A few virtual PBX hosting comparisons
Virtual PBX vs. traditional PBX
The main difference between virtual PBX and traditional PBX is that virtual PBX systems use the Internet, while traditional PBX uses on-premises hardware and landlines.
This is hugely beneficial to small businesses and companies with remote teams or distributed offices around the world. Take TED, for example—you've probably seen one (or two, or five...) of their inspirational talks on YouTube. Their IT team was struggling with the endless maintenance and lack of flexibility of their previous on-site PBX phone system. After switching to Dialpad’s unified communications platform, they eliminated these problems—and even got rid of desk phones altogether.
Both virtual PBX and traditional PBX typically have standard PBX features like call forwarding, conferencing, and voicemail.
Virtual PBX vs. IP-PBX
After traditional, analog PBX systems came IP-PBX phone systems, which was a first step in creating phone systems that worked over the Internet. Learn more about IP-PBX and how it compares to other types of PBX and VoIP phone systems.
Virtual PBX vs. hosted PBX
"Virtual PBX" is sometimes used synonymously with "hosted PBX," and essentially what "hosted" means is simply that your phone system is managed by a third party provider somewhere else—not in your own office. Your hosted PBX vendor likely has its own data centers and provides all the IP phones, hardware, software, maintenance, security, and upgrades you need.