Cyprus based company 3CX offers an IP PBX phone system.
$1.08
per user/per month
Zoom
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Zoom is a unified communications platform primarily known for its use as a web conferencing tool. It features HD video and audio, collaboration tools, chat functionality, and an enterprise cloud phone system.
$5
per month per license
Pricing
3CX
Zoom
Editions & Modules
Pro
$1.08
per user/per month
Enterprise
$1.31
per user/per month
Standard
Free
Add-On Zoom Translated Captions
$5
per month per license
Add-On - Zoom Whiteboard
$24.90
per year
Pro
$149.90
per year per user
Business
$199.90
per year per user
Business Plus
$250.00
per year per user
Add-On - Conference Room Connector
$499
per year
Basic
Free
Enterprise
Custom
Add-On - Large Meetings
starting at $600
per year
Add-On - Cloud Storage
starting at $120
per year
Add-On Audio Conferencing
starting at $1200
per year
Add-On Zoom Phone Power Pack
Starting at $300
per year per user
Add-On - Zoom IQ for Sales
Contact Sales
Add-On - Quality of Service Subscription
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
3CX
Zoom
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Yes
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.
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
3CX
Zoom
Considered Both Products
3CX
Verified User
Professional
Chose 3CX
We didn't want Cisco Call Manager anymore. We used a very old version previously, but nonetheless it didn't have a very good name in the company. PureCloud was too call center focused so in the end, we like 3CX best. A small pilot was configured very fast, and after we went …
No competition, Zoom is well below standards in functionality and much more expensive. Also, it requires a contract where the others is pay as you go on a monthly basis. The phone conversation is clear. No problem with connectivity. The international feature is still about …
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.
In the new area of pandemic-era meetings online, I really like the opportunity that Zoom provides to have a meeting space. The audio and video quality is typically good, with problems usually being blamed on the bandwidth of the service provider. The recordings are great to be able to use once they have been processed. In fact, if there was one thing I would improve about recordings, it would be the amount of time it takes to render the video ready for output and sharing.
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.
You need an app to make the calls and meetings, but it would be perfect if it had a web-based option.
Sometimes when internet speed drops, the audio quality also drops; I would understand the video quality dropping, but the audio doesn't consume much bandwidth, so it would be nice to have a consistent audio even on low internet speeds.
Zoom's existing functionalities are already addressing most of my needs that why i might not renew it. In future i might suggest my company for a paid plan of Zoom to avoid the trial bracket for 1 hour. All other features are up to the mark and fulfill my requirements for the meetings
Zoom has been very good in terms of usability as I have rarely had issues joining the meetings on desktop and it has always provided me with a stable audio and video and it makes it very easy for me to get through any meetings without much problem. I have found that it helps create a very friendly environment with my team through the creation of conferences and moderated chat rooms.
There have been less than a handful of outages during our two years with Zoom, and whenever there was one, an email informing us of the outage went out immediately, and they had the issue resolved shortly thereafter.
Zoom has among the best performance of any video conference platform, as I've mentioned several times. Besides that, their Chat platform works great, and their back end always runs smooth. It's unfortunate that reporting can now only be done by one month at a time, but nonetheless, it only takes a second to run any kind of Zoom report, whether it's an attendee report, Poll results, a user report, a list of meetings from the past month, etc.
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.
As I've written before, Zoom makes us feel like we matter and that we're a client rather than a customer. They want us to succeed and they put in the time to make sure that we do. I feel like they're more of a business partner rather than simply a vendor or supplier. They spent a lot of time onboarding with us, giving us demos, helping us get set up, and then giving us follow-up to be sure it's going well.
If you receive any pushback from higher ups, point to any of the various positive reviews like this one. Or show Zoom's excellent Gartner report, or articles describing Zoom's partnership with Sequoia capital. It's not difficult to show how Zoom is a trustworthy industry leader with best-in-class technology.
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
Zoom cannot be beaten for ubiquity - 100% of my clients and prospective clients are already familiar with Zoom. This is the #1 reason why I use Zoom. Additionally, Zoom integrates with AcuityScheduling, saving me a lot of time in creating meetings and adding them to the calendar. Zoom is disappointing in terms of video quality, interactivity features, and privacy. In cases where I need to use the recording of webinars for digital products, I will always use Crowdcast, and in cases where privacy is essential, I will use JitsiMeet.
Overall I feel it is a fair price for what you pay for and the time constraints are not an issue at all. Zoom allows users to be on there for hours and hours and also you can launch as many meetings as you want. Overall I am very happy with using Zoom for our business.
Because the Basic licenses are completely free, and because it's very easy to configure and install Zoom, and because anyone can join Zoom from a link without needing an account, scaling is a Breeze. There are absolutely no roadblocks. My company keeps adding more Zoom Pro license every week since it's so in demand. We were able to convert users from several different platforms onto Zoom with no trouble at all.
The professional service that Zoom offers us in a particular way has been really successful for us to diversify functions and highlight others that allow us to link our remote work in a much more effective way.
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 enables me to send and receive messages from my team members during video calls, handling online presentations.
With the ability to quickly stop, mute, and even receive notifications when someone enters or exits the meeting room, I'm never obligated to show up while making a call.
It is possible to record online meetings for future reference and more effective customer service. As we dealt with a lockdown, Zoom helped our business run smoothly.