3CX Live Chat vs HCL Sametime comparison

3CX and HCLSoftware are both solutions in the Virtual Meetings category. 3CX is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.0, while HCLSoftware is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.0. 3CX holds a 2.3% mindshare in VM, compared to HCLSoftware ’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of 3CX users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of HCLSoftware users who would recommend it.

3CX Live Chat

Read 55 3CX Live Chat reviews

1,525 Views
519 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

HCL Sametime

Read 5 HCL Sametime reviews

336 Views
269 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

3CX Live Chat

HCL Sametime

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 2025

3CX Live Chat and HCL Sametime compete in the communication software market. While 3CX Live Chat is preferred for its ease of use and cost-effectiveness, HCL Sametime stands out for its robust functionalities and integration capabilities.

Features:3CX Live Chat integrates seamlessly with websites, offering chat, video, and voice options. It emphasizes user-friendliness and essential communication functions. HCL Sametime provides persistent chat rooms, file sharing, and deep integration with enterprise solutions, ensuring comprehensive communication and collaboration.

Room for Improvement:3CX Live Chat could enhance its reporting capabilities, customization options, and integration features. HCL Sametime might improve in simplifying its user interface, reducing deployment complexity, and enhancing mobile functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:3CX Live Chat is known for simple deployment, making it ideal for less technical setups, whereas HCL Sametime requires more resources for setup but offers extensive support for complex installations.

Pricing and ROI:3CX Live Chat offers strong ROI with a lower initial investment, appealing to budget-conscious enterprises. HCL Sametime demands a higher upfront cost but promises substantial ROI through its advanced capabilities and strategic integrations.

To learn more, read our detailed 3CX Live Chat vs. HCL Sametime Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

3CX Live Chat vs. HCL Sametime

December 2025

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Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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 Virtual Meetings

10th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IP PBX (1st), Unified Communications (2nd), Live Chat (4th), Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP (3rd)

HCL Sametime

Ranking in Virtual Meetings

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of 3CX Live Chat is 2.3%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HCL Sametime is 1.3%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtual Meetings Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
3CX Live Chat	2.3%
HCL Sametime	1.3%
Other	96.4%

Virtual Meetings

Featured Reviews

Ahmed ACHOUR

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…

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Bogdan Chechlowski

Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA

Stable product, communicate very fast and allows to see who's online in the office or work environment

It was used for communication through text messages, primarily Being able to see who was online and communicate very fast was a good feature. The security was quite good. However, when we tried to implement it for email at a high level, we had to use another solution, FortiMail Gateway. I view…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"The solution is stable."

"The most valuable features of 3CX Live Chat are the integration with our existing CRM allowing us to get all of the numbers synced together. The communication aspect of the solution was always working very well, the sound quality was perfect. We were able to log into the application to check which users were using the solution and if they were in a call or not. Additionally, the solution integrates well with other CRMs."

"The call queue and reporting systems are robust compared to what you have to pay to get the same level of functionality with a competing system."

"The dashboards and interface of the solution are very good, they have covered most of the main features needed for our needs."

"It lets you see how many calls you made, the time you called, and how many minutes you spent on the phone."

"Easy management console access through web browsers with a good interface to Outlook and multiple CRM systems."

"This solution gives our customers mobility. They can use their phone system everywhere. The other key feature is the security."

More 3CX Live Chat pros

"The security was quite good."

"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."

Cons

"Once we establish the system and do the initial configuration, some configurations will be fixed. However, if we need to change those configurations, the option is to do a reinstallation. Otherwise, we cannot do anything."

"Its features for scheduling and generating reports need improvement."

"It needs the option for the CS rep to stop recording when a credit card number is recited by the customer."

"Message management in 3CX Live Chat is a little tricky. You can transfer a conversation to someone else if it comes into a group, but it isn't always easy to return the conversation to the group."

"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."

"There are a lot of quality of life things that could be improved. When adding extensions, you need to use the extension import setting, you can't just use an import function to update extensions. You have to delete and recreate the extension, which can have all kinds of unintended consequences."

More 3CX Live Chat cons

"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."

"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable. There are a few license options and we are using an enterprise license."

"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 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."

"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."

"There is no add-on costing on the standard fees."

"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."

More 3CX Live Chat pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Media Company

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	41
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	2

No data available

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with 3CX Live Chat?

The reporting and dashboards of 3CX could be improved.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for 3CX Live Chat?

See all answers

What needs improvement with HCL Sametime?

I view it as part of HCL Notes and Domino, and my opinion is similar to those products. It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or oth...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HCL Sametime?

It was used for communication through text messages, primarily.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering HCL Sametime?

Overall, it was quite good. I would rate it an eight out of ten. It's a better product than some others from HCL, but overall, I wouldn't recommend it, given the availability of superior alternatives.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 12% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

PGi GlobalMeet vs 3CX Live Chat

Compared 7% of the time

Webex vs 3CX Live Chat

Compared 7% of the time

Mitel Application Suite vs 3CX Live Chat

Compared 7% of the time

More 3CX Live Chat Competitors

Webex vs HCL Sametime

Compared 100% of the time

More HCL Sametime Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Live Chat

January 2026

Download 3CX Live Chat product report

Buyer's Guide

Virtual Meetings

January 2026

Download HCL Sametime product report

Also Known As

3CX PBX

Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime

Overview

Connect with your website visitors for free with the 3CX Live Chat plugin. With more than 1,900,000 downloads, 3CX Live Chat is the most popular, effective and reliable live chat plugin for WordPress. Increase conversions and boost customer satisfaction by communicating directly with your website visitors in real-time.

Integrate with 3CX for a multichannel communications suite including voice and video (requires 3CX V16). Get 3CX for free for one year for unlimited users hosted by 3CX, in your own cloud account or on-premise on Windows or Linux.

Easy and convenient for visitors
Build rapport with potential customers via live chat
Increase sales
Reduce customer support line costs by using live chat
Learn to understand the pain points of your customers

FEATURES

Simple and clean UI for all users
Option to elevate a live chat to a call or video call
Free iOS or Android apps to respond to messages through a smartphone
Ability to transfer chats to other agents
Agent’s picture is shown in the live chatbox
Customizable chatbox. Add a company logo, change the colors of the chatbox
All chats are saved in chat history
Dedicated storage system for all offline messages
Create unlimited agents to handle live chats and calls
Customizable offline message form
Supports animations in the chatbox
Ability to choose whether you want to accept or decline a chat

3CX

HCL Sametime. Secure Conversations Across Any Device

Your company can’t afford to take any data risks, but your teams still need to be able to interact and react quickly, wherever they are working. Sametime offers modern instant messaging, file-sharing, and online meetings with the proven security your business can trust.

HCLSoftware

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Connect2Cloud, Superior Group, Daifuku Co. Ltd., Seaward, The City of Fort Worth, Christian Brothers Services, Berlitz, Deutsche Notes User Group, Danske Fysioterapeuter, Slumberland, La Vacanza, Rheinmetall AG

Buyer's Guide

3CX Live Chat vs. HCL Sametime

December 2025

Free Report: 3CX Live Chat vs. HCL Sametime

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