Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued) vs. RingEX

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco's VoIP PBX product has reached its end-of-life, and is no longer available for sale.N/A
RingEX
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
RingEx is a cloud-based VoIP solution available via computer mobile application. It features video and audio conferencing, desktop phone rentals, collaboration tools, and integrations with other business applications. Plans are available on a monthly, per user subscription basis.
$19.99
per user/per month
Pricing
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)RingEX
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Essentials (up to 20 users)
$19.99
per user/per month
Standard
$27.99
per user/per month
Premium
$34.99
per user/per month
Ultimate
$49.99
per user/per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)RingEX
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing above is per/month paid annually. Pricing increases when paid monthly. Essentials - $29.99/month (paid monthly) Standard - $37.99/month (paid monthly) Premium - $44.99/month (paid monthly) Ultimate - $59.99/month (paid monthly)
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)RingEX
Considered Both Products
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
Chose Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
I have worked with Avaya's suite of products, and in this Cisco VoIP PBX system's review I have mentioned a couple of times the integration with other/different systems or platforms, and my experience with Avaya's products left me the feeling of a bunch of products pinned …
Chose Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
As we all know,Cisco is one of the best and trusted companies when it comes to networking,most of our materials were all Cisco,Cisco routers,Cisco IP phones..etc They're more handy and easy to use and don't require an IT experience,I used an IP phone to receive a call,and it …
Chose Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
Cisco VoIP is a time-tested robust VoIP solution that works as designed. It is reliable & is supported by an authorized Cisco partner then there are no hassles in management & troubleshooting. The hardware & the software are very reliable & dependable. Other systems compared …
Chose Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
Cisco has the most stable and reliable solution in our comparison with other vendors. The way Cisco handles the redundancy of the system makes our communications experience zero interruption problems, and that was very different from the other vendors we used before deciding to …
Chose Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
I have used Avaya VoIP PBX, but I don't see that is being used more nowadays, because Cisco has been upgrading their VoIP PBX with enhanced features. Can not say Avaya VoIP PBX is bad, but if I compare Cisco VoIP PBX with Avaya VoIP PBX, I feel Cisco VoIP PBX would have the …
Chose Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
All of the Cisco VoIP products have been intuitive, appropriate for the size of the organization, effective, and easily accessible.
RingEX
Chose RingEX
We switched from GoTo's platform with pieces of Teams. At that time, the complexity and difficulty of integrating all of the features and connecting them to get a simple platform that was stable and easy to train weren't available elsewhere.
Chose RingEX
RingEX provides better service and features at a competitive price. There really is no comparison between the two solutions. Spectrum Business gives us reliable land line phone service with multiple lines and reliable business internet. Adding new lines is a physical experience …
Chose RingEX
RingEX overall is significantly better than Kixie. It's more reliable, has better features, and is significantly easier to use. Higher cost, but at the end of the day, telephony is one of the most important aspects of my business, and not one where cutting costs is the top …
Chose RingEX
Ooma is terrific and has a very reasonable price point, but doesn't scale the way we needed. MiCloud was a terribly complicated and unreliable service when we used it. RingEX has offered the functionality that we need for our entire staff and has been reliable.
Chose RingEX
RingEX sales team was the most responsive team. Zoom was not as mature and did not have a fax solution like RingEX had. 8x8 sales process was a disaster and their finance team began billing us during the sales process as if we were a customer. We could tell 8x8 didn't focus on …
Chose RingEX
Before landing on RingEX, I took recommendations from other business partners as well as searched reviews online in order to understand the pros and cons of other options. I preferred the cost point of other options, but committed to RingEX because the functionality and package …
Chose RingEX
They are cheaper. I prefer a dialpad over Ring any day.
Chose RingEX
There is a more reliable connection and communication. The dashboard is easier to use, and the reports that can be generated are more in tune with our business needs. It is easy to review calls and pull them, which was much harder with Vonage.
Chose RingEX
Better. The Kixie system is cheaper, but it is such a pain to use and interact with. often have audio issues, tech issues, etc. RingEX is far superior, although the price is certainly higher. I needed something reliable, so RingEX was the move.
Chose RingEX
We didn’t have nearly enough options or automated voice options with Google. RingEX focuses solely on communication and excelled at it, such a robust software.
Chose RingEX
Nextiva's service did not always work. Calls sometimes did not come through or go out. Their customer service team was not quick at solving issues. The app was glitchy and did not always allow you to login. I have never had an issue like this with RingEX.
Chose RingEX
Prior we had been using business lines at my firm, so this is my first experience with a web-based phone app.
Chose RingEX
This was a solution that we could not only use in house as our primary VOIP service, but we could also support and resell to our member offices. The cost savings and deals that RingEX will work out to win new business has been a major win for both ourselves and our customers.
Chose RingEX
We received quotations for 9 solutions (including RingCentral) but overall, whilst not the cheapest solution, RingCentral came out on top for value for money, without compromising on features & accessability/ease of use.

Other than NFON, we also looked at other solutions, …
Chose RingEX
RingEX is more expensive, but the increased reliability was worth it for us. We also liked the support experience better on RingEX.
Chose RingEX
I haven't used Vonage in a while, but we never had issues with it and we've had several issues with RingEX. This could be based on how the franchisor has chosen to implement the product.
Chose RingEX
RingEX beat Fuze in every single department: cost, function, reliability, features. It is more stable than Microsoft Teams although not as widely adopted only because it's not Microsoft. 8x8 while a decent platform, just was not as "mature" in its application as RingEX. We …
Chose RingEX
The reporting part and the easy implementation, as well as the support provided convinced us to make the transition and improve the services provided. A very important part is the data where we must support our decisions, without easy to download or create reports, it was all a …
Chose RingEX
We ultimately chose to go with RingEX because of their unified interface. At the time that we purchased their service, there wasn't another software that did exactly what RingEX does.
Chose RingEX
During the tender process, we met with several other vendors. During this phase, we realized that RingEX was the only vendor we were investigating, and it was its own telecom provider – instead of offering phone software running on someone else’s network. So, we figured, ‘Why …
Chose RingEX
RingEX provided a more cost effective and complete solution than the competitors we evaluated. Reliability and call quality was of paramount concern for us. RingEX provided a higher level of reliability than many of the competitors we evaluated.
Features
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)RingEX
Cloud PBX
Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Product A and Product B
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
-
Ratings
RingEX
8.5
Ratings
6% above category average
Hosted PBX00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
User templates00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Call reports00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Directory of employee names00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Call Management
Comparison of Call Management features of Product A and Product B
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
-
Ratings
RingEX
8.8
Ratings
5% above category average
Answering rules00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Call recording00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Call park00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Call screening00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Message alerts00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
VoIP system collaboration
Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Product A and Product B
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
-
Ratings
RingEX
8.9
Ratings
10% above category average
Video conferencing00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Audio conferencing00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Video screen sharing00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Instant messaging00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Mobile apps
Comparison of Mobile apps features of Product A and Product B
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)
-
Ratings
RingEX
9.2
Ratings
15% above category average
Mobile app for iOS00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Mobile app for Android00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)RingEX
Small Businesses
Sangoma Asterisk
Sangoma Asterisk
Score 8.0 out of 10
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 7.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Sangoma Asterisk
Sangoma Asterisk
Score 8.0 out of 10
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 7.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Sangoma Asterisk
Sangoma Asterisk
Score 8.0 out of 10
Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)RingEX
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
5.3
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
4.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco VoIP PBX (discontinued)RingEX
Likelihood to Recommend
I think it would have been better to use a real hardphone at the time I was working at the company. Cisco never managed to work and IT was struggling with it. The UI was also terrible in my experience, the buttons didn't display so we have to guess if something was clickable or not. The window was also very small, I don't remember having the possibility to have it bigger, but if so, this would look terrible seeing at the very old interface.
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When setting up a new user with a phone. I can call in their support line. They followed me through every step of setting up the new phone. Our office has very specific settings, and our support staff will walk you through the completion. Even do test calls, making sure the user is properly set up for voicemails, faxes, or any type of notifications.
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Pros
  • Improved internet connectivity which means improved phone service as well.
  • Cost efficient, especially for tighter budgets.
  • User-friendly and little to no training required.
Read full review
  • Chat and Messaging - Conversations are easy to search, topics can be pinned or bookmarked, and groups are easy to create and administer.
  • Phone - The core functionality works very well allowing voice, txt/sms, and faxing for all users. Administration is generally fairly easy as well.
  • Mobile Client - the mobile app offers all of the same functionality as the desktop or web client.
  • Video - Video calls make it easy to share screens with other users and includes a lot of tools for planning.
Read full review
Cons
  • As I have been working on Cisco VoIP PBX for the last 6 years, whenever there is any slackness, Cisco corrects it by bringing the next version of the product.
  • The only thing I believe can be improved is the log structure, while troubleshooting the issue, logs are a little cryptic, they take a little bit more time to go through.
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  • Customer support is rudimentary. They should improve tier 1 customer support's ability to understand our needs rather than asking customers to reinstall the app
  • Revolving door of account managers, which causes loss of continuity in discussing opportunities
  • Analytics is not complete. Details about faxing and web meetings is missing.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
We switched to RingEX for ease of administration, flexibility of integration (fax, web meetings, chat client, mobile app) and competitive price. Although the system has had a few quirks as it's been relying on our network much more heavily and integrating with our next-gen firewall, I can't speak highly enough of what RingEX has done for our business. I love it and can't wait to renew for a longer period of time at an even more competitive rate.
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Usability
All main features is very easy to access and use, only pressing a button or two (when you need to page up or page down the features set!) in the desk phone or a click of the mouse to place a call, start a chat, video call or a meeting. Very straight forward.
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Once you get used to the features of the system, it is extremely easy to find what you need. Everything is all on one place which makes the usability phenomenal. It is very user-friendly, and everything you need is mainly on the RC app. There is a separate window for your Max Agent, and everything is spelled out so you rarely have a question where something is.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
It is quite reliable, we have the support of being able to identify failures and escalate it, also monitor the failures that are posted on the web about the status of the failures and evolutions. Its easy start-up and access allow us to have better performance and productivity, which in the long run turns into benefits.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Occasional bandwith issues. In addition to this, I have one individual whose calls are blocked. We were not able to determine whether this was a RingEX or a carrier issue.
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Support Rating
Cisco offers online instruction on the use of the VoIP but it has to be sought out. Likely, the do offer additional support but this is managed by our IT department so it is difficult to determine just how accessible Cisco has been regarding the implementation and ongoing support for this product.
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I have called RingEX a few times for assistance in setting up call handling or implementing changes in our call handling structure. The wait time to speak with an agent is usually minimal and the ones I have spoken to are excellent at walking me thru what changes I am trying to make as well as ensuring I understand what is being done so I can handle it myself next time if the need arises.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
I really didn't know all the capabilities
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
If someone has an existing system I tell them to keep that running initially and keep RingEX separate initially until the system is configured and tested to one's satisfaction. After testing and configuration is completed, then roll over the main phone numbers to the new RingEX system. I've seen one person who immediately flipped over to RingEX without properly configuring/testing the software and had many issues with missed customer calls until I helped him sort out his configuration.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco has the most stable and reliable solution in our comparison with other vendors. The way Cisco handles the redundancy of the system makes our communications experience zero interruption problems, and that was very different from the other vendors we used before deciding to migrate to Cisco VoIP PBX. Another good point was the fast and easy implementation. Only two days were necessary to bring all systems up with all integrations we have (billing, AD, and MSFT Teams).
Read full review
We switched from GoTo's platform with pieces of Teams. At that time, the complexity and difficulty of integrating all of the features and connecting them to get a simple platform that was stable and easy to train weren't available elsewhere.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
We have 75 users and 85 phones on the system and have yet to have any noticeable outages. The system just works all of the time without issues. Our old VOIP system on Voyant would go out all the time for multiple hours. RingEX is much more stable and reliable.
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Return on Investment
  • Can't provide the loved hard numbers regarding the ROI, but the flexibility from the business point of view regarding a rapid implementation of a new branch or even a headquarter, is a benefit that any solid company should aspire to have these days, and there aren't many options with these capabilities out there.
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  • Cost savings over traditional phone system with land lines
  • Increased productivity due to allowing my team to work from anywhere
  • Conference calling features replaced a separate service
  • Video meeting features replaced a separate service
  • Call handling is easier
  • SMS Campaigns are a great tool
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ScreenShots