Need an IP PBX? 101104 Alternatives to Cisco and Avaya.
A few months ago I began compiling a list of IP PBX products and other telephony platforms that are either directly Open Source, or are commercial products that have spawned from various open source projects. These include core open source platforms like Asterisk, Freeswitch and FreePBX, as well as commercial products developed and maintained by “for profit” companies.
I stopped counting at 101. It’s amazing to see the sheer range of choice out there for businesses and individuals seeking a VoIP communications solution. If you have developed or currently market a VoIP capable IP PBX product, and I neglected to mention you, please feel free to add your comments and I will put you on the list.
Asterisk Open Source PBX Straight out of Huntsville, AL….the original Asterisk, Open Source PBX project, created by Mark Spencer and maintained by Digium.
Asterisk Business Edition Huntsville, AL – Commercial PBX software derived from Asterisk Open Source.
AastraLink Pro160 PBX Hardware Appliance manufactured by Aastra Telecom of Canada, runs Asterisk, targeted toward 25 User and Under crowd.
AsteriskNow Huntsville, AL – Digium developed graphical UI for Asterisk Open Source PBX.
Integrics EnswitchCarrier class, muli-tenant hosted PBX. Based in UK.
FreePBX Kirkland, WA – Open Source, Full-Featured IP PBXweb application and system management utility.
FreeSwitch McAlester, OK – Open Source telephony platform created by Anthony Minnesale Minessale (Sorry Anthony!).
Jazinga Toronto, Ontario Canada – IP PBX Appliance targeting small business users, based in open source.
PhoneBochs Duluth, MN – Hardware appliance designed to host Trixbox CE.
Sark UCS PBX UK – Linux Mitel SME / Asterisk based IP PBX appliance.
PBXInAFlash North Carolina – Linux / Asterisk based IP PBX created by Ward Mundy.
Trixbox Community Edition Los Angeles, CA – Formerly Asterisk @ Home, Linux / Asterisk based IP PBX platform created by Andrew Gillis. Acquired by Fonality.
Trixbox Pro Los Angeles, CA – Commercial IP PBX appliance built off Trixbox / Asterisk / FreePBX.
Fonality PBXTra Los Angeles, CA – Commercial IP PBX derived from open source.
NorLeaf Hi-Brid IP PBX Quebec, Canada – Commercial IP PBX platform built off Asterisk Open Source PBX.
Evolution Callcenter Barcelona, Spain – Callcenter focused telephony platform based on open source.
Switchvox San Diego, CA – Commercial IP PBX platform based on Asterisk Open Source.
QueueMetrics San Pietro, Switzerland – Telephony and Call Monitoring solution built on Asterisk Open Source.
Intuitive Voice Evolution PBX Phoenix, AZ – Commercial IP PBX appliance based on Asterisk Open Source.
Abraxas Ljubljana, Slovenia – Asterisk based telephony platform.
Askozia PBX Platte, South Dakota – Asterisk based IP PBX platform.
EasyPBX Italy – IP PBX software developed from Asterisk Open Source.
Vox Office Dublin, Ireland – SoftPBX derived from Asterisk Open Source.
Bicom System PBXWare San Ysidro, CA – Offering a range of telephony solutions derived from Open Source.
YATE (Yet Another Telephony Engine) Bucharest, Romanio – Open Source telephony platform.
2CanCall PBX UK – IP PBX built off Open Source dna.
Resonance Networks Australia – offering a range of telephony solutions built from Open Source.
EasySpeak PBX Middleton, WI – SMB IP PBX built from Open Source Asterisk.
SpiderStar Stuttgart, Germany – Commercial IP PBX platform derived from Open Source.
Xoasis Prodigy PBX Seattle, WA – IP PBX appliance products developed from Open Source roots.
CallWeaver Open Source IP PBX derived from Asterisk Open Source.
VoIP Connection VS1 Indian Harbour Beach, FL – Commercial IP PBX Appliance built off Asterisk Open Source.
Schmooze Appliance Neenah, WI – Commercial IP PBX appliance built off Open Source.
PBXpress BC, Canada – Unix Based IP PBX derived from Open Source.
ThirdLane IP PBX and Multi-Tenant User Interface software for Asterisk Open Source PBX, designed by Alex Epshteyn.
GPBX Neuwied, Germany – Asterisk Based IP PBX Appliance.
SerComm Taipei, Taiwan – Offering a range of telephony solutions based on Open Source.
Astimax Germany based firm offering commercial IP PBX based on Open Source.
Vercom IPLex Asterisk based IP PBX products.
iAreaPhone Staten Island, NY – Offering a range of telephony products with roots in Open Source.
Contaque India – IP PBX and Predictive Dialer solutions based on Asterisk Open Source PBX.
StarFace PBX Germany – Asterisk based commercial IP PBX products.
Aretta NetPBX Roswell, GA – Commercial telephony solutions derived from Open Source.
SugarPound Asterisk based IP PBX with integrated SugarCRM features.
Kamailio (Formerly OpenSER) – Open source telephony platform.
PBX4Linux Germany – Open Source IP PBX developed from Asterisk.
Hanashi Buenos Aires, Argentina – Commercial IP PBX platform derived from Open Source.
LuxSys Korea – Offering a range of telephony products based on Open Source.
VoISpeed UK – Business IP telephony solutions built from Open Source.
Advantage PBX Asterisk based commercial IP PBX products.
Rhino Ceros Tempe, AZ – IP PBX hardware appliance designed to host Trixbox CE and other Open Source IP PBX software.
Rhinosterisk Tempe, AZ – Open source IP PBX software built from Asterisk.
Druid Open source IP PBX software derived from Asterisk.
MySIPSwitch Ireland – Open Source IP PBX software.
ConduIT New Zealand – Asterisk based IP PBX platform.
IPCortex UK – Commercial IP PBX appliance derived from Open Source.
Astium Germany – Open Source IP PBX
VoIPEntity Switzerland – Commercial IP PBX derived from Asterisk Open Source.
MagicLink China – Commercial PBX products built from Open Source.
OpenPBX Australia – Commercial telephony products built off Open Source.
Elastix – Ecuador – Open source IP PBX platform forked from Asterisk.
VMI Spydur Hialeah, FL – Commercial IP PBX products derived from Open Source.
Digantel Indianapolis, IN – Telephony products built from Asterisk and FreePBX.
TAA VDex40 San Diego, CA – Asterisk based IP PBX Appliance.
NetStar PBX Czech Republic – Offering a range of telephony products with roots in Open Source.
2N Omega PBX Czech Republic – Asterisk based IP PBX appliance.
4PSA VoIPNow Free IP PBX software
Bayonne GNU Open Source telephony platform.
Belco PBX Korea – Commercial IP PBX products derived from Open Source.
CenIP Buenos Aires, Argentina – Commercial IP PBX derived from Open Source.
Daktela PBX Czech Republic – Commercial IP PBX derived from Open Source.
Datera Callex Commercial IP PBX derived from Open Source.
Dialexia Quebec, Canada – Commercial IP PBX derived from Open Source.
EasyVoxBox Asterisk based IP PBX platform.
Critical Links EdgeBox Fairfield, NJ – Commercial IP PBX appliance derived from Asterisk Open Source.
Xorcom Phoenix, AZ – Asterisk based IP PBX hardware appliances.
Pika Warp Appliance Embedded hardware Asterisk appliance.
Aztech Embedded hardware Asterisk appliance.
AYC Telecom IPCTS Open Source based converged telephony system.
YeaStar BizSky China – Asterisk based IP PBX appliance.
Xeepe Open source based IP PBX product.
TigerPBX China – Embedded hardware Asterisk appliance.
3Com Asterisk Appliance Asterisk Open Source IP PBX embedded on 3Com hardware.
VoiceRD Open source based IP PBX appliance.
Micro Server Embedded hardware Asterisk appliance.
PartySIP Open Source SIP server.
PBXes Asterisk based open source IP PBX.
Sutus Commercial IP PBX converged hardware appliance with roots in Open Source.
Aheeva Asterisk based call center solutions.
Telesis PX24U Commercial IP PBX converged hardware appliance with roots in Open Source.
EntVoice – Reader Mitul Limbani’s company EntVoice markets a commercial IP PBX solution based upon Asterisk and several other open source components.
Nortel / Pingtel Another reader pointed out that Nortel belongs on my list, and I agree they do with their recent acquisition of Pingtel, and the incorporation of Pingtel / SIPExecs open source technology into their UC strategy.
ZED3 Integrated PABX appliance running software based in Open Source.
43 Comments
Just wonderful resource list….As U said.. let me add the most famous windows based http://www.3cx.com IPPBX system provider.
Ali – 3CX is a great product, but I did not put it on my list because to my knowledge, it does not contain any “Open Source” as part if its code base. I believe everything on my list has at least part of its genetic makeup in open source, such as Asterisk. 3CX, as well as Response Point and OCS would have been on my list had it been a more general roster. Thanks!
actually 3CX uses apache and php so I would think it would qualify
Well, Cory!…Now we hope you will also come-up with a new list of all those non-open source base programs. And of course you will add more flowers in this already existing IP-PBX basket. 😉
Thank You Very much for sharing. It’s really useful to us.
Hey Cory,
You may want to add our entVoice IP PBX appliance based on the combination of asterisk and several open source PBX interfaces.
Let me know what more info you require?
Regards,
Mitul Limbani,
Enterux Solutions
Apache and php are open source, but do not qualify as “open source telephony or IP PBX”. Cory’s list is specifically focused on open source telephony. Actually something like 90+% of all proprietary software now contains some element(s) of open source, that’s why this list is so impressive. Of course, Windows, OCS, nor Response Point are not open source even though Microsoft talks about being open source friendly and there is some amount of standards based technology being used.
Very impressive list!
But shouldn’t Nortel be there too?
Martin
It’s nice to see so many alternatives cropping up. Especially all the open source alternatives listed here. All the unique qualities and niches filled by these various systems can be combined by the end user or product developer to make some truly powerful systems.
On a side note, my name appears to be misspelled (it’s one n and 2 s)
I’m used to it =D
FreeSWITCH should be #1, it’s the best.
Diego, I agree FreeSwitch is compelling and is picking up a lot of fans in the OSS community. It will be interesting to see if FreeSwitch proliferates in a similar manner to Asterisk….most of the implementation of FreeSwitch I have come across seem to be enterprise/carrier grade stuff….which is awesome….I have not come across a lot of folks who are applying FreeSwitch to SMB type deployments and using it as an IP PBX. I have seen Freeswitch competing against Asterisk/OpenSER tandem as a viable solution for large scale stuff.
Cory,
Great work putting this list together. It really fascinates me to see all the great stuff that comes out of the open source community.
My company, Thinking Phone Networks, is a hosted voip provider utilizing 100% open source software. We found a way to make Asterisk, SugarCRM, and an XMPP server to all play nice together.
Take a look, it may be worth adding to your list!
– Dan
Thinking Phone Networks
Hi,,
This list is far from complete.. I purchased a Grandstream IP IPBX YOU http://www.grandstream.com.. That blows all these away pricewise and features.. Payola?
Let me add one more as well. Zultys, a Silicon Valley company founded in 2001, is showing what’s possible for Open Standards IP communications and telephony. The company’s Open Standards IP technology is the building block for our award-winning IP PBX systems. Zultys develops products that enable companies and organizations to deploy integrated communications systems. Our products are designed to maximize investment, interoperability and usability. Companies and organizations around the world are experiencing the benefits of an Open Standards IP platform for their communications needs.
You should add PBXnSIP to your list. Their name says it all.
Comverse Netcentrex platform already deals with incumbents and greenfield operators and provides proprietary developments/appliances to deploy the class5 services in an IPCentrex way.
@PBX Toad
Uh Oh! How’d you figure that out?
Actually…the list is comprised of commonly known open source solutions, which Grandstream is not. Although it is “speculated” that Grandstream unit is built atop of Asterisk, Grandstream does not mention that in their marketing.
Don’t forget about vtalk 🙂
http://vtalk.net/
I think 101’ish alternatives is easily an understatement… SpydurPBX @ http://www.spydurpbx.com.
First, thank you for listing our products in your list, wanted to drop a note here to day that our products are not build from Open Source!!
We are proud to say that All of our products are developed by in-house developers!!
http://www.brekeke.com/pbx/
What would be very interesting would be a graph showing how these are related to each other and the relationships between the open source projects and commercial products.
For example, the sipXecs open source project came from a commercial Pingtel product, then co-evolved with that commercial offering, which has now become the Nortel SCS 500 product.
In addition to using its own stack, sipXecs incorporates elements using the NIST JAIN-SIP stack and Freeswitch media applications.
Cory,
Thank you very much for putting together this very extensive list. However, Epygi products are not based on open source, but based on all of our own programming done by our engineering team.
About Epygi Technologies
Reliable, secure, and easy to install and use, the Quadro range of IP PBXs, VoIP gateways and cost-saving conference servers offer users outstanding benefits and an unparalleled range of features at very economic prices. The state-of-the-art equipment gives superior sound quality and a quick return on investment because of its low maintenance cost.
Epygi Technologies Ltd, a private US company, was founded in 2000 and headquarters in Texas. It designs and manufactures its market-leading products using its own IP PBX call manager software based on standard SIP technology. Through its network of respected dealers, Epygi provides converged telecom solutions to organizations wherever they are.
Please contact Warren Sonnen, director of marketing, at 972.692.1166 or http://www.epygi.com for more information.
Yate it’s an Open Source project and is located in Bucharest, Romania.
However it has a large international community and probably is the biggest telephony open source software.
You have certainly missed Siemens Enterprise Communications. The HiPath 8000 is a pioneer in IP PBX
Winet is the developer of voxGate. It uses a Callweaver kernel and a extreme easy to configure Interface with everything you need in a modern Phone System. Over 100 System sold in Switzerland and USA
Add iCore Networks to the list
Hi,
On your list is ‘NeoNova’.
Actually Neonova is the company who produces the ‘Astium PBX’ (www.astium.nl).
It is a commercial solution based on asterisk.
Also we’re not in Germany but in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
thanks!
Ivar
OpenSBC belongs on your list. While not strictly a PBX, it enhances almost all the PBXs listed by enabling services that many open source PBXs do not, such as: multi-tenanting, upper-registration, shared line appearance, and far end NAT traversal.
Objectworld UC Server also belongs on your list. Although it provides a full set of UC capabilities and is much more than simply a PBX, the SIP Edition provides a soft PBX among many other capabilities. It integrates seamlessly into Microsoft environments like Windows SBS and EBS making it an ideal solution for SMB/SME companies with Microsoft IT infrastructures, but also works completely standalone. It also provides a terrific migration strategy from and existing PBX, though to VoIP and then on to UC.
Thanks Dave…
3Com has been selling the NBX IP Telephony platform for 10 years. Its easy to manage and extremely cost effective for small and medium business. They also offer the VCX Platform which is SIP based. 3Com products cost less and perform as good if not better than Cisco/Avaya , best in class ROI.
3Com VCX 100 and 200
Miercom Rated Best Distributed Survivability High-end IP PBX
I´am surprised, that Freepbx is listed as a pbx solution.
Free PBX is only a web based framework for administration. You cannot use Free PBX as standalone, only on top a asterisk installation.
For instance, trixbox is complete solution, which is based on asterisk + a freepbx fork and is listed correctly.
But nice informational list….
It has been a revelation to see C-Zentrix from Delhi make this cut. I have known some KPOs working for us use this solution, which initially I was very circumspect about. After using this solution for now more than a year I can claim with authenticity this is the the best contact center solution to come out of the open source community. I rate it as high as Avaya or Aspect. Specially their single box solution makes it unique in these tough times for market where cost cutting has become a way of life. I see this product really going places in coming next one year.
Hey – just a small update/query – you have listed TigerCube as a product from China but we are only based in the UK and US.
Check us out – with 10 free users, more features than any other ‘PBX’ system on the market and extra users starting from $3 we think that 2009 will see TigerCube shine.
TVT is in your list ,they provide the call center solution called–C-Zentrix,this is the most flexible and cost effective solution for call center.They don’t only provide the solution but 24/7 support also ,I think they are doing really good in global market
Contact:[email protected]
Great article, Cory!
You could also add Topex VoisTel as a IP-PBX.
It’s a fully featured IP-PBX built on top of the Linux OS. It can be used as a PBX for up to 120 SIP users, offering 2E1 ports and 4 GSM/UMTS channels for interconnection with the PSTN and mobile network.
Regards,
Adrian Mihailov
Topex SA
http://www.topex.ro/
AstLinux was the first Asterisk oriented Linux distribution.
Star2Star Communications is a commercial solution build on top of Asterisk, AstLinux, OpenSER/OpenSIPS, and a variety of other equipment.
Kudos to you. Great info. It’s definitely a world full of choices now. All the more reason to get the right information too! IP PBXs have a lot to offer in terms of feature set, unlimited expandibility, administration. But there are key differences between IP PBX and the traditional key telephone systems that should be understood to make a smart choice.
Great list Cory. This is a count of official product releases; imagine the number if you had done a head count of independent consultants rolling there own Asterisk/Open Source systems as well.
One of the newest entrants to the Open Source PBX market is FonicaPABX, a freely downloadable CentOS / Asterisk / FreePBX combination, and it’s commercial cousin Foncordiax which is made from the same stuff, but branded to make the sales process easier, and only sold on hardware, only via an experienced dealership network.
http://www.fonicaprojects.com – the open source and freely downloadable version.
http://www.foncordiax.com – The commercial branded version.
Both systems were authored by me, and I also authored the first couple of versions of PBX in a Flash.
Joe Roper
There’s an important product missing in this list.
It’s called IPBrick!
Apart from being a complete enterprise VoIP solution based on Asterisk, it also handles all the Intranet and Communications services for enterprises.
From VoIP to Fax, from File Server to User Authentication, including also Firewall, IDS, pre-installed Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam, Proxy server, etc.
All this, and more, in a Linux-based single product that:
-Installs automatically in 5 minutes
-Provides a functional management interface, web-based for remote management
-Can recover from hardware failure in just 15 minutes
More in http://www.ipbrick.com.
Cheers,
Ricardo Teixeira.
RingCentral is also a good provider of PBX solution. They have the capacity in providing all the communication needs of those people running a business.
Thanks for the list, Cory
But there is a big hole in the list containing some of the least expensive embedded PBX’s in the world. Atcom Technology Co. Inc. is manufacturing an entire line of PBX’s based on the Blackfin DSP and powered by VoIPtel CE firmware. This firmware is based on uClinux and Astfin2, is actively maintained and has been chosen as the default firmware by Atcom.
Designed for the corporate user there is VoIPtel SE which comes complete with an inexpensive Service Contract.
Regards
Jan
Hi Jan
Astfin, is no longer maintained however there is a fork called SwitchFin (http://switchfin.org), which has some interesting features (call recording, T38 fax and a new GUI) for Atcom PBX devices, and is actively maintained.
Thanks
Jason
As a small business owner, I would recommend using a most cost-effective hosted PBX provider like FonAngle.