{"id":100,"date":"2026-08-28T15:55:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/?p=100"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:55:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:55:41","slug":"soft-switch-pbx-vs-hosted-3cx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/soft-switch-pbx-vs-hosted-3cx\/","title":{"rendered":"Soft-Switch PBX vs Hosted 3CX: Which Is Right for Your Business?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I.T Communications provides both Hosted Soft-Switch PBX<\/strong> and Hosted 3CX<\/strong>, allowing businesses to choose the platform that best fits their operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both provide modern hosted communications, but they offer different user experiences, feature sets, pricing structures and integration possibilities. There is no universal winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Soft-Switch PBX?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hosted Soft-Switch PBX<\/a> is I.T Communications’ hosted business communications platform. It supports office, remote and multi-site users and provides IVR, queues, ring groups, conditional routing, presence, reporting and authorised call recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It connects directly to the I.T Communications voice network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Hosted 3CX?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hosted 3CX<\/a> is a managed 3CX communications environment hosted on the I.T Communications network and connected to our voice platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It provides business calling alongside queues, IVR, desktop and mobile applications, collaboration, reporting and integration capabilities depending on edition and configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Has Better Call Handling?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both provide professional call handling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soft-Switch supports IVR, time and calendar conditions, caller-ID conditions, extension-status logic, ring groups, queues, priorities and callback options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3CX also provides extensive queue, IVR and routing capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The better platform depends on the actual customer journey rather than the length of a feature checklist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Is Better for Remote Working?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both support distributed users. Soft-Switch provides supported desk-phone, desktop and mobile options. 3CX provides its own web, desktop and mobile application environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The preferred user experience can influence the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What About Windows Users?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Soft-Switch customers can use the I.T Communications Windows VoIP App<\/a> for calling, presence, reporting and licensed AI insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3CX provides its own supported client environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Is Better for CRM Integration?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Integration requirements should be reviewed individually. 3CX provides supported CRM and application integration options depending on edition and configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The I.T Communications Windows Soft-Switch application can also connect calling workflows with supported CRM environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Is Better for AI?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Soft-Switch Windows application can provide licensed AI call intelligence where enabled, creating transcripts, summaries, actions and decisions from available recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected 3CX editions and configurations can also support AI-assisted functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI should solve a genuine business problem rather than determine the platform choice on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Does Pricing Differ?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Soft-Switch uses capacity-based packages with recommended user ranges and currently starts from \u00a359.96 per month. See Soft-Switch Pricing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hosted 3CX has its own capacity, edition and managed-service pricing model. See Hosted 3CX Pricing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compare the complete service rather than only one headline number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Should We Choose?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Consider users, peak concurrent calls, customer call flows, queues, desktop experience, CRM integration, reporting, AI requirements, existing devices, migration and commercial model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I.T Communications can support both platforms, so the recommendation can be based on the business requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Is Soft-Switch PBX better than 3CX?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Not universally. Each platform has different strengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can both support remote workers?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can both support queues and IVR?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Yes, although implementation and functionality differ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we keep existing numbers?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Eligible UK numbers can normally be ported to either platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compare the Platforms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Explore Soft-Switch PBX<\/a> | Explore Hosted 3CX<\/a> | Contact I.T Communications<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I.T Communications provides both Hosted Soft-Switch PBX and Hosted 3CX, allowing businesses to choose the platform that best fits their operation. Both provide modern…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-voip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.it-communicationsltd.co.uk\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}