RingCentral vs. Ooma: Top VoIPs Do Battle

If you're a teleworker or a small to midsized business (SMB) with most of your employees suddenly working remote, then the right voice over IP (VoIP) service solution is more critical than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic. VoIP's ability to integrate with PC-managed software and seamlessly expand into productivity and collaboration solutions have evolved them from standalone tools into platforms. There's a wide range of choice in the type of voice packages to consider as well as the variety of add-on features. We've looked at business VoIP services as well as popular consumer VoIP solutions to help you choose the best option. 

A key advantage of VoIP is that these systems have the flexibility to work in a wide variety of environments ranging from analog desk phones to softphones or apps piggy-backing on a cell phone. These systems can often also integrate all or part of their softphone clients into other back-office applications, like your customer relationship management (CRM) or help desk platforms. Simply picture the standard interface of such an app that suddenly sports a dial pad and some function buttons as a pop-up screen and you'll have a very basic idea of how some of this works. In addition, these cloud based systems can have a variety of phone numbers in global locations, so that your customers can have free access to your phone at little or no charge no matter where they may be calling from.    

Two of the most significant players in the VoIP space are Ooma and RingCentral which both have a variety of solutions and pricing tiers to suit individuals and small businesses alike. 

RingCentral was a top finisher in our business VoIP services roundup, while Ooma received an Editors' Choice as one of the best consumer VoIP services available. However, Ooma's prime focus is actually more on very small businesses than individual users, which means it's targeting many of the same customers as RingCentral. 

Both vendors offer variations on these services in order to provide customers with the features they want at pricing they can afford, so we decided to stack them up against each other directly and see who comes out on top.

Pricing and Plans

Ooma Office costs a flat fee of $19.95 per user per month with no contracts. It has a mobile app, virtual receptionist, call park, extension dialing, and voicemail as standard features. Ooma Office Pro, which adds premium features including call recording, soft phone and voicemail transcription, charges a flat fee of $24.95 per month, again with no contracts required. This is the solution to consider for higher usage limits for extension monitoring, call park, and audio conference room participants.

RingCentral Office begins at $19.99 per user per month for the Essentials plan, its lowest tier. For small to midsize businesses (SMBs), it provides the foundation for a hosted Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system with a variety of high-end features. While its price is still slightly higher than some of the competition, it's become more competitive over the past couple of years as features have been added, including its Glip online collaboration software as well as video conferencing.

In fact, video conferencing has multiple options now. In May 2019, RingCentral announced an extension of its partnership with Zoom video conferencing, which allows RingCentral customers to integrate that application with their RingCentral Office implementation. Additionally, users can also purchase RingCentral Meetings, a similar but standalone conferencing and shared meeting app. New for 2020 is a freshened user interface that's cleaner and somewhat more intuitive. 

So, although Ooma's monthly fee is lower, RingCentral's service is more accommodating to larger enterprises and businesses that need a platform to scale and require collaboration, file sharing, and video conferencing. However, if you're a growth-stage business, you'll want a platform that can grow alongside you. Edge: RingCentral.

Features and Integrations

Ooma's repertoire of features includes PBX-style functions that save time and increase efficiency. They automate rote tasks usually attached to secretaries and interns with automated receptionist, voicemail, and basic call routing functionality. The system can conveniently route all calls to smartphones or employee home office numbers, which is convenient for those of us working from home. More importantly, it can field queries and direct users to the correct extensions or departments.

Ooma's system can log incoming and outgoing calls. There's a multi-ring functionality so calls can be cycled from one line to the next in the event that an employee is away or unable to answer the call. Features like these enhance a small businesses' operation by ensuring that customers can contact someone at the soonest possible time rather than hanging up and taking their business elsewhere.  Unfortunately for Ooma, these attributes are not even a fraction of what RingCentral offers its customers.

At the Standard plan level, RingCentral delivers everything Ooma offers and more. Your Standard plan offers integrations with Dropbox , Google Drive, and Microsoft Office. Although Ooma also integrates with Dropbox, it doesn't offer instant access to Google and Microsoft, both of which deliver the productivity tools the majority of the American workforce uses. Additional Standard features include user paging, office intercom, and templates for batch configurations.

At the Premium level, RingCentral integrates with Desk.com, Salesforce.com, and Zendesk , all of which give your sales and service reps instant access to customer records. The Premium plan also provides automatic call recording and single sign-on (SSO) security.  One area in which Ooma has RingCentral beat is caller recognition. RingCentral only offers Caller ID name recognition at the Premium and Enterprise levels, whereas Ooma offers it for every one of its customers.

If you're looking for maximum functionality, RingCentral easily comes out ahead of Ooma, especially at the Premium and Ultimate levels. Now, keep in mind, you're paying extra for all of RingCentral's functionality, so it's important to determine whether these features are worth the additional price per user per month. If money ain't a thing, then the choice is clear. Edge: RingCentral.

Service and Support

Ooma offers 24/7 chat and phone support. This is great news for new customers who might run into configuration issues when setting up the service.

RingCentral offers 24/7 phone support for customers with plans for two or more users. If you're a single user, you'll only be able to get someone on the horn during 13-hour blocks on Monday through Friday. RingCentral also offers 24/7 live chat support. Edge: Tie.

PCMag's Recommendation

There's only one reason to choose Ooma over RingCentral: money. If you don't need advanced functionality and integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) tools, then Ooma gives you a solid system you'll enjoy as well as proprietary hardware options that are designed to work with the solution.

However, if you're willing to spend a few extra dollars for file sharing and collaboration features or you need video meeting capability with larger groups, then RingCentral is your clear-cut choice. Sure, it'll cost you extra in the long run, but your employees will probably save time, and the quality of their service and communication will improve, all of which will ultimately help you save money. Recommendation: RingCentral.  

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