Comparison · Call tracking
Aircall vs RingCentral: business phone systems compared
The short answer
Both are cloud business phone systems with IVR, call routing, recording, analytics and local, toll-free and international numbers. RingCentral is a broad communications suite that adds video meetings, team messaging, fax and webinars. Aircall concentrates on calling and messaging for sales and support teams, with AI transcription and analysis and 250+ integrations into CRMs and helpdesks. Teams replacing a whole office phone and meeting stack look at RingCentral; teams that live in a CRM or helpdesk look at Aircall.
On this page 4 sections
Affiliate disclosure: the “Visit” links below are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and that does not change what we recommend. How we make money.
Side by side
| Aircall | RingCentral | |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Cloud phone and messaging for sales and support | Unified communications: phone, video, messaging |
| IVR and routing | Yes, plus queues and ring groups | Yes, with a drag-and-drop IVR editor |
| Call recording | Yes, with pause and resume | Yes, automatic recording |
| AI | Transcription, summaries, sentiment, AI voice agents | AI features listed on the vendor's site |
| SMS and WhatsApp | SMS, MMS and WhatsApp | Business SMS |
| Video meetings and fax | No | Yes |
| Integrations | 250+ incl. Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Shopify | Major CRMs and productivity apps |
Phone system versus call tracking
Neither is a marketing call tracking platform. A phone system routes and records calls; call tracking ties each call to the ad or page that produced it. Many businesses run CallRail or WhatConverts in front of Aircall or RingCentral: the tracking number forwards to the phone system. See call tracking explained.
Choose Aircall if
- Your phone users are sales or support reps working in a CRM or helpdesk.
- You want call transcripts and AI summaries logged against the contact automatically.
- You already have video and chat elsewhere.
Choose RingCentral if
- You want one vendor for phones, video meetings, messaging and fax.
- You need desk phones across offices and features such as paging and hot desking.
Based on each vendor’s published features as of October 2026. We have not tested these products in a live account. Product names are trademarks of their owners.