RingCentral vs Dialpad: Which Is Better for Small Businesses?
Corey McCraw is a staff writer covering VoIP and Unified Communications. Corey has over a decade of experience in marketing, tech writing, and corporate communications and has even penned content for the former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
Marianne is a staff writer at Fit Small Business who covers business phone services, VoIP, and video conferencing tools.
This article is part of a larger series on VoIP.
Dialpad and RingCentral are excellent cloud-based unified communications platforms. The difference between them lies in their pricing structure and feature set. RingCentral offers more robust call management features and doesn’t have time limits on online meeting duration. Meanwhile, Dialpad focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and provides cheaper options for its pricing plans.
Based on our comparison, the best use cases for RingCentral vs Dialpad are as follows:
- RingCentral: Better for scaling businesses looking for a full-featured communications platform for handling calls and video meetings
- Dialpad: Better for businesses looking for a low-cost business phone solution with advanced AI needs
To discover more options, check out other providers that made it to our best small business voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services guide.
RingCentral vs Dialpad at a Glance
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Starting Price | $19.99 per user, per month billed annually | $15 per user, per month billed annually |
Free Trial | 15 days | 14 days |
Annual Subscription Discount | ✔ | ✔ |
Business Phone Number | ✔ | ✔ |
Free Plan | ✔ (RingCentral Video Pro only) | ✔ (Dialpad Meetings only) |
Communication Channels | Voice, text messaging, video meetings, team messaging, fax, and voicemail | Voice, text messaging, video meetings, team messaging, fax, and voicemail |
Conferencing Functions | Screen sharing, in-meeting chat, cloud recording, and file sharing | Waiting room, virtual background, and desktop and mobile screen sharing |
Integrations | Up to 2,000 integrations | Up to 45 integrations |
Uptime Guarantee | 99.999% | 100% |
For More Information |
Best for Pricing: Dialpad
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*For both Dialpad and RingCentral, the above pricing is based on annual billing. Monthly pricing is also available.
Dialpad earns a spot when it comes to the best cheap VoIP services with its more affordable monthly fees, starting at only $15 per user, per month. It offers a 14-day free trial, as well as three paid plans that have a host of features businesses will need. By subscribing to the Standard plan, users have access to unlimited calls and texts and unlimited meetings with no time limits.
If you need additional virtual numbers, whether for your local or global operations, Dialpad offers local, toll-free, and international numbers as add-ons. Each number costs $15 per user, per month.
Unlike Dialpad, RingCentral has user limits on its free trial, which is only limited to a maximum of five users and two desktop phones. Although its paid plans are slightly higher than Dialpad’s monthly fees, RingCentral offers full-featured packages with a variety of communication tools and channels. These include business texting, visual voicemail, team messaging, and unlimited audio conferencing.
Best for Call Management Tools: RingCentral
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RingCentral’s call management tools work best for distributed teams—specifically those who require control and flexibility when handling calls. These features include answering rules, call delegation, and shared lines. | Dialpad offers basic call management capabilities, which are limited to call history, call park, and call transfer. |
Both Dialpad and RingCentral offer users a wide variety of call management tools. These include auto-attendant, call routing, and call forwarding. However, RingCentral comes out ahead as the best business phone system with its telephony tools. These benefit distributed teams who want to access comprehensive feature sets while doing business outside the office.
For example, call flip enables users to move an ongoing call to another device, which offers flexibility for call handling. Other features for call mobility include call park, shared lines, call delegation, and a head-up display.
RingCentral’s call flip feature enables you to transfer calls from one device to another without any interruption to the call. (Source: RingCentral)
Dialpad, on the other hand, offers simple and limited call control capabilities since it largely focuses on artificial intelligence (AI)-powered sales and support tools. Its mobile application is lacking compared to its web app because its functions are limited to voicemail, call forwarding, call recording, call transfer, and live transcription. However, if you don’t need all the extras RingCentral offers, Dialpad is the better option for a full-fledged business phone system.
Best for Video Conferencing Functions: RingCentral
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RingCentral has no meeting restrictions for its audio and video conferences and offers a higher participant limit of up to 200 attendees. | All Dialpad plans allow users to host online meetings for up to 10 participants with a five-hour time limit. |
Between Dialpad vs RingCentral, RingCentral takes the lead in this category with its impressive video conferencing features for businesses of any size. It allows users to host unlimited audio and video meetings with access to standard conferencing features, such as screen sharing. Additionally, it enables teams to easily switch between audio and video calling without participant restrictions and time limits.
RingCentral offers a live transcription feature that automatically transcribes voice into text in real time. (Source: RingCentral)
RingCentral users also have the option to subscribe to a separate plan for a dedicated video conferencing service. RingCentral Video offers free unlimited meetings and messaging, including robust video conferencing capabilities, such as desktop sharing, co-annotation, and live transcriptions. Upgrade to RingCentral Video Pro+ to expand the participant capacity to 200 and access advanced analytics tools and integrations.
While Dialpad offers video conferencing solutions in its unified communications platform, its downside lies in its maximum participant capacity and time limitations. Dialpad limits the meeting duration to five hours, while RingCentral offers up to 24 hours. Even on its Enterprise plan, Dialpad only accommodates up to 10 participants in a single meeting.
With the Dialpad app, users are able to join meetings and make phone calls. (Source: Dialpad)
Like RingCentral, Dialpad has a dedicated plan for video conferencing. If you want to host larger meetings with up to 150 attendees, subscribe to the Dialpad Business plan at $15 per user, per month.
Best for Contact Center Features: RingCentral
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RingCentral offers a more robust set of tools for agent collaboration and handling high volumes of inbound and outbound calls. | Dialpad focuses on analytics and AI-based tools and has lesser functionality for omnichannel options. |
Both RingCentral and Dialpad offer unique functionalities as a contact center platform, but RingCentral’s robust set of features shows it’s a clear winner for this category. RingCentral has four paid plans, making it easy to scale up your contact center features. It also has advanced features, such as automatic call distribution, skills-based routing, advanced interactive voice response (IVR), and advanced voice recording.
Additionally, subscribing to any RingCentral contact center plan gives full access to its business phone system. These include company-wide communication, free domestic calling, and configurable routing, allowing you to facilitate agent collaboration while handling customer queries.
Dialpad supports contact centers looking for built-in AI capabilities and analytics, such as call transcriptions, customer sentiment tracking, and manager alerts. However, it only offers two options for its paid plans and has limited omnichannel routing options. In contrast, RingCentral offers up to 30 digital channels for its omnichannel solution, allowing you to reach customers through their preferred channel.
Best for Artificial Intelligence Tools: Dialpad
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What makes Dialpad different from other business phone systems is its strong focus on AI-powered tools and capabilities across its platforms. For example, it uses built-in machine learning for its voice recognition and natural language processing to provide real-time recommendations for live coaching and transcripts. It has a unique functionality called Live Coach, helping agents get up to speed quickly and access real-time recommendations.
With Voice Intelligence, Dialpad enables supervisors to coach agents while they’re on calls using real-time assist cards. (Source: Dialpad)
Meanwhile, RingCentral doesn’t have much to offer when it comes to AI capabilities. However, many small businesses will find this enough if they don’t have advanced communication needs, such as speech analytics and AI automation. Primarily, RingCentral relies on third-party apps to perform highly intelligent tasks, such as problem-solving and sentiment analysis.
RingCentral Video has an auto-follow feature that monitors where you are and keeps you at the center of your video. (Source: RingCentral)
If you want to learn more about Dialpad’s impressive AI technology and business phone capabilities, check out our in-depth Dialpad review. We included a comprehensive evaluation of Dialpad’s feature set and collaboration tools.
Best for Integrations: RingCentral
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RingCentral has the most number of integrations with up to 2,000 third-party applications. | Dialpad only offers 45 integrations, including Slack, Salesforce, and Zendesk. |
When it comes to integrations, both Dialpad and RingCentral offer multiple third-party solutions. They both integrate with popular business software, such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, and Zapier. However, RingCentral is the clear winner in terms of numbers as it offers up to 2,000 integrations for developers, customer support, automation, and other productivity tools.
Check out our RingCentral review to learn more about its third-party integrations.
As of this writing, Dialpad only has 45 integrations listed in its app marketplace. These include native integrations with popular software providers, such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and HubSpot.
Best Alternatives
While both Dialpad and RingCentral are excellent unified communications solutions, they may not be a better fit for other use cases. Other cloud-based platforms offer a variety of virtual phone numbers, unlimited international calling, and more robust call management features. Before committing to one of these providers, take a look at other cloud-based communications solutions.
A few RingCentral and Dialpad alternatives include:
- Nextiva: Nextiva is a cloud-based business phone system that offers plenty of call management features with value for money. It is also one of our top picks for the best call management systems, allowing users to handle communications in a variety of channels, such as texts, calls, voicemail, and video conferences. It offers volume discounts, so you end up paying less each month as you increase your agent count.
- 8×8: 8×8 is a unified communications platform perfect for teams with a global customer base. If you’re looking for the best VoIP service for international calls, 8×8 is a better fit. It offers unmetered calling for up 48 countries, including international numbers in 120 territories.
- Grasshopper: Grasshopper is a virtual phone service that offers a range of virtual phone number options and telephony capabilities. This provider is best for solopreneurs or small teams wanting a separate phone number for their business and personal use. Aside from local numbers, it also offers toll-free and vanity numbers.
Looking for more alternatives? Check out our guide on the best RingCentral alternatives and find which provider is right for your business.
How We Evaluated Dialpad vs RingCentral
Both Dialpad and RingCentral are good options to consider, but their pricing structure and feature packages may not fit other business needs. As we compare these two providers, we further examined their pricing, call management tools, conferencing features, and AI-powered capabilities.
Here’s a complete breakdown of these factors:
25%
Pricing
25%
General Features
25%
Video Conferencing
25%
Expert Score
25% of Overall Score
We measured the pricing based on the number of tiered plans, free trial availability, volume discounts, and monthly cost of each provider. We also considered the features present in its entry-level plan and the add-ons they offer.
25% of Overall Score
In between Dialpad vs RingCentral, we looked at the overall features necessary for a cloud-based communications platform. These include integrations, call management features, and AI-powered tools.
25% of Overall Score
Since both providers have video conferencing functions, we also considered this capability in our evaluation of RingCentral vs Dialpad. We looked into the meeting duration, participant capacity, and the type of conferencing tools they offer.
25% of Overall Score
Besides our hands-on experience with the providers, we also evaluated reputable review sites and determined what actual users have to say about their services. We also considered their value for money, popularity, ease of use, and standout features.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do RingCentral & Dialpad offer a free plan?
It depends on the type of product you’re subscribing to. RingCentral and Dialpad’s video meeting package offers a free plan, while the rest of its products, including the business phone and contact center, have paid entry-level plans.
Can I use my landline to use RingCentral?
Yes. You will need an analog telephone adapter (ATA) to connect your analog phone and router and start using RingCentral. The ATA will convert the digital phone line to analog, so RingCentral’s service will work with your telephones.
Does Dialpad support online faxing?
Yes. Dialpad offers faxing for shared lines and grants faxing access to individual users. It supports faxing to domestic and international numbers. RingCentral also offers unlimited internet fax in its Standard Plan, enabling users to send and receive fax over the internet.
Bottom Line
In the RingCentral vs Dialpad discussion, RingCentral takes big edge over Dialpad in terms of integrations, call management tools, video conferencing features, and contact center functionalities. RingCentral has more robust call management capabilities and higher participant capacity for video meetings. Meanwhile, Dialpad is a better option for businesses with advanced business phone needs, such as automation and AI-powered tools.
