Business IP/VOIP phone system for small business reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- letopeto · 2023-10-30 22:54 I run a small business and I'm also the guy in charge of IT as well because I have to keep costs low and I'm relatively technically savvy. But this business phone line stuff is so confusing, with terms like PBX box, SIP trunking, etc. I did some basic searching on this subreddit and the general advice seems to be for small businesses, don't run your own pbx box b/c of complexity etc and go with a provider like https://voip.ms//business/pricing But it seems crazy expensive. For example, if I use my business line 20 hours a week, that means that its 4,800 minutes a month or $48 a month at VOIP.ms level of pricing. Not to mention the fact that there is a $1 charge monthly just to have the number, and a separate charge (albeit small) for all calls received. That just seems so much more expensive than a normal consumer cell phone bill that has ONLY voice. I literally just need a separate business phone number that can work through a CISCO IP phone I bought secondhand for myself and a couple of employees. Is there any way to save on the monthly bill / basically only pay for the phone number itself? I can't imagine this day and age where everything goes over the internet and bandwidth is not charged on a usage based basis (at least in the US) that I need to be paying for IP phone calls "by the minute". Help me understand if there is any way I can set this up using selfhosted or if I'm really looking to do something that is impossible. Just a complete noob to the business phone industry and the software stack needed to run it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RedditSlayer2020 · 2023-10-30 23:06 wrong sub. I'm sure there are some professional solutions out there already. Don't be cheap if you are running a business. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zoredache · 2023-10-30 23:20 > Is there any way to save on the monthly bill / basically only pay for the phone number itself? Even if you run your own PBX, you'll probably need SIP trunking. You basically have to pay someone to get onto the phone network. As for software, you would probably be looking at Freepbx, or if you want to build something on your own Asterisk. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mcc0unt · 2023-10-30 23:26 The problem in that whole bunch of phoning is that the most provider are going to sell minute plans, as they’re cheaper for them. U can use a phone number which is associated with your internet provider (in Germany that’s normal), or you need to rent them from providers. In case you use MS365 you could use teams as a pbx, but in most cases I’d recommend a voip provider with cheap contracts and a cloud pbx like 3CX. That’s what I do for my customers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tech2but1 · 2023-10-30 23:35 You just need to find a competitively priced provider. I supply VoIP extensions for businesses with calls included for maybe like a quarter of what you're quoting there. If you look at mainstream/enterprise providers they're going to be expensive for you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dj_raidar_vip · 2023-10-31 00:02 For my Insurance Office, running 3CX on an Amazon EC2 instance with a SIP trunk to Amazon Chime works wonderfully. And, if your business requires a fax machine, setting up a 3CX SBC and a Fax line is very useful too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HoustonBOFH · 2023-10-31 00:29 Part of the problem right now is that a lot of the new anti spam call legislation kicked in so costs have gone up. But you can get a lot more info at these sites. [https://nerdvittles.com/](https://nerdvittles.com/) ​ [https://www.voip-info.org/forum/](https://www.voip-info.org/forum/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- carl2187 · 2023-10-31 02:42 I ran FreeSwitch with a signalwire sip trunk. I don't think there's much cheaper than that. Pay as you go, less than a penny per minute. Only monthly fee is holding onto the numbers you want, each number is like $0.50 per month. But installing and maintaining it is a challenge for even good sysadmins. I'd go with 3CX or a similar all in one provider if I had to make the call. Also, use a good USB headset and a soft phone on your computer instead of that old cisco handset. Get away from handsets ASAP. They are the most expensive thing, vendor support dries up fast, and the audio codecs go stale. Firmware vulnerabilities emerge, compliance requires you to update them, so every 5 years, new handsets for everyone. It's a joke. USB headset or a good USB speaker phone will work with any system, until they physically break. 3cx has soft phone clients so handset isn't needed at all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CyberHouseChicago · 2023-10-31 05:36 $48 is expensive? lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-31 07:38 > I run a small business > crazy expensive > $48 a month *smh* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- emprezario · 2023-10-31 08:30 I thought 3CX got rid of Amazon sip. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Cawilz · 2023-10-31 09:23 Maybe not for you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dj_raidar_vip · 2023-10-31 10:20 I don't know anything about that, honestly. It might have happened after I initially set it up, but everything has been working for about 3 years now, so I think it's good so far ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AlanGreyjoy · 2023-11-23 03:24 Sipharmony.com is heavily competing against Voipms! We use them for all of our pharmacies. Check them out!