RingCentral vs 8×8: Comparing the VoIP Phone Systems

RingCentral and 8×8 are two of the leading providers of global enterprise cloud communications and collaboration solutions. RingCentral offers comprehensive features and plans for businesses that are best for both small businesses and larger enterprises. 8×8 has more small-business-friendly features and has many add-on functionalities that grow as businesses scale. 

With both RingCentral and 8×8 offering relatively similar features plans for comparable pricing, it can be hard to know which one is the best. In this blog, we’ll try to compare and contrast the two VoIP giants under the following aspects:

• Overall Feature Comparison
• Pricing
• Third-party Integrations
• Security Compliances
• Mobile Applications
• Ease of use & Customer Service

Overall Feature Comparison

RingCentral and 8×8 provide almost all of the essential features you’d expect from a UCaaS solution. Call forwarding, auto attendants, call recording and voicemail extensions are all present across all plans.

Pricing

In terms of pricing, both RingCentral and 8×8 attract companies with their comprehensive plans and attractive pricing. Both of them offer elementary call conferencing, free business phone numbers and multiple extensions in all of their plans. 8×8 offers its “Mix and Match” plan, where customers need to pay only for the capabilities they need, with phone service plans optimized for each users’ unique needs for the lowest total cost of ownership.

There are no “Activation/Deactivation” fees for any of the RingCentral plans. However, there activation fees & large deactivation fees per extension in 8×8.

RingCentral’s pricing at a glance:

RingCentral’s pricing plans range from $29.99 to $59.99 per user, per month. There is a 33% discount available on all plans on the annual subscription. Every plan comes with unlimited phone calls, unlimited SMS and voicemail to text conversions. 

To gain access to helpful features like HD Voice quality, automatic call recording, a multi-level auto attendant, single sign-on or even integration with third-party apps, you’ll have to upgrade to the Premium or Enterprise plans.

The Premium plan is RingCentral’s most preferred plan. The plan starts at $44.99 per user, per month. Unlimited video conferencing up to 100 people per meeting, custom app deployment and multi-level auto-attendant are few of the feature highlights in this plan.

*International calling rates apply outside the USA and Canada.

RingCentral also offers extensive expansion schemes as your team size grows bigger. Additional toll-free or local numbers are charged at $4.99 monthly, additional vanity numbers have a $30 one time fee, and additional international numbers are charged starting at $5.99.

8×8’s pricing at a glance:

8×8 has four different pricing plans ranging from $12 to 110$ per user, per month. There are discounts available for businesses that need 100+ user subscriptions. All pricing plans include essential features such as auto-attendant, call handling, SMS texting, mobile, and desktop apps and unlimited calls.

Integrations

Ringcentral boasts over 100+ ready to use integrations with popular business applications such as Salesforce, Microsoft Office 365, HappyFox, etc. Open APIs and SDKs are also available to create your own custom integrations. Ringcentral also seamlessly integrates with Glip for a complete collaboration solution.

8×8 integrates with popular CRM and help desk tools such as Salesforce, SugarCRM, Zendesk, etc. No open APIs and SDKs are available.

If you specifically targeting a SaaS product that does not integrate with one brand or another, that makes your decision easier. For instance, 8×8 doesn’t have HappyFox or Box integration, while RingCentral won’t comply with SugarCRM or Netsuite!

Security Compliances

8×8 has different plans catering to different security compliances depending on your business needs. HIPAA BAA, FISMA 140-2, FIPS, CPNI, Privacy Shield, Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001/9001, UK Government ATO and PCI are some of the security compliances from 8×8.

Ringcentral, on the other hand, has limited compliance options with PCI, FINRA, and HIPAA. Its BAA compliance is limited to the customer size and only for the Premium and Ultimate tiers.

Mobile Applications

Both PBX providers have mobile apps that work fairly smooth for on-the-go business calling. RingCentral’s mobile app is pretty intuitive with interactive tutorials and quick access tips. Call Logs, Call dialer and easy access to your messages and contacts are few of the standout features. While RingCentral’s mobile app does not have all the features you would expect in a desktop application, it keeps the basic features simple and easy to navigate.

8×8 provides a more modern mobile user experience with a nicely thought menu and satisfying transitions. The extent of customization you can perform is limited in the 8×8 mobile application, making it feel like a stripped-down version of the desktop app. 

Ease of use & Customer Service

RingCentral UI looks uncluttered and everything is labeled with crystal clear help texts. 8×8 lags behind RingCentral in terms of user-friendliness and hidden labels and hard to find settings. Since both RingCentral and 8×8 are business VoIP services, there is little to no setup time. Comprehensive knowledge bases, interactive videos, detailed user guides, and online forums are available in both Ring Central and 8×8 for their customers to self-serve themselves. In addition, 8×8 Academy and RingCentral University provide supplementary courses and certifications for customers to master the products that they offer.

Both RingCentral and 8×8 promise 24/7 phone/chat support to its customers. 8×8’s customer support spans over 90 countries (including local numbers) and offers Multiple Language Options to cater to a global audience –  English, French (Fra), Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese (Bz), Finnish, Danish, French (Can). RingCentral covers over 40 countries and supports its global audience in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese and Portuguese (Brazilian).

Bottom Line

For a slightly higher price, RingCentral does have power-packed features, a world-class user-interface, and promises up to 99.999% SLA for uptime reliability. In a nutshell, you cannot really go wrong with either 8×8 or RingCentral. It is recommended to have a closer inspection of their pricing plans and see which is the best fit for your company!

Both 8×8 and RingCentral provide custom phone numbers, round-the-clock support, and advanced call management features to support businesses of all scales. On closer inspection of 8×8 plans, we can clearly point out the presence of unlimited international calling options and a considerably cheaper starting plan.

HappyFox is an omnichannel helpdesk, with integrations with popular call center solutions such as RingCentral and Aircall. Want to know more? Then Schedule a demo with us to see things in action!