RingCentral → Kelir. Without the chaos.
Same UCaaS feature surface (auto-attendant, IVR, hunt groups, departments, recording, analytics, CRM). Different delivery (real cellular eSIM lines instead of softphone). The migration is a configuration rebuild + number ports — not a re-evaluation of how phones should work. 1–2 weeks typical for a 5–25 seat team. Same playbook largely applies for Dialpad, 8x8, Vonage Business, and Nextiva migrations.
What this is solving for.
Teams on RingCentral (or Dialpad, 8x8, Vonage Business, Nextiva — same playbook largely applies) often arrive at Kelir for one of three reasons: their team is sick of softphone failure modes (calls dropped on bad Wi-Fi, app suspended at the wrong moment, audio quality issues), they've been hit with the "every line is a virtual number now" 2FA SMS deliverability problem, or they want the cellular reliability angle for field-based work where softphones never fit cleanly.
The migration question isn't whether to switch — that decision's already made. The question is how to do it without breaking phone coverage during the transition. Customers can't lose access to the line; the team can't lose access during the cutover; the IVR and hunt-group config that took six months to tune at RingCentral has to come over without weeks of re-tuning at Kelir.
The migration playbook below is the standard pattern for a 5–25 seat team. Solo and 2–4 seat teams use a simpler version (no IVR rebuild). 25–50 seat teams use a slightly more careful version (phased ports rather than all-at-once). The whole thing typically takes 1–2 weeks from kickoff to completed cutover.
Features that apply.
The Kelir feature surface largely matches RingCentral's — same UCaaS primitives, ported over. The migration is a configuration rebuild on Kelir's surfaces (admin portal at app.kelir.io for routing, mobile app for per-user settings) plus the carrier-level number port.
Number porting
FCC-required port from RingCentral takes 1–3 business days for simple ports. Bulk port for the whole team.
Auto-attendant
Rebuild the greeting + time-of-day rules from RingCentral's IVR.
Multi-level IVR
Rebuild the IVR tree in the visual builder. Phantom-call test before activating.
Hunt groups
Rebuild distribution rules — same primitives (sequential / simultaneous / round-robin).
Departments
Rebuild departmental routing — RingCentral departments map cleanly to Kelir departments.
CRM integrations
Reconnect HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive via OAuth — same integration as RingCentral has, on the new platform.
Step by step.
- Step 01
Kickoff: inventory current config
Document what's running on RingCentral: numbers, users, departments, IVR tree, hunt groups, working hours, CRM integration, recording policies. Most of this is exportable from RingCentral admin or screenshottable for reference.
- Step 02
Day 1: provision Kelir Team account
Sign up for Team Starter or Team Pro. Pick seat count matching current RingCentral users. Initial setup of admin account at app.kelir.io.
- Step 03
Day 1–2: assign temporary Kelir numbers per user
Each user gets a temporary US number from Kelir's inventory. They install the eSIM and start using the temporary number for outbound; inbound still goes to the RingCentral number until the port completes.
- Step 04
Day 2–3: rebuild routing on Kelir
In app.kelir.io: rebuild departments, hunt groups, and the IVR tree to match RingCentral's. Use the visual IVR builder; phantom-call test every menu option. Pre-configure working hours and holiday calendar.
- Step 05
Day 3–4: reconnect the CRM
Disconnect RingCentral's CRM integration; connect Kelir's. Verify a test click-to-call from the CRM dials through the Kelir line. Verify activity logs back on the contact record. Caller-ID lookup overlay works on inbound.
- Step 06
Day 4: training — team walkthrough
30-minute team training: how the Kelir mobile app works (control panel, not a softphone), how calls now ring on the native dialer, how voicemail-by-email works, what the admin portal exposes for managers. Record the session for new hires.
- Step 07
Day 5: submit number ports
Submit all RingCentral numbers for porting to Kelir. Bulk port-in supported on Team plans. FCC requires simple ports in 1 business day; complex ports 1–3 days. Customers calling the existing numbers experience zero downtime — calls route through RingCentral until the port completes, then through Kelir.
- Step 08
Day 6–8: ports complete, full cutover
Each ported number now lands on Kelir. Verify routing — auto-attendant plays, IVR options route correctly, hunt groups ring on cellular eSIMs. Cancel RingCentral seats progressively as ports complete (not all at once, in case of port issues).
- Step 09
Day 8–14: monitoring and tuning
First two weeks: monitor missed-call rate, queue abandon-rate, voicemail volume in Analytics. Adjust IVR menu options or hunt-group composition based on real data. Pull recordings for QA spot-checks. Run a team retrospective at end of week 2.
What changes.
- Same feature surface as RingCentral — auto-attendant, IVR, hunt groups, departments, recording, CRM, analytics — running on real cellular eSIM lines.
- Reps stop missing calls because the softphone was suspended or Wi-Fi dropped — calls ring on cellular VoLTE on their actual phone.
- 2FA SMS suddenly works again because every Kelir line is a real US cellular number, accepted by banks and government services.
- CarPlay routing is automatic for field-based reps — work calls flow through the dashboard the way personal calls do.
- Per-seat cost typically lower (Kelir Team Starter at $29.99/seat vs RingCentral MVP Standard around $30/seat — depends on your existing tier).
- Migration completes in 1–2 weeks; the team retains all the routing depth they had on RingCentral.
The right buyer.
Teams currently on RingCentral, Dialpad, 8x8, Vonage Business, or Nextiva — 2–50 seats — who want UCaaS depth on cellular delivery instead of softphone. Common motivations: softphone reliability frustration (dropped calls, app failures), 2FA SMS deliverability problem, mobile-first / field-based teams, cost reduction at the same feature tier. The team has the operational maturity to handle a 1–2 week configured migration; small teams (under 5 people) can do this in a long weekend.
Who this isn't for: If you're running a real contact-center deployment on RingCentral Contact Center or NICE inContact (50+ agents, real-time supervision, sophisticated workforce management), Kelir is intentionally narrower — that migration would mean stepping down in capability. If you've heavily customized RingCentral via their API and built workflows around it, those need to be rebuilt on Kelir's webhook + Phase 3 API surface (which may not be ready yet for your use case).
Common questions
Typical 5–25 seat team: 1–2 weeks from kickoff to completed cutover. The active configuration work takes 2–4 days; the number-port window adds 1–3 business days; the monitoring / tuning phase takes the rest of week 1 and 2. Solo or 2–4 seat teams can complete in a long weekend.
No. The standard FCC port process keeps customers' calls flowing the entire time. Until the port completes, inbound calls to the existing numbers route through RingCentral; once the port completes, they route through Kelir. There's no minute-zero where calls fail. Some carriers do a quick switchover (~1 minute) where new inbound queues briefly during the cutover — typically not user-noticeable.
The configuration doesn't transfer automatically — Kelir's IVR builder is a different surface. But the *logic* transfers: every option, every routing destination, every time-of-day rule from RingCentral's IVR can be rebuilt on Kelir's visual IVR builder in 30–60 minutes per typical IVR tree. Phantom-call test before activating to catch any rebuild errors.
Yes — and the playbook above does exactly this. Each user has both a temporary Kelir number and their RingCentral number live during the port window. Outbound goes through Kelir (training the team to use the new line); inbound on the original number goes through RingCentral until the port completes. Then everything flips to Kelir.
RingCentral recordings stay in RingCentral until you export them. Most teams either export the historical recordings to local storage before canceling RingCentral seats, or sign a short-term retention deal with RingCentral to keep historical recordings accessible. Kelir starts capturing new recordings from the day Kelir is live; we don't import historical recordings from competitor platforms.
Kelir Team Starter at $29.99/seat vs RingCentral MVP Standard around $30/seat — roughly equivalent at the entry tier. Kelir Team Pro at $39.99/seat vs RingCentral MVP Premium around $35/seat — Kelir slightly more, but Kelir's Pro tier includes things RingCentral charges extra for. The bigger cost question is the second-line / mobile component: with Kelir, every seat is a real cellular line on the user's phone (no extra mobile carrier line needed for the user's work calls); RingCentral's softphone usually means users still maintain a separate personal cell anyway. Total-cost-of-communication often favors Kelir.
Related use cases & features.
Kelir vs RingCentral
Side-by-side comparison page (coming soon).
Kelir vs Dialpad
Same migration playbook largely applies.
Port your number
Detailed guide to the FCC port process.