No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

3CX Live Chat vs ShoreTel Sky [EOL] comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (6th), IP PBX (1st), Unified Communications (2nd), Live Chat (6th), Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP (7th)
ShoreTel Sky [EOL]
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Ram Maruboina - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer – Rust Systems & AI Evaluation at Turing
Real-time chat has boosted customer satisfaction and improves team efficiency and lead conversion
We could improve with better advanced chatbot customization, stronger AI-powered conversations, automatic deep CRM and third-party integration, more detailed analytics and reporting, additional customization options for chats, and improvements to mobile app performance and workflow automation. Regarding security, it is essential for customer-facing interactions. I would point out the real-time data lag, which is a significant gap, and enhancements in system reporting and live data update metrics are necessary. We also miss deep customer journey insights, along with user interface improvements, mobile widgets, and agent experience enhancements, especially with security and privacy configurations. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate 3CX Live Chat as an 8 because it has excellent control over the PBX license while enabling instant transitions from chat to voice and video calls. The reasons for losing those two points include basic analytics, widget customization options, and limited standalone chat tools compared to its competitors, which have higher market shares. With the right developers, they could excel in this area. The reason I chose the number eight is not only about analytics or customization but due to reliability bugs and agent workflow frictions, which affect the overall reporting coherence. Reliability and security glitches are significant drawbacks.
it_user269988 - PeerSpot reviewer
Office Manager with 51-200 employees
The Service Portal is useful feature, but there are occasional outages.
Phone Assistant is very useful, as is the Service Portal Occasional outages, but they're usually resolved very quickly. Customer Service: Customer service is generally responsive and courteous. Technical Support: Technical support folks are generally knowledgeable and helpful. We moved to VoIP…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"3CX technical support is top notch and the best of any vendor I've encountered so far."
"We have multiple branches countrywide and we all connect to one seamless system for all our communication needs."
"3CX is useful and easy to use. I can talk to my colleagues from anywhere."
"3CX has strong reporting and management features; you can manage the capabilities of a call center with queues and timers, and it is a complete solution."
"The most valuable features of 3CX Live Chat are the ability to go straight to a call or screen-sharing and creating multiple channels from the same chat widget effectively. The ability to raise a call straight out to the cloud is fantastic, it is really useful. Additionally, it integrates very well with WordPress."
"I can, to date, not find any system that gets even close to the feature richness and low cost of 3CX."
"Prior to using this solution, there were difficulties with communication between the client and the distributor and our sales team and marketing team, which were improved after deployment because we integrated this voice solution with the video solution and allowed our distributors, clients, and customers to log in to our portal to directly interact with our salespersons."
"It is simple to provision, yet has great features."
"We moved to VoIP a little over five years ago, after having a traditional POTS system, and it was a great improvement in terms of capability and service."
"Using Shortel sky has been great for our company."
"With the reporting available from Shoretel we were able to adjust our staff scheduling and decrease average hold times from 60 seconds to 30 seconds."
"We have 15 branches that are now connected as though we are housed in the same building."
"Allows us to work interactively through different locations."
"We rely on using ShoreTel's Phone Assistant as an integral part of our company and how it functions."
"The Portal administrator tool is very easy to navigate and understand; this has to be my favorite feature."
 

Cons

"iPhone users found it difficult to use the mobile application when working offsite."
"3CX Live Chat could improve by being more customizable. There should be more skinning options for the appearance of the solution when we embed it onto a website. This would allow us to make it look more like part of our solution, rather than a third-party application."
"The support team can appear to be condescending."
"I would like to see is for the status to have a “time in status” field so people can see how long someone has been in that particular status."
"It is not supported by Linux versions. This product is also not open source, which is not much appreciated by the guys like me, who love experimenting with the codes of any product they receive."
"It would be great if the web meeting functionality could be extended to enable users to call standards-based video conferencing systems."
"They need to embed a help or chat feature."
"There's some complexity in interfacing with external devices."
"The experience does not feel "Unified." With the recent acquisition of M5 they acquired a bunch of new features, but have not been able to make all UC features available from one website or one program."
"Some intermittent connectivity issues are inherent with VOIP systems."
"The portal is very good, but could use more function and streamline, especially in the call flow section."
"Occasional outages, but they're usually resolved very quickly."
"Perhaps allowing more control over user functions from the customer portal, otherwise the solution is a good fit."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 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."
"There is no add-on costing on the standard fees."
"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."
"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."
"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
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Unified Communications solutions are best for your needs.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for 3CX Live Chat?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for 3CX Live Chat is good, as they are not very expensive. We have an unlimited number of engineers on 3CX Live Chat, so the licensing cost is ...
What needs improvement with 3CX Live Chat?
3CX Live Chat can be improved, as it is very frustrating that we do not receive the call on the application. Thanks to the offline feature, if the application is offline and we miss a call, after a...
What is your primary use case for 3CX Live Chat?
My main use case for 3CX Live Chat is using it for the company support line. A quick specific example of how I use 3CX Live Chat for my company support line is that we have a support number in our ...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

3CX PBX
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Abacus Service Corporation, AIPAC, Airlie Womens Clinic, All Erection Crane And Rental Corporation, Aquent, Aspire, Bonobos, Brooklyn Brewery, Cable Scope, Caduceus
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, 3CX, Digium and others in Unified Communications. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.