1:1 comparison · Verified August 27, 2026 If you’re weighing DialPhone vs 3CX for your business phone system in 2026, the choice usually comes down to three factors: real total cost over 36 months, whether AI receptionist is included or addon, and how the platform handles US/Canada cross-border seats.
Every competitor figure below is taken from the vendor’s own published pages and is listed with its source and check date at the end of this page. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, this page says so instead of estimating.
TL;DR: at a glance
- Best for teams whose call concurrency is much lower than their headcount, and who have an administrator to run it: 3CX
- Best for teams that want no server, no separate SIP trunk contract and one monthly bill per user: DialPhone
- Critical 2026 difference: the two are not priced in the same unit. 3CX charges per system per year by simultaneous-call capacity; DialPhone charges per user per month. At 25 users, 3CX licence fees start at $600 a year against $7,200 a year for DialPhone Core, but the 3CX figure excludes SIP trunks and hosting or server costs, which DialPhone includes.
Quick comparison table
| Feature | DialPhone | 3CX |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing model | Per user, per month | Per simultaneous call, billed annually |
| Licensing unit | Per user, per month | Per system, per year, sized by simultaneous calls (SC), not by user count |
| Worked example at 25 users | $24 × 25 = $600/mo, $7,200/yr (Core, annual) | 3CX Basic $600/yr, 3CX Pro $795/yr, 3CX AI Edition $1,095/yr |
| Price behaviour as headcount grows | Rises with every seat added | Flat until you need more simultaneous calls |
| Hosting | Included, fully managed | Self-host, or add 3CX Hosting at checkout |
| Setup fee | $0 | Not publicly listed |
| AI receptionist | Add-on ($59/mo) | Add-on |
| Published uptime SLA | 99.999% monthly uptime target with service credits (Terms §6) | No public SLA located |
| HIPAA BAA | BAA offered on Advanced and higher (HIPAA) — a contract, not a certification | Not publicly confirmed |
| SOC 2 | Contact DialPhone for current status, scope and documentation (SOC 2) | Not publicly confirmed |
| GDPR | DPA and EU data residency (GDPR) — not a certification | Not publicly confirmed |
| PCI DSS | Contact DialPhone for current status, scope and documentation (PCI) | Not publicly confirmed |
| Founded | 2024 | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Hong Kong | Cyprus |
| 36-month cost | $21,600 (25 seats × $24 × 36) | $1,800 to $3,285 in licence fees at 25 users (Basic to AI Edition, 3 years), plus SIP trunks, hosting or server, and administration |
Pricing breakdown
DialPhone
- Core ($24/user/mo, annual): unlimited US/Canada calling, SMS, HD video meetings up to 200 participants, AI live captions and transcription
- Advanced ($34, annual): adds AI SMS drafting, Proactive Workflow Automation, integrations and a HIPAA BAA
- Ultra ($54, annual): adds advanced analytics
- Contact Center (separate CCaaS plans from $65/agent/mo): omnichannel routing, AI quality management, workforce management
- Smart Virtual Concierge (AI Receptionist): separate $59/month add-on, or $69/month in the AI Pro Bundle
All plans are billed annually and include a 14-day free trial with no card required. A HIPAA Business Associate Agreement is available on Advanced and higher. The AI Receptionist is a separate add-on, not part of Core, Advanced or Ultra.
3CX
3CX states plainly on its pricing page that it is “priced per system, not per seat” and that you “pay for capacity, not per seat”. The licence is sized by simultaneous calls, billed annually, and the same licence covers an unlimited number of users up to that call capacity.
3CX’s own configurator, set to 25 users, publishes 3CX Basic at $600 per year, 3CX Pro at $795 per year and 3CX AI Edition at $1,095 per year. A separate ENT edition is offered. 3CX notes that prices exclude tax and VAT and may vary with exchange rates, and that hosting can be added to the licence at checkout. Support and AI packages are listed on the same page as launching soon.
What 3CX does not include is the carriage. You still buy SIP trunks from a separate provider, and if you self-host you supply the server, the bandwidth and the patching. Neither cost appears in the licence price above.
The DialPhone 36-month figure counts subscription seats only, at Core annual pricing: 25 × $24 × 36 = $21,600. It excludes taxes and telecom fees, usage, hardware and add-ons such as the AI Receptionist. Model your own configuration with the VoIP TCO calculator.
Feature parity
Where 3CX is the better fit
Per-system licensing is genuinely cheaper for organisations with many light users, because the price tracks simultaneous calls rather than headcount. Self-hosting or bring-your-own-cloud gives full control of the deployment and of the SIP trunk relationship. The annual fee is a fixed, predictable line item that does not move when you hire.
Where DialPhone is the better fit
DialPhone publishes every business-phone tier and every contact-center tier below Enterprise, so procurement can price a deployment without a sales call. Carriage, hosting and the platform arrive as one bill from one vendor. AI transcription and call summaries sit inside the plan; the AI receptionist is a separate $59 per month add-on.
3CX’s limitation
The licence price is not the system cost. SIP trunks are bought separately, and a self-hosted deployment adds a server, bandwidth, patching and someone to own it. We could not locate a published 3CX uptime SLA, and 3CX’s own pricing page lists its support and AI packages as launching soon.
DialPhone’s limitation
DialPhone bills per user, so cost rises with every seat whether or not that person is on the phone. An organisation with many occasional users and low call concurrency is exactly the case per-system licensing is cheaper for, and DialPhone does not offer that model. DialPhone was founded in 2024; 3CX in 2005.
When to pick 3CX
Choose 3CX if:
- Your simultaneous-call requirement is much lower than your headcount
- You want to self-host or run on your own cloud tenancy
- You want a fixed annual licence fee that does not move as you hire
- You already have, or are happy to procure, a separate SIP trunk provider
When to pick DialPhone
Choose DialPhone if:
- You want no server, no separate SIP trunk contract and one bill per user
- You want an AI receptionist from the same vendor as your phone system (Smart Virtual Concierge, $59/month add-on)
- You want unlimited US and Canada calling in the base plan without an enterprise agreement
- You want a contractual 99.999% monthly uptime target with service credits (Terms section 6)
- You need a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (available on Advanced and higher)
What’s NOT in the comparison
Some features that don’t differ meaningfully between the two for SMB use cases:
- Mobile apps (both have iOS/Android)
- Standard VoIP features (call forwarding, voicemail, hold music)
- Number porting (both support; timelines depend on the losing carrier, number type and documentation)
If a comparison post tells you “DialPhone has voicemail and 3CX has voicemail”, yes, every vendor does. The differences that matter are above.
How we built this comparison
Competitor pricing, plan names and feature availability are taken from the vendor’s own current pricing, product, security and legal pages. Every figure used is listed with its source, publisher and check date in the Sources section of this page. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, this page says so rather than estimating one.
DialPhone figures come from the DialPhone pricing page and the Terms of Service. If you find a discrepancy, tell us and we will correct it.
Verdict
There is no automatic winner here. DialPhone fits teams that want business phone and contact center from one vendor with published per-seat pricing and an AI receptionist available as a paid add-on. 3CX fits teams that match its own strengths (self-hosted PBX with cloud option). Price both at your real seat count against each vendor’s current pricing page before deciding.
The honest test: run both through the TCO calculator at your actual seat count + use case. Whichever lands lower for your spec is the right answer.
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Compiled by Darshan M, Growth Operations · DialPhone. The 2026 SMB VoIP pricing dataset cited above is published openly at dialphone.com/data/voip-pricing-2026.json under CC BY 4.0.