3CX vs Vonage Business
If you’re interested in Vonage or 3CX for your contact centre and are struggling on deciding, you will feel much more comfortable making an informed decision after checking out our comparison. Moreover, we include the best features, support options, and pricing plans that 3CX and Vonage Business have to offer.
What is on offer: Vonage Business vs. 3CX
| Vonage Business | Microsoft RSD | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing (per user per month) | From £30 – £50 | From £70 – £127 |
| Free Trial | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unlimited Domestic Calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile App | ✓ | ✓ |
| Business SMS Messaging | ✓ | ✓ |
| File Sharing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Advanced Call Analytics | ✓ | ✓ |
| Video Conferencing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Voicemail Transcription | ✓ | ✓ |
| Call Reporting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open API | ✓ | ✓ |
| More Information | Visit Vonage Business | Visit 3CX |
3CX: Best for – Unbeatable Pricing
3CX is an open-source PBX (Private Branch Exchange) contact centre service with more than 250,000 customers worldwide. Because it’s an open platform, users aren’t required to choose from a specific host and SIP trunk as well as an IP phone and phone number. Instead, you can choose your own Unified Communications (UC) platform such as MS Teams to integrate with. You also have the choice whether to deploy the phone system on premise or hosted in your own cloud. Services like Horizon can host using a desktop client as a softphone by simply adding a headset. This greatly reduces costs for the business as they don’t need to buy expensive phone equipment.
Pricing: £276 to £365 per user per year
Unified Communications
You can either integrate with your current UC platform or use 3CX’s unified communications at no additional charge. This omnichannel service includes video, SMS, Webchat and FB Messenger.
Support
Support includes video tutorials, ticketed, telephone and online chat.
Top five features
- Cheap price with all the features.
- Has a strong global presence – great for international calling.
- Collaboration tools that include both chat and video.
- Omnichannel service that includes Webchat and FB Messenger.
- Lots of integrations inc. Salesforce, HubSpot and Office365.
Overall 3CX Pros & Cons
| 3CX Pros | 3CX Cons |
|---|---|
| Cheap and free pricing options | Voice quality poor with weak signal |
| 33 native integrations | Need an SBC for every location |
| Video tutorials | Not the most aesthetically pleasing of applications |
| Call management and distribution | Limited usage of end-point integrations.* Some due diligence required *For example, you can’t have a quick dial on some phones. |
Vonage Business: Best for – User Specific Features and Customisations
Vonage’s beginnings started with a focus on the residential sales of VoIP as they strived to push it into the mainline. This has enabled their features to be fully customisable, making it ideal for companies that want user-specific VoIP features. This allows companies to use cloud-based VoIP features that help employees to be more productive when it comes to meetings and staying in contact with customers.
Pricing: £276 to £365 per user per year
Unified Communications
Vonage’s partnership with Amazon Chime offers its users unified communications options you will need and is recognised as the enterprise choice due to its security features.
Did someone say Salesforce?
Vonage’s Contact Centre is the number-one rated app on the Salesforce AppExchange as well as having integrations with MS Teams and Dynamics.
Support
Vonage Business customers will have the support of 24-hour helpline or email with no online chat or video available.
Top five features
- Customisable features.
- Low price point.
- Uses Salesforce omnichannel features with its integration.
- One-click login and single interface.
- Agent tools including whisper assistance, call transfer and availabilities.
Pricing
£30-£50 per user per month
Vonage Business Pros & Cons
| Vonage Pros | Vonage Cons |
|---|---|
| User-specific customisations | Limited no. of integrations |
| Unified Comms via Amazon Chime | Phone or email support only |
| Customised Tags | Lack of messaging and file sharing |
| Voicemail Transcripts | Reliant with salesforce for omnichannel services |
Summary
With a wider range of features, as well as being cheaper, 3CX beats Vonage in most of the areas discussed here but you will have to remember it’s an open-source platform that will need to be hosted and supported.
Choosing your own end-points such as phones and headsets can be seen as benefit or a curse but does allow more variety and pricing points for users. 3CX is a very affordable and dynamic phone system, suitable for a heavy call volume and for remote work. You can either set it up yourself or use a dedicated I.T provider with experience in setting up a PBX contact centre.
However, if you are looking for more of an out of the box solution then Vonage may suit you more, especially with the user-specific customisations it has to offer. Other out-of-the-box solutions are discussed in our RingCentral vs. 8×8 battle.