ShadowPBX review
A flexible open-source PBX for teams that want control over telephony.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
ShadowPBX is an open-source business phone system for small and medium businesses, call centers, remote teams, and organizations that want control over their telephony stack. It supports SIP registration with multi-device support, inbound and outbound routing, multi-level IVR, ring groups, queues, voicemail with web playback, call recording, auto-dialers, predictive dialing, supervisor monitoring, dashboards, role-based access, REST APIs, and WebSocket-based events. Deployment can be self-hosted or managed through ShadowPBX infrastructure.
Pricing is structured around four plans. Self-Hosted costs $0 one time and includes the full source code, all features, unlimited extensions, unlimited concurrent calls, self-hosted deployment, and community support. Managed — Starter costs $49 per month and adds managed VPS infrastructure, automated SSL and domain setup, daily backups, monitoring and alerts, security patches and updates, and email support. Managed — Pro costs $149 per month and adds a higher-spec VPS, SIP trunk setup assistance, call recording storage, priority support, a 99.5% uptime SLA, and custom IVR setup. Enterprise includes dedicated infrastructure, custom integrations, SLA guarantees, on-premise deployment assistance, and support tailored to the deployment.
The ecosystem fit is practical for teams already working with SignalWire, Twilio, Telnyx, Vonage, or other SIP providers. Its API and event support also suit technical teams connecting telephony to internal systems, while web access supports browser-based administration. ShadowPBX is the stronger choice for organizations prioritizing source access, deployment control, call-center features, and routing flexibility. Teams seeking a simpler phone service with less infrastructure responsibility should favor a managed approach, while organizations needing the Pro-only setup and storage features should budget accordingly.
ShadowPBX pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Full source code, unlimited extensions, and unlimited concurrent calls
- IVR, queues, recording, dialers, and supervisor monitoring
- REST API, WebSocket events, and multiple SIP provider integrations
- Where it doesn't
- Self-Hosted relies on your own deployment and community support
- SIP trunk setup assistance is limited to the Managed Pro plan
- Custom IVR setup and recording storage are listed on Pro, not Starter
ShadowPBX fact sheet, pricing and score →
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