Rainbow review

Rainbow is Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s cloud-based communications platform for business messaging, video meetings, and telephony. It is designed to connect employees and customers while also working with existing PBX hardware, so switching does not necessarily mean replacing every part of a phone system. The platform offers public, hybrid, and dedicated private cloud deployments.

Its collaboration layer centers on Bubbles, persistent group chats with file sharing, pinned messages, and task tracking. Meetings can be scheduled or started ad hoc, with screen sharing, recording, and AI transcription summaries; the stated meeting ceiling is 120 participants. For calling, Rainbow combines softphone features, desk-phone control, PSTN conferencing, and PBX connections. Separate products cover classroom use, meeting rooms, webinars, and critical-event broadcasts. Developers can use Rainbow’s Developer Hub, which lists more than 400 APIs and SDKs for embedded communications and integrations.

Rainbow’s main advantage is breadth: messaging, meetings, and business calling sit in one platform, with options to connect existing PBX hardware or choose a public, hybrid, or dedicated private cloud deployment. That could suit organizations that want a gradual migration rather than a full phone-system replacement.

There is also a free entry point. The pricing details list Rainbow Essential at $0 per month, with one administrator per company, 50 Bubbles of up to 20 participants each, 1 GB of file storage, six tasks, and 30 pinned messages. For small teams, that gives a concrete way to start without a subscription charge.

The feature list also gives Rainbow room to serve beyond basic chat: meetings support up to 120 participants, while the attendant console supports up to 10 concurrent calls and supervised transfers. Rainbow Classroom, Room, Webinar, and Alert target more specialized needs. The Developer Hub’s listed 400-plus APIs and SDKs may also matter to teams embedding communications or building integrations.

The free plan’s caps are tight for larger or busier teams. Essential allows 50 Bubbles, with up to 20 participants in each, just six tasks, 30 pinned messages, and 1 GB of storage. It includes one company administrator and no SLA. Those limits may force a move to Business before a team has much room to grow.

Business raises the listed caps to 100 folders and 200 Bubbles, with up to 100 participants per Bubble, but the pricing page does not publish its price. It lists monthly billing or prepaid terms of one, three, or five years, so teams cannot compare the paid cost from the available figures. Business includes 1 GB of storage, 20 tasks, 30 pinned messages, and 1-on-1 audio/video calling. Note that the product’s stated 120-person meeting limit is separate from the 100-participant Bubble cap; the published details do not clarify plan eligibility for larger meetings. PSTN Dial-In is pay-as-you-go, and overage costs are not published.

Rainbow Essential costs $0 per month, according to the published pricing information. It includes one administrator, five folders, 50 Bubbles with up to 20 participants each, 1 GB of file storage, six tasks and 30 pinned messages. There is no published SLA for this tier.

Rainbow Business has higher limits—100 folders and 200 Bubbles with up to 100 participants each—and adds one-to-one audio and video calling. But its price is not published, so we can’t put a dollar figure on the jump from Essential or compare the tiers on cost. Business is offered monthly or prepaid for one, three or five years; check the commitment and renewal terms before switching, since those details aren’t provided here.

PSTN Dial-In is a pay-as-you-go add-on for phone conferencing. Overage costs are not published. Budgeting beyond the free tier therefore requires a quote, including any dial-in usage.

Rainbow supports connections to existing PBX hardware and offers public, hybrid and dedicated private cloud deployments, according to the product information. That gives teams options for keeping telephony infrastructure in place, but it doesn’t establish how much migration work a specific setup will require. Before committing, map your PBX, calling workflows, users and integrations, then ask Rainbow which can carry over and what services or fees are involved.

Data export, migration tooling, contract terms and exit procedures are not published on the vendor's site. Get written answers on exporting messages, files, tasks and contact data, and test what you can retrieve before moving business-critical conversations.

We don’t have relevant Reddit posts or comments in the published material, so we can’t credibly say what tends to make users leave. Treat that as an evidence gap, not proof that customers are satisfied. Ask for references from organizations with similar PBX and deployment needs.