Are you looking for professional business phone service, but you would rather save some money than acquire telecommunications services from a traditional phone company?

Thankfully, VoIP (voice over internet protocol) services like Nextiva and RingCentral can do just that, while also providing more convenience and flexibility.

In this RingCentral vs Nextiva comparison, I’ll walk you through the details of two leading business phone service providers. My goal is to make your decision much simpler by outlining their common traits and significant differences. Enjoy!

Common Features

Both Nextiva and RingCentral are capable of providing reliable phone services for business. There are plenty of ways these companies diverge in the way they package this service, but they also share quite a bit of common ground.

  • No matter what business type you operate, or how many employees you have, RingCentral and Nextiva can fulfill your needs. They’re both known for providing business phone service to companies of all shapes and sizes.
  • One major shared advantage of these services is their knowledgeable customer service departments. If you have questions or concerns at any time, help is just a phone call away!
  • If you’d rather try these services before paying for them, they both offer risk-free trials. While Nextiva has a 30-day trial and RingCentral offers 15 days, they both still give you plenty of time to decide if you like their services enough to subscribe.
  • As two of the industry leaders in VoIP phone service, RingCentral and Nextiva offer integration options with some of the world’s most popular software products.
  • Both service providers have lots of customer feedback that can give you a clear picture of what their customer experiences are like. Nextiva and RingCentral each have hundreds of reviews available online.
  • If you’re concerned about the safety and security of your phone calls, there’s no reason to worry with Nextiva and RingCentral. They are both reputable operations with strong security protections in place.

What Sets Them Apart

There are also many differences in the ways Nextiva and RingCentral provide business phone service. To give you an overview of how these companies differentiate from each other, I’ve outlined their most significant divergences below.

  • Nextiva provides unlimited minutes with every one of their business phone service plans, whereas RingCentral packages in limited-minutes bundles (ranging from 100 to 10,000 monthly minutes) with their plans.
  • While both companies have rather complex pricing models — RingCentral has 14 possible price points, Nextiva has 12 — in general, Nextiva tends to be a bit more affordable across the board.
  • Both service providers offer software integrations, but each service does so with a unique set of exclusive software products. Nextiva offers Skype integration which is great, but RingCentral works with Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, Salesforce, Zendesk, Desk.com and more.
  • These companies both have large volumes of customer reviews, but there’s a difference when it comes to the quality of those reviews. Nextiva receives very good feedback from their customers, whereas RingCentral is more of a mixed bag.

Pricing & Features

Nextiva

As I mentioned already, both of these companies have complex pricing models that vary based on number of users and length of commitment. To view full breakdowns of the ways these prices can vary, make sure to check out our full reviews of each service.

With Nextiva, their pricing starts as low as $19.95 (per user, per month) if you have over 100 users on a 36-month contract. On the other hand, a sole proprietorship on a monthly contract will pay $34.95 per month for the same level of service.

A comparison between Nextiva's Office Pro ($19.95), Office Pro Plus ($22.95), and Office Enterprise ($29.95)You can see in the graphic above what Nextiva adds to each tier of service, and as for those “Office Pro features” that apply to every package, you get a selection of standard features including:

  • Unlimited minutes, unlimited faxes, voicemail to email, free local and toll-free numbers, cloud management

RingCentral

RingCentral’s pricing is similar to the structure used by Nextiva. They have discounts for annual pre-pays, and also based on the number of users (from 1 to 9,999). Let’s take a quick look at the 4 main options RingCentral has for business phone service.Comparison of RingCentral's plans: Essentials ($39.99), Standard ($49.99), Premium ($54.99), and Ultimate ($69.99)When it comes to their standard feature set, every RingCentral customer receives a robust collection of valuable features:

  • Conference calling, text messaging, iPhone/Android apps, voicemail to email, integrations with popular apps (Microsoft, Google, Dropbox), unlimited video meetings

Customer Reviews

I don’t know about you, but when I’m making a major purchase, I usually like to read customer reviews first. It’s a great way to get a glimpse at how a company treats their clients.

There are hundreds of RingCentral and Nextiva reviews available online, and both companies do have a large quantity of satisfied customers. However, my personal preference in this area goes to Nextiva because of some advantages they hold over RingCentral.

The vast majority of Nextiva clients are quite happy with the service they receive, with nearly all of their 500+ reviews being positive. Their customers seem to really like Nextiva’s customer service department, as well as how clear and consistent the call quality is.

As for RingCentral, they used to receive great feedback, but the tide has turned a bit in the last couple years. The more recent reviews for RingCentral are more negative than positive, with customers frequently complaining about their outsourced customer service.

Of course, there are still lots of RingCentral clients who love the company’s many integration options, among other things.

Final Considerations

When it comes down to it, both RingCentral and Nextiva are strong companies with reliable track records for quality service. They are both capable of saving you a considerable amount of money compared to acquiring traditional landline service from the phone company, and they’re also more flexible and convenient.

Generally speaking, my personal preference is Nextiva. Their customer reviews are really strong, and I think unlimited minutes are a major advantage.

Would you like to learn more about either of these services? Feel free to peruse our full reviews on Nextiva and RingCentral for a deeper look at each company.