The Best Softphones in 2026, and How to Actually Pick One

If you’ve ever made a phone call from your laptop, you’ve probably used a softphone without knowing the name for it. A softphone is just an app — desktop, mobile, or browser-based — that turns a computer or phone into a business telephone, using your internet connection instead of a phone line. No handset required, no wiring, no visit from an installer.

The category has quietly become essential to how offices work. Remote and hybrid teams need a phone number that follows a person rather than a desk, and a softphone is usually the cheapest, fastest way to get one. But “softphone” covers a wide range of products — from bare-bones free apps built for engineers, to fully managed business phone systems with a monthly bill attached. Picking the best softphone for your situation depends less on which one wins in the abstract, and more on which one fits how you actually work.

I looked at six established names in the space — 3CX, Zoiper, Linphone, MicroSIP, Bria, and Siperb — and compared them on the things that actually matter: platform support, how they connect to a phone system, pricing, and who they’re really built for.

What to look for in a softphone

Platform coverage. Does it run on the devices your team actually uses — Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, or a browser tab with nothing to install?

PBX compatibility. Most softphones speak SIP, the signalling protocol behind most business phone systems, including Asterisk, FreePBX, and FreeSWITCH. A newer generation is built around WebRTC instead — the same real-time tech browsers use for video calls — and bridges that to SIP behind the scenes. (We’ve covered how WebRTC softphones actually work in more technical depth separately, if you want the mechanics.)

Pricing model. Per-user monthly fee, per-concurrent-call licence, or free and open source — these lead to very different bills depending on how many people are calling at once versus how many people just need an account.

Security. Encrypted signalling and media (SRTP, TLS, DTLS) should be table stakes by 2026, not a premium add-on.

A note on method: pricing and features below were checked directly against each vendor’s own site in August 2026. Vendor pricing changes often, so treat this as a snapshot, not gospel — confirm current pricing before you buy.

3CX

3CX is less a softphone and more a full phone system that happens to include one. It’s the most feature-complete option here if you want a single platform handling call routing, extensions, and client apps end to end — self-hosted or hosted by 3CX itself.

The trade-off is cost and complexity relative to a lightweight softphone. 3CX removed its free tier at the end of January 2026, and pricing now runs on simultaneous-call licences rather than per-user seats — plans start around $305/year for four concurrent calls. That model rewards larger teams (the 64-line tier works out to under $7 per extension per year) but makes 3CX overkill for a small team that just wants a calling app.

Best for: businesses that want 3CX to be their entire phone system, not just the calling app.

Zoiper

Zoiper has been a fixture of the SIP softphone world for years, largely because it’s genuinely cross-platform — Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, all from one vendor — and its free tier is usable, not a crippled trial. Paid plans add call recording, CRM integrations, and Outlook/Thunderbird plugins for around $2.99/month for a single user.

It’s a solid, unglamorous choice: not the newest interface, but reliable, and it plugs into almost any SIP-based PBX without drama.

Best for: teams that want one app across every platform without committing to a full hosted phone system.

Linphone

Linphone is the purist’s option — 100% open source, with a client for every major desktop and mobile platform, and a genuinely serious security story: end-to-end encrypted messaging via the Signal Protocol, and even an optional post-quantum cryptography extension.

It interoperates cleanly with the usual open-source PBX stack (Asterisk, FreePBX, FreeSWITCH, Kamailio), and can be deployed as SaaS, on-premise, or in a private cloud. The cost of that flexibility is a steeper setup curve than a plug-and-play commercial app — this is a tool built by and for people comfortable configuring their own communication stack.

Best for: developers and technical teams who want full control and don’t mind a DIY setup.

MicroSIP

MicroSIP is the minimalist’s softphone: free, open source, built on the PJSIP stack, and Windows-only. It does the basics — calls, call recording, voicemail, instant messaging, SRTP/TLS encryption — in a genuinely lightweight package that starts fast and stays out of your way.

The obvious limitation is platform coverage: no native Mac, Linux, iOS, or Android client, which rules it out for any team that isn’t Windows-only.

Best for: individual Windows users or small teams who want a free, no-frills SIP client and nothing more.

Bria (CounterPath)

Bria has been in the enterprise softphone market for a long time, and it shows in the polish: a consistent, professional interface across desktop and mobile, aimed squarely at business users. Pricing starts at $2.95/month for a single user (Bria Solo) and $4.95/month for small teams (Bria Teams), with custom Enterprise pricing above that.

It’s a safe, well-supported choice for a business that wants a conventional SIP softphone from an established vendor, without needing the deeper PBX-replacement features of something like 3CX.

Best for: businesses that want a polished, vendor-supported softphone without switching their entire phone system.

Siperb

Siperb takes a different approach from most of the above: instead of a SIP softphone, it’s a WebRTC one, paired with a hosted proxy that translates between WebRTC and the SIP your PBX already speaks — Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, or any other SIP-based system. In practice, that means the client runs natively in a browser tab as well as an installable app for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, without requiring a PBX that isn’t WebRTC-ready to become one.

The core client is free, with a genuinely usable tier — audio/video calling, call transfer, 3-way conferencing, provisioning, end-to-end encryption — rather than a stripped demo. Paid tiers add message and call-recording storage, technical support, and media transcoding, priced per domain user from £2/month, with volume discounts as user count grows. The underlying Browser Phone client is open source (AGPL-3.0) on GitHub, so teams that would rather self-host than use the hosted proxy have that option too.

Best for: teams on a WebRTC-capable, Asterisk, or FreeSWITCH-based PBX who want a browser-first client without giving up desktop and mobile apps.

Other names you’ll see mentioned

You’ll also see Zoom Phone, RingCentral, Vonage, and Dialpad recommended for softphone functionality. Worth knowing that these are full unified-communications platforms first, with a softphone app bundled in — not softphones in the dedicated sense above. If you already run one of those for everything else, their built-in phone app is often the path of least resistance. The six above are for teams that want a dedicated calling client rather than a whole platform.

Which one should you actually pick?

There isn’t a single winner, because these six aren’t really competing for the same job. Want a phone system, not just a phone app? 3CX. Want maximum control and don’t mind configuring things yourself? Linphone. Windows-only and want something free and unfussy? MicroSIP. Want a polished, vendor-supported client without deeper commitments? Zoiper or Bria are both safe, mature choices. And if your PBX is WebRTC-ready — or you’d rather your team called from a browser tab than installed anything at all — Siperb is worth a look specifically for that reason.

The honest answer to “which softphone is best” is the same as most software questions: the one that fits how your PBX and your team already work, not the one with the longest feature list.