RingCentral vs. Ooma Comparison

RingCentral vs. Ooma comparison

How does Ooma’s small business VoIP service compare to RingCentral’s MVP service? Here are the similarities and differences between these two companies:

What Ooma has to offer 

Although Ooma is a wide-reaching unified communications (UC) provider that also sells products like backup internet connectivity to businesses, here are the verticals it operates within VoIP/cloud telephony:

• Cloud-based phone systems
• Cloud-hosted PBX solutions
• VoIP systems
• Softphone apps
• Virtual phone systems

Together, these cover the core needs of small business UC. Ooma also offers more targeted solutions, like PBX replacement.

The company sells its VoIP product offering across two tracks: small business and enterprise. In this review, we’ll focus on its small business offering. 

What RingCentral has to offer

RingCentral’s comparable product offering is its well-known MVP package, which bundles key VoIP features into four subscription tiers that offer progressively better sets of features to users. MVP is regarded as an industry-leading UC stack for companies that are operating legacy UC instructure, like self-hosted PBX systems, and considering a migration to the cloud.

RingCentral: Whom do we recommend it for?

RingCentral MVP remains an enormously popular solution for companies that are looking to make the transition from traditional PBX-based telephony solutions to something more scalable and located in the cloud.

Image credit: RingCentral

Boasting 99.9% uptime (referred to as “three nines”), RingCentral is a great choice for companies that need to know the infrastructure they’re basing their connectivity around will be available the vast majority of the time. Three nines (and above) connectivity is a common requirement for those in the critical infrastructure space, such as the chemical and energy industries, and may be required by local or federal regulations.

With an app library of more than 250 integrations, MVP by RingCentral is great for small businesses that already have a large cloud footprint and are seeking a UC solution that will tie everything together, including Microsoft Teams, Salesforce and other major third-party software solutions.

These are some of the features that MVP bundles under its phone offering:

• Quick deployment: Additional lines and devices can be added to the system in mere minutes. Compared with the time involved in deploying traditional hardware-based telephony, MVP makes getting new team members connected to the virtual switchboard a quick and painless experience.
• Support for multiple languages: For larger organizations, interactive voice response (IVR) queueing systems are essential tools for quickly routing incoming calls to the right team or individual. RingCentral provides support for 16 languages, making it a great choice for companies doing business in multiple languages.
• Detailed analytics: To ensure that your phone system is running as efficiently as possible, administrators have access to detailed analytics information, including average call quality, usage and device status reporting.
• Virtual phone extensions: Virtual extensions can be configured that will easily connect between your main branch hosted in the cloud and external devices such as smartphones, satellite phones and home telephones. Businesses commonly report two major benefits from such extensions: They make it even easier for customers to reach resources, and they give the impression that your organization is bigger than it actually is.

RingCentral represents a good choice for businesses that are looking for reliable small business cloud telephony but don’t necessarily need a lot of features to go along with it. 

Ooma: Whom do we recommend it for?

Ooma’s small business phone system package includes voicemail, call blocking and ring groups, and its selection of hardware phones available for purchase includes IP phones, Wi-Fi phones and base stations.

Image credit: Ooma

These are some of Ooma’s standout features:

• Hold music: While holding for the right operator is often a necessary part of managing a large call volume, the process needn’t be tedious for customers. Ooma allows users to configure separate audio tracks for both hold and transfer music. Users can choose to configure a synthesized voice announcement or to upload their own custom recording.
• IP phones and mobile apps: Ooma offers a wide variety of handset types that include both VoIP headphones and mobile apps that can be installed on any smartphone. Better yet, both devices can ring simultaneously, allowing users to pick up the call on whichever device they prefer.
• Desktop app including internal directory: Ooma aims to make it easy for small businesses to meet their telephony objectives, including helping staff members to reach one another and connect with customers. The desktop app syncs up with an internal organizational directory and features a shared speed dial. 

Product and service comparison 

Now that we’ve detailed some of Ooma’s and RingCentral’s standout features, let’s examine how these companies stack up against one another.

Domestic calling 

On the small business tier, every Ooma Office subscription includes unlimited calling to these territories:

• United States
• Canada
• Mexico 
• Puerto Rico

In contrast, RingCentral’s Essentials plan ($29.99 per user per month) includes unlimited calling only within the U.S. and Canada. 

For U.S.-based businesses that are domestically focused but might occasionally require calling to nearby territories, Ooma enjoys the edge here. 

Pricing

RingCentral offers its MVP service at four subscription tiers, which include progressively better features. These can be billed annually or monthly; annual pricing is discounted compared to monthly rates.

The image below shows RingCentral’s pricing for 1 to 20 users when billed annually, which offers significant savings over monthly billing.

Ooma comes in slightly cheaper than RingCentral. Its single-user pricing is as follows:

Those prices don’t include Ooma’s one-time activation fee of $29.95. But over a realistic install base and subscription period, it still works out to be an overall cheaper service.

Features

When it comes to sheer breadth of features, however, for many SMB users, RingCentral has the edge. These are some of its capabilities:

• Call to video allows users to transition from a VoIP call to a video conference with just one click.
• Up to 1,000 people can be invited to an audio conference at once.
• RingCentral has chosen to bundle message, video and phone in its all-in-one MVP app. These features are available on the Standard plan and above ($37.99 per user per month on rolling monthly subscriptions). Ooma, however, requires that users upgrade to Ooma Office Pro to get a video capability. 

One place where RingCentral shines is in its cross-platform compatibility. RingCentral has a Linux desktop client using WebRTC in order to make the desktop app available for all users in the business. 

Ooma’s desktop app, by contrast, is available for only Mac and Windows. In the world of smartphones, both companies are on equal footing platform-wise: Both apps support Android and iOS.

RingCentral vs. Ooma recap

The best provider for your small business is going to depend upon your specific needs. However, here are some general recommendations:

Choose RingCentral if …

• You expect to use a lot of more advanced features like IVR, call queuing and analytics. 
• You want to use both video conferencing and VoIP and don’t want to have to upgrade your package for a while.
• There are users in your company computing with Linux and you want everybody to be able to use the system easily.

Choose Ooma if …

• You’re looking for a more streamlined and pared-down set of connectivity features for your business. 
• You want to purchase both cloud connectivity and physical phones and want a wide selection of hardware choices.