3CX vs. AT&T Office@Hand

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

I wish I had read the reviews before purchasing. AT&T is simply the worst company I have ever dealt with for any service. Ever. I have spent hours on hold trying to explain that my newly purchased AT&T phones from Yealink do not work. "Searching for base". That is all I get. After several attempts to figure out what is going on or why or how to fix I am still without working office phones. I finally got thru to someone that informed me that my phones were removed from my account. I offered the order number to prove I did in fact purchase the phone's from AT&T but they could not use this information. It is unsettling how this could happen and I cannot fix it. I have been deleted. I know I am not alone in my frustration. I will now begin working on removing AT&T from my life. Including the shotting Fiber Optic line at home and at work

• 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

• Up time is very good
• Porting is great
• Easy for very basic configuration

• 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

• Customer service is NON EXISTENT
• Setup was PAINFUL
• Online account access is horrible, and most of the time doesn't work
• As an admin of the system, I require 4 different logins to manage it
• We've been on the system for 5 months, and I have NEVER been able to pay my bill online
• Online account management just doesn't exists

Simply the worst customer service I have ever experienced. It took me over 72 minutes to write this review. That is how long I have been on hold unsuccessfully. I cannot imagine that anyone in charge of AT&T would care that I will gladly take my business elsewhere but if you do... someone in the system has my contact information. I won't hold my breath.

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

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

Horrible. Collaberate was a little slow at times in responding, but they never just left us hanging with unresolved issues. I am now going with a local guy so I do not have to deal with this stuff. I get very irritated when I am transferred to someone over seas that English is not their first language, and they are working off of a script. Although some of them were more helpful than my assigned migration person.

• 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

• Average to higher cost structure
• Easy basic management for IT Staff
• easy desktphone roll out