3CX is priced per system, not per user, so it gets cheaper per person as your team grows, while RingCentral, Zoom Phone, Microsoft Teams Phone, e& and du all charge per user every month. For a UAE business above roughly four users, a 3CX system is the lower monthly cost — provided you are willing to run a SIP trunk.
Last updated: 23 September 2026. Every competitor price below was read from that vendor’s own public pricing page on 23 September 2026 and is linked to its source. Disclosure: this page is published by BIGBANG ITS FZE, a certified 3CX partner in the UAE that sells the 3CX systems priced at the bottom of this page. We have described every alternative from its own published material and named what each one does better.
Is 3CX cheaper than a per-user cloud phone system?
Above about four users, yes — and the gap widens with every person you add. This is not a marketing claim, it is arithmetic about two different pricing models:
- 3CX charges per system. One annual fee covers a fixed number of simultaneous calls and a much larger number of extensions. An 8SC system supports up to 40 extensions. Adding your fortieth user costs nothing.
- Cloud UCaaS and UAE telco voice charge per user. Every extension is a recurring line item, every month, forever.
The catch, stated plainly: 3CX sizes on simultaneous calls, not users. An 8SC system lets 8 people talk at once. For most offices that comfortably covers 40 desks; for a contact centre where everyone is on a call at once, it does not. And a 3CX system needs a SIP trunk and numbers, which are billed separately, whereas telco packages bundle minutes in.
Phone systems available to UAE businesses, compared (prices as of 2026-09-23)
Per-system pricing (one fee, many users)
| System | Published entry price | Capacity at that price | Where it runs | Price public? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3CX Free Basic Edition | Free | 4 simultaneous calls, up to 10 users | Self-hosted only | Yes |
| Yeastar P-Series P520 (Standard) | USD 169/year (≈USD 14.08/month) | Per PBX, on Yeastar hardware | On-premise appliance | Software plan yes; hardware no |
| 3CX 8SC BASIC licence, direct from 3CX | EUR 285 / USD 300 per year, plus your own server and admin time | 8 simultaneous calls, up to 40 users | Self-hosted, or 3CX hosting from EUR 285 / USD 295 extra | Yes |
| 3CX 8SC BASIC, hosted and managed by BIGBANG ITS | USD 381.71/year (≈USD 31.81/month), VAT and setup included | 8 simultaneous calls, up to 40 users | Our cloud, managed by us | Yes |
| Grandstream UCM series | Not published — “Contact Sales” | Up to 3,000 users on UCM6300 | On-premise appliance | No |
| Avaya (IP Office, Infinity) | Not published — quote only | Not published | On-premise or Avaya cloud | No |
Per-user pricing (a fee for every extension, every month)
| Service | Published entry price per user/month | PSTN calling included? | Price public? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Teams Phone Standard | USD 10.00, billed yearly | No — a calling plan and a separate Teams licence are both extra | Yes |
| Cisco Webex Call | USD 15.30 (USD 183.60/year); USD 17 billed monthly | Unlimited domestic calling stated | Yes |
| Zoom Phone (US & Canada Unlimited) | USD 16.00, annual commitment | Unlimited US & Canada; metered tier is USD 10.50 | Annual yes; monthly rates not shown |
| RingCentral RingEX Core | USD 20.00 annual; USD 30.00 monthly | 100 toll-free minutes on Core | Yes |
| du Business Hosted Voice | AED 95 (≈USD 25.87) + AED 50 activation, 12-month contract | Free local and national calls; per-second billing | Yes |
| e& Office Presence Standard | AED 125 (≈USD 34.04) + 5% VAT; each extra user line AED 110 | 7,500 fixed-to-fixed minutes, then AED 0.15/min | Yes |
| 8×8 | Not published — “Request a Quote” | Not published | No |
| e& CloudTalk (enterprise) | Not published — “Submit your Interest” | Not published | No |
Prices as of 2026-09-23, read from each vendor’s own page, linked above. Dirham figures converted at the pegged rate of AED 3.6725 per US dollar for comparison only. Where a vendor publishes no price, the table says so rather than estimating.
3CX vs traditional PBX: what actually changes
A traditional PBX — an on-premise box from Avaya, Cisco, Panasonic, Grandstream or Yeastar — is a capital purchase. You buy hardware, you pay a partner to install it, you run it in your own rack, and you replace it in five to eight years. A 3CX system is software: it runs on a small cloud server, it upgrades in place, and its cost is an annual licence rather than a depreciating asset.
The practical differences that matter to a UAE business:
- Remote work. Extensions on a traditional PBX are tied to a desk and a cable run. 3CX extensions are apps, so a branch office or a home-working agent is a login rather than a site survey.
- Moving offices. Relocating a hardware PBX is a project. Relocating a hosted 3CX system is a DNS change and new cabling for the desk phones you choose to keep.
- Price visibility. 3CX and Yeastar publish their list prices. Avaya, Grandstream and 8×8 do not. You cannot budget against a price you have to ask for.
- Where traditional still wins. A hardware PBX keeps working when the internet does not, provided you still have analogue or ISDN lines. If your site genuinely cannot tolerate an internet outage and you have not yet solved that with a second link, that is a real argument and we will not talk you out of it.
3CX vs Avaya and Cisco
Avaya and Cisco are enterprise incumbents with deep integration stories, global support organisations and decades of installed base. That is real and we are not going to dismiss it.
What we can verify as of 23 September 2026: Avaya publishes no price at all. Its pricing page returns a 404, its product pages carry no figure, and every call to action is “Contact us” or “Request a demo”. Avaya Cloud Office no longer exists on avaya.com — that URL now redirects to RingCentral. Cisco is more transparent: Webex Call is published at USD 15.30 per user per month on an annual commitment, with Webex Suite at USD 22.50.
For a 25-person UAE company, Webex Call at list is USD 382.50 per month. A 3CX 8SC BASIC system through us is USD 31.81 per month for up to 40 extensions, plus a SIP trunk. The feature sets are not identical — Webex bundles meetings and unlimited domestic calling, 3CX does not bundle minutes — but the order-of-magnitude difference is not a rounding error, and it is the reason 3CX exists.
3CX vs RingCentral, Zoom Phone and Microsoft Teams Phone: where is the break-even?
This is the question worth doing arithmetic on. The table below compares a 3CX 8SC BASIC system bought through BIGBANG ITS at USD 381.71 per year against the published per-user rates above, at four team sizes.
| Users | 3CX 8SC BASIC (flat) | Teams Phone Standard | Webex Call | Zoom Phone Unlimited | RingCentral Core | du Hosted Voice | e& Office Presence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | USD 31.81 | USD 50.00 | USD 76.50 | USD 80.00 | USD 100.00 | USD 129.35 | USD 153.84 |
| 10 | USD 31.81 | USD 100.00 | USD 153.00 | USD 160.00 | USD 200.00 | USD 258.70 | USD 303.59 |
| 25 | USD 31.81 | USD 250.00 | USD 382.50 | USD 400.00 | USD 500.00 | USD 646.75 | USD 752.84 |
| 40 | USD 31.81 | USD 400.00 | USD 612.00 | USD 640.00 | USD 800.00 | USD 1,034.80 | USD 1,202.09 |
Monthly cost in US dollars, derived from the published rates in the tables above, as of 2026-09-23. Read the caveats before quoting these numbers: the 3CX column excludes a SIP trunk and numbers, which are billed separately. The Teams Phone column excludes both the separate Microsoft Teams licence and a PSTN calling plan, so real Teams cost is materially higher than shown. Webex, Zoom, du and e& include calling allowances that 3CX does not. The 3CX column assumes no more than 8 concurrent calls.
Break-even against a 3CX 8SC BASIC system lands at roughly four users for Microsoft Teams Phone, three for Webex Call, two for Zoom Phone and RingCentral, and two for du. With e& Office Presence, a single line at AED 125 plus VAT already costs more per month than the whole 3CX system.
If you are specifically weighing 3CX against Microsoft’s stack, we go into that in depth in 3CX vs Teams.
3CX vs e& and du hosted voice in the UAE
Both UAE operators publish real prices, which puts them ahead of Avaya and 8×8 on transparency, and both bundle calling minutes, which 3CX does not.
- du Business Hosted Voice: AED 95 per month per line plus AED 50 activation on a 12-month contract, with free local and national calls and per-second billing.
- e& Office Presence Standard: AED 125 per month plus 5% VAT with no activation fee, each additional user line at AED 110, including 7,500 fixed-to-fixed minutes and then AED 0.15 per minute.
Where the operators are genuinely stronger: the numbers are theirs, the minutes are bundled, the billing is one invoice from a regulated UAE carrier, and there is no SIP trunk to procure or configure. For a five-desk office that never wants to think about telephony again, that is a legitimate, defensible choice.
Where 3CX wins: cost at scale, and control. At 25 desks, du is roughly twenty times the monthly cost of a 3CX 8SC system, and you still cannot record calls to your own storage, script your own call flows or plug the system into your CRM without moving up their product ladder.
3CX vs Yeastar and Grandstream
Yeastar is the closest genuine comparison to 3CX, because it uses the same per-system model rather than per-user. Its P-Series appliance software plans are published: USD 169, 219 or 329 per year for a P520 depending on tier, rising to USD 749–1,649 for a P570. Those are per PBX, not per user — the same logic as 3CX. What is not published is the hardware price, which requires a distributor, and that is where the total cost becomes opaque.
Grandstream publishes no price at all; its UCM6300 page carries a single “Contact Sales” button. The hardware itself is capable — up to 3,000 users and 450 concurrent calls on the UCM6300 — and for a business that wants an on-premise box with no recurring licence, it is a serious option. You simply cannot compare it on price until you have a quote.
Is the 3CX free edition enough for a small business?
Sometimes. The Free Basic Edition is real, not a trial: it supports 4 simultaneous calls and up to 10 users. The published limits that usually end the conversation for a business are:
- Self-hosted only — 3CX will not host it for you, so you provide and secure the server.
- No IP desk phones — it is optimised for the web client and mobile apps.
- No CRM or API integrations.
If you are two or three people who live in a mobile app and have someone technical to run a server, the free edition is genuinely enough and we will tell you so. If you want desk phones, a CRM pop-up, or somebody other than you to be responsible at 2am, it is not.
What 3CX costs in the UAE through BIGBANG ITS
Our 3CX systems, cheapest first. Prices are annual, shown in US dollars and payable in any major currency, and include 5% UAE VAT and setup fees. Each system is hosted on our cloud and configured, migrated and supported by us.
| System | Per year | ≈ per month | Simultaneous calls | Recommended users | Key additions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8SC 3CX BASIC | USD 381.71 | USD 31.81 | 8 | 16–40 | Core PBX, apps, voicemail |
| 8SC 3CX PRO | USD 508.95 | USD 42.41 | 8 | 16–40 | Call centre features, custom FQDN, call scripting |
| 8SC 3CX ENT/AI | USD 736.63 | USD 61.39 | 8 | 16–40 | AI agents and call transcription |
| 16SC 3CX BASIC | USD 763.42 | USD 63.62 | 16 | 41–80 | Core PBX at double the call capacity |
| 16SC 3CX PRO | USD 1,017.89 | USD 84.82 | 16 | 41–80 | Call centre features at 16 calls |
| 24SC 3CX BASIC | USD 1,051.38 | USD 87.62 | 24 | 81–120 | Larger offices and light contact centres |
Prices as of 2026-09-23, read live from the BIGBANG ITS 3CX store. Larger 32SC and 48SC systems are listed there too. SIP trunks and DID numbers are priced separately. The full plan ladder and specifications are on our 3CX PBX page, and a fuller cost breakdown is in our 3CX phone system price guide.
Every system we sell includes full installation and configuration, migration of extensions, recordings and numbers from your current PBX, an Arabic and English IVR that we design and record, SIP trunks and DID numbers provisioned in the same project, and 24/7 support from a certified 3CX partner serving the UAE and GCC since 2003.
Buying direct from 3CX instead
You can. 3CX publishes an 8SC BASIC licence at EUR 285, shown as USD 300 to visitors browsing from the UAE, and will host it for a further EUR 285 / USD 295 per year. What that price does not include is installation, migration, IVR design, SIP trunk procurement, a UAE VAT invoice, or anyone to call. Our figure is the whole project rather than the licence line, and we would rather you compared it that way than be surprised later.
One thing worth knowing before you sign anything: 3CX’s own pricing page currently carries a “Summer Promotions” banner with a 30% discount on three-year terms, marked as ending 30 September 2026. If you are buying a multi-year term, the week you buy in matters.
When 3CX is the wrong choice
- Your call pattern is many concurrent calls with few staff. 3CX is sized on simultaneous calls. A ten-agent outbound team all dialling at once needs 16SC or more, and the per-user model may genuinely be simpler.
- You want minutes bundled and one telco invoice. du and e& bundle calling; 3CX does not. If you have no appetite for a SIP trunk, pay the operator.
- Your organisation already runs on Microsoft licensing and governance. Teams Phone may cost more per user but land inside compliance and identity you already operate.
- Your site cannot tolerate an internet outage and has no second link. Solve the connectivity first, then revisit.
We are the right choice when you have more than four or five people, want a flat and predictable annual cost, need Arabic and English call handling, and want one UAE supplier who can also run your WordPress hosting, domains and business email alongside the phone system.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does 3CX cost in the UAE?
Through BIGBANG ITS, an 8SC 3CX BASIC system is USD 381.71 per year, about USD 31.81 per month, covering 8 simultaneous calls and up to 40 extensions, with 5% UAE VAT and setup included. Buying the licence direct from 3CX lists at EUR 285 or USD 300 per year, plus hosting and your own installation. Prices verified 23 September 2026.
Is 3CX cheaper than Microsoft Teams Phone?
Above roughly four users, yes. Teams Phone Standard is published at USD 10 per user per month billed yearly, and Microsoft’s own page states that a separate Teams licence and a PSTN calling plan are both required on top. A flat 3CX 8SC system at about USD 31.81 per month covers up to 40 extensions, so the gap grows with headcount.
Does 3CX work with e& or du lines in the UAE?
Yes, through a SIP trunk. 3CX connects to any standards-compliant SIP provider, and existing numbers can usually be ported. We provision and configure the trunk as part of the deployment; our guide to the cheapest SIP trunk for 3CX in the UAE compares the options.
What is the difference between 3CX BASIC, PRO and AI?
BASIC is the core phone system. PRO adds call centre features, call queue reporting, a custom FQDN and call-flow scripting. AI adds AI agents and call transcription. The simultaneous-call count is chosen separately from the edition, so an 8SC PRO and an 8SC BASIC handle the same call volume with different feature sets.
Is the free version of 3CX good enough for a small company?
It can be, for up to 10 users and 4 simultaneous calls. The published limits are that it is self-hosted only, does not support IP desk phones, and has no CRM or API integrations. Companies that want desk phones, CRM integration or managed support move to a paid edition.
Which phone systems publish their prices in the UAE?
As of 23 September 2026, 3CX, Yeastar’s software plans, RingCentral, Zoom Phone, Microsoft Teams Phone, Cisco Webex, du and e& Office Presence all publish rates on their own sites. Avaya, 8×8, Grandstream hardware and e& CloudTalk do not — their pages carry only quote requests.
Do I need to buy desk phones with 3CX?
No. 3CX includes web, desktop and mobile apps, and many UAE deployments run entirely on apps and headsets. Supported IP desk phones are an option where a reception desk, meeting room or warehouse needs one, and existing SIP handsets can often be reused.
How often should this comparison be re-checked?
Quarterly at minimum, and before any multi-year commitment. 3CX has changed its list currency twice in recent years and runs seasonal discounts with hard end dates, while Avaya and 8×8 publish nothing at all, so the picture can move without any visible announcement. This page carries the date it was verified for that reason.
Talk to us directly — we usually reply within minutes during business hours.
