RingCentral vs Dialpad in 2026: pricing per user, the seat minimum on Dialpad Pro, and which one is cheaper at your team size
RingCentral costs $20 per user per month on Core, $25 on Advanced and $35 on Ultra billed annually, or $30, $35 and $45 billed monthly. Dialpad Connect costs $15 per user on Standard and $25 on Pro billed annually, or $27 and $35 monthly, with Enterprise quoted. Dialpad is cheaper at the entry tier by $5 a year-billed seat, and at the second tier the two are priced identically, $25 yearly and $35 monthly either way. That tie is where most comparisons stop and where the real difference starts, because Dialpad publishes a three-seat minimum on Pro in its own plan matrix and RingCentral publishes no minimum at all. For one person the same $25 plan is $25 at RingCentral and $75 at Dialpad, and the two only draw level at exactly three seats. The entry tiers separate on capacity rather than price: Dialpad Standard is capped at one office, three ring groups and no hold queue, while RingCentral Core includes a basic call queue and 100 pooled toll-free minutes. Both include a multi-level auto attendant on the entry plan, which is unusual in this category and is the strongest thing the two have in common. Phoner sits alongside both at $15 to $29 per user billed yearly ($19 to $35 month to month) at every tier, 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 RingCentral or Dialpad is genuinely strong
Both of these are strong products and neither pick is a mistake. RingCentral is the reference platform in business communications: phone, video, messaging and a genuine contact center path from one vendor, with the administrative depth, the integration catalogue, the compliance documentation and the account management that a hundred-seat estate needs. Its entry Core plan includes a multi-level auto attendant and a basic call queue at $20, which is unusually generous for an entry tier. Dialpad is the better-built AI product of the two and it is not close: real-time call transcription, voicemail transcription and real-time analytics are on every tier including the $15 one, rather than being sold up. Dialpad also publishes something almost nobody in this category does, a HIPAA and BAA line marked as included on all three Connect tiers, which makes its $15 plan the cheapest published route to a business associate agreement we have found.
Where Phoner fits
Phoner is worth a look here if the thing you actually need is a phone system rather than a platform. RingCentral asks you to buy video meetings and a contact center runway to get a business phone line, and Dialpad asks you to buy an AI suite and, on the plan most teams end up needing, three seats whether you have three people or one. Phoner is the phone part on its own: a visual IVR builder, ring groups written as rules you can read, business texting, voicemail to text, and recording with consent announcements, at $15 to $29 per user billed yearly ($19 to $35 month to month) at every tier, with no seat minimum and no office cap.
In practice the deciding features are usually the IVR phone menu and call routing.
RingCentral vs Dialpad pricing per user, billed yearly and billed monthly, with what each tier can actually do
Every figure below was read on September 3, 2026 from each vendor's own pricing page: RingCentral from its plans and pricing comparison, Dialpad from the pricing object that drives its own currency and billing-term toggles. The seat minimum column is the one that changes the answer, and Dialpad is the only one of the two that publishes one. Note the second rows: RingCentral Advanced and Dialpad Pro carry exactly the same price on both billing terms, which is why the seat minimum decides that matchup rather than the money.
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Seat minimum | What the tier includes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dialpad Connect Standard | $15 | $27 | 1 seat | Multi-level auto attendant, call recording, 3 ring groups, 1 local number per user, one office, no hold queue, no CRM integrations |
| RingCentral Core | $20 | $30 | None published | Multi-level auto attendant and IVR, basic call queue, on-demand recording, 100 pooled toll-free minutes, 25 texts per user |
| Dialpad Connect Pro | $25 | $35 | 3 seats | Adds hold queues, 25 ring groups, up to 10 offices, additional numbers, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Slack, Zapier and open APIs |
| RingCentral Advanced | $25 | $35 | None published | Adds automatic call recording, advanced call queues, 1,000 pooled toll-free minutes, 100 texts per user |
| RingCentral Ultra | $35 | $45 | None published | Adds unlimited storage, 10,000 pooled toll-free minutes, 200 texts per user |
| Dialpad Connect Enterprise | Quote only | Quote only | 100 seats | Adds unlimited ring groups and offices, extensions, and third-party single sign-on |
| Phoner Starter | $15 | $19 | None | A business number, voicemail to text, and the apps |
| Phoner Team | $29 | $35 | None | Adds the visual IVR menu, ring groups, business texting, and recording with consent announcements |
Swipe sideways for the full table
RingCentral prices and feature tiering read from its own plans and pricing page on September 3, 2026 · Dialpad prices, seat minimums and feature tiering read the same day from the pricing object on its own pricing page, which publishes the US figures its price cards render · Dialpad does not publish a toll-free minute allowance, so we leave that cell out rather than guess it · RingCentral also sells a quote-only customer engagement bundle · Phoner figures are our list prices · Telecom taxes, E911 surcharges, federal universal service pass-through and A2P 10dlc text registration are extra on all three · Verify before buying
RingCentral Advanced against Dialpad Pro at 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 people, once the three-seat minimum is counted
These two plans are priced identically on both billing terms, $25 per user yearly and $35 monthly. Dialpad publishes a minimum of three seats on Pro in its own plan matrix; RingCentral publishes no minimum on Advanced. So the identical rate produces two very different invoices below three people, and the columns only converge at exactly three. This is the whole comparison for a small team, and it is the number the roundups leave out. The arithmetic is ours from the published rates above so you can check it.
| Team size | RingCentral Advanced, yearly | Dialpad Pro, yearly | RingCentral Advanced, monthly | Dialpad Pro, monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $25 | $75 | $35 | $105 |
| 2 people | $50 | $75 | $70 | $105 |
| 3 people | $75 | $75 | $105 | $105 |
| 5 people | $125 | $125 | $175 | $175 |
| 10 people | $250 | $250 | $350 | $350 |
| Cheaper of the two | RingCentral below 3 people | Level from 3 people up | RingCentral below 3 people | Level from 3 people up |
Swipe sideways for the full table
Dialpad pro columns are three seats billed at $25 and $35 for any team of one or two, because three is the published minimum · RingCentral advanced is billed per actual seat · The two products are not identical at this price: Dialpad pro adds CRM integrations and up to 10 offices, RingCentral advanced adds automatic call recording and 1,000 pooled toll-free minutes · Figures exclude taxes and regulatory fees
The seven things that decide this one, and none of them are on the price cards
The second tiers are priced identically, so the seat minimum is the entire difference
RingCentral Advanced and Dialpad Pro are both $25 per user billed yearly and $35 billed monthly. Not similar, identical, on both terms. Almost every comparison of these two treats that as a draw and moves on to feature lists, which misses the only thing that changes the bill. Dialpad publishes a "Seat minimums" row in its own plan matrix reading 1 for Standard, 3 for Pro and 100 for Enterprise. RingCentral publishes no minimum on any RingEX tier. If you are a two-person practice that needs CRM integration, you are buying three Dialpad seats at $75 a month for two people, against $50 at RingCentral for the same headline price. The two only draw level at exactly three seats, and from there up the money is genuinely a tie and you should choose on features instead. Work out your seat count before you compare these two, because below three it decides the answer on its own.
Dialpad Standard is capped at one office, and that catches people out later rather than at signup
The same Dialpad matrix carries an "Office maximums" row: 1 on Standard, 10 on Pro, unlimited on Enterprise. An office in Dialpad is a location with its own main number, its own auto attendant and its own business hours. One office is fine for a single-site business and it is a wall the moment you open a second location, take on a satellite team with its own published number, or want a separate menu for a different brand. It is not a feature you miss on day one, which is precisely why it bites in month eight, when the fix is a move from $15 to $25 per seat for everybody plus the three-seat floor. RingCentral does not cap locations this way and includes multi-location IVR routing on Core, with up to 250 voice menus and submenus per account. If you can see a second address in your plans, price Dialpad at Pro from the start.
Both include a multi-level auto attendant on the entry plan, which is rare and worth knowing
This is the strongest thing these two have in common and it separates them from most of the category. RingCentral Core at $20 includes multi-level auto attendant and IVR, scalable to 250 voice menus and submenus per account, with separate menus for multiple locations. Dialpad Standard at $15 lists multi-level auto attendant as included as well. On Google Voice the menu does not appear until Standard at $20, which is $27 once the Workspace license Google requires is counted. On Quo it waits for the $23 Business plan. On our own product it is on Team at $29. So if a phone menu is the reason you are shopping, both of these give it to you at the bottom of the range and either would do the job. Judge them on what surrounds the menu instead: on Dialpad Standard the menu can only hand off to three ring groups and there is no hold queue behind it, while RingCentral Core includes a basic call queue at $20.
Ring groups are capped at three on Dialpad Standard and there is no hold queue behind them
Dialpad publishes the cap plainly: departments and ring groups are limited to 3 on Standard, 25 on Pro and unlimited on Enterprise, and the "Hold queues" row is empty on Standard. Three groups is enough for sales, support and billing and nothing else, and no hold queue means that when all three people in a group are busy, the caller is not held in order and told where they are. They fall through to voicemail. For a five-person business that answers its own phone this is often fine and the $15 price is honest. For anyone whose callers routinely arrive faster than they can be answered, the missing queue is the thing that will make you upgrade, and the upgrade is to Pro at $25 with its three-seat floor. RingCentral includes a basic call queue on Core at $20 and advanced queue rules, including routing on maximum wait time, from Advanced.
CRM integrations are a real Pro gate at Dialpad and are not a gate at the same level on RingCentral
Dialpad's own matrix leaves Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Slack, Zapier, Microsoft Teams and open APIs and webhooks blank on Standard and marks them included from Pro. Only the Google Workspace integration is on the $15 plan. That is a clean, honest gate and it means the real Dialpad price for a team that logs calls against CRM records is $25 with a three-seat minimum, not $15. RingCentral tiers its integration catalogue differently across Core, Advanced and Ultra and we are not going to assert a specific tier placement for individual connectors from a page that describes them in prose rather than in a grid; ask your rep to confirm the one connector you actually need in writing before you sign. The general point holds either way: if a CRM is in your workflow, neither vendor's entry price is your price.
RingCentral publishes what it meters and Dialpad does not, which cuts both ways
RingCentral is unusually specific about its limits, and the limits are tighter than the marketing suggests. Toll-free minutes are pooled across the whole account rather than granted per user: 100 a month on Core, 1,000 on Advanced, 10,000 on Ultra, with overage at 3.9 cents a minute. A hundred minutes is under two hours of inbound toll-free calling for the entire company. Business texting runs the other way, per user per month, at 25 on Core, 100 on Advanced and 200 on Ultra, and 25 texts is roughly one a working day. Dialpad lists toll-free number support and SMS and MMS as included on every Connect tier and publishes no allowance for either, so we are leaving those cells out rather than inventing them. Published-and-small beats unpublished for planning purposes: you can budget around RingCentral's 100 minutes, and you cannot budget around a number that does not exist. Ask Dialpad for its toll-free and messaging fair-use limits in writing.
Call recording is included at both entry prices, but only one of them tells you which kind
RingCentral spells the distinction out on its own comparison: Core gets on-demand recording only, and automatic recording of every call arrives on Advanced at $25. Dialpad marks call recording as included on all three Connect tiers without splitting on-demand from automatic, so we are not going to claim it does either specifically. The distinction is not a detail. On-demand means a person has to remember to press record, which is fine for occasional coaching and useless for an obligation that says every call is captured. If all-calls recording is a requirement, RingCentral Advanced at $25 is a documented yes and Dialpad Pro at $25 is a question for their sales team. Either way, recording consent is governed by state wiretap law rather than by your phone system, and eleven states require every party on the call to agree before you record it.
Who should pick which
Pick RingCentral or Dialpad if
Pick RingCentral if you are one or two people who need the second tier, if you publish a toll-free number and want a published minute allowance, if you run more than one location, or if you are at a scale where contact center, single sign-on and a named account team matter. Pick Dialpad if you have three or more people, you want the best call transcription and live analytics in the category included rather than sold up, and you need a documented BAA on an entry-priced plan.
Their list price: RingCentral $20-35/user · Dialpad $15-25/user, 3-seat minimum on Pro
Pick Phoner if
Pick Phoner if you want a phone menu, ring groups, texting, recording with consent announcements, and toll-free and vanity numbers at $5 each, without a seat minimum, an office cap or an annual commitment. Team is $29 per user and stays $35 month to month if you would rather not sign for a year. We do not sign a BAA, so a covered entity should buy one of the other two.
Phoner: $15-29/user/mo yearly, $19-35 monthly
Leaving RingCentral or Dialpad 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 RingCentral or Dialpad 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 · RingCentral or Dialpad → Phoner
Sign up for Phoner and submit the port with a recent RingCentral or Dialpad bill.
Keep answering on RingCentral or Dialpad. The number never goes dark.
In 1-2 weeks calls ring your Phoner apps. Cancel the old account.
Porting fee: $0 · Downtime: None
Compare RingCentral or Dialpad against a specific competitor
This page weighs RingCentral or Dialpad against Phoner. If you are choosing between two other vendors instead, these pages put both of their rate cards in one table.
RingCentral alternatives
The full RingCentral rate card priced yearly and monthly, with the pooled toll-free minutes and per-user text caps the headline $20 hides, and the cheaper systems small teams move to.
Dialpad alternatives
What Dialpad Connect costs at each tier, what the three-seat minimum on Pro does to a small team's bill, and the systems people move to when they want the phone part without the platform.
Quo vs Dialpad
The other Dialpad matchup: a per-seat product with no minimum against one with a three-seat floor, and where each lands for a text-heavy team.
Google Voice vs RingCentral
The Workspace license Google says is required underneath every business Voice tier, and how it turns a $10 plan into a $17 one before you compare anything.
Common questions about switching
Which is better, RingCentral or Dialpad?
Dialpad is better for a team of three or more that wants the strongest call transcription and live analytics in the category included on every tier, and it is $5 cheaper per year-billed seat at entry. RingCentral is better for one or two people, for multi-location businesses, for anyone who publishes a toll-free number and wants a stated minute allowance, and for anyone who needs automatic recording of every call documented rather than assumed.
Is Dialpad cheaper than RingCentral?
At the entry tier yes, by $5 a seat billed yearly and $3 billed monthly: Dialpad Standard is $15 and $27, RingCentral Core is $20 and $30. At the second tier they are identical at $25 yearly and $35 monthly. But Dialpad publishes a three-seat minimum on Pro and RingCentral publishes none, so for one or two people the same $25 plan costs $75 at Dialpad and $25 or $50 at RingCentral.
How much does Dialpad cost per user per month?
Dialpad Connect Standard is $15 per user per month billed annually and $27 billed monthly, Pro is $25 and $35, and Enterprise is quote only. Those figures were read on September 3, 2026 from the pricing object on Dialpad's own pricing page. Pro carries a three-seat minimum and Enterprise a hundred-seat minimum, so the smallest Pro bill is $75 a month billed annually.
How much does RingCentral cost per user per month?
RingCentral Core is $20 per user per month billed annually and $30 billed monthly, Advanced is $25 and $35, and Ultra is $35 and $45, read from RingCentral's own plans and pricing page on September 3, 2026. A Customer Engagement Bundle is quote only. RingCentral publishes no seat minimum on any of these tiers.
Does Dialpad have a minimum number of users?
Yes, and it varies by plan. Dialpad's own plan matrix publishes seat minimums of 1 on Standard, 3 on Pro and 100 on Enterprise. So a solo operator can buy Standard at $15, but the cheapest Pro invoice is three seats at $25 each, which is $75 a month billed annually or $105 billed monthly, however few people you actually have.
Does Dialpad have an auto attendant on the cheapest plan?
Yes. Dialpad lists a multi-level auto attendant as included on Connect Standard at $15 per user billed annually, which is one of the cheapest published routes to a multi-level phone menu in this category. What Standard does not include is a hold queue, and its ring groups are capped at three, so the menu can answer and route but it cannot hold a caller in line when everyone is busy.
Does RingCentral Core include an auto attendant?
Yes. RingCentral includes multi-level auto attendant and IVR on Core at $20 per user billed annually, with up to 250 voice menus and submenus per account and separate menus for multiple locations. Core also includes a basic call queue. Advanced call queue rules, such as routing on maximum wait time, arrive on Advanced at $25.
How many toll-free minutes do RingCentral and Dialpad include?
RingCentral includes 100 toll-free minutes a month on Core, 1,000 on Advanced and 10,000 on Ultra, pooled across the whole account rather than per user, with overage at 3.9 cents a minute. Dialpad lists toll-free number support on every Connect tier but publishes no minute allowance, so ask for its fair-use limit in writing before you rely on a toll-free line there.
Do RingCentral and Dialpad sign a HIPAA BAA?
Both have a documented route. Dialpad marks HIPAA and BAA compliance as included on all three Connect tiers in its own plan matrix, which makes its $15 Standard plan the cheapest published tier carrying a BAA that we have found. RingCentral states in its own March 2026 HIPAA document that it makes a business associate agreement available to paying Covered Entity customers and names no required tier. A signed BAA does not make a deployment compliant on its own.
Can I port my number from RingCentral or Dialpad?
Yes. FCC local number portability rules let you keep your numbers when you change providers in the same area, and a carrier cannot refuse to release a number over an unpaid balance. Check your contract end date first, because annual agreements at both vendors can carry early-termination charges even after the number has moved. Porting into Phoner is free and usually takes 1 to 2 weeks.
Is there a better alternative to both RingCentral and Dialpad?
It depends which constraint you are avoiding. Phoner is $15 to $29 per user billed yearly ($19 to $35 month to month) at every tier, with no seat minimum, no office cap, a visual IVR builder, ring groups, business texting, recording with consent announcements, and toll-free and vanity numbers at $5 each. Quo, formerly OpenPhone, suits text-heavy teams at $15 to $35. Grasshopper bills flat per account from $14 if you would rather not pay per seat at all.
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