User Reviews Overview
About 3CX
3CX Phone System is an open standards communications solution, suitable for any sized business that wants all the features of an advanced contact center at a fraction of the cost. 3CX can take your business communications to the...
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- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The best VoIP phone system for small businesses
We had a customer that had 3 different companies within the walls of the building. We were able to configure each company separately so that their rules, hours, and each had different SIP providers that needed to be configured up properly. Each had their own digital assistant and the system setup took only a few hours to complete with all the complexity that was involved. Technical support was outstanding in assisting with the troubleshooting and setup.
Pros
The 8 concurrent call Standard License is free to all companies. This makes it a perfect solution for churches, small businesses, and as the small businesses grow into medium sized businesses, the annual cost for the license with higher concurrent calls is nominal. When companies switch from the POTS lines, they need to figure out a good solution for VoIP. 3cx is lower cost than RingCentral and 8x8 as well as many other competing VoIP softwares.
Cons
Putting in supported APAP adapters is great, but when a customer has a non supported adapter, it usually works, but doesn't play nicely with the software as far as configuring it easily.
Response from 3CX
Sincere thanks for your feedback.

- Industry: Logistics & Supply Chain
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
3CX is fine, but it is all about who handles the hosting
3CX feels like it is a step up from a normal landline, but I don't see any wow factors that I feel like I could get from some of the other VoIP names.
If you're looking for something less expensive than Ring Central, Phone.com, and OnSip, then you should be able to find a small VoIP provider willing to offer you a hosted package with 3CX for a lower price.
Pros
3CX is straightforward. It seems to have all the necessary features for a small business. Still, as a business owner who cannot work on the admin side, I can only comment on the usability and stability.
Compared to other softphone apps, I've never had significant issues. I use 3CX as a softphone on an iPhone, through a Yealink desk phone, via Chrome plugin, and on an iPad. Surprisingly, the limitations I see are not due to the daily functions.
There are some features I would like, but there is nothing about this app that hinders my company's ability to operate without delay. We have users in China, Thailand, the Philippines, Jamacia, Venezuela, and the US. All locations work well, and the apps work even with limited internet access.
There are times when the connection is not great, but this is usually due to the internet and not the apps.
Cons
There is no way for my ringer on my softphone or desk phone to be customized to ring differently when someone calls my extension vs. ring group. I wish there were connectivity with Zapier so that I could push contacts from other services into our address book.
It would be nice if the SMS chat feature worked more similarly to a shared inbox, where everyone could see it. You can only transfer the chat to another extension, which makes SMS hard to use as a group.
Overall, the cons are not about the ability to use 3CX but the features I wish it had that could provide a better overall experience.
Response from 3CX
Hi Sam and thank you for your review! We are glad to hear that you are enjoying using our software and that it has helped you stay in touch with your employees throughout the world!
Regarding the points you raised, desk phones can be configured to have distinctive ringtones for Queue Calls, so you should certainly consider switching to using Queues instead of Ring Groups. Apart from this, you would also get better reporting capabilities and a lot more polling strategies to choose from.
For syncing you phonebook contacts, we do currently offer integration with Microsoft 365, but in the coming updates we will have a REST API that may also allow you to interact with the 3CX Phonebook, giving you the maximum flexibility in syncing your contacts between various platforms.
Incoming SMS messages can be sent either to an Individual Extension or to a Queue, in which case all logged in members of that Queue will see incoming messages.

- Industry: Telecommunications
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Effective Phone System For Small, Simple Offices
For under 50 extensions and without any special functionality, 3CX is a very user-friendly platform. However, for any project that requires any custom functionality, 3CX will simply not be able to offer help.
Pros
The 3CX installer on both Linux and Windows is incredibly easy to use and users can go from nothing to a fully-featured phone system in less than 20 minutes. Once installed, the user interface is very clean and straightforward.
The 3CX Softphone that can be installed on Windows and mac computers pairs effortlessly with 3CX provisioning files.
Cons
3CX offers very little customization outside of the user interface, and commonly phone system managers will be simply unable to perform more-complex call routing. As an example, dynamic outbound routes are simply not possible outside of the overly-simple Outbound Routes tab, and you are limited to only prefix, length of destination, and from extension.
Compared to FreePBX and FusionPBX, the ability to customize 3CX is almost non-existent.
3CX Support will 100% of the time deflect any technical issues to the carrier, and after numerous ticket responses later, they will finally admit to being able to help.
SIP SRV records are completely broken and not compliant with the SIP RFC. It's hilarious how catastrophic this lack of functionality is.
Faxing is completely broken. It will be a complete nightmare if you attempt to run T.38 faxing over a 3CX phone system.
Top 3CX Alternatives
- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
VOIP and Soft Phones
The experience with 3cx was great, along with the company that oversaw the upgrade once everything was in place and ready to go we switched off our analogue system overnight and removed desk phones the next day.
Pros
The 3cx software makes remote changes a breeze. The ability to allow end users access to a phone over their computer without a physical phone saves cost of a phyisical phone. Users have reported that it is easy to use both making and receiving calls and have noticed no quality loss from our old phone system. It is infinitly easier to administer than our old system and i would not go back under any circumstances, even at the cost of my employment.
Cons
The software has no cons, the only issues i have with any part of this are unrelated to the software just the servers hosting and in places were physical phones are installed.
- Industry: Outsourcing/Offshoring
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
3cX for your call center and VoIP needs
Overall, I have no complaints on 3CX as we are very satisfied.
Pros
I love all the features of 3CX. I love how easy you can set it up, you can find the calls logs and recordings, plus it has a very comprehensive dashboard. Also, when we reach out to them to increase our accounts SC (concurrent calls), they are very responsive as they have a local partner from where I'm from and it was solved immediately.
Cons
The only thing I don't like about 3CX is the provisioning of the softphone as in our setup, people come and go, and we need to provision whenever there's a new employee who'll use it. I think it's better if 3CX can have the login/logout functionality on the desktop app instead of provisioning every time. But it is really negligible and not a deal breaker at all.
Alternatives Considered
VICIdialReasons for Choosing 3CX
Freepbx for me is very hassle to setup as it is asterisk based and Dialfire is very laggy on our side.Switched From
DialfireReasons for Switching to 3CX
VitalPBX is much more expensive on our current setup and we are not comfortable on using Asterisk based system yet. Also vicidial, it's a great software yet we don't really like the design of the app as it looks outdated.Response from 3CX
Hi Cliff and thank you so much for taking the time to review 3CX! We are so glad to hear that you love the ease of setting up 3CX and all the great features offered!
- Industry: Computer Networking
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
phonesystems do still excist and usability ontop
3cx is small or big companies the best option possible also customers not wanting to use cloud telephony 3cx still provides option to have on-prem solution
Pros
full featured phone system with no extra costs. possibility to have cloud deployed, private cloud or even on-premise!
Cons
some features are still in beta but they are already active and communication when issues rice is closely followed by support to have them asap out of beta.
Reasons for Choosing 3CX
to many bugs and priceSwitched From
SkypeReasons for Switching to 3CX
for calling 3cx and in full lockdown and performance issues with 3cx we went for zoom for the online meetingsResponse from 3CX
Hello Andreas! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your feedback with 3CX. We're delighted to hear you found 3CX to be of great use for your business during the lockdown.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
A complete IP/PBX
We've been using 3CX since we have the alternative to work from home and the old switchboard became useless.
The users doesn't like it a lot because they use only the softphone and fo me is the piece less powerfull, but the admins who are used to work with on prem PBX, love it. They find the admin panel very powerfull and also very easy to use.
I don't have experience as a call center so I can't give you my opinion, but it seems to be fulll competent aswell.
Pros
With 3CX you'll have a very functional IPPBX at a very reasonable price.
The admin panel is very easy to use and very powerfull.
The call Queues, the ring groups, the digital recepcionist are functionalities very well implemented.
Cons
The softphone is not at the same quality level as the switchboard, they must improve it if they want to keep their current clients.
The users must do some micro configuration level to improve the sound.
Response from 3CX
Hello, thank you for sharing your rating with us and the community, we value your opinion!
- Industry: Accounting
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Softphone very dependent on technical service
It is not very intuitive and users end up reverting to mobile. Technical support takes a long time to provide solutions.
Pros
The price is relatively inexpensive above a certain number of licenses. As we use it to replace the mobile lines and to be able to call customers, we considered making the change.
Cons
Technical support is quite bad and is necessary to deploy updates. It is necessary to configure a VPN with a very complicated configuration in order to have access to the management server.
Response from 3CX
Hi Alejandro, we're very sorry you had issues with support. We recommend you opt for a 3CX system hosted by 3CX for easy setup and configuration.
- Industry: Accounting
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Easy to use
Pros
The software is easily maneuvered, the calls are made once dialled out and the software gets updated frequently. The calls are recorded and recording produce in approximately and hour after completed. You can easily tap in and monitor a call that an agent is on as well as it provides a chat feature.
Cons
What i liked least about this feature is that there was an issue when you log break there is no way of monitoring how long you were logged for. Unless it's done by the master controller 3cx.
Response from 3CX
Hi Tialee. Thank you so much for the 5-star review! We are super glad to hear 3CX provided you with the flexibility and cost-efficiency to help your business.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Monthly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Good PBX
Pros
Easy to manage names and extension numbers.
Cons
Some difficulties integrating a new phone and with setting up call routing.
- Industry: Internet
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
3CX offers everything you need for low budget
well it is a phone system. We use 3CX to talk to our customers, we use it as webconference solution and we use it as a very lowlevel slack alternative.
Pros
3CX is a solid voip solution that offers all the features and functionality an ordinary team or company needs. Installation and maintenance is simple. The webclient is getting better and better with every version. Speaking quality is great if you use the right codecs or hard phones.
We love 3CX and use this pbx since many years.
Cons
There is no documented API. Either something is supported or not. There is no possibility to get individual implementations.
Response from 3CX
Hi Christoph. Thank you so much for your detailed review. We are happy to hear that you are happy with 3CX over the years!
Currently the only Public API that we have is for our WebMeeting Platform: https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/video-conference-rest-api/
We do plan in the future to also have another REST API that would allow to perform more actions directly related to the calls and 3CX Server, but at the time of writing, this has yet to be released.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
A lot of bang for the buck, easy to setup, easy to admin.
The ability to easily setup phones and manage the PBX, things like doing a scheduled backups, can easily restore a backup if needed, ability to manage calls, extensions, users, etc. Setting up routing, hunt groups, setting up extension groups, setting up open/closed schedules, voicemail, conferencing, web conferencing, and the list goes on. The product is quite intuitive as well.
Pros
I'm new to the world of telecommunication, UM, PBX's, networking, etc., yet with this product I have been able to figure out how to setup/configure the 3CX PBX. They have put a lot of thought into the functionality and features which means we can now manage the PBX and any changes needed as to having to call the support vendor so they can remote in and do the changes. I also like how they have a lot of online training videos and documentation to help lay the foundation regarding what it will take to setup and install a 3CX PBX. 3CX also includes a lot "stuff" for free that many other vendors charge for, for example our past vendor changed for IP licenses, and softphone licenses, and port licenses... nickel and dimed until broke. Yet 3CX doesn't do this, product includes web phone manager interface if you wish to use it, includes a softphone, includes faxing, includes webconferencing, includes voicemail which used to require a totally separate server from your PBX because the big name vendors want you to spend more.
Cons
So far not too many cons, still new to it and doing testing so there could be some limitations that are discovered later on. I'm guessing one limitation might be interfacing w/an existing call-routing tool we have at one of our building locations. A really small con, some of the free training videos could be improved, audio quality, but otherwise nothing currently stands out.
- Industry: Computer & Network Security
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
3cx
Great, ease of use, cost savings and mobility is the ticket in the modern world
Pros
Works awesome for busy people of of the office who can't be tied to a phone. The app is the most intuitive I have seen, i have been doing phone work for years and whish it was around a long time ago
Cons
The new app is missing some features of the old app that was handy like exit&ignore push. I figured a workaround but it also changed the status on your desk phone
Alternatives Considered
MiCloud ConnectResponse from 3CX
Thank you for your positive feedback. Regarding the exit without push, you can either long press on the account and click "deactivate" or you can check this link https://www.3cx.com/docs/android-app-faq/#h.lcteeu5yq5kd which allows you to perform a one-time configuration that configures 1 status with push enabled and another "Available" Status but this time with push disabled. So when you want to perform the "Exit without push" in the new app, you simply toggle to the profile status that has push disabled.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Calls made easier and more organized
Pros
The quality of the recorded calls is amazing and it makes them very useful for training purposes . 3CX gives you a lot of freedom to organize the call list in a way that works for you . The admin panel is centralized ,which makes it easy for managers to properly oversee everything.
Cons
Configuring it when you are starting out takes a lot of time . Status changes ( from online to away and vice versa ) take a while to sync up and this could lead to missed call .
Response from 3CX
Hi Jessica. So happy to hear that 3CX has enabled you to organize the call in a way that works for you.
Installing 3CX from scratch, by following our online guides takes between 5-15 minutes typically, depending on what platform you are installing on (Windows/Debian amd64/Raspberry Pi). The time it takes to configure the system thereafter depends only on how big and complex it is.
The statuses, if setup correctly, change on precisely on the second configured. If you were experiencing delays, it is most likely the NTP time that was consistent on your network. Our installation guides also mention when and where actions need to be taken to avoid this.
- Industry: Insurance
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Make calls to landline numbers with 3cx
cost benefits as making calls from a mobile device to a landline number is expensive in my country.
Pros
We use 3cx in the office to make local and international landline calls from our phones. The software is absolutely free! No licenses required. You just need to install a software on your mobile device and you are ready to go. I like this because in my country it is costly to make a landline call from a mobile number. So with 3cx the cost is not charged to my mobile number account. So we can make client calls or cold calls with ease
Cons
Sometimes we may be in remote areas to make a call. And if that is so, our internet connection sometimes drops and this will affect experience with the software. When this happens, we would need to rely on other means when making calls.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Great Telephone System
Just had voice quality issue there and there, but it was on the settings and it was resolved.
Pros
During the first lock down when everyone was forced to work from work, we had 3CX Apps and making calls from home as if we are in the office. The App comes with the Instant Chat platform and Video Conference. It is cheaper to make phone calls from this system.
Cons
The Microsoft Teams integration hasn't really worked for me, thwy should fix the availability status sync - like when one is in a meeting.
Response from 3CX
Hi Mmathabo. Thank you for the 5-star review. Currently, the availability status is not implemented but as you can see in our blog post in the following link, it is one of the next things on our to-do list!
https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/roadmap-microsoft-365/
Keep an eye out on our blog post and hopefully, we can convince you to give it another try when we have implemented this feature!
- Industry: Human Resources
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
3cx review
Overall it has been a nice upgrade from the shoretel system. I experience issues with the app quite often, but the desktop/computer application and desk phones work great.
Pros
With the ability to add the app to my cell phone, the program running on my computer and having a desk phone linked, it is super easy to receive and make phone calls.
Cons
I wish that the software had a texting feature. There is a messenger feature that can be used between users, but text messages can't be sent which would be a huge plus for users that don't have company provided cell phones and don't want to give out their personal phone numbers.
Response from 3CX
Thank you for your feedback. We are actively working on adding a texting feature. Will be available soon.
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Decent VoIP Phone Software
Pros
The User Interface allows for a highly configurable phone setup that can be customized to your needs.
Cons
A major issue with 3CX is its reporting interface. Every report must be queued up and emailed for display. If running an analysis of phone data, you have to put in the parameters of the request, assign an email to send the report to, wait for the email to come in, and then follow the link to view the results. If you're trying to do a comparative report for any time range - and/or involving multiple phone queues, you have to repeat those steps numerous times. Compared to an interface that displays results inside the web portal, 3CX's process is extremely inefficient.
- Industry: Staffing & Recruiting
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Easy to deploy and Easy to use
I have had no real issues with the soft phone. Any company that has good connectivity (Especially in South Africa). Soft phones are the way to go, it saves you so much money on your Tele-Bills. The Biggest differentiator for this soft phone is the easy setup. Its user interface is not ground breaking but still great to use. They do give trial licences to use.
Pros
It has a Fantastic reporting tool and It was very easy to setup the soft phone for my office. It is very user friendly and easy to use. The layout and functions of the soft phone is comfortably laid out on the screen. You could even get a trail to use.
Cons
Even though it is not entirely the software’s fault, When we have throttled Connectivity, the call just goes silent, This means I have no idea if the customer disappeared or just holding and even if I went through on the call.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
No better VoIP system
We have managed to work like we have never left the office during lockdown.
Pros
You can make phone calls from anywhere in the worlds, even if you're outside the office / office network.
Cons
Sometimes the voice quality can be poor if you do not have stable network, and the older iPhones do not support the latest 3CX App.
Response from 3CX
Thank you for the review.
With the upcoming 3CX iOS App (18.0.2) release, the minimum iOS version supported by 3CX will be iOS 14. This is to ensure a more modern, stable, and reliable experience for all our iOS users.
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Confusing and Support Farms Out to Non-Existent Local Entities
Pros
I liked the pricing the most compared to the market.
Cons
Confusion with about 6 different keys & passwords then IP blocked.
Difficulty navigating the setup and if I need to integrate an alternate softphone or if 3cx has one in-built.
Errors trying to open the platform even though firewall off.
Not sure the difference between the "management interface" and the "webclient".
Response from 3CX
We are sorry to hear that your first experience with 3CX was not the best. If you are willing to give it another try you could check out the following pages that have links to training videos which at the end also have demos:
If you want to install 3CX on a server on your premise:
https://www.3cx.com/3cxacademy/videos/basic/installing/
If you want to install 3CX in the Cloud on one of our supported Hosting Providers:
https://www.3cx.com/3cxacademy/videos/intermediate/pbx-express/
Last, if you want to demo 3CX free for a period of time, you could try out our free hosting which is time limited:
https://www.3cx.com/blog/vlog/video-remote-work/
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Works Great and Inexpensive
3CX is very universal and helps our team work fully remotely. Our phone system works anywhere with a internet connection.
Pros
Mobile App for cell phone which works great, can pick up and transfer calls
Fully functional app for the computer
Can connect many types of phones
Cons
The interface I think could use a bit of a update, however it is functional and easy to use
Audio can sometimes cut in and out
Response from 3CX
Hi Lyle. Great to hear 3CX is helping your team to work fully remotely! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave your feedback and wishing you a great week ahead!
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Review Source
Installation Of 3CX Phone System On QNAP TS-453 Pro Using VMware
Pros
I have been using 3CX Phone system for may years and gave found it to be a versatile, robust computer based PBX Phone system. I have used it on the following versions of Microsoft Windows, Windows 7 professional, Windows 10 Professional, Windows Server 2003 Standard, Professional Windows Server 2008 Enterprise. My latest installation is 3CX Version 12.5 64bit installed on a QNAP TS-453 Pro running Windows 2008 Enterprise R2 in Virtual Machine Mode. The installation was simple and smooth, activation and provisioning was straightforward, no hitches. The whole system is running and performing as you would expect stable and reliable
Cons
Its very hard to find any dislikes about the 3CX Phone system, if anything I would say lack of information on how to set-up configure VOIP gateways. I have had to search the internet to find the information I required and this was from fellow users who been kind enough to share their knowledge and expertise
- Industry: Public Safety
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
3CX
It is a fair system, but we moved to another system that is easier to set up.
Pros
There are a lot of features built into the phone system, including international calling. It is a cloud based system
Cons
The set up is difficult. You have to record your messages and then upload-it does not have a feature built in to change messages easily. Calls drop randomly.
Response from 3CX
We're sorry to hear the set-up wasn't as straightforward as expected. Feel free to post to our forum and a 3CX technician will be able to assist you.
- Industry: Financial Services
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Very versatile
Pros
Due to how easy the setup is , 3CX helps tremendously with reaching customers when working from home .You can organize your calling lists in whatever way you want ( we usually get them pre-organized by management ) . The call options save on lot of the expenses ,related to international calls .
Cons
The call logs are hard to navigate and it can be hard to find what you are looking for when it comes to previous call history.
Response from 3CX
Hi Ashani! Thanks for the great review and for taking the time to share your feedback. We are glad that you are able to get the most out of 3CX. Have a great week ahead!