smrtPhone is More Affordable than RingCentral, Dialpad, Aircall and Justcall – For Real!

Pay-as-you-go usage costs can save you money over unlimited minutes when your subscription fees are at the account level

smrtPhone does something rare for the telecommunication industry: we don’t offer unlimited minutes to our customers. That might sound crazy or against our customer’s best interest. But it’s neither! When our competitors like Dialpad or Ringcentral give away unlimited minutes with their plans, it’s obvious they have to make up the money somewhere else. Surprise! High user monthly fees. Plus, unlimited minutes really only benefit companies with extremely high volume of calls. We’re talking HIGH volume to break even. 

Let’s go over why smrtPhone charges the way we do, and how it helps your business financially – especially as you grow.

Pay at the Account Level – Not Per User like RingCentral!

We can’t stress enough how much cheaper your phone system gets when you pay for a subscription at the account level. Our competitors charge you per user, per month. As you grow, so do your costs. Plus, you have to seriously consider every new hire. What if you want a virtual assistant who only works two days a week? Or 10 agents part-time, instead of 3 agents full-time? 

At smrtPhone, we charge you one flat fee for up to 10 users (only $75!), or with smrtPhone Pro, you get unlimited users. In the chart below, you can see how different those costs are when compared to our competitors. 

As you shop for a phone system that does inbound and outbound calling, has texting capabilities, call monitoring, conference calling, video calling, and integrates directly with your CRM, did you ever think your monthly cost could be so low? It’s even cheaper if you pay annually – seriously. 

Now we know what you’re thinking. smrtPhone charges for usage! That must be where they make back all their money! Let’s look at the costs with some usage included: 

Now obviously it’s up to you to calculate how many minutes of outbound minutes you use per month. Remember: you pay less for calls that don’t connect, and you may not have all 15 users calling all day, every day. The beauty of paying for usage is two-fold: 

• You only pay for what you use: ever have a slow month or season? Staffing down? Holidays? Pay less during that time. Unlimited plans are constructed in a way that many people end up paying for more than they use. The house always wins, as they say. Odds are, if you’re not making an extremely high volume of calls, continuously, you’re losing money on unlimited plans. Plus, fair use policies mean that it’s possible to have overages when it comes to unlimited plans! When you sign up for unlimited plans, hidden fees can be buried in the fine print. (Just look at RingCentral’s explanation of how to read an invoice …) 

• You learn your actual cost of doing business: Figure out how much a deal costs to land using actual communication data. This is an oft-forgotten part of the conversation around unlimited plans. Sure, it might seem simple to have one lump sum for your telecom bills, but data helps you learn and grow! If a deal took 9 outbound calls, 4 inbound calls and a conference call to finish, include that in your costs. You might start to understand how much a bad lead list is costing you, or how valuable follow-ups are. Data is gold in sales-based businesses. Learn how much doing business really costs. 

Every business is different, and as your usage costs go up, it’s understandable that the siren song of unlimited usage might begin to call out. At smrtPhone, we know that every customer is not for us. Here’s who we are best for: 

• Companies with a growing team: Our subscription costs don’t balloon when you go from 2 to 24 employees. It’s easier to test out different staffing models (20 part-time agents instead of 7 full-time? Go for it!) and to hire virtual assistants or calling agents. Plus, we make it easy to have people calling via smrtPhone without needing to be invited to your CRM. We know that some CRM licenses get pricey, and new employees shouldn’t be trusted with your data. No worries! Their call and text data can be synced to your CRM even if they stay outside of it. 
• Businesses that love data: Our reports are robust, customizable and did we mention… free? Every subscription has the same KPI reporting offerings, and they’re made to help you understand your business needs. A lot of companies require add-on subscriptions to get the kind of reporting we offer. Plus, call and text data can be directly tracked back to your invoices. Learn which employees, lead lists and marketing campaigns are actually working out! Read more about our reporting here. 
• Small- to Medium-sized companies: Why do we say that? First of all, we’re honest. We’re not going to promise to be anything we’re not. If you have 400 employees, it’s possible another telecom company can offer you a better deal on usage (though we do offer bulk discounts, so give us a shout!). Small to medium sized companies love us because we offer award-winning customer service, live onboarding and q&a sessions, and customer interaction for feature- and product-building. We are a human-centric company that seems to work well for the type of non-enterprise, growing business that needs a reliable phone system to integrate with their CRM. We’re proud of our niche!
• Compliance-conscious sales teams: smrtPhone is known for keeping on top of governmental and carrier regulations. We like to be one step ahead of implementing features and protocols that keep our customers (and our platform) safe. If you want to do sales correctly, both because you’re honest and you want to avoid fines or worse, then we’re the phone system for you. Read about A2P 10DLC, STIR/SHAKEN, DNC Lists and all the fun acronyms that we explain in layman’s terms for our customers. 

What do you GET with smrtPhone?

It’s not always just about the price, it’s also about how much you’re getting FOR the price. In the pricing comparisons shared above, you’d have a smrtPhone Pro subscription, which includes: 

• Direct Integration to Your CRM: smrtPhone makes it easy to automatically sync your CRM contacts and communication data to your phone system, which includes calls, texts and video meetings. Keep everything in one place. 
• Inbound and Outbound, Calls and Texts, + Video Calling: However you prefer to talk to your clients and leads, we’ve got you covered. Plus, every phone number can be used for inbound or outbound which means when you make a call, your contact can always call you back. Some of our competitors don’t allow your outbound marketing numbers to be used for inbound communication. We don’t think that makes sense. 
• Free, Robust KPI Reporting: Analyze your team, number, campaign and business performance with our free and customizable KPI reports. 
• Call Flows and Flexible IVR: We boast the easiest-to-use call routing on the market. Drag and drop what you need to ensure inbound calls go to the right team, person, or informational route. 
• Team Management: From group inboxes, to shared numbers, to granular user permissions, smrtPhone is perfect for teams. It’s easy to ensure that everyone is on the same page and organized. 
• Multiple Dialers, All Synced: Your Web App Dialer, Mobile Dialer, Chrome Extension Dialer and the CTI Dialer inside your CRM are all synced. Your communication history is whole, and you’re always available to make or take a call. 
• Call Monitoring, Whisper, Barge: Listen in on agents and jump in or help them along if needed. Useful for training, team improvement, or quality assurance. 
• Conference Calling / Warm Transfer: Send a call to a colleague or hop on a group call to hash something out. Ideal for teams that work on the go or have remote setups. 
• Real, Human Customer Support: You’ll hear a lot that our competitors use bots or have long ticketing systems to get your issue handled. Response times under 2 minutes, from a live person, every business day from 9AM to 9 PM ET. 
• Power Dialer When You’re Ready: We’re all-in-one, and we mean it. When you’re ready for high-volume outbound calling, our 1-4 line power dialer is ready to go, synced to your CRM and smrtPhone Cloud Phone System.

We encourage everyone who is shopping around for a phone system to really do the math on what they need now and what they think they’ll need in the future. You will be surprised by how much money you can save by paying for subscriptions at the account level rather than the user level. We know that RingCentral’s unlimited offerings seem enticing, but do the math for yourself! Those savings can offset usage fees, and in return you get the best CRM-integrated phone system on the market. 

smrtPhone integrates with Salesforce, Podio, Realeflow, REISift, Investorfuse, Tape and other business software (with new additions constantly!) Click-to-call from your CRM, any web browser via our Chrome Extension, directly from our Web App, or on-the-go with smrtPhone’s Mobile App. Learn more about smrtPhone, smrtPhone Pro and smrtDialer, our power dialer.

Ready to try smrtPhone for free? Head here!