Ooma vs RingCentral: Which Is Better for Small Businesses?

Ooma and RingCentral are cutting-edge voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) service providers, offering scalable plans for companies of any size to establish their communications programs. Small businesses with tight budgets and limited needs will appreciate Ooma’s low-cost, entry-level price. In contrast, larger companies (and those in need of more advanced communication features) will be drawn to RingCentral’s robust all-in-one solutions.

Both of these VoIP solutions deliver the basic communications functionality you’d expect, but RingCentral provides a bundle of extra features for a slightly higher price. It’s easy to migrate cloud-based solutions like Ooma and RingCentral, but it’s better if you choose the most appropriate platform for your business from the get-go.

• Ooma: Best for small businesses and teams that want a basic, budget-friendly solution
• RingCentral: Best for businesses that want a robust communications solution

Ooma vs RingCentral at a Glance

Takeaway: Ooma and RingCentral both solve important cloud-based communication needs for businesses, but RingCentral comes out in front for its advanced functionality, flexible scalability, and easy-to-use platform. Companies big and small will find everything they’re looking for with RingCentral’s robust RingCentral Office plans, which provide phone, SMS, video conferencing, team messaging, and open development support. Small teams looking for a low-cost, basic solution can rely on Ooma to satisfy their immediate needs, but they’ll want to look elsewhere if they plan to scale.

How We Evaluated Ooma vs RingCentral

Ooma and RingCentral offer businesses a variety of VoIP services, but each platform’s capabilities and use case make an apples-to-apples comparison difficult. To more fairly compare and contrast these two solutions, we looked closely at a few important criteria:

• Price: We compared pricing tiers, not necessarily to see which was the cheapest, but to see which provided the most bang for your buck.
• Scalability: We analyzed each service’s pricing and functionality from the most basic to the most advanced tier to see which enabled businesses to easily and affordably satisfy their growing communication needs.
• Functionality: We compared each platform’s basic features to see which provided the most functionality beyond simple phone calls.
• Advanced features: We looked to see which VoIP provider offered the most extensive features.
• Call management features: We analyzed which platform provided the most robust call management features, like virtual waiting rooms, auto-attendants, multilevel interactive voice response (IVR), caller ID, call forwarding, call recording, and more.
• Analytics: We compared each service’s call and agent analytics.
• Customer support: We looked to see which company provided the best, most available customer service.
• Overall customer reviews: We dove deep into customer reviews to find out what the day-to-day end users think about each service.

When to Use Ooma

Ooma is a cloud communications VoIP provider that delivers basic phone, text, and video conferencing solutions to small teams and solopreneurs. Small businesses looking for a no-frills, easy-to-use platform will love Ooma’s low-cost, entry-level price and bare-bones functionality. What Ooma lacks in features it makes up for in customer value.

Ooma’s pricing plans start at $19.95 per user, per month, and this includes basic communication features like phone calls, SMS, and basic call management features. However, if you’d like video conferencing, a desktop app, call recording, and other functionality, you’ll need to upgrade to Ooma’s Office Pro plan, which is $24.95 per user, per month.

Ooma Pros & Cons

Ooma Pricing

Ooma has fewer pricing tiers than most of its popular competitors, which makes picking and choosing the right plan easy. If you know you want specific functionalities like video conferencing or call recording, you’ll know from the get-go that you only have one realistic plan to choose from.

Business phone plans:

• Ooma Office: $19.95 per user, per month. It provides basic functionality with phone, SMS, and a mobile app.
• Ooma Office Pro: $24.95 per user, per month. This plan adds video conferencing, call recording, voicemail transcription, a desktop app, and slightly higher usage limits.

Why Ooma Is the Better Choice for Small Teams & Solopreneurs

• Low-cost plans: Both of Ooma’s plans are cheaper than even RingCentral’s most basic tier.
• Simplicity: Ooma ditches the bells and whistles and gives teams the bare-bones functionality they need to get their job done.

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When to Use RingCentral

RingCentral is a business phone system that goes above and beyond VoIP functionality to deliver a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solution. With feature-rich tiers, scalable solutions, and extensive third-party integrations, RingCentral leads the cloud-based communications industry. Businesses big and small will find RingCentral’s platform useful in addressing their needs, but the only thing they might struggle with is the price tag.

Pricing plans start at $29.99 per user, per month (for up to 20 users) for RingCentral’s entry-level Essentials plan. While this plan is considered “basic,” it includes much of the functionality that even Ooma’s advanced tier fails to offer, like team messaging and document sharing.

RingCentral Pros & Cons

RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral is a VoIP provider that solves use cases for everyone, from small businesses to enterprises. While its entry-level pricing is higher than Ooma’s most expensive plan, RingCentral unifies communications and eliminates the need for additional software, like team messaging apps. Adding more users to your plans drives down the cost per user, per month, making it more affordable as businesses scale.

You can purchase extra toll-free, local, and international numbers for $4.99 to $14.99 per user, per month.

The pricing tiers below were calculated based on the assumption of two to 20 users on the plan, billed monthly. Annual pricing is also available at a discounted rate.

• Essentials: $29.99 per user, per month with up to 20 users and 100 toll-free minutes. Unlimited domestic calls, unlimited business SMS, and team messaging are included, as well as basic features like voicemail-to-text and file sharing.
• Standard: $34.99 per user, per month with no limit on users and 1,000 toll-free minutes. Expands features to include unlimited internet fax and audio conferencing, as well as 100-participant video meetings and basic integrations.
• Premium: $44.99 per user, per month with no limit on users and 2,500 toll-free minutes. Includes functionality like advanced call management, single sign-on (SSO), 200-participant video meetings, advanced integrations, and access to open APIs.
• Ultimate: $59.99 per user, per month with no limit on users and 10,000 toll-free minutes. This plan includes unlimited storage, device status reports, and alerts.

Why RingCentral Is the Better Choice for Scaling Businesses

• Scalability: RingCentral provides a platform that makes it easy and affordable to scale your team without growing pains.
• Advanced functionality: Do more with your VoIP provider with additional features like team messaging, file sharing, larger video conferencing capabilities, and analytics.
• Third-party integrations: Sync up with your favorite apps or build custom solutions with a large selection of third-party integrations (like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack) and developer APIs.

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Ooma vs RingCentral: Which Is Better for Small Businesses?

Ooma and RingCentral both provide the VoIP communication basics:

• Easy-to-use platforms: Ooma and RingCentral both deliver simple, intuitive platforms for agents, admins, and customers.
• Unlimited calling and SMS: Both services provide unlimited domestic calling and business SMS.
• Video conferencing: RingCentral and Ooma provide powerful video conferencing solutions to make virtual conversations high-quality and more impactful.

While Ooma and RingCentral have a lot in common, RingCentral pulls ahead as the better option for its advanced functionality, scalability, third-party integrations, and extensive call management features. Businesses looking for a platform to scale with their growing communication demands can trust RingCentral to be there for their business every step of the way.

Bottom Line

The cloud is the future of business communications, and old private branch exchange (PBX) systems are becoming more and more outdated every year. Cloud-based VoIP solutions like RingCentral and Ooma make customer engagement easier and more affordable than ever.

Ooma and RingCentral deliver the communication engagement solutions that businesses need, but RingCentral packs more powerful features and functionality into its slightly higher price plans. Small businesses to enterprises (and the whole journey in between) can trust RingCentral to provide every essential communications service they could need.