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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    3CX

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/ACyprus based company 3CX offers an IP PBX phone system.

    $1.08

    per user/per month

    Amazon Chime

    Score7.3 out of 10
    N/AAmazon Chime is a communications service from Amazon Web Services with a built-in VoIP solution. Amazon Chime can be used for online meetings, video conferencing, and business calling, and features pay-as-you-go pricing.

    $0

    per minute

    Slack

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ASlack is a group messaging or team collaboration app that aims to simplify communication for businesses. Features include open discussions, private groups, and direct messaging, as well as deep contextual search and message archiving, and file sharing. Slack integrates with a number of other tools, such as MailChimp, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in December 2020. The product is free to use, and also has paid plans with more features and greater controls. The…

    $8.75

    per month per user

    Pricing
    3CXAmazon ChimeSlack
    Editions & Modules
    Pro
    $1.08
    per user/per month
    Enterprise
    $1.31
    per user/per month
    Standard
    Free
    Business Calling - Inbound
    $0.002216
    per minute
    Business Calling - Phone Numbers
    $1
    per number per month, US Only
    Meetings - Pro
    $3
    *per user per day
    Meetings - Basic
    Free
    Business Calling - Outbound
    Country Dependent
    per minute
    Business Calling - Receive Text
    Free
    US Only
    Business Calling - Send Text
    Country Dependent
    Free
    $0
    Pro
    $7.25*
    per month per user
    Business+
    $12.50*
    per month per user
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    3CXAmazon ChimeSlack
    Free Trial
    YesNoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPrice displayed is based on 25 users. 3CX pricing is based on the number of simultaneous calls your business requires or in other words, how many calls your system needs to support at once. Unlike other PBX vendors there is no per extension cost.*up to $15.00 per user per month*Per active user, per month, when paying once a year. Pro is $8.75 USD per active user when paying month to month. Business+ is $15.00 USD per active user when paying month to month.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    3CXAmazon ChimeSlack
    Considered Multiple Products
    3CX
    Chose 3CX
    From both functionality and cost perspective, we were not happy with RingCentral and AT&T. However, they might have improved in recent years.
    Incentivized
    Chose 3CX
    Other phone systems we evaluated were more traditional PBX systems using proprietary hardware servers. We chose 3CX for the flexibility and self-service capabilities. For us this meant being able to replace an aging phone system in one move, then bringing remote locations into …
    Incentivized
    Amazon AWS
    Chose Amazon Chime
    Amazon Chime stacks up cleaner and much more intuitive to Google Hangouts Chat. In comparison to Slack, Amazon Chime is much better because Slack is not conducive to having a face-to-face conversation, much less, screen sharing. Microsoft Teams was hard to use when some of our …
    Incentivized
    Chose Amazon Chime
    I believe the two products (Slack and Skype) are better suited for the situations where it is a smaller crowd. This is due to those systems being easier to chat within and collaborate in the smaller environment.
    Incentivized
    Chose Amazon Chime
    All the mentioned above products are better if not rated much higher with the features they have compared to Amazon Chime. Amazon Chime does not support well with google calendar and other negative features I mentioned compared to other products. Amazon Chime lacks features …
    Incentivized
    Chose Amazon Chime
    They are all good products, but here is why we switched:

    1. UberConf. This was the first conference software we used. It used to be great, it actually had a free version that worked perfectly. Then the service started to falter, mostly lag time between user and presenter. And …
    Incentivized
    Chose Amazon Chime
    Amazon Chime WILL become an industry leader. Amazon is still behind WebEx and is gaining ground on Microsoft. The advantage Microsoft will have is the ability to embed in organizations through Office, and have that advantage over WebEx as well. We selected Amazon Chime as …
    Incentivized
    Salesforce
    Chose Slack
    More user friendly and easier to collaborate
    Incentivized
    Chose Slack
    Slack is easier to use vs Zoom which is mostly just video based. Text based communication is much simpler with Slack. Slack is better than Chime as it offers file preview, stores text messages for longer. But group video calls are better with Chime. Slack is better than Teams …
    Incentivized
    Chose Slack
    Slack is definitely better than teams with a much better UI and user friendly communications work flow
    Incentivized
    Chose Slack
    Teams and Skype have very limited features as compared to Slack. I would prefer Slack any day over them as it is well suited for both internal as well as external communication.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    90%
    Would buy again
    9 Answers
    75%
    Would buy again
    15 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    503 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    88%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    426 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    10 Answers
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    18 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    510 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    295 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    99%
    Implementation went as expected
    330 Answers
    Features
    3CXAmazon ChimeSlack
    Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software
    Comparison of Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    10.0
    26 Ratings
    23% above category average
    Slack
    -
    Ratings
    High quality audio00 Ratings10.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    High quality video00 Ratings10.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    Low bandwidth requirements00 Ratings10.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile support00 Ratings10.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Screen Sharing
    Comparison of Screen Sharing features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    9.2
    25 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Slack
    -
    Ratings
    Desktop sharing00 Ratings10.025 Ratings00 Ratings
    Whiteboards00 Ratings8.311 Ratings00 Ratings
    Online Meetings / Events
    Comparison of Online Meetings / Events features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    9.7
    25 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Slack
    -
    Ratings
    Calendar integration00 Ratings10.022 Ratings00 Ratings
    Meeting initiation00 Ratings10.024 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with social media00 Ratings8.39 Ratings00 Ratings
    Record meetings / events00 Ratings10.023 Ratings00 Ratings
    Slideshows00 Ratings10.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Online Events Collaboration
    Comparison of Online Events Collaboration features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    10.0
    22 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Slack
    -
    Ratings
    Live chat00 Ratings10.022 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audience polling00 Ratings10.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Q&A00 Ratings10.012 Ratings00 Ratings
    Online Events Security
    Comparison of Online Events Security features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    10.0
    22 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Slack
    -
    Ratings
    User authentication00 Ratings10.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Participant roles & permissions00 Ratings10.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Confidential attendee list00 Ratings10.016 Ratings00 Ratings
    VoIP system collaboration
    Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    31% above category average
    Slack
    -
    Ratings
    Video conferencing00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio conferencing00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Video screen sharing00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Instant messaging00 Ratings10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    -
    Ratings
    Slack
    7.9
    628 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Task Management00 Ratings00 Ratings7.6430 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings00 Ratings6.961 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings00 Ratings7.8363 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings00 Ratings8.0396 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings00 Ratings9.4601 Ratings
    Search00 Ratings00 Ratings8.2608 Ratings
    Visual planning tools00 Ratings00 Ratings7.3275 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    -
    Ratings
    Slack
    8.7
    636 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Chat00 Ratings00 Ratings9.6635 Ratings
    Notifications00 Ratings00 Ratings8.7632 Ratings
    Discussions00 Ratings00 Ratings9.2620 Ratings
    Surveys00 Ratings00 Ratings8.1413 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings00 Ratings7.8412 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings00 Ratings8.9110 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings00 Ratings8.7182 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings00 Ratings8.9120 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of 3CX and Amazon Chime and Slack
    Feature
    3CX
    -
    Ratings
    Amazon Chime
    -
    Ratings
    Slack
    8.4
    603 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Versioning00 Ratings00 Ratings8.2326 Ratings
    Video files00 Ratings00 Ratings8.2541 Ratings
    Audio files00 Ratings00 Ratings8.4527 Ratings
    Document collaboration00 Ratings00 Ratings7.9429 Ratings
    Access control00 Ratings00 Ratings8.3411 Ratings
    Advanced security features00 Ratings00 Ratings8.3362 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings00 Ratings9.0211 Ratings
    Device sync00 Ratings00 Ratings9.0455 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    3CXAmazon ChimeSlack
    Small Businesses
    Sangoma Asterisk
    Score8.7 out of 10
    ClickMeeting
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Sangoma Asterisk
    Score8.7 out of 10
    JioMeet
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Sangoma Asterisk
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Webex Meetings
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    3CXAmazon ChimeSlack
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (14 ratings)
    10.0
    (27 ratings)
    9.1
    (639 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (25 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (255 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.4
    (2 ratings)
    8.8
    (9 ratings)
    10.0
    (68 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (5 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.7
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    3CXAmazon ChimeSlack
    Likelihood to Recommend
    3CX
    In many scenarios decision is driven by budget and compared to other solutions at the time of purchase [3CX] was simply the cheapest solution for what it has to offer. If you are looking for integrations, extensibility, and advanced functionalities, this might not be a solution for you. At the time of use (and this may have changed by now), there was a lack of APIs, CLI commands, and similar so nothing could be automated with the system. There are ways of importing data through CSV but automation would solve us so much time and support calls if we were able to connect with other systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Amazon AWS
    Amazon Chime is well suited for online video and audio meetings, IMs, and conducting training sessions using a whiteboard. It can be integrated well with Google Calendar and Microsoft outlook. With Amazon Chime mobile app you can attend meetings on the go as well. Meetings can be locked so that only legitimate participants can join the meeting. Amazon Chime is less suited in case you want meeting transcripts as well for your meetings. Given that Amazon Chime is not used by a larger audience so your client or customer may face some difficulties in join the meeting or accessing some of the features of the Chime.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Slack is ideal for Scrum and agile teams that need continuous communication during sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, testing, and retrospectives. Slack is well-suited for maintaining team knowledge through searchable conversations and dedicated channels, where experienced team members help onboard new QA analysts.
    Read full review
    Pros
    3CX
    • Simplicity: Using a single 3CX interface we can manage every phone and extension used throughout our company.
    • Flexibility: There are a wide variety of options to configure each extension and phone. Changing anything after the hardware is deployed is very easy.
    • Portability: Phones with 3CX can be easily moved or repurposed within an office or at remote locations, including users' homes. The mobile app allows users to use their office extension anywhere without exposing their cell number.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Amazon AWS
    • Chat tools, video calls, on spot meeting invite[s] easy to create and use.
    • Ability to record any meeting and automatically downloads the meeting recording after ending the meeting.
    • UI is clean and easy to navigate around Amazon Chime.
    • Ability to invite outside guests easily using Amazon Chime without any issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Customer issues: Threads feature allows us to group a particular issue in a single thread and discuss within that thread. I can use the thread link to embed in JIRA ticket for tracking progress in JIRA (which is our details engineering tracking system).
    • Ability to add folder to Slack channel helps keep important information, documents easily accessible. e.g., we use this to keep a "ramp up" folder that can be used by any new joiner.
    • Global search is effective when I forget which group a particular message was in.
    Read full review
    Cons
    3CX
    • I would like to be able to see direct-dial numbers on the handsets. Currently that is not possible but that would be a nice feature.
    • You need an SBC per location, which can be a point of failure.
    • You also need a server that might get disconnected, which is another point of failure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Amazon AWS
    • More simplified dial-in numbers. The PIN for our conference line is long and easy to mistype.
    • You do not have to download the Chime app in order to join a conference, but if you want to do anything beyond join (schedule a conference, participate in a group chat, control participants), you have to have the app downloaded and installed. The app that you have to download in order to launch a conference is a memory hog, and slows down a computer's boot up time.
    • The add-in for Microsoft Outlook is particularly clunky. It helps you add scheduled conference calls/video conferences to your Outlook calendar, but it can cause Outlook to crash, and creates a really slow open time for Outlook. If you can avoid downloading the Outlook Add-In, I would.
    • No built-in screen sharing capabilities.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Would love a better integration with GitHub. For example, notifications when your PR is updated, when review is requested, @-mention in comments, etc.
    • Improved "Later" tab, for example the ability to create to-do lists or making the "Later" tab into a more powerful to-do list (annotate items with notes)
    • More powerful integrations, e.g. Google Calendar could render a calendar view within Slack, rather than sending the daily schedule
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    3CX
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    To be more transparent, I give 10 because Slack serves our collaboration needs. It provide us a good platform for team communication relaying important update within the company, it has even mobile app where you can install in your phone to monitor any updates within that team that needs your immediate attention and intervention.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    3CX
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Slack has good usability. Devs that are not familiar with the platform are able to jump into conversations and start sharing code and links within just minutes. Non developers are also able to understand the layout such as the Project Managers that are keeping the projects on track. We have not seen any tickets where employees are having trouble understanding Slack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    3CX
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Yes, the app works 24/7. I don't even recall having any period that we could not use since the implementation. Even the maintenance periods are barely noticeable and our work is not impacted by it when it happens.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    3CX
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Slack is a soft app, we don't have many issues with it. I recall one or two people complaining about something during our usage period, but I didn't have a bad experience. When the app is slow, usually the problem is with my computer or my internet. The app works just fine.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    3CX
    The 3CX Phone System is only a five because while they provide set-up/how-to/Q and A documents to help your district or company get started, they do not offer support for free. The documents provided, though, are good enough for you to get you up and running. We also found a good source of help through a sip trunk provider, which was a 3CX reseller provider.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Amazon AWS
    They were very supportive in answering all of our questions when we had problems. Their in-person calls but their support site also had a full set of information that can answer a good portion of your questions before you have to pick up the phone. But when you, you will get good service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Whenever I've had to troubleshoot an issue with Slack (which, to be honest, has not happened very often), their online documentation has been easy to locate, easy to understand, and effective in resolving my issue. Slack's ever-growing popularity also means that there's a large community of practice out there that can be depended upon.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    3CX
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon AWS
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    I was not part of the implementation team, but I recall being 100% happy and excited to learn and use a new tool. I'm still am to be honest.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    3CX
    The main differences between 8x8, Inc. and 3CX is pricing and ease of use in my opinion. The 3CX system uses annual based pricing plans based on of simultaneous calls your company needs, not the number of extensions/users and offers a free plan. 8x8, Inc. charges per extension with different plans. We currently have 19 extensions so the 3CX system makes more sense for us, however, if your company only has a few extensions you may want to throughly consider both options. In my experience, it was difficult to add new extensions and phones with 8x8 because at least at that time we had 8x8 I could not add anything on the web admin. I had to call a sales rep which took a lot more time. Also, if you didn't purchase a phone and/or headset directly from 8x8 at a usually higher price than Amazon for example then you would have to spend anywhere from 30 minutes to hours on the phone with 8x8 tech support to program the phone to work with the 8x8 system so adding a new extension could turn into a long ordeal. I can easily add new extensions on 3CX directly in the web cpanel. Granted, if you are actually adding a new phone number you would need to purchase that number from a company like ATT first before adding it to 3CX. The difference between a phone number and an extension would be a phone number allows a customer to call in directly using that number. The extension would require the customer to call the main business number then be transferred to the extension. 3CX provides a list of supported phone models on their website
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Amazon AWS
    Better than Skype for Business in terms of loading the application onto your device. Skype had crashing issues always and those are comparatively low when using Amazon Chime. Amazon chime is fast and easy to work with while collaborating and setting up meetings. The audio and video quality are better than Skype for Business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    I like Slack better than ClickUp, because I would spend 30-60 minutes a day updating my ClickUp tasks. The way ClickUp was used was very micromanaging. I billed by the hour, so I was willing to put in the time to alert the boss what tasks I was working on.
    One of my jobs used Hive - I mostly just ran it in the background in case anyone messaged me. I did not use it often.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    3CX
    • 3CX has a lot to offer for a very low cost as its business model is based on simultaneous calls and not per device. It's very cost effective and very affordable.
    • As the 3CX server does not require a high-performance server to run, with the Public Cloud option, it might allow even further savings.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Amazon AWS
    • The positive ROI is Amazon Chime helps make our sales reps more professional in their calls leading to an increase in closed/won deals.
    • Amazon Chime has increased overall morale across our sales team because it has greatly improved our call processes when compared to other tools we've used in the past.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Slack has been incredibly helpful in connecting various tech apps and ecosystems, creating a more streamlined and responsive process.
    • Slack has made it significantly easier to communicate with our team members across multiple time zones, creating a more engaging environment for our all-remote team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    3CX Screenshots

    Screenshot of Video ConferencingScreenshot of Advanced Contact Center ReportingScreenshot of Management DashboardScreenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of 3CX AppScreenshot of See the Status of Your Colleagues