Setup
What it takes to run it yourself
How you'd set it up
Three steps, and a checklist that tells you what's left at every point.
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Install it somewhere
A $5-a-month cloud server, or a spare computer at home. It's one command to install, and the instructions assume you've never done this before.
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Open a Telnyx account and buy a number
The account is in your name — that's what keeps the numbers independent of us, and it's why Telnyx bills you directly for numbers, usage and the texting registration rather than billing us and us billing you with something added. Paste two keys into the admin page and you can buy numbers with one click. The same page walks you through the texting sign-up, form field by form field.
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Install the app and invite people
Get RingReplacer from the App Store, sign in with a texted code, and invite anyone else the same way. Calls ring like normal calls, because that's what they are.
Worth saying plainly, because we'd rather lose the sale than surprise you: opening the carrier account and getting cleared to send texts can take a few days, and from then on you're the one running it. That's the trade for owning the whole thing. The setup checklist, the guides and our support exist to make that as small a job as it can be.
What running it yourself actually gets you
Your messages stay put
Every text, voicemail, recording and call record sits on your machine. We don't hold a copy. Back it up in one command; delete it and it's genuinely gone.
Your numbers aren't tied to us
Nobody truly owns a phone number — your carrier holds it and you have the right to move it, which is just as true at RingCentral. The difference here is that the number and the software are two separate companies: stop paying us and the numbers carry on, because they were never in our account and we hold no key that reaches them.
You pay the real cost of a call
Calls and texts bill straight from your own account, at fractions of a cent. Our fee covers the app, the updates and support — we never add a margin to what you use.
Leaving costs you nothing
Cancel and the server, the messages and the numbers are all still yours. What stops is the app being woken for new calls and texts — that's the part the subscription pays for.
Ready to try it?
$49 to set up, $14.95 a month. Cancel whenever — your numbers and your messages were never ours to keep.
Get startedNot sure yet? Run the numbers for your own setup.