Cyprus based company 3CX offers an IP PBX phone system.
$1.08
per user/per month
RingCentral Meetings
Score 7.1 out of 10
N/A
RingCentral Meetings is an HD video conferencing and screen sharing solution that lets the user host unlimited video conference calls and share content while meeting and collaborating with anyone, any time, on any device. RingCentral Meetings helps boost business efficiency and customer engagement without costly and time-consuming travel.
$19.99
Per Month Per User
Pricing
3CX
RingCentral Meetings
Editions & Modules
Pro
$1.08
per user/per month
Enterprise
$1.31
per user/per month
Standard
Free
Meetings
$19.99
Per Month Per User
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
3CX
RingCentral Meetings
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Optional
No setup fee
Additional Details
Price 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.
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.
I would recommend RingCentral for any business that looking to make the jump to Voice over IP and also want business essentials like video meetings all in one app. RingCentral Meetings integrates very well with its other communication tools which makes it very easy for a business to manage their communications in a single platform. The only scenario I see where RingCentral Meetings not being a good fit is if a business will be using video meetings as a marketing tool where they need extra marketing features like lead form captures and notification emails to be sent out.
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.
Screen share functionality is rather limited in capability. Screen takeover functions seem limited to desktop devices (view-only for mobile device users)
Interface feels a bit clunky. Workable for advanced technical users, but a bit confusing for older senior-level executives
Integration with existing RingCentral software. Jumping between RingCentral meetings and telephone feels wrong, they should be integrated into one application for the business user with a standalone application for non-subscribers who wish to join the meeting
We are grandfathered into an unlimited toll-free minutes plan with RingCentral, so as long as we have them as a VoIP provider, we get Meetings free. If they ever start to charge us for using meetings as well, we'll drop that part in a second and switch to Skype for Business, which we currently have as well part of our Office 365 package.
The interface is easy to understand for a wide variety of user experience levels. The only real negative are the links included in meetings being in a format that first opens a browser before launching the RingCentral Meeting app, and as mentioned previously, this may be a platform-specific issue for macOS.
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.
RingCentral is a great tool for everyone interested in making animations. The thing that appealed to us most about it is that it is very simple to use and works with much perfection. Like lip-synchronization goes so well with the character as soon as we add voice-over in it. Also, we can add characters and scenes without any hardship. We highly recommend this software.
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
As a consulting company, we often have to adapt to our customers' needs in communication - which can mean using whatever system they're already on. Most of the time, they come around to preferring RingCentral Meetings over whatever they're using, and we've found it's a great value for us since it's already included in our RingCentral subscription, and runs on Mac, Windows, and Mobile devices. Despite the big drawback of needing to install the app locally and not having an in-browser solution for guests, it's lightweight, intuitive interface makes it an easy conferencing tool to adopt.
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.
It has had a positive impact. We replaced an archaic solution with a more modern, streamlined version or product. Like anything else, it has its downfalls and isn't perfect, but overall it's been a good product and has outshined its predecessors like Zoom and Skype.
It also has an integrated office phone feature which has been great as our phones are essentially our laptops. It cut down on those costs and in general freed up space on our desks since we didn't have to have them anymore and everything is on our computer now.
