3CX vs 8x8 vs Teams Phone

The short version

The real difference between these platforms isn’t features. It’s who owns and runs the phone system.

• 3CX is phone system software. It can be hosted by 3CX, in your own cloud account or on a server in your office. You choose the SIP trunk provider that supplies the calling, and you or a 3CX partner maintain it. Paid licences are priced by simultaneous calls, not per user.
• 8x8 is a managed cloud service. 8x8 runs the platform and supplies the calling, and you pay per user. A partner such as Kookaburra Comms designs it, ports the numbers and administers it.
• Microsoft Teams Phone adds calling to Teams. In Australia it needs a second provider for the phone numbers and calls, because Microsoft doesn’t sell its own Calling Plans here.
• RingCentral is a managed cloud service like 8x8, and the comparison with 3CX runs the same way.

3CX is a capable, good-value system. It makes sense when you have strong in-house IT or a 3CX partner you trust, and you want to own the system. If you’d rather nobody in the business had to think about servers, trunks or updates, a managed service is the better fit. For most of the businesses we support, that’s 8x8.

How the four compare

How 3CX works, and what it costs

3CX sells four editions: SMB Free, Basic, PRO and AI. The free edition covers up to 10 users and is hosted by 3CX. The paid editions are priced by simultaneous calls, counting internal and external calls, and 3CX says there are no per-user fees, although each size has a recommended and a maximum number of users.

At the time of writing (October 2026), 3CX’s published price list starts at an 8-simultaneous-call licence of roughly US$300 a year for Basic, US$395 for PRO and US$575 for AI, with hosting by 3CX an extra annual charge of around US$295 at that size. 3CX revised its pricing in early 2026, so check the current list. Those figures don’t include the SIP trunk, the calls, handsets or a partner’s time.

Edition matters more than it first appears. On 3CX’s feature comparison, call queues, CRM integration, WhatsApp and Facebook messaging are in PRO and AI but not Basic. Skills-based routing, failover and Microsoft Teams Direct Routing are AI only.

Hosting. You can let 3CX host it, run it in your own cloud account (3CX names Amazon, Azure, Google and DigitalOcean), or install it on-premises on Debian Linux or Windows. Hosted by 3CX removes the server work. Self-hosting gives the most control and the most responsibility.

SIP trunks. 3CX lists tested Australian trunk providers, including Telstra, Vocus and several smaller carriers. Your numbers sit with the trunk provider, not with 3CX, which matters when you leave.

Who maintains it?

This is the question to settle before price.

With 8x8 or RingCentral, the platform, the calling, the security patches and the redundancy are the provider’s job. Your partner handles changes and first-line support.

With 3CX, more of that sits with you or your partner:

• keeping the system and its apps updated
• server security, certificates and firewall rules, if self-hosted
• backups and recovery
• SIP trunk faults, which involve a separate provider
• sizing the licence as call volumes grow

3CX’s own security incident in March 2023 is a good example of why this matters. Its desktop app was compromised in a supply-chain attack, and 3CX told customers to uninstall the app while it shipped a fix. Every vendor has incidents. With an owned system, someone on your side has to be watching advisories and acting on them that day.

A good 3CX partner takes most of this on. 3CX sells through a large partner network, so the quality of your experience depends heavily on which partner you choose.

Teams Phone in Australia

Teams Phone Standard is listed on Microsoft’s Australian site at AU$15 per user per month, paid yearly, excluding GST, at the time of writing (October 2026). Microsoft notes that a separate Teams licence is also required. Microsoft 365 E5 includes Teams Phone already.

The licence gives you the calling features, not the phone numbers or the calls. Microsoft’s own availability guide for Australia says Calling Plans aren’t available to buy here. So an Australian Teams Phone deployment connects to the phone network in one of two ways:

• Operator Connect, where a provider supplies numbers, calling, porting and PSTN support directly into Teams. 8x8 offers Operator Connect in Australia.
• Direct Routing, where a certified system or carrier connects to Teams. 3CX’s AI edition and RingCentral can both do this.

Teams Phone suits businesses whose staff all work in Teams and whose calling is simple. It gets harder with reception consoles, queues, shared handsets and staff who don’t have a Microsoft licence. 8x8 with Microsoft Teams covers those options in detail.

3CX vs Teams Phone

For a business already on Microsoft 365, the choice usually comes down to this:

• Choose Teams Phone if everyone is a licensed Teams user at a screen, calling is straightforward, and you’re happy to add an Operator Connect provider for the numbers.
• Choose 3CX if you want a full phone system with queues, CRM integration, reception tools and handsets, at a licence cost that doesn’t scale per user. If staff should still answer inside Teams, budget for the AI edition at 16 simultaneous calls or more for Direct Routing.
• Choose 8x8 if you want queue and contact centre capability, a managed service, and the option of staff answering inside Teams, without running the system yourself.

3CX vs RingCentral

RingCentral is a managed cloud platform with an Australian presence and its own Teams options, including an embedded app that doesn’t need a Teams Phone licence. Against 3CX, the trade-off is the same as with 8x8: RingCentral removes the hosting and maintenance and charges per user, while 3CX gives you ownership and simultaneous-call licensing in exchange for more responsibility. 8x8 vs RingCentral vs Teams Phone vs 3CX compares 8x8 and RingCentral directly.

When 3CX genuinely makes sense

To be fair to it, 3CX is often the right choice when:

• You have capable in-house IT or a 3CX partner you trust, and someone owns updates and security.
• Many staff, few calls at once. Simultaneous-call licensing is very efficient where 40 people share a handful of lines. A per-user service charges for every one of them.
• You want to own the system and choose your own trunk provider, or need it hosted in your own cloud account or on-premises for policy reasons.
• You need the PRO or AI edition’s features, such as queues, CRM integration and messaging, at a lower licence cost than per-user equivalents.

It’s a weaker choice when nobody in the business wants responsibility for a phone system, when the partner who installed it has gone quiet, or when the system has been left on old versions because updating it felt risky.

Moving off 3CX

Businesses usually look at moving when the original partner is no longer around, a self-hosted server is ageing, or the renewal arrives and they’d rather not run a phone system any more. The move itself is straightforward if it’s planned:

1. Document what 3CX does today. Export the users and extensions (3CX supports CSV export and import), and write down queues, ring groups, time-based routing, voicemail and any CRM integration.
2. Find out where the numbers live. They’re with your SIP trunk provider, sometimes across more than one account. That provider is the losing carrier for the port.
3. Build and test the new platform first, using temporary numbers.
4. Port the numbers, keeping the 3CX system and the SIP trunk running until every port completes. Keeping your business numbers when you change provider covers the rules and timelines.
5. Check the handsets. Some can be reprovisioned on the new platform. Check each model against its supported list before assuming.
6. Time it around the 3CX renewal so you’re not paying for another year you won’t use.

Getting advice on your phone system

We’re a Melbourne-based 8x8 partner, and we’ll tell you if 3CX or Teams Phone suits your business better. If you’re comparing options or planning a move off 3CX, start with business phone systems and UCaaS, or get in touch with your number of users, how many calls you handle at once and how you use Teams, and we’ll recommend a setup.