In any technology solution, the upfront cost, or the initial cost needed even when just want to initially test if the solution will work for your needs is one factor that many business clients consider in their evaluation and purchases. This is true for most solution stack, including PBX/VOIP Solutions.With the advantages and savings that open source solutions such as Asterisk offers, more and more companies feel the need to integrate Internet telephony in their infrastructure. Now, with the latest “offspring” of Digium’s purchase of Switchvox, small businesses can “test the waters” before spending the money on their PBX systems. Thanks to  Switchvox’s Free Edition. It lets potential customers to use the PBX software with zero upfront cost.

Switchvox’s Free Edition is the company’s latest offering, announced a month after it was acquired by Digium, the company behind Asterisk: the open-source Internet telephony platform / PBX on which Switchvox’s product is based. The Free edition joins the other two offerings of Digium / Switchvox: Switchvox SOHO and Switchvox SMB. This feature matrix showcases the differences betweent these three Switchvox offerings.

Switchvox Free Edition is aimed for businesses who want to try and get started with a full-featured phone system that’s easy to administer and use. This can include both existing users of other PBX software and those who haven’t made the jump to IP yet.

With this free edition, 15 virtual, IP or analog phone extensions can be created, and it can handle up to 8 cuncurrent phone calls. This is perfect for small-sized organizations who don’t have a demmand for large extensions.

Switchvox free edition will work with existing hardware, but the Switchvox FAQ suggests that if you want to eventually migrate to the more fully-featured offerings, potential customers can take a look at their Certified Hardware List

Althought Asterisk, one of the core components of Switchvox Free Edition (as well as in other editions) is open source, the whole solution stack is not. Switchvox has closed, proprietary components.

When you have decided to upgrade to SOHO or SMB versions of Switchvox, the company provides a seamless migration path that only requires you to make a payment to the Switchvox store, then you can finish the upgrade using Switchvox’s web console. Switchvox Free Edition is another grate additoin to Asterisk’s growing arsenal of Internet Telephony solutions.

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