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Improvements in telecommunications, conferencing, and messaging technology have radically changed how we communicate. Businesses are rapidly adopting unified communications solutions in order to improve collaboration and enhance the customer support experience. Vonage vs. RingCentral is a standard comparison for customers exploring communications solutions.

Vonage and RingCentral are leading providers in the Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) spaces. Both companies provide rich features designed to connect employees and customers anytime, anywhere.

In this guide, we compare the similarities and differences between RingCentral and Vonage Business to help you choose the right phone system for your Unified Communications needs.

Platform Overview

Vonage

With over 100,000 customers worldwide, Vonage has positioned itself as one of the leading providers of business phone systems. Vonage allows companies to use a powerful combination of unified communications channels to improve employee and customer engagement. In addition, the company offers Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions, and an SD-WAN offering called SmartWAN.

Vonage UCaaS solutions offer web, desktop, and mobile applications for Windows and Mac, Android, and iOS, making it possible for users to access their robust feature set from any location regardless of device. Administrators can also manage the system through an online admin portal and scale the system on demand.

What Services Does Vonage Offer?

Vonage Business offers a wealth of communications solutions in the areas of unified communications, contact center, and SD-WAN. Let’s explore each category in greater detail.

Unified Communication Solutions

Vonage’s UCaaS solution is called Vonage Business Center, or VBC. VBC unifies messaging, meetings, voice, and video into a single business communication platform. With Vonage, businesses no longer have to worry about purchasing and maintaining costly PBX infrastructure. All services are offered via their cloud communications platform from redundant global colocation centers.

Additionally, these services allow the company’s employees to work and collaborate seamlessly through messaging and conferencing solutions. Vonage’s communication API allows its users to reach and engage customers across different communication channels, including chat, SMS/MMS, conferencing, and advanced call management features.

Contact Center Tools

Vonage Contact Center, or VCC, is their Contact Center as a Service offering. Gone are the days of setting up an extensive on-premise contact center. VCC is cloud-native, so it is a lot easier to set up than traditional contact center platforms. AI-driven speech and analytics technology replace a traditional IVR with virtual agents. They also provide analytics for training and the tracking of KPIs.

Vonage’s Salesforce integration is the best in the industry. Vonage is a Premier Partner on the Salesforce AppExchange, powering over 1.5 billion interactions on the Salesforce sales and service clouds. Vonage’s VCC features are built directly into the Salesforce CRM, allowing for activity logging, click-to-call, and dynamic call routing from the CRM interface.

Vonage SD-WAN Solutions 

Vonage SmartWAN is an SD-WAN solution that provides Quality of Service (QoS) for their voice and video services. SmartWAN prioritizes traffic based on application, with over 2,000 application routes currently recognized by the platform.

SmartWAN also allows you to leverage MPLS, broadband, or 4G/5G for primary or redundant connections. It can failover between connection types to improve redundancy. It also operates as an application firewall.

Third-Party Integrations

Many businesses use Vonage and other third-party apps to drive sales and customer engagement. One great feature differentiating Vonage from competitors is its compatibility with third-party apps like Microsoft Teams and Salesforce. These integrations improve the experience of Teams and Salesforce users by improving call quality, and layering on additional features like click-to-call, and call logging.

Vonage Agent Connect integrates with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing. This increases agent efficiency, and improves call Teams call quality and reliability.

RingCentral

RingCentral provides a cloud-based communications solution that allows companies to access many communication features and system integrations. They are the leader in the UCaaS space, with approximately 21% market share.

The company uses artificial intelligence, workflow automation, and video messaging to provide comprehensive communication services. With a global service area spanning 110 countries, RingCentral delivers the greatest global reach in the industry.

What Services Does RingCentral Offer?

Cloud Phone Services 

RingCentral MVP is their business unified communications platform. It combines phone, messaging, video, SMS, fax, rooms, and webinar capabilities in a single platform. RingCentral MVP allows your team to work their way with softphones embedded in the most popular business applications.

Other features include interactive voice response (IVR), custom call queues, and built-in analytics. The platform also offers 24×7 customer support via phone or chat.

Customer Experience

RingCentral provides a robust omnichannel customer experience solution called RingCentral CX. RingCentral CX is their CCaaS offering. It allows you to connect with customers on their preferred channel, including messaging applications, social media, review sites, phone, and more.

Integrated AI helps your agents better serve customers by providing real-time recommended responses. The platform also gathers historical analytics to improve agent performance and track customer sentiment.

Vonage vs. RingCentral: A Head-to-Head Comparison 

Let’s compare how Vonage Business and RingCentral compare head-to-head.

Service and Pricing Tiers

Vonage

Vonage offers four service tiers. For new accounts that complete their purchase online between now and 2/28/23, Vonage offers a 30% discount ($13.99/line/month).

• Mobile Plan: $19.99/month per user. Plan includes:
  • Mobile and desktop apps
  • Unlimited Calls and SMS
  • Vonage App Center
  • Unlimited Messaging
• Premium Plan: $29.99/month per user. Includes all Mobile Plan features plus:
  • Unlimited meetings for up to 100 users
  • Multi-level auto attendant
  • CRM Integration
  • IP desk phone capability
• Advanced Plan: $39.99/month per user. It can go as low as $34.99 for companies with 20-100 employees. Includes all premium plan features plus:
  • Call Recording: on-demand (15 hours)
  • Call Group
  • Visual Voicemail
• Enterprise Plan: Companies with over 100 employees will have to contact Vonage directly for pricing quotes.

RingCentral

Along with a 15-day trial period, RingCentral provides its customers with four different tiers of services.

• Essential Plan: $19.99/per user/ month billed annually ($32.99/per user billed monthly). Plan includes:
  • Up to 20 users only. You must migrate to a higher plan for users over 20.
  • Business or toll-free numbers are available.
  • Unlimited calls for clients in the US and Canada
  • Enhanced business SMS available
  • Additional features like Voicemail-to-text, team messaging, and document sharing
• Standard Plan: $27.99/per user/ month billed annually ($40.99/per user billed monthly). The plan includes all features in essential plus:
  • No limit on the user count
  • Business phone numbers in 100 countries
  • Unlimited audio conference calls and internet fax
  • 24-hour meeting duration
  • QoS and other reports.
  • Third-party integration with apps like Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and more
  • 24/7 customer support
• Premium Plan: $34.99/per user/ month billed annually ($47.99/per user billed monthly). The plan includes all features in standard plus:
  • Single sign-on
  • Multi-site admin management and Hot desking
  • Up to 8-digit extensions with site codes
  • Advanced call handlings like whisper and barge
  • Video meetings with up to 200 participants
  • Real-time analytics available
  • Third-party integration with CRMs like Salesforce and Zendesk and integrations with Canvas, Smarsh, and more
  • Custom developer integrations available
• Ultimate Plan: $49.99/per user/ month billed annually ($62.99/per user billed monthly). The plan includes all features in premium plus:
  • Unlimited storage.
  • Device status alerts and reports.

Third-party Integrations

Vonage and RingCentral support a range of third-party integrations that are integral to businesses. These integrations are often accessible to users who subscribe to higher-tier plans. Vonage offers 98 communication APIs and 31 contact center integrations.

To integrate external tools into your Vonage account, click my apps in Vonage and select from a list of available third-party apps. You can choose from popular apps like Salesforce, Google G-Suites, HubSpot, Slack, Oracle, ConnectWise, NetSuite, Microsoft 365, and Bullhorn.

RingCentral offers a broader array of apps to choose from over 150 third-party apps on the RingCentral market, making it possible for your business to streamline its workflow with CRM tools. Some popular apps include Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft 365, Skype, Salesforce, Oracle, Zendesk, and Dropbox. This seamless integration makes RingCentral the ideal choice for large companies with complex communication systems.

Quality of Service

When comparing Vonage vs. RingCentral, both companies offer unlimited domestic calls, allowing your employees to enjoy unrestricted communication. Vonage uses an HD voice feature to optimize the quality of calls across all devices, including Microsoft Teams. Calls between all HD-enabled devices use the same codecs to transfer data quickly. 

Vonage also maintains its carrier-grade network by connecting to major carriers in the US and across the world. This feature allows users to connect directly with anyone without going through intermediaries. 

RingCentral also offers a high-quality service that delivers clear sound over desk and softphones. Their VoIP capacity test will also test your broadband connection to determine how many simultaneous calls you can support on your network.

While UCaaS solutions are becoming increasingly reliable, users sometimes experience poor call quality because UCaaS traffic often traverses the public internet. To enjoy quality calls, users must ensure that their internet connection, router devices, and local networks function optimally. To improve RingCentral’s call quality, here are a few steps you can take.

• Turn on “traffic prioritization” to prioritize voice packets over data packets.
• Decide on a minimum-guaranteed-bandwidth
• Set your phone’s bandwidth setting to “High” to start enjoying quality calls.

Call and conferencing quality can be improved with Vonage by enabling SmartWAN services.

User Interface

Vonage and RingCentral have an intuitive user interface that makes it easy for consumers to navigate the platform. All options are strategically placed to help users save time and energy. When in the Vonage dashboard, click on the Admin tab to access the administration portal. You can easily access everything your business needs to manage its VoIP system on this portal. 

RingCentral also provides a consistent user experience across different devices. Both desktop and mobile apps have fun features like adjustable color themes and customizable in-app views.

Customer Support

Vonage and RingCentral are designed with users in mind. Both solutions are easy to install and maintain. Many users find Vonage very reliable and easy to install. RingCentral users often value advanced texting and audio quality for large-scale VoIP requirements over easy installation.

With 24/7 customer service, the business teams support customers and resolve their issues even during holidays and weekends. The company also has many videos, troubleshooting guides, and admin portal training for customers that need extra help when resolving issues.

Vonage takes customer support to another level with its community forums and extra communication services. In addition, for a small fee of $9.99/user/month, Vonage provides additional support for technical issues unrelated to the platform.

Customers who use RingCentral can contact the support team via live chat, community forums, social media, phone support, or an online support case.

Uptime

Downtime in communication systems can lead to significant losses for your business. Both Vonage and RingCentral provide redundancy for improved uptime.

Vonage includes redundancy features to help businesses buffer any undesirable effects from connectivity issues and power outages. In the case of power outages and internet loss, Vonage’s call continuity feature allows the system to automatically re-route calls to another backup number or cell phone. Once power is restored, the platform reactivates regular call routing.

RingCentral promises users 99.999% uptime reliability. In fact, they tout less than six minutes of downtime per year. The company uses geographically dispersed data centers and a rigorous security process to protect customers from service downtimes caused by cybercrime, operational failures, and natural disasters.

Platform Security

Vonage encrypts all text messages making it difficult for unauthorized persons to access your business’ private communication. Vonage admins can also implement rules that provide extra protection for all call recordings. In addition, when you use the Vonage communication API, you can set up two-factor authentication to protect your business from cybercriminals.

On the other hand, RingCentral uses firewalls and session border controllers to protect customer data. The company also allows administrators to set up 2FA to control access to the service environment. RingCentral implements additional security layers like data encryption, fraud analytics, and intrusion detection.

Why Vonage and Salesforce Are The Perfect Duo

If you use Salesforce for CRM optimization, you can seamlessly integrate your CRM tool into the Vonage platform. Vonage collates customer data to provide valuable insights that can empower your business. With the Vonage Salesforce integration, you can:

• Automatically log calls in Salesforce
• Tag calls and add notes
• Enable inbound, and outbound screen pops
• Click to dial from Salesforce

The Verdict

Both RingCentral and Vonage offer fantastic unified communications and contact center solutions. RingCentral, while a bit more expensive, appeals to larger companies that require a presence in their 110 global markets. Additionally, RingCentral offers more application partnerships to choose from.

Vonage is the best solution for Salesforce customers. Additionally, for small to medium-sized business where global scale is less important, Vonage offers a lower cost alternative to RingCentral. Vonage’s native SD-WAN technology is an added bonus.

How Can Brightlio Help?

At Brightlio, we offer UCaaS solutions from Vonage, RingCentral, Dialpad, and more. We use our years of telephony expertise to pick the solution that fits your needs and budget.

Brightlio also offers other technology solutions including collocation, network connectivity, and cloud services. We are committed to being your most trusted and responsive IT solutions provider. Get started with Brightlio today!

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Frequently Asked Questions

Below are frequently asked questions when comparing Vonage vs. RingCentral.

Do Vonage and RingCentral Work Without an Internet Connection?

To use both services, you require an internet connection. This is because both solutions rely on connectivity to cloud-based PBXs. Unfortunately, neither Vonage nor RingCentral will work without internet connectivity.

To overcome this limitation, customers can invest in lower-cost broadband connectivity for a redundant backup. Cellular backup using 4G / 5G / LTE connections is also a popular option for redundancy.

Why Does UCaaS Matter to Businesses?

In the past, companies relied on different service providers to service tier communication channels. With UCaaS, companies can count on one provider for all their communication needs for a fraction of their previous budgets. As companies continue to grow and operate in a technologically driven world, businesses need to streamline their control of the numerous channels they communicate over.

Businesses can use UCaaS platforms as a singular point to integrate all communication channels, including text, video, and audio calls, emails, project management, and employee collaboration. It also helps businesses improve productivity as employees no longer spend time and resources switching between apps and devices. 

With UCaaS, you can be sure that your business is always on top of its game, and customers can always rely on a consistent service that cares about their needs.

How Does Unified Communication Work?

Unified communication relies on a cloud system to seamlessly integrate and manage an organization’s communication needs. Once the business communication tools have been integrated, the system allows every team member to access messages, files, links, third-party connected devices, and internal communication tools. 

As a result, people can easily schedule online meetings with partners in and outside the organization’s network, communicate with teammates anywhere in the world, and work on company files in real time.

What Factors Should You Consider When Choosing a UCaaS Provider?

When selecting a UCaaS provider, here are some factors to consider:

• Functionality and flexibility of payment plans.
• Availability of third-party integrations unique to your business needs.
• Current and future business requirements.
• The provider’s network reliability and annual uptime percentage.
• Cloud and on-premise options.
• Customer support methods of the provider.

What are the costs for Vonage’s APIs?

Vonage Business’s APIs are priced as follows:

Service	Price As Low as….	Feature Overview
SMS API	$ 0.0067/message	Create contextual, effective communication with Vonage’s SMS API.
Messages API	$ 0.0054/delivered message	Use SMS, MMS, and social chat apps to connect with customers.Only pay for the messaging channels your business uses.
Voice calls	$ 0.014/minute	True per-second Voice API billing across the globe.Use elastic SIP trunking to eliminate expensive pre-provisioning.Use In-App Voice to keep conversations within the brand’s app.
Verify API	$ 0.054/per successful verification	2FA technology helps protect you against fraud, builds trust, and increases conversion rates across multiple channels.Only pay for successful verifications.
Video API	$ 0.0043/minute	Pay for what you use with simple cost-per-minute pricing for video streaming, recording, and additional features like broadcasting and SIP.
In-App Messaging	$ 0.00076/message sent	Develop seamless, branded chat experiences inside your company’s web or mobile app.Competitive pricing per message sent across the globe.
Dispatch API	$ 0.0022/POST API Call	Dispatch API comes with Messages API channels giving you instant access to SMS and social channels like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Viber.Only pay for what you use, as pricing applies per Dispatch API call and message delivered.
Number Insight API	$ 0.0054/phone number	Get real-time insights for better customer communication.Only pay for the data you need.
Conversation API — Custom Events pricing	$ 0.00076per Custom Event Post	Use custom events to add new channels to the conversation, such as WeChat and Email.Use specific actions such as a Stripe payment to trigger specific actions within your workflows.
Reports API—Call Detail Record (CDR) retrieval pricing	$ 0.00043per CDR Unlimited reports available for only $489/month!	Use one powerful API to record and retrieve Vonage SMS, Messages, and Voice channels in one powerful API.