I’m looking for suggestions on hosting my own PBX system at home on my Proxmox server. My primary goal is to learn more about PBX systems and VoIP phones. For now, I’m using VoIP.ms just to purchase a phone number.
My main question is about 3CX. I really like the UI and apps that 3CX offers. Is it realistically possible to host 3CX at home if I have a dynamic public IP? Has anyone found a way to run it successfully without opening any ports at all? I know that accessing the 3CX web UI via a Cloudflare Tunnel works without exposing ports, but I’m curious if anyone has managed to get the other required services working this way too.
That said, I’m not tied to 3CX. I’m open to any PBX solution that I can self-host at home to gain experience. I run a small MSP and I’m trying to expand my knowledge so I can eventually offer VoIP services to my clients.
I can’t specifically comment on 3CX, but I do this with FreePBX and it works without any issue on a dynamic WAN address. There isn’t a way to avoid forwarding ports, however. At least you need to forward a high range of UDP ports to your PBX for RTP. I also accept sip traffic specifically from my voip provider’s IPs.
3CX is a great option. If you are going to self host then you will have to buy a license, pro you can go with a Debian install.
Very easy to setup and manage. Deploying desk phones is super simple on your local lan using supported models. and remote sbc installs and/or phones is also simple for remote locations.
If you want to use free. Than freepbx is ok, a lot more work to setup and manage but you can make it work.
Some other free options are FusionPBX and Issabel PBX, which have decent web interfaces for management
Oh, forgot to mention. You can use 3CX without a static ip. You can setup your sip trunks with registration auth to establish, but this would only work for devices on your local pbx lan. If you want it to work outside the local network, you will need to expose your ports. 3CX can handle dynamic up to dns for you.
FreePBX is what I would 100% recommend.
I’m using it as my VoIP server, so I have an Avaya IP Office and an Alcatel Evolution as clients of the FreePBX and it works great. Ah, and I’m using proxmox VE to run the Freepbx and OPNsense firewall too.
I love proxmox, I was a bit hesitant to try it out, thinking “ another rabbit hole”. I tried it first on VMWare station pro and saw how easy it was, then I bought a 1 LT mini PC and it was the best, I have a couple other PBX like Issabel and FPBX, I love it