PBX Comparison Matrix

Introduction

This article lists a brief comparison between three Asterisk based telephony products: 4PSA VoipNow , AsteriskNOW and trixbox .

This article takes into account some of the major features of the products. It is not meant to be an exhaustive comparison.

For more details about 4PSA VoipNow, please visit http://4psa.com/products/voipnow/index.php.
For more details about AsteriskNOW, please visit http://www.AsteriskNOW.org/.
For more details about trixbox, please visit http://www.trixbox.org/.

Comparison Matrix

Criteria	4PSA VoipNow 1.6.1	AsteriskNOW Beta (revision 573)	trixbox 2.2
Technology
Relational database back-end	MySQL 5 (full relational)	no	MySQL 4 (limited relational)
Web interface language	PHP, Smarty, JS, CSS	PHP, Smarty, JS, CSS	PHP, JS, CSS
Low level scripts language	C, sh	sh, tcl	sh, C
PBX engine Asterisk based	1.2.24	1.4.2	1.2.18
Custom Asterisk modules	yes	no	no
Supported Operating Systems	RHEL, CentOS, Suse, Fedora Core 32bit and 64bit (Intel and PowerPC)	rPath (Intel)	CentOS (Intel)
Usability	7 of 7	2 of 7	3 of 7
Web control panel	yes	yes	yes
Per user language localization	yes	no	yes
Skin customization	yes	no	no
AJAX web interface features	yes	yes	no
Easy to brand interface	yes	no	no
Client separated interface preferences	yes	no	yes (limited)
Single Sign-On support	yes	no	no
Interoperability	20 of 26	17 of 26	18 of 26
Web services Management API	yes	no	no
Call API	yes	limited	limited
Interface inputs	yes	no	no
Skins SDK	yes	no	no
Language pack SDK	yes	no	no
Supported VoIP Protocols	2 of 7	4 of 7	5 of 7
SIP	yes	yes	yes
IAX	yes	yes	yes
H.323	no	no	yes
MGCP	no	no	yes
SCCP	no	no	yes
Jabber	no	yes	no
Jingle	no	yes	no
Supported voice codecs	10 of 10	9 of 10	10 of 10
G723	yes (pass through)	no (pass through)	yes (pass through)
GSM	yes	yes	yes
ULAW	yes	yes	yes
ALAW	yes	yes	yes
G726	yes	yes (also G726aal2, G726 RFC3551)	yes
ADPCM	yes	yes	yes
Signed Linear	yes	yes	yes
G729	yes	yes	yes
Speex	yes	yes	yes
iLBC	yes	yes	yes
Supported video codecs	3 of 4	4 of 4	3 of 4
h261	yes	yes	yes
h263	yes	yes	yes
h263p	yes	yes	yes
h264	no	yes	no
Scalability	3 of 4	1 of 4	1 of 4
Clustering	no	no	no
Virtualization	yes (Virtuozzo, OpenVZ, VMware)	yes (Xen, VMware)	yes (VMware)
Maximum number of extensions	yes	no	no
Maximum number of simultaneous calls	yes	no	no
Reliability	3 of 3	0 of 3	1 of 3
High availability	yes	no	no
Formally tested using a documented procedure	yes	no	no
PSTN fallback	yes	no	yes
Management	10 of 10	1 of 10	4 of 10
Multitenant	yes	no	no
Different levels of management	yes (4)	no (1)	yes (2)
Clients separation	yes	no	no
Clients hierarchical view	yes	no	no
Client separated permissions	yes	no	no
Client separated limits	yes	no	no
Customizable email notifications	yes	no	no
Management of time intervals	yes	no	yes
Management of sound packages	yes	yes	yes
Phone terminals provisioning	yes	no	yes
Server management	12 of 12	7 of 12	7 of 12
Installation	4 of 4	1 of 4	1 of 4
Command line installer	yes	no	no
Manual RPM based	yes	no	no
ISO based	yes	yes	yes
Packed for Virtualized environment	yes	no	no
Update	2 of 2	2 of 2	2 of 2
Command line updater	yes	yes	yes
Interface update	yes	yes	yes
Backup	6 of 6	4 of 6	4 of 6
Command line tool	yes	yes	yes
Interface backup	yes	yes	yes
Incremental backups support	yes	no	no
Storage facility support	yes	no	no
Automatic service monitoring	yes	yes	yes
Configurable PBX parameters	yes	yes	yes
Call routing	9 of 9	2 of 9	3 of 9
Firewall like call routing rules	6 of 6	2 of 6	3 of 6
Block and transfer actions	yes	no	no
Time interval matching	yes	no	yes (inbound calls only)
Call source matching	yes	yes	yes (inbound calls only)
Call destination matching	yes	no	yes
Best cost matching	yes	no	no
Dial post processing rules	yes	yes	no
Automatic selection of the best cost route with failover	yes	no	no
Internal routing of assigned DIDs	yes	no	no
Import/Export routing rules	yes	no	no
Billing	12 of 12	0 of 12	0 of 12
Realtime postpaid billing	yes	no	no
Realtime prepaid billing	yes	no	no
Account recharges	yes	no	no
Real-time billing on all account levels	yes	no	no
Fixed and inherited call costs	yes	no	no
Incoming calls billing	yes	no	no
Per time interval fees	yes	no	no
Per destination fees	yes	no	no
Per destination charging intervals	yes	no	no
Designed to allow overselling	yes	no	no
Client separated billing plans	yes	no	no
Free minutes per destination	yes	no	no
Channels	6 of 6	1 of 6	3 of 6
Channel definable DIDs	yes	no	no
Manual allocation of DIDs per extension	yes	no	yes
Automatic assignation of DIDs from pool	yes	no	no
Channel routable prefixes	3 of 3	1 of 3	2 of 3
Integrated management	yes	yes (unstructured)	yes (unstructured)
Import/ Export call costs file	yes	no	yes
Clone call costs	yes	no	no
Call features	99 of 106	26 of 106	42 of 106
Incoming calling rules	3 of 3	1 of 3	3 of 3
Block Caller	yes	no	yes
Time interval based check	yes	no	yes
CallerID based check	yes	yes	yes
Outgoing calling rules	3 of 3	1 of 3	3 of 3
Block Caller	yes	no	yes
Time interval based check	yes	no	yes
CallerID based check	yes	yes	yes
Callback features	no	no	yes
Call transfers	2 of 2	2 of 2	2 of 2
Attended (Supervised) transfer	yes	yes	yes
Blind transfer	yes	yes	yes
Call forwarding	8 of 8	4 of 8	7 of 8
Forward to Voicemail	yes	yes	yes
Forward to IVR	yes	yes	yes
Forward to Queue	yes	yes	yes
Forward to conference	yes	yes	yes
Forward on NO ANSWER	yes	no	yes
Forward on BUSY	yes	no	yes
Forward on extension NOT REGISTERED	yes	no	yes
Forward to external	yes	no	no
Ring all	yes	yes (limited to queue agents)	yes (limited to ring groups)
Isolated parking lots	yes	no	no
Call pickup	yes	no	yes
Conferences	4 of 4	2 of 4	1 of 4
Client separated	yes	yes	no
Conference room limits	yes	no	no
Conference room behavior	yes	yes	yes
Ability to start a conference from public numbers	yes	no	no
Custom Caller ID	no	yes	yes
Dial by name	no	no	yes
Direct Inward System Access	yes (not necessary)	no	yes
Do not disturb	yes	no	yes
Record conversations	3 of 3	0 of 3	2 of 3
Client preferences	yes	no	yes (limited to extension)
Online management of recorded conversations	yes	no	yes
Hard-disk quota on all account levels	yes	no	no
Voicemail	5 of 5	2 of 5	4 of 5
Client preferences	yes	yes (limited to on/off)	yes
Online management of voicemail messages	yes	no	yes
Send voicemail messages by email	yes	no	yes
Listen to voicemail messages over the phone	yes	yes	yes
Hard-disk quota	yes	no	no
SIP Presence support	2 of 2	1 of 2	1 of 2
Basic functionality	yes	yes	yes
Customer separation	yes	no	no
Call screening	3 of 3	0 of 3	0 of 3
High performance call screening	yes	no	no
Allow only calls to predefined phone collections	yes	no	no
Deny calls to predefined phone collections	yes	no	no
Fax receive	3 of 3	1 of 3	2 of 3
T.38 support	yes	yes	no
Receive faxes as PDF	yes	no	yes
Fax to email	yes	no	yes
Fax send	2 of 3	2 of 3	1 of 3
T.38 support	yes	yes	no
Send faxes by email	no	no	no
Interactive directory listing	yes	yes	yes
IVR (Interactive Voice Response)	6 of 6	1 of 6	2 of 6
IVR designer	yes	yes (limited)	yes (limited)
IVR analyzer	yes	no	no
IVR schema builder	yes	no	no
IVR Test Mode	yes	no	no
IVR Cloning	yes	no	no
Text-to-speech support	yes (Cepstral)	no	yes poor
Calling Card Extension	5 of 5	0 of 5	0 of 5
Seaparate billing on every Calling card code	yes	no	no
PIN protected Calling card code	yes	no	no
Individual call history on every Calling card code	yes	no	no
Calling card management	yes	no	no
Over the phone credit interogation	yes	no	no
Callback	5 of 5	0 of 5	0 of 5
Callback based on authorized caller-IDs	yes	no	no
PIN protected callback	yes	no	no
Callback to a fixed number	yes	no	no
Callback numbers management	yes	no	no
Over the phone credit interogation	yes	no	no
Call queues	9 of 11	4 of 11	4 of 11
Per client queue size	yes	no	no
Customizable queue behavior	yes	yes	no
Selectable queue distribution mechanism	yes	yes	yes
Skills-based Routing	yes	no	no
Customizable queue SLA	yes	no	no
Call recording: all queue calls	yes	no	yes
Call recording: only requested calls	no	no	no
Transfer unanswered calls	yes	no	yes
Transfer calls outside SLA	yes	no	no
Transfer on key pressed	yes	yes	yes (to IVR)
Report hold time	no	yes	no
Queue agents	6 of 7	3 of 7	3 of 7
Integrated management	yes	yes	no
Multiple levels of activity	yes	no	no
Agents pause	yes	no	no
Agents variable log-off	no	yes	no
Queue recognition	yes	no	yes
Supervising agents	yes	no	yes (all users can barge in)
Operator panel	yes	yes (limited)	yes (Flash Operator Panel)
Queue reports	25 of 25	0 of 25	0 of 25
Call center degree call reporting	yes	no	no
Queue statistics	yes	no	no
Answered call reports: Queue overview	yes	no	no
Answered call reports: Queue agents	yes	no	no
Answered call reports: SLA	yes	no	no
Answered call reports: Disconnect causes	yes	no	no
Unanswered call reports: Queue overview	yes	no	no
Unanswered call reports: SLA	yes	no	no
Unanswered call reports: Disconnect causes	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Answered calls per day	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Call wait time per day	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Unanswered calls per day	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Answered calls per weekday	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Call wait time per weekday	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Unanswered calls per weekday	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Answered calls per hour	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Call wait time per hour	yes	no	no
Call distribution report: Unanswered calls per hour	yes	no	no
Agents report: Agent overview	yes	no	no
Agents report: Agent availability	yes	no	no
Agents report: Agent sessions	yes	no	no
Agents report: Answered calls	yes	no	no
Agents report: Agent status	yes	no	no
Agents report: Agent sessions	yes	no	no
Agents report: Agent calls	yes	no	no
Call reporting	7 of 7	0 of 7	2 of 7
Call list report	3 of 3	0 of 3	2 of 3
Report based on account level	yes	no	no
CDR fields filtering	yes	no	yes (limited)
Export of CDR fields	yes	no	yes
Call cost report	4 of 4	0 of 4	0 of 4
Report based on account level	yes	no	no
Outlines call costs and profits	yes	no	no
Advanced filtering	yes	no	no
Export of report fields	yes	no	no
Support	3 of 3	1 of 3	1 of 3
Included with purchase	yes	no (not applicable)	no (not applicable)
Business hours support	yes	yes	yes
24 hours Emergency support	yes	no	no