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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 is a software-based PBX which can cover every company's needs."
"It lets you see how many calls you made, the time you called, and how many minutes you spent on the phone."
"Over the past several years we have deployed and worked on over 100+ 3CX platforms in all shapes, sizes and flavors, from on premise to cloud based it is our go to solution for clients needing a robust UC/PBX platform."
"I have been using it in my environment, and if you use it, you have to say that VoIP can't get any simpler than this."
"3CX has a graphical user interface, and this is awesome because I don't have to have an IT person from my company in my customer's environment to set up and configure 3CX for my client. I just train the customer."
"The solution is stable."
"It is simple to provision, yet has great features."
"3CX Live Chat works amazing and having a good connection will allow the best experience while using the solution."
"I have work on Cisco Unified Communication Manager (Call Manager) for one and a half years and it is a remarkable device which provides fully integrated communications, converging voice, video, and data over a single network infrastructure using standard protocols."
"The best feature I would say about Cisco Unified Communications is the Telepresence."
"The Click to dial feature was one of the most important features for the customer."
"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."
"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."
"Cisco supports third-party gadgets, including workforce management systems."
"Technical Support: Cisco TAC is the very best support I have seen from any company I have ever had to work with."
 

Cons

"The support team can appear to be condescending."
"There's some complexity in interfacing with external devices."
"3CX should combine the basic version and the enterprise version so that there is only one standard version instead of two."
"Message management in 3CX Live Chat is a little tricky."
"Not really much to dislike, the product is solid but you do need to keep your Windows server updated."
"In 3CX, customization is not as easy as I would like."
"There should be an option to save some extensions."
"3CX has some other limitations. One of our teams totally stopped using 3CX because they couldn't use it to capture the recordings of the conversations they were having with the client and also sync images on HubSpot CRM."
"Sometimes, minor temporary issues can arise while updating the servers."
"To have 2 call management server configured as failover would be expensive."
"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."
"Currently, all future propositions for UC are not Cisco-based."
"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."
"Licensing can be an unbelievable mess."
"I want to see improvements, especially for the GUI interface, as it should be much easier and user-friendly in Cisco Unified Communications."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no add-on costing on the standard fees."
"The price of the solution is reasonable. There are a few license options and we are using an enterprise license."
"Switching from POTS or PRI to SIP Trunk save the customer real costs. ROI is seen in less than a year."
"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."
"The price of the solution has been reasonable. We have not had any problems or complaints with the licensing model. We have not reached a point where we need to upgrade. We have all the correct channels."
"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."
"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 used a yearly license depending on the customer's requirements, and the customers did not complain about the pricing."
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.