Sangoma PBXact 40 UC

Sangoma's new PBXact series starts with the 40 (The PBXact 10 has been discontinued and is no longer in production, not that it wasn't popular, it was so popular that they had trouble with suppliers keeping open the supply chain.) and is capable of handling up to 40 users and 30 calls. At its core runs an Intel Celeron Quad-Core processor with 2GB of RAM. A feature rich Asterisk appliance on top of which lies FreePBX (owned by Sangoma) the 40 comes in under $900.00. Some of this SMB device's features are Flexible Time-Based Call Routing, a Built-In Conference Bridge, Fax to E-mail, Voicemail, Support for Video Calling, Text to Speech, Calling Queues (ACD) and IVR. The 40 does not have any FXO ports and is not capable of accepting any, however the larger PBXact UC devices do. So if you need to connect a couple of traditional phone lines, then take that into consideration.

Both Sangoma's PBXact UC and FreePBX version are top picks.

Sangoma has built a great reputation and is known to manufacturer excellent interface cards. Now that they have moved into the SMB Asterisk UC IP-PBX market we expect good things from them. They have a complete line of IP phones, their S series phone, which is built for use with FreePBX and will compliment the PBXact 40 with easy installation and easy configuration to make a great system.

More about Sangoma PBXact UC and FreePBX

Elastix MiniUCS Appliance

Note: The Elastix NiniUCS appliance has been discontinued by the manufacturer, and is now difficult to find.

This SIP appliance will support 50 SIP endpoints (IP phones), up to 32 concurrent calls, and allow for an optional 4 Port FXO or 4 Port FXS port card for either traditional phone lines (FXO) or telephones (FXS). It is built with Elastix, a usable front end that has its own unique look and feel. Adding a 4 Port FXO card* will allow the connection of up to 4 traditional CO telephone lines.

*Note: Adding an FXO or other card(s), if needed, will bring the cost of the Elastix MiniUCS over $1000.00.

iCallDroid spot Asterisk pbx

Supporting up to four concurrent calls using the G729 compressed codec, which requires more processing power than G711, the iCallDroid spot Asterisk IP-PBX is a low cost solution for up to 16 extensions. This Linux based WiFi IP-PBX solid state appliance built by OpenVox Communication Co. Ltd., a Chinese based company founded in 2002, minimizes both power consumption and price, but delivers a robust feature set on both the PBX side, as well as for the router. You'll find support for multi-level IVR voice menus, with IVR jump function based on time conditions and QOS (Quality of Service) to keep voice traffic at a priority, all at an affordable price. Designed with a small office environment in mind, the iCallDroid spot will handle just about any business communication need with an easy to manage interface and a five year warranty.

RenegadePBX Pro 75

The RenegadePBX Pro 75 by VoIP Supply is their latest model in the Renegade lineup and supports extensions and 45 simultaneous calls. With some great features that make setup easy, like Quick-Start Installation Wizard, Zero Touch Provisioning using their Redirection Service and EndPoint Manager Module this IP-PBX will be a great addition of any SMB. When using Sangoma IP Phones (Sangoma owns VoIP Supply) Zero Touch Provisioning is available.
This VoIP IP-pBX comes in at a very good price point and is ideal for businesses looking to seamlessly integrate their VoIP phones, SIP trunks, and PSTN connectivity while improving team collaboration and productivity with advanced phone features. For the best price on the Renegade PBX Pro75 Amazon ad.

RenegadePBX Mini

The open source RenegadePBX by Voip Supply line starts with the mini (shown above) which can support 1 PCI Express telephony card for telephony connections including a T1 (PRI), as well as FXO and FXS, which makes this IP-PBX very adaptable. It can be purchased with either Elastix, FreePBX or AsteriskNow installed and can handle up to 100 extensions and 75 concurrent SIP calls. Voip Supply was bought by Sangoma in July 2017. NOTE: When adding a telephony card the cost may be more than $1000.00.

Best practices make sense- Matching Phones

If your installation is new, and even if it's not, the best choice for phones are ones from the same manufacturer as the appliance. This makes sense for easy installations, quick and well thought out feature configuration and access to support issues with the manufacturer. So, Grandstream UCM with Grandstream IP phones (the affordable GXP1700 series are outstanding), the Yeastar MyPBX or S20 VoIP PBX with Yealink IP phones and Sangoma's PBXact 40 UC device with Sangoma's S series IP phones. (We name these three because they are our top 3 picks (2017)). Additionally, you'll find that some manufactures suggest specific models of their phones.

More and more, Asterisk based IP PBX manufacturers are designing their "systems" build around features that are bug free when using a particular phone. Namely, a set of models that have been created to match by that same manufacturer. Although Asterisk has excellent capabilities to work with a variety of SIP IP phones, some features when configured behave slightly different with different phones. In some cases a feature of an appliance may not even work with some models of phones.