SIP is really needed because you do not need to add any external DGM card. You have an ethernet port, and you plug the ethernet port into your system if you are providing services physically to the data center. If everything is on cloud, then the cloud will take care of your SIP. If this PBX is not there, manual work using the phone with one-to-one communication, maintaining data, and tracking records would not be possible. FreePBX also has some monitoring and real-time monitoring features. They also have some SIP packet capturing with a third-party tool called Homer. Homer is a great tool because it can capture call traces and SIP session logs and SDP logs to see what is going on with a particular call flow. I give this review a rating of 7 out of 10.
Voip Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
May 11, 2026
My advice for others looking into using FreePBX is to not be afraid to use trial and error because when I first started using it to troubleshoot, I was afraid to change things. In a controlled environment with FreePBX, try to change some config and see the effect on the call. For example, if you change the outbound route in the Asterisk CLI, what will be displayed? If you change the dial pattern, what will be displayed? Try to route the inbound to an IVR or a ring group and see what will change. Do not be afraid to trial and error the features that FreePBX has because all of the features are very useful in my opinion. Experiment with it to fully understand its capabilities.
The user interface of FreePBX is web-based. You just hit the URL as an admin and log in with your username and password. It's very flexible. The logging is tremendous. In Linux, you can get out to the command line and do certain diagnostics for things that are not working or how to get around the problem. It's such a rich environment that there are add-on products for just about anything you would want to do. I've worked on very large Avaya and Cisco and NICE CXone systems and some of those things are much more difficult and exponentially more expensive. I advise others looking into using FreePBX that if you're not familiar with it, I would recommend having someone to walk you through the process, and I can give whatever level of support that you would want. I'm not the only one; there are some very good groups out there who would do the install or even host the server in the cloud for you. There are softphones, some of which are free, some of which charge. With softphones, if somebody's PC is very busy, it can't give it enough CPU cycles to sometimes answer the phone. There have been instances where the president's secretary had a large Excel spreadsheet and she was doing something that required a lot of CPU cycles and she was backing up the receptionist. So softphones can have their own set of oddities. Hard phones are beautiful; I've got some Polycoms that are very durable and very reliable. I rate my overall experience with FreePBX as a 9 out of 10.
I love FreePBX and Asterisk. The pricing for FreePBX is reasonable, and the licensing is fair. I use the free tier because I support the product, so I do not use the paid version of FreePBX. The free version is excellent. Regarding cloud providers, I use Linode, which sometimes has occasional issues, but they always resolve them and are easy to use. I would like to use other cloud providers, but I am more familiar with Linode. I rate this review a ten out of ten.
FreePBX supports AI initiatives through their module called Sangoma Scribe AI. It transcribes voicemails and call recordings with ASR, voice station, sentiment analysis, and multilingual support. I would rate FreePBX ten out of ten. It is the most user-friendly, flexible and resilient system for voice-over IP we have installed so far.
FreePBX is a powerful open-source PBX system used for managing and deploying phone networks. It is known for its flexibility, cost-efficiency, and extensive feature set, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes seeking an effective VoIP solution.FreePBX provides a robust telephony infrastructure, giving businesses full control over their communications with easy scalability. Designed for any environment, it integrates seamlessly with existing systems and supports various communication...
SIP is really needed because you do not need to add any external DGM card. You have an ethernet port, and you plug the ethernet port into your system if you are providing services physically to the data center. If everything is on cloud, then the cloud will take care of your SIP. If this PBX is not there, manual work using the phone with one-to-one communication, maintaining data, and tracking records would not be possible. FreePBX also has some monitoring and real-time monitoring features. They also have some SIP packet capturing with a third-party tool called Homer. Homer is a great tool because it can capture call traces and SIP session logs and SDP logs to see what is going on with a particular call flow. I give this review a rating of 7 out of 10.
My advice for others looking into using FreePBX is to not be afraid to use trial and error because when I first started using it to troubleshoot, I was afraid to change things. In a controlled environment with FreePBX, try to change some config and see the effect on the call. For example, if you change the outbound route in the Asterisk CLI, what will be displayed? If you change the dial pattern, what will be displayed? Try to route the inbound to an IVR or a ring group and see what will change. Do not be afraid to trial and error the features that FreePBX has because all of the features are very useful in my opinion. Experiment with it to fully understand its capabilities.
The user interface of FreePBX is web-based. You just hit the URL as an admin and log in with your username and password. It's very flexible. The logging is tremendous. In Linux, you can get out to the command line and do certain diagnostics for things that are not working or how to get around the problem. It's such a rich environment that there are add-on products for just about anything you would want to do. I've worked on very large Avaya and Cisco and NICE CXone systems and some of those things are much more difficult and exponentially more expensive. I advise others looking into using FreePBX that if you're not familiar with it, I would recommend having someone to walk you through the process, and I can give whatever level of support that you would want. I'm not the only one; there are some very good groups out there who would do the install or even host the server in the cloud for you. There are softphones, some of which are free, some of which charge. With softphones, if somebody's PC is very busy, it can't give it enough CPU cycles to sometimes answer the phone. There have been instances where the president's secretary had a large Excel spreadsheet and she was doing something that required a lot of CPU cycles and she was backing up the receptionist. So softphones can have their own set of oddities. Hard phones are beautiful; I've got some Polycoms that are very durable and very reliable. I rate my overall experience with FreePBX as a 9 out of 10.
I love FreePBX and Asterisk. The pricing for FreePBX is reasonable, and the licensing is fair. I use the free tier because I support the product, so I do not use the paid version of FreePBX. The free version is excellent. Regarding cloud providers, I use Linode, which sometimes has occasional issues, but they always resolve them and are easy to use. I would like to use other cloud providers, but I am more familiar with Linode. I rate this review a ten out of ten.
FreePBX supports AI initiatives through their module called Sangoma Scribe AI. It transcribes voicemails and call recordings with ASR, voice station, sentiment analysis, and multilingual support. I would rate FreePBX ten out of ten. It is the most user-friendly, flexible and resilient system for voice-over IP we have installed so far.