This series provides a comparison between national hosted PBX providers compared to TeleDynamic Communications, a local hosted PBX provider.
TeleDynamic Communications VS Ring Central
Overview: Ring Central is one of the two largest national hosted PBX providers in the U.S. Here, we compare their pricing and terms versus our TeleDynamic hosted PBX service.
Pricing
Ring Central has a very complex pricing structure that ranges from $22.99 to $64.99 per extension per month, tiered by the number of users. They also have an option to annually prepay for service which has yet another price. Lastly, they have different pricing depending upon the support level the customer requires. So, in answer to the seemingly simple question, “How much does Ring Central Hosted PBX service cost?” – there are 36 answers.
>> See Ring Central’s pricing here
TeleDynamic hosted PBX pricing uses two components: The price per extension is $8.95 and the fee per call path is $34.95 (a call path allows one phone call to the outside world). This pricing methodology provides reasonable pricing for all customer scenarios. Here are a couple of Ring Central and TeleDynamic price comparisons:
Example #1
Example #2
*The Ring Central standard plan includes only limited implementation and ongoing support (they recommend it only for 10 users and under).
Virtual Extension Pricing
Ring Central: The first number is $19.95 and additional numbers are $2.95 each.
TeleDynamic: $4.95 monthly
Contract Duration
Ring Central: 1 and 3-year contracts
TeleDynamic: 1, 2, 3 and 5 year contracts
Contract Auto-Renewal
Ring Central: Contract automatically renews for the period as the original contract, unless the customer provides a formal 30-day advance notice.
TeleDynamic: TeleDynamic’s contract automatically renews on a month-to-month basis.
Early Termination Fee
Ring Central: Ring Central’s early termination fee is explained in their terms and conditions: “After thirty (30) days (of service), if You terminate the Services prior to the end of Your Term, You are responsible for all charges for any remaining time left on the Term as if You remained a customer through the end of the then-current Term, including, without limitation, outstanding charges, unbilled charges, taxes, and fees, including any applicable disconnection fee. In addition, You will not be entitled to a refund for any unused portion of prepaid Term charges.”
The “applicable disconnection fee” amount is not addressed in the terms and conditions document.
TeleDynamic: TeleDynamic’s termination policy is that the customer will pay 50% of the remaining contract value. However, the company has been known to frequently release customers who wish to leave with this explanation: “If you really want to leave us, regretfully we’ll let you go. We don’t want a customer feeling forced to do business with us.”
Customized Pricing
Ring Central: Ring Central has a structured and rigid product line. The pricing structure is the same for every customer and there is no flexibility.
TeleDynamic: TeleDynamic’s prices are very competitive and they are generally less expensive. On occasion, there are customers with unusual needs who call for custom pricing. TeleDynamic has the flexibility to create price effective solutions for these situations.
Summary
While Ring Central heavily advertises low pricing, the overall monthly cost is substantially higher than TeleDynamic’s hosted PBX pricing.
Conclusion: Ring Central pricing consists of three different products, varying support levels, and a variety of payment terms. Their prices are quite high, especially for customers with a high quantity of telephones. In contrast to Ring Central, TeleDynamic’s method of pricing by the extension and call path allows a more customized and fair approach to hosted PBX pricing.
