Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review LiveWebinar is best for individuals holding quick meetings or daily scheduled events. Having friction less meetings for teams which does not require prior app installation or setup makes this the perfect webinar platform for persons with techphobia. Schedule, Send, and Start the meeting. There's even built in surveys and tests which makes the meeting or event more engaging and interactive. Unfortunately for multi-day events, it is very hard to use LiveWebinar for this purpose. Let's say for virtual conferences which has defined dates and times for each session, LiveWebinar won't fit this purpose, or at least, it is very hard to execute this scenario using the platform.
Read full review Pros 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. Read full review Let's you create dedicated (permanent) meeting rooms for recurring meetings/training. Easy overview of all past events/webinars. Branding of a meeting room with company logo possible. Lots of features that make the meeting more professional. No need to install software to connect to a webinar. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review Connectivity and streaming are not always reliable and a webpage needs to be reloaded. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Absolutely love the features of Livewebinar and it's probably the most advanced Live webinar solution that I have used. Even with the absence of a native mobile app, the platform is useable on mobile or tablet screen sizes. There's no noticeable lags during the presentation and users find it easy to use and navigate during the presentations / webinars.
Read full review Usability LiveWebinar is an all in one solution for daily meetings and events. I made it a 9 as it is almost perfect in its current form. However, there were some reported issues on mobile connectivity as there is no native app of LiveWebinar for both iOS and Android. Moreover, I'm hoping that LiveWebinar could connect to my Google, Outlook, or iCal calendar to synch events regularly. I'd love to see my calendar inside LiveWebinar which makes it to the top of the feature wishlist for this platform. Further, if LiveWebinar is able to handle multiple day events or meetings with just a few clicks, that would make this platform, a 11/10 rating!
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Customer support of LiveWebinar is top notch. They are available almost 24x7x365. I rarely wait for the next response and given that people are not suppose to work on holidays or weekends, their support agents are always there to lend a helping hand. The responses are spot on. It's not that I need help with platform having some issues or anything, but for general account questions, they quickly respond to each and every query I raise over to support. Definitely one of the best things with LiveWebinar.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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
Read full review Lower cost of ownership Same or superior features No additional software needs to be installed to join the meeting since everybody has already a web browser. Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review LiveWebinar has made coordinating schedules for training easier. Read full review ScreenShots