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3CX Live Chat vs Cisco Unified Communications comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

3CX Live Chat
Ranking in Unified Communications
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (7th), IP PBX (1st), Live Chat (4th), Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP (6th)
Cisco Unified Communications
Ranking in Unified Communications
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
IP Telephony & Unified Communications (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Unified Communications category, the mindshare of 3CX Live Chat is 7.5%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Unified Communications is 9.4%, down from 15.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Unified Communications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Unified Communications9.4%
3CX Live Chat7.5%
Other83.1%
Unified Communications
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed ACHOUR - PeerSpot reviewer
General Manager at Beyond IT Services
Enhanced service desk workflow which streamlines operations and offers strong integration capabilities
The customers use 3CX for IP telephony and call center activities. Additionally, they use 3CX for service desk activities, including integration with other ITSM products to collect data from customers who need technical support on their platforms 3CX has proven to be a good solution, particularly…
reviewer1194252 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Sales & Solution Sales - MEA at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has supported collaboration across distributed teams and continues to deliver reliable communication features
Currently, all future propositions for UC are not Cisco-based. Easy integration with Microsoft Windows would be beneficial. It integrates with SharePoint and Outlook, which was not available at one point in Cisco Webex. Regarding improvements, the focus should be on how cloud-friendly Cisco Unified Communications products are and how technically and commercially simple they are compared to competitors such as Genesys. All features are present. The concerns lie in the ease of using features, pricing, and whether it is available directly on the cloud or requires going through a Cisco channel partner. Features themselves are not an issue, and Cisco can develop new ones quickly if needed. If current customers are using Cisco Unified Communications and enjoying its features with devices that are not end of life or end of sale, they will continue using it. However, when moving to the cloud, comparisons become necessary. The simplicity, customer journey, transformation journey, and architecture complexity define whether Cisco Unified Communications is the right product or if third-party solutions are more suitable.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"3CX constantly adds new features based on their customers feedback and it is one of the most versatile PBX systems we have worked with."
"3CX is easy to use, is quite easy to configure, has a good soft client, and overall, it's a good system for small-scale setups with a couple hundred extensions."
"Simplified deployment of hosted voice, and the use of a session border controller which can be deployed cheaply on a Raspberry Pi makes port handling easier and more stable."
"The collaboration features allowed us to consistently provide cohesive communication with our customers as all team members could participate regardless of their geographic location."
"Easy management console access through web browsers with a good interface to Outlook and multiple CRM systems."
"It makes the decision a no-brainer, you get so much more for your money with this solution."
"Integrated Web Meeting and Video Conferencing with mobile app is a big sales feature."
"3CX is a reliable solution."
"Cisco Unified Communications is stable and works well for us."
"I have work on Cisco Unified Communication Manager (Call Manager) for one and a half years and it is a remarkable device which provides fully integrated communications, converging voice, video, and data over a single network infrastructure using standard protocols."
"Technical Support: Cisco TAC is the very best support I have seen from any company I have ever had to work with."
"The best feature I would say about Cisco Unified Communications is the Telepresence."
"The Click to dial feature was one of the most important features for the customer."
"It is very reliable, and this is what I appreciated about it when I was working with it because reliability is crucial."
"Cisco supports third-party gadgets, including workforce management systems."
"Using the Communication Manager, it gave us the possibility to move around the office, and even outside the office, keeping our phone number always accessible using Jabber."
 

Cons

"Support for more desktop phones as a standard would be helpful. They are heavy on Yealink phones and when moving from legacy systems we find it a bit cumbersome to add those phones on to 3CX and then auto-provisioning becomes quite a task."
"In 3CX, customization is not as easy as I would like. With 3CX Call Flow Designer, you can set up the flow of a call, deliver it to the department, and automate the process. I can't do many things with this."
"It could be better in terms of providing more options for call recording."
"No issues with the solution, except its services require a business model change."
"Bring back the multi tenant ability in version 15 and above."
"In 3CX, customization is not as easy as I would like."
"I need a robust provider who can help me use Live Chat. Unfortunately, I have to move from one provider to another because they don't have enough capabilities to maintain good service."
"It needs a better training and certification process."
"Sometimes, minor temporary issues can arise while updating the servers."
"Licensing can be an unbelievable mess."
"An improvement option could be to incorporate the Voicea solution with Communication Manager, allowing it to make a translation between different languages automatically in a conversation."
"Some features take a lot of steps to configure, so having areas where a few clicks can configure a feature for a user would be nice."
"One of the major flaws in the unified CM is handling the configuration of the Voice mail port."
"To have 2 call management server configured as failover would be expensive."
"Currently, all future propositions for UC are not Cisco-based."
"I want to see improvements, especially for the GUI interface, as it should be much easier and user-friendly in Cisco Unified Communications."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable. There are a few license options and we are using an enterprise license."
"There aren't any additional costs. With the license I purchased, I have all features that I need. I don't have to buy an add-on or another license."
"3CX sells an annual subscription, but we usually split it out monthly for clients, so they don't see an annual bill for the 3CX licensing, it's just part of their monthly phone bill. As they're paying us for carrier service anyway, we just roll it all together. Your standard phone service would be an additional cost, you either need to maintain a local carrier with POTS lines or PRI or a SIP, or you have to go with a cloud-based SIP."
"Switching from POTS or PRI to SIP Trunk save the customer real costs. ROI is seen in less than a year."
"The price of the solution is in the middle range compared to other solutions. There are different license options available. For example, there is a professional version and an enterprise version, and with the enterprise version, you have the ability to modify the dashboards. You can purchase a license at many different time frame increments, such as monthly, yearly, or two years."
"The price of the solution has been reasonable. We have not had any problems or complaints with the licensing model. We have not reached a point where we need to upgrade. We have all the correct channels."
"We used a yearly license depending on the customer's requirements, and the customers did not complain about the pricing."
"We have purchased an annual license to use 3CX Live Chat. There are different options available, you can pay monthly or yearly. I am completely satisfied with the pricing of 3CX Live Chat, it is cheaper than competitors and it is a better solution."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Educational Organization
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for 3CX Live Chat?
The pricing of 3CX is around six out of ten. For some customers, the first year may be free of charge, allowing them to try the solution before deciding to implement it.
What needs improvement with 3CX Live Chat?
The reporting and dashboards of 3CX could be improved.
What is your primary use case for 3CX Live Chat?
The customers use 3CX for IP telephony and call center activities. Additionally, they use 3CX for service desk activities, including integration with other ITSM products to collect data from custom...
What needs improvement with Cisco Unified Communications?
I want to see improvements, especially for the GUI interface, as it should be much easier and user-friendly in Cisco Unified Communications. It would be beneficial if it could be more web interface...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Unified Communications?
We use this only for communication purposes, which includes a few use cases for it. We haven't used the video calls and other features because we based our use on basic communication, so I cannot g...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Unified Communications?
Regarding price and value, it is already expired and has reached end of life.
 

Also Known As

3CX PBX
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Afni, Allied Irish Banks, Bellevue, Came Group, Children's Hospital Colorado, Erickson Living, IDEALondon, Instituto Zaldivar, John Lewis, Linz AG, London Hydro, Lone Star College System, Lone Star College System, Mondi Group, North West Redwater, Park Nicollet, Pentana Solutions Australia, Pilatus, Pirelli, Portugal Ministry, Presidio Inc., Republic Bank & Trust Company, Saipem, SickKids Foundation, Top Right Group, Vital Images
Find out what your peers are saying about 3CX Live Chat vs. Cisco Unified Communications and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.