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3CX Live Chat vs FreePBX 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 Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (8th), IP PBX (1st), Unified Communications (2nd), Live Chat (4th)
FreePBX
Ranking in Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.3
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP category, the mindshare of 3CX Live Chat is 5.8%, up from 5.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FreePBX is 2.7%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
3CX Live Chat5.8%
FreePBX2.7%
Other91.5%
Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP
 

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…
DR
Sr Voip and Call center engineer at Superdave LLC
Migration projects have cut licensing costs and now support flexible call flows and hot standby
FreePBX can be improved as they come out with a new version every year or so. Their current version is FreePBX 17. The user community and the FAQ are great; you can search for just about anything you want to do on FreePBX and they're getting new AI engines and new text to speech engines from third party vendors all the time. So it's a very rich community. Sometimes the security is a bit odd with FreePBX, but security is a bit odd overall, so I don't know if that's a valid concern. I appreciate it; it's a good environment. Sangoma is the owner of the system. If I ever get stuck on something, and it doesn't happen very often, I can call and get help from Sangoma, and sometimes they want me to pay for it. It's fine if that's what it takes, but there's great support.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is basically an online phone, it doesn't charge you anything, you can contact people easier than using normal applications, and it has powerful and secure connections."
"It has resulted in customer satisfaction for the company product on IVR/web conference/application integration/mobility, etc."
"It is simple to provision, yet has great features."
"The dashboards and interface of the solution are very good, they have covered most of the main features needed for our needs."
"Over the past several years we have deployed and worked on over 100+ 3CX platforms in all shapes, sizes and flavors, from on premise to cloud based it is our go to solution for clients needing a robust UC/PBX platform."
"3CX has strong reporting and management features. You can manage the capabilities of a call center with queues and timers. It's a complete solution."
"Fully equipped soft PABX without hidden extras."
"The integration between the video and voice is the most valuable solution."
"FreePBX offers the best features for a small call center for a small company with 20 or 30 agents."
"The call routing features with FreePBX have enhanced our customer service, with several sites all connected to a single central deployment, allowing people to work remotely from different locations using the same system."
"Since it is a free solution, all the features FreePBX offers are valuable."
"It is the most user-friendly, flexible and resilient system for voice-over IP we have installed so far."
"I have seen a return on investment with FreePBX; for example, the musical instruments group saved over $30,000 a year by moving from Cisco to FreePBX for their licensing."
"My advice for others looking into using FreePBX is that it is reasonable and most of the features are free, so I recommend it."
"FreePBX positively impacts my organization because it would not be able to work properly without it, as a lot of server configurations are built on it and we fully rely on this system."
"FreePBX has made a positive impact on my organization, and we have completed many projects with it."
 

Cons

"No issues with the solution, except its services require a business model change."
"The Android and iPhone clients are great options but don't always work perfectly, even on wifi."
"There should be an option to save some extensions."
"It could be better in terms of providing more options for call recording."
"3CX Live Chat could improve by having better integration with other solutions because we had multiple calls in which information was not extracted correctly. We had to modify their names, and some other data needed to be sorted out for a better understanding of the calls."
"They need to embed a help or chat feature."
"The call logs/reporting functions need some improvement and are still very basic."
"The reporting and dashboards of 3CX could be improved."
"I think FreePBX can be improved by offering users the ability to design a call flow more easily through a drag and drop interface."
"I believe FreePBX could be improved regarding the user interface. Sometimes the user interface has bugs, and when you apply configuration changes, they do not always apply properly."
"Sometimes when I receive reports that a user is not able to make a call out or they are having a call drop issue, viewing the dashboard provides no data."
"Security would be the main feature that I wish was better because the FreePBX box can get hacked quickly."
"However, when the call volume is large, sometimes FreePBX goes on halt, and because of that reason, I give it seven out of ten."
"Sometimes the security is a bit odd with FreePBX, but security is a bit odd overall, so I don't know if that's a valid concern."
"One area where they can continue to focus their improvements is support for third-party phones on the endpoint manager module."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We used a yearly license depending on the customer's requirements, and the customers did not complain about the pricing."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The price of the solution is reasonable. There are a few license options and we are using an enterprise license."
"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."
"Switching from POTS or PRI to SIP Trunk save the customer real costs. ROI is seen in less than a year."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
18%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

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 Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise1
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FreePBX?
The standard licensing fee for FreePBX is really good. Remember FreePBX can be downloaded for free. If you want to add special features, you buy the modules, and the module price points are excelle...
What needs improvement with FreePBX?
FreePBX can be improved as they come out with a new version every year or so. Their current version is FreePBX 17. The user community and the FAQ are great; you can search for just about anything y...
What is your primary use case for FreePBX?
My main use case for FreePBX is that I've had instances where somebody had a Cisco call center and the licensing fees were too high, and I migrated their call flows from Cisco to FreePBX. Mostly it...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

3CX PBX
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about 3CX Live Chat vs. FreePBX and other solutions. Updated: May 2026.
896,298 professionals have used our research since 2012.