RingCentral RingCX vs Dialpad AI Contact Center: both UCaaS+CCaaS bundles. Pricing, AI bundled, telephony, integrations compared. June 2026 verified.
Dialpad vs RingCentral
Updated September 2026 · Contact Center Core software comparison
RingCentral and Dialpad both sell UCaaS + CCaaS bundles — combining business phone (RingEX, Dialpad Talk) with contact center (RingCX, Dialpad AI Contact Center). Neither is in the 2025 Gartner CCaaS Magic Quadrant Leaders quadrant, but both are widely deployed in SMB and mid-market. Pick RingCentral for the broader feature set, larger partner network and stronger Microsoft Teams native integration; pick Dialpad for AI-first design (AI bundled into base license), tighter SMB pricing and simpler product line.
At a Glance
| Criteria | Dialpad | RingCentral |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
★ 4.4
1893 reviews |
★ 4.0
1234 reviews |
| Starting Price | $80.00 /seat/mo (third-party est) | $65.00 /seat/mo (annual) |
| Pricing Model | Paid | Paid |
| Free Trial | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Deployment | cloud, mobile | cloud |
| Best For | Smb, Mid Market, Enterprise | Smb, Mid Market, Enterprise |
Strengths & Weaknesses
Product positioning
| Aspect | RingCentral RingCX | Dialpad AI Contact Center |
|---|---|---|
| UCaaS pairing | RingEX (legacy MVP) — sold separately, 2 licenses needed | Dialpad Talk — unified license model |
| Launched | November 2023 (native; replaces NICE inContact OEM RCCC) | 2018 (continuous; AI from day one) |
| 2025 Gartner MQ | Not Leader | Not Leader |
| Customer scale | 5,800+ AIR customers Q3 2025 disclosed | Not separately disclosed (private) |
Pricing
| Aspect | RingCX | Dialpad AI Contact Center |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per-seat license (annual; +15% monthly) | Per-seat license |
| Tiers | Standard $65, Professional $95, Elite $145 | Essential $135, Pro $170, Custom |
| AI bundled | At Professional and Elite tiers | Yes — AI bundled at every tier |
| Seat minimum | 3 agents | 3 agents |
| Telephony | 2,000 IVR + 4,000 outbound dialer minutes per seat/mo bundled | US/Canada calling unlimited; international extra |
Critical pricing fact: RingCentral RingCX requires a separate RingEX UCaaS license if you want unified UCaaS + CCaaS. Two licenses = two SKUs to manage. Dialpad's single product family combines Talk + Contact Center under one license model — simpler administration.
AI capabilities
| Aspect | RingCX AI | Dialpad AI |
|---|---|---|
| AI bundled in base tier | No (Professional+) | Yes |
| AI brand | RingCentral AI (AIR + ACE) | Dialpad Ai |
| Real-time agent assist | Yes | Yes (canonical implementation) |
| Real-time transcription | Yes | Yes |
| Sentiment analysis | Yes | Yes |
| AI ARR disclosed | $100M new-product ARR (RingCentral total); AI ARR almost tripled YoY | Not separately disclosed |
| AI customers disclosed | 5,800+ AIR + 4,300+ ACE customers Q3 2025 | Not separately disclosed |
Verdict: Dialpad's AI-from-day-one advantage shows up in product polish — every agent interaction is AI-enriched without tier gating. RingCentral's AI is competitive at Professional+ but the tier gating is a procurement irritant.
Microsoft Teams integration
| Aspect | RingCX | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Teams Phone integration | Native (RingCentral built deep Teams partnership) | Certified |
| Teams-native CCaaS | Yes (RingCX inside Teams) | Yes |
| Direct Routing for Teams | Yes | Yes |
Verdict: Both ship Teams native. RingCentral's relationship is deeper historically.
Outbound dialer
| Aspect | RingCX | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Predictive dialer | Native (RingCentral Connect First heritage) | Limited |
| Progressive / power dialer | Native | Limited |
| TCPA tooling depth | Adequate for SMB | Limited |
| Collections fit | Marginal | Not collections-fit |
Verdict: RingCentral wins outbound. Dialpad is inbound/service-focused; for outbound-heavy use cases neither is the right pick (see collections page for vendors with deeper outbound).
CRM integration depth
| CRM | RingCX | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Certified | Certified |
| HubSpot | Certified | Certified |
| Zendesk | Certified | Certified |
| ServiceNow | Marketplace | Marketplace |
| Dynamics 365 | Marketplace | Marketplace |
Verdict: Roughly equivalent. Dialpad ships native Slack integration (Salesforce owns Slack since 2021 acquisition).
Compliance
| Certification | RingCX | Dialpad |
|---|---|---|
| FedRAMP Moderate | RingEX yes; RingCX status not on public badge wall | No |
| HIPAA + BAA | At Standard tier + | Yes |
| PCI DSS Level 1 | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 Type II | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
Verdict: RingCentral wins on RingEX FedRAMP authorization. RingCX needs verification for federal use.
Use-case fit matrix
| Use case | Better fit |
|---|---|
| AI-first SMB / mid-market | Dialpad (AI bundled) |
| Outbound calling + UCaaS | RingCentral |
| Microsoft Teams shop | RingCentral (deeper Teams partnership) |
| Simpler product administration | Dialpad (unified license) |
| Larger partner network | RingCentral |
| Smaller team (<25 agents) | Either; Dialpad slightly cheaper at low end |
| TCPA-heavy outbound | RingCentral (not Dialpad) |
| Federal RingEX users | RingCentral RingCX |
| Healthcare | Both ship HIPAA + BAA |
Honest concessions before you pick
Yes, Dialpad wins on unified Dialpad Ai across UC and CCaaS with five-nines SLA and Dialpad Ai live transcription bundled. RingCentral's honest weakness against that is not a 2025 Gartner CCaaS MQ Leader and native WFM only nine months old (from the September 2025 CommunityWFM acquisition). But RingCentral still wins on transparent list pricing ($65 Standard / $95 Professional / $145 Elite), bundled AI on Professional and above, 3-agent minimum, and Dialpad's honest weakness against that is not a 2025 Gartner CCaaS MQ Leader and lighter WEM than NICE or Genesys. The comparison is not a shootout with one clear winner — it is a fit question mapped to the operation you actually run.
Pick RingCentral when your operation depends on transparent list pricing ($65 standard / $95 professional / $145 elite) bundled ai on professional more than on unified Dialpad Ai across UC and CCaaS with five-nines SLA and Dialpad Ai live transcription bundled.
Pick Dialpad when your operation depends on unified dialpad ai across uc more than on transparent list pricing ($65 Standard / $95 Professional / $145 Elite), bundled AI on Professional and above, 3-agent minimum.
Migration reality — the agent-retraining tax
Any switch between these two platforms carries a two-to-six-week agent-retraining window. New desktop layout, new keyboard shortcuts, new IVR dispositions, new supervisor coaching workflows. Budget the training time inside the ROI model, not around it. The seat-license savings you calculate against list pricing are eroded — sometimes fully — by the productivity dip in weeks one through four after cutover.
Who Should Choose Which?
- Your team fits the smb or mid market or enterprise profile
- You prioritise peer-verified quality — higher rating (4.4 vs 4.0)
- Your preferred deployment is cloud or mobile
- Real-time transcription and AI Recap on every call
- Your team fits the smb or mid market or enterprise profile
- Budget matters — RingCentral starts $15 cheaper per month
- Your preferred deployment is cloud
- Tight phone-system + contact-center integration
Our Verdict
Verdict
For an SMB or mid-market shop wanting AI-bundled CCaaS with simpler administration, Dialpad's unified license model and AI-from-day-one design win. The single product family eliminates two-SKU management overhead.
For a shop wanting UCaaS + CCaaS depth, outbound capability and a larger partner network, RingCentral wins. RingEX + RingCX covers more ground; the Connect First outbound heritage handles dialing requirements Dialpad doesn't address.
For a Microsoft Teams-heavy shop, either works — both ship Teams native. RingCentral's deeper Teams partnership offers slightly more integration depth.
For TCPA-heavy outbound, neither RingCentral nor Dialpad is the best choice — see Five9, NICE, Genesys.
Dialpad targets smb/mid_market/enterprise businesses with paid pricing starting at $80.00/seat/mo (third-party est). Its strongest selling points include real-time transcription and ai recap on every call and modern ui and fast deployment.
RingCentral targets smb/mid_market/enterprise businesses with paid pricing starting at $65.00/seat/mo (annual). Its key advantages include tight phone-system + contact-center integration and strong global pstn footprint.
Both tools are reviewed independently — see the full reviews below to dig into integrations, implementation timelines, and user sentiment.
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