What is the difference between a Softphone and a Direct Number under Phone System > All Numbers?
A direct number is a phone number assigned to an extension to reach it directly, while a softphone or a DigitalLine is a phone number given to an end-point device such as a desk phone or a RingCentral softphone. Its primary function is for a user to have the unlimited ability to make and receive calls.
Does it matter if some of our employees are using soft vs direct? What are the pros and cons of the two
A user with a Direct Line cannot make external calls while those with softphones can.
you can check the Billing Tab> Licenses and Inventory in the Admin Portal.
Softphone is the license allowing you to make outbound and inbound calls. Each user needs to have a license(a Softphone) if you are making external calls.
Each user can have multiple direct numbers, but needs only 1 license.
Technically it's possible to assign multiple licenses to 1 user, but there is not any point in doing in this afaik? Unless you want to donate some money to RingCentral.
If you have a free user(meaning a user without a license) and them a direct number only, then if that user receives an external call, whether directly or forwarded from a colleague you will get charged the price of a full license. You can use free users for internal calling with or without having a direct number assigned to them and this is free afaik.
To check if and how many license a User has you can look in the admin portal > Users > click on user> Phones & devices. IF you see a position here under Phone nickname.. the user has a license. If there is nothing under Phone nickname = no license
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