Yet they both fall under the Open Source umbrella at Sangoma. You should know this. PBXact is as Open Source as FreePBX is when it comes to the code and customization. One just comes with all the commercial modules versus buying bundles or individually.
PBXact is a product from the open source FreePBX (same engine, same root). So mechanically, PBXact can be considered as Open Source. Yes, you are right.
But you can not modify what you want in the commercial modules. There is indeed an open source part, the rest being commercial therefore, so not open source.
This is why I don’t consider it non-open source.
Sangoma bought Asterisk & Digium. They presented the P-3xx phones, which are Digium D phones…in a Canadian-designed plastic case (dont like it), but they work pretty well.
Now, they have two systems PBXact & Switchvox. If Switchvox would be the inferior platform, they would have abandoned it by now.
So, it seems to me the freePBX&PBXact platform serves as a customer acquiring tool only…but in the end, it will be all Switchvox/Digium phones 
I don’t blame them…
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Right and that doesn’t change between FreePBX or PBXact. PBXact is FreePBX with all the commercial licensing included and some extra perks. That’s really about it. If I was to make a change to how IVR’s work and it gets pushed to FreePBX it will get pushed to PBXact since it’s using FreePBX.
Stopping development on FreePBX but continuing on PBXact would still mean all the open source modules in PBXact are open source modules. They would completely have to re-work PBXact to not be Open Source nor a derivative of FreePBX since all the FreePBX open source code is, again, open source.
So PBXact is FreePBX with all the commercial licensing and support. Much like getting a commercial license for Ubuntu gets you extra licensing and support, including extended support. It doesn’t make Ubuntu any less Open Source than it already is.
Yes and Switchvox is a closed system. Sure it runs Asterisk but the users/admins of Switchvox cannot modify the Asterisk code directly on that system. They cannot modify any of the code being used on that system. Switchvox offers very limit access into it outside of the GUI interface. You also just can’t add things to it willy nilly from places.
PBXact, on the other hand, can have Asterisk modified by the system admin. The entire system can be modified and customized. You can add 3rd party modules, you can add your own modules. You can modify the system until the cows come home.
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Well, in that case it should be easy to fork FreePBX. But in real life it’s a different story. Sangoma will put obstacles in the way of not doing it. Elastix is a good example.
FreePBX is not dead yet. But if one day it was, hello Switchvox, goodbye PBXact and FreePBX if no fork is possible.
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The name IncrediblePBX has been offered to Tony, and he is now in consideration of forking the project with an answer after the New Year.
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Well. With all troubles regarding rights. Wait and see.
Thanks…I didn’t know that you cannot customize Switchvox. Actually, I never got my hands on a Switchvox system.
In this case…maybe there is a future for both platforms.
One more thing…some suggested that the current leadership of Sangoma is a failure…
Why is it that Toronto says otherwise?
Wow…who hurt you? I define Enterprise Quality as the ability for the product to function to spec 24/7 without constant intervention - During that time frame it did - My machines were not crashing/malfunctioning/rebooting because of any System or Software bugs or incompatibilities. In fact, the only real problems I had during that time are the same problems I have today - Unreliable Internet Connections ruining the quality of service.
If you don’t think FreePBX/Asterisk are “Enterprise Quality” why are you here?
Because I like both projects.
By that logic the D-Link router I bought at Wal-Mart is Enterprise quality. By standard definitions of Enterprise it would not be considered as such.
But why did you complain about reliability? My freePBX servers (15&16) run and run and run…without any intervention by me. freePBX has never been more stable than it currently is.
I mean taking a snapshot can work in many ways. But overall if you look at things like:
Start of 2022 Fiscal Year - $23.52 CDN/share
Start of 2023 Fiscal Year - $10.88 CDN/share (53% drop)
Start of 2024 Fiscal Year - $4.98 CDN/share (54% drop)
Start of 2025 Fiscal Year - $6.52 CDN/share (30% rise)
So while even being at 10.16 today is a 55% increase since Jul 1st 2024, it still doesn’t make up all the ground Sangoma lost with their SaaS focus change in 2022. Between the 2022 and 2025 Fiscal years Sangoma’s stock lost 72.27% of its value.
As of today it’s 56.8% of value it was three years ago.
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Well, it went down from > 20 to 3…and started to rise at the beginning of 2024.
Usually this is a good sign. They are still diluting the shares until summer 2025, I think.
Anyway, the trend is positive…
Let’s look at even a larger picture.
That spike that stars around 2017 and drops back off around 2022 was the 5 years Sangoma pushed their Open Source products of FreePBX/PBXact. Sangoma was printing money to buy Digium, Star2Star, VoIP Innovations, VoIP Supply, etc. It was the largest growth of the company over the last 20 years.
The moment they stopped their Open Source push, the trend starts heading down pretty hard. It’s just now going back up because they seem to be trying to re-focus.
Well, I posted the trend at TSE since the new leadership was in place.
The shares have been heavily diluted over the last 2 or 3 years.
Nevertheless, it’s going up again. So either the market is wrong or the decisions aren’t all bad.
The stock going up is good and I am glad to see it. I was pointing out the biggest value growth was during Open Source pushes and how this current uptick is related to Sangoma putting more focus back on Open Source.
Also to show how it has value to Sangoma and that they aren’t leaving FreePBX in a trash bag on the side of the road.
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