---
title: "Aircall vs 3CX: which one to choose in 2026, Skipcall"
description: "Aircall bills licences, 3CX bills simultaneous call capacity. Where the gap widens, where it genuinely flips, and what neither of the two knows how to do."
url: https://skipcall.io/en/comparatif/aircall-vs-3cx
language: en
last_updated: 2026-09-08
---
VS

# Aircall vs 3CX

Aircall bills licences, 3CX bills simultaneous call capacity. Where the gap widens, where it genuinely flips, and what neither of the two knows how to do.

[Charles Baldet](https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesbaldet/)

CEO & Co-Founder, Skipcall · Checked on 8 September 2026

We build Skipcall, and we sell to the same teams as Aircall and 3CX. We therefore have a commercial interest in you choosing neither, and you should read this page knowing that.

That is why Skipcall appears nowhere in the comparison below: not in the table, not in the verdict, not in the questions. Every claim here points to a dated public source, listed at the foot of the page. If something looks wrong, write to us: we will correct it and date the correction.

**Contents**

1. 01 In short
2. 02 One bills seats, the other bills conversations
3. 03 The table
4. 04 Which one for which use
5. 05 What each one does not do
6. 06 Frequently asked questions
7. 07 Sources

In short

## The essentials in five sentences

- Aircall and 3CX do not bill the same quantity: Aircall sells a licence per user, at $30 per licence per month on the Essentials plan with a three-licence minimum, while 3CX sells simultaneous call capacity, at €285 a year per system for the Basic edition, prices recorded on 8 September 2026.
- The 3CX entry tier allows 8 simultaneous calls for a maximum of 40 extensions: its price list therefore rests on the assumption that one extension in five is on a call at any given moment.
- The licence price gap does not flip as the team grows, it widens: on 8 September 2026, forty Essentials licences at Aircall come to $1,200 a month, while the 3CX entry tier stays at €285 a year for as long as simultaneous calls do not go above eight.
- What the 3CX licence leaves out pulls the other way: hosting and running the server are on you, support is billed at €100 a ticket, and you buy your minutes from the SIP carrier of your choice.
- Neither of the two dials several numbers in parallel as of 8 September 2026: Aircall offers a power dialer that dials one number at a time from the Professional plan upwards, and the feature list published by 3CX contains no prospecting dialer.

Which of the two

If what you need is a company phone system, where most extensions are on the hook at any given moment, and if you have someone to run a server, 3CX costs an order of magnitude less in licence fees and covers the requirement. If your users are on the phone for a large part of the day, if you want the vendor to run the service for you, or if you are looking for a dialer that works through a call list, Aircall is the coherent choice, provided you accept the three-licence minimum and the move up to the Professional plan. So it is not the size of the team that settles this, it is the proportion of extensions on a call at the same time.

The point that decides

## One bills seats, the other bills conversations

Comparing $30 per licence per month with €285 a year per system means nothing until you have looked at what each price measures. Aircall counts people. 3CX counts simultaneous conversations, and its price list assumes that four extensions in five are silent.

The price list published by 3CX pairs every simultaneous call tier with a ceiling on extensions: 8 calls for 40 extensions, 16 for 80, 24 for 120, then 32 for 192 and 48 for 288. The ratio is constant, **one extension in five across the first three tiers, one in six above that**. That is the sizing assumption of a company phone system, where the majority of extensions are on the hook at any given moment.

Aircall makes no assumption of the kind: every licence can call whenever it wants, and every licence is paid for. The consequence is counter-intuitive. You would expect a per-licence model to be cheap for a small team and punishing for a large one, so that a headcount exists at which the comparison tips. There is none in that direction. The three-licence minimum sets the Aircall entry ticket at $90 a month on the Essentials plan, or $1,080 a year for three people, where 3CX bills €285 a year for a whole system covering up to forty extensions. The gap is there from the very first person, and it widens with every hire, since one more seat costs $30 a month with one vendor and nothing with the other for as long as the tier holds.

The tipping point is elsewhere, and it is measured in simultaneous calls, not in headcount. Eight reps on the phone all day use up the eight simultaneous calls of the entry tier on their own, the tier the price list intends for forty extensions. The next tier, 16 simultaneous calls, costs €570 a year in the Basic edition. In other words, **the higher the proportion of your extensions genuinely on a line, the higher the 3CX price per effective person climbs**, while the Aircall price does not move by a dollar.

That leaves what each price does not include, and it is the one place where the comparison can genuinely flip. With 3CX, the software is installed on a server in your own company or in your own cloud account, support is billed at €100 a ticket and you buy your minutes from the SIP carrier of your choice: the licence is low because part of the work falls to you. With Aircall, the vendor runs the service, but licences are bought in blocks of three at a minimum and the dialer only appears on the Professional plan, at $50 per licence per month, or $150 a month at the entry ticket.

The table

## Aircall and 3CX, criterion by criterion

Checked on 8 September 2026. Prices are the ones each vendor publishes, in its own currency, on the date given for each, and the sources are listed at the foot of the page.

| Criterion | Aircall | 3CX |
| - | - | - |
| Billing unit | Named licence, per user per month | Simultaneous call capacity, per system per year |
| Published entry price | $30 per licence per month, Essentials plan, billed annually | €285 a year, Basic edition, tier of 8 simultaneous calls |
| Minimum imposed | Three licences, so $90 a month on Essentials | No minimum on extensions, but a floor tier of 8 simultaneous calls |
| Headcount covered at the entry price | Three users | Up to 40 extensions, within a limit of 8 conversations at the same time |
| Prospecting dialer | Power dialer from the Professional plan upwards, at $50 per licence per month, one number at a time | None in the published feature list |
| Call recording and CRM integration | Not published plan by plan in our research | From the Pro edition, €380 a year at the tier of 8 simultaneous calls |
| Hosting and operations | Handled by the vendor. For accounts created before May 2022, recordings sit on AWS servers in the United States by default | On you: a server in your own company, your own cloud account, or the hosted offering run by the vendor |
| Support | Not billed per ticket. Service level commitments and a dedicated contact belong to the Custom plan, on quotation | €100 a ticket, on top of the licence |
| Public review ratings | 4.4 out of 5 on G2 across more than 1,500 reviews, 2.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot across 1,081 reviews | 4.4 out of 5 on G2 across more than 500 reviews, 2.5 out of 5 on Trustpilot across 175 reviews |
| Vendor | French company founded in 2014 in Paris, more than 23,000 customers claimed | Cypriot vendor founded in 2005, more than 350,000 customers claimed across 190 countries, sold exclusively through 10,000 partners |

Skipcall is not in this comparison

We publish this page. Four parallel lines, price published from $25, no licence minimum.

[Try Skipcall](https://app.skipcall.io/signup) [Read our self-assessment](https://skipcall.io/en/reviews/skipcall)

Which one for which use

## Two situations, two answers

### Aircall is the right choice if

- your users are on a line for a large part of the day: the price does not depend on the number of simultaneous conversations
- you want neither a server to run nor version upgrades to plan, since the vendor takes care of that
- you are looking for a dialer that works through a call list: the power dialer on the Professional plan dials one number at a time
- you are at least three users, which makes the three-licence minimum painless
- audio quality is a first-order criterion: it is the best rated aspect of Aircall on G2, at 9.1 out of 10

### 3CX is the right choice if

- what you need is a phone system, where most extensions are on the hook at any given moment
- you have a technical team able to run and update a server
- you want to choose your own SIP carrier and negotiate your minutes separately
- your headcount is well above three people and growing fast: the price follows simultaneous calls, not hires
- you accept support billed at €100 a ticket, or you lean on an integration partner

The limits

## What each one does not do

### Aircall limits

- The three-licence minimum does not sit beside the unit price: a team of one or two users still pays $90 a month on the Essentials plan.
- No parallel dialing on any plan as of 8 September 2026. The power dialer, reserved for the Professional plan, dials one number at a time.
- The Trustpilot rating is 2.9 out of 5 across 1,081 reviews, with 29% of one-star reviews covering billing, automatic renewal and support response times.
- For accounts created before May 2022, call recordings are hosted by default on AWS servers located in the United States.
- SMS capabilities are limited and absent from some plans, which weighs on teams that alternate between calls and written messages.

### 3CX limits

- The feature list published by the vendor contains no prospecting dialer.
- The entry tier stops at 8 conversations at the same time: eight people on a line at the same moment saturate it, whatever the number of extensions declared.
- Call recording and CRM integration are not in the Basic edition: they start at the Pro edition, at €380 a year at the tier of 8 simultaneous calls.
- Support is not included in the licence, it is billed at €100 a ticket, and running the server remains on you.
- In March 2023, the 3CX desktop app was used as the vector of a software supply chain attack, attributed by Mandiant to a group with a link to North Korea. The vendor published a seven-point security action plan on 20 April 2023.

What neither of them does

- Neither of the two dials several numbers in parallel. Aircall offers it on no plan at all, and the feature list published by 3CX contains no prospecting dialer.
- Neither of the two filters out voicemail so that the rep only ever gets calls that were genuinely answered.
- Neither of the two publishes a monthly price without commitment: the rates advertised by Aircall are for annual billing, and those from 3CX are annual prices per system.
- Neither of the two guarantees on its own that recordings are hosted in the European Union. At Aircall, accounts created before May 2022 have their recordings on AWS in the United States by default. At 3CX, where processing happens follows from the server or cloud account you choose, and the vendor does not publish the regions of its hosted offering.

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Frequently asked questions

## Short answers

**Aircall or 3CX: which one is cheaper?**

On the licence price, 3CX is cheaper in every configuration recorded on 8 September 2026. The Aircall entry ticket is $90 a month, or $1,080 a year for three Essentials licences, three-licence minimum included. The 3CX entry ticket is €285 a year for a whole system, at the tier of 8 simultaneous calls, which covers up to 40 extensions. The two vendors publish in different currencies and we do not convert, but at that order of magnitude no plausible exchange rate changes the ranking. The licence price is not the full cost, however: with 3CX you have to add hosting, running the server, the minutes bought from your SIP carrier and support billed at €100 a ticket.

**At how many users does 3CX become better value than Aircall?**

The question has no answer in numbers of users, because the two prices do not measure the same quantity. The Aircall price follows headcount, at $30 per licence per month on Essentials as of 8 September 2026, with a floor of three licences. The 3CX price follows the number of simultaneous conversations and stays the same whatever the headcount for as long as the tier holds: €285 a year at 8 simultaneous calls for a maximum of 40 extensions. So the gap already favours 3CX at three people, and it widens as the team grows. What flips the comparison is not headcount but call intensity and the cost of running a server.

**Aircall or 3CX for outbound phone prospecting?**

Aircall, provided you move up to the Professional plan, at $50 per licence per month as of 8 September 2026, or $150 a month with the three-licence minimum: it is the first plan to contain the power dialer, which works through a call list dialing one number at a time. 3CX is not built for that use: its published feature list contains no prospecting dialer, and its entry tier of 8 simultaneous calls would be saturated by eight reps on a line at the same moment. Neither of the two dials several numbers in parallel.

**Which one suits a team based in France better?**

Aircall is a French company founded in 2014 in Paris, with French numbers, wide coverage and support in French. 3CX is a Cypriot vendor founded in 2005 whose support in French is not advertised, and which sells exclusively through a network of 10,000 partners: the quality of the relationship therefore depends on the integration partner you pick. On hosting, neither of the two guarantees by default that recordings are stored in France, but self-hosting 3CX leaves you to choose where processing happens, which Aircall does not allow.

**Can you move from Aircall to 3CX, or the other way round?**

Yes, but the order of operations matters more than whether the new tool is available. Aircall plans are taken out on annual billing with automatic renewal: start by noting the anniversary date and the notice period, since that is what sets your window to switch. Then start porting your numbers, which belong to you and transfer from one carrier to another, before you terminate. Finally, ask for an export of your recordings, call logs and statistics while the account is still active. In the other direction the constraint is technical rather than contractual: leaving 3CX means rebuilding elsewhere a phone system configuration you were running yourself.

**What do the public reviews say about Aircall and 3CX?**

Both score 4.4 out of 5 on G2, Aircall across more than 1,500 reviews and 3CX across more than 500. The gap shows on Trustpilot: 2.9 out of 5 for Aircall across 1,081 reviews, of which 29% are one star, and 2.5 out of 5 for 3CX across 175 reviews, of which 36% are one star. The complaints are not about the same things. At Aircall they target billing, automatic renewal and support response times. At 3CX they target perceived stability, support billed at €100 a ticket and changes to licensing.

**Do you need a server to use 3CX? And for Aircall?**

3CX installs on a server in your own company, in your own cloud account, or through the hosted offering the vendor runs. In the first two cases, operations, updates and availability are on you, which explains the level of the licence price. Aircall is an online service: there is nothing to install and nothing to run, the vendor takes care of it, and that is also why its per-licence billing is of a different order of magnitude.

**Has 3CX had a security incident, and has Aircall?**

In March 2023, the 3CX desktop app was used as the vector of a software supply chain attack, attributed by Mandiant to a group with a link to North Korea. The vendor published an alert on 30 March 2023, the initial findings of its investigation on 11 April, then a seven-point security action plan on 20 April 2023. We found no public incident of that kind on the Aircall side. If your security team asks for a history, show them that plan and ask where it now stands.

Sources

## Everything is checkable

- [Aircall, price list](https://www.g2.com/products/aircall/pricing) · plans, price per licence and licence minimum
- [Aircall, “About us” page](https://aircall.io/about-us/) · founding, offices, number of customers
- [Aircall, privacy FAQ](https://aircall.io/privacy-faqs/) · where recordings are located
- [Aircall, data processing agreement](https://aircall.io/dpa/) · subprocessors and hosting
- [G2, Aircall reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/aircall/reviews) · rating, review volume and audio quality score
- [Trustpilot, Aircall reviews](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/aircall.io) · rating, volume and distribution of reviews
- [3CX, full price list](https://www.3cx.com/ordering/pricing/pricelist) · annual prices per simultaneous call tier, extension ceilings and support ticket prices
- [3CX, pricing page](https://www.3cx.com/ordering/pricing/) · licensing model based on simultaneous calls
- [3CX, feature list](https://www.3cx.com/ordering/pricing/features/) · split of features across the Basic, Pro and AI editions
- [3CX, company page](https://www.3cx.com/company/) · founding, customers, countries and partner network
- [3CX, hosted offering](https://www.3cx.com/pbx/hosted/) · deployment options and infrastructure providers
- [3CX, alert of 30 March 2023](https://www.3cx.com/blog/news/desktopapp-security-alert/) · affected versions and first measures
- [3CX, security action plan of 20 April 2023](https://www.3cx.com/blog/news/security-action-plan/) · measures announced in seven points
- [Google Cloud Threat Intelligence](https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/3cx-software-supply-chain-compromise) · origin and attribution of the compromise
- [G2, 3CX reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/3cx/reviews) · rating and review volume
- [Trustpilot, 3CX reviews](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/3cx.com) · rating, volume and distribution of reviews

Going further

- [Our analysis of Aircall](https://skipcall.io/en/reviews/aircall) with its prices recorded at source
- [Our analysis of 3CX](https://skipcall.io/en/reviews/3cx) with its prices recorded at source
- [Alternatives to Aircall](https://skipcall.io/en/alternative-to-aircall)
- [Alternatives to 3CX](https://skipcall.io/en/alternative-to-3cx)
- [The 25 tool comparison](https://skipcall.io/en/comparatif) where Skipcall appears, and where we say so

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