Comparing Vonage Phones vs RingCentral for Google

Vonage Business Phones and RingCentral for Google represent two of the most popular VoIP service options out there for business phone systems that operate on the Cloud. Virtual business phones have become increasingly popular as more and more communication and data storage apps head to the Cloud for increased accessibility, efficiency, and cost-savings, just to name a few common advantages. 

Companies evaluating service providers might have trouble pinpointing the best option for their unique situations. The following is an overview of these two providers and some differences in their service offerings:

Vonage Phones: Great for Home and Consumers

This service provider deals mainly in hosted PBX (private branch exchange) solutions. Companies can design their own plans depending on how many phone lines they want, how many extensions they want, and whether extensions are unlimited, metered, or virtual. Other plan customization options include the addition of a toll free number, toll-free fax, or paperless fax feature. 

Standard plans come with over 40 features including call blocking, call hold, caller ID, directory assistance, and voicemail to email. In addition, there are a variety of add-on features and desktop plugins- some of which come free with every plan- that businesses can choose. Add-on features including call monitoring and a virtual mailbox.

RingCentral for Google: Great for Work and Business

RingCentral offers three basic plans- a standard plan, premium plan, and enterprise plan. All of these plans share some features, including call management and system administration, smartphone apps, unlimited calling, unlimited conferencing, unlimited internet faxing, and US-based support.

However, plans differ in terms of how many toll-free minutes they offer per month, how many people can attend video conferencing meetings, and a variety of other factors. Companies can customize their plans with add-on features such as additional toll-free, local, vanity, or international numbers. 

One huge advantage RingCentral potentially offers is integration with Google Apps for Work. Companies using Google Apps like Docs, Sheets, or Drive can take advantage of this integration to make calls from Gmail or send out faxes directly from Google Docs. RingCentral can integrate with Google Calendar and Hangouts so that RingCentral virtual conferences can be scheduled in Calendar and conference invitations can be sent out via Hangouts. 

Comparing key factors betwee Vonage & Ringcentral

• Expense- It's difficult to compare the overall cost of both service providers when plan prices can vary so widely depending on desired features. However, RingCentral's least expensive plan is $24.99 per month as of August of 2015. On the other hand, Vonage Business Solutions basic price for a first unlimited extension is $39.99 per month.  Metered or virtual extensions are offered by Vonage Business Solutions at $14.99 per months. 
• Accessibility- Both Vonage Business Solutions and RingCentral for Google offer apps that can be used on iPhone or Android devices. These encourage BYOD among employees and allow calls to be made from mobile devices using business numbers. 
• Service- While regular customer support is only available for Vonage Business Solution customers between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on business days, emergency support services are offered outside of these hours when necessary. RingCentral offers customer service 24/7 to customers with at least two users and between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. to customers with one user. 

Determining which VoIP service provider is right for you will require you to determine which service features you need. With all the different features offered and all the customization options available in designing plans, there is no hard and fast rule regarding which service is superior. However, the ability to integrate with Google for Work apps that RingCentral offers makes RingCentral the obvious choice for companies already relying heavily on Google's suite of Cloud-based applications.