RingCentral vs Nextiva: Which is best for small businesses?

If you’re looking for a new phone system for your office, RingCentral and Nextiva may be two services at the top of your list.

Both RingCentral and Nextiva are cloud VoIP services, routing calls through an internet connection rather than a landline. Each service offers a number of features, including SMS, team messaging, and various integrations. But which service best fulfills your business needs?

Below, we compare RingCentral vs Nextiva. We evaluate how each service measures up in terms of pricing, advanced features, and customer satisfaction. We also look at a third option that performs better across all categories.

RingCentral vs Nextiva: Which Is the Best Fit for Your Business?

RingCentral and Nextiva are two popular phone systems for small businesses and startups. Below, we evaluate each service based on pricing plans, functionality, and customer support, so you can make an educated decision for your business. 

1. Pricing 

Winner: Nextiva 

As a small business owner, you need to watch your bottom line. So which of these two business phone systems — Nextiva vs RingCentral — helps you cut costs while delivering the features you need? 💸

When it comes to pricing, both RingCentral and Nextiva’s plans can be confusing. First, they charge more per user if you have a smaller team. For example, Nextiva’s pricing starts at just $18.95 per month per user for teams of 20-99 employees but costs $23.95 (per month per user) for teams of four or less. Similarly, you’ll pay  $32.95 per user for their ultimate plan for a larger team, while teams of 1-4 are forced to pay $37.95 per user. With these plans, you get audio conferencing, video conferencing, integrations, and business SMS.

Keep in mind also you’ll only be able to sign up for a Nextiva account if you have a US address and bank account. For anyone looking to get a US number outside the US, you’ll need to look at other options.

Like Nextiva, RingCentral’s pricing is higher per user for smaller teams. For one user, plans start at $29.99 per month. For teams of two to 10 users, RingCentral plans start at $19.99 per user per month. These starting prices are for their Essential plan, which is an offering not available for teams of 11-plus users. So if your team has 11 or more people, your starting price will be $29.99.

Their higher-tier plans include call recording, CRM integrations, 24/7 customer support, and other features. However, like Nextiva, these plans quickly become unaffordable if you employ a growing team. For a team of 10 people, your phone bill will cost $350 a month with RingCentral’s Premium plan — which can be inaccessible for a small business owner.

2. Features 

Winner: RingCentral 

The reason business owners switch to a VoIP provider is because it does so much more than place/receive outbound and inbound calls. With the right service, you can launch text message marketing campaigns, message your team, and automate your workday with various integrations.

When it comes to functionality, both RingCentral and Nextiva offer advanced features that are attractive to small business owners. However — as you learned above — they come at a steep price compared to RingCentral alternatives. 

RingCentral and Nextiva offer many similar features, including unlimited calling in the United States and Canada, a central inbox, auto-attendant, voicemail to text, instant messaging for team members, mobile apps, and desktop apps. That being said, there are few areas where one service wins over the other.

If you upgrade your plan, RingCentral offers features including unlimited faxing, toll-free minutes, local numbers and toll-free numbers, file sharing, video and audio conference calls, screen sharing, and other business communications tools. In addition, it offers a number of integrations with popular platforms like Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, and Google Workspace.

Nextiva, like RingCentral, forces you into an expensive upgrade to take advantage of advanced features. If you upgrade to their enterprise plan, you get voice and video conferencing, SMS, voice analytics and voice transcription, and single sign-on. You can also integrate your service with Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk. Unfortunately, Nextiva forces you to submit an activation request before you can even send SMS messages, and it doesn’t support MMS.

3. Customer Satisfaction

Winner: Nextiva

When purchasing a new phone service, you want one that offers client and team collaboration, has excellent sound quality, and provides the features you need.

When browsing through user reviews for Nextiva, you’ll see it carries a 4.5-star rating on G2. However, when you scan through the nearly 300 reviews, you’ll find that Nextiva is known for poor customer service, while the phone calls have poor sound quality and constant bugs. 

RingCentral doesn’t fare any better. It has a four-star average rating on G2. But out of 300-plus reviews, many users complain of poor customer service from the RingCentral office. In addition, they mention that it doesn’t offer a number of collaboration tools, including call recording or advanced integrations.

Why OpenPhone Wins Over RingCentral vs Nextiva 

When looking for a new business phone system, OpenPhone is the best small business phone system. OpenPhone offers a better user experience and call management — with more unified communication tools — at a lower price point than RingCentral or Nextiva. Here’s why OpenPhone wins over the other two services:

1. OpenPhone Offers More Features (Without an Upgrade)

Unlike Nextiva and RingCentral, you don’t need to upgrade your OpenPhone plan to take advantage of its advanced features. With OpenPhone, you can place calls and texts within the US and Canada without paying extra, on any device. Plus, you get a built-in lightweight CRM system, call recording, auto-attendant, automated replies and workflows, call analytics, and shared phone numbers for team members. Plus, the ease of use for OpenPhone is unparalleled — simply download the app, use your existing number or choose a new one, and start placing calls.

Lastly, OpenPhone offers more integrations than the other two services. OpenPhone offers native integrations with Slack, HubSpot, and Gmail. You can even take more tasks off your plate by connecting other tools you already use through the OpenPhone Zapier integration.

2. OpenPhone’s Customers Are Happiest 

OpenPhone is the top-rated VoIP provider on G2. With 200-plus reviews, OpenPhone weighs in with a 4.9 ranking, and zero one- or two-star reviews. In fact, 98% of users give OpenPhone a five-star rating. One customer remarked that OpenPhone offers incredible customer service and features, and she has “yet to find anything” she dislikes about the service.

3. OpenPhone Is More Affordable 

OpenPhone’s pricing plans start at just $15 per month per user, nearly half the price of the other two services. Our Business plan starts at just $23 per month per user, offering all the bells and whistles you expect from your cloud VoIP service.

Want to see how OpenPhone measures up against RingCentral vs Nextiva? Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

Upgrade Your Phone Service to OpenPhone

RingCentral and Nextiva are two veterans in the cloud VoIP space. Both have similar price points and functionality, offering features such as calling and SMS, a unified inbox, and team messaging. Unfortunately, both services force you to upgrade to their most expensive plans to get the most advanced features.

If you’re a startup or small business owner, OpenPhone is the best fit for your business. OpenPhone is a user-friendly business phone platform offering team collaboration features and plenty of ways — like auto-replies and snippets — to save time throughout your workday. With OpenPhone, you get features not offered by RingCentral or Nextiva, including shared numbers and Zapier integration. Plus, plans start at just $15 per user per month — roughly half the price of the other two services.

Ready to make the switch to OpenPhone? Sign up for a seven-day free trial today to see how OpenPhone can transform your business.

Words by Daryna Kulya

Co-Founder at OpenPhone. Ukrainian-Canadian in SF. Love exploring new hiking trails.