---
title: "FreePBX / Asterisk review: pricing, pros and cons"
description: "The free, open-source PBX on Asterisk: total control and zero licence cost, in exchange for owning security, patching and every integration yourself."
canonical: "https://saaskly.com/category/voip/freepbx"
last-updated: "2026-09-28"
---

# FreePBX / Asterisk review: pricing, pros and cons

> Saaskly verdict: **3.2/5**. The free, open-source PBX on Asterisk: total control and zero licence cost, in exchange for owning security, patching and every integration yourself.

- Category: [VoIP](https://saaskly.com/category/voip.md)
- Vendor website: https://www.freepbx.org
- Last updated: 2026-09-28

## Pros and cons

**Pros**

- Zero licence cost and full control
- Enormous Asterisk ecosystem
- Perpetual (25-year) module licences available

**Cons**

- You own security and patching: a 2025 zero-day left 900+ instances compromised
- "Not so free" once commercial modules stack up
- No vendor-run UK cloud; manual 999 routing

## Pricing

Month-to-month price first (what you pay without committing), then the annual-commit rate.

- **FreePBX core**: $0/yr on an annual commitment; month-to-month price not published
  - Includes: GPL, free
- **Sangoma Advanced bundle**: $579/yr on an annual commitment; month-to-month price not published
  - Includes: 9 commercial modules; $1,149 for a 25-year licence
- **UK managed hosting (freepbx.uk)**: £15/mo on an annual commitment; month-to-month price not published
  - Includes: Nano tier; up to £120/mo

Minimum commitment: **Free** (no licence cost).

## Specification

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Month-to-month (entry plan) | Free |
| Annual commit, per month | Free |
| Minimum commitment* | Free |
| Min seats | 1 |
| Deployment | On-prem PBX |
| Sales model | Direct |
| Public API | Yes |
| MCP server | No |
| Emergency 911/999/112 | No |
| Integrations | CRM Link (paid module), Microsoft Teams via SBC, Community modules |
| Commitment for annual rate (months) | 0 |

*How we calculate minimum commitment. Headline per-user prices hide the real cost of trying a platform. Total cost of ownership is licence × seats × term, plus usage, add-ons, setup fees and any early-exit charges. Our "minimum commitment" figure is the floor of that: the entry plan's committed rate × the minimum seats the vendor will sell × the months you must commit to (one month at the month-to-month rate where there is no commitment; the licence price where it is sold per year). It deliberately excludes usage, add-ons and prerequisite licences, so your real first bill will be higher, but never lower than this. For Teams Phone the excluded prerequisites are the Microsoft 365 and Teams licences.

## Our review

FreePBX 17 (Debian 12, Asterisk 22) is the reference self-hosted PBX: download it, run it on your own VM or a UK host, pair it with any UK SIP trunk, and pay nothing for the core. Sangoma sells commercial module bundles (Starter $169/yr, Advanced $579/yr or $1,149 for 25 years), support credits and the managed PBXact variant; UK hosts such as freepbx.uk offer managed instances from £15 a month.

The API is GraphQL/REST through the API module with Asterisk's ARI/AMI underneath: powerful but DIY, and there is no MCP. The cost is operational: you own security (CVE-2025-64328 was exploited as a zero-day in December 2025 and 900+ instances were still compromised two months later), emergency routing is a manual outbound route, and many "expected" features are paid modules. Trustpilot has too few reviews to be meaningful.

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Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Dariia Panchenko. See https://saaskly.com/ai-transparency.md and https://saaskly.com/editorial-policy.md.

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