Many UAE companies that contact us have already settled on 3CX. The harder question comes next: whose server will it run on, and who picks up the problem when the phones stop? The licence is the same in all three setups, but the work, the risk and the person you call are not. We sell one of these options ourselves, so we set out the limits of all three, including ours.
Quick Answer
3CX sells the same Basic, PRO and AI editions for 3CX hosting, self-hosting or on-premise. Hosted by 3CX suits a company with an IT admin, because 3CX runs the server and operating system but does not support extensions, trunks or phones. Self-hosting suits a company with real server skills. Hosted by us suits a company that wants one team for server, trunk and configuration: see our 3CX service. In all three, we read TDRA’s FAQ as putting UAE calls on a licensed operator’s trunk. Current costs are in our 3CX pricing guide.
What Changes and What Does Not
What does not change. 3CX sells one annual licence per system, sized mainly by simultaneous calls, and both internal and external calls count. Each size still has a maximum number of users or extensions. The same page says commercial hosting is a separate annual charge and that SIP trunks and numbers are chosen separately. So a partner-hosted system is not a fourth type of licence.
What changes. This is how the three compare on what you will actually deal with.
The UAE Rule That Applies to All Three
Where the PBX runs does not change the telecoms rule. TDRA’s FAQ treats VoIP as a telecommunications service and, where it is offered to subscribers, as a regulated activity under Federal Law by Decree (3) of 2003, requiring a licence or an exemption. Licensees may provide it. Third parties may do so in collaboration with a licensee or with TDRA approval. The FAQ also warns that, unless exempted or approved by TDRA, using VoIP not provided by or with a licensee to carry international calls over a flat-rate line not priced for it may be a criminal offence.
What that means in practice. The same FAQ lists the UAE’s telecommunications licensees as Etisalat, now e&, and du. As our SIP trunk guide explains, the trunk carrying your UAE numbers comes from a licensed operator, while the PBX can run wherever you decide. Local and 800 numbers follow the same route, as our UAE numbers guide sets out. We are an IT company, not your legal adviser, but we do not set up an overseas trunk to carry a UAE office’s everyday calls.
One detail people miss. When we read 3CX’s supported trunk list on 5 November 2026, its Middle East and Africa section showed Israel, South Africa and Turkey, with no UAE operator, and its Worldwide section has none either. 3CX recommends a supported provider, and its trunk manual says it will not assist in configuring an unsupported one. So check with the operator how its trunk connects, and decide who will configure it before you commit. For hosted systems, 3CX prefers registration-based trunks, because a Hosted by 3CX system’s public IP may, uncommonly, change and briefly affect calls on an IP-based trunk.
Hosted by 3CX: Strong on the Server, Limited on the Rest
This is a good service for the right company. According to 3CX’s hosting terms, last updated 1 September 2026, it deploys the instance, sets firewall rules, manages 3CX and the operating system, and monitors the system 24/7. It reports an average SLA time of 99.99% and warns of limited downtime during upgrades.
- What support leaves out. General configuration such as extensions and CRM integration, provisioning and operating SIP trunks, and configuring IP phones. For those, 3CX points you to your partner or a support ticket.
- Backups. Its hosted product page mentions nightly backups, yet the terms say 3CX does not take backups of any part of your system, that any internal copies should not be relied on, and that you must set up your own. Plan on the stricter statement and send backups to remote storage.
- Desk phones. IP phones must sit behind a 3CX SBC or be router phones. If your staff use only the apps, this does not affect you. Our SBC guide explains when an office needs one.
- The free tier. SMB Free includes hosting for up to 10 users, but the terms exclude specific hosting support and follow-up alerts for 4SC hosting, which we understand covers SMB Free. Do not confuse it with 4SC Free Basic, which must be self-hosted.
Self-Hosted: Full Control and Every Job Is Yours
You can put 3CX in your own cloud account or on a machine in your office. The 3CX installation manual names Google, Amazon, Amazon Lightsail, Azure and DigitalOcean for private cloud, and warns that you need to be quite technical because you manage the instance. Running it in your office needs a manageable DNS server with split DNS, a static IP and a firewall you can configure for VoIP.
Sizing the server. 3CX’s hardware guidance suggests these baselines on Linux, with more vCPUs and memory on larger Windows builds. Its table prints memory as a plain number; we read it as GB, the unit on its hosting page:
- Up to 10 extensions: 2 vCPUs, 4 GB of memory, 80 GB SSD.
- Up to 50 extensions: 4 vCPUs, 4 GB of memory, 160 GB SSD.
- Up to 250 extensions: 6 vCPUs, 8 GB of memory, 320 GB SSD.
Storage grows. The same page puts recordings and voicemail at about 1 MB per minute, so 10,000 recorded minutes is roughly 10 GB by our arithmetic. Queues and group calls also load the CPU more than one-to-one calls.
The real cost is attention. Patches, firewall changes, backups and restore tests all sit with you. An on-site server also depends on your own power and internet line. If you want the control without the hardware, a VPS is a possible middle ground, and you still manage 3CX on it. A VPS outside the five providers the manual names, ours included, is not on 3CX’s private cloud route, so confirm the install method first.
Hosted by Us: What We Run for You
As an official 3CX partner, we host your system in our data centres in Europe (Falkenstein, Helsinki or Nuremberg), with Dubai on request. Distance from the operator’s network affects call quality, so raise the location with us early. Our service level agreement commits to 99.9% monthly availability for hosted 3CX and lists what it excludes, such as planned maintenance.
What our 3CX service covers:
- Licensing, full installation and configuration, then handover ready to use.
- Migration from your current PBX.
- Call tree design and recording in Arabic and English.
- SIP trunk and number setup within the same project. We do not sell UAE trunks ourselves; we arrange them through licensed operators.
- 24/7 support, plus an optional annual maintenance contract with scheduled checks, system updates and response times set in the agreement.
The honest trade-off. You add a partner’s services to the licence, and you rely on us rather than on your own staff. The server sits in Europe unless you ask for Dubai, and our published pages do not set a backup schedule, so agree one in writing. For a company with no PBX skills, relying on us is usually the point. For one with a strong IT team, Hosted by 3CX or self-hosting may be enough, and we will say so. Add up licence, hosting, trunk and setup with our pricing guide before you compare.
Three Decisions to Make
- Who owns the system day to day? Name the person who will add an extension, change the call tree and restore a backup. If nobody fits, hosted by us fits better, with extension and call tree changes written into the annual maintenance contract. If you have an admin, Hosted by 3CX is worth testing with its 1-month trial on PRO or AI.
- Where must your data sit? Recordings and call history can decide this. List any client contract or sector rule on location, then ask each host where the server and backups are, how often backups run and who tests a restore. Ask us the same questions.
- Which trunk, and in what order? Choose where 3CX runs first, because that fixes the public IP the operator sees. Then order the trunk and numbers from the licensed operator under your trade licence. Size the licence on your busiest period, including queues and conferences, and check the user limit for that size.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we move between the three options later?
Into 3CX hosting, yes. 3CX lets on-premise and private cloud systems switch to its hosting from the customer portal, and its product page describes moving from another host as taking a backup and redeploying. With IP-based trunks, tell the operator about any change of PBX host. For any other move, confirm the steps first.
Will an e& or du trunk work on a system hosted by 3CX?
3CX lets you bring your own trunk but recommends a supported provider, and we saw no UAE operator on its list. Its hosting support excludes trunks, so someone else must configure this one, and 3CX prefers registration-based trunks on hosted systems. Confirm the connection method with the operator first, or ask us to check it before you buy.
Is a free edition enough for a small UAE company?
It can be a sensible start for a very small team. SMB Free is hosted by 3CX for up to 10 users, and 4SC Free Basic must be self-hosted. Free Basic has no CRM integration or IP phones, and the terms give hosted 4SC instances no specific hosting support. Move to a paid edition when you outgrow those limits.
Sources
- TDRA: FAQs, VoIP section (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: Hosted with 3CX, Explained (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: Hosted PBX (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: Licensing (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: 4SC Free Basic Edition (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: Installation manual (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: Recommended Hardware Specifications (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: Supported SIP Trunks (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: SIP Trunk Providers, Worldwide (accessed 2026-11-05)
- 3CX: Configuring SIP Trunks (accessed 2026-11-05)
- BIGBANG ITS: 3CX PBX (accessed 2026-11-05)
- BIGBANG ITS: Service Level Agreement (accessed 2026-11-05)
Where We Are
BIGBANG ITS has planned and run technology for UAE businesses since 2003, headquartered at the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park with a branch in Business Bay, Dubai. Support runs 24/7 and the office is open Saturday to Thursday, 09:00–18:00 Gulf time. To compare the three options for your own call volume and team, contact us or message us on WhatsApp.
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