6 Hosted PABX Providers Compared on Price, Hardware, and Local Support
Most Australian offices still buy a hosted PABX off a per-user price. The monthly figure looks tidy. Then handsets, number porting and after-hours support show up. So does an FTTN service that struggles after 4pm.
A private branch exchange (PBX or PABX) is the switch that routes the main number, extensions and hunt groups. Hosted PABX, also sold as cloud PBX, runs that switch in the provider’s data centre. Calls travel as Voice over IP, so the site keeps desk phones, a softphone, or both. Typical small-business plans here sit around $20 to $60 per user per month. Handsets are extra, usually $80 to $350 each.
The six names below are ones Australian sites actually get quoted. The specialist that treats this as a phone-system job sits first. Other operational business notes live on Darwin Legend.
1. Com2 Communications
Com2 Communications behaves less like a seat-licence shop and more like a phone-system firm that also hosts.
Price: SIP bundles start at $120 a month for four channels, with 1,600 included minutes to Australian landlines and mobiles. Quiet sites can use PAYG trunks at $7.50 a month per channel and 7.5c a minute. Hosted 3CX, CloudPhone, hosted Avaya and Microsoft Teams PABX are quoted to the site, not sold as a one-line seat fee.
Hardware: Yealink T-series and DECT, Grandstream, Fanvil, plus ATAs, PoE switches and session border controllers. The team will provision and cable it if the job needs doing once. Existing Avaya, NEC or Panasonic kit can often stay, with SIP put underneath.
Support: 24/7 from Brisbane engineers. Corporate work is quoted across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. That matters when a firewall change kills SIP at 7am.
2. Telstra
Still the default, because the brand is already on the internet bill.
Price: hosted calling has sat near $60 per user per month, often tied to Microsoft 365 calling products. Fine for a business already inside the Telstra stack. Expensive if the site only needs a main number, four handsets and a hunt group.
Hardware: desk phones are available. The buy is a carrier catalogue, not a custom comms-room build.
Support: Australian, usually via a national queue. Older products have been wound down, including TCO365 with a sunset through November 2026. Ask in writing which platform the contract actually lands on.
3. VOCPhone
The simple Australian hosted PBX.
Price: from about $34.90 per user per month. Auto attendant, ring groups, voicemail to email and recording are in the usual mix. Some plans meter calls, so check that if the team is outbound-heavy.
Hardware: pre-configured desk phones, shipped ready to plug in. That is what a site without an IT person needs.
Support: local, remote-first. CRM and AI extras are thinner than the global brands. Enough for a small professional office. Not a multi-site contact-centre conversation.
4. Optus Powered by RingCentral
The other carrier option.
Price: commonly quoted around $56 per user per month. Site fees sit on top, and inclusions are thinner than the headline suggests. The site fee often wipes out the “cheaper than Telstra” pitch.
Hardware: desk phones on a repayment plan. Useful if reception and the warehouse all need handsets in one hit.
Support: Australian, but still a large-telco process. Tickets, hold music, and a second call if the first agent cannot change a SIP password. Works well if the office already takes Optus nbn and does not want another supplier on the rack.
5. COMvergence
Clearer published bundles than most.
Price: small-business plan is $150 a month plus $100 setup (ex GST). Growing is $300 plus $200 setup. Larger sites are listed at $900 plus $600 setup. Unlimited calls to local, national, mobile and 1300 numbers are included. That last point matters if the team lives on their mobiles.
Hardware: desk phones and softphones in the managed build. Faulty handsets get replaced.
Support: 24/7 remote, Australia-wide. Sensible if phones and connectivity need to sit on one invoice. Less useful if a technician has to be in the building the same afternoon.
6. Next Telecom
Cloud voice, Microsoft Teams Calling and contact-centre platforms, under Comms Group (ASX: CCG).
Price: quote-driven. The spend is for a project and an account manager, not a cheap seat licence. Four handsets and a 1300 number by Friday is overbuying.
Hardware: supplied with the install, not picked from a shopping cart.
Support: most of the team sits in Sydney and Melbourne NOCs, with dealers around the country for on-site work. A mid-market and government conversation.
A $35 seat with metered calls can overtake a $50 unlimited seat by the second week of a campaign. Ask for a bill model using the last three months of call records.
Number porting in Australia usually takes 5 to 10 business days. Keep the old service live until the port completes. Cancelling early is how numbers disappear.
Start with the nbn type and the after-hours question. FTTP is easy. FTTN and fixed wireless need a wired path for the phones, plus a plan if the node drops. Softphones are fine for hybrid staff. They are a poor substitute at a warehouse bench or a busy front desk.
The cheapest per-user figure on a comparison tab is a poor way to choose. The system that stays up, keeps the 07 or 02 number, and has a person in Australia who can reprovision a handset is the one that costs less over 24 months.