Grasshopper is worth considering for entrepreneurs and small teams that want a business number, shared calling and texting, and a simple price that does not increase with every user on its shared-user plans. RingCentral is the stronger starting point for businesses that need connected CRM workflows, employee meetings and messaging, and broader administration. The most useful comparison is between the complete phone setup each business actually needs.
This Grasshopper vs RingCentral guide compares pricing, calling features, integrations, AI, apps, international access, support and business fit in 2026. RingCentral RingEX is the employee phone-system product discussed here; RingCX contact-centre requirements need a separate assessment.
Customer Ratings at a Glance
Grasshopper — TrustRadius: 6.1/10 from 94 reviews and ratings.
RingCentral RingEX — TrustRadius: 8.8/10 from 543 reviews and ratings.
Grasshopper vs RingCentral: Quick Overview
| Requirement | Grasshopper | RingCentral RingEX |
|---|---|---|
| Starting reference | True Solo: $14/month equivalent, billed annually | Core: $20/user/month, billed annually |
| Team pricing | Solo Plus and Small Business include unlimited users | Published Core reference is per user |
| Number allocation | One number on True Solo/Solo Plus; four on Small Business | One number per user at the Core reference |
| Number coverage | US and Canadian business numbers, including local and toll-free options; no overseas local-number catalogue | International number options depend on country, number type and service availability |
| Everyday focus | Business calls, texts, voicemail and shared customer conversations | Employee calling, messaging, meetings and business-app workflows |
| AI | Advertises call summaries and sentiment analysis | Employee assistance and specialist AI products; verify package |
| International calling | Paid access; rates page requires an account older than 60 days and activation | International rates, plans or bundles; local deployment is a separate check |
| Evaluation | Explore the 7-day Grasshopper trial | Explore the 14-day RingCentral trial |
Pricing: Grasshopper Bundles Users, RingCentral Prices Seats
Grasshopper annual plan references
| Plan | Annual monthly equivalent | Included allocation |
|---|---|---|
| True Solo | $14/month; $168/year | 1 user, 1 number, 1 extension |
| Solo Plus | $25/month; $300/year | Unlimited users, 1 number, 3 extensions |
| Small Business | $55/month; $660/year | Unlimited users, 4 numbers, unlimited extensions |
These are annual billing references, not month-to-month prices. Grasshopper offers both billing terms; confirm the monthly price and any offer in the selected checkout. Taxes and optional services can affect the invoice.
Unlimited users on Solo Plus and Small Business do not mean an unlimited number of included phone numbers. A team can share a main business number without giving every employee an individual direct number.
RingCentral starting reference
RingCentral publishes Core at $20/user/month billed annually, including one number per user. Obtain a current quote for higher packages, specialist AI and contact-centre products.
A practical five-person example
Five people sharing a single number can compare Grasshopper Solo Plus at $25 monthly equivalent on annual billing with five RingCentral Core seats at $100 monthly equivalent. The RingCentral reference includes five numbers rather than one.
If the Grasshopper team needs five numbers, Small Business includes four at $55 monthly equivalent, and one extra number is listed at $9/month. That illustrates a $64 monthly reference before other charges. It remains a different feature configuration from five RingCentral seats.
Compare the required numbers, extensions, routing and apps before using the price difference as a buying conclusion. If a business needs CRM activity logging or wider employee communications, include the cost and effort of supplying those capabilities.
Extra Costs: Build the Invoice Around the Required Setup
Grasshopper lists extra numbers at $9/month each, extra extensions at $3/month each, and Call Blasting at $9/month. Professional Voice Studio greetings are listed at $75/order. Confirm applicability to the selected plan before purchasing.
International calling and virtual-receptionist services are additional considerations. The receptionist offering is presented as an add-on with AI, human or hybrid options. Do not treat a reception service as an unlimited included employee in the ordinary phone subscription.
For RingCentral, identify the package needed for the required routing, integration and reporting. Additional numbers, specialist products, implementation and messaging conditions can change the total.
Ask each provider for an estimate using the same employee count and number list. Include the billing term, optional products and expected international usage. Promotional savings should be considered separately from the ongoing renewal cost.
A small business with one main number may see a substantial licence saving with Grasshopper. A business maintaining many direct numbers should calculate the extra-number cost before assuming the same saving applies.
Calling Features: Shared Customer Access vs Wider Office Communications
Grasshopper for a shared business number
Grasshopper offers greetings, voicemail, forwarding, extensions, phone-menu options and business-hour handling. Its shared inbox and unified conversation view bring customer calls, texts and voicemail together.
A local service company can use one main number and direct callers to the employee or department available to help. Solo Plus provides three included extensions; Small Business is the relevant comparison when more extension flexibility and several numbers are needed.
Grasshopper currently advertises call recording. Older comparisons that say the service cannot record calls miss its newer offering. Confirm the plan, recording setup and retention requirements for the intended use.
RingCentral for an employee communications environment
RingCentral offers forwarding, shared lines, visual voicemail, device switching and IVR options, alongside employee messaging and meetings. The selected package determines feature and administration entitlement.
For a business coordinating reception, management and several departments, that wider environment can be useful. A small operation mainly handling a shared customer number may place more value on simple access and predictable pricing.
Test the main customer journey with both: incoming enquiry, correct department, transfer, no answer and voicemail. If several employees should ring together, confirm whether that needs an optional Grasshopper Call Blasting setup and which RingCentral feature supports the same flow.
Integrations: RingCentral Deserves Attention for Connected CRM Workflows
Grasshopper’s own call-tracking article says it does not directly integrate with other platforms. A current supported native CRM connector and public integration API were not established in the materials used for this comparison. Confirm any essential workflow directly with the provider.
Business-app discounts or an article mentioning Salesforce do not establish a working Grasshopper CRM integration. A separate call-tracking service is also different from native customer matching and activity logging.
RingCentral’s app gallery includes Microsoft Teams and Salesforce options, alongside CRM, support, automation and developer categories. It is a stronger candidate to evaluate when the phone system must connect to an existing business-app environment.
Ask for the exact demonstration: incoming caller match, completed-call activity, recording access and the right contact or deal association. Check the paid tier and any additional application subscription.
A team comfortable keeping customer notes manually may find Grasshopper sufficient. A sales organisation expecting every call to update its CRM automatically should make the integration a purchase requirement. Our guide to integrating VoIP with a CRM explains useful implementation questions.
AI: Grasshopper Now Offers Summaries and Sentiment Tools
Grasshopper call summaries and sentiment
Grasshopper advertises AI-generated summaries within customer conversation history. The summaries recap completed calls and help employees prepare for follow-up. Its sentiment feature classifies the tone of calls or voicemail as positive, neutral or negative.
These tools can help a small team review an enquiry without replaying an entire recording. They should not be described as a full contact-centre quality programme, and a tone label cannot establish whether the customer’s issue was resolved.
Confirm current plan access, usage conditions and availability in your account. The existence of a feature page does not establish unrestricted inclusion in every package.
RingCentral AI
RingCentral’s portfolio covers employee assistance, summaries and actions, plus specialist reception and conversation-intelligence products. Identify which product solves the business requirement and obtain its complete price.
For both services, test an enquiry containing a customer name, date and promised action. Check whether the summary captures those details accurately. Review the output before relying on it for customer follow-up.
If reception automation is required, test that separately from call summaries. Ask an unexpected question and request an employee. Confirm the human handover and usage bill rather than equating an AI note with a receptionist.
Mobile and Desktop Apps: Compare Everyday Use on Staff Devices
Grasshopper offers desktop and mobile apps for calling, texting, voicemail and call history. Its VoIP page describes internet calling on desktop and enabling Wi-Fi Calling in the mobile app. It should not be described as forwarding-only.
RingCentral provides app access on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, alongside supported desktop-phone deployment. Confirm which endpoint arrangement fits the employees.
Have a member of staff answer a call, locate its history and retrieve voicemail on their normal phone. Repeat on the computer and headset used for office work. Check the customer sees the intended business caller ID on an outbound call.
Test notifications with the phone locked and after the app has been idle. Include ordinary Wi-Fi and the mobile network staff use. When forwarding is part of the setup, test that receiving line separately from internet app calling.
For meetings and internal collaboration, RingCentral is the broader candidate. A native video-meeting platform was not established in Grasshopper’s offering reviewed here. Include a separate meeting service in the comparison if your team needs one.
US and Canadian Numbers, with International Calling to Supported Destinations
Grasshopper offers business phone numbers in the United States and Canada, including local and toll-free options. It does not offer local numbers in countries outside those markets. Its number availability is separate from its ability to make international calls.
Grasshopper supports international calling, but it is not immediately available to every new account. Its current International Rates page says international calling is available to customers with Grasshopper for more than 60 days and requires contacting customer care to enable it.
Its international-calling article also describes the capability as disabled by default. Confirm the destination, activation conditions and applicable charges before making the service responsible for overseas callbacks.
A new business that must call international clients from its first day should resolve this restriction before subscribing. Receiving an enquiry from abroad is different from being eligible to call that person back through the platform.
RingCentral supports international calling through applicable rates, plans and bundles. Its US offering includes external US/Canada calls, but that does not mean other destinations are unavailable.
Grasshopper’s US and Canadian number coverage does not limit all outbound calls to those two countries. Eligible accounts can call supported international destinations after activation, with additional charges. This does not mean every country is supported or that international calls are included in the base plan. Confirm employee access from abroad separately.
Give both providers a destination list, expected minutes and the required customer-facing numbers. Confirm landline and mobile rates, incoming access, caller ID and any activation conditions. Compare that quote with the actual timing of your business needs.
Reliability: Test Call Delivery and the Recovery Path
RingCentral advertises a 99.999% uptime SLA. Obtain the terms, covered services and remedies attached to the proposed subscription. A platform commitment does not remove problems caused by local Wi-Fi, headsets or receiving carriers.
For Grasshopper, request the applicable service commitments and incident-escalation process. An equivalent quantified SLA was not established in the sources reviewed here.
Pilot calls during a normal busy period. Include the main number, extension routing, app notifications and voicemail. Test how employees identify and return a missed enquiry.
If Grasshopper forwards calls to existing phones, include the receiving carrier in the recovery plan. If staff use internet app calling, test the normal network. These paths depend on different parts of the setup.
Agree a fallback and a named person to contact support. A dependable customer-facing process combines normal call quality with a clear way to recover when something goes wrong.
Customer Support: Grasshopper Advertises 24/7 Live Assistance
Grasshopper advertises 24/7 support from live agents. Confirm the contact channels and the help available for account configuration, number migration and international activation. The last point matters if overseas calling is essential.
For RingCentral, confirm the support hours, channels and onboarding included in the selected quote. Wider deployment assistance and ordinary technical support may involve different arrangements.
Before committing, submit a realistic question about the call flow you plan to use. Look for a clear answer and an urgent escalation route. A failed-call issue and a CRM-sync issue can require different information.
For number migration, confirm the documentation and sequence. Keep the existing service active until the port completes and test a temporary number before moving the main customer line.
Small Businesses: Grasshopper Can Suit a Shared-Number Team
Grasshopper is a good candidate for a small domestic operation that wants a dedicated business number, shared customer access and several users without a per-user licence increase. A three-person contractor team or small consultancy can evaluate Solo Plus around its main number and extensions.
Small Business becomes relevant when several business numbers or more extensions are needed. Confirm the number allocation and optional simultaneous ringing before calculating the saving.
RingCentral deserves closer evaluation when the small business needs established CRM workflows, internal collaboration or a wider employee communications system. Its per-user model should be judged against the capabilities the team will use regularly.
A small international consultancy should also resolve Grasshopper’s activation timing. A local trades business with domestic calls may never encounter that constraint. The best choice follows the business workload rather than an arbitrary employee-count threshold.
Larger Businesses: Unlimited Users Are Only One Part of Scaling
Grasshopper’s shared-user plans can accommodate additional people, but unlimited user access does not establish enterprise administration, complex CRM automation or a complete contact-centre toolset.
RingCentral’s higher RingEX packages offer additional administration and analytics for organisations working across departments or sites. Confirm the exact package and demonstrate manager permissions, routing ownership and employee offboarding.
For customer-service agents, assess the appropriate contact-centre product separately. RingEX employee licences are not automatically RingCX agent subscriptions, and a Grasshopper phone menu does not establish every advanced queue or coaching capability.
Pilot with employees, managers and administrators. Include a department handover, unanswered enquiry and the report management needs. A larger organisation should be able to investigate those events without losing customer context.
Grasshopper vs RingCentral: Pros and Cons
| Assessment | Grasshopper | RingCentral |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths | Shared-user pricing, business numbers, straightforward calling and customer conversations | Wider employee platform, business-app ecosystem and administration options |
| Cost considerations | Extra numbers, extensions, Call Blasting and reception services | Per-user licensing, required tiers and specialist products |
| Limitations to check | International eligibility, essential CRM workflow and collaboration needs | Package entitlement, full rollout cost and report usability |
| Useful pilot checks | Notifications, shared-number access, voicemail and transfers | Department flows, CRM logging, apps and management reports |
The best choice is the one that supports the required customer journey at a clear ongoing cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Grasshopper cheaper than RingCentral?
It can have a substantially lower subscription cost for a team sharing one business number. Compare the required numbers, features, extras and billing term before treating the prices as equivalent.
Does Grasshopper charge for each user?
True Solo includes one user. Solo Plus and Small Business include unlimited users within their displayed plan allocation. Extra numbers and extensions can carry charges.
Does Grasshopper offer call recording and AI?
Yes. Its current offering advertises recording, call summaries and sentiment analysis. Confirm plan access and usage conditions; older feature comparisons may predate these additions.
Which countries can I get a Grasshopper number in?
Grasshopper offers US and Canadian business numbers, including local and toll-free options. It does not offer overseas local numbers. International calling is a separate capability.
Can Grasshopper call internationally?
Yes, with paid international access. Its rates page requires an account older than 60 days and customer-care activation. Resolve this before choosing it for immediate overseas calling.
Does Grasshopper support internet calling?
Yes. It describes desktop VoIP calling and Wi-Fi Calling in the mobile app. Forwarding to existing phones is another supported approach.
Do both providers offer trials?
Grasshopper advertises seven days with no credit card required. RingCentral advertises a 14-day RingEX trial for new subscribers, up to 20 lines and two desktop phones. SMS is excluded from the RingCentral trial, and trial hardware return conditions apply.
Final Recommendation: Grasshopper for Shared Calling, RingCentral for Broader Workflows
Choose Grasshopper for evaluation when the team needs a main business number, shared calling and texting, and simple user access. Confirm the number allocation, additional features and international eligibility, then test the app experience.
Choose RingCentral for evaluation when CRM connections, employee collaboration and more extensive communications administration are essential. Demonstrate the required workflow and price the full package. Our RingCentral review covers the wider service.
Compare the same numbers, users and billing term. A successful pilot and a complete quote are more useful than choosing solely by the lowest starting price. If neither matches the requirements, compare other business VoIP providers.
Customer Reviews: Read Older Feedback Alongside Current Features
Grasshopper — TrustRadius
An incentivized 6/10 review dated May 12, 2021 appreciated app flexibility, shared-number access and a straightforward dashboard, but reported intermittent messaging problems and variable support.
An incentivized 7/10 review dated May 3, 2021 valued simple calling and texting separate from personal phones, while criticising message updates and cross-device synchronisation.
These are older experiences and predate Grasshopper’s newer interface and AI features. Use them to shape notification and synchronisation tests rather than treating their feature complaints as a current specification.
RingCentral RingEX — TrustRadius
An incentivized 7/10 review dated October 1, 2026 liked queues, administration and helpful support, but described difficulty finding abandoned queue calls and confusion with reports.
An incentivized 10/10 review dated September 24, 2026 described good voice quality across a large dental-support deployment with correct network setup, while criticising first-line support and built-in analytics.
These paraphrased examples suggest tests of everyday call delivery, app synchronisation, reports and escalation. They do not establish the experience of every customer.
Affiliate disclosure: VoIPCalling.com may earn a commission if you purchase through an affiliate link in this article, at no additional cost to you. Recommendations reflect the product differences and business requirements discussed above.
