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3CX

3CX

Overview

What is 3CX?

Cyprus based company 3CX offers an IP PBX phone system.

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Pricing

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Pro

$1.08

On Premise
per user/per month

Enterprise

$1.31

On Premise
per user/per month

Standard

Free

On Premise

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.3cx.com/ordering/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

3CX Demo

YouTube

3CX On Call Manager by VoIPTools | Live demo

YouTube

3CX Live Chat Demo

YouTube

3CX CRM Demo v14

YouTube

demo video call virtualbox+trixbox os(centos)+3cx phone

YouTube

3CX Scheduled Conference Call Demo

YouTube
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Product Details

What is 3CX?

3CX is an open standards communications system suitable for any business size or industry. 3CX is an integrated phone system with call queues, built-in video calls and video conferencing. In addition, users can integrate website live chat, Facebook and text messages. The vendor states its features are remote-friendly, meaning teams can use them from anywhere via mobile and browser apps. It’s also an open-platform and compatible with popular IP phones and SIP trunks.

3CX is designed to make installation, management, and maintenance of PBX easy, so that the user can effortlessly manage it, whether on an appliance or server on-premises or in the cloud.


3CX Features

  • Supported: Easy admin and installation
  • Supported: Slash telco costs by 80%
  • Supported: Advanced call center features
  • Supported: Video conferencing
  • Supported: Live chat
  • Supported: Android and iOS App
  • Supported: Facebook integration
  • Supported: Business text messages

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

3CX Video

3CX Integrations

3CX Competitors

3CX Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Supported CountriesAll
Supported LanguagesEnglish, French, Spanish, Italian, German

3CX Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

Cyprus based company 3CX offers an IP PBX phone system.

RingEX are common alternatives for 3CX.

The most common users of 3CX are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(126)

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)

3CX great small-business phone system

Rating: 8 out of 10
May 13, 2021
DM
Vetted Review
Verified User
3CX
2 years of experience
We use 3CX as the VoIP solution for our company. We have extensions that are assigned to certain staff who need them. We use call queues that allow our call center staff to take calls from patients and know what they are calling about. We can also run reports on the statistics of those call queues and those reports are able to be flexible to whatever information we need to pull.
  • The user interface is easy to use
  • It is easy to set up new extensions, call queues, and ring groups
  • It is easy to re-provision an extension on a new piece of hardware
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.
I think it is well suited for small businesses. Our company has around 200 employees and it works well for us. I don't have experience with a larger company but it may be better suited for smaller companies with fewer employees per location. We have had some trouble with too many people bogging down the SBC at one location and we had to install a second SBC.
  • Call queue reports
  • Ease of extension administration
  • Ability to change the software to your needs
  • Call queues are a good ROI
  • We are able to implement better care and scheduling since using 3CX
  • We have been able to use the phone app to allow providers to call patients from home during COVID

3CX is EZ as PI

Rating: 8 out of 10
June 30, 2022
Vetted Review
Verified User
3CX
1 year of experience
Due to the size of our organizations, it is important to be able to have several different divisions or groups. For a big example we have several buildings and helps us to be able to group each person belonging to each group, not just the department but about the location along with their job title.
  • The team that came in to help set us up was great.
  • Being able to get some custom support on some issues.
  • To be able to pivot and transition between 2 different phone systems has been great.
Cons
  • I think the GUI changes within the Web interface are horrible and are now more confusing.
  • Being a little more user friendly.
  • Create a simple and basic GUI for different users.
They have been very good to us, and I know we are a large project and they came in and ironed out the headaches as they popped us. Them being able to quickly troubleshoot and reposed to our requests has been wonderful. We are a little compartmentalized here, but anytime I've had to reach out for an issue I've gotten very quick responses.
  • Search for a person
  • Figuring out what building they work at.
  • Low downtime
  • We had some hardware malfunction and our phones went out.
  • No phones working and answers seemed slow.
  • Trying to have a seamless transition (Always hiccups along the way).
These are not dedicated IP phone systems but they are the close I've used. Our old legacy phone system wasn't cutting it anymore. I would say our biggest hurdle for out-groups has been able to get the old legacy fax services working for 3CX and I'm not sure if it even does. Many users have loved the app and love being able to forward calls to their cell.

3CX to the Rescue!

Rating: 10 out of 10
March 15, 2020
LS
Vetted Review
Verified User
3CX
3 years of experience
My entire school district uses the 3CX Phone System. It has allowed us to have a phone in each room, facilitating private conversations with a specific teacher, now the building or district office can not only talk privately with individual teachers, but teachers can also contact parents in a more convenient place and time. Switching to 3CX Phone System has also slashed the phone bill by two thirds. Anything that can save the school district some money is a great product, and that savings alone paid for the phones that were purchased for each classroom. It also allowed us to remove the intercom cables too, as it replaced our intercom old system as well.
  • The 3CX Phone System has a really nice auto-provision feature that works with plug and play phones, so then all that's needed is for each to have an extension assigned to them.
  • The 3CX Phone System web portal is exceptional. I love how I can keep it open during the day and quickly see who is busy on the phone and which lines are available. I can also call quickly by a simple click of the mouse.
  • The app that accompanies this allows me to provision my cellphone via the app to my classroom extension so that if I am out of my classroom and someone calls my phone, it also rings on my cell phone. I can also call via the app and it appears as if I am calling from my classroom extension.
Cons
  • The webmeeting function is clumsy compared to Zoom or Google Meets (Hangouts).
  • There is no support offered without paying for it, but the web forum that is offered for free does allow you to throw out questions and have them answered by someone in the community of 3CX user administrators.
The 3CX Phone System is perfectly suited for schools or businesses that want a reliable phone system and a reduced phone bill. It functions on traditional phones, the web, and on cell phones via the app, making it flexible enough to suit today's business or educational institution needs. The installation can be done with some basic knowledge also, without needing to hire anyone or pay 3CX for assistance.
  • The money we save by switching to 3CX has helps us in other areas of our district's budget that directly impacts students.
  • After setting up the system, if we need to add another phone, it is super easy and takes about 5 minutes. Just plug in the phone, assign it an extension, and start using it.
  • Staff training was very minimal. Users can bypass the web portal and just use it via a traditional phone.
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.

Great but could use some improvement

Rating: 8 out of 10
November 29, 2023
Vetted Review
Verified User
3CX
2 years of experience
We use 3cx to get incoming calls and also make outgoing calls.
Also we use it as an internal messaging platform.
Also we monitor the Queue of calls, listen to recordings, etc.
  • Chats between employees
  • Retrieving call recordings
  • Changing status of availability
Cons
  • Interface
  • More customization
3cx is very well suited for internal chatting and for checking recordings, however when setting the status to "lunch" for example, I would prefer it to say when did the person go out for lunch. It would make it easier to monitor the employees.
  • Wallboard
  • Call recordings
  • Chats
  • Groups
  • It helped us improve communications between employees
  • Helped understand people's roles better
3cx is better cause it also offers chat and call recordings. I don't think Podium does that.

3CX: Easy to use, won't hold you back

Rating: 8 out of 10
June 11, 2019
Vetted Review
Verified User
3CX
3 years of experience
We use 3CX to manage phones through our entire company across many locations and multiple states. All phones are able to be managed by a single 3CX controller, which simplifies management and support while offering features and flexibility to users. Many users have a traditional desk phone, some use only the 3CX smartphone app, others use both. Each extension can be used with any of these options.
  • 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.
Cons
  • Experience or support required: SIP is complicated and nuanced by nature, with any phone system. If you don't have experience with this, support from a local integrator is all but required.
  • Adding call flow apps is very complicated: 3CX can be extended with custom developed call flow apps, which is great to meet a specific business need. However, this is very complicated by its nature and requires custom software to be developed.
  • Failover somewhat limited: Setting up failover is relatively complicated and somewhat limited in performance.
I would strongly recommend the 3CX phone platform over any hardware based PBX system. 3CX scales very smoothly since it can be run on anything from a pretty basic computer to a powerful server to a cloud VM. This means getting started can be very inexpensive, and migrating can be much lower cost than moving to a hardware PBX. As with any phone system, experience or support is needed, but 3CX is well designed for usability. There is a decently sized community with users who can help out and share ideas.
  • Much lower cost than other PBX options: Our company paid nearly 1/5 the cost of purchasing a hardware-based PBX when we instead switched to 3CX. In either case we would have had to replace all phone hardware, but with 3CX we saved a ton of money on licensing and server hardware.
  • Many locations, one phone system: We were able to tie all of our locations into a single 3CX phone system. This means each location is an extension, allowing call transferring, increased flexibility in auto attendant, and simpler numbers to remember.
  • Elimination of carrier service: With 3CX we were able to replace carrier service at many separate locations with SIP service. This reduced each locations' phone bill from $50 per month to $5 per month.
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 that new phone system in separate moves. On a day to day basis, we can easily handle questions and changes that come up without being SIP or phone system experts. As our business evolves, we are able to scale our 3CX system without worrying about hardware limitations or expensive expansions.
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