Looking for a Phone System

[mthomas08]

+1 for 3CX here with Yealink phones.

 

I can't say how much we pay because its all included in our broadband package and that comes to about £8K. Probably peanuts because they are such good value.

[mrbios]

Seen a LOT of negativity over 3CX on reddit in the past few weeks. 3CX have also changed their pricing structure: 3CX Pricelist for PRO and Enterprise Editions with new maximum extension limits. 

 

Been looking at getting EdTechPro as our staff had a look and really liked it, was leaning towards 3CX but now i'm looking much more deeply at Yeastar.

 

 

[chrisjako]

On 17/10/2025 at 17:07, mrbios said:

Seen a LOT of negativity over 3CX on reddit in the past few weeks. 3CX have also changed their pricing structure: 3CX Pricelist for PRO and Enterprise Editions with new maximum extension limits. 

 

Been looking at getting EdTechPro as our staff had a look and really liked it, was leaning towards 3CX but now i'm looking much more deeply at Yeastar.

 

 

Problem with yeastar is they are a Chinese company so you probably shouldn’t input contact details to them  which technically breaches GDPR

[Zammo]

8 hours ago, chrisjako said:

Problem with yeastar is they are a Chinese company so you probably shouldn’t input contact details to them  which technically breaches GDPR

inputting details into a system owned by a Chinese company is not in breach of GDPR

[chrisjako]

7 minutes ago, Zammo said:

inputting details into a system owned by a Chinese company is not in breach of GDPR

Where is the data being held?

[Zammo]

23 minutes ago, chrisjako said:

Where is the data being held?

I don’t know, where is it? 
 

You can store data in China under GDPR so long as you follow the right process and safeguards.  

[mrbios]

Yeastar may be owned by a Chinese company but so are Yealink and we're using their handsets everywhere (Many of us are) without concern. The PBX would be on prem or in a UK datacenter depending on which route you take, so it's not like I'm asking the Chinese government to host it in their datacenter  

[mthomas08]

Our 3CX is hosted in the UK.

 

 

[Wave9_Lee]

On 19/09/2025 at 11:16, bmy said:

Hi,

 

Was wondering if anyone has any reccomendations for a reliable phone system thats easy to manage and use?

 

We have been on a Gamma Horizon System for a long time, recently we have been having issues with call drops etc, our provider has just blamed it on our internet connection, its been a bitter back and forth and we are just tired of it.

 

So we are looking for a new system, open to suggestions, we are very interested in integrations so a phone system that has Arbor or SIMS integration would be incredibly cool, or if you know phone systems that have other features which you consider useful in a school setting, I would be really interested to hear them. Thanks in advance

 

 

No issues with Horizon for us for years - very solid.  Could be local network bottlenecks or as mentioned, your internet link - do you configure QOS anywhere?  It may not be worth moving before you elimanate any root cause, or you may end up in the same boat.  Do dropouts happen at particular times (local load/logon events/patching/updates) etc?  Can you get any stats of switches or routers?  You could (should) have a backup internet link and use that for your telephony for a period, or permanently.  You would then have failover for both your phones and internet requirements.  You can also migrate horizon between partners if you're not happy with your supplier.

 

ref 3cx - major hack a couple of years ago put a lot of people off - but my understanding that was windows app related?

[denzal2k4]

Just to say after seeing this thread, we had a demo with EdTechPro, the reception staff love it, easy to setup and great support, we have now signed up for it. They can see instantly who is calling and have all the pupil details pulled up in front of them, also the absence line AI feature is great, transcribes the messages with the option to click a button and add it as an absence. We use iSAMS

[Kitkatninja]

We use Xelion from Connaught for almost the whole Trust.  Teething issues in the first few weeks, but nothing that hasn't been sorted out quickly.

[Chockster]

Anyone got any suggestions for a SIP provider for 3CX? I'm fed up with our phone service provider (no audio on our phone calls today for instance) and would be much happier doing things myself.

[Wave9_Lee]

13 minutes ago, Chockster said:

Anyone got any suggestions for a SIP provider for 3CX? I'm fed up with our phone service provider (no audio on our phone calls today for instance) and would be much happier doing things myself.

 

Happy to provide a quote - drop me a pm if you like?  Are you hosting 3cx onsite?

 

cheers

[willtech]

@VeryPC use GAMMA for 3CX never had any issues with it. 

[mavhc]

Gamma provide 2 different products, Horizon, a hosted PBX system that's often resold by others, and standard SIP, sold as channels (number of simultaneous calls). They don't charge you to have phone numbers, unlike a lot of voip scams, as they themselves and not charged to have them pointing to their system.

 

I'm paying £8 a month per channel I think, with many included minutes shared between all the channels (although not all numbers are included, those starting 070 I think aren't)

[Chris_Cook]

We're with Spitfire https://www.spitfire.co.uk/ and have been since before covid. They are pretty good at getting things sorted when we have issues.

[denzal2k4]

Just for comparison purposes, we are with Orbtalk, 10 inbound channels, 19 Direct dial numbers, £120 pm, not had any issues in the past 3ish years. Web interface is easy to add more numbers or channels as and when needed.

[the-umpt]

On 17/10/2025 at 13:21, gszech said:

Let me explain my previous post a bit more as there is a bit of confusion about the DDIs.

 

UniFi Talk operates on a clear, per-number basis. The cost is £7.99 per month for each Talk number, and every number includes 3,000 pooled minutes. If you purchase multiple lines (e.g., two), your minute pool scales to 6,000 minutes.

There is no limit on the number of simultaneous calls - your only restriction is the total monthly minute usage, which can be increased or removed at any time.

Each Talk number can be assigned as a dedicated Direct Dial-In (DDI) to an individual user or routed to a specific group for both incoming or outgoing calls.

 

You need UniFi Dream Machine for the Talk to work. For secondary my recommendations go to Dream Machine Pro Max, for the primary schools Pro model is fine. 

You can also use Official UniFi Hosting which now supports Talk phones. The price is £29.00 per month to host up to 1000 devices (network or phones)

 

Our previous secondary school phone system (including SIP trunks, DDI rental, and maintenance) was over £2,291. We now pay £79.91 monthly (about £958.92 annually) for nine dedicated lines, which was necessary to provide unique numbers for key departments like Cover, Attendance, and HR, IT. 

 

The largest savings are for primary schools where they just pay £7.99 per month.

Hey

 

About to ditch our old Mitel...

 

New to unifi, but looking at possible switching and wifi too as well unifi talk.  

 

Does unifi hosting allow call recording or do you still need an on site device.

 

Also, say we have 100 handsets, but 10 direct dials purchased, if i ring in one of the numbers can that hit just 1 phone even if others are in that group?  I assume phones need to be linked to the DDI to allow external calling?

 

And finally where do you get your kit from?

 

if not it will probably be 3CX ...

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

[Davit2005]

Another vote for Gamma.

[Davit2005]

5 minutes ago, the-umpt said:

Hey

 

About to ditch our old Mitel...

 

New to unifi, but looking at possible switching and wifi too as well unifi talk.  

 

Does unifi hosting allow call recording or do you still need an on site device.

 

Also, say we have 100 handsets, but 10 direct dials purchased, if i ring in one of the numbers can that hit just 1 phone even if others are in that group?  I assume phones need to be linked to the DDI to allow external calling?

 

And finally where do you get your kit from?

 

if not it will probably be 3CX ...

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

Kit as in server or phones. 3CX server can be self-hosted as a VM or a dedicated hardware appliance (basically a NUC when In last looked) or cloud hosted. There is no option these days for the free version and self-hosting.

 

With phones suggest you stay with supported phones, jus makes provisioning so much easier if you have made the DHCP option changes so the phone downloads the correct config.

[mthomas08]

We use Orbital. Which I not long found out they have grown to international.

[STK91]

Never had any issues with VoiceHost. Hosted PBX.