Acronyms, industry jargon, and technical phrasing can make it hard to make sense of the lingo for admins and end users.  In an effort to help cut through any confusion, here’s a quick and friendly guide to answer common questions and help you navigate RingCentral with ease!

RingEX and RingCX

RingEX and RingCX represent different solutions focused on employee and customer experience. Let’s take a look at the key differences with an eye to what your team’s use case and daily needs are! Depending on your daily needs you might want to take a look at the key differences of these two.
 

RingEX 

RingEX brings messaging, video and phone together in one-easy-to-use app that works wherever you are—on your phone, desktop, or browser. Whether you’re sending a quick message, hopping on a client call, or joining a big team meeting, RingEX keeps things smooth and simple.

✅ Great for voice, video meetings, team messaging

✅ Includes things like voicemail, call forwarding, SMS, and integrations (e.g., Outlook, Teams, Salesforce)

✅ Ideal for small to mid-size teams or entire companies who need unified communication

To get more acquainted with the features and benefits of RingEX, visit RingCentral RingEX™: AI Unified Communications Solution. You may also visit the Billing Portal to check which RingEX plan you have.

RingCX

Whether you’re juggling tons of calls, chats or messages, RingCX keeps it all under control—with smart routing, helpful dashboards, and AI tools that help you level up your customer experience while making life easier.

✅ Designed for contact centers and support teams

✅ Includes smart routing, queues, agent dashboards, analytics, and AI-powered tools

✅ Lets you handle interactions across voice, chat, social, and email—all in one place

✅ Ideal for businesses focused on improving customer experience and support workflows

To know more about the features and benefits of RingCX, visit AI Contact Center Solution for Effortless Customer Satisfaction | RingCX

Digital line vs Virtual number
RingCentral offers two types of phone number, the Digital Line and Virtual number. While both are reliable options, they differ in functionality and use cases. Follow along to see which type of phone number best suits your business needs.

Digital line

A DigitalLine is a phone number assigned to a RingCentral user’s VoIP phone or app.
(A VoIP phone—sometimes also known as an IP phone or internet-based phone—is any device that uses IP technology to transmit calls.)  It lets you make and receive calls directly—both within your company and to external numbers around the world.

✅ Direct calls in and out (without going through the company call handling)

✅ Needed for full VoIP calling features on desktop and IP phones

✅ Not required for outbound calls on the mobile app (as long as VoIP is turned on)

💰 Calling rates depend on where you're calling

Note: Without a DigitalLine, users can receive calls but can only make outgoing calls via RingOut (desktop). On mobile, outgoing calls are possible without a DigitalLine if VoIP is enabled.

Learn more about Digital Lines here.
 

Virtual number

A Virtual number is more like a business front door. It's a number you can assign to a department, team, or even a specific function (like sales or support). Calls to this number can be routed to different destinations based on your setup—be it a call queue, auto-receptionist, or a group of users.

✅ Establish a local or toll-free presence, enhancing your business’s accessibility

✅ Ideal for assigning direct numbers to specific departments or teams (e.g., sales, support, etc.)

Note: You can still assign virtual numbers to user extensions however, this doesn’t have the full functionality of the digital line.

Learn more about Virtual Numbers here.

Admin Portal vs Service Web

When logging in to your RingCentral account, you might have heard of  Service Web and the Admin Portal. We’re here to help in understanding both of these terms.

Service Web is the website (https://service.ringcentral.com) where users and admins alike can access their account and both can do so by logging in using their RingCentral credentials. End users and admins can use Service Web to access their extension settings, messages, call logs and more.

Quick Tip: You can easily find these settings in your RingCentral app.

While the Admin Portal is an option inside of Service Web to which admins can manage the overall account, check the account settings, billing and company settings (like adjusting company call handling, call queues, etc.).

Here’s a handy article to help you find your way around the Admin Portal. 

We hope this sheds light on some of the lingo that you might hear from RingCentral. What else feels confusing or are places where you need clarity? If you have any questions or would like us to expand on other topics post them in the comments and we’ll whip up new posts to help you make the most of your RingCentral products.

And as always, the Community Team is here to help - send any more in depth questions to community.support@RingCentral.com.