Quo (OpenPhone) vs RingCentral: 2026 Pricing Compared
Quo is what OpenPhone became in 2025: a phone app for small teams that lives on your cell and your laptop, built around shared numbers and texting. RingCentral is a full communications platform (calls, meetings, contact center) that small businesses buy when they expect to grow into it. The per-seat prices land within a few dollars of each other. The real differences are texting, how each sells AI, and how hard it is to leave.
The quick answer: Pick Quo if your team lives in texts, wants to be live this afternoon and wants to cancel in a few clicks. Pick RingCentral if you need video meetings, multiple sites or desk phones on one contract. And if your phone mostly rings with leads who want a quote or an appointment, you want an AI that answers and books them on a real calendar. That’s Carly, and setup is one prompt in ChatGPT or Claude.
Current US Pricing, Side by Side
| Quo (formerly OpenPhone) | RingCentral RingEX | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Starter $15/user/mo annual ($19 monthly) | Core $20/user/mo annual ($30 monthly) |
| Middle | Business $23 annual ($33 monthly) | Advanced $25 annual ($35 monthly) |
| Top | Scale $35 annual ($47 monthly) | Ultra $35 annual ($45 monthly) |
| Texting included | US and Canada texting on every plan (fair use policy) | 25 / 100 / 200 SMS per user per month by plan |
| Texting registration | $19.50 one-time carrier review, then $1.50 to $3/month | TCR registration required, fees “may apply” |
| Extra numbers | $5/month each | $4.99/month each |
| AI receptionist | Sona: 10 calls/month included, credit tiers from $25/mo | AI Receptionist (AIR): add-on from $39/mo with 100 minutes |
| AI call summaries | Business plan and up (Starter: Sona calls only) | Notes and summaries listed from Core |
| CRM integrations | HubSpot and Salesforce from Business | From Advanced |
| Free trial | 7 days | Up to 5 users, no SMS during the trial |
| Cancelling | In the app, anytime | Call or chat with support |
RingCentral charges the same per-seat price for 1 to 5 users and 6 to 100 users, and says annual billing saves up to 33%. For the full breakdowns, see Quo pricing and RingCentral pricing.
Pricing and Contracts: The Sticker Is Close, the Exit Is Not
Run a five-person team on the middle tier. Quo Business annual is 5 × $23 = $115/month. RingCentral Advanced annual is 5 × $25 = $125/month. Month to month it’s $165 against $175. At the top tier the two are identical on annual billing: $35 a seat each.
So the monthly bill rarely decides this. The contract does.
Quo is month to month or yearly, and its own pricing page says you can cancel in the app “in just a few clicks.” Your plan stays active until the end of the billing cycle, then your numbers are held for 60 days before they are removed.
RingCentral’s online terms say recurring services automatically renew for the same length as the initial term unless either side gives notice of non-renewal at least 30 days before the term ends. Its support article routes cancellation through a call or chat with support, and the account sits disabled for 30 days before it is cancelled. The complaints show up on RingCentral’s own community forum, including a customer who spent months asking to turn off auto-renewal and then found the agreement had renewed for three years. If you sign an annual or multi-year RingCentral order, put the renewal date on your calendar the day you sign. We cover the process in how to cancel RingCentral.
Texting: Quo’s Home Turf
Texting is the reason most small teams pick Quo. Every plan includes US and Canada messaging, shared numbers let the whole team see one conversation thread, and you get snippets, scheduled messages, auto-replies to missed calls and internal comments on a thread. Reviewers on G2 and Trustpilot consistently praise how clean it feels.
The catch on Quo is carrier registration. You pay a $19.50 one-time fee for The Campaign Registry to review your business, then $1.50 to $3 a month. Users report failed registrations, long forms and paying again to resubmit after a mistake. Automated texts through the API, Zapier or Make cost 1¢ per segment.
RingCentral caps texting by plan: 25 SMS per user per month on Core, 100 on Advanced, 200 on Ultra. A shared SMS inbox, company reply templates and compliance tools sit in the Business SMS Booster, a $25 add-on, and SMS is not available during the free trial. High-volume or marketing texts are a separate product priced per message.
If texting is how your customers reach you, Quo is the better phone. If texting is how they book, read SMS appointment booking for business, or let Carly text back every missed call and book the reply.
AI: Quo Sona vs RingCentral AIR and ACE
Both vendors now sell an AI agent that answers the phone. They are priced and scoped differently.
Quo Sona answers inbound calls around the clock. According to Quo, it takes messages, answers questions from the business details you give it (hours, services, pricing, FAQs), asks new leads custom intake questions, transfers callers to the right teammate and can text a scheduling link or form while the caller is still on the line. It speaks English, Spanish and French, answers inbound calls only and works only inside Quo. Every plan includes 1,000 credits, which is about 10 calls a month. Beyond that you buy a tier: $25/month for 40 calls, $49 for 100, $99 for 250 or $199 for 600, with overage from $1.00 down to $0.45 per call. Quo is also beta-testing Sona follow-ups over text. The most common complaint: 10 calls runs out fast.
RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR) is an add-on to RingEX from $39/month, or a standalone plan from $49/month that works with any phone system. Both include 100 minutes, then $0.50 a minute billed in 30-second increments, with a 14-day trial. RingCentral says AIR routes calls by name, location and keyword, captures leads with intake questions, logs them to Salesforce, HubSpot or Zoho, and can schedule or reschedule appointments by connecting to your calendar. More in our RingCentral AI receptionist breakdown.
AI Conversation Expert (ACE), the conversation intelligence product RingCentral used to sell as RingSense, is a different tool entirely. It analyzes sales calls, updates CRMs and coaches reps, starting at $60 per user per month.
The cost math at 100 AI-answered calls a month, averaging two minutes each: Quo’s $49 tier covers it. RingCentral’s $39 add-on covers 100 minutes, so the other 100 minutes add $50, for $89 a month. Longer calls favor Quo’s per-call pricing. Short calls favor RingCentral’s per-minute pricing.
Either one will answer. Carly also calls new web leads back within about a minute and books them on your team’s calendars. Compare the wider field in best AI receptionists.
Integrations
Quo keeps it tight and SMB-shaped: HubSpot and Salesforce from the Business plan, plus Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Attio, Clio, Jobber, Gong, HighLevel, Slack, Google Contacts, Zapier and Make, webhooks in beta, an API on every plan and an MCP server for ChatGPT and Claude.
RingCentral opens CRM integrations at Advanced and lists LLM plugins and MCP connectors from Core. Its integrations lean toward Microsoft Teams, contact center stacks and enterprise tools. If you want an AI assistant working your RingCentral data, see the Claude and RingCentral setup.
Setup and Admin
Quo is self-serve. Download the app, pick or port a number (porting is free) and invite teammates, with no admin portal to learn first. Phone menus, ring orders and call transfers unlock on Business.
RingCentral asks more of whoever runs it. It handles multiple sites, desk phones, toll-free minute pools and meeting rooms, and the admin portal reflects that. Reviewers repeatedly describe settings spread across many tabs with no single setup wizard. Desk phone rental is only available on a multi-year contract.
If nobody on your team wants to be the phone admin, Carly sets up from one prompt in ChatGPT or Claude, and you change it later by asking in the chat.
Support
Quo tiers support by plan: email tickets on Starter, live chat on Business, and priority support plus inbound phone support (Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM Pacific) on Scale. The recurring review complaint is that the ticket queue feels slow when the phones are down.
RingCentral offers chat, phone and case-based support. Reviews split sharply. Some users praise fast technical fixes, while the negative reviews cluster around billing disputes and account reps who stop responding.
Where Quo Pulls Ahead
- Texting. Included on every plan under a fair use policy, with shared inboxes built in.
- Leaving. Cancel in the app, no renewal window to track.
- Speed to live. Self-serve setup from an app download, with no admin portal to learn.
- AI for real call volume. Per-call Sona pricing beats per-minute billing on longer calls.
Where RingCentral Pulls Ahead
- Everything beyond the phone. HD video meetings for up to 300 participants on every plan, webinars on Ultra, and a contact center (RingCX, from $65 per agent) when you outgrow a phone system.
- Multi-site and desk phones. Built for offices, branches and hardware.
- An AI receptionist that works on any phone system, and conversation intelligence for sales teams.
- Toll-free minutes included, from 100 on Core to 10,000 on Ultra.
See the full field in Quo alternatives and RingCentral alternatives.
Where Carly Fits: When Your Calls Are Leads
Quo and RingCentral are phone systems that added AI. Carly is an AI that runs your phone line, and it follows your rules exactly, the same way on every call.
- Books the caller during the call on your team’s real Google and Outlook calendars, round robin.
- Answers 24/7, or only when your team doesn’t pick up. It detects Spanish and answers in Spanish.
- Calls new web leads within about a minute of a form fill, with their answers in hand, then texts and emails if they miss it.
- Texts and WhatsApp from the same number: two-way texts and WhatsApp messages, a text back on every missed call, reminders to a list, group texts.
- Hands callers to a person through ring groups or a phone menu.
- Logs it all to one team inbox and your CRM: HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365 or Carly’s own CRM.
- Lives in ChatGPT and Claude. Build the agents from a chat, place calls, watch a live one and steer it.
Carly connects to thousands of apps, and every call can trigger free Zapier-style workflows. Copy one prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number, and you’re live.
Carly business setup prompt
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.
Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.
# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app
> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.
MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)
## Setup
Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.
1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/account (API key under Carly Teams) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.
2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.
3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.
4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.
## Email, calendars and workflows
Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started, or book a call if you’d like a walkthrough. Weighing a pure answering service instead? Read AI answering service or best small business phone systems.
How to Decide
| Your situation | Pick |
|---|---|
| Small team that texts customers all day | Quo |
| You want to cancel without a phone call | Quo |
| Video meetings and phone on one bill | RingCentral |
| Multiple offices or desk phones | RingCentral |
| Sales team that wants call coaching | RingCentral with ACE |
| Long AI-answered calls, cost-sensitive | Quo Sona |
| An AI receptionist on a phone system you already have | RingCentral AIR standalone |
| Calls are leads to answer and book on a real calendar | Carly |
| Every call should land in your CRM | Carly |
FAQ
Is Quo the same as OpenPhone?
Yes. OpenPhone rebranded as Quo in 2025. It is the same business phone app with shared numbers, texting and the Sona AI agent. Older “OpenPhone vs RingCentral” articles often quote pre-rebrand prices.
Is Quo cheaper than RingCentral?
Usually by a little. On annual billing, Quo runs $15, $23 and $35 per user per month, and RingCentral RingEX runs $20, $25 and $35. The gap widens once you add texting (RingCentral’s Business SMS Booster is a $25 add-on) and narrows at the top tier, where both are $35 a seat.
Does RingCentral lock you into a contract?
RingCentral’s online terms say recurring services automatically renew for the same length as the initial term unless you give notice of non-renewal at least 30 days before it ends. Cancellation goes through a call or chat with support. Quo lets you cancel in the app at any time.
Which is the better AI receptionist, Quo Sona or RingCentral AIR?
Sona is priced per call and lives inside Quo, with about 10 calls a month included and tiers from $25 a month for more. AIR costs from $39 a month as a RingEX add-on (or $49 standalone) with 100 minutes, works on any phone system and can schedule appointments on your calendar. If you want the AI to book the caller on your team’s real calendar during the call and log it to your CRM, that’s Carly.
Can I keep my phone number if I switch?
Quo ports numbers in from other carriers at no charge, and additional numbers are $5 a month. Keep your old account active until the port completes.
Which is better for texting customers?
Quo. Texting is included on every Quo plan with shared inboxes, while RingCentral includes 25, 100 or 200 SMS per user per month by plan and puts its shared SMS inbox in a paid add-on. Both require carrier (TCR) registration for business texting.
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"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
