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3CX Live Chat vs Cisco Unified Communications comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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
Ranking in Unified Communications
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (8th), IP PBX (1st), Live Chat (4th), Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP (4th)
Cisco Unified Communications
Ranking in Unified Communications
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
IP Telephony & Unified Communications (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Unified Communications category, the mindshare of 3CX Live Chat is 7.6%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Unified Communications is 9.5%, down from 15.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Unified Communications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Unified Communications9.5%
3CX Live Chat7.6%
Other82.9%
Unified Communications
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed ACHOUR - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
reviewer1194252 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Sales & Solution Sales - MEA at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has supported collaboration across distributed teams and continues to deliver reliable communication features
Currently, all future propositions for UC are not Cisco-based. Easy integration with Microsoft Windows would be beneficial. It integrates with SharePoint and Outlook, which was not available at one point in Cisco Webex. Regarding improvements, the focus should be on how cloud-friendly Cisco Unified Communications products are and how technically and commercially simple they are compared to competitors such as Genesys. All features are present. The concerns lie in the ease of using features, pricing, and whether it is available directly on the cloud or requires going through a Cisco channel partner. Features themselves are not an issue, and Cisco can develop new ones quickly if needed. If current customers are using Cisco Unified Communications and enjoying its features with devices that are not end of life or end of sale, they will continue using it. However, when moving to the cloud, comparisons become necessary. The simplicity, customer journey, transformation journey, and architecture complexity define whether Cisco Unified Communications is the right product or if third-party solutions are more suitable.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"3CX constantly adds new features based on their customers feedback and it is one of the most versatile PBX systems we have worked with."
"The monthly savings on service alone pays for the system in 8 months or less."
"3CX is a reliable solution."
"Customer Service: Great - the national distributor is really good at showing us love, and works with us to resolve problems that we encounter."
"The ease of deployment and web interface to manage the phone system is without parallel, the phone system can be deployed within hours, and the cost saving to the client can be up to 80% compared to other systems with the same features."
"3CX is easy to use, is quite easy to configure, has a good soft client, and overall, it's a good system for small-scale setups with a couple hundred extensions."
"I’m not saying it’s the best system in the world, but at the price point, it is exceptional value when looking at the features you receive with the Pro licence."
"We can call everywhere with the IP public install on the application."
"Technical Support: Cisco TAC is the very best support I have seen from any company I have ever had to work with."
"The Click to dial feature was one of the most important features for the customer."
"Cisco supports third-party gadgets, including workforce management systems."
"The best feature I would say about Cisco Unified Communications is the Telepresence."
"Having a single system including the routers and switches all from the same system gives ease of use."
"It is very reliable, and this is what I appreciated about it when I was working with it because reliability is crucial."
"Using the Communication Manager, it gave us the possibility to move around the office, and even outside the office, keeping our phone number always accessible using Jabber."
"We use Extension Mobility and Jabber a lot with mobile remote access. In addition to video calls with Jabber, this greatly enriched communications between coworkers."
 

Cons

"For firewall: Its advice is to disable the firewall to allow voice to pass through the network, but there are instants when you don't disable the firewall for security reasons that NAC port comes in."
"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."
"It could be better in terms of providing more options for call recording."
"It actually has some stability problems. It actually lags and sometimes doesn't load."
"3CX should combine the basic version and the enterprise version so that there is only one standard version instead of two."
"It could be better in terms of providing more options for call recording."
"Bring back the multi tenant ability in version 15 and above."
"Having a video call would be a nice idea."
"To have 2 call management server configured as failover would be expensive."
"Licensing can be an unbelievable mess."
"One of the major flaws in the unified CM is handling the configuration of the Voice mail port."
"An improvement option could be to incorporate the Voicea solution with Communication Manager, allowing it to make a translation between different languages automatically in a conversation."
"Currently, all future propositions for UC are not Cisco-based."
"I want to see improvements, especially for the GUI interface, as it should be much easier and user-friendly in Cisco Unified Communications."
"Some features take a lot of steps to configure, so having areas where a few clicks can configure a feature for a user would be nice."
"An improvement option could be to incorporate the Voicea solution with Communication Manager, allowing it to make a translation between different languages automatically in a conversation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We used a yearly license depending on the customer's requirements, and the customers did not complain about the pricing."
"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."
"Switching from POTS or PRI to SIP Trunk save the customer real costs. ROI is seen in less than a year."
"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."
"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."
"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."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Government
10%
Educational Organization
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

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.
What needs improvement with 3CX Live Chat?
The reporting and dashboards of 3CX could be improved.
What is your primary use case for 3CX Live Chat?
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 custom...
What needs improvement with Cisco Unified Communications?
I want to see improvements, especially for the GUI interface, as it should be much easier and user-friendly in Cisco Unified Communications. It would be beneficial if it could be more web interface...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Unified Communications?
We use this only for communication purposes, which includes a few use cases for it. We haven't used the video calls and other features because we based our use on basic communication, so I cannot g...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Unified Communications?
Regarding price and value, it is already expired and has reached end of life.
 

Also Known As

3CX PBX
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Afni, Allied Irish Banks, Bellevue, Came Group, Children's Hospital Colorado, Erickson Living, IDEALondon, Instituto Zaldivar, John Lewis, Linz AG, London Hydro, Lone Star College System, Lone Star College System, Mondi Group, North West Redwater, Park Nicollet, Pentana Solutions Australia, Pilatus, Pirelli, Portugal Ministry, Presidio Inc., Republic Bank & Trust Company, Saipem, SickKids Foundation, Top Right Group, Vital Images
Find out what your peers are saying about 3CX Live Chat vs. Cisco Unified Communications and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.