Is 3CX actually cheaper than paying for a phone service per user?
Summary
On license and hosting alone, by a wide margin. 3CX charges per system based on simultaneous calls (SC), so a 30-person office on the 8-SC PRO edition with 3CX hosting pays $690 a year, while 30 Webex Call seats at $183.60 each come to $5,508. The 3CX figure leaves out the SIP trunk and call charges, and those decide how much of the $4,818 gap survives.
The $690, line by line
3CX's price list sets one yearly fee per system. At 8 SC, the license is $300 for Basic, $395 for PRO, and $575 for the AI Edition. Hosted by 3CX adds $295 a year at that size. PRO plus hosting gives the $690.
The list is in US dollars and says prices "do not include Tax or VAT and are subject to FX rate fluctuations."
What the per-user plan includes that 3CX doesn't
Webex Call's $183.60 per user covers unlimited domestic calling and a business phone number. 3CX's hosted page tells buyers to bring their own SIP trunk or use another with a plan of their choice, and the cost example in 3CX's hosting announcement is labeled "excluding calls."
So the fair comparison is $690 plus a carrier's trunk fees and per-minute charges against $5,508. A quiet office keeps most of the difference. A team that lives on outbound calls can give a lot of it back.
Does 30 people fit in 8 SC?
Simultaneous calls count internal extension-to-extension calls as well as outside calls. The 3CX FAQ says so directly: "To calculate simultaneous calls (SC) you should count internal calls also."
The price list pairs 8 SC with a 40-user maximum and a recommended range of 16 to 40 users, and 16 SC with 80 users and a 41 to 80 range. Thirty people sit inside the 8-SC range. An office that is on the phone more than most can step up to 16 SC, where PRO costs $795 and hosting $450, for $1,245 a year. That is still under a quarter of the Webex figure.
Hosting got cheaper in June 2026
On June 17, 2026, 3CX cut Hosted by 3CX prices to:
- $295 a year for 4 to 8 SC
- $450 for 16 to 24 SC
- $795 for 32 to 64 SC
- $1,995 for 96 to 256 SC
The 16-SC price was reset to $450 after what 3CX called an erroneous grouping with the 4-to-8-SC licenses. Hosting is free for up to a month as part of the product trial.
Running 3CX yourself removes the hosting fee. You can install it on Windows or Linux and host it on Amazon, DigitalOcean, Azure, or Google. 3CX notes that self-hosting also means monitoring security issues and recommended updates yourself.
The free editions
3CX SMB Free is free for up to 10 users, hosting included, and one person can create up to three of them. The FAQ adds that 3CX can revoke free subscriptions at any time without warning. In a July 2026 forum post, 3CX's founder said SMB Free is provided as is without support and will likely switch to an "SMB Basic" edition by the end of the year, still free but without IP phone support or call queues.
A separate 4SC Free Basic edition also covers up to 10 users. It must be self-hosted and does not support IP phones.
Sources
- 3cx.com/ordering/pricing/pricelist
- 3cx.com/ordering/pricing
- 3cx.com/ordering/pricing/faq
- 3cx.com/blog/news/hosted-pricing-updates
- 3cx.com/pbx/hosted
- 3cx.com/phone-system/free-basic-edition
- 3cx.com/community/threads/smb-free-edition-discontinued.136767
- pricing.webex.com/us/en/hybrid-work/calling
Related on this site
- 3CX pricing data
- How many users does it take for a company-wide phone price to beat per-user pricing?
- Do business phone providers charge by the user, the line, or the company?
- What does a year of business phone service cost for a 10-person team?
- How much does Cisco Webex Calling cost per user, and what comes with it?
- If only a few people are on the phone at once, is it cheaper to pay by the line?
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.