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Comparison · Meetings
3CX vs Element Call
A side-by-side editorial comparison of 3CX and Element Call — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
3CX vs Element Call: at a glance
What is 3CX?
3CX is bolting AI onto the PBX and rewriting its licensing to match
Three things are moving together: V20 Update 10 landed in alpha with MCP support and a dedicated AI Server, partner and distributor NFR subscriptions were repackaged from ENT+ into an AI Edition, and a separate post covers how to size AI Server hardware for response time. Ordinary platform work continues underneath, with portal changes allowing self-managed edition downgrades and hosting removal. Feed bodies are truncated at source, so only the leads are visible.
What is Element Call?
Element Call now routes every participant through their own homeserver's SFU.
Element Call publishes release candidates rather than finals, and is at v0.24.0-rc.1. The structural change in this window landed in v0.21.0-rc.1, which made multi-SFU the default: each participant connects to the media server associated with their own homeserver, and subscribes read-only to streams on others. Since then the work has been media quality controls, mobile layout for voice and group calls, and a breaking removal of .well-known transport discovery.
3CX vs Element Call: editorial side-by-side
3CX
6.3MEETINGS
3CX is bolting AI onto the PBX and rewriting its licensing to match
◆ Current state
Three things are moving together: V20 Update 10 landed in alpha with MCP support and a dedicated AI Server, partner and distributor NFR subscriptions were repackaged from ENT+ into an AI Edition, and a separate post covers how to size AI Server hardware for response time. Ordinary platform work continues underneath, with portal changes allowing self-managed edition downgrades and hosting removal. Feed bodies are truncated at source, so only the leads are visible.
◆ Where it's heading
The AI Server is the informative part: 3CX is offering inference customers run themselves rather than routing calls into a hosted model, which matches a base that already self-hosts its phone system. Licensing is being reorganized on the same axis, with the AI Edition displacing the old enterprise tier in the channel before it reaches general commercial tiers. Recent updates around it, including emailed AI agent transcripts and markdown knowledge sources, all feed the same AI agent surface.
◆ Prediction
Update 10 should move from alpha to general availability with the AI Edition packaging following into the commercial tiers, given the channel has already been switched over. What MCP actually exposes is not determinable from these entries because the feed truncates every body.
Element Call
5.0MEETINGS
Element Call now routes every participant through their own homeserver's SFU.
◆ Current state
Element Call publishes release candidates rather than finals, and is at v0.24.0-rc.1. The structural change in this window landed in v0.21.0-rc.1, which made multi-SFU the default: each participant connects to the media server associated with their own homeserver, and subscribes read-only to streams on others. Since then the work has been media quality controls, mobile layout for voice and group calls, and a breaking removal of .well-known transport discovery.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc is toward removing negotiation and configuration from the connection path. Multi-SFU removed the argument over which server hosts a call; dropping .well-known transport discovery and the default server config removes guesses that were usually wrong. Alongside that, a steady mobile and widget-embedding thread continues, with React Compiler and spotlight re-render work aimed at the performance cost of running in someone else's app.
◆ Prediction
With multi-SFU now the default and legacy single-SFU still reachable through developer settings, the likely next step is retiring that legacy path rather than adding another connection mode.
Alternatives to 3CX and Element Call
Other Meetings products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either 3CX or Element Call.
Webex
The feed is a marketing blog; the actual GA announcements arrive between the thought leadership
HOMER
HOMER 11's DuckLake rearchitecture is in its hardening phase, shipping near-daily.
mediasoup
mediasoup's Rust line is shipping subchannel fixes every few days and nothing else
Daily.co
One real release is buried in a feed that is mostly captured page furniture.
Fourwaves
A daily drip of conference-platform polish, with finance filtering and attendee self-service leading.
See all 3CX alternatives → · See all Element Call alternatives →
Recent activity from 3CX and Element Call
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 23h agoElement CallMedia quality settings UI; .well-known transport discovery removed
- 5d ago3CX3CX AI Server - Speed and Response Time
- 6d ago3CXPartner and Distributor NFR ENT+ Subscriptions Replaced with AI Edition
- 7d ago3CXLatest 3CX Portal Updates: Downgrade SC & Remove Hosting
- 8d ago3CX3CX AI Server Upcoming Updates
- 9d ago3CX3CX Summer Shutdown Working Hours
- 13d ago3CXV20 Update 10 Alpha: MCP, AI Server & More Admin Control ⚡
- 15d agoElement CallLandscape mobile call layout fixes
- 29d agoElement CallDefault gradient background and reworked mobile call design
- 1mo agoElement CallMulti-SFU becomes the default call topology ⚡
- 1mo agoElement Callmatrix_rtc_mode config option and typed connection errors
- 2mo agoElement CallBug fixes, older WebView polyfill and dependency bumps
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between 3CX and Element Call?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. 3CX is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is 3CX better than Element Call?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. 3CX is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Meetings products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to 3CX?
Top 3CX alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "3CX alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/3cx for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Element Call?
Top Element Call alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Element Call alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/element-call for the full list with editorial commentary on each.