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Cloud Telephony (VoIP & Cloud PBX)

3CX

EU-Made Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by 3CX Ltd. · www.3cx.de

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3CX: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai 3CX: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

3CX at a glance

Vendor
3CX Ltd.
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates 3CX 3/5, the mean of 6 judges. 3CX is a software phone system and contact centre sold through a German imprint under 3CX Ltd of Nicosia, Cyprus, offered hosted or self-hosted. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 5 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 5 Nov 2026. all sources

3CX alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The IT Administrator

Weighted verdict

IT administrator at a machine builder with 280 staff on three sites in Baden-Württemberg, with production halls on DECT handsets, the office on Microsoft Teams and a service team abroad. Wants desk and DECT phones provisioned without touching each one, Teams calling with the company numbers, users created from Entra ID with single sign-on, an API for the number plan, and an emergency call from a home office that reaches the right control centre.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The IT Administrator

Panel median The IT Administrator This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The IT Administrator
Calling, numbers & call routing 3 of 5 3 of 5
Apps, desk phones & Microsoft Teams 2 of 5 2.5 of 5
Call centre, analytics & AI 3.5 of 5 3 of 5
CRM integration, API & administration 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Reliability, call security & telecoms compliance 2.5 of 5 2.5 of 5
European sovereignty 3 of 5 3 of 5
Pricing transparency 2.5 of 5 2.5 of 5

Calling, numbers & call routing

How this is scored

What the phone system does with a call: local geographic numbers in the customer's own area code and in other countries, number blocks and porting of existing numbers, extensions, IVR menus, queues, ring groups and hunt groups, time-based and holiday routing, call forwarding and transfer, voicemail to email, fax to email, conference calls, call recording, call park and pickup, busy lamp fields, caller ID per user or team, and emergency calls (110 and 112) with the caller's location.

0 — Places no phone calls on the public telephone network; a chat or meeting tool with internal calling only.

3 — Phone numbers and extensions with forwarding and voicemail; IVR, queues, time-based routing and porting are basic or not described.

5 — Local numbers in the customer's area code with porting documented, IVR menus, queues and ring groups, time-based and holiday routing, voicemail to email, call transfer and pickup, call recording, fax or fax to email, and emergency calling described.

8 — Number blocks and international numbers in many countries, a visual call flow editor, skills or priority routing, call park and busy lamp fields, recording rules per user or queue with consent announcements, emergency calls with a registered location per user or site, and the porting process and its timelines documented.

10 — Call handling a large multi-site company runs on: every feature above with number provisioning and porting by API, routing by caller data from the CRM, location-aware emergency calling for home offices, and the full feature set documented per plan with its limits.

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The IT Administrator

IVR with DTMF navigation, voice prompts and text-to-speech, queues with ring groups, business-hours routing, voicemail to email with WAV or MP3 attachments, blind and announced transfer, recording, an integrated fax server and a Call Flow Designer for complex scenarios are all documented, and porting is addressed by keeping your existing numbers with a SIP trunk provider of your choice. What caps it for my three sites: the vendor states it is not a telecom provider, so the numbers and the trunk are the customer's own — no number blocks or international number supply of the vendor's, no porting timelines — and on emergency calls the only statement I find is the licence term that the product must not be the sole means of contacting emergency services, with nothing on location-based routing for home offices. 5 10 12 13 14 16

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Apps, desk phones & Microsoft Teams

How this is scored

Where the calls are made and taken: desktop and mobile softphone apps, a browser client, presence, desk phones and DECT handsets from named makers (Yealink, Snom, Gigaset, Poly, Cisco) provisioned automatically, devices for sale or rent, the mobile phone as an extension with the company number shown, fixed-mobile convergence, Microsoft Teams calling through Direct Routing or Operator Connect, headset support, and the apps' ratings and update notes.

0 — No app and no device support; calls only through hardware the customer configures by hand.

3 — A softphone or mobile app; desk phones, Teams calling and the company number on mobile are basic or not described.

5 — Desktop, mobile and browser apps with presence, desk phones from named makers provisioned automatically, the company number shown on outgoing mobile calls, call handover between devices, and a Microsoft Teams integration or connector.

8 — A list of supported desk and DECT phones with auto-provisioning documented, devices sold or rented, Microsoft Teams calling through Direct Routing or Operator Connect with certification stated, fixed-mobile convergence with a SIM or mobile network, and app features documented per platform.

10 — Every endpoint a workforce uses, managed from one place: desk, DECT, mobile, browser and Teams with feature parity stated, device fleet management and firmware updates from the portal, and the app's accessibility and offline behaviour documented.

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The IT Administrator

Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android apps plus a browser client with presence and BLF panels are documented, the Windows app is native and store-distributed with admin PnP provisioning, and Microsoft Teams Direct Routing is listed as an integration. For my production halls, however, I find no public information on DECT handsets or desk phones from named makers with automatic provisioning — the vendor even positions web apps as a desk-phone replacement — and nothing on the company number shown on mobile calls or fixed-mobile convergence. 6 8 13 14 15

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Call centre, analytics & AI

How this is scored

How a team that lives on the phone is run: ACD queues with skills and priorities, agent states and wrap-up time, a wallboard, live monitoring with listen, whisper and barge, callbacks instead of waiting, outbound and power dialers, call statistics and reports per agent and queue, missed-call handling, AI transcription, summaries and sentiment, an AI receptionist or voicebot, and SMS or WhatsApp beside calls.

0 — No queues or call statistics of any kind; calls ring until someone answers.

3 — A simple queue and a call history; agent states, live monitoring, reports and AI features are basic or not described.

5 — Queues with agent log-in and log-out, wrap-up time, a wallboard or live view, call statistics per agent and queue, missed-call lists with callback, call recording for coaching, and AI transcription or summaries offered.

8 — Skills-based routing, listen, whisper and barge, callback in queue, outbound or power dialers, scheduled and exportable reports, AI transcription, summaries and sentiment with the languages listed, an AI receptionist or voicebot, and SMS or messaging channels beside calls.

10 — A contact centre that replaces a separate suite: workforce management and quality scoring, omnichannel routing, real-time AI coaching, and every AI feature documented with its model provider, data handling and an opt-out.

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The IT Administrator

Skill-based and round-robin queues with wallboard, real-time statistics, SLA alerts, switchboard, reports on wait times and resolution rate, call recording, AI transcription with summaries and sentiment via Google, OpenAI or an on-premise engine, voicebots, and live chat, SMS and WhatsApp routing are all documented with no per-agent fee. The operational detail my service team would ask about is thin: agent states and wrap-up time, listen/whisper/barge, callback in queue and scheduled or exportable reports are not described, and a dialer appears only as a sample application for the call control API. 4 8 16 17

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CRM integration, API & administration

How this is scored

How the phone system fits the company: integrations with CRM and helpdesk tools (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamics) with click-to-call, caller pop-ups and automatic call logging, a documented REST API and webhooks for call events, SIP trunks for an existing PBX and bring-your-own-carrier, an admin portal with roles, single sign-on (SAML) and SCIM, two-factor authentication, multi-site and multi-company set-up, bulk user import, audit logs, and partner or reseller accounts.

0 — No integrations and no administration beyond one login per number.

3 — A web portal to manage users and numbers and one or two integrations; the API, roles and SSO are basic or not described.

5 — Integrations with the common CRM and helpdesk tools with click-to-call and call logging, a documented REST API and webhooks, an admin portal with roles, two-factor authentication, several sites in one account, and SIP trunking or a connection to an existing PBX.

8 — Caller pop-ups and call data written to the CRM record, an API covering users, numbers, routing and call records, single sign-on (SAML) and SCIM provisioning, audit logs, bulk import and templates, partner or reseller accounts with sub-customers, and SIP trunks documented for named PBX systems.

10 — Administration that scales across many sites and companies: every setting reachable by API with parity stated, granular roles per site and team, SSO enforced with SCIM, audit logs exportable to a SIEM, and a partner portal with white-label and separate billing.

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The IT Administrator

Strongest area for me as an administrator: a REST configuration API built on OData and OpenAPI covers departments, users, call forwarding and system extensions — described as programmatically controlling nearly every configuration aspect — beside a separate Call Control API with WebSocket events, plus Microsoft 365 integration in full or user-sync mode with single sign-on, CRM pop-ups with caller lookup and data sync to MS 365 and Salesforce, roles such as system owner and administrator, two-factor via security PIN, IP-restricted admin access and multi-tenant operation. Below the top because single sign-on is documented only through Google and Microsoft 365 accounts — I found no public information on SAML or SCIM provisioning — and none on audit logs, bulk import templates or partner and reseller accounts. 2 4 8 18 19 21

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Reliability, call security & telecoms compliance

How this is scored

Whether the service holds on a bad day and in an audit: redundant data centres and carrier connections, a stated availability or SLA with credits, the vendor's own public status page and incident history, call quality measures (codecs, quality monitoring), encryption of signalling and media (TLS and SRTP), registration as a telecoms provider with the national regulator (Bundesnetzagentur or its EU equivalent), the secrecy of telecommunications, recording consent and retention, emergency call handling for remote users, fraud protection against toll fraud, and security certifications such as ISO 27001.

0 — Nothing on availability, security or the provider's status as a telecoms operator.

3 — A claim of high availability or "German data centres"; encryption, the SLA, the status page and regulatory status are basic or not described.

5 — Redundant data centres named by country, a public status page, TLS and SRTP encryption offered, the provider's registration with the national regulator or the carrier behind the numbers stated, a stated availability, and call recording rules described.

8 — An SLA with credits published, the incident history public, encryption on by default with the protocols documented, ISO 27001 or comparable certification with its scope, toll fraud protection and spending limits, emergency calls from softphones and home offices documented, and retention of recordings and call records stated.

10 — Carrier-grade operation evidenced: geo-redundant platforms with failover tested and published, end-to-end encryption options, independent audits (ISO 27001, BSI C5 or SOC 2) with reports available, and the regulatory and lawful-interception obligations explained in plain language.

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The IT Administrator

SRTP with AES, replay protection and message authentication per RFC 3711 is documented in depth, the hosted service runs with 24/7 monitoring, nightly backups, security patches and integrated failover plus a standby licence, and the security programme is unusually well evidenced through Mandiant, ReversingLabs, Coverity and HackerOne with a downloadable product security assessment. For an audit, though, I found no public information on a stated availability or SLA with credits, a public status page, ISO 27001 or comparable certification, toll-fraud spending limits, or emergency-call handling for remote users beyond the licence restriction — and the vendor itself states it is not a telecom provider, so regulator registration sits with whichever trunk provider I choose. 3 6 10 14 20 21

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where call records, voicemails, recordings, transcripts, contacts and account data are stored and processed, which carriers carry the calls, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, carriers and number providers, SMS gateways, AI transcription and summary models, email delivery, support and payment tools). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline. International numbers and carriers needed to reach other countries are part of what the product does and are not counted against it; where the data is stored and who processes it is. A self-hosted phone system the customer runs on its own European servers counts as the customer's chain, whatever the vendor's seat.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (AI transcription, SMS, support, payment) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated — or a self-hosted edition documented that keeps every record on the customer's own servers.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting, carriers and every subprocessor including the AI models, or a self-hosted edition with no call home, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

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The IT Administrator

A German entity (3CX GmbH, Hanover) sells it, but the default contracting party is 3CX Ltd in Nicosia, Cyprus — inside the EU, yet under Cypriot law and Nicosia courts — while managed hosting runs on Amazon, Google and Digital Ocean hyperscalers with no region named and transcription can run through Google or OpenAI, mitigated by standard contractual clauses and a published data processing agreement. The saving grace for a German machine builder is the documented self-hosting route: on-premises Windows or Linux or a private cloud for, in the vendor's words, full data sovereignty, with the transcription service configurable on-premise. I found no public information on a subprocessor list with locations or on ISO 27001 certification, so sovereignty end to end is not evidenced. 1 2 3 8 9 10 11 17

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per user or extension and per plan, what numbers, number blocks and porting cost, which calls are included in a flat rate (landline, mobile, international) and what the rest cost per minute, which features (call centre, recording, AI, CRM integrations, Teams calling) cost extra, device prices or rent, set-up fees, minimum term and notice period, and VAT.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call or a partner quote.

3 — A starting price per user exists, but what numbers, minutes, porting and add-ons cost is unclear.

5 — Plans are public with their price per user and main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (number blocks, porting, international minutes, call centre seats, AI or recording) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every plan priced publicly with its scaling rule, a per-minute price list for calls outside the flat rate, numbers, porting and devices priced, add-ons priced, set-up fees, minimum term and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given number of users, numbers, sites and call minutes, with every add-on, device, porting and support fee and the cancellation and number-export terms published.

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The IT Administrator

The model is public and unusual: licensing by simultaneous calls across Basic, Pro and AI editions with concrete euro figures per size (for 24SC the page lists "BASIC €785 €710 €0.49 €639 €430", "PRO €1,045 €945 €0.66 €851 €430", "AI €1,425 €1,285 €0.89 €1,157 €430"), prices stated exclusive of taxes and VAT, a 12-month purchase with no lock-in, a free tier under ten users, and a feature-per-edition list including gates such as recording from 16SC and the API requiring 8SC with AI. What I cannot compute from the captured pages: the real phone costs, number and porting costs (the trunk is bring-your-own), device prices or rent, and set-up or support fees — and some of the table columns, such as the €430 figure, appear without labels in the capture, so I would need the vendor to explain them before signing. 3 7 8 10

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about 3CX

Is 3CX European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies 3CX as EU-Made.

Where does 3CX store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026.

Does 3CX have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 5 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to 3CX?

As of 6 Nov 2026, the panel rates Placetel (3.5/5), RingCentral RingEX (3/5) and Aircall (3/5) highest among the other 13 Cloud Telephony (VoIP & Cloud PBX) products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Placetel (EU origin, foreign-owned). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: 3CX alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about 3CX? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (21)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Features page (phone system) www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Features page (hosted and self-hosted) www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Features page (contact centre) www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Features page (SIP trunks) www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Security / trust page www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Pricing page www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Pricing page (features per edition) www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Legal notice www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Terms of service (licence agreement) www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Privacy policy www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Calling, numbers & call routing — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Calling, numbers & call routing — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Apps, desk phones & Microsoft Teams — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  15. 15 Apps, desk phones & Microsoft Teams — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  16. 16 Call centre, analytics & AI — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  17. 17 Call centre, analytics & AI — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  18. 18 CRM integration, API & administration — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  19. 19 CRM integration, API & administration — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  20. 20 Reliability, call security & telecoms compliance — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →
  21. 21 Reliability, call security & telecoms compliance — found from sitemap www.3cx.de Checked 5 Nov 2026 Details →