Last updated: 23 May 2026.

For agencies whose customer base already runs 3CX, the practical question in 2026 is not "which cloud-PBX should we replace 3CX with" but "do we replace it at all, or do we bridge it to the CRM." Aircall and JustCall are cloud-PBX products priced per seat that replace the phone system. Connect Zero is a bridge priced per location that leaves 3CX in place. The comparison below uses published pricing from Aircall, JustCall and 3CX as of May 2026.

TL;DR for agencies in a hurry

• Aircall and JustCall are full cloud-PBX products. Choosing either means replacing 3CX, porting numbers, retraining the team, and paying per seat ongoing. They are excellent products for teams that do not already have a phone system or are actively unhappy with the one they have.
• Connect Zero is a bridge, not a phone system. It is the right fit when your customers are already on 3CX and you want their calls in the CRM without changing what they ring in and out on.
• The cost gap shows up at scale. A five-user team on a per-seat product costs roughly USD 200 a month in seats; the same team on Connect Zero costs around USD 113 a month all in, with 3CX licensing as a separate already-paid line.

At-a-glance comparison

Pricing in plain words

The numbers below come from each vendor's published pricing pages and a real Connect Zero bill profile. Treat them as a band, not a quote.

• Aircall. Entry tier currently lists at USD 30 per user per month annually, mid-tier at USD 50, enterprise on quote. A five-person team on the mid-tier lands around USD 250 a month before add-ons.
• JustCall. Entry tier currently lists at USD 19 per user per month, sales tier at USD 49. A five-person team on the sales tier lands around USD 245 a month before add-ons.
• Connect Zero. USD 39 per location per month base, USD 0.02 per call synced, USD 0.01 per workflow trigger, no per-seat fee, no setup fee. A five-person team doing 3,300 calls a month with a quarter of those running through a workflow lands around USD 113 a month. The 3CX licence sits separately and you are already paying it.

The break-even logic: Connect Zero is cheaper while the team is under roughly twenty active phones per location, because the per-location pricing does not multiply by seats. Above that, the per-call charge starts to grow but the gap to per-seat pricing only narrows; it does not flip.

Detailed comparison by category

Features

Aircall and JustCall both offer dialler, IVR, call routing, queues, analytics, native recordings and a CRM connector. They are full phone systems. The CRM integration is part of the package, not the headline.

Connect Zero offers the integration without the phone system. The 3CX PBX continues to handle dialler, IVR, queues, routing and recording exactly as it does today; the bridge surfaces those calls inside the CRM and exposes three workflow triggers (call started, call ended, missed call) plus an Update Call Record write-back action. All four are in the base licence, not premium upsells.

If your agency's sub-accounts already have 3CX running well, the Connect Zero feature surface is narrower because the phone system features are not duplicated; they live in 3CX where they always have.

Pricing

The per-seat model on Aircall and JustCall is predictable per user but multiplies as a team grows. The per-location model on Connect Zero stays flat as the team grows up to the call-volume threshold, with the variable per-call and per-trigger components scaling with usage instead of headcount.

For agencies billing through to sub-accounts, the per-location model is also simpler to mark up: one line item per sub-account on your invoice, not a per-user count to maintain.

Support

Aircall publishes business hours and a tiered support model with a chat channel on higher plans. JustCall publishes similar. Both have well-resourced support orgs given their size.

Connect Zero is smaller, by a lot. Support goes through support@connectzero.app answered by a real person, usually same-day during Australian business hours. There is no first-tier queue or chatbot; there is also no enterprise SLA. For an agency that wants to escalate a P1 at 3am US time, the support reach is narrower; for an agency that wants to email a real engineer about an edge case, the reach is broader.

Ease of use

Aircall and JustCall require a switch: port numbers, set up users, retrain the team on a new dialler, migrate workflows. The switch is not painful, but it is a project.

Connect Zero installs in five minutes on the CRM marketplace, paste the 3CX URL and API key, map extensions, place a test call. Nobody changes how they dial. Nobody learns a new app. The day after install looks the same as the day before, except calls are now in the CRM.

Integrations

All three integrate with the same set of CRMs: agency-marketplace platforms, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, Pipedrive. The integrations are functionally equivalent at the contact-and-call-event level.

The difference is which side owns the calls. With Aircall or JustCall, the calls are theirs and the CRM is the secondary surface. With Connect Zero, the calls are 3CX's and the CRM is the only surface; the bridge is just plumbing.

The push-pull-habit-anxiety read on switching

For agencies weighing the three options, four forces drive the decision.

• Push (what is wrong with today). "Our sub-accounts running 3CX are asking why their calls are not in the CRM." That is a real complaint and it is the push that opens the conversation. It is not a complaint about 3CX itself.
• Pull (what looks appealing). Aircall and JustCall pull on the "modern integrated stack" story. Connect Zero pulls on "leave the working thing alone and add the bridge". Both are real pulls, aimed at different agency mindsets.
• Habit (what already works). The sub-account team already knows their 3CX dialler, their voicemail boxes, their queues. Habit is the strongest force in favour of keeping 3CX and bridging.
• Anxiety (what could go wrong with a switch). Porting numbers always carries downtime risk. Retraining a team always carries productivity dip. Both are real anxieties that the cloud-PBX option has to address, and that Connect Zero sidesteps entirely.

Honest read: if your agency's sub-accounts are happy with how 3CX answers and routes their calls, switching to Aircall or JustCall is solving the wrong problem. The problem is the CRM does not know about the calls; bridge that and you are done. If the sub-accounts are unhappy with 3CX itself (because they want a per-seat cloud product or they want native iOS softphones for a remote team), then the cloud-PBX option is the right conversation.

Who Aircall is best for: be honest

Aircall is the right fit for agencies whose sub-accounts do not have a phone system at all, or want to replace one they actively dislike, and want a cloud-native dialler with strong native recordings, queues and analytics in one product. Aircall's strength is the full-stack phone experience and a polished mobile dialler app for distributed teams. Per-seat pricing fits agencies whose sub-accounts have a stable, predictable headcount per team.

Who JustCall is best for: be honest

JustCall is the right fit for agencies whose sub-accounts want a sales-dialler-first experience, a built-in SMS channel alongside calls, and a tighter integration with their CRM workflow inside one app. JustCall's strength is the sales-engagement-style outbound dialler and integrated SMS, which appeal to outbound-heavy sub-accounts that would otherwise pay for a separate dialler tool.

Who Connect Zero is best for

Connect Zero is the right fit for agencies whose sub-accounts already run 3CX (often via an existing 3CX VAR), are not looking to change the phone system, and want their calls in the CRM with workflows and recordings handled. The agency rollout pattern is install once at agency level, provision into sub-accounts as needed, mark up the seat-free pricing inside the agency's own subscription package. We cover that pattern in the agency rollout pattern.

What to do next

If 3CX is already in the stack, the cheapest evaluation is to install Connect Zero on a single sub-account, place a few test calls, see them in the CRM. The install is five minutes. If you want a walkthrough first, talk to the team and we will show you on a shared screen.

If you are not on 3CX today and you are evaluating a phone system from scratch, Aircall and JustCall are the two products to shortlist alongside 3CX. The bridge conversation only matters once you have decided which phone system the team is using.

Frequently asked questions