3CX Live Chat vs Skype for Business comparison

3CX and Microsoft are both solutions in the Virtual Meetings category. 3CX is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.0, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.8. 3CX holds a 2.5% mindshare in VM, compared to Microsoft’s 8.4% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of 3CX users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 79% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

3CX Live Chat

Read 55 3CX Live Chat reviews

332 Views
223 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Skype for Business

Read 61 Skype for Business reviews

2,427 Views
859 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

3CX Live Chat

Skype for Business

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between 3CX Live Chat and Skype for Business based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Virtual Meetings solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed 3CX Live Chat vs. Skype for Business Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

3CX Live Chat vs. Skype for Business

October 2024

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Helped 816,406 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

3CX Live Chat

Ranking in Virtual Meetings

15th

Average Rating

8.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IP PBX (1st), Unified Communications (2nd), Live Chat (3rd), Hosted and Cloud Based VoIP (5th)

Skype for Business

Ranking in Virtual Meetings

3rd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of 3CX Live Chat is 2.5%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Skype for Business is 8.4%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtual Meetings

Featured Reviews

Ahmed ACHOUR

General Manager at Beyond IT Services

Enhanced service desk workflow which streamlines operations and offers strong integration capabilities

The customers use 3CX for IP telephony and call center activities. Additionally, they use 3CX for service desk activities, including integration with other ITSM products to collect data from customers who need technical support on their platforms 3CX has proven to be a good solution, particularly…

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Magdalena Teodorczuk

Senior at Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Wartosciowych S.A.

Offers great audio and video quality for virtual meetings

I like the instant messaging feature in the product since I prefer to use the chat functionalities provided by the solution. It is easy to integrate the product with some of the other solutions in the market. I rate the integration capabilities of the product a ten out of ten. The product's user interface is user-friendly. I use the product at a personal level, so I can't speak about the support it provides for the maintenance part. I rate the overall tool a ten out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The call queue and reporting systems are robust compared to what you have to pay to get the same level of functionality with a competing system."

"The integration between the video and voice is the most valuable solution."

"The most valuable features of 3CX include meetings, IVR, and the workflow personalization of the service desk activity."

"The most valuable features of 3CX Live Chat are the ability to go straight to a call or screen-sharing and creating multiple channels from the same chat widget effectively. The ability to raise a call straight out to the cloud is fantastic, it is really useful. Additionally, it integrates very well with WordPress."

"The most valuable features of 3CX Live Chat are the integration with our existing CRM allowing us to get all of the numbers synced together. The communication aspect of the solution was always working very well, the sound quality was perfect. We were able to log into the application to check which users were using the solution and if they were in a call or not. Additionally, the solution integrates well with other CRMs."

"The solution is stable."

"Easy management console access through web browsers with a good interface to Outlook and multiple CRM systems."

"We have not had any bugs or glitches, the solution is stable."

More 3CX Live Chat pros

"The most valuable feature of Skype for Business is overall it is an okay solution."

"The quality of the meetings is very good."

"I think Skype for Business is scalable. However, I believe Microsoft is discontinuing the Skype platform altogether, so I don't think it's super-relevant."

"The GUI is very user-friendly."

"It has benefited my organization because I can use it on the phone, I can use it on a laptop, wherever I want. The communication channel is very easy now and I can call and chat. It's experienced. Together, my team manages everything. It's very easy."

"The ability to mute everyone else is pretty useful when there is a large audience."

"It's a good product, we like using it."

"We chose Skype for Business after other colleagues suggested that we give it a try. It has served us well."

More Skype for Business pros

Cons

"It needs the option for the CS rep to stop recording when a credit card number is recited by the customer."

"Reporting and integration are the main challenges, which are at the mid-level or in the enterprise depending on the system that we choose."

"The reporting and dashboards of 3CX could be improved."

"The support team can appear to be condescending."

"The solution could improve the web meeting feature. There is a lot of competition from all the other applications that are out there, such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. I find I do not use it that much. I do not know how much effort they are putting into the web meeting part of the program but it could improve."

"It could be better in terms of providing more options for call recording."

"There are a lot of quality of life things that could be improved. When adding extensions, you need to use the extension import setting, you can't just use an import function to update extensions. You have to delete and recreate the extension, which can have all kinds of unintended consequences."

"Once we establish the system and do the initial configuration, some configurations will be fixed. However, if we need to change those configurations, the option is to do a reinstallation. Otherwise, we cannot do anything."

More 3CX Live Chat cons

"Skype for Business is not stable."

"I venture to say that 30% of the people using this solution at our company have had issues with stability, due to the volatility and crashes."

"Sometimes the connection crashes, which is understandable if you are traveling. But, it would be nice if this could be stabilized somehow."

"The solution has been discontinued by Microsoft."

"Going forward, I would like to see better call quality and reliability."

"We overcame the audio quality issues by asking users to use the 'Call Me' feature with their desk phone."

"The challenge we had with Skype for Business was with the signing in when a user signed out and when signing in back in again, there was a bit of a problem. We switched from Skype for Business to Teams, and Teams never had that sign-in problem once we did the switch."

"I believe optimizing the solution for lighter endpoints, particularly for embedded endpoints on mobile devices, would be valuable."

More Skype for Business cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no add-on costing on the standard fees."

"The price of the solution is in the middle range compared to other solutions. There are different license options available. For example, there is a professional version and an enterprise version, and with the enterprise version, you have the ability to modify the dashboards. You can purchase a license at many different time frame increments, such as monthly, yearly, or two years."

"The price of the solution is reasonable. There are a few license options and we are using an enterprise license."

"Switching from POTS or PRI to SIP Trunk save the customer real costs. ROI is seen in less than a year."

"There aren't any additional costs. With the license I purchased, I have all features that I need. I don't have to buy an add-on or another license."

"We used a yearly license depending on the customer's requirements, and the customers did not complain about the pricing."

"The price of the solution has been reasonable. We have not had any problems or complaints with the licensing model. We have not reached a point where we need to upgrade. We have all the correct channels."

"3CX sells an annual subscription, but we usually split it out monthly for clients, so they don't see an annual bill for the 3CX licensing, it's just part of their monthly phone bill. As they're paying us for carrier service anyway, we just roll it all together. Your standard phone service would be an additional cost, you either need to maintain a local carrier with POTS lines or PRI or a SIP, or you have to go with a cloud-based SIP."

More 3CX Live Chat pricing and cost advice

"It may be considered costly for certain markets, such as in India."

"Our company pays for a license for us to use the solution."

"Previously, I did not use another solution."

"The pricing is really good. It is quite affordable because it came with our Office 365. It is on a per-user license, which is nice. I quite like that they have made it very granular with all of their licensing."

"We purchased an open license."

"The solution is priced fairly."

"I use the product's open-source version."

"A license is required to use the solution."

More Skype for Business pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

10%

Educational Organization

92%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about 3CX Live Chat?

The solution is stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for 3CX Live Chat?

The pricing of 3CX is around six out of ten. For some customers, the first year may be free of charge, allowing them to try the solution before deciding to implement it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with 3CX Live Chat?

The reporting and dashboards of 3CX could be improved.

See all answers

What do you like most about Skype for Business?

The solution’s video quality is fine.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Skype for Business?

Skype for Business' pricing is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Skype for Business?

The solution's functionality needs to be moved to Microsoft Teams. Its technology is outdated.

See all answers

Comparisons

Yeastar S-Series VoIP PBX vs 3CX Live Chat

Compared 33% of the time

Kamailio SIP Server vs 3CX Live Chat

Compared 25% of the time

Webex vs 3CX Live Chat

Compared 21% of the time

Fortinet FortiVoice vs 3CX Live Chat

Compared 21% of the time

More 3CX Live Chat Competitors

Webex vs Skype for Business

Compared 29% of the time

Cisco Unified Communications vs Skype for Business

Compared 16% of the time

TeamViewer vs Skype for Business

Compared 16% of the time

Zoom vs Skype for Business

Compared 16% of the time

GoToMeeting vs Skype for Business

Compared 11% of the time

More Skype for Business Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Live Chat

October 2024

Download 3CX Live Chat product report

Buyer's Guide

Skype for Business

October 2024

Download Skype for Business product report

Also Known As

3CX PBX

Skype for Business Plan 1, Skype for Business Plan 2, Lync Server

Learn More

3CX

Microsoft

Overview

Connect with your website visitors for free with the 3CX Live Chat plugin. With more than 1,900,000 downloads, 3CX Live Chat is the most popular, effective and reliable live chat plugin for WordPress. Increase conversions and boost customer satisfaction by communicating directly with your website visitors in real-time.

Integrate with 3CX for a multichannel communications suite including voice and video (requires 3CX V16). Get 3CX for free for one year for unlimited users hosted by 3CX, in your own cloud account or on-premise on Windows or Linux.

Easy and convenient for visitors
Build rapport with potential customers via live chat
Increase sales
Reduce customer support line costs by using live chat
Learn to understand the pain points of your customers

FEATURES

Simple and clean UI for all users
Option to elevate a live chat to a call or video call
Free iOS or Android apps to respond to messages through a smartphone
Ability to transfer chats to other agents
Agent’s picture is shown in the live chatbox
Customizable chatbox. Add a company logo, change the colors of the chatbox
All chats are saved in chat history
Dedicated storage system for all offline messages
Create unlimited agents to handle live chats and calls
Customizable offline message form
Supports animations in the chatbox
Ability to choose whether you want to accept or decline a chat

Skype for Business offers features including presence, IM, voice and video calls, online meetings, conferencing, and telephony solutions that support enterprise-level collaboration requirements. Skype for Business Record meetings, share your screen, and annotate PowerPoint for real-time collaboration with up to 250 people and use whiteboard, polls, Q&A, and built-in IM during your business meetings to make them more productive. Skype for Business provides new client experience, Skype for Business Server provides several new features to improve manageability of on-premises servers and hybrid solutions. Skype for Business also supports the Lync client experience so that you can choose a phased upgrade approach to the new client experience for users. Skype for Business is also an integral part of Microsoft Office 365, providing PSTN Conferencing, Cloud PBX, PSTN Calling, and Skype Meeting Broadcast capabilities to Office 365 users.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services,LA Fitness, MedcoEnergi International, Tampa General Hospital, and HopewellHoldings Limited.

Buyer's Guide

3CX Live Chat vs. Skype for Business

October 2024

Free Report: 3CX Live Chat vs. Skype for Business

Find out what your peers are saying about 3CX Live Chat vs. Skype for Business and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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