3CX Review
Posted: April 30th, 2008 | Author: Garrett Smith | Filed under: VoIP Product Reviews | 11 Comments »
One of the phone systems that I have been playing with over the last few months is Windows based 3CX phone system from the UK based company of the same name.
I have known about the 3CX system for quite sometime, having first come across the company while doing some searches on YouTube. Now, I come across a ton of products every week. My office and home are litter with them. However, most do not hold my attention for more than a few days, like the 3CX system has.
The reason?
It is windows based and very easy to use.
Before I get into the nitty gritty of the review, let me preface this by saying that will I can be dangerous with code if given the chance, I am not a programmer and very much do not want to be one, so I am biased towards systems that are built for the average technologist (or employee).
3CX Overview
3CX Phone System for Windows is a software-based IP PBX based on Windows. From the get-go this is one of the most important differentiators of the product as it “feels” like any other windows product that millions of business users are use to. In addition, because the phone system is software, it can run on an existing PC (if you are a small company) or you can run it on a dedicated Windows server.
The 3CX phone system comes in three different flavors:
- Small Business Edition – From $595
- Pro Edition – From $995
- Enterprise Edition – From $1650
Each of the three versions contains a standard, yet robust feature set including auto-attendant, call forwarding, call parking, call pick-up, called id, voicemail, voicemail to email, ring groups, hunt groups, Outlook and SalesForce.com integration, support for most SIP based IP Phones and the popular voice codecs.
3CX Pros
It was one of, if not the easiest install and configuration I have done to date (as it relates to phone systems). From the initial download on the website, install and configuration, consisting of having two IP Phones registered, a basic auto attendant and a VoIP provider set-up, it took all of 40 minutes. That is fast.
What made the install so easy was that it was Windows based (so I could download it right to my PC) and with their intuitive web based interface setting up extensions, provisioning phones, creating an auto-attendant was painless. Although I did not set-up a POTS line or integrate the system with Outlook, I did spend some time “playing around” with those configuration settings and they were straight forward as well.
For many, simple isn’t sexy, but when you don’t care to spend days (or weeks) configuring a phone system it sure is!
3CX Cons
The 3CX systems greatest Pro is also one of it’s downfalls (depending on who you are). Since it is built to be simply and easy, it does not have a ton of bells and whistles. Certain must haves such as find-me-follow-me and call queues (available with paid version only) are not currently available.
Although I did not integrate the system with an analog gateway for PSTN connectivity, I can tell you (based on previous experience) that configuring an analog gateway isn’t always easy. This has the potential to be a pain point for those who are less than savvy (Unless you are using a Patton gateway, in which 3CX automatically creates configuration files
which can be uploaded to the gateways. This makes configuration of gateways with 3Cx a snap). In addition, because it is Windows based, there are not any PCI cards that I know of that can be used as an alternative to an external gateway.
Overall Impressions of the 3CX Phone System
Honestly, it was tough to find much wrong with the software. It is easy and simple to set-up and maintain, it has a pretty robust feature set, supports a wide variety of hardware and is very affordable. Software aside, 3CX provides excellent support and the organization is very visible and accessible. Furthermore, their forum provides a wealth of knowledge.Now, if you are an enterprise looking for a phone system, this isn’t for you, but if you are an SMB without an IT staff (or one that is not VoIP/Linux savvy) this is an excellent solution for you.
we have had kind of a tough time with 3CX. general incompatibilities with our ITSP mainly.
however if your using a gateway (patton) you should have a great time! There are better SIP based PBX’s out there but this is the best windows based one.
Hi db – which ITSP would that be? We support many VOIP providers but if you have specific problems let us know
Out ITSP is utah based only. they use a sonus and have a large utah fiber network. 3CX doesnt support dual NICs where the local ip is 192.168.x.x and the voice Vlan is 10.200.x.x
As well they crash the call then the ITSP sends a SIP/SDP keepalive. I have already emailed 3CX wireshark logs of this and i assume this is being fixed.
Honestly its a unique environment but all the other softswitch apps i have tried worked fine.
Just didnt work for what we needed out of it.
Thanks for the update. Well please feel free to let me know case number or something so i can follow up. You can contact my via the forums (admin)
However it works well with most popular SIP providers….
I’ve been using 3CX for some time now and it works great. I was even able to purchase it online from 3CX Store.
VOIP can provide different results for different people, so I recommend using the free version first to make sure it works properly behind your firewall, etc. Make sure it is all good to go before purchasing anything.
I AM JUST GETTING INTO VOIP FOR ATTENDING CONFERENCES REMOTELY. I HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH 2 LOCAL STATIONS AND SO FAR SO GOOD. I INTEND TO CONFIGURE 3CX FOR TOLL CALLING SO THAT THERE WILL NEVER BE A REASON TO MISS A CONFERENCE.
MORE TO FOLLOW.
I’ve been using 3CX For a Long time and i got no problems with them.
This one time i had a problem with my PBX and made a Support Ticket on their Page and my problem was fixed within the next day.
They provide a lot of great features that Normal PBX’s would never Support and it’s easily managable
Hi,
I appreciate your constant update on the telecom trends.
I represent PBX Plus (http://www.pbxplus.com) which is based on the award winning (Best of Show for SMB at IT Expo, LA 2009) platform – InVox (http://www.invox.com).
We would like to see you signup and review PBX Plus. I would be happy to add a FREE US or UK number with unlimited minutes to your account.
Your number would greet your callers with “Thanks for calling… Please say the name of the person or department you are trying to reach.” Caller can just say your name “…“and call will be forwarded to your mobile, landline or Skype account. It works with my Skype, offers free speech recognition, voicemail and voicemail transcription, eFAX (Fax In), Fax Out, Outbound FAX, Fax on Demand,unlimited extensions and sub-extensions etc.
The drag and drop designer (visio-like) can be used to configure PBX in just 15 mins. Wizard configures the PBX based on the answers to each question about your business.
In fact, show attendees at IT Expo walked out “This is the best I have seen till day for telephony era!”
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks.
Adam Smith
PBX+
Hi,
The 3CXphone softphone application is most certainly one of the best available. The softphone can dial-out and establish a call far quicker than some of the other popular rivals.
It is generally a limitation with softphones – the time taken for the application to send a dialed number to a remote SIP server. The 3cxphone is much faster and makes it pleasant to use.
The softphone is attractive and has a good set of features.
We have come accross a few cases of 3cxphone being configured to use TCP SIP transport – which can cause issues if connecting to kamailio servers. The issue seems to be a bug with kamailio unable to handle TCP. This can easily be overcome by configuring the application to use UDP transport method for SIP in the advanced settings of the user profile.
Highly recommended
I downloaded the 3CX iPhone app today. Awesome! That’s all I have to say.
Hello,
I’ve been using 3CX pbx for a while now, but I haven’t found a decent sdk for it… Yet.
It took some time to finally found it, so I would like to make it easier for you if you are also in such situation:
http://www.voip-sip-sdk.com/p_124-voip-sip-sdk-3cx-voip.html
Hope I could help!