CMP-10 OPENPHONE VS RINGCENTRAL
OpenPhone vs RingCentral in 2026: pricing, phone menus, and the difference between them for small teams
OpenPhone, which rebranded to Quo in 2026, starts at $15 per user per month billed yearly against RingCentral Core at $20, so OpenPhone looks cheaper on the headline rate. That ranking reverses the moment you need an auto attendant. RingCentral includes a multi-level phone menu on its $20 entry plan, while Quo puts phone menus on Business at $23 yearly and $33 monthly, which makes RingCentral the cheaper of the two for any business where callers need to hear options and be routed. The wider difference is what each one meters: RingCentral caps toll-free minutes and business texts on every plan, and Quo meters its AI automation in per-call credits. Phoner sits alongside both at $15 to $29 per user, month to month, with no seat minimum.
The full ranked field is in the guide to the best VoIP for small business, entry pricing for every provider sits yearly against monthly in the business phone system comparison, and Phoner's plans are listed in plain dollars on the pricing page.
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WHERE OPENPHONE OR RINGCENTRAL IS GENUINELY STRONG
Both of these are good products and the comparison is genuinely close. OpenPhone, now Quo, has the better shared inbox: calls and texts land in one thread, teammates can comment internally on a conversation, and the apps are polished enough that text-heavy teams rarely want to leave. It also now bundles an AI agent and an API on the entry plan. RingCentral is the deeper system. It includes a multi-level auto attendant on its $20 Core plan, which most rivals hold back for a higher tier, and it carries the administration, reporting, single sign-on and desk phone support that a company with an IT function actually uses. If you have more than about 25 people, RingCentral is built for you in a way Quo is not.
WHERE PHONER FITS
Phoner is worth a look on this page for one specific reason: it is the only one of the three that never asks you to sign for a year to get a fair price. The gap between the yearly and monthly column is 27 percent at Phoner, against 50 percent at RingCentral Core and 43 percent at Quo Business. If you are shopping precisely because a contract went badly, that gap is the number that matters. You also get a visual IVR builder you can inspect before you pay, ring groups written as readable rules, and recording with per-line consent announcements.
In practice the deciding features are usually the IVR phone menu and call routing and ring groups.
OpenPhone vs RingCentral pricing, yearly against monthly, with Phoner in the same table
Read this table by column, not by row. Almost every comparison of these two quotes Quo's annual price against RingCentral's monthly one, which makes the gap look roughly twice as big as it is. Both vendors' figures were read from their own pricing pages on August 11, 2026. RingCentral Core is $20 per user billed yearly and $30 billed monthly, a 50 percent premium for not signing for a year, which is the steepest of the three products here.
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | The annual lock-in premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quo Starter (formerly OpenPhone) | $15 per user | $19 per user | 27 percent |
| Quo Business | $23 per user | $33 per user | 43 percent |
| Quo Scale | $35 per user | $47 per user | 34 percent |
| RingCentral Core | $20 per user | $30 per user | 50 percent |
| RingCentral Advanced | $25 per user | $35 per user | 40 percent |
| RingCentral Ultra | $35 per user | $45 per user | 29 percent |
| Phoner Starter | $15 per user | $19 per user | 27 percent |
| Phoner Team | $29 per user | $35 per user | 21 percent |
Swipe sideways for the full table
QUO AND RINGCENTRAL FIGURES READ FROM THEIR OWN PRICING PAGES ON AUGUST 11, 2026 AND CHANGE OFTEN · PHONER FIGURES ARE OUR LIST PRICES · TELECOM TAXES, FEDERAL UNIVERSAL SERVICE PASS-THROUGH AND A2P 10DLC TEXT REGISTRATION ARE EXTRA ON ALL THREE · VERIFY BEFORE BUYING
The cheapest plan at each vendor that actually includes an auto attendant
This is the table that changes people's minds, and it is the one nobody publishes. On the headline rate Quo wins: $15 against RingCentral's $20. But a phone menu that answers and routes callers is the single most common reason a small business buys one of these products at all, and the three vendors put it on different tiers. Once you price the cheapest plan that actually carries an auto attendant, the ranking inverts and RingCentral becomes the cheapest of the two. The five-seat column is the same plan multiplied out over a year, because per-user pricing hides how quickly a $3 difference compounds.
| Vendor | Entry plan | Cheapest plan with an auto attendant | That plan, billed monthly | 5 seats for a year, billed yearly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RingCentral | $20 Core | $20 Core, multi-level menu included | $30 per user | $1,200 |
| Quo (formerly OpenPhone) | $15 Starter | $23 Business, menu is not on Starter | $33 per user | $1,380 |
| Phoner | $15 Starter | $29 Team, visual builder | $35 per user | $1,740 |
Swipe sideways for the full table
RINGCENTRAL IS THE CHEAPEST AUTO ATTENDANT OF THE THREE AND WE ARE THE MOST EXPENSIVE · WE PUBLISH IT BECAUSE IT IS TRUE · WHAT THE EXTRA BUYS AT OUR TIER IS A VISUAL BUILDER, MONTH-TO-MONTH BILLING AND UNMETERED TOLL-FREE MINUTES · FIGURES VERIFIED AUGUST 11, 2026
What actually separates OpenPhone and RingCentral once the prices are level
They meter completely different things, and neither leads with it
This is the difference that shows up on the second month's bill rather than the pricing page. RingCentral meters toll-free minutes and business texts on every plan: Core includes 100 toll-free minutes pooled across the whole account and 25 texts per user per month, Advanced 1,000 and 100, Ultra 10,000 and 200. Quo meters its AI automation instead, in credits, and charges $0.01 per outgoing text sent through the API, Zapier or Make. If you publish a toll-free number and expect volume, read RingCentral's allowance carefully. If you automate texts, read Quo's.
100 toll-free minutes across the whole account is under two hours a month
RingCentral's toll-free allowance is pooled per account, not per user, which is easy to misread as a per-seat figure. On Core that is 100 minutes for the entire company. A five-person team is sharing 20 minutes each per month, and a single long support call can take a meaningful bite out of it. Additional minutes are available to buy, which is fine, but it means the toll-free number you advertise is a metered line rather than an included one until you reach Advanced at 1,000 minutes.
Quo now bundles an AI agent, and prices it per conversation
Every Quo plan includes its Sona AI agent with 1,000 automation credits, which the pricing page equates to 10 AI-handled calls. Beyond that you buy a credit tier: $25 for 40 calls, $49 for 100, $99 for 250, or $199 for 600, with overage running from $1.00 per call down to $0.45 on the largest tier. Unusually for this category, the bundled rate is cheaper than the overage rate at every tier, so prepaying is genuinely the better deal rather than a premium for commitment. Phoner has no AI receptionist, so if that is the feature you are shopping for, this row goes to Quo.
On-demand and automatic recording are not the same purchase
RingCentral Core includes on-demand recording, where somebody presses a button during the call. Automatic recording, which starts every call without anyone remembering, arrives on Advanced at $25. If your reason for recording is compliance or training, on-demand is usually the wrong tool, because the calls that most needed recording are the ones nobody thought to record. Price Advanced, not Core, if the file has to exist reliably. Live call monitoring with whisper and barge is also unavailable on Core.
One is app-first and one still expects desk phones
RingCentral supports and resells standard SIP handsets, and a company replacing an old PBX usually keeps the Poly, Yealink, Grandstream or Cisco sets already on the desks. Quo is deliberately app-first with limited handset support, which is a feature if you are done with hardware and a hard stop if you are not. Phoner supports standard SIP desk phones as an option. Proprietary digital handsets wired to an old key system do not reprovision to any cloud provider, whichever you pick.
The name change means half the comparisons you are reading are stale
OpenPhone became Quo in 2026. Plenty of articles still ranking for the old name were written before the rebrand and before the current plan structure, so their tables show prices and tier names that no longer exist, including a Business tier that has since moved. Check the date on anything you read about this matchup, this page included, and confirm the plan names on each vendor's own site before you sign. Both companies change pricing more often than the comparison sites update.
Who should pick which
PICK OPENPHONE OR RINGCENTRAL IF
Pick Quo, formerly OpenPhone, if your customers text you more than they call and a shared message inbox is the product you are really buying. Pick RingCentral if you have an IT function, desk phones on desks, or more than about 25 seats, and you want reporting, single sign-on and multi-site administration in one place. RingCentral is also the cheaper of the two if the only advanced feature you need is an auto attendant.
THEIR LIST PRICE: QUO $15-35/USER · RINGCENTRAL $20-35/USER
PICK PHONER IF
Pick Phoner if you want the phone system without the annual contract or the suite: a visual IVR phone menu you can see before you buy, ring groups with rules in plain language, business texting, and recording with consent announcements, from $15 per user with no seat minimum and no year up front.
PHONER: $15-29/USER/MO, MONTH TO MONTH
Leaving OpenPhone or RingCentral does not mean a new number
Your number is yours and moves with you. Phoner's free number porting takes about 1-2 weeks, and the line keeps ringing on OpenPhone or RingCentral until the moment it switches over. Set up your phone menu and ring groups in Phoner while you wait, then the cutover is invisible to callers.
PORT ORDER · OPENPHONE OR RINGCENTRAL → PHONER
Sign up for Phoner and submit the port with a recent OpenPhone or RingCentral bill.
Keep answering on OpenPhone or RingCentral. The number never goes dark.
In 1-2 weeks calls ring your Phoner apps. Cancel the old account.
PORTING FEE: $0 · DOWNTIME: NONE
Common questions about switching
Is OpenPhone cheaper than RingCentral?
On the entry plan yes: Quo, formerly OpenPhone, is $15 per user per month billed yearly against RingCentral Core at $20. On the cheapest plan that includes an auto attendant, no. RingCentral includes a multi-level phone menu on Core at $20, while Quo puts phone menus on Business at $23 yearly and $33 monthly, so RingCentral is the cheaper of the two for most businesses that need callers routed automatically.
What is the difference between OpenPhone and RingCentral?
OpenPhone, now Quo, is built around a shared inbox where calls and texts land in one thread, and suits small text-heavy teams that own no hardware. RingCentral is a full communications suite with deeper administration, reporting, single sign-on, video and desk phone support, aimed at larger organizations with an IT function. Quo is cheaper to enter and RingCentral goes further.
How much does OpenPhone cost per user?
Quo, formerly OpenPhone, publishes Starter at $15 per user per month billed yearly and $19 billed monthly, Business at $23 and $33, and Scale at $35 and $47, per its pricing page on August 11, 2026. Phone menus, group calling, call transfers and the HubSpot and Salesforce integrations sit on Business rather than Starter.
How much does RingCentral cost per user?
RingCentral RingEX is $20 per user per month on Core, $25 on Advanced and $35 on Ultra billed yearly, or $30, $35 and $45 on the same plans billed monthly. That is a 50 percent premium at Core for not signing an annual contract. The Customer Engagement Bundle is quote-only.
Does OpenPhone have an auto attendant?
Yes, but not on the entry plan. Quo supports phone menus on its Business tier at $23 per user billed yearly and $33 monthly, not on the $15 Starter plan that usually gets quoted in recommendations. RingCentral includes a multi-level auto attendant on its $20 Core plan, which is why the two products swap places once a phone menu is a requirement.
Which is better for a small business, OpenPhone or RingCentral?
Under about 10 people with no desk phones and a lot of inbound texting, Quo usually wins on fit rather than price. Above roughly 25 seats, or anywhere with handsets, single sign-on or multi-site administration, RingCentral is built for the job and Quo is not. Between those two points it comes down to whether you need an auto attendant, which makes RingCentral cheaper, or a shared text inbox, which makes Quo better.
Do OpenPhone or RingCentral require a minimum number of users?
Neither publishes a seat minimum, so you can buy a single license from either. That is worth confirming because it is not universal in this category: both published Aircall plans require three licenses, which puts its smallest possible bill at $90 a month regardless of headcount. Phoner also has no seat minimum.
How many toll-free minutes does RingCentral include?
RingCentral includes 100 toll-free minutes on Core, 1,000 on Advanced and 10,000 on Ultra. The allowance is pooled across the entire account rather than per user, so a five-person team on Core is sharing 100 minutes a month between them, not 500. Additional minutes can be purchased. Quo does not meter toll-free minutes this way.
Can I keep my number if I switch from OpenPhone or RingCentral?
Yes. Under FCC local number portability rules you keep your numbers when you change providers in the same area, and a carrier cannot refuse to release a number because there is an unpaid balance. Porting into Phoner is free and usually takes 1 to 2 weeks, with your existing line still ringing on the old provider until the cutover completes.
Is there a better alternative to both OpenPhone and RingCentral?
It depends on which compromise you are trying to avoid. Phoner at $15 to $29 per user is month to month at every tier, with a visual IVR builder, ring groups, business texting and recording with consent announcements, and no seat minimum. Google Voice is cheaper at $10 but caps at 10 users, has no auto attendant on that tier and needs Google Workspace underneath. Nextiva and Dialpad are the other two commonly shortlisted at this size.
Does RingCentral record calls automatically?
Not on the entry plan. Core includes on-demand recording only, where a user presses a button during the call. Automatic recording of every call starts on Advanced at $25 per user billed yearly. If you are recording for compliance or training rather than the occasional note, price Advanced, because on-demand recording depends on somebody remembering.
Why do people still search for OpenPhone if it is called Quo?
The rebrand happened in 2026 and search behavior lags brand changes by a long time. Quo kept the product and the accounts, but the name and pricing page changed, so most buyers still look for it as OpenPhone and most comparison articles still carry the old name. Both names refer to the same product throughout this page.
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