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Thunder Bay already has a hosted phone system. Tbaytel Unifi is the one most people know. DVGVoIP is the other one: hosted 3CX, published per-user rates, same city.
This is not a pile-on. Both are hosted. Both skip a closet PBX. Tbaytel publishes its rates, we publish ours, and this post just puts the two cards next to each other and does the arithmetic.
What Unifi posts
From Tbaytel’s Unifi Plans page, checked again August 28, 2026:
| Plan | Months 1–36 | Months 37+ | Long distance | Hardware & apps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $24.95/mo | $29.95/mo | 3¢/min North America | Self-care portal, HD voice |
| Enhanced | $34.95/mo | $39.95/mo | Unlimited Canada & US | Polycom VVX 250 set, soft client, presence |
| Premium | $39.95/mo | $44.95/mo | Unlimited Canada & US | Polycom VVX 250 set, soft client, mobile app, Call Grabber |
Two things to be straight about. Enhanced and Premium both include the Polycom VVX 250 desk set — Premium is not the app-only tier, it is Enhanced plus the mobile app and Call Grabber. And the headline price is a months 1–36 rate. From month 37 the regular rate applies. Tbaytel’s plans page does not publish a term commitment or a cancellation fee for Unifi voice, so we are not going to claim one.
The part that is not on the plan tiles
Open the Additional Details panel on the same page and Unifi lists premium features with prices:
| Feature | Tbaytel Unifi | DVGVoIP hosted 3CX |
|---|---|---|
| Auto attendant | $16.95/mo | Included, Starter and up |
| Call queue | $9.95/mo | Included, Business and up |
| Ring group | $9.95/mo | Included, Business and up |
| Fax to email | $9.95/mo | Quoted with your setup |
| Paging group | $9.95/mo | Quoted with your setup |
That is the real difference, and it is bigger than the seat price. An auto attendant and one call queue is $26.90/month of add-ons at Unifi. Those are line items on our plan table, not a bill.
What DVGVoIP posts
From our pricing page:
| Plan | Month-to-month | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $22/user/mo | 1–10 users. Unlimited Canada & US. Mobile + PC apps. IVR. Up to 2 DIDs. |
| Business | $19/user/mo | 11–50 users. Queues, recording, conference bridge, CRM, up to 5 DIDs. |
| Enterprise | Custom | 51+ / multi-site. Unlimited DIDs, SLA. |
Annual saves up to 10%. Every plan includes number porting, CRTC-compliant E911, platform updates and support, month to month. No setup fee on a standard deployment. Desk phones are sold separately.
Twelve seats, with the arithmetic
A 12-person office that wants unlimited Canada/US calling, a mobile app, one auto attendant and one call queue. Unifi’s published add-on prices are listed per month without saying per seat, so we have costed one of each for the whole business — the reading most favourable to Unifi.
| Unifi Premium, months 1–36 | Unifi Premium, months 37+ | DVGVoIP Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 seats | $479.40 | $539.40 | $228.00 |
| Auto attendant | $16.95 | $16.95 | included |
| Call queue | $9.95 | $9.95 | included |
| Monthly | $506.30 | $566.30 | $228.00 |
$278.30 a month during the promo. Over the 36 months, $10,018.80.
Now the honest offset: Unifi Premium includes a Polycom VVX 250 on every seat, and we do not include hardware. So net the phones off. For twelve desk sets to close a $10,018.80 gap, they would have to cost about $835 each. A VVX 250-class set does not.
A 6-person shop that mostly calls local is closer. Unifi Basic is $24.95 promo, $29.95 regular, plus 3¢/min any time someone dials the rest of Canada or the US. Our Starter is $22 with the long distance already on the card. At Basic, roughly 100 minutes of long distance a month is where the two lines cross.
Both sets of numbers exclude taxes, and neither includes the internet circuit underneath.
Where Unifi genuinely wins
Skip us if these matter more than the seat rate:
- One bill, one throat to choke. If you already buy Tbaytel fibre, voice on the same invoice from the same carrier is a real convenience, and they own the last mile into your building.
- A desk phone in the seat price. Enhanced and Premium bundle the VVX 250. No hardware quote, no capital line, no asset to track.
- Nobody to manage it. Carrier-managed means you do not need an IT partner in the loop. If that is the point, that is a good reason.
We are not cheaper on a free phone. We are cheaper on the seat and on the features, and the price on our page is the price in month 37.
What 3CX adds that the rate card does not
Queues, recording, conference bridge and HubSpot/Salesforce sit on Business and above. Video for up to 250 participants is Enterprise. Porting and CRTC-compliant E911 are on every plan. If the internet dies, calls can fail over to a mobile or backup destination. And the same Thunder Bay team can run the network the phones ride on, because DVGVoIP is a division of DVG Systems.
How to actually check this yourself
Do not take our table for it. Tbaytel’s rates are Tbaytel’s, they can change them, and the plans page is the source that matters. Open it, open ours, and do three things:
- Count your seats and multiply. Both cards are per user per month.
- Add the features you actually use. Auto attendant, queues, ring groups, fax — check which side charges for each one.
- Price month 37, not month 1. A promo rate is not the rate. It is the first three years of it.
Send the current bill and we will map it to the card in 24–48 hours. Standard hosted cutover is about 48 hours. Book a free assessment, or run the numbers yourself with the savings calculator.
Short answers
Is Tbaytel Unifi or hosted 3CX cheaper in Thunder Bay?
On the published cards, hosted 3CX is cheaper per seat. Unifi Premium is $39.95 per user for months 1–36 and $44.95 after; DVGVoIP Business is $19 per user month to month. Unifi includes a desk phone in the seat; we do not. Features like an auto attendant and call queue are paid add-ons at Unifi and included with us.
How much does a Tbaytel Unifi auto attendant cost?
Tbaytel’s Unifi Plans page lists the auto attendant at $16.95 per month, call queue at $9.95, ring group at $9.95, fax to email at $9.95 and paging group at $9.95. On hosted 3CX from DVGVoIP, the auto attendant is included from Starter and queues and ring groups from Business.
Does the Unifi price go up after the promo?
Yes. Tbaytel publishes the promotional rate for months 1–36 and a regular rate from month 37: Basic $24.95 to $29.95, Enhanced $34.95 to $39.95, Premium $39.95 to $44.95. Our $22 and $19 seats are month to month with no promo period.
Does Unifi include a desk phone?
Unifi Enhanced and Premium both include a Polycom VVX 250 set. Basic does not. DVGVoIP sells desk phones separately, so compare the seat rate and the hardware as two different lines.
Should I switch from Tbaytel Unifi to hosted 3CX?
Only after you price both against your own bill. If you want voice on the same invoice as your fibre and a phone bundled into the seat, Unifi is the simpler buy. If you want a lower per-seat rate, features included instead of billed, and month-to-month terms, that is us.
Sources: Tbaytel Unifi Plans and Unifi overview, both as published August 28, 2026, including the premium-features prices in the Additional Details panel. DVGVoIP pricing. Rates on either side can change without notice — check both pages before you decide. Not a contract.
Update, September 2026: the full side-by-side, with the add-on prices and the month-37 rate, now lives on our DVGVoIP vs Tbaytel Unifi comparison page.