Cannon VoIP vs. 3CX

3CX is self-managed PBX software, not a turnkey platform that just works out of the box. You bring your own carrier, IT staff, hosting, and STIR/SHAKEN call-authentication setup. Cannon VoIP gives you the same call queues, CRM integration, and AI transcription, done for you, one bill, no contract, for less than 3CX's real all-in cost.

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The short version

With Cannon VoIP$170 a month for 5 users, all-in. We run the whole system for you, carrier and support included.

With 3CXAbout $450 to $700 or more a month once you add the edition, hosting, a carrier and someone to run it.

Software you run vs. a phone company that runs it.

3CX writes its own PBX software, but you run it yourself or through a hosting partner, and you bring your own carrier. Cannon VoIP builds its own phone system and runs all of it for you: servers, switching, apps, updates and support. Every $34 extension also includes what 3CX reserves for higher editions or does not offer:

Nothing to host, patch or connect. No server, carrier or SBC for you to manage.
A wallboard with listen, whisper and barge. 3CX includes these on PRO and AI editions only.
Video meetings and call recording. 3CX Basic has neither.
A power dialer. 3CX has no native power dialer.
Built-in CRM. 3CX has no built-in CRM; integrations need PRO or AI.

5-user scenario: what you'd actually pay per month

Cannon VoIP

$170/month

5 extensions × $34, all-in. No regulatory fee, no E911 fee, no support-tier fee: unlimited domestic calling and texting, AI call/voicemail transcription, and CRM integration all included.

3CX

~$450–700+/month

Doesn't reduce to a clean per-seat number, and licensing is by simultaneous calls, not seats, but 3CX's own pricing starts around $65–90/month even at the smallest 8-SC AI Edition tier (the one that matches our CRM + AI transcription). Add a SIP trunk/carrier plan (≈$50–150/month) and, since most small businesses use a hosting partner rather than run 3CX themselves, a managed hosting/support contract, which commonly runs $200–450/month once premium support tickets ($75–100 each), backup/failover, and ongoing administration are included. All-in, a fully-managed 5-user deployment realistically lands at $450–700+/month, and that's before phone hardware.

Moving from 3CX is built in

Cannon VoIP has migration tools in the portal, and our team guides the move for free:

How your setup comes across. Live import from 3CX version 18 update 7 or version 20, or from a backup file for older systems, and your menu wording comes across without re-recording.
Keep what your callers hear. Optional discovery calls ring your old system and record what its menus say, so the wording, or the original recordings, can come across.
Nothing changes until you approve it. Review a plan with counts before anything is applied; an import report lists anything that could not come across.
No gap in service. Your 3CX service keeps taking calls until your numbers port, at $15 per line, usually the next business day.

Cannon VoIP

3CX

Pricing & contract

$34/extension/month flat, all-in: unlimited domestic calling and texting included. No long-term contract: month to month.

Licensed per simultaneous call, not per extension: roughly $350–$800+/yr for small deployments, and well beyond that once you need higher call concurrency or the PRO/AI edition. No per-seat pricing, no free tier as of 2026.

Add-ons & hidden fees

No hidden fees. One flat rate per extension covers the core features, carrier, hosting, STIR/SHAKEN call authentication, and support. Optional add-ons are priced up front: AI receptionist $65/month, or free with 10 or more users; Branded Calling + RCS $45 one-time setup, then $40/month per block of 25 extensions; and cloud eFax.

This is where the real cost lives. The license is the smallest line item. On top of it: a SIP trunk/carrier contract, hosting (or a server + an SBC (session border controller) to secure it), and the IT hours to run it all. STIR/SHAKEN caller-ID authentication isn't built in either. It's on you to confirm your carrier signs and verifies calls, or your outbound calls risk being flagged as spam. Stacked together, the true monthly cost regularly runs well past what the license price alone suggests.

Contract lock-in & termination fee

None: month-to-month. Leave anytime with no early termination fee.

The annual license is prepaid; cancelling mid-term forfeits the remaining license value (no prorated refund), and you're separately bound by whatever contract your SIP trunk/carrier requires.

Setup & onboarding

We handle every step of onboarding and set your team up for success, then call us anytime during business hours to add, change, or fine-tune any feature, big or small. Businesses within about an hour and a half of DFW Airport get free on-site installation.

Self-managed software: you (or a hired partner/MSP) configure the PBX, source a carrier, and maintain the server yourself.

Customer support & reliability

Live technicians 24/7/365 for anything urgent, at our Fort Worth office. Full support team weekdays, 9 to 5 Central. No ticket queue, no support tier to unlock. Businesses within about an hour and a half of DFW Airport can get on-site emergency service (billed separately; contact us for rates).

G2 reviewers cite frequent pricing and feature changes, and note that support, previously free, now requires a paid tier. You (or a hired partner) keep the system running day to day.

Integrations

Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, plus 11 CRM integrations included: Zoho, HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics 365, GoHighLevel, Zendesk, Freshdesk, SugarCRM, Odoo, Housecall Pro, CallRail. Contacts sync every six hours or on demand and name callers in screen pops; finished calls log automatically into HubSpot, Zoho and GoHighLevel.

CRM integrations exist but require the PRO edition or higher and manual configuration to wire up.

Built-in CRM

Included: people, deals and pipelines, website forms, automation, email sequences, service desk and appointments with a public booking page.

No built-in CRM. Connects to outside CRMs on PRO and AI editions, with manual configuration.

International calling

$0.25/min to common countries, $1.75/min to less-common countries, rare/high-cost destinations quoted separately.

No built-in carrier: international rates depend entirely on whichever SIP trunk/carrier you connect to 3CX.

Meetings & messaging

Built in: video meetings with a permanent room link and dial-in from any phone, team chat channels and direct messages, and a website chat bubble your staff answer from the portal or the Android and iPhone apps. Plus a live AI interpreter on any call (dial *84 or tap Translate) that translates both sides, and long-press translation for text messages.

Video meetings not in Basic (PRO up to 100 participants, AI edition up to 250). Chat and SMS in all editions, plus a website live chat widget (including for WordPress).

Contact center tools

A wallboard with live queue stats, where supervisors can listen, whisper or barge into live calls, plus a power dialer for outbound campaigns that only calls between 8am and 9pm in the lead's local time.

Wallboard and listen, whisper and barge on PRO and AI editions only. No native power dialer.

Call screening & 911

Call screening shows each caller's name and reason word for word as they speak, before you answer, and AI screening rules send calls you never want to voicemail without ringing. A 911 address is registered on each number and checked with 911 systems, each building can be a 911 site, 911 calls from the mobile app send the phone's location, and people you choose are alerted when anyone dials 911.

Name-announce call screening is not listed on 3CX's site.

Connect your own AI assistant

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or any Model Context Protocol (MCP) assistant, choose which areas it can reach, and high-risk actions wait for a person to approve them.

A native MCP server was in alpha in mid-2026.

Platform ownership

We wrote our own phone software and apps, and we run our own servers and switching from an undisclosed location in Fort Worth, with two backup regions; customer data is stored only in the US and is never shared or sold; only three outside companies for voice and texting; most feature requests ship in under four weeks.

Writes its own PBX software, which you or a hosting partner run, on-premise or in the cloud. Priced per system by simultaneous calls, and you bring your own carrier.

Hardware & BYOD

Bring your own desk phone if it's on our compatibility list, or get our VoIP-6 ($198, with 10% off at 25 phones and 15% off at 75) or an ATA adapter ($99). Most other standard SIP phones can connect with basic SIP credentials, without the portal's remote management. We never rent or lease equipment: phones and adapters are yours to keep, purchased outright.

Broad IP phone compatibility (Yealink, Fanvil, and more), but you source, purchase, and provision hardware yourself.

Bottom line: Apples to apples, five users with matching features cost $170 a month at Cannon VoIP, all-in, and about $450 to $700 or more with 3CX once you add the edition, hosting, a carrier and someone to run it. 3CX is software you run; Cannon VoIP builds and runs the whole system for you, with the wallboard, recording, video meetings, power dialer and built-in CRM in every $34 extension.

Want your own numbers? Get a free phone bill review: upload your current bill and see every fee, plus what the same setup costs with us.

Pricing, plan and feature details reflect 3CX's publicly published information as of October 2026 and are subject to change. Confirm current pricing directly with 3CX.

Already decided? The step-by-step exit is here: switching from 3CX.

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