Quick summary: A hosted PBX is a business phone system where the infrastructure lives in the cloud rather than in hardware at your premises — your provider manages it, you just use it. Dromlik, a hosted PBX provider for Irish businesses, delivers intelligent call routing, IVR, call recording, mobile and desktop apps, and an AI receptionist from €12/user/month (annual billing). There’s no hardware to buy, no engineer visits, no IT team required. Your existing Irish numbers port across free of charge, and the Dromlik team configures everything for you. For Irish SMBs that want a professional phone system without the complexity of managing it themselves, a hosted PBX is the correct answer in 2026.
What Is a Hosted PBX?
PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange — the technology that manages how calls are routed within a business. For decades, this meant a physical hardware cabinet installed on your premises: expensive to buy, expensive to maintain, requiring an engineer every time something needed changing.
A hosted PBX does exactly the same job, but the hardware and software live on servers managed by your provider — not in your office. Your team accesses the system through apps on their existing mobiles and laptops. Configuration changes happen through a dashboard. Support calls go to your provider, not an on-site engineer.
The result: a more capable system, lower total cost, zero hardware maintenance, and a setup that works whether your team is in an office, at home, or on site.
An on-premise PBX is a box you own, maintain, and pay an engineer to update. A hosted PBX is a service your provider maintains — you pay a monthly subscription and get a phone system that’s always up to date, always supported, and never requires a hardware replacement.
Why Irish Businesses Choose Dromlik for Hosted PBX
No hardware, no upfront cost. A traditional on-premise PBX for a 10-person office could cost €3,000–€8,000 in hardware alone, plus installation and annual maintenance. Dromlik’s hosted PBX starts at €12/user/month — no capital expenditure, no depreciation, no hardware to replace when it becomes obsolete.
Fully managed setup. Dromlik configures your routing rules, IVR menus, greetings, and integrations as part of onboarding. You don’t need a telephony engineer or an IT partner. Most Irish businesses are live within a week of first contact.
Irish local numbers and free porting. Any existing Irish number ports across free of charge, managed by the Dromlik team with no gap in service. New numbers across 15 Irish area codes are available from €5/month.
EU-hosted infrastructure. Call recordings, contact data, and call logs are stored within the EU as standard — GDPR-compliant by default, with no additional data transfer agreements required.
Works on any device. The Dromlik app runs on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. Your team takes business calls on their existing devices. If you prefer desk phones, Yealink IP phones connect automatically via SIP — but hardware is optional, not required.
Scales without friction. Adding a new team member takes minutes — no engineer visit, no new hardware, no waiting. Removing someone is equally immediate. For growing Irish businesses, this flexibility is a significant operational advantage over on-premise alternatives.
Hosted PBX vs the Alternatives
| On-Premise PBX | Basic VoIP Line | Hosted PBX (Dromlik) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront hardware cost | €3,000–€10,000+ | None | None |
| Monthly cost | Maintenance + calls | €10–€20/line | €12–€27/user/month |
| Setup | Engineer visit | Self-service | Managed by Dromlik |
| Call routing and IVR | ✓ (complex to change) | Basic | ✓ (visual designer) |
| Mobile app | Rarely | Sometimes | ✓ |
| Call recording | ✓ (extra cost) | ✗ | ✓ Included |
| CRM integration | Rarely | ✗ | ✓ (Orbit plan) |
| AI receptionist | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ Add-on |
| Scales without hardware | ✗ | Partial | ✓ |
| EU data hosting | Depends | Depends | ✓ Standard |
| Support | Engineer (billed) | Self-service | Direct, Irish hours |
Getting Started
Dromlik offers a 7-day free trial with no setup fees. Your existing numbers port across during the trial — your team is live and taking calls within days of first contact. Book a demo to see the system configured for your specific setup.
What a Hosted PBX Gives Your Business
Professional Call Routing
A hosted PBX routes calls intelligently from the moment someone dials your number. During business hours, calls ring the team simultaneously — whoever’s free picks up. Outside hours, callers hear a professional after-hours message or reach an AI receptionist. On Irish bank holidays, a specific message plays automatically. Different departments — sales, support, accounts — get different routing rules. All of this is configured once and runs without anyone switching anything on or off.
IVR — Auto-Attendant Menus
An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) menu greets callers and directs them to the right team or extension before a human gets involved. “Press 1 for sales, press 2 for support, press 3 for accounts.” For businesses with multiple departments, this reduces internal transfers and gets callers to the right person faster.
Dromlik’s visual call flow designer lets you build and update IVR logic from a drag-and-drop interface — no configuration files, no support ticket required. Available on the Orbit plan.
Voicemail to Email
Missed call voicemails are delivered as audio files to the relevant person’s email inbox — with optional transcription. No dialling into a voicemail system, no messages sitting unheard for days. Every missed call gets followed up.
Call Recording
Every call recorded automatically and stored within the EU. Accessible from the dashboard — searchable by date, number, agent, or duration. Linked directly to the relevant CRM contact or activity log when CRM integration is enabled.
For Irish businesses in regulated sectors — financial services, legal, healthcare — call recording is often a compliance requirement. For everyone else, it’s useful for training, quality, and dispute resolution.
Mobile and Desktop Apps
The Dromlik app runs on any device. Your team makes and receives business calls on their existing mobiles and laptops — customers always see the business number, not a personal mobile. Call Flip lets a team member move a live call seamlessly from desktop to mobile without dropping the caller.
For trades businesses, field teams, and anyone who’s not desk-bound, this is the feature that makes a hosted PBX meaningfully better than a landline.
AI Receptionist
Niamh, Dromlik’s AI receptionist, answers calls when your team can’t — during busy periods, after hours, or when everyone is on another call. She handles common queries, takes bookings, captures detailed messages, and routes urgent calls to the right person with full context.
Available as a system-wide add-on at €100/month — not per user.
CRM and Helpdesk Integration
On Dromlik’s Orbit plan, your hosted PBX connects natively to HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, and Zendesk. Calls log automatically, screen pops surface customer records before you answer, and outbound calls are made with one click from inside your CRM.
Microsoft Teams Integration
For businesses already using Teams internally, Dromlik adds external calling directly into the Teams interface — without a Microsoft Teams Phone licence or Calling Plan. See the Teams integration page.
Is a Hosted PBX Right for Every Business?
A hosted PBX is the right choice for most Irish SMBs in 2026. The exceptions are narrow:
On-premise may still make sense if:
- Your business has a specific regulatory requirement to host phone infrastructure on your own premises
- You have an existing on-premise investment that hasn’t reached end of life and the migration cost isn’t justified yet
- You operate in a location with genuinely unreliable broadband and need calls to work independently of internet connectivity
For the vast majority of Irish businesses — particularly those with mobile teams, remote workers, or multiple locations — the advantages of a hosted PBX are clear and the disadvantages are largely theoretical.
A common concern with hosted PBX: what happens if the internet goes down? Dromlik has automatic failover — if your broadband connection drops, inbound calls reroute to the Dromlik mobile app or a designated mobile number. Your business number keeps working.
Hosted PBX for Different Irish Business Types
The same hosted PBX platform works differently depending on how a business operates:
Trades and construction — mobile-first, no desk phones needed, AI receptionist captures job enquiries on site. Construction page.
Restaurants — AI handles reservation calls during service, booking systems integration, WhatsApp confirmations. Restaurants page.
Recruitment — CRM integration logs every candidate and client call automatically, skill-based routing to the right consultant. Recruitment page.
Professional services — call recording for compliance, after-hours handling for client enquiries, CRM integration. Financial services page.
Medical and dental clinics — EU-hosted recording for GDPR compliance, after-hours triage routing, appointment reminders. Medical clinics post.
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | What’s Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nucleus | €15/user/month | €12/user/month | Calling, IVR, call routing, voicemail to email, call recording, mobile and desktop apps, Teams integration |
| Orbit | €27/user/month | €22/user/month | Everything in Nucleus plus omnichannel messaging (WhatsApp, SMS, chat), CRM integrations, call centre queues, visual call flow designer, AI transcription |
| AI Receptionist (Niamh) | +€100/month system-wide | +€100/month system-wide | 24/7 AI call answering, 200 minutes included |
| Call recording upgrade | +€40/month system-wide | +€40/month system-wide | 500 → 10,000 minutes of storage |
| AI transcription upgrade | +€20/month system-wide | +€20/month system-wide | Up to 500 mins/month of transcription |
Irish local numbers from €5/month. Free number porting. No setup fees. 7-day free trial.
See the full pricing breakdown.
Get your hosted PBX set up in under a week
The Dromlik team configures everything — routing, IVR, integrations, and number porting. Free 7-day trial, no setup fees, live in days.
