3CX for Small Business

W

William1102

Expert Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2019
Messages
1,670
Reaction score
488
Location
Durban
Hi

I was looking at getting 3CX for a Small business with 8 users

Would prefer something with unlimited calls but not necessary

Any companies that can be recommended? Vox was only high on setup fees like R5500

Thanks
 
William1102 said:
Hi

I was looking at getting 3CX for a Small business with 8 users

Would prefer something with unlimited calls but not necessary

Any companies that can be recommended? Vox was only high on setup fees like R5500

Thanks
Click to expand...
You can't do unlimited calls on 3CX.
Your license is based on simultaneous calls. So for 8 users I would recommend a 4 simultaneous calls license. But this depends on what sort of business you run.

Do you want physical phones on the premises? Or do you want to use softphones?
 
killerbyte said:
You can't do unlimited calls on 3CX.
Your license is based on simultaneous calls. So for 8 users I would recommend a 4 simultaneous calls license. But this depends on what sort of business you run.

Do you want physical phones on the premises? Or do you want to use softphones?
Click to expand...
Hi Killerbyte

At times it can be up to 5 people using the line at once during busier hours, we use our phones mostly for sales calls and we do make a decent amount of calls outgoing so would have preferred an unlimited package instead of a pay as you use call package.

We have physical phones at the moment and we can use softphones when out the office
 
It's important to thoroughly research your options before committing to a VoIP solution, especially when comparing systems like 3CX and service providers such as Vox. A common mistake is conflating the phone system (3CX) with the VoIP service itself , these are two entirely separate components and should be evaluated independently.

Firstly, I’d recommend reviewing the 3CX roadmap. The company has explicitly stated that their focus is shifting away from the smaller business segment. While 3CX may still offer a free version, this is primarily targeted at very small deployments or for testing purposes, and does not reflect the direction the company is taking long-term.

Based on what you've described, it seems you're considering 3CX because it's available for free , but comparing that to a fully managed service offering from a provider like Vox is not a like-for-like comparison.

Additionally, it's crucial to understand how 3CX Hosted (SMB) works. The hosted service is no longer supported in South Africa, and it no longer uses STUN for phone registration. Instead, it now relies on TLS-based tunnel connections. If your phones are not on 3CX's current supported hardware list, they will not be able to connect via this tunnel, rendering them incompatible with the hosted service.

Another major consideration is your connectivity. If you're not on a business-grade FTTB connection, running a real-time service like voice (hosted internationally) will lead to quality and reliability issues latency, jitter, and packet loss will be real concerns.

While we offer comprehensive, business-only VoIP services, we never propose them to clients who are specifically looking for “free” solutions , the expectations and requirements simply don’t align. Vox, among others, does have value-based offerings worth exploring, but it’s essential to understand your needs fully before choosing.

In short: 3CX may be free, but using it successfully , especially in a hosted configuration requires the right infrastructure, compatible hardware, and a clear understanding of its limitations and roadmap. Proceeding without this can lead to costly mistakes.


Best of luck with your decision.
 
Last edited:
nslalu said:
It's important to thoroughly research your options before committing to a VoIP solution, especially when comparing systems like 3CX and service providers such as Vox. A common mistake is conflating the phone system (3CX) with the VoIP service itself , these are two entirely separate components and should be evaluated independently.

Firstly, I’d recommend reviewing the 3CX roadmap. The company has explicitly stated that their focus is shifting away from the smaller business segment. While 3CX may still offer a free version, this is primarily targeted at very small deployments or for testing purposes, and does not reflect the direction the company is taking long-term.

Based on what you've described, it seems you're considering 3CX because it's available for free , but comparing that to a fully managed service offering from a provider like Vox is not a like-for-like comparison.

Additionally, it's crucial to understand how 3CX Hosted (SMB) works. The hosted service is no longer supported in South Africa, and it no longer uses STUN for phone registration. Instead, it now relies on TLS-based tunnel connections. If your phones are not on 3CX's current supported hardware list, they will not be able to connect via this tunnel, rendering them incompatible with the hosted service.

Another major consideration is your connectivity. If you're not on a business-grade FTTB connection, running a real-time service like voice (hosted internationally) will lead to quality and reliability issues latency, jitter, and packet loss will be real concerns.

While we offer comprehensive, business-only VoIP services, we never propose them to clients who are specifically looking for “free” solutions , the expectations and requirements simply don’t align. Vox, among others, does have value-based offerings worth exploring, but it’s essential to understand your needs fully before choosing.

In short: 3CX may be free, but using it successfully , especially in a hosted configuration requires the right infrastructure, compatible hardware, and a clear understanding of its limitations and roadmap. Proceeding without this can lead to costly mistakes.


Best of luck with your decision.
Click to expand...
Hi nslalu

Yes I don't mind paying for the service and Vox's per month at R1100 was very reasonable with uncapped calling, just R5500 for a setup fee being ridiculous

Although I am not only looking at 3CX and would be fine with any solution with a similar offering mainly having softphones and deskphones work simultaneously.

All needs to be with a reliable provider as well, would be a nice to have some level of on site support though
 
Have you looked at alternatives? I discovered VitalPBX just before The Great COVID, because I needed a "something in-between" the ghastly Avaya we had deployed a year before and Telkom's VoIP system (not another 5 digit price tag just for an expensive SBC that needs yet another expert to setup). Generally super simple interface (FreePBX from where it seems to have forked from hurts my eyes and brain)

Anyways, it's free for <13 user extensions (I think this was from v4 onwards), has a simple switchboard console (web interface; probably touch friendly) and runs just fine on that old scrap nettop/cheap PC that doesn't support Win11 (30-100GB SSD always recommended though purely because I like boot time of <20 seconds). There is training on Udemy as well (not expensive; cheaper during specials eg Black Friday). If you want to unlock the extension limit quite a lot, get the starter license (about $200 last time I bought; still has limits on agent reporting and phone provisioning [50]) which is usually half price during Black Friday. The starter licenses I bought for V4 work just fine in V4.5 (revoked a license from a V4 and used on a V4.5 in a different branch)

I've been so impressed with it I've quietly replaced the Avaya (users didn't even know; same logins) in the 2nd biggest branch in the company, and head office will be the same when I'm done running around the country trying to kill old tech and expensive ISDN and VPN links (and archaic Cisco CUCM and Huawei router "PBXs") for the small branches.

Features I've used so far: switchboard, queues with agent reports (a small switchboard group), ring groups. phone provisioning, pickup groups, exit queue and go to X (IE no switchboard/agents logged in or ignoring, so speak to the sales people [ring group with all simultaneous ring] just in case -- never figured that out on the Avaya).

Word of warning though with using consumer grade VoIP (single number) from <pick local ISP>: always make sure you set the contact user in the trunk else you can spend days staring at "asterisk -rvvv" feeds to figure out why the incoming SIP invite is s@yourip and why the underlying Asterisk doesn't know what to do with it. The more expensive VoIP with number ranges and an actual trunk ethernet port from the fibre provider, never gave me those headaches
 
Last edited:
William1102 said:
Really do not want to handle the phone system, prefer to have someone else deal with this
Click to expand...
Try Voys. I don't know if they do unlimited calling though. Setup fees should be quite low, too.

I would avoid 3CX at all costs.
 
Only con with 3CX is the license issue. Its a yearly license and it can get expensive when you start adding more users
 
Went_For_Beer said:
Only con with 3CX is the license issue. Its a yearly license and it can get expensive when you start adding more users
Click to expand...
Seems Kinetix Connect has solved this issue, although my sales guy did not mention it. I went through their website and found per user pricing and it only costs about R95 per extension p/m
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X