Written by Joe De Bari, Lead of Marketing Communications at OnSIP. The following content was last updated on January 23, 2020. Any new information since that date may not be included in this article.
OnSIP and RingCentral are two heavy hitters in the hosted PBX market. Both companies overlap in the standard features they offer (auto attendants, dial by name directories, etc.) but there are finer distinctions between the two that could make either one of them the right fit for your business.
We embarked on a deep dive comparison between OnSIP and RingCentral - comparing the pricing, features, phones, and support capabilities of each company - so that you can make the most informed decision as you choose between the various hosted PBX options you're considering.
Pricing
RingCentral
Focusing on their 'All-in-one' plans, RingCentral offers 3 plan options, and the monthly per user charge changes depending on whether you pay annually or monthly, as well as the total number of users on your account. The Office Standard plan costs between $22.99 - $49.99 monthly per user, depending on whether you choose the annual or monthly payment plan, as well as the total number of users on your account. The Office Premium plan costs between $32.99 - $54.99 monthly per user, again depending on which payment frequency plan you choose and the total number of users on your account. And the Office Ultimate plan costs between $42.99 - $69.99 monthly per user, depending on the payment frequency plan and total number of users on your account.
All 3 plans offer unlimited calling (within the U.S. and Canada), along with unlimited audio/video meetings with screen sharing. Also included in all of the plans are: unlimited business SMS, call management features (such as transfer, call park, presence, and call logs), visual voicemail and voicemail to email, and more. Toll-free minutes are covered up to a specific number (depending on the plan that you choose); any additional minutes automatically bill at 3.9 cents per minute.
OnSIP
OnSIP offers two paid pricing plans and one free plan that are tailored to a variety of business needs:
- Unlimited Plan: OnSIP's Unlimited Plan is the only plan that offers unlimited Standard Area calling at $18.95 per person per month (the Standard Calling Area covers the contiguous U.S. and 16 other countries). In addition, this plan enables customers to set up an unlimited amount of calling features like voicemail boxes, groups, and auto attendants; if your employees need features like conference suites and call queues, they can be purchased a la carte. Call recording is also included as part of the monthly charge for the Unlimited Plan.
- Basic Plan: On the Basic Plan, you won't pay per user or per phone; rather, you'll pay for phone system features and calls on a monthly basis. You can customize your account with this plan by building your own feature package: starting off with a basic set of popular business phone features at $49.95 per month, you can then add (and delete) additional features as needed. Calls are billed at 2.9 cents per minute (and 3.9 cents per minute for inbound calls to a toll-free number). Extension to extension dialing, in-house calling, and SIP-to-SIP calls are all free. And again, there is no charge for adding a user or a phone to your account.
- sayso Website Chat Plan: OnSIP's innovative sayso Website Chat Plan lets you use sayso, our website voice and video chat solution, for free! Once you add sayso to your website, site visitors can click on a call button to quickly start a voice or video call with one of your business representatives right through the browser window—no phones needed. The call occurs within the browser and entirely over the Internet.
All OnSIP plans have a 30-day free trial period.
Features
OnSIP and RingCentral boast many traditional features found in the hosted PBX marketplace: Auto attendants, call monitoring abilities, call queues, call reports, dial-by-name directories, call park, music on hold, and HD voice, just to name a few. These bedrock features anchor both platforms, and it's only in the more advanced features that the fine grained distinctions between the platforms become more apparent.
OnSIP offers a business softphone available for free to all OnSIP users through the OnSIP app, available in the browser (Chrome, Firefox, and Opera), as a downloadable desktop app for Mac and Windows computers, and as a mobile app for iOS and Android. The app enables users to make and receive both audio and video calls, host group video conference calls (up to five participants), listen to and delete voicemail, see coworkers' presence statuses, and much more.
RingCentral also offers its customers a business softphone app that's available as a mobile app for iOS, iPad, and Android devices, as well as a desktop app for Mac and Windows computers. RingCentral's apps let users make and receive calls, send and receive faxes and text messages, review voicemails, see coworkers' Presence statuses, and more.
OnSIP's sayso is a unique feature to OnSIP. Installing the sayso button on your company's website allows visitors to make a voice or video call to your call agents with the click of a button—without requiring any downloads or add-ons. Webpage visitors can interface with your sales or support team directly from their Internet browsers, and customers never have to pick up the phone or even leave their browser windows to call your business.
Video conferencing for RingCentral centers around RingCentral Meetings™ - a multipoint HD video conferencing, screen sharing, and team messaging solution. RingCentral Meetings is designed for telepresence conferencing with up to 100 participants. Video conferences can be recorded for reviewing needs.
Both OnSIP and RingCentral offer Zendesk integrations that enable automatic CRM lookup and click-to-call functionality. OnSIP additionally has integrations with HubSpot, Slack, and others. RingCentral has a collection of specialized integrations for applications such as Salesforce, Outlook, and Office 365.
Phones
RingCentral sells business VoIP phones, including Polycom, Cisco, and Yealink desk phones, cordless phones, and conference phones. Discounted rates are given to new customers. The service can be used with most SIP-compatible IP phones, provided they are unlocked and have valid device certificates. RingCentral does offer rental phones to customers on multi-year contracts.
OnSIP does not sell phones directly to customers. Rather, the company offers a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy that allows customers to use whatever phones they like, as long as the devices follow the SIP RFC standards. The company does offer provisioned phones through a preferred partner and also provides a 'boot server' to its customers that automatically configures Polycom, Panasonic, Cisco, Yealink, and Grandstream phones. OnSIP furthermore manages its own phone reviews page to give its customers a clear and objective viewpoint into a wide variety of devices.
Support
RingCentral provides a "Support Page" that lists a variety of FAQs, DIY support articles and videos, and system status notifications. The company offers its customers a variety of support channels: live phone support, live chat, support cases, and a community forum where customers can get their questions answered and provide answers to other customers' troubleshooting issues.
OnSIP has a dedicated Customer Success Team that is located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The team has an average caller wait time of 22 seconds per call. OnSIP customers have given the service a 4.5/5 TrustScore rating on Trustpilot. OnSIP offers ongoing support to its customers through live phone support, emails, support tickets, and an online Knowledgebase of DIY articles and videos.
RingCentral is a registered trademark of RingCentral, Inc. RingCentral and its products/services are not affiliated with OnSIP or Junction Networks, Inc.