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RingEX vs. Dialpad: Which Phone System Is Better?
Is RingCentral or Dialpad the right business phone system for your small business?
Table of Contents
Every modern business needs effective communication tools for phone calls, messages and video conferences. Today’s business phone systems do more than connect calls; they also integrate with popular CRM tools and provide detailed analytics to help businesses make smarter decisions. However, identifying the best unified platform with the ideal mix of features can be a challenge when so many good choices are available.
Two of the leading options for cloud-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone solutions are RingEX (formerly RingCentral MVP) and Dialpad. Both platforms provide great tools for unified communications with artificial intelligence (AI) assistants and all the call-handling features a business needs to present a professional appearance in any industry. We’ll compare the features between these two similar products so you can identify the best solution for your business communications needs.
RingEX vs. Dialpad Compared
Criteria | RingEX | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
Price | $20 – $35 per user, per month | $15 – $25+ per user, per month |
Ease of use | Easy to implement and use | Easy to implement and use |
Video conferencing | Up to 200 participants | Up to 10 participants |
AI-powered features | Some | Many |
Third-party integrations | 300+ | 70 |
Who Do We Recommend RingEX For?
RingEX is a reliable cloud-based phone system with effective tools for calls, messages and video conferences. The company boasts an uptime of 99.999 percent, which equates to only 78 seconds of interruption per quarter.
RingCentral’s core business phone product is RingEX, which ranges in price from $20 to $35 per user, per month if billed annually. RingEX supports hundreds of meeting participants and software integrations, as well as advanced features for monitoring calls in real time. The latter even includes a “whisper coach” function to help your employees as they assist customers, by monitoring and entering into conversations as needed.
We recommend RingEX for businesses of any size looking for a powerful and collaborative phone system. Here are some of RingEX’s distinguishing features:
- The ability to host audio conferences with up to 1,000 participants
- The ability to host video conferences with up to 200 participants
- Great mobile app for iOS and Android devices
- Excellent training courses with RingCentral University
- Pre-configured IP desk phones (optional)
Who Do We Recommend Dialpad For?
Dialpad is a cloud-hosted communications platform designed for team and customer interactions across phone, chat and video. The company’s all-in-one business communications solution is available through three plans that range in price and features from $15 to $25+ per user, per month if billed annually. Public pricing is not available for the top-tier Enterprise plan.
Dialpad’s phone system offers extensive calling and routing features. Its AI technology can transcribe meetings in real time, automate post-call summaries, detect customer sentiment, log action items and create to-do lists. All of Dialpad’s intelligent voice tools are designed to help companies make the most of every conversation and customer interaction. In addition to basic business phone services, Dialpad also has contact center options with inbound and outbound support in addition to its outbound sales dialer offering.
We recommend Dialpad for small businesses that embrace new technology and place a strong emphasis on efficient systems. Here are some of Dialpad’s most attractive features:
- Very fast setup
- Local number support in more than 70 countries
- AI-powered tools at every subscription level
- Powerful voice analytics and automation
- Automatic data backup and redundancy
Want to learn more about Dialpad? Read our full Dialpad review to see why we selected it as the best business phone for voice analytics.
RingEX vs. Dialpad Comparison
Pricing
RingEX
RingEX plans range in price from $20 to $35 per monthly user when billed annually. Monthly options are also available for an upcharge of 33 percent. Enterprise-level clients that purchase more than 100 licenses can receive an additional discount. RingEX accepts debit cards and credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover.
Dialpad
Dialpad’s two business communications plans are priced at $15 and $25 per user, per month when billed annually. It does not list the price of its Enterprise plan, which requires a minimum of 100 licenses. Dialpad offers discounted rates of up to 33 percent for annual subscribers and accepts all major credit cards.
Ease of Use
RingEX
RingEX is considered easy to set up and use. Its mobile app for iOS and Android makes it easy to take calls, host meetings, message co-workers, set up conferences and configure system settings from any device. We think the mostly free training provided by RingCentral University is an excellent addition that really adds to the platform’s ease of use.
Free training tools to get your team acclimated with their new phone system and communications tools quickly. Source: RingEX
Dialpad
With fast installation, one-click meetings and built-in AI to take notes for you while you engage in the conversation, Dialpad takes ease of business communications to a whole new level. The learning curve with Dialpad may be slightly more difficult than other platforms offering fewer advanced features; however, once you learn how to utilize the time-saving productivity tools and automated features, you’ll find this a very easy platform to use at a high level.
Video Conferencing
RingEX
RingEX subscribers get unlimited HD video meetings with either 100 or 200 participants, depending on the service plan. All of RingEX’s video meetings are secure with passcodes and end-to-end encryption, and you can easily flip between your computer and other mobile devices during a video conference. We really like how well the AI-powered noise-reduction tool can filter out unwanted background sounds — like trash trucks and barking dogs — that can interrupt participants working from home. Other nice collaborative tools include breakout rooms, team huddles, white boards and participant reactions.
Enjoy more productive video meetings with better engagement knowing your conversation is being written down automatically by your AI assistant. Source: RingEX
Dialpad
Dialpad’s video capabilities are built from the company’s otherwise free Meetings video conference product. This free version, which is included with Dialpad’s paid phone plans, caps the number of meeting participants at 10. While this limit is relatively small, it’s also probably more than adequate for the vast majority of small businesses that aren’t holding company-wide meetings on a regular basis. However, it is possible to upgrade to a separate Meetings plan that extends the number of participants to 150 for $15 per month. Dialpad’s video meetings may be small, but they include excellent features like screen sharing, video recording, waiting rooms, in-meeting chats, whiteboard with Micro integration, virtual backgrounds, and scheduling tools for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
AI-powered features
RingEX
RingEX has a small number of AI-powered features available through its RingSense AI offering for 2024. This new set of time-saving tools can immediately improve interactions with real-time note-taking and the ability to provide personalized conversation insights with accurate and searchable transcriptions. Unfortunately, many of these new features are only available in beta mode for some subscribers as RingEX works on rolling them out for all customers this year.
Easily share full meeting details or AI-written summaries and action items with co-workers and stakeholders. Source: Dialpad
Dialpad
Dialpad is largely built around voice intelligence with a wide range of AI-powered productivity features available at all subscription levels through AI Voice. This tool acts as a personal assistant to record accurate notes and track action items during meetings or calls. After the meeting, your AI assistant can automatically email meeting summaries with action items, audio/video recordings and a transcription of the conversation in case you need to reference it later.
Third-party integrations
RingEX
With more than 300 pre-built integrations available at most subscription levels, RingEX has one of the largest and best app marketplaces of any business phone service provider we’ve reviewed. In addition to all of the best CRM software, bots and marketing automations, this app gallery also includes many industry-specific integrations for healthcare, legal and education. If you have a skilled developer at your disposal, there’s nearly endless potential for more system customization with APIs for voice, video, messaging, faxing and other communications data.
RingEX has one of the largest and best app marketplaces we’ve seen, with hundreds of free third-party integrations. Source: RingEX
Dialpad
While Dialpad does include a few key integrations for CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk and Zoho, its app marketplace is relatively limited. Looking at the options specific to Dialpad’s voice product, the company offers about 60 integrations including Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Zapier and Slack.
RingEX vs. Dialpad Recap
Choose RingEX if:
- You want to host large video meetings.
- You need extensive third-party integrations.
- You’re looking for collaborative features to support remote and hybrid employees.
Choose Dialpad if:
- You want the best voice intelligence tools available.
- You need a 100-percent uptime service-level agreement.
- You’re looking for help with efficiency through time-saving automations.
FAQs
