Skipcall vs 3CX: which one to choose

The verdict, in three lines

The criterion that decides it is not the feature list: it is whether you want a phone system to run yourself, or a prospecting tool already run for you. On price, let us say it straight away: at equal headcount, a 3CX licence works out much cheaper per conversation than our named licences. What that amount does not cover is set out further down.

If you are still weighing up several tools and not just these two, the page on alternatives to 3CX compares eight solutions on the market and details the company, the hosting and the reviews of each one.

What 3CX does better than us

Four areas where the choice is not open to debate. Knowing them before you buy avoids a project that goes off course in the third month.

What Skipcall does better than 3CX

The same exercise in reverse, and verifiable the same way: four areas where the gap runs our way. None of them is about the price of the licence, where the advantage stays with 3CX.

Two families of tools, and only one that covers both

Most organisations that prospect end up with two subscriptions: a telephony tool for everyone, a dialler for the sales team. That is the real hidden cost of this market, and it shows up on no price list.

In practice: at Skipcall, a €15 licence is enough to equip someone who simply needs a business number, an app and the ability to receive their calls. The sales reps who prospect take a plan from €75, with parallel dialling. Same tool, same directory, same invoice, and no server to administer.

It all comes down to the dialling mode

The difference is not about voice quality or how rich the software is: it is about the number of attempts possible in an hour of work. That is what the next table puts into figures.

A typical day, hour by hour

Same sales rep, same list, same working time. Only the dialling mode changes.

Assumptions on show: four working slots, an answer rate of 3% when numbers are dialled one by one and 8% with parallel dialling. These are the figures published by Skipcall, applied to dialling modes and not to brands. The detail is in the “Method and sources” section, further down.

The cost per conversation, and what it does not tell you

3CX does not bill per user: the comparison only makes sense once team size is fixed. Here is the assumption used, shown on screen so you can redo it with your own.

Let us say it plainly: on this calculation, the 3CX licence works out much cheaper per conversation, and that makes sense. A flat licence spread across a whole team does not compare with five named licences. What the amount does not tell you is the volume: for the same working time, the team obtains 600 conversations on one side and 5,600 on the other. The real trade-off is therefore not the price of the budget line, but the number of conversations your sales reps can hold in a month.

Two points that weigh on the amount on the left. The 3CX licence covers neither the server or cloud instance, nor the SIP trunks, nor the administration time, and support is sold per ticket, €100 each or €350 for five. And if you want call transcription and the call summary, included in every Skipcall plan, you have to move to the AI edition, at €715 per year at the same tier. The Skipcall plan used is the one whose quota actually covers the projected volume: at this pace, Intermediate and its 1,000 conversations would be used up before the end of the month.

Amounts excluding tax, in euros, excluding current promotions. The 3CX cost per conversation falls mechanically as the team grows at a constant tier, while the Skipcall figure stays stable because it is set per licence.

Our plans include a conversation quota. Here is the one that suits you

3CX does not limit the number of conversations, but it caps the number of extensions and the number of simultaneous calls according to the tier you buy. Skipcall works differently, with a conversation quota on three of its four plans. Better to explain it clearly: chosen badly, the plan becomes the real hidden cost.

Price per licence per month, excluding tax, with no minimum number of licences. Every conversation longer than ten seconds is counted. Calls shorter than ten seconds, answering machines and invalid numbers consume nothing. The list of countries you can call is on the pricing page.

Our artificial intelligence serves the sales rep, it does not replace them

That is the fundamental difference between Skipcall and part of the market, in both directions: we put more of it in than the tools that have none, and we refuse to put it where others place it.

The detail, criterion by criterion

3CX scope recorded on 3cx.com on 3 September 2026, from the public price list and the feature list. “Not advertised” means the feature does not appear in the vendor's public documentation, not that it would be impossible. Editions change: check the vendor's pricing page before you decide.

Method and sources

A comparison published by one of the two vendors is only worth something if its method can be checked. Here is where every figure on this page comes from, including what it does not prove.

• 3CX price list · annual prices in euros by tier and by edition, accessed on 3 September 2026
• 3CX feature list · how the features are split across the Basic, Pro and AI editions
• Skipcall pricing · public price list, conversation quotas and countries covered
• How parallel dialling works · where the answer rates used here come from

Frequently asked questions