Comparison
3CX is the switch. We are the agent that answers it.
3CX is the phone system half the Romanian small-business market already runs: it installs on your own server, it has a free hosted tier with queues and a wallboard, and the commercial price starts at €380 a year for up to forty users. It is the hardest comparison on this site.
Choose 3CX if what you need first is a phone system — extensions, desk phones, queues — at the lowest possible price. Choose CallAgent if the voice agent is the reason you are looking, if you want the cost itemised on every call, and if you would rather not bring your own paid OpenAI account.
The rule this page is written under: every row has a sentence in both columns; everything we say about 3CX is read off 3cx.com — their price list, their feature matrix and their documentation; and the rows we lose stay in the table. There are six of twelve, the price among them.
A cheap switch, or a voice agent with a switch
CallAgent is for you if…
The reason you are looking is that nobody is free to answer the phone, not that you need extensions. Or you want to choose the transcriber, the model and the voice, and see what each stage of each call cost. Or you want the console and the guides in Romanian, not just the brochure page.
3CX is for you if…
You need a real phone system: extensions, desk phones, call parking, an IVR that actually runs, queues with a wallboard. At ten users their free hosted edition gives you all of that for nothing.
Twelve dimensions, six of them lost
We lose the price, the free tier, switch maturity, desk phones, real traffic and certifications. All six stay in the table, because anyone looking at 3CX will see them in the first five minutes anyway.
| Dimension | CallAgent | 3CX |
|---|---|---|
| what it actually is | A voice agent platform, with a SIP PBX and a contact centre in the same product. The agent is the product. | An IP phone system, with a web client, mobile apps, live chat and a contact centre module. The AI agent is a feature of their top edition. |
| price 3CX wins this row | €0.10 per minute of call, on the real billable seconds, plus provider costs at their price. | Per system per year, by number of simultaneous calls: their PRO edition starts at €380 a year for eight simultaneous calls, covering up to forty users. A flat price however many operators you have. |
| what you get for nothing 3CX wins this row | Nothing. There is no free plan and no trial. | Their free hosted edition runs to ten users and includes, by their own feature matrix, call queues, recording, listen, whisper and barge, a switchboard and a wallboard. Hosting is included. |
| how complete the switch is 3CX wins this row | Extensions and voicemail carry real calls on the Twilio path. An IVR can be built and published, but nothing executes it on a live call, and ring groups have complete screens and no caller. | A mature switch: multi-level IVR, call parking and pickup, ring groups, an auto attendant and eight queue distribution strategies. All of it has been running real calls for years. |
| desk phones 3CX wins this row | A browser softphone. We have no provisioning for physical handsets and no hot desking. | Provisioned IP phones, busy-lamp keys, hot desking and mobile apps, on the commercial editions. |
| the voice agent | It is the product: you choose the transcriber, the model and the voice per assistant and see the latency budget on every turn. | Three AI agents — a receptionist, a personal assistant and a customer service agent — available on their AI edition only. Their transcription is marked by them as beta. |
| who pays for the AI | Providers go in at their price on your invoice, or with your own keys straight onto your own account with them. Our margin is the €0.10 a minute and nothing else. | Their documentation requires a paid OpenAI account of your own and states that knowledge sources are billed under the key you configured. So on top of the AI edition comes your own separate OpenAI bill. |
| where it runs | Hosted, or installed on your own server: the whole stack runs in containers with a documented install, and recordings can go straight into your own bucket. | Hosted by them, in your own private cloud, or on-premise, on Windows or Linux. Their documentation says of the private-cloud route that you will have to be pretty technical. |
| Romanian | The console, the guides, the billing and the documentation are in Romanian, and the personal-data masking recognises the Romanian CNP. | They have a Romanian product page and a Romanian glossary. The prompt set shipped with the product does not include Romanian, though it does include Bulgarian, Czech and Polish, and the signup language selector does not offer Romanian either. |
| SIP trunks 3CX wins this row | Trunks are fully configurable and outbound over a trunk is real code, but an inbound call over a trunk does not reach an assistant yet. | Your own trunk is their model. They have a page dedicated to Romania with three certified providers — Twilio as preferred, plus Orange and Telxi — each with its own capability table. |
| certifications 3CX wins this row | None. There is no external audit and no third-party penetration test has been done. | They do not publish ISO 27001 or SOC 2 either. What they do have is a GDPR statement with a data processing agreement, a penetration testing report from an external firm, and a public bug bounty programme. |
| cost transparency | Every call has per-stage cost rows stored immutably: quantity, unit cost, where the quantity came from, and whether the price was verified against the vendor. | Their model has nothing to itemise per call: the licence is annual and flat, and the AI usage lands on your own OpenAI bill rather than in their console. |
The 3CX figures are read from 3cx.com in September 2026: their price list, their per-edition feature matrix and their documentation. Their prices are per year excluding VAT, and they are metered on simultaneous calls rather than per user — a model that does not compare directly with anybody's.[1]
When not to pick us
Five situations where the right answer is 3CX. It is the longest list on the site and that is not a coincidence.
What we do differently
Four things, each checkable in the product or in their own documentation.
The agent is the product
Not a feature of the top edition. The transcriber, the model and the voice are chosen per assistant.
One invoice
With them the AI agent requires a paid OpenAI account of your own, and knowledge sources are billed on your key.
Romanian in the product
Not just the brochure page: console, guides, billing and CNP masking. They do not even ship a Romanian prompt set.
Runs on your machine
A documented container install, with recordings written straight into your own bucket across eight destinations.
What people ask when comparing the two
Does CallAgent replace a 3CX switch?
No, and it should not try to today. Our switch exists — FreeSWITCH runs in the same stack and passes eleven of fourteen SIPp scenarios — but the IVR and the ring groups are not executed on a live call, and an inbound call over our own trunk does not reach an assistant. 3CX has been doing this for years. If you already run 3CX, the right question is what you put in front of it, not what you replace it with.
Does 3CX have an AI voice agent?
Yes, on their top edition: a receptionist, a personal assistant and a customer service agent. Their documentation, however, requires a paid OpenAI account of your own, states that knowledge sources are billed on the key you configured, and notes that only the PCMU codec is supported. So "AI included" means the AI edition plus your own separate OpenAI bill. With us the provider goes in at its price and the margin is the €0.10 a minute.
Which one works out cheaper?
They do, almost certainly, if what you need is a phone system. A flat annual price for a number of simultaneous calls, however many operators you have, beats any per-minute model at volume. We come out ahead only where the thing you are buying is the agent that answers rather than the switch — and then you are comparing €0.10 a minute against their AI edition plus your own OpenAI usage.
Does 3CX work in Romanian?
At the website layer, yes: they have a Romanian product page and a glossary. At the product layer, less than it looks. The prompt set shipped with the product does not include Romanian, although it includes Bulgarian, Czech and Polish, and the signup language selector does not offer it. They publish no language list for their AI agent, so about that we say nothing.
Why publish a page where you lose on price?
Because their price is public and anybody can see it in two minutes. A comparison that stepped around the fact that 3CX has a free tier with queues and a wallboard would break on the first check. Our argument is not that we are cheaper — it is that we are selling a different thing.
What to do next
If you need a phone system, get 3CX. If you need somebody to answer it, read the page that says what does not work here first.
What else people compare us with
If you got this far you probably have two other tabs open. They are written under the same rule: sentences in both columns, and the rows we lose left in the table.
- CallAgent vs Vapi For somebody who wants only the platform, as cheap per minute as possible, with nothing to administer.
- CallAgent vs Retell AI For somebody building the agent quickly and connecting it to the contact centre they already run.
- CallAgent vs Bland AI For somebody who wants one per-minute price with the model and the voice included, and channels beyond the telephone.
- Synthflow alternative For somebody with an enterprise budget, a security questionnaire to pass, and a preference for a European vendor.
- CallAgent vs ElevenLabs Agents For somebody buying the voice. They are the speech and transcription vendor we use ourselves.
You already have a switch and still nobody answers
If you run 3CX, the question is not what replaces it but what goes in front of it. Tell us what your installation looks like and we will say whether it is possible today — inbound over your own trunk does not reach an assistant yet.
Notes
- 1 The 3CX facts: their public pages on 3cx.com — the price list, the per-edition feature matrix dated by them 28 August 2026, the installation documentation, the AI agent configuration documentation, the Romanian SIP trunk page and their GDPR statement — read in September 2026.
- 2 Our own figures: the telephony page for the state of the switch and the eleven of fourteen SIPp scenarios, the status page for the real calls, the pricing page for the €0.10.