement for the last three months. However, I am glad that this is standard with Telzio regardless, because as you know this will keep our phone lines open regardless of any natural disasters, or internet outages. Thank god we got that out of the way nice and easy.

First, let’s check out the reviews this company gets, because frankly, I haven’t ever heard of these guys, so I don’t know if they are reliable , or honest. According to Yelp, these guys are located in Los Angeles, California and have an enormous three reviews. Woah, that is not a good start whatsoever.  However, all of these customer reviews said they all owned some sort of small business and there was no contract, low rates, and pay as you go options. Did they pay someone to write this crap? It looks like they did, but I will be the pro that I am and check out some other sites to see if we can stumble upon a bigger pile of reviews. As usual, here is the link in case you want to read these for yourself. https://www.yelp.com/biz/telzio-los-angeles. I managed to find a website called Ekomi, the link is https://www.ekomi-us.com/review-telzio-inc.html. This website has a total of sixty three reviews for Telzio. This isn’t much but it is a start and maybe this company is a small business like us, who knows? Anyhow, here is the bread and butter boys and girls. The total reviews end up giving Telzio 4.7 out of five stars. Very Impressive, especially for sixty three reviews. Most reviews are complimenting the company for their ability to accommodate actual business users, and okay we will roll with it, for now. Another customer makes note of the fact that their international calling rates are pretty impressive, and that Telzio offers a great lightweight system with very minimal setup. Okay, let’s go check out their website and see if they can be the underdog in this contest.

First off, their website is of professional quality. Bang! Nice job guys. Way to show some pride in your business! This is a pleasant surprise after seeing some of the biggest dog crap websites claiming to cater for businesses as of lately. I decided to move rather quickly to the pricing section of their website and my eyes became the size of two freshly picked watermelons. Why? Check their pricing page at https://telzio.com/prices and tell me. This is definitely not something compatible for small businesses. For ten thousand local minutes along with only five hundred texts a month you are going to pay four hundred and seventeen dollars a month. Wow, I can almost afford a Bulova watch for that kind of monthly payment. I would rather be setup with some swag than buying minutes for that kind of money. I think we are definitely in the wrong place right now guys, because this doesn’t seem affordable, or logical for most big corporations either. Can we play pretend for the next couple of minutes? Just for the sake of trying to justify this terrible pricing? Of course we can! I am going to tell you up front that this will blow you right out of your nice leather computer chairs and make you laugh your damn ass off even more than Mighty Call. Humor guaranteed here folks! Okay, so let’s say we are some huge company like Google, or perhaps Microsoft and we need fifty thousand minutes a month along with fifty thousand text messages, guess how much dough we are going to drop on that? Well, this plan can be yours for about two thousand dollars a month! I hope you guys are saying to yourself, “Ryan, you do realize most VoIP services do offer unlimited minutes and unlimited texts right”? Yes, I am totally aware of this, but I can’t stop thinking of that sad sap who is actually paying for some dog crap like this. What is even more perplexing is that if you maximize the amount of minutes, or text messages you need to actually request a quote. Hey small business owners, do you want a phone strictly for conference calls? Go buy one here at https://shop.telzio.com/collections/conference-phones, it used to be seven hundred and fifty dollars, but for a limited time only it is now only four hundred and ninety nine dollars. Don’t actually buy that overpriced paper please! I was only kidding I promise. I will not even discuss the features that come with company’s VoIP service, because this is for someone who makes like twenty thousand dollars an hour, and definitely not someone who owns a small business. I thought I had seen it all everyone, but I guess the internet still can surprise even the most seasoned researcher. I think my eyes are still trying to roll in the back of my head due to the amount of money these trolls want. I will say this however, if you guys ever make it huge, and I mean like Google huge, check these guys out! They sell some flashy paperweights and overpriced phone services! All that comes to my mind when I am thinking about this company now is this quote, “A fool and his money are soon parted”. This quote was written by Thomas Tusser, and I hope you remember it when you remember the company Telzio. Head for the hills, and get the hell away from this company everyone, and I really mean it this time! Telzio, congratulations on earning the lowest possible rating I could possibly give anyone. How many stars? Not stars, but star. I am giving you one lousy star because you are being very unethical in your business practices. Many other companies will offer outrageous pricing, but this tops anything I have ever seen. Small business owners if I could be serious just for a moment, please don’t ever think this would be a service for you. I wouldn’t even recommend this garbage to Donald Trump. All this company is trying to do is scam people out of money with flashy phones and services you could obtain very easily anywhere else, without the outrageous price tag.

The Winner is: RingCentral VS Nextiva VS Mightycall VS Telzio

In conclusion, we can only pick one Ring Central alternative winner, and that winner is… Nextiva! This is because they offer the most for your money, and the obvious technological advancements that will help your small business run smoothly without you having to scratch your head and say, “Am I going bankrupt today”? Both Mighty Call, and Telzio try to gobble up every last penny, and neither one of them offer anything worth what they are charging. Drop these companies faster than a live hand grenade people. I don’t ever want to receive an e-mail, or a comment saying, “Ryan I decided to go with Mighty Call, or Telzio, and my business went bankrupt”. If I ever receive some outrageous message like that I am going to calmly reply, “did you even read my article”? If you didn’t, then I suggest you go back to elementary school and learn to read before becoming an entrepreneur. Hate to be harsh everybody, because I love you all; but, it wasn’t difficult to figure this one out. I hope you all have a lovely day, and stay smart, stay focused, and keep your mind on your money!


What’s The Best Virtual Phone System On A Budget?

  • Grasshopper – 50% less than Talkroute’s cheapest plan, #1 rated alternative phone forwarding service
    • Pros: backed by Cisco, excellent reliability and easy to use custom greetings
    • Cons: doesn’t have unlimited minutes
  • Phone.com – also cheaper than Talkroute, allows you to add phone hardware
    • Pros: more advanced features for call tracking, higher end phone system
    • Cons: hardly any, this is my #1 recommendation for most business owners for it’s ultimate flexibility
  • RingCentral – a business voip phone system
    • Pros: lets you support multiple locations, with office desk phone
    • Cons: pricing starts at $25/mo

The post 3 Good RingCentral Alternatives (that are cheaper & better) appeared first on CleverLeverage.com.



This post first appeared on CleverLeverage.com - How To Get From Where You Are, please read the originial post: here

Share the post

3 Good RingCentral Alternatives (that are cheaper & better)

×

Subscribe to Cleverleverage.com - How To Get From Where You Are

Get updates delivered right to your inbox!

Thank you for your subscription

×