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3CX Live Chat vs ShoreTel Sky [EOL] comparison

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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
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (6th), IP PBX (1st), Unified Communications (2nd), Live Chat (6th), Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP (7th)
ShoreTel Sky [EOL]
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Ram Maruboina - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer – Rust Systems & AI Evaluation at Turing
Real-time chat has boosted customer satisfaction and improves team efficiency and lead conversion
We could improve with better advanced chatbot customization, stronger AI-powered conversations, automatic deep CRM and third-party integration, more detailed analytics and reporting, additional customization options for chats, and improvements to mobile app performance and workflow automation. Regarding security, it is essential for customer-facing interactions. I would point out the real-time data lag, which is a significant gap, and enhancements in system reporting and live data update metrics are necessary. We also miss deep customer journey insights, along with user interface improvements, mobile widgets, and agent experience enhancements, especially with security and privacy configurations. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate 3CX Live Chat as an 8 because it has excellent control over the PBX license while enabling instant transitions from chat to voice and video calls. The reasons for losing those two points include basic analytics, widget customization options, and limited standalone chat tools compared to its competitors, which have higher market shares. With the right developers, they could excel in this area. The reason I chose the number eight is not only about analytics or customization but due to reliability bugs and agent workflow frictions, which affect the overall reporting coherence. Reliability and security glitches are significant drawbacks.
it_user269988 - PeerSpot reviewer
Office Manager with 51-200 employees
The Service Portal is useful feature, but there are occasional outages.
Phone Assistant is very useful, as is the Service Portal Occasional outages, but they're usually resolved very quickly. Customer Service: Customer service is generally responsive and courteous. Technical Support: Technical support folks are generally knowledgeable and helpful. We moved to VoIP…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This system is just awesome."
"Because it’s quite easy to deploy and operate, it has allowed us better disaster recovery options for our clients."
"We've had good experiences with 3CX support."
"The failover features that come on SP3 allow me to create a replica of 3CX PBX in case the 3CX fails, and the replica becomes active right away, minimizing downtime and data loss."
"The solution is stable."
"Customer Service: Great - the national distributor is really good at showing us love, and works with us to resolve problems that we encounter."
"The collaboration features allowed us to consistently provide cohesive communication with our customers as all team members could participate regardless of their geographic location."
"It has resulted in customer satisfaction for the company product on IVR/web conference/application integration/mobility, etc."
"With the reporting available from Shoretel we were able to adjust our staff scheduling and decrease average hold times from 60 seconds to 30 seconds."
"We rely on using ShoreTel's Phone Assistant as an integral part of our company and how it functions."
"We have 15 branches that are now connected as though we are housed in the same building."
"The Portal administrator tool is very easy to navigate and understand; this has to be my favorite feature."
"We moved to VoIP a little over five years ago, after having a traditional POTS system, and it was a great improvement in terms of capability and service."
"Allows us to work interactively through different locations."
"Using Shortel sky has been great for our company."
 

Cons

"Yes, we have had many problems with this product, but step-by-step, they fix them, because this is a new product."
"We would like to see continued improvements in the 3CX phone mobile apps, such as allowing for deletion of multiple voicemails, shared parking control, and disabling softphone mode."
"We had sync issues between the mobile clients and the desktop phones which needed vigorous testing and fault finding."
"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."
"It could be better in terms of providing more options for call recording."
"During one upgrade, we lost conferencing that took several months to add back in the new version."
"No issues with the solution, except its services require a business model change."
"They need to embed a help or chat feature."
"Some intermittent connectivity issues are inherent with VOIP systems."
"Occasional outages, but they're usually resolved very quickly."
"The portal is very good, but could use more function and streamline, especially in the call flow section."
"The experience does not feel "Unified." With the recent acquisition of M5 they acquired a bunch of new features, but have not been able to make all UC features available from one website or one program."
"Perhaps allowing more control over user functions from the customer portal, otherwise the solution is a good fit."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for 3CX Live Chat?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for 3CX Live Chat is good, as they are not very expensive. We have an unlimited number of engineers on 3CX Live Chat, so the licensing cost is ...
What needs improvement with 3CX Live Chat?
3CX Live Chat can be improved, as it is very frustrating that we do not receive the call on the application. Thanks to the offline feature, if the application is offline and we miss a call, after a...
What is your primary use case for 3CX Live Chat?
My main use case for 3CX Live Chat is using it for the company support line. A quick specific example of how I use 3CX Live Chat for my company support line is that we have a support number in our ...
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Also Known As

3CX PBX
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Abacus Service Corporation, AIPAC, Airlie Womens Clinic, All Erection Crane And Rental Corporation, Aquent, Aspire, Bonobos, Brooklyn Brewery, Cable Scope, Caduceus
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