Conference calls are one of the most important ways to communicate with your team in a business space. Utilizing a conference call service like RingCentral is an excellent way to make it easier to communicate with a large team over the phone.
The way we work is shifting, and as the demand for remote work increases, so do systems and tools that help you connect from afar.
RingCentral stacks up well against the other products on our list of best conference calling services. In fact, it comes in at number one, for a bunch of good reasons.
With a focus on being the easiest service to connect and meet with others, RingCentral is affordable, extensive, and a great all-in-one cloud-based product that meets over 400,000 teams’ needs.
RingCentral Pros and Cons
Pros
- 24-hour meeting duration
- Affordable, starting at $20 per month
- Up to 200 participants
- Unlimited audio conferencing
Cons
- Slow report times
- Settings can be difficult to navigate
How RingCentral Compares to Top Conference Call Services
As stated above, compared to other top conference call services, RingCentral ranks as the best product to combine both call and video conferencing.
It’s an excellent call service for the modern office, with an intuitive platform that offers voice and video meetings, team messages, collaboration, and a contact center, all with great ease.
RingCentral caters to small and large companies with its wide range of features ranging from custom numbers to phone accessories and devices. It offers up to 200 participants for video conferencing, leaving no team on the sidelines.
Apart from RingCentral, we think GoToMeeting is a great alternative for upgrading your conference room, with its all-in-one hardware and software kit.
RingCentral’s Number of Participants
The number of participants allowed in a conference call or video meeting is one of the most crucial elements of any call service.
If you run a larger-scale business with a couple of hundred employees that need to get on an immediate call, your best bet is to find a service that offers a flexible range of participants.
Luckily, RingCentral allows you to invite up to 200 people with a simple link, email, or text that you can send out to your team with just one click.
Unfortunately, its cheapest plan doesn’t support this feature, so larger businesses with under 100 employees will benefit more from the Standard plan at $24.99 per month. If you’re larger than that, you will expect to pay $34.99 per month for the 200 participants mentioned above.
However, pricing aside, we think investing in RingCentral is worth it because of the additional features you receive with each plan that offers a higher number of participants.
You also get access to a 24-hour meeting duration with both plans, which is equally important because it’s much more productive when meetings aren’t cut short because of restricted duration times.
When it comes to the number of participants, it’s best to choose what works best for your needs and business size.
RingCentral’s Video Conferencing
Not all conference call services include video conferencing, whereas some specialize in this area. Fortunately for you, RingCentral is the best option for both audio and video conferencing—with extensive features that cater to the video side of things.
Not only do you receive great audio features, but RingCentral offers video conferencing and extensive features to pair with it. With its video conferencing, you get to simplify your workflow and transform your communication all in one platform.
In a video call, you have the option to share your screen with your employees, create instant teams, and meet on any device you want.
The impressive aspect of RingCentral’s video conferencing is that productivity doesn’t end when the meeting does. After all video calls, you can share meeting recaps with your team as you can archive all recordings and files for your added convenience.
Just like audio conferencing, there are no limits to video conferencing, so you can chat for as long as you see fit under the appropriate plan.
Some other video conferencing features include:
- Full panel control
- Drag-and-drop files
- Flip to the dark mode
- Lock meetings with password protection
RingCentral’s Video and Audio Quality
The whole point of working with a conference call service is to produce and experience high-quality video and audio meetings for you and your team, and this is an area where RingCentral shines.
With RingCentral, you will get reliable HD audio and video that’s always clear no matter where you are or what device you are meeting on.
As a VoIP phone service, you can make calls just by using your internet connection. The biggest advantage of this is that you can make and receive calls from anywhere in the world, without worrying about dodgy phone systems or the quality of existing phone signals.
With that said, RingCentral has a few features put in place that will help you monitor and manage your audio and video quality. Some of these include:
- Reduce background noise in a video conference
- Mute buttons for audio conferencing
- Single conference bridge for less lag
- Unique conference codes so employees can meet simultaneously without interfering with anyone else’s call
These features will guarantee high-quality audio and video connection, which is just what every team should look for before purchasing a conference call service.
RingCentral’s Call Recording
Recording your conference calls is another feature you should look for before purchasing a call service. Call recording comes in handy for many reasons, but it’s important to double-check storage space and find a plan that aligns with your budget and needs.
Even though RingCentral offers automatic call recording, this is only for the Premium and Ultimate plans, ranging from $34.99 to $49.99 per month.
However, RingCentral offers on-demand call recording for its Standard plan as well. The only difference is that you have to manually record phone calls using either an IP provisioned phone, forwarding number, or the RingCentral phone for mobile, rather than relying on an auto-record function.
Depending on what plan best suits your needs, the benefits of call recording remain the same for each plan.
It’s easy to set-up with just a few clicks, and you can playback or download recordings at any time—where you can save up to 100,000 recordings on one account and have access to recordings for 90 days.
You also receive custom or default announcements to ensure all recordings are lawful, and the caller can give their consent before recording begins.
For anyone using the Standard plan with on-demand recording, all you need to do is press a single number on the keypad to record and press it again to stop.
RingCentral’s Call Scheduling and Setup
Having to fuss around and communicate back and forth before a meeting can be stressful and confusing for some. Therefore, it’s crucial for your potential call service to offer seamless scheduling and setup processes.
RingCentral offers just that, a seamless way to schedule your calls and meetings with Google Calendar and Office 365 Outlook Calendar integrations.
You can set up meetings on the web or desktop app simply by clicking the schedule button in the control panel.
All you have to do now is choose your preferred calendar and send the notification to the right team.
With the desktop app, you get to use your meeting ID to set up the meeting. You also get to create a password that you can send via a link to your team for security purposes.
If you’re looking for added security, RingCentral only allows authenticated users to join, so you don’t need to worry about anyone infiltrating your business meetings.
Extra added features include:
- Participants don’t need to be on the RingCentral network to join a meeting
- You can invite international participants
- Conferencing works across devices
- Schedule a meeting on any device
RingCentral Offerings
RingCentral offers a few products that relate to call services, which give a variety of options for different user needs. Here is an in-depth look at the products RingCentral offers as a conference call service:
RingCentral Outbound Sales
If you’re looking for a more extensive product that involves promotion and campaign management, the RingCentral outbound sales extension might be right for you.
With the outbound sales extension, also known as RingCentral’s “contact center” system, you can upsell, cross-sell, and collect data about your products and services with automated outbound management.
You get access to lead agency lists and dispositions and flexible personalized scripts to tailor your sales to every individual customer.
Working with a team? No problem! RingCentral allows you to stay connected to your internal team with messaging, video meetings, and a modern business phone, all through one app.
Calling customers has never been faster with RingCentral’s automated dialer and call-blending technology—where you will reach customers faster than your competitors. You also reduce the risk of TCPA violations with its very own manual dial option.
You will benefit from many other features of this product, including:
- Real-time insights and reporting
- Integrate tools like Google Suite and Outlook
- Aggregate reviews from Google Play and Google My Business
There are three different custom plans to choose from when it comes to RingCentral’s contact center. However, you will need to contact sales to discuss options. Here are the three tiers and some of what they offer:
- Basic: inbound voice only with standard IVR and ACD capabilities, plus collaboration tools
- Advanced: inbound voice and omnichannel with omnichannel routing and real-time reporting, plus CRM integrations
- Ultimate: inbound, outbound, and omnichannel with advanced campaign management, plus progressive and predictive dialers
RingCentral has an option for most business needs. Larger businesses would mostly reap the benefits of the Ultimate plan.
RingCentral App
Not every conference call service offers extensive tools for remote work, however, the new and improved RingCentral app is perfect for remote teams or just for general flexibility.
It has everything you need in one place, making it incredibly convenient for teams of all sizes. You can send your team messages, request video meetings, and take calls with the built-in business phone.
After being re-engineered, both the desktop and mobile apps are easier to navigate and are overall more productive.
With an intuitive interface, you can now access files and links before, during, and after meetings. You also have the option to search for keywords with its more advanced filtering system and set a custom availability status for calls and meetings.
With app messaging, you get:
- Message clients from your PC or mobile
- Create teams
- Share links and files with no storage limits
- Assign tasks
- Invite guest users to chat for free
With app video, you get:
- HD video meetings
- Join audio through your PC
- Share screens
- Record meetings with cloud and access anywhere
With app integrations, you get:
- Access to over 180 integrations
- Shorten sales cycles with Salesforce
- Enhance customer support with Zendesk
Both desktop and mobile apps are free to use and come with each RingCentral plan.
RingCentral Hardware
Many conference call services don’t offer affordable internal hardware like desk phones, headsets, or adaptors. However, this is one area where RingCentral is different and much more unique compared to the top conference call services on the market today.
RingCentral offers high-quality VoIP desk phones, headsets, and telephone adaptors for an additional monthly fee that is perfect for every business need.
This service is an excellent choice for smaller teams that don’t currently have the equipment and want something that can seamlessly connect to the RingCentral network.
The prices start at $4.00 per month and range up to $80.00 per month, depending on what equipment you need.
Specific conference and receptionist-related equipment are on a more expensive scale because of their heavy-duty material and advanced quality. Whereas desktop phones and cordless phones are much cheaper and still do what you need them to do.
Although it’s convenient, before renting or purchasing additional hardware, think of your business needs first and foremost.
In fact, purchasing hardware is not a requirement since RingCentral still allows you to use your own laptops, desktops, and mobile devices.
Summary
Overall, RingCentral is an excellent conference call service for most business owners looking for an audio and video combination. It’s affordable, starting at $20 per month, and it offers reasonable products at no additional cost, like its extensive app for remote teams. With unlimited participants, high-quality audio and video, and seamless integrations, anyone using RingCentral is sure to transform and improve their call system.