Glossary
Cloud PBX
Any business phone system delivered over the internet rather than on-premise hardware - covers hosted PBX, multi-tenant SaaS PBX, and hybrid models.
also known as: Cloud phone system, Internet PBX
Cloud PBX is the umbrella term for any business phone system delivered over the internet rather than running on hardware in your office.
The two flavours
Dedicated hosted PBX - a dedicated instance of phone-system software (3CX, FreePBX, Asterisk) running in a data centre. Your config, your data, your tenant. Typical pricing: per-system annual licence.
Multi-tenant SaaS PBX - a shared cloud service (RingCentral, 8×8, Dialpad, Microsoft Teams Calling) where many customers share the same infrastructure. Typical pricing: per-user per-month.
Both are “cloud PBX”. They behave very differently in pricing, customisation and lock-in.
What cloud PBX gives you over on-prem
- No hardware refresh - no $20k–50k purchase every 5–7 years.
- Native mobile/remote - same client at office, home, on the road.
- Modern features - AI, unified messaging, integrations.
- Faster deployment - days, not weeks.
- Lower upfront cost - operating expense rather than capital.
- Automatic updates - security patches and version upgrades managed.
What cloud PBX changes about IT operations
- No comms cupboard - server lives in a data centre.
- No on-prem firewall config - usually managed by provider.
- No physical handsets required - softphones on every device.
- Connectivity matters more - your internet quality directly affects call quality.
Choosing between hosted PBX and SaaS PBX
The key question for Australian businesses is: how big do you expect to grow?
SaaS PBX (per-user pricing) scales smoothly but the bill compounds linearly with headcount. Fine for 1–10 users; painful at 50+.
Hosted PBX with 3CX (per-system pricing) has slightly more upfront design effort but flat licence cost as you grow. Dramatically cheaper at 20+ users.
For most Australian businesses with 10+ users, hosted 3CX wins on 3–5 year TCO by significant margins.
See also
- [[hosted-pbx]] - dedicated cloud PBX
- [[sip]] - protocol underlying all cloud PBX
- [[hosted-pbx|hosted PBX vs cloud PBX]] - terminology
- [[ivr]] - auto-attendant on cloud PBX
