RingCentral and Zoom are both among the best conference call solutions. They both offer excellent video conferencing and collaborative resources to bring your team together cohesively. But how do they look when compared side by side? We’ll show you the best and the worst of each of these conference call services to help you decide if either of them is right for your team.
RingCentral has proven itself to be one of the best conference call platforms for remote teams. Its collaborative integrations enhance its already impressive features to help your team work seamlessly. With solutions tailored to your industry, RingCentral ensures that you have all the conferencing tools you need to communicate effectively with team members, clients, and anyone else you need to reach. Try RingCentral free for 15 days.
Zoom is the first name that comes to mind for most people when someone talks about video conferencing. Its convenient, easy-to-use platform has made it one of the most popular conference call solutions available. It has many built-in collaboration tools, and its platform works well for hosting large meetings and webinars that other conference call services can’t handle. Zoom’s high attendee limits, extensive audience participation features, and recording and transcription features make it a valuable solution for any business. Start using Zoom for free today.
RingCentral and Zoom Compared to the Best Conference Call Services
Zoom and RingCentral may be among the best conference call options, but they’re not the only ones that offer great service. Below, check out our Golden Eggs, the top conference call services of the dozens we researched and tested. You can also look at our full list of the best conference call services.
Nextiva is our favorite conference call service for its comprehensive options, large hosting limits, and flexibility when it comes to meeting size. For a limited time, save up to 27% when you sign up for Nextiva.
GoToMeeting has the best tools for maintaining a cohesive remote team with collaborative features and up to 3,000 participants on your calls. Try it free for 14 days.
Grasshopper is the best on-the-go virtual phone system for its complete mobile capabilities and compatibility with small businesses. Try it free for 7 days.
RingCentral Compared to Zoom
While RingCentral and Zoom both offer strong options for video conferencing software, each has its own features that set it apart. Here, we’ll look at how each one helps your team connect with each other and makes your weekly meetings, webinars, and client calls more efficient and productive.
RingCentral Highlights
RingCentral offers a complete selection of video conferencing software to fit your business. With it, you can find a solution specific to your business goals, whether you want to connect more closely with your team or reach your customers. RingCentral MVP includes messaging, video, and phone service, so you can talk to your team members in many different ways and with full collaborative features.
For communicating with customers, RingCentral offers its Omnichannel CX, Outbound CX, and Digital CX options. These solutions help your team members engage more effectively with customers along with your team conference capabilities. RingCentral even has a webinar add-on so that you can host large groups and include the audience in your webinars.
Even with its most basic plans, RingCentral allows unlimited calls within the United States and Canada with up to 20 users. With more advanced plans, you get features like fax, advanced reporting, and custom integrations to create the optimal conference call platform for your business. If you want video, you can either upgrade to the Standard package or RingCentral has a video-only package that you can get for free.
Zoom Highlights
Zoom has a more well-rounded selection of video conferencing features than almost any other conference call software on the market. Its video calling capabilities make it ideal for holding meetings with remote teammates, especially when you factor in its collaborative features, like screen sharing. Zoom offers several packages to choose from, so you can decide the best one for you based on what tools you need.
Zoom One is Zoom’s UCaaS plan, and you can get its Basic plan for free. That plan includes meetings with up to 100 attendees, and it includes team chat and whiteboards. Zoom also offers phone-only plans if you don’t need the video options. For companies that host a lot of events and webinars, Zoom has plans dedicated to that, too, with features to help engage your audience. Zoom Rooms focuses on the collaborative aspect of video conferencing software.
If you can’t find a pre-built package that works for your business, Zoom has custom contact center solutions. You can also get Zoom conferencing solutions made for education, healthcare, and developers with features that users in these fields typically find most helpful.
RingCentral vs. Zoom: Pros and Cons
As we researched each conference call solution, we looked at each one’s strengths based on how they made communication more efficient, supported more productive meetings, and how accessible they were for users. We also looked at any weaknesses that could stand in the way of a positive user experience. Here’s how RingCentral and Zoom stack up.
Where RingCentral Shines
Industry-Tailored Solutions: RingCentral has conference call solutions made for 11 different industries. This ensures that your package has the right features, integrations, and industry-specific enhancements that your business needs for the best possible software. Compared to Zoom, which only offers three industry-tailored solutions, RingCentral offers plans for all of Zoom’s industries, as well as financial services, retail, nonprofits, startups, and more.
Large Hosting Limit: RingCentral’s Basic package caps you at a 20-person limit, but once you upgrade, the next plan up allows for unlimited users and 100 video participants. It lets you run meetings up to 24 hours on video, while conference calls by phone have no limit for participants or length of time. No matter how many users you have, RingCentral doesn’t make you add more servers or reconfigure your database.
Affordable Service: For all the features it offers, RingCentral has several affordable options. It’s not as cheap as Zoom, but its Basic package starts at $19.99 per user per month for phone and SMS. For video, you’ll need to upgrade to Standard for $27.99. RingCentral’s most expensive package, Ultimate, starts at $49.99 per user per month, and you can add extra phone numbers for a small fee if you don’t need a full upgrade.
Collaborative Apps and Integrations: RingCentral has many built-in collaborative features, including screen sharing, document sharing, and internal messaging. However, if you need more than that, RingCentral integrates with apps like Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace. RingCentral’s integrations enhance its existing collaborative capabilities so that your team can work together in the way that suits them best.
Great for Remote Teams: RingCentral’s setup works well for remote users in part because it’s a cloud-based solution. Team members can access it from anywhere, and you don’t need to buy new hardware for everyone to be able to operate it. If your team does need hardware, RingCentral delivers it directly to them, so you don’t have to act as the middleman.
Generous Free Plan: RingCentral’s free plan may be video-only, but it lets you hold meetings with up to 100 participants for 24 hours at a time. It offers many free features that Zoom doesn’t, including closed captioning, HIPAA compliance, and co-annotation on a shared screen. It also comes with 10 hours of cloud recording that you can save in the cloud for up to seven days, making it one of the most valuable free conference call plans available.
Where RingCentral Needs Improvement
Limited Entry-Level Plans: While some conference call software, like Zoom, comes with some extras even on the cheapest plans, RingCentral’s Essentials plan is pretty basic. It allows you to host calls by phone with up to 20 people, has voicemail and messaging, and gives you call log reports, but for around $20 per month, you’re paying more than you would with Zoom for less than what Zoom offers.
Software Bugs and Dropped Calls: Some users have reported that when they’re using RingCentral’s call service, the system drops their calls or fails to connect. For the most part, RingCentral works to fix these problems quickly and update their software, but when you need to jump on a call, these kinds of delays can disrupt your workflow.
Steep Learning Curve: RingCentral’s system is intuitive once you get used to it, but it’s not quite as simple as Zoom, which you can start using with no experience. Most users find it worth it, but if you’re not tech-savvy and you need something you can use right away, RingCentral may not be the best option for you.
Where Zoom Shines
Video Conferencing: Zoom doesn’t require you to download anything to schedule, run, or join a meeting. You and your participants can join on any device, and you can host up to 1,000 participants and 10,000 viewers, depending on the plan you choose. With HD video and audio, you get clear meetings, even on mobile.
Intuitive Interface: Zoom has become the most popular tool to conduct video meetings throughout the pandemic for its ease of use. Even if you’re not tech-savvy, Zoom has all its relevant features right in front of you, and it makes setup simple. Whether you need to schedule a conference, conduct a webinar, invite team members, or host an event, it only takes a few minutes with Zoom. While Zoom has many tools built in, it also integrates with other apps and platforms to become a seamless part of your workflow.
Collaboration Tools: Zoom has all of RingCentral’s collaborative features and more with whiteboards, calendar sync, chat and phone, and file sharing. You can share your screen with other meeting participants, and with the co-annotating feature, others can offer notes on your documents and share ideas. With unlimited cloud storage, you can store any files and meeting recordings you need for convenient access if you need to reference them later.
Webinars and Large Meetings: Zoom allows up to 500 meeting participants with its Enterprise plan compared to RingCentral’s cap of 200. It also has a Large Meetings add-on that you can get for $600 per year to boost your participants to 1,000 people. Zoom’s video webinars allow you to stream in HD on social media services, including Facebook and YouTube, with up to 50,000 people watching. Zoom has many tools to interact with your audience, so members can raise their hands, ask questions, and comment in the chat.
Meeting Recording and Transcription: Zoom’s built-in recording and transcription features allow for efficient meeting storage and access. The software automatically stores recorded meetings and transcripts in the cloud, so each team member can access them. You can also use the searchable transcripts feature to find your meeting notes instantly.
Where Zoom Needs Improvement
Meeting Limits: Zoom’s meeting limit with its free plan is even shorter than it used to be at 40 minutes. For businesses that need more time, this limit may be frustrating, especially if the free plan has everything else you need. If you need a longer call time but still want to stick with a free plan, RingCentral allows you to run your meetings up to 24 hours, even without paying.
High Pricing: Zoom’s pricing looks low at first glance, but that’s before you factor in its licensing minimum. The cheapest paid plan costs $149.99 per year per license, but once you upgrade from there, you can’t buy a plan for less than $2,000 per year. While RingCentral is a little pricier than Zoom, it doesn’t have a licensing minimum, so you can get its more advanced plans for less than you’d pay for Zoom. This can also make RingCentral more accessible for small businesses than Zoom.
No Built-in Closed Captioning: While you can use a third-party app for closed captioning, it’s not as good as having it built in. Closed captioning is an important accessibility resource, and going without them can mean that you don’t include everyone in your meetings, webinars, or events. With third-party CC, you may not always get the same quality across different apps, making it difficult for viewers.
The Last Word on RingCentral Compared to Zoom
RingCentral and Zoom are two of the most popular conference call services for a reason. Either option serves most businesses well, though each has its own standout features.
Overall, Zoom allows for significantly more meeting participants and viewers than RingCentral and has a simpler platform. However, with its minimum licensing requirement, the costs can add up quickly. RingCentral’s industry-specific solutions can help the software fit your business needs more closely, especially for remote teams. However, it’s not as easy to use as Zoom, and its entry-level plan features leave something to be desired.
If you want to keep exploring conference call software, there are plenty more to see beyond Zoom and RingCentral. Check out our post on the best conference call services to find the right one for your business.
