Quick answer: At list price, RingCentral’s RingEX Core (US$20 a user a month, billed annually) costs less than Vonage Premium, the first Vonage plan with desk phones and video (US$27.99 at 5–19 lines). Vonage’s 30% online promotion, to 31 December 2026, cuts Premium to US$19.59. Vonage’s app-only Mobile plan (US$17.99) is cheapest at list. For AI, RingCentral lists an AI Receptionist from US$39 a month; Vonage quotes its AI Virtual Assistant after scoping. Prices as at 10 November 2026.
“Vonage vs RingCentral” is a choice between two US cloud phone systems for small and midsize businesses. Vonage sells Vonage Business Communications (VBC) on three plans, Mobile, Premium and Advanced, with Virtual Receptionist on every plan, an AI Virtual Assistant built by its own conversation designers, and AI Studio for building voice and messaging agents. RingCentral sells RingEX on Core, Advanced and Ultra plans, its AI Receptionist (AIR) as an add-on or standalone product, AI Conversation Expert (ACE, where its old RingSense address now points) and RingCX for contact centres. We compare seats at 5, 10 and 25 users, the 30% Vonage promotion, A2P 10DLC registration with The Campaign Registry (TCR), contracts, renewals and uptime terms. Every vendor fact comes from vonage.com, businesssupport.vonage.com, ringcentral.com and support.ringcentral.com, read on 10 November 2026, in US dollars unless marked A$.
Where Zian fits: an AI agents platform, not a phone system
If the calls you answer also need chasing afterwards, Zian AI is our pick: a standalone AI sales and reception agents platform, not a phone system and not an add-on to one. Its agents answer inbound calls 24/7 as an AI receptionist that qualifies callers, books appointments, transfers calls and takes messages, then follow up by voice calls, SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger.
Zian handles answering machines and voicemail on calls, works in 30+ languages with voice cloning supported, and connects to HubSpot, Salesforce, HighLevel and Zapier. SmartReach AI™ picks the message, channel and timing of each follow-up, and PrecisionPitch AI™ keeps split-testing scripts against real outcomes. Zian’s home page counts 64,521+ qualified sales appointments set. Zian is not the only AI on this page that answers calls: RingCentral’s AIR answers, routes and books through Google or Outlook calendars or a texted link, and Vonage’s AI Virtual Assistant answers and routes callers in natural language.
The honest limit: Zian is in a partnership-application beta with no published prices, and each of its three listed plans, including Intel + Widgets (Free Forever), starts with a partnership application. If you would rather have the work done for you, LeadsNow.ai is the done-for-you option: a managed, pay-per-result AI appointment-setting service that runs on Zian, answers leads in under 60 seconds, 24/7, and has set 50,769+ appointments.
Vonage vs RingCentral: the shortlist
Rows 1 and 2 are our picks when answered calls feed a sales pipeline. Rows 3 and 4 are the phone systems this page compares, not ranked against each other. Disclosure: zian.ai publishes this page and Zian AI appears in it, ranked first; LeadsNow.ai is a sister business that runs on Zian. The method is under “How we compared Vonage and RingCentral”.
| # | Option | What it is | AI that talks to callers | Entry price, as at 10 November 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zian AI (AI agents platform pick) | Standalone AI sales and reception agents platform, inbound and outbound; not a phone system and not an add-on to one | AI receptionist 24/7 plus follow-up by voice, SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger; 30+ languages | No published prices; partnership-application beta; Intel + Widgets listed as Free Forever |
| 2 | LeadsNow.ai (done-for-you pick) | Managed AI appointment setting and lead generation that runs on Zian | Leads answered in under 60 seconds, 24/7; 50,769+ appointments | Pay-per-result |
| 3 | Vonage Business Communications | Cloud phone system: Mobile, Premium, Advanced; AI Virtual Assistant; AI Studio | Virtual Receptionist (preconfigured menu, English only) on every plan; AI Virtual Assistant as a scoped managed service | Mobile US$17.99 a line a month at 5–19 lines (US$12.59 on the 12-month online promotion) |
| 4 | RingCentral RingEX | Cloud phone system: Core, Advanced, Ultra; AIR; ACE; RingCX | AIR: 100 minutes included, then US$0.50 a minute in 30-second increments | RingEX Core US$20 a user a month annual (US$30 monthly); AIR from US$39 a month as an add-on |
Vonage vs RingCentral plans and US list prices, tier by tier
Vonage prices each plan by line count. Its VBC pricing page asks “How many employees does your company have?” and shows one price for 1–4 lines, another for 5–9 and 10–19 (the same figure), a lower one for 20–99, and “Contact sales” from 100. The page’s Annually toggle shows a “12-month promotion” at 30% off; the Monthly toggle shows the undiscounted list price. RingCentral’s RingEX pricing page prices its 1–5 and 6–100 user bands identically and says “Save up to 33% by paying annually”.
| Plan | List price, a line or user a month | Promotional or annual price | What the tier includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vonage Mobile | US$19.99 (1–4 lines), US$17.99 (5–19), US$14.99 (20–99) | US$13.99 / US$12.59 / US$10.49 on the 12-month promotion | Mobile and desktop apps, unlimited domestic calling, SMS and MMS, voicemail, Virtual Receptionist, number porting; no desk phones |
| Vonage Premium | US$29.99 / US$27.99 / US$24.99 | US$20.99 / US$19.59 / US$17.49 | Adds VoIP desk phones, unlimited video meetings (Vonage Meetings, up to 200 participants), team messaging, VBC App Center (20+ third-party integrations), single sign-on |
| Vonage Advanced | US$39.99 / US$37.99 / US$34.99 | US$27.99 / US$26.59 / US$24.49 | Adds on-demand call recording (15 hours a month), visual voicemail with transcription, call groups |
| RingEX Core | US$30 paid monthly | US$20 paid annually | Unlimited domestic calling (US and Canada), on-demand call recording, 100 toll-free minutes, 25 SMS a user a month pooled, HD meetings for 300 participants, AI Virtual Assistant (AVA) included, AIR as an add-on |
| RingEX Advanced | US$35 | US$25 | Adds CRM integrations, multiple sites, core reporting, 1,000 toll-free minutes, 100 SMS a user |
| RingEX Ultra | US$45 | US$35 | Adds 10,000 toll-free minutes, 200 SMS a user, RingCentral Webinar, unlimited storage, device analytics |
Vonage’s promotion has five conditions, all in its terms box: a “Minimum 1-year contract required for new accounts only”; “This discount only applies to monthly recurring voice extension charges for online purchases up to 99 lines”; it “does not apply to add-ons, features, hardware, or one-time charges”; the code 30PERCENTOFF is applied at online checkout; and the “Offer valid through December 31, 2026.” The discount itself runs “for the duration of the service”. Vonage’s footnotes add that “Reasonable and acceptable usage applies for unlimited calls and SMS” and that “Campaign Registry fees apply to mandatory business registration for SMS.” RingCentral’s footnotes say “Unlimited phone calls are limited to US and CA markets only.”
The tiers do not line up neatly. On-demand call recording is on every RingEX plan but only on Vonage Advanced. CRM integrations start on Vonage Premium, through an App Center that Vonage says offers “up to 10 CRM integrations” including Salesforce and HubSpot, and on RingEX Advanced, which RingCentral backs with “over 330+ integrations”. Desk phones and video meetings start on Vonage Premium and on RingEX Core, which is why our main bill pairs those two.
What 5, 10 and 25 users cost a year: the itemised bill
List prices only, computed by script on 10 November 2026 for one year, in US dollars. The main pairing is Vonage Premium against RingEX Core, the cheapest plan on each side with desk phones and video meetings. Vonage’s 5-user team falls in its 5–9 line band, 10 users in 10–19 and 25 users in 20–99. Registration assumes one brand and one low-volume 10DLC campaign. Taxes, regulatory fees, international calls, extra numbers and hardware are excluded from the totals.
| Line item, one year | 5 users | 10 users | 25 users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vonage Premium seats at list (US$27.99, US$27.99, US$24.99 × users × 12) | US$1,679.40 | US$3,358.80 | US$7,497.00 |
| Vonage Premium seats on the 30% promotion (US$19.59, US$19.59, US$17.49) | US$1,175.40 | US$2,350.80 | US$5,247.00 |
| RingEX Core seats, billed annually (US$20 × users × 12) | US$1,200.00 | US$2,400.00 | US$6,000.00 |
| Vonage 10DLC, year one (US$4.00 brand + 12 × US$1.50) | US$22.00 | US$22.00 | US$22.00 |
| RingCentral 10DLC, year one (US$19 brand + US$15 campaign vetting + 12 × US$1.50) | US$52.00 | US$52.00 | US$52.00 |
| Vonage Premium total at list | US$1,701.40 | US$3,380.80 | US$7,519.00 |
| Vonage Premium total on the promotion | US$1,197.40 | US$2,372.80 | US$5,269.00 |
| RingEX Core total | US$1,252.00 | US$2,452.00 | US$6,052.00 |
| Lower bill at list | RingCentral, by US$449.40 | RingCentral, by US$928.80 | RingCentral, by US$1,467.00 |
| Lower bill on the Vonage promotion | Vonage, by US$54.60 | Vonage, by US$79.20 | Vonage, by US$783.00 |
| Not in the totals: Vonage’s published per-extension fees (US$3.50 RCIP + US$0.99 Emergency Services, × users × 12) | US$269.40 | US$538.80 | US$1,347.00 |
| Not in the totals: RingCentral AIR add-on (US$39 × 12, 100 minutes a month) | US$468.00 | US$468.00 | US$468.00 |
Two lines sit outside the totals on purpose. Vonage publishes its Regulatory, Compliance and Intellectual Property (RCIP) Fee at US$3.50 a month on each extension and company number, and its Emergency Services Fee at US$0.99 per eligible line, and says both are Vonage fees, not government-mandated ones. RingCentral names an “E911 Service Fee” and a “Compliance and Administrative Cost Recovery Fee” that “may apply”, but its pricing page and its Universal Service Fee page give no amount, as at 10 November 2026, so adding Vonage’s alone would compare a priced fee with an unpriced one. Ask both for the fee schedule on your quote. Vonage also lists a Federal Program Fee rate of 35.10% from 1 October 2026; its article does not say what that percentage is charged on, so we have not modelled it.
The same arithmetic for the other pairings, seats plus year-one 10DLC:
| Pairing, one year | 5 users | 10 users | 25 users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vonage Mobile at list / on the promotion | US$1,101.40 / US$777.40 | US$2,180.80 / US$1,532.80 | US$4,519.00 / US$3,169.00 |
| RingEX Core, annual | US$1,252.00 | US$2,452.00 | US$6,052.00 |
| Vonage Advanced at list / on the promotion | US$2,301.40 / US$1,617.40 | US$4,580.80 / US$3,212.80 | US$10,519.00 / US$7,369.00 |
| RingEX Advanced, annual (US$25) | US$1,552.00 | US$3,052.00 | US$7,552.00 |
| RingEX Core, paid monthly (US$30) | US$1,852.00 | US$3,652.00 | US$9,052.00 |
Vonage Mobile is the lowest bill at every size, at list or on the promotion, but it has no desk phones, video meetings or team messaging. On monthly billing, Vonage Premium at its list price (US$1,701.40, US$3,380.80, US$7,519.00 with 10DLC) is lower than RingEX Core at US$30 a month at all three sizes, but Vonage’s terms box, shown under its Monthly prices too, still says “Minimum 1-year contract required for new accounts only.” On the call-recording tier, RingEX Advanced is lower than Vonage Advanced at list everywhere, and on the promotion only Vonage’s 25-user price (US$24.49 a line) comes in under RingCentral’s US$25.
The Renewal-Line Rule: when Vonage’s promotion stops undercutting RingEX
The Renewal-Line Rule: a Vonage promotional seat that sits within 7% of RingCentral’s annual seat price in year one will cost more than RingCentral’s current price after Vonage’s first auto-renewal. Vonage’s VBC Terms of Service say pricing stays fixed for the term and “Upon auto-renewal of the Subscription Services, the Subscription Charges will increase by 7%.”
| Vonage seat on the promotion | After a 7% renewal increase | RingCentral seat, annual, today | Year two |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium, 5–19 lines: US$19.59 | US$20.96 | Core US$20 | RingCentral lower, by US$0.96 a seat a month |
| Premium, 20–99 lines: US$17.49 | US$18.71 | Core US$20 | Vonage lower, by US$1.29 |
| Mobile, 5–19 lines: US$12.59 | US$13.47 | Core US$20 | Vonage lower, by US$6.53 |
| Advanced, 20–99 lines: US$24.49 | US$26.20 | Advanced US$25 | RingCentral lower, by US$1.20 |
The table assumes the 7% applies to the discounted charge, which is how the clause reads, so confirm it on your sales order. It also holds RingCentral at today’s price. RingCentral’s Terms of Service let it raise recurring charges if it gives notice “no later than thirty (30) days before the end of the Initial Term or then-current Renewal Term”; they name no fixed percentage. For a 10-person office on Premium, the year-two gap is 10 × US$0.96 × 12 = US$115.20 in RingCentral’s favour, against US$79.20 in Vonage’s favour in year one, so over two years RingCentral comes out US$36.00 lower; at 5 users the two-year gap is US$3.00.
Need more than a phone system’s built-in AI? Zian’s AI agents answer inbound calls 24/7 as an AI receptionist, book appointments, place outbound calls and follow up by SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger, with HubSpot, Salesforce, HighLevel and Zapier integrations.
Vonage AI vs RingCentral AIR and ACE: what answers your calls
The two vendors sell AI to small businesses in different ways. RingCentral lists a self-serve AI receptionist with a meter. Vonage’s conversational AI for VBC is built for you after scoping, and its self-serve AI tools sit in its developer platform.
| Question | Vonage | RingCentral |
|---|---|---|
| What answers on every plan | Virtual Receptionist, an auto attendant with a preconfigured menu; “English is the only supported language at this time.” | AI Virtual Assistant (AVA) is listed as included on Core, Advanced and Ultra; AIR is an add-on |
| Conversational AI receptionist | AI Virtual Assistant: “a high-touch managed service both pre- and post-sale”, with an assigned conversational designer | AI Receptionist (AIR): self-serve set-up from your website, FAQs or uploaded documents |
| Price | No price on the VBC pages; “Every project goes through scoping and sizing.” AI Studio lists Standard at US$0 a month (10 agents, 10,000 sessions), Advanced at US$1,100 a month and Fully Managed as “Custom”, plus “Regular Vonage API charges” | US$39 a month as a RingEX add-on or US$49 standalone, 100 minutes included, then US$0.50 a minute; 14-day free trial |
| Billing unit | AI Studio: sessions, plus US$0.00855 per NLU or Knowledge AI request | Per minute, “rounded up and billed in 30-second increments” |
| Booking | The VBC support article says that through SmartNumbers it can “schedule the next best available time with the Knowledge Expert” | “Via calendar integrations or SMS links”: Google, Outlook, Calendly |
| Outbound calls | Lists “Outbound phone campaigns” (surveys, qualifying leads, recalls) as a use case | No outbound calling found on AIR’s pricing page or release notes (AIR does send outbound texts; see Texting); AIR Pro, which lists “Support inbound and outbound conversations”, is in early access |
| Texting | AI Studio channels: WhatsApp, Voice, SMS, web chat; VBC itself adds WhatsApp Business messaging once your WhatsApp Business Account is approved | AI SMS agent “Included in plan”, footnoted “Additional charges may apply”; outbound AIR texts cost the message fee plus a US$0.15 AI fee |
| Languages | We could not find a language list for AI Virtual Assistant on its product page or support article | English (US, UK, Australian), French (Canadian and European), Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese on the pricing page; Japanese added 23 September 2026 in the AIR release notes |
| Call transcripts and insight | AI Transcription add-on: 200 transcription hours a month with AI summaries; Company Call Recording must be bought separately; Live Call Transcription in the desktop app | AI Conversation Expert (ACE), listed as Conversational Intelligence from US$60; the AI Customer Engagement Bundle (contact for pricing) includes AIR, AVA and ACE |
For a small business that wants an AI to pick up overflow calls this month without a project, RingCentral’s AIR is the one sold as a priced, self-serve receptionist add-on to the phone system, with a 14-day trial. Vonage’s self-serve option, AI Studio, is a developer platform billed by sessions plus API charges. Vonage’s route suits a business that wants a designed, managed call flow and will accept a quote. If you pick AIR, our RingCentral AI Receptionist setup guide walks through the configuration, and our RingCentral vs Nextiva comparison works through how AIR’s per-minute meter behaves at different call lengths.
Business texting on Vonage and RingCentral: allowances and 10DLC fees
Both require 10DLC registration before business texting from local numbers. The fees, allowances and rates differ.
| Item | Vonage VBC | RingCentral RingEX |
|---|---|---|
| Texts included | SMS and MMS on all three plans; the footnote says “Reasonable and acceptable usage applies for unlimited calls and SMS” | 25 / 100 / 200 SMS a user a month on Core / Advanced / Ultra, pooled across the account |
| Brand registration | US$4.00 one-time, per account | US$19 per registration; optional US$40 third-party vetting above 2,000 messages a day to T-Mobile |
| Campaign | US$1.50 a month, per account | US$15 vetting per submission, plus US$1.50 a month (low volume) or US$10 (standard), three-month minimum |
| Rate per registered domestic SMS | No per-message rate on the pricing page or the SMS help articles we read | US$0.0119 on the Current SMS Rates page; US$0.0085 in the TCR registration fees article |
| Time to go live | “Allow up to three days for your numbers to sync after approval”; “Some carriers may take up to 90 days to enable outbound SMS” | “Review of SMS applications and resubmissions typically takes 5–20 business days, depending on carrier approved vetting agency processing times.” |
| Other conditions | Two-factor authentication must be enforced account-wide before SMS works | “RingCentral is not currently charging any additional fees for TCR registration” |
RingCentral’s two pages disagree on the registered SMS rate, so we print both. Vonage’s registration fees are lower in our bill, US$22 against US$52 in year one, but a team that re-submits a rejected RingCentral campaign pays the US$15 vetting fee again, and a Vonage registration that fails and must be resubmitted pays the US$4.00 brand fee again. Our guide to how long A2P 10DLC registration takes covers the stages and what delays them.
Contracts, renewal and cancelling: Vonage and RingCentral terms
Read these before signing, because they decide what leaving costs.
- Notice not to renew: Vonage’s terms renew each term “for successive periods of the same length” unless notice is given “at least sixty days prior to the end” of it; its contract help article says to telephone at least 60 days before the term expires. RingCentral’s renew for the same length unless notice is given “at least thirty (30) days before the expiration”.
- Price at renewal: Vonage adds 7% at auto-renewal, and after a committed term it may move a month-to-month customer to its “then-current month-to-month pricing”. RingCentral must give at least 30 days’ notice of an increase.
- Leaving early: Vonage’s promotion terms say “Early Termination Fees can range up to the total price of your service contract”, and its terms make the customer responsible for the full value of each sales order; if services are reduced or terminated other than for a party’s uncured default, the remaining contracted charges are accelerated. RingCentral’s terms say that, unless the cause is RingCentral’s material breach or a regulatory change, the customer pays “all sums remaining unpaid for the Services for the remainder of the then-current Term”.
- How to cancel: Vonage lets accounts bought online cancel in the Admin Portal or by phone; accounts bought by phone cancel by phone.
- Trials: RingEX’s 14-day trial supports “up to 20 phone lines” in its FAQ, but its disclaimer says “a maximum of five users and two desktop phones” and “SMS is not available for trial use.” AIR has its own 14-day trial.
Uptime: what Vonage and RingCentral call an SLA
Both advertise five nines. RingCentral’s pricing page says “RingCentral’s Cloud PBX has an SLA of 99.999% availability, which equates to just 78 seconds of downtime per quarter”, and lists “Less than 6 mins of annual downtime SLA (99.999% uptime)”. We could not find the SLA’s own terms, such as how downtime is measured or what credit is paid, in its Terms of Service or the RingEX Service Attachment, as at 10 November 2026; the Terms promise “a commercially reasonable level of skill and care”.
Vonage’s VBC platform page advertises “99.999% uptime reliability” and footnotes it: “The 99.999% claim is based on Vonage’s average up-time and/or availability.” Its Terms of Service refer to an “applicable Service Level Agreement” and otherwise provide the services “as is” and “as available”. We could not find a VBC service-level agreement with credits on Vonage’s legal index, VBC Terms, system-status page, pricing page or the business support site’s sitemap, as at 10 November 2026. Ask either vendor to put the uptime commitment and its credit schedule in your order form; our explainer on what a reasonable uptime SLA for voice AI looks like sets out what to compare.
For Australian readers: local plans on each side
Both sell Australian plans. Vonage’s Australian VBC pricing lists Lite at A$15, Smart at A$30 and Best at A$40 a user a month, excluding GST; Smart charges A$5 a user for on-demand call recording and A$10 for CRM integration, both included on Best. RingCentral’s Australian pricing lists RingEX Essentials at A$22.99 a user a month paid annually (A$25.99 monthly), excluding GST, for up to 49 users with 250 outbound minutes each. Its Australian AIR page prices AIR at A$62 with 100 minutes, then A$0.80 a minute, lists English, French and Spanish, and marks appointment scheduling “(coming soon)”.
Pick Vonage if, pick RingCentral if: the decision table
| Your situation | Lean towards | Why, from the vendors’ own pages |
|---|---|---|
| App-only calling and texting, lowest seat | Vonage Mobile | US$17.99 a line at 5–19 lines (US$12.59 on the promotion) against RingEX Core at US$20 |
| Desk phones and video, buying online before 31 December 2026, 20–99 lines | Vonage Premium | US$17.49 on the promotion, US$18.71 after a 7% renewal, against US$20 |
| Desk phones and video, 5–19 lines, staying beyond one year | RingEX Core | Vonage’s US$19.59 promotional seat becomes US$20.96 after renewal; over two years RingCentral is lower by US$3.00 at 5 users and US$36.00 at 10 |
| Desk phones and video, no promotion | RingEX Core | US$20 annual against US$27.99 or US$24.99 list |
| Paying monthly rather than annually | Vonage Premium | List price on Vonage’s Monthly toggle, US$27.99 or US$24.99, against RingEX Core at US$30; Vonage’s terms still set a 1-year minimum contract for new accounts |
| An AI receptionist this month, with a published price | RingCentral AIR | US$39 add-on, 100 minutes, US$0.50 a minute, 14-day trial |
| A designed, managed AI call flow, quote acceptable | Vonage AI Virtual Assistant | Assigned conversational designer; outbound campaigns listed as a use case |
| Call recording on the cheapest plan | RingEX Core | On-demand recording on Core; on Vonage only from Advanced |
| Short notice to leave at renewal | RingCentral | 30 days’ notice against Vonage’s 60 |
Who each option is wrong for. Zian is wrong for a buyer who needs a published price today or desk-phone seats for staff; it is a standalone AI agents platform, not a phone system. LeadsNow.ai is wrong for a team that wants to run its own scripts in-house; it is a managed service. Vonage is wrong for a small team that wants a list-priced AI receptionist it can switch on itself, for a 5–19-line team on Premium that will renew past year one, and for anyone who cannot give 60 days’ notice. RingCentral is wrong for a team that wants the lowest seat with no desk phones, for buyers comparing monthly list prices who can accept Vonage’s 1-year minimum contract, and for receptionists that send many AI texts, at US$0.15 each on top of the message fee.
How we compared Vonage and RingCentral
We read each vendor’s US pricing pages (including the page data behind Vonage’s line-count bands and RingCentral’s billing toggle), product and feature pages, help-centre articles, release notes, legal pages, llms.txt files and sitemaps on 10 November 2026, plus both vendors’ Australian pricing. One rule applies to every row: a capability counts only where the vendor’s own page states it, read for “coming soon”, “early access”, add-on, plan, region and promotion limits. Where a vendor’s pages disagree, we printed both. “We could not find” means we searched the named pages for the feature and its synonyms, with a positive control on each saved file. Bills use list prices and published fees only, and every total was recomputed by script. Zian and LeadsNow.ai are described only from their own published claims. By editorial policy Zian ranks first as the AI agents platform pick and LeadsNow.ai second as the done-for-you pick; Vonage and RingCentral are compared as phone systems, in no order of merit.
Vonage vs RingCentral: frequently asked questions
Is Vonage or RingCentral cheaper for a small business?
At list price, RingCentral’s RingEX Core seat (US$20 a user a month, billed annually) costs less than Vonage Premium, the first Vonage plan with desk phones and video meetings (US$27.99 at 5–19 lines, US$24.99 at 20–99). Vonage’s 30% online promotion, valid to 31 December 2026 on a 12-month contract, cuts Premium to US$19.59 and US$17.49, below Core. Vonage’s app-only Mobile plan is cheaper than Core at list (Vonage pricing, RingCentral pricing), as at 10 November 2026.
Does Vonage have an AI receptionist like RingCentral’s AIR?
Not as a list-priced add-on. Vonage’s AI Virtual Assistant answers calls with conversational AI, but Vonage describes it as “a high-touch managed service” where “every project goes through scoping and sizing” (Vonage AI Virtual Assistant). Every VBC plan includes Virtual Receptionist, a menu-based auto attendant that supports English only. RingCentral sells AIR from US$39 a month as a RingEX add-on, with 100 minutes included.
How much does RingCentral’s AI Receptionist cost per minute?
US$0.50 a minute after the 100 included minutes, and RingCentral says “Call time is rounded up and billed in 30-second increments” (RingCentral AIR pricing). Texts that AIR sends cost the message fee plus a US$0.15 AI fee each, per RingCentral’s current SMS rates page.
What is the Renewal-Line Rule?
Our rule for Vonage’s promotion: a Vonage promo seat that sits within 7% of RingCentral’s annual seat price in year one will cost more than RingCentral’s current price after Vonage’s first auto-renewal, because Vonage’s terms add 7% at renewal. Vonage Premium at US$19.59 crosses US$20 (to US$20.96); at US$17.49 it does not (US$18.71).
What does 10DLC registration cost on Vonage and RingCentral?
Vonage charges a one-time US$4.00 brand registration fee and US$1.50 a month, both per account (Vonage 10DLC FAQs). RingCentral lists US$19 per brand registration, US$15 per campaign vetting and US$1.50 a month for a low-volume campaign with a three-month minimum, and says it adds no fee of its own.
Do Vonage and RingCentral guarantee 99.999% uptime?
RingCentral’s pricing page calls 99.999% availability an SLA; we could not find its credit terms in its Terms of Service or RingEX Service Attachment, as at 10 November 2026. Vonage’s platform page advertises 99.999% uptime “based on Vonage’s average up-time and/or availability”, and its terms refer to an applicable Service Level Agreement that we could not find published.
Zian is an AI agents platform, not a phone system. Zian’s AI agents answer inbound calls 24/7, book appointments and follow up across voice, SMS, email, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger, in 30+ languages.
Where every figure on this page comes from
| Figure | Who published it | Link | Date read |
|---|---|---|---|
| VBC Mobile / Premium / Advanced list prices by line band (1–4, 5–9, 10–19, 20–99, 100+ contact sales); 30% promotion prices and its terms (12-month contract, new accounts, online, up to 99 lines, to 31 December 2026, excludes add-ons); Early Termination Fees “up to the total price”; reasonable use; TCR fees apply; plan features; Vonage Meetings 200; App Center 20+ | Vonage | vonage.com/unified-communications/pricing | 10 November 2026 |
| App Center “up to 10 CRM integrations”; Salesforce and HubSpot | Vonage | VBC App Center | 10 November 2026 |
| Virtual Receptionist menu; English only | Vonage | Virtual Receptionist | 10 November 2026 |
| AI Virtual Assistant: managed service, conversational designer, scoping and sizing, outbound campaigns and receptionist use cases; SmartNumbers scheduling | Vonage | AI Virtual Assistant, support article | 10 November 2026 |
| AI Studio Standard US$0 (10 agents, 10,000 sessions), Advanced US$1,100, Fully Managed Custom; NLU and Knowledge AI US$0.00855 a request; API charges; channels | Vonage | AI Studio pricing | 10 November 2026 |
| AI Transcription 200 hours a month; Company Call Recording required | Vonage | AI Transcription support article | 10 November 2026 |
| WhatsApp Business Account approved separately | Vonage | WhatsApp Business Messaging | 10 November 2026 |
| 10DLC US$4.00 brand, US$1.50 monthly, per account; up to three days to sync; up to 90 days for some carriers; 2FA | Vonage | 10DLC SMS Registration and FAQs | 10 November 2026 |
| RCIP Fee US$3.50 an extension or company number a month | Vonage | Recovery Fee (RCIP) | 10 November 2026 |
| Emergency Services Fee US$0.99 per eligible line | Vonage | Emergency Services Fee | 10 November 2026 |
| Federal Program Fee 35.10% from 1 October 2026 | Vonage | Federal Program Fee (USF) | 10 November 2026 |
| Contracts auto-renew; telephone 60 days before expiry | Vonage | Locate Sales Order and Contract Information | 10 November 2026 |
| Renewal 60 days’ notice; 7% increase at auto-renewal; month-to-month pricing; full sales-order value; “applicable Service Level Agreement”; “as is” | Vonage | VBC Terms of Service (last updated 9 July 2025) | 10 November 2026 |
| 99.999% “based on Vonage’s average up-time and/or availability” | Vonage | VBC platform page | 10 November 2026 |
| Australia: Lite A$15, Smart A$30, Best A$40 ex GST; recording A$5, CRM A$10 on Smart | Vonage | vonage.com.au pricing | 10 November 2026 |
| RingEX Core US$20 / Advanced US$25 / Ultra US$35 annual, US$30 / US$35 / US$45 monthly; same price for 1–5 and 6–100 users; inclusions; AVA included; 25 / 100 / 200 SMS; 100 / 1,000 / 10,000 toll-free minutes; meetings 300; “Save up to 33%”; 330+ integrations; Conversational Intelligence from US$60; trial terms; 99.999% SLA, 78 seconds a quarter, under 6 minutes a year; fees named; US and CA calling | RingCentral | ringcentral.com/pricing/business-phone | 10 November 2026 |
| AIR US$39 add-on, US$49 standalone, 100 minutes, US$0.50 a minute, 30-second increments; 14-day trial; languages; Google, Outlook, Calendly; “Additional charges may apply” | RingCentral | ringcentral.com/pricing/ai-receptionist | 10 November 2026 |
| Japanese added 23 September 2026; no outbound feature in July to September 2026 notes | RingCentral | AIR release notes | 10 November 2026 |
| AIR Pro “Support inbound and outbound conversations”; early access | RingCentral | AIR Pro | 10 November 2026 |
| ACE (RingSense address redirects here) | RingCentral | AI Conversation Expert | 10 November 2026 |
| Registered SMS US$0.0119; AIR outbound text US$0.15 AI fee | RingCentral | Current SMS Rates | 10 November 2026 |
| TCR US$19 brand, US$40 optional vetting, US$15 campaign vetting, US$1.50 / US$10 monthly, three-month minimum; registered SMS US$0.0085; no RingCentral fee | RingCentral | TCR registration fees | 10 November 2026 |
| Review “typically takes 5–20 business days” | RingCentral | Activating SMS on your account | 10 November 2026 |
| SMS allowance pooled across the account | RingCentral | RingEX Service Attachment | 10 November 2026 |
| Renewal 30 days’ notice; increase notice; remainder of term; skill and care | RingCentral | Terms of Service | 10 November 2026 |
| Australia: Essentials A$22.99 annual, A$25.99 monthly, up to 49 users, 250 outbound minutes; AIR A$62, 100 minutes, A$0.80 a minute, three languages, scheduling coming soon | RingCentral | AU RingEX pricing, AU AIR pricing | 10 November 2026 |
| Annual bills, pairings and the Renewal-Line Rule | Zian AI, computed from the rows above | This page | 10 November 2026 |