Aircall vs RingCentral: which cloud phone should you choose in 2026?

Aircall is a cloud phone for sales and support; RingCentral's RingEX is a business phone plan. Price, power dialer, SMS, routing and CRM compared.

Published 20 October 2026. Prices and features from each vendor's own pages.

The short answer

AircallPaid from $30/seat

Choose it if your reps dial lists all day and you want a power dialer with voicemail drop.

RingCentralPaid from $20/seat

Choose it if you want a business phone with a number for every user from $20.

PromptLabIn the CRM from $23.99/seat

Choose it if your reps call customers they already work with, not long cold lists.

Aircall and RingCentral both give a team cloud phone numbers, call recording and SMS, but they start from different places. Aircall is a phone system for sales and support teams, with a shared inbox, and a power dialer from its Professional plan. RingCentral's RingEX is a business phone plan that also covers meetings and team messaging.

Below, the two are compared on price, the dialer, SMS and numbers, and AI and CRM integrations. We use RingEX for RingCentral, because it is the plan that competes with Aircall's. Every figure comes from the vendors' own pricing and product pages; prices are per user a month, billed annually, unless we say otherwise.

Aircall vs RingCentral at a glance

With PromptLab in the third column: the same job done inside a CRM.

Aircall vs RingCentral, with PromptLab: prices and features
Checked on 20 October 2026	Aircall	RingCentral	PromptLab
Pricing
Free plan
Paid plans, a month	$30 – $50per seat	$20 – $25per seat	$23.99per seat on Professional
Free trial		14 days
Billing	Billed annually	Billed annually	Billed monthly
Sales calling
Phone numbers	1 local or toll-free	1 per user	1 local, US or Canada
Call recording
Call transcripts and AI summaries	From$50/month
Power dialer	From$50/month
SMS from the same number
IVR and call routing
CRM integrations	250+	From$25/month	Built in

Pricing: $30 to $50 against $20 to $25

Aircall has Essentials at $30 a licence and Professional at $50, both billed annually, and paying annually saves 25%. Every plan needs at least 3 licences, and Enterprise, for teams of 25 or more, is custom priced. RingEX has Core at $20 and Advanced at $25 a user, or $30 and $35 billed monthly. Its two AI Customer Engagement bundles are by quote, and so are teams of more than 100 users.

Both offer a free trial and neither has a free plan. RingCentral's trial lasts 14 days and doesn't include SMS. Aircall's pricing page says you can test the platform before committing, without giving a length.

Working through call lists

Aircall's Power Dialer, voicemail drop and outbound call campaigns start on Professional at $50; Essentials only has AI Voice Agent campaigns. On outbound minutes, its plan table asks you to contact Aircall for domestic rates on Essentials and Professional, while its pricing FAQ says domestic outbound calling is unlimited in the US and Canada. Check which applies before you sign.

RingEX's plan page lists no power dialer. RingCentral sells a separate contact centre product, RingCX, from $65 a user. RingEX Core does include unlimited calling in the US and Canada and on-demand call recording, with automatic recording from Advanced.

Texts, numbers and inbound routing

Aircall's Essentials already includes a shared inbox, IVR, call routing, and SMS and MMS. SMS covers unlimited inbound messages and 4,000 outbound a user a month, in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, France and Germany. One local or toll-free number is included in each plan, and each extra number is $6 a month.

RingEX Core includes 25 SMS a user a month and Advanced includes 100. Automated or marketing SMS is sold separately as High Volume SMS, from $0.0119 a message. Every plan has a multi-level auto attendant and IVR, basic call queues and a dedicated number per user, and extra numbers are $4.99 a month each.

AI notes and CRM links

On Aircall, Essentials includes AI transcripts. Call summaries, key topics and sentiment analysis are on Professional, or need the AI Assist add-on on Essentials. AI Assist Pro, with real-time help during calls, is a $49 a seat add-on. HubSpot, Zendesk and Pipedrive integrations are on Essentials, and Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud are on Professional.

RingCentral's AI Assistant for Phone transcribes calls on every plan and takes notes and action items in the desktop and mobile apps. Conversational Intelligence, for AI sales insights, is an add-on from $60. CRM integrations start on Advanced at $25, and RingCentral lists 330+ integrations across 200+ companies.

We make PromptLab, so here is where it fits.

Or call from inside your CRM

PromptLab's Professional plan has a dialer in the browser. You get a local US or Canadian number, call contacts from their record and take inbound calls, with voicemail for the ones you miss.

Every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, and the action items land on the contact. Two-way SMS runs from the same number. There's no power dialer or IVR, so a team that works long call lists will still want a dedicated dialer.

See what's in each plan

Try PromptLab freeIncluded in PromptLab Professional, from $23.99 a user a month, with a 14-day free trial.

Which should you choose?

Choose Aircall if…

Your reps dial lists all day and you want a power dialer with voicemail drop.
You want a shared inbox, IVR and SMS across six countries from the first plan.
You use HubSpot, Zendesk or Pipedrive and want the integration on the entry plan.

Choose RingCentral if…

You want a business phone with a number for every user from $20.
You want unlimited US and Canada calling, an auto attendant and meetings together.
You want 330+ integrations to choose from, with CRM links from $25.

Choose PromptLab if…

Your reps call customers they already work with, not long cold lists.
You want every call recorded, summarised and logged on the contact without a sync.
You want calls, SMS, email and WhatsApp in one CRM.

Frequently asked questions

Is RingCentral cheaper than Aircall?

Yes. RingEX is $20 to $25 a user a month billed annually, against $30 to $50 for Aircall. Aircall also needs at least 3 licences on every plan.

Does Aircall have a power dialer?

Yes, on Professional at $50 a licence, along with voicemail drop and outbound call campaigns. Essentials doesn't include it.

Does RingCentral have a power dialer?

RingEX's plan page lists none. RingCentral's contact centre product, RingCX, is sold separately from $65 a user.

Which includes more SMS, Aircall or RingCentral?

Aircall: unlimited inbound and 4,000 outbound messages a user a month, in six countries. RingEX Core includes 25 SMS a user a month and Advanced includes 100, with High Volume SMS sold separately from $0.0119 a message.

Is there a CRM with a built-in dialer?

Yes. PromptLab's Professional plan, at $23.99 a user a month, includes a browser dialer with a local US or Canadian number, call recording, transcripts, AI summaries and two-way SMS, with a 14-day free trial.