RingCentral vs Dialpad: 2026 Pricing, AI and Contracts
RingCentral is a full communications platform (phone, meetings, contact center) that sells its AI as add-ons with posted prices. Dialpad is a cloud phone system built around AI transcription, and it sells its AI agents separately, through sales. On paper the per-seat prices sit $5 apart. In practice, texting, seat minimums, the AI bill and the contract decide it.
The quick answer: Pick Dialpad if you want the cheapest entry seat, generous texting and live call transcripts on every plan. Pick RingCentral if you need video meetings, multiple sites or an AI receptionist with a posted price. And if your phone mostly rings with leads who want a quote, a showing or an appointment, you want an AI that knows the caller’s email and CRM history, qualifies them and books them on a real calendar. That is Carly Phone, and the fastest way to see it is to book a call with the Carly team.
Current US Pricing, Side by Side
| RingCentral RingEX | Dialpad Connect | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Core $20/user/mo annual ($30 monthly) | Standard $15/user/mo annual ($27 monthly) |
| Middle | Advanced $25 annual ($35 monthly) | Pro $25 annual ($35 monthly), 3-user minimum |
| Top | Ultra $35 annual ($45 monthly) | Enterprise, custom quote, 100-user minimum |
| Texting included | 25 / 100 / 200 SMS per user per month by plan | First 250 outbound SMS/MMS per user per month, pooled |
| Texting past the allowance | Additional SMS sold separately; shared inbox in a $25 add-on | $0.008 per outbound SMS, $0.024 per MMS, from prepaid credits |
| AI receptionist | AIR add-on from $39/mo (100 minutes), $49 standalone | AI Agents sold separately, per-conversation credits via sales |
| Built-in AI | Notes, summaries, captions and transcriptions from Core | Real-time transcripts, voicemail transcripts and AI Recaps on every plan |
| CRM integrations | From Advanced | From Pro (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, ServiceNow) |
| 24/7 support | Listed on every plan | Listed on Pro |
| Free trial | Up to 5 users, no SMS during the trial | 14 days |
For the full RingCentral breakdown, see RingCentral pricing. If Quo is on your shortlist too, its Starter plan is $15/user/month annual or $19 monthly, and we compare it in Quo vs RingCentral.
Pricing: The Gap Closes at the Tier You Probably Need
At the entry tier Dialpad wins. Five users on Dialpad Standard annual is 5 × $15 = $75/month, against 5 × $20 = $100/month on RingCentral Core. Month to month it’s $135 against $150.
The catch is what the entry tier leaves out. Both vendors hold CRM integrations back for the middle plan. And at the middle plan, the prices are identical: RingCentral Advanced and Dialpad Pro are both $25 a seat on annual billing and $35 month to month. Five users on either is $125/month annual.
Small teams hit one more wrinkle. Dialpad’s pricing data lists a 3-user minimum on Pro. A two-person office that wants HubSpot or Salesforce connected pays for three Pro seats ($75/month annual) on Dialpad, or two Advanced seats ($50/month annual) on RingCentral.
Dialpad also caps ring groups by plan (3 on Standard, 25 on Pro). RingCentral adds multi-site support on Advanced, and extra numbers are $4.99/month each. Before you commit to a seat count, get a walkthrough of Carly Phone.
Contracts: Read the Renewal Clause Before the Price
RingCentral’s online terms say recurring services automatically renew for the same length as the initial term unless either side gives notice at least 30 days before the term ends. Price-increase notices also arrive no later than 30 days before the term ends, and leaving early means paying out the remaining term. Desk phone rental is only available on a multi-year contract. Trustpilot reviewers describe finding out about a renewal after it happened and cancellations that had to go through an account manager. The steps are in how to cancel RingCentral.
Dialpad’s help center is blunt about refunds: annual plans “do not qualify for a refund,” even with months left on the term, and refunds are only processed if you cancel within 3 days of the transaction. Monthly billing costs more ($27 or $35 a seat) but keeps you out of that. Reviewers on Trustpilot and the BBB report annual-plan cancellations routed to a team that was hard to reach, and charges that continued after they believed they had cancelled.
On either one, put the renewal date on your calendar the day you sign. If a long commitment is the problem, book a call with the Carly team and ask how Carly Phone is scoped.
AI: Dialpad Ai vs RingCentral AIR and ACE
Dialpad’s built-in AI comes with every Connect plan: real-time call transcription, voicemail transcription, call summaries and action items through AI Recaps, and real-time analytics. Transcripts of every call with no add-on is Dialpad’s strongest argument.
Dialpad AI Agents are a separate product: autonomous voice and chat agents that hand off to your team. Dialpad sells them on conversation-based pricing. You buy a pool of AI Agent Credits, and a conversation only counts when the AI retrieves information or takes an action such as scheduling, routing or an order lookup. There is no posted price, so you get a number from Dialpad’s sales team.
RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR) has a posted price. It is an add-on to RingEX from $39/month, or a standalone plan from $49/month that works with other phone systems through call forwarding or SIP. 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 or intent, captures leads with intake questions, logs them to Salesforce, HubSpot or Zoho, and schedules appointments through Google, Outlook or Calendly calendars or by texting a link. More in our RingCentral AI receptionist breakdown.
AI Conversation Expert (ACE) is RingCentral’s conversation intelligence product for sales teams: call analysis, coaching and CRM updates, from $60 per user per month.
The AIR math at 150 calls a month, averaging two minutes each: 300 minutes, of which 100 are included, so the other 200 add $100 for $139/month on top of RingEX seats. Busy lines get expensive on per-minute billing.
Either vendor’s AI can answer the phone. The step past that is an agent that reads the caller’s past emails and CRM record before deciding who they should meet. That is what Carly Phone was built for, and you can see Carly Phone on a call. Compare the wider field in best AI receptionists.
Texting: Dialpad Includes More
Dialpad covers the first 250 outbound SMS/MMS per Connect user per month once your business is registered, pooled across the office. Inbound texts cost nothing. Past the allowance, outbound SMS is $0.008 and MMS $0.024, paid from calling credits rather than your monthly bill, and Dialpad warns that if credits run out you can’t send or receive texts. Its help center lists the carrier registration fees: a $4 brand application, a $15 campaign vetting fee, and a monthly campaign fee that averages $1.50 to $10.
RingCentral includes 25 SMS per user per month on Core, 100 on Advanced and 200 on Ultra. The shared SMS inbox, reply templates and compliance tools sit in the Business SMS Booster, a $25 add-on. SMS is not available during the free trial, and RingCentral says TCR registration fees may apply.
For a five-person team, that’s 1,250 included outbound texts a month on Dialpad against 125 on RingCentral Core. If texts are how customers book with you, read SMS appointment booking for business, or see Carly’s shared texting inbox on a call.
Integrations
RingCentral says it has more than 330 integrations, leans hard into Microsoft Teams, and lists LLM plugins and MCP connectors from Core. CRM integrations open at Advanced. See the Claude and RingCentral setup.
Dialpad Standard lists Google Workspace. Pro adds Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zapier, and open APIs and webhooks. See the Claude and Dialpad setup.
Admin and Support
RingCentral is built for several sites, desk phones, toll-free minute pools and meeting rooms, and its admin portal has to cover all of it. In exchange, 24/7 support and professional implementation are listed on every RingEX plan (implementation for two users and up). Negative reviews cluster around billing disputes, number porting and account reps who stop replying.
Dialpad starts self-serve with a 14-day trial, and lists 24/7 support on Pro. Its negative reviews focus on billing and on reaching someone about an annual contract.
If nobody on your team wants to be the phone admin, the Carly team configures routing, after-hours rules and phone menus with you. Get a walkthrough.
Where Dialpad Pulls Ahead
- Entry price. $15 a seat on annual billing, $5 under RingCentral Core.
- Texting. 250 outbound texts per user per month, against 25 on RingCentral Core.
- Transcripts and AI Recaps included on every plan, with no add-on.
- Self-serve start with a 14-day trial.
Where RingCentral Pulls Ahead
- Small teams that need CRM sync. No 3-seat minimum on the tier with integrations.
- An AI receptionist with a posted price that also works on a phone system you already have.
- Everything beyond the phone. Video meetings for up to 300 participants, webinars on Ultra, and a contact center when you outgrow a phone system.
- 24/7 support on every plan, plus toll-free minutes included.
See the rest of the field in RingCentral alternatives and Dialpad alternatives.
Where Carly Phone Fits: When Your Calls Are Leads
RingCentral and Dialpad are phone systems that added AI. Carly Phone is an AI assistant that runs your phone line. When the phone ringing means someone wants to buy, rent or book, that difference shows up on every call.
Take Emily, who runs a property management company. A prospective tenant calls at 8 PM about a listing. A message-taking receptionist collects a number for a callback tomorrow, after the renter has booked two other showings. On Carly Phone, Carly picks up, asks about move-in date, budget and pets, checks the caller against Emily’s criteria, looks at leasing agent Marcus’s real calendar and books the showing on the call. It texts the renter the application link, logs the call in Salesforce with a summary, and if that renter emailed Emily’s office last month about a different unit, Carly already knows.
What the Carly team sets up for you:
- Your business number, new or the one you already have, with calls and texts on the same line.
- Call routing that rings your team all at once or in order, with business-hours and after-hours rules, call flows and phone menus built around how you work.
- An AI receptionist that answers when nobody picks up, answers questions, qualifies callers against your criteria, checks real calendars, books the right person and texts a booking page or application afterwards.
- A shared texting inbox where Carly answers texts and anyone on the team can take a conversation over, with photos, attachments and opt-out handling.
- Voicemail transcripts, call outcomes and summaries in one call inbox you can resolve and reopen.
- CRM logging to Carly’s built-in CRM and to HubSpot, Salesforce or Dynamics 365.
Because it is Carly, the same assistant also handles your email, calendar, scheduling and follow-ups, and connects to thousands of apps. Carly Phone is an add-on for teams, and pricing is set on a short call. The Carly team sets it up with you and you are live after one call. Book a call with the Carly team to see it on your own call flow.
Still weighing every option? Read best small business phone systems, then talk it through with the Carly team.
How to Decide
| Your situation | Pick |
|---|---|
| Lowest entry price for a single office | Dialpad Standard |
| Team that texts customers daily | Dialpad |
| Two-person team that needs CRM sync | RingCentral Advanced |
| Video meetings, multiple sites or desk phones | RingCentral |
| AI receptionist with a posted price | RingCentral AIR |
| Transcripts and call summaries on every call, no add-on | Dialpad |
| Sales team that wants call coaching | RingCentral with ACE |
| Calls are leads to qualify and book on a real calendar | Carly Phone |
FAQ
Is Dialpad cheaper than RingCentral?
At the entry tier, yes. Dialpad Standard is $15 per user per month on annual billing ($27 monthly), and RingCentral RingEX Core is $20 ($30 monthly). At the tier with CRM integrations the two match: Dialpad Pro and RingCentral Advanced are both $25 annual and $35 monthly, though Dialpad Pro has a 3-user minimum.
Does Dialpad or RingCentral require a contract?
Both offer monthly and annual billing, with annual priced lower. RingCentral’s terms auto-renew for the same length as the initial term unless you give notice at least 30 days before it ends. Dialpad’s help center says annual plans are not refunded for unused months, and refunds are only issued within 3 days of the transaction.
Which has better AI, Dialpad or RingCentral?
It depends on the job. Dialpad includes real-time transcription, voicemail transcription and AI Recaps on every Connect plan, and sells AI Agents separately on per-conversation credits. RingCentral includes notes and summaries from Core, and sells AI Receptionist from $39 a month with 100 minutes and AI Conversation Expert from $60 per user. If you want the AI to use a caller’s email and CRM history and book the right person, that is what Carly Phone is set up to do.
Can I use RingCentral AI Receptionist without switching phone systems?
Yes. RingCentral sells AIR as a standalone plan from $49 a month with 100 minutes, and says it works with other phone systems through call forwarding or SIP. Carly Phone also works with the number you already have, and the Carly team sets it up with you.
Which is better for business texting?
Dialpad includes more: the first 250 outbound texts per user per month once you’re registered, then $0.008 per SMS. RingCentral includes 25, 100 or 200 SMS per user per month by plan and puts its shared SMS inbox in a $25 add-on. Both require carrier (TCR) registration.
How do I cancel RingCentral?
Cancellation goes through RingCentral support, and leaving an annual or multi-year term early means paying the remaining term. Check your renewal date first, because notice is due at least 30 days before the term ends. The full steps are in our guide to cancelling RingCentral.
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