Phone System Recommendations

Posted by itcontractor247@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 67 comments

We're currently in the process of looking at switching our VoIP provider contract. Currently using GoTo Connect, about 100 users. Before we moved to GoTo Connect about 5 years ago, we were on Mitel self-hosted, and it worked okay, but at the time my boss wanted to be more "in the cloud" and less reliant on our data center.

We pay a lot of money each year to GoTo for services, and while it's a nice system, I think it has a ton of functionality that we don't utilize or need.

I have looked at 3cx and like what I see, anyone have any suggestions on that system? I like that it can be self-hosted or cloud hosted, and it's not a money hog like GTC is. Am I crazy for thinking this?

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StanQuizzy@reddit

If you currently have any M365 E5 licenses and Teams, look at Teams and MS as your dialtone provider. We switched from a self hosted Mitel-type system 6 years ago to Teams and it's been great for us.

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BisonST@reddit

I like my Operator Connect setup because I have someone besides Microsoft to work with. Haven't had a bigger tech problem than that yet.

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amartiado@reddit

How much more was it per user on top of the E5 license? Thinking about going to Teams from an older avaya system.

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StanQuizzy@reddit

You need a domestic calling plan license for about $13/month per user, plus you have to purchase phone numbers if you want users to be able to cll and receive calls externally. Calls within Teams/Your organization are built in.

Now, an external caller can call a single external caller and you can route calls to different users/departments by setting up call queues and groups.

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BaconEatingChamp@reddit

Anyone here using hard phones with Teams and actually like them? We have ~4k phones and 99% need to stay physical.

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StanQuizzy@reddit

We tried teh Yealink and.... utter garbage. Lost connection easily, even when plugged in via Ethernet. Usres were logged out of the phone and couldn't log in. Horrrible.

Would be easier to give users a mobile phone with no service and connect to Wifi, install Teams app.

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Important_Scene_4295@reddit

Pre-covid, we all used to. After everyone was forced home and got used to Teams on their computer and cell phones, nobody wanted the desk phone anymore. We still have a bunch of Polycom phones, and I do have one set up at my desk mostly for demo purposes to show people how they work in case someone wants one.

The Polycom phones are pretty easy to provision and on the user side, they just go to a website and log into their MS account using the code displayed on the phone to log in and they're good to go.

Things like transferring calls or dialing other Teams users is clunky with the older phones that we have, but for answering and dialing, they work well enough. There are some newer models that have better displays and play better with Teams.

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post4u@reddit

Wondering this as well. We're doing a bake off right now between a few phone vendors and it feels like Teams is very lacking in features compared to a few of the other big players.

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jetlagged-bee@reddit

Yep, I love our teams setup.

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shawn22252@reddit

Good option. Also zoom phone is easy and will intergrate into teams p

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Mister_Big_Stuff@reddit

This my perfect thread. I run an on-premises ShoreTel (Mitel) PBX and we are planning to switch later this year. Our candidates are Teams Voice, RingCentral, and GoToMeeting.

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aracheb@reddit

Don't go RingCentral

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Mister_Big_Stuff@reddit

I appreciate the anti-recommendation.

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OhioIT@reddit

What issues are there with Ring Central? I know Spectrum has a voip system offering that is run on Ring Central, so I was curious

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bottleofmtdew@reddit

I will second the anti-recommendation

I will give a +1 to GoToConnect though, I used it at my previous job and was quite the fan

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Tall-Geologist-1452@reddit

If you’re already a Microsoft 365 shop, Teams Phone is really the easy answer. You get softphones built right into the Teams client everyone is already using, and the mobile app works the same way. It also covers all the bases for desk phones and conference room setups if you need them.

The best part is you aren't managing another separate platform or set of credentials. Since it’s all integrated, it simplifies the whole stack and usually ends up being more cost effective than bringing in a third party provider.

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amang_admin@reddit

https://www.issabel.org/

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BiggOnion@reddit

Went to 8x8 some time ago, and it's been pretty reliable. Apps for IOS and Android, web browser, and standard Mac/Windows desktops. Supports 'hard' phones too, and can work over wifi for desktop phones. Easy to administer, but their support can be pretty spotty. Either it's great or it's abysmal.

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NV_Lady@reddit

Also an 8x8 customer and I agree with this statement.

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nerd8@reddit

Zoom!

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username_no_one_has@reddit

I echo the 3CX concerns. My old company almost got dumped because we complained about the account manager.

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bit0n@reddit

IPecs is a fairly easy recommendation it does what it should and it’s easy to manage.

8x8 again has been solid. It works 99% of the time and the Contact Centre is great when you get your head around it. But support is hit and miss depends on the agent.

I prefer Teams. A single client and a single status to worry about. The only thing I don’t like is what feels like triple billing. You can pay for your SIP for a Teams Phone Licence and a Calling Plan. Finding the right mix is key.

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LukeyJayT3@reddit

Cisco Webex cloud calling. Not the cheapest but super easy to setup and manage.

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piniatadeburro@reddit

Ringcentral through our ISP is so easy to manage

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kangy3@reddit

Yes!! RingCentral has been good to me. First 6 months and I'm mostly satisfied. Use both RC and RingCX

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latinkreationz@reddit

We went from Zoom Phone to RingCentral through our ISP and it’s been nice when it comes to support.

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Lx0044@reddit

Honestly FortiVoice by Fortinet at that size. Super affordable and super easy to manage and install. We use it at two school districts and a hospital.

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R64Real@reddit

We just switched from an on-prem Siemens system to a cloud provider called Univoxx. There were a few hiccups with our staff learning the new system but it works really well and is more affordable than most other systems I looked at. All hardware is free.

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sydtrakked@reddit

We're using MS Teams Phone with CallTower

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BaconEatingChamp@reddit

We use GoTo Connect as our primary SIP trunk provider for our on prem system. Curious what you (and others) are paying for GoTo?

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0xB_@reddit

I like Vonage. Do not use 3cx.

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rmich18@reddit

Can you elaborate? What issues have you had with 3cx?

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BaconEatingChamp@reddit

Owner is a piece of shit. Phone system is fine.

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2wheels_up@reddit

RingCentral is really nice to work with from an Admin side and it’s easy for users.

If you need a contact center stay away from RingCentral. Their contact center product is cumbersome, and is not fun to manage. It’s also a complete rip off with price. Too many cons to list and not enough pros.

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retrogreq@reddit

Anyone use UniFi talk?

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snookpig77@reddit

I’m in the process of going for. Shortel/Mitel on Prem to a Cisco /Webex hybrid platform with on prem SIP trunks.

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zpuddle@reddit

ringcentral has been a breeze. IMO user interface is much easier to operate than 8x8. I havent used 8x8 since 2019 so maybe they have gotten better and upgraded the ui/ux.

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trashcanzzz@reddit

Seconding for Ringcentral, support is typically pretty good as well. At least in my experience compared to 8x8/Mitel, etc..

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roughlaw55@reddit

Support is okay for basic things that you can generally find on the internet. Any advanced support is a disaster.

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thebigshoe247@reddit

YoVU is a local provider I've been using for about 5 years now. I recommend them.

If you don't need much, it's what you're looking for.

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centpourcentuno@reddit

All 100% cloud phone offerings are all the same. None of them will have Tier 1 support in the USA and good luck getting escalations handled unless you are big enough to have a dedicated account manager.

Luckily, with the normalization of VOIP nowadays and better bandwidth everywhere, you won't hear as many screams about the bad service as one would a decade ago

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ccheath@reddit

That hasn’t been our experience with Zoom for gov

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GullibleDetective@reddit

For basic setups teams natively is just okay

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SmartDrv@reddit

Also going through this exercise to go from Mitel on prem.

Options I'm looking at with my initial thoughts (need more discovery/clarification still on some of this).

Teams: Great to have one system to do everything, less confusion whether you teams or call your internal people. Requires Teams licenses, Calling Plans get expensive but adding trunk from provider adds complexity. Limited functionality on things like autoattendant and certain features traditional PBX offers.

Wildix: Probably the easiest straight drop in replacement from a vendor. Should be fully featured. Proprietary, licenses for everything, duplicate functionality with Teams, needs extra client app.

3CX: Best pricing initially, seems simple enough. Should be fully featured. Concerns about charges/limitations to number of simultaneous calls including internal calls (vs just external). Some questionable feedback on the company itself on this very thread. Some duplication of teams features I believe but can be turned off if I'm not mistaken.

Zoom: At a glance appears to be the "cleanest". Less complexity on the trunks. While it can have duplicate features to Teams, you can turn it off. It can be a dialpad tab on Teams so no additional client required.

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OptionDegenerate17@reddit

3CX. Super easy to manage and it’s dirt cheap.

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krebstaz@reddit

Zoom Phone for sure

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Smart_Dumb@reddit

I manage a few 3CX systems. Their ownership has acted quite unprofessional with how they have treated partners and people on the forums. There has also been lots of drama with how 3CX is now compared to older versions (feature loss and functionality changes) and their recent licensing changes.

However, if you are coming in brand new to 3CX and just need a basic phone system, it's still pretty good. We have some self hosted, some 3CX hosted. Depends on your needs but 3CX hosted is cheaper and has honestly been fine. If you need desk phones, you can get some phones that will act as session board controllers (and then chain some regular phones off of them) or you can run their session board controller software on a PC or server.

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imabev@reddit

I installed 3CX in 2012 for a 250 user org / 6 separate locations. No real issues to speak of since and still going strong.

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the_tech_ref@reddit

GoTo is solid but you definitely pay a premium for the name and a bunch of features most teams never touch.

3CX is usually the first place people look when they want to save money. The concurrent call licensing model is way cheaper for 100 users than the per-seat model GoTo uses. Just remember you'll be on the hook for managing the SIP trunks and the server updates yourself.

If you want to see how 3CX stacks up against other low-cost cloud options without doing ten different sales demos, check out The Tech Ref. They're a procurement service that handles the legwork and coordination for free. They can pull quotes from a few different providers and help you compare the actual costs so you don't have to spend your whole month on it.

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Smart_Dumb@reddit

The concurrent call licensing model is way cheaper for 100 users than the per-seat model GoTo uses.

3CX now has an extension limit with the licensing.

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itcontractor247@reddit (OP)

Thanks, this is definitely helpful. I'll look at The Tech Ref and see if they can be helpful in this situation.

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JBD_IT@reddit

I replaced our old Avaya PBX with 8x8 and MS Teams Phone during the pandemic and haven't looked back.

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vppencilsharpening@reddit

8x8 has been solid for us for "office" users, but we moved away for contact center to get better support. And to be fair, it was their legacy platform, we did not use the contact center (VCC) in their new platform.

Office users have a lower feature set and have been great on the platform.

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toilet-breath@reddit

Where are you located?

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QuiteFatty@reddit

Not sure if worth the price at your scale but Ring Central has been great and scales easy.

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technikaffin@reddit

3CX just recently increased their prices https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1s8ix93/crazy_price_hike_from_3cx/

We are still doing on-prem and switched from Unify to StarFace appliance. Way cheaper and does everything we need

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hkusp45css@reddit

We like DialPad, mostly because they have the best "call center" experience from all of the vendors we interviewed.

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CaptainSlappy357@reddit

Teams

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fuckredditapp4@reddit

3cx will ban corporate instances based on the owners feelings. Go check the sub for horror stories. Scary shit.

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CaptainSevenn@reddit

Zoom phone. No doubt.

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KillingTime1212@reddit

Looking at going from on prem Mitel to ESI. PITA.

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kona420@reddit

I'm looking at running my own SBC for teams calling as my next step. I am very happy with my current enterprise fiber SIP handoff so I want to just roll that forward instead of playing stupid games with yet another hosted phone provider. There seems to always be some sort of peering/switching issue, or they gimped the cloud version of the PBX software so all those weird little edge cases are just "welp fuck it were not doing that"

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