How many users does it take for a company-wide phone price to beat per-user pricing?
Summary
Three or four. 3CX PRO costs $395 a year for up to 40 users, and hosted by 3CX it comes to $57.50 a month, which is where RingCentral Core at $20 per user lands with three people and Nextiva Core at $15 with four. That comparison flatters 3CX, though, because its price covers the phone system and not the phone line or the minutes. Grasshopper, the best-known flat-rate brand, does not say whether its team-plan prices are annual or monthly rates, so it can't be dropped into the same math.
The arithmetic
Divide the company-wide price by the per-user price and round up. At $57.50 a month for 3CX PRO plus 3CX hosting ($690 a year):
- Against RingCentral RingEX Core at $20 per user (annual billing; $30 monthly), three users cost $60. That's the crossover.
- Against Nextiva Core at $15 per user, four users cost $60. Nextiva's $15 is reserved for new customers with 1 to 100 employees on a contract of 12 months or longer; month to month it's $23, and the crossover moves to three.
- Against Aircall Essentials, 3CX wins from the first user, because Aircall sells Essentials and Professional with a three-user minimum. One person on Essentials pays for three: $90 a month on annual billing, $120 on monthly.
RingCentral keeps the same rate from 1 to 100 users and quotes anything larger. 3CX's smallest tier, 8 simultaneous calls, allows up to 40 users, and the pricing page advertises no per-user fees. At 40 users the RingCentral bill would be $800 a month on annual billing. The 3CX license and hosting stay at $57.50.
What the 3CX price leaves out
3CX lists what the annual subscription covers: security updates, apps, PBX updates, phone firmware, CRM updates, and templates for VoIP providers. Phone lines and calling minutes aren't on that list. You bring a SIP trunk from a carrier, and its monthly charge goes on top of the $57.50. Self-hosting drops the $295 hosting fee but adds your own server.
So the three-user crossover is a floor. Add a trunk and it slides later, by how much depends on the carrier.
Flat, and flat with a per-head charge
Grasshopper's 2026 plan table shows unlimited users on Solo Plus and Small Business. What it caps is numbers and extensions: Solo Plus has one number and three extensions, Small Business four numbers and unlimited extensions. The pricing page labels only its entry price as annual ("starting at $14/month, billed annually," for the one-user True Solo plan). For the two team plans, it doesn't say which billing option the listed prices belong to.
Talkroute is a hybrid. Each plan includes a set number of users (one on Basic at $19, three on Plus at $39, ten on Pro at $59), and each additional user is $5 a month. Because the extra seat is so cheap, Basic plus added users is the lowest total up to nine people; at ten, Pro is $5 less. Basic comes with one phone number and Pro with three. Talkroute also says it adds no separate charges for telecom taxes, the Universal Service Fund, or other regulatory fees, which none of the per-user providers above claim. For 20 or more users it points to its Enterprise plan, priced by quote.
| Users | Talkroute, cheapest combination (month to month) | RingCentral Core, annual |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $19 | $20 |
| 3 | $29 | $60 |
| 5 | $39 | $100 |
| 10 | $59 | $200 |
Sources
- 3cx.com/ordering/pricing/pricelist
- 3cx.com/ordering/pricing/faq
- nextiva.com/nextiva-pricing
- ringcentral.com/office/plansandpricing.html
- aircall.io/pricing
- talkroute.com/pricing
- grasshopper.com/blog/phone-system-pricing
- grasshopper.com/pricing
Related on this site
- Do business phone providers charge by the user, the line, or the company?
- What does a phone system cost a business with ten or fewer people?
- Is 3CX actually cheaper than paying for a phone service per user?
- What is not in the published seat price
- Seat cost calculator
- Rankings by seat count
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.