Apps / FreePBX
Managed FreePBX hosting.
One server, no app limits.
The Asterisk-based phone system for one business, deployed hardened: SIP over TLS, fail2ban watching every registration, international dialing off until you turn it on. Bring your Twilio trunk; calls bill with them, the server bills with us.
What it is
FreePBX 17 is the open-source phone system built on Asterisk: extensions, ring groups, IVR menus, queues, voicemail to email, and a web admin for all of it. It runs one business per server, which is exactly the shape of a managed server that is yours alone. The current release installs on Debian 12 through the official Sangoma script, and that is what our playbook uses.
Minimum RAM
2 GB
Fits on SC-2GB; SC-4GB is the comfortable pick with room to stack.
What we install
FreePBX 17 on Debian 12 in a container on host networking, because SIP and RTP do not tolerate NAT. Before handover: fail2ban with the SIP filter active, SIP over TLS on 5061 wherever the trunk allows it, SRTP on, 32-character extension secrets generated for you, international dialing disabled, and the admin UI behind the server's HTTPS. Your Twilio Elastic SIP trunk is pre-staged: all 8 Twilio US signaling addresses trusted, secure trunking on, so you paste your termination and origination credentials and make the first call.
What managed covers
Server and container updates with snapshots first, daily snapshots plus dual offsite backups of your configuration, recordings, and voicemail, monitoring on Asterisk and the trunk registration, the managed firewall, and humans on call. Dial plans, extensions, and phone provisioning are yours to run; the platform underneath stays patched and locked.
The app is $0. The managed server is the only bill, and everything above is part of it.
What does managed FreePBX hosting include?
A hardened FreePBX 17 deployment on your own managed server, with the trunk pre-staged, the attack surface closed, and the boring parts (patching, backups, monitoring, firewall) handled by us for the life of the server. The install is $0; the managed server is the only bill. Commercial Sangoma modules such as Endpoint Manager are bought from Sangoma and drop into the same install.
Why is hardening the whole story for a hosted PBX?
Because a phone system on a public IP is scanned for credentials within minutes of going live, and a compromised extension dials premium international numbers on your trunk at your expense. Toll fraud is the risk that makes small businesses regret self-hosting, so every install ships with the defenses already on: fail2ban bans sources after failed SIP registrations, extension secrets are 32 random characters instead of the four-digit passwords scanners guess first, international dialing is disabled until you enable the destinations you actually call, signaling runs over TLS on port 5061 where the trunk supports it, and the admin UI never sits on plain HTTP.
How does FreePBX connect to Twilio?
Through Twilio Elastic SIP Trunking, which is standard SIP with no proprietary connector. The playbook pre-configures the trunk for secure trunking (SIP over TLS with SRTP media) and trusts Twilio's two US gateway ranges, four addresses each in Virginia and Oregon, so calls fail over between regions without touching your config. At handover you paste your Twilio termination credentials and your origination URI, point your Twilio numbers at the server, and you are on the PSTN. Any other SIP trunk provider works the same way; Twilio is simply the one we pre-stage.
Who pays for the calls?
Your trunk provider bills your minutes and numbers directly; we never resell telephony. This is the same bring-your-own model as the API keys on our AI apps: the server, the hardening, and the operations are ours, the carrier relationship is yours, and there is no markup between you and Twilio's published rates.
How much server does FreePBX need?
2 GB of RAM and 20 GB of disk is the official floor for FreePBX 17, and it handles a small office comfortably. Ten to thirty concurrent calls with recording enabled want 4 GB. Voice is latency-sensitive: we recommend a server of its own for production phones so a busy website or a mail scan never adds jitter to a call, and so a compromise elsewhere on the box can never reach the trunk. Stacking is allowed; the recommendation is yours to take or leave.
FreePBX or FusionPBX?
FreePBX for one business that wants the most widely known Asterisk admin, the largest pool of installers and tutorials, and Sangoma's commercial modules as an option. FusionPBX for agencies and MSPs that need a phone system per client on one server, since FreePBX has no multi-tenancy. They are mutually exclusive on a server: the cart lets you pick one PBX per order.
Stack it
FreePBX runs well with.
Same server, no extra bill. These are the companions our team installs next to FreePBX most often.
WireGuard
+1 GBThe modern VPN protocol, deployed with client configs ready to import and the tunnel verified working.
Uptime Kuma
+1 GBThe self-hosted uptime monitor everyone loves. Watch your sites from your own server.
Frequently asked questions
Does fax work over FreePBX?
Not reliably, and we promise nothing here. Fax over IP depends on T.38 support end to end, and most SIP trunks do not carry it well; Twilio's own trunk configuration guides turn T.38 off. If fax matters to your business, keep a dedicated online fax service; do not route it through the PBX.
Can I send and receive SMS from FreePBX?
No. Neither FreePBX nor FusionPBX has a native texting client the way 3CX does. The answer on this shelf is Chatwoot, which takes a Twilio SMS number as an inbox channel, so texts land in a shared team inbox next to email and chat. It installs alongside the PBX or on its own server.
Is FreePBX free, and what costs extra?
FreePBX is open source under the GPL and we install it at $0. Sangoma sells commercial modules (Endpoint Manager, SysAdmin Pro, and others) which you buy from Sangoma and activate in the same install; we do not resell them. Trunk minutes and numbers bill with your carrier.
What about 911 and emergency calls?
Emergency calling works only when your trunk provider has a registered emergency address for your numbers and the dial plan routes it correctly. We set the route at install; registering the address with Twilio is your step, and we will not call a system emergency-ready until you have done it.
Will you migrate my phones from 3CX or another PBX?
Yes: extensions, ring groups, IVR trees, and voicemail greetings are rebuilt or imported, your phones are re-provisioned, and your numbers move when you cut over. Two honest losses from 3CX: no one-click Twilio auto-configuration (you paste credentials instead) and no built-in SMS client. Everything else maps.
Sizing an app stack? The VPS sizing calculator recommends a plan from your apps and traffic, with the math shown.
Shared CPU servers
The right home for FreePBX and most stacks: 3.0+ GHz vCPU, from $10/mo.
See Shared CPU →Dedicated CPU servers
For CPU-hungry stacks and busy databases: cores that are physically yours.
See Dedicated CPU →All plans and pricing
Every plan, both families, one honest price with everything included.
See pricing →Your server runs. You sleep.
Fully managed hosting from people who have been doing this since 2001.