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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    NetFortris (discontinued)

    Score6.4 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    NetFortris, and the former Fonality, provided business phone systems using Polycom and Yealink IP phones. In 2022 the company was acquired by Sangoma. NetFortris and Fonality UCaaS and other services are no longer available.N/A

    RingEX

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ARingEx 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.

    $20

    per month

    Pricing
    NetFortris (discontinued)RingEX
    Editions & Modules
    Hybrid Premise Purchase
    Varies
    Varies
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    NetFortris (discontinued)RingEX
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Pricing is /user/month paid annually. Pricing increases when paid monthly. Core - $20/month (paid monthly) Advanced - $25/month (paid monthly) Ultra - $35/month (paid monthly) Customer Engagement Bundle - contact us for pricing
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    NetFortris (discontinued)RingEX
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    Chose NetFortris (discontinued)
    As stated, I inherited the Fonality on-premise server(s) I support. The organization's principals have requested staying with this system due to its low cost of ownership. Comparing to other on-premise systems, such as a generic Asterisk system, it offers some support …
    Incentivized
    Chose NetFortris (discontinued)
    Fonality had the features and functions we were looking for in a competitively priced bundle. We weren't looking for phone hardware and wanted a simple to use the soft phone function, and we appreciate the collaboration and call monitoring tools that were included in the …
    Incentivized
    Chose NetFortris (discontinued)
    If you can [get] over the initial install, Fonality is right up there with the best, with some improvements it can be even better than ones I have had used in the past.
    Incentivized
    Chose NetFortris (discontinued)
    We looked at 8x8 and RingCentral but ultimately opted to move our existing Fonality PBXtra installation to the Fonality cloud because the call queue monitoring features offered the most for the money. The HUD application is also a big selling point in favor of Fonality. Also, …
    Incentivized
    Chose NetFortris (discontinued)
    At the time Fonality was a great fit for our company due to the size. The price was excellent. Ring Central has more features if you need them but it comes at a price. The same can be said about Nextiva.
    Incentivized
    Chose NetFortris (discontinued)
    The price had some effect, but ironically it was the HUD web and mobile portal that sold us.
    Incentivized
    Chose NetFortris (discontinued)
    I had initially looked at 8x8 as I'd read great reviews and have a few other clients that use it as well. Unfortunately, they didn't offer the integration with our CRM that I needed. They told me, "We work with any CRM." But after really digging in, they weren't able to offer a …
    Incentivized
    RingCentral
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Would buy again
    172 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    160 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    178 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    139 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    153 Answers
    Features
    NetFortris (discontinued)RingEX
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    7.8
    90 Ratings
    2% below category average
    RingEX
    8.5
    218 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Hosted PBX7.058 Ratings9.2121 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)6.046 Ratings8.7166 Ratings
    User templates6.82 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call reports9.078 Ratings00 Ratings
    Directory of employee names10.078 Ratings8.7203 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    7.4
    94 Ratings
    11% below category average
    RingEX
    9.0
    226 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Answering rules7.089 Ratings8.9211 Ratings
    Call recording7.067 Ratings8.6196 Ratings
    Call park6.073 Ratings8.7174 Ratings
    Call screening8.067 Ratings8.7183 Ratings
    Message alerts9.078 Ratings8.9212 Ratings
    Business SMS/External Messaging00 Ratings9.232 Ratings
    Online Fax00 Ratings9.528 Ratings
    Voicemail Transcription00 Ratings9.332 Ratings
    VoIP system collaboration
    Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    7.5
    55 Ratings
    6% below category average
    RingEX
    -
    Ratings
    Video conferencing7.017 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio conferencing8.054 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    9.0
    55 Ratings
    13% above category average
    RingEX
    9.3
    199 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Mobile app for iOS9.046 Ratings9.2175 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android9.033 Ratings9.4155 Ratings
    Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software
    Comparison of Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.5
    27 Ratings
    12% above category average
    High quality audio00 Ratings9.529 Ratings
    High quality video00 Ratings9.427 Ratings
    Screen Sharing
    Comparison of Screen Sharing features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.9
    22 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Desktop sharing00 Ratings9.925 Ratings
    Online Meetings / Events
    Comparison of Online Meetings / Events features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.7
    23 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Calendar integration00 Ratings9.225 Ratings
    Meeting initiation00 Ratings9.926 Ratings
    Record meetings / events00 Ratings9.924 Ratings
    Online Events Collaboration
    Comparison of Online Events Collaboration features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    8.7
    17 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Live chat00 Ratings8.720 Ratings
    Online Events Security
    Comparison of Online Events Security features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    8.9
    24 Ratings
    11% above category average
    User authentication00 Ratings8.624 Ratings
    Participant roles & permissions00 Ratings9.226 Ratings
    Unified Communications Platform and Collaboration
    Comparison of Unified Communications Platform and Collaboration features of NetFortris (discontinued) and RingEX
    Feature
    NetFortris (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    RingEX
    9.0
    27 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Centralized communications management00 Ratings9.525 Ratings
    Team messaging00 Ratings9.225 Ratings
    Team document sharing00 Ratings8.620 Ratings
    Call and meeting analytics00 Ratings8.928 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    NetFortris (discontinued)RingEX
    Small Businesses
    CallFire
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Broadvoice | GoContact
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Nextiva
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Webex Calling
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Webex Calling
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    NetFortris (discontinued)RingEX
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (108 ratings)
    9.0
    (235 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.8
    (16 ratings)
    8.9
    (16 ratings)
    Usability
    7.6
    (8 ratings)
    8.7
    (11 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.5
    (165 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (7 ratings)
    5.3
    (28 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.2
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.8
    (4 ratings)
    8.1
    (6 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.7
    (3 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.1
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    NetFortris (discontinued)RingEX
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    For Insurance agencies, small practices, small call centers, anyone that need call forwarding or work with his number remotely while away from office. I can't list all the things I'm gaining as a Fonality customer. From the installation process, the configuration phase with the technicians, the account managers, every Fonality employee was professional and savvy. I was a contact center specialist for more than 10 years and I can tell you that I've never been this happy with a service! Never! Probably if you need a more complex solution and you have an enterprise level company having your own hardware gives you more control over your calls and how to manage them. But again, I think that Fonality can cover most scenarios without the need of a huge investment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    I love that RingEX lets you screen your call and take notes, then gives you a thorough review and summary that breaks down key points and flags what needs to be done. You get an email with the notes and summary, so you don't have to focus on anything but providing the customer with the summary and next steps. I think that helps with productivity.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • From an administrator's perspective, Fonality makes administering the company's phone system easy. Configuration menus and setup options are logically structured and easy to understand.
    • Technical support has been very good. Early on in our deployment, we had some nagging voice quality issues which were network related. Fonality provided exceptional support even though it was not technically their issue. It is important to know ahead of time how well your vendors work with other vendors for integrated services like a VOIP telephone system. Fonality support demonstrated their patience and perseverance in helping us resolve our issues.
    • Although we don't use remote office capabilities much, the ability to set up phones on the system in remote locations has been a significant help to several of our departments.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    • RingEX abilities to do multiple things at once, hands-free, is a huge time saver for me.
    • RingEX can record each word from beginning to end that may be part of a legal or written contract.
    • The amount of storage space that this program provides to my system is incredible.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Bugginess - Some things just really need some tweaking. I had to get very creative with my call routing and hold music, because the in-queue announcements don't work right at all. For example, even set to 'play once' it would loop the 'you are the first caller' announcement over and over, and cause call drops. Or my caller-name ID, which shows the registered user's name on each line on outgoing calls, even though it's not set to such anywhere in the CP settings.
    • Support - I'll give them 50/50 on this. My experience with Verizon VCE was everyone playing hot potato with issues and saying it was the responsibility of another department, meaning several phone calls and lots of hold time. Fonality doesn't have that issue, I've never really been passed around or blown off. However, some of the 'offshore' CS reps are... wow. I spent about half a dozen emails back and forth with two of them, trying to figure out why queues I deleted from the CP randomly and consistently reappeared in the HUD. Most of those emails were spent trying to explain that no, my issue was NOT that I wanted to create those queues again in the CP.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    • Reporting and analytics can be limiting. There is a solid baseline of reporting, but the customization is not what you would get with a call center product.
    • There is a platform API, but it is not as expansive as I would like. There is no easy way to build integrations with third-party tools, unlike Genesys Cloud, which has Data Actions.
    • The digital/messaging side is not present - we can't stick a widget on our website and allow people to live chat with us.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    We've already made a deep investment in the system hardware. We wouldn't be interested in another system at this point! And by the look of my colleagues faces when they see the HUD, I don't think we'd want to switch to a system that would limit us or take away any of these features! We may look at putting the server in the cloud, should internet outages prove to be such a common issue that it is preventing our other locations from functioning smoothly
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    We are grandfathered into our unlimited toll-free minutes plan. We are very unlikely to switch because of that. It has been the major factor saving us a lot of money compared to switching to other solutions. I don't know any other company that still offers these unlimited plans.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    Overall excellent usability, with a few adjustments I feel this is the absolute best VoIP system out there. Just a clarification on the licences and limit the interface to reflect what licence we have. There should be a back or redunancy feature to Fonality Server, If there was a mistake we should be able to resort back to a usable state asap. Before implementing changes to the server, there should be a trial or sample of the changes to make sure it behaves as intended before effecting customer experience. It would be nice to have a demo version of Fonality interface so possible clients can truly evauluate the system. Because of the quality, it would have made it easier to convince the owners to make the transition sooner
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    They were working on updating a few of the modules while we were going live, so this made usability difficult to train on once they did go live with those changes. Now that the changes are in place, we have really enjoyed the usability of the platform
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    Fonality has been available to us 99% of the time. There have rarely been any lengthy outages. If any issues do occur, their support staff is available around the clock to help. This is important, since communication is a big part in our company and availability of the phone system is important in maintaining this reliability
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    Because it works great. In case there's a Wi-Fi issue, communication does not stop because the mobile app can be use with regular cell phone data. During one year + 3 months I've have the service, there's been only one time when there were issues on RingEX's side; however, the time of resolution was on the same day.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    Fonality's performance is excellent. The phones work flawlessly and the calls are clear. It is a well put-together system that does not need daily support. It is not complex from a user standpoint, as most of our staff are quick to learn how to use the phones. More systems should strive to work as well as Fonality's
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Because of their customer support and their attention for details in our problems that we face during our initial stage. We simply love fonality just for the way we are treated when we reach them with our fonality issues - they take it seriously and resolve it as early as possible and the most important part is we dont need to keep on insisting them to do so.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    Call-in support is fantastic. I have never called in and had it taken more than 30 minutes to resolve our issue. Email support is terrible. You will likely go 24+ hours until you hear back and the response is likely a canned one. I personally prefer the email or chat support option, but find myself calling instead because the email support experience is so poor.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Discontinued Products
    Training was provided by the in-house IT administrator. Fonality was able to provide support to the admin, who then assisted the users. It went smoothly and all the details and functions of the system were made available to the office staff. Any questions were answered promptly and if any issues did arise, Fonality was available to answer them
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    I really didn't know all the capabilities
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Discontinued Products
    Training was excellent, but most of what they had was webinars and not real world situation for our company's need. It would be better to have them remote in my local computer and test my system using inbound / outbound calls. This would have made it easier to learn and more relevant
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Everything from the installation to the implementation has been great with Fonality, there is a lot of freedom to how the system will operate but the freedom comes at a cost of more technical experience to make sure it is configured correctly. The staff is very helpful can will make sure that the system is setup correctly and work perfectly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    I have not used any other VoIP system that I have been paying for. I hope that Fonality proves itself enough to where I will not have to switch. So far, for the price and the functionality, this is my recommendation for small businesses. I might recommend going with a more high end phone to increase functionality, but other than that, the system is one I would definitely recommend.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    We are using these products like (Skype, Voip, TextNow, and Second line), but comparatively these products the RingEX has a good performance, because while we were using the other platform, we didn't get proper communication, we couldn't reach out the candidate, we lags to much into spam number, we couldn't communicate properly and the textnow we couldn't sigin sometime. When we start to use RingEX, we get much better productivity and proper communication with our clients.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    RingCentral
    not to sign up for it or give them any money for a product that does not work
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    It is easy to scale this system, as long as you have the proper technical staff available to support it. Adding users and phones is straightforward. The main work involves having the physical network in place and configuring the networking equipment. Overall, it is not that difficult as long as all of this is in place.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • We are still new to Fonality, but having the flexability has proven quite successful thus far.
    • The management of incoming calls and voicemail messages has really helped us to be able to follow up with potential clients.
    • The service at Fonality helped our new business take a leap into 2017, and we expect much growth with the continued use of Fonality.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RingCentral
    • Enhanced patient accountability, we can track all calls - incoming and outgoing - patients tend to state that they called and left a message, but they either never called or did not leave a message. With RingEX, we can track whether they really did. It saves us quite a bit of time and aggravation.
    • Faxing is more accurate and usually very quick. Because it's accurate, it saves us time with phone calls about faxes we never received and having to refax items. Also, faxing via the system instead of printing and scanning is a time-saver.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    NetFortris (discontinued) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Fonality's Heads Up Display (HUD) Web dashboard is home base for connecting with colleagues and customers.Screenshot of Chatting is easy in HUD as they are easily launched by hovering over a fellow user's avatar. Chats are also available within Groups and Conferences.Screenshot of Managers with Fonality's Advance Call Center license can Barge, Monitor, or Whisper with one click. Useful for training, customer insights, and quality assurance. Real-time call queue information is shown in the Dock area to the right.Screenshot of Every Fonality system comes with voicemail boxes for all users, but with optional Voicemail Transcription you'll never have to listen to a voicemail again. Transcribed voicemails are delivered in HUD and via email.