Cloud PBX vs On-Prem PBX Cost in Singapore: A Five-Year Comparison

How much does cloud PBX cost compared with an on-prem PBX in Singapore? Dromlik Nucleus starts at S$15/user/month on annual billing, while Orbit costs S$32/user/month on annual billing. For a 10-person team, Nucleus subscriptions cost S$150 per month and S$9,000 over five years, assuming unchanged pricing and user numbers. These figures exclude phone numbers and call charges.

An on-prem PBX needs a like-for-like supplier quote: include hardware, licences, installation, support, maintenance and any replacement costs across the same five years. This guide shows cloud subscription totals by team size and the costs to check on both sides; it does not use unverified on-prem prices or promise a fixed saving. See current Dromlik plans and billing options before comparing quotes.

Cloud PBX vs On-Prem PBX at a Glance

Cloud PBX Cost in Singapore by Team Size (2026)

These are Dromlik's published 2026 prices on annual billing, in Singapore dollars, before phone numbers and call charges. Nucleus is the business phone system. Orbit adds contact centre features and CRM integrations.

There are no setup fees and no hardware to buy. If you want desk phones, you can add Yealink handsets, or keep compatible ones you already own. To compare fairly, put these figures next to a five-year on-prem quote that includes every cost listed below.

The Capex Argument, Taken Seriously

Dromlik, a cloud phone system for Singapore businesses, is a subscription product, so it's fair to say up front that we have a stake in this question. That's exactly why the on-prem argument deserves a real hearing rather than a dismissal.

The case goes like this: an on-prem PBX is a one-time purchase. Once it's paid for, you're not sending a monthly bill to a provider for the next decade. A cloud subscription, by contrast, never ends. Over a long enough horizon, the cumulative subscription cost overtakes the purchase price, and on-prem comes out ahead. That logic is sound. The question is whether the purchase price is really the whole cost of running the system, and that's where it tends to break down.

What the Sticker Price Leaves Out

• Maintenance and support contracts. On-prem systems usually need an ongoing support agreement with the installer or vendor, and those recur every year.

• Hardware refresh. A PBX server doesn't last forever. Over a five-to-ten-year horizon you should expect at least one hardware replacement or major upgrade, which resets part of the capex you thought you'd finished paying.

• Software upgrades and security patching. Someone has to apply them. If nobody does, you carry the security risk. If somebody does, you're paying for their time.

• Space, power, and cooling. Even a small server or rack takes room and electricity, and floor space in Singapore isn't cheap.

• IT staff time. Every moves-adds-changes request, call flow edit, or fault becomes a job for an internal admin or a paid callout, instead of a few clicks in a dashboard.

• Downtime risk. If your one PBX box fails and you don't have a tested failover, your business phones are down until it's fixed. A cloud provider spreads that risk across managed infrastructure.

• Scaling and flexibility. Growth, a second office, or a hybrid-working shift can each mean new licences, new hardware, or new networking work. On-prem is cheapest when your needs never change, and few businesses' needs don't change.

• Trunks and numbers still cost money. On-prem doesn't remove your calling costs. You still pay for SIP trunks or lines and for numbers, so that part of the bill is common to both models.

A Simple Way to Run the Numbers Yourself

Rather than take our word for it, compare the two over the same period, using everything each option actually costs.

For a worked cloud example using our published pricing: 100 users on the Nucleus plan billed annually is S$15 per user per month, which is S$1,500 a month, S$18,000 a year, and S$90,000 over five years, before numbers and calling. Orbit, which adds contact centre features and CRM integrations, is S$32 per user per month on annual billing.

Now ask your on-prem vendor for a five-year quote for the same 100 users that includes all of the following:

• Hardware, licences, and installation

• Annual support and maintenance

• The expected refresh or major upgrade within the period

• Any server room, power, or rack costs

• The internal or external IT time needed to run it

• Whatever you'd need to add for remote and hybrid users

If the on-prem total, honestly assembled, is meaningfully lower than the cloud figure, that's real information and you should weigh it. What we see far more often is that the gap is small or reverses once the items above are counted, and that the cloud option comes with flexibility the on-prem quote doesn't. Your accountant can also tell you how capex and opex are treated differently for accounting and tax purposes in your situation, which can change the comparison in either direction.

Why Cloud Tends to Win for Most Singapore Businesses

• Hybrid work is normal now. Staff answering the office line from a laptop or mobile app is standard on cloud and an add-on project on on-prem.

• Strong local connectivity. Widely available fibre broadband in Singapore means the internet-dependence concern behind some on-prem decisions is much smaller here than in many markets.

• Local hosting. Dromlik's system is hosted in Singapore, so call infrastructure stays local rather than sitting in an overseas data centre.

• Growth without a project. Adding a team, a department, or a location is a configuration change, not a procurement exercise. See our guide to multi-department call routing for what that looks like at scale.

• Modern features arrive without an upgrade cycle. An AI receptionist, CRM integrations, and omnichannel messaging are added to the platform rather than requiring a new hardware generation.

• Keep the handsets you like. Cloud doesn't mean giving up desk phones. Yealink SIP phones work with it as normal.

Want Us to Run the Comparison With You?

If you're weighing an on-prem renewal or replacement against a move to the Dromlik cloud phone system, we're happy to build the five-year comparison with you using your real user count and your current quote. If you're worried about the move itself, our guides on migrating 100+ users without downtime and switching to VoIP cover how it's done.

When On-Prem Still Makes Sense

A fair comparison has to include the cases where on-prem is the better choice, and there are real ones:

• Large, stable, single-site organisations with a long planning horizon, predictable headcount, and a capable in-house telecoms or IT team already carrying the maintenance load.

• Strict internal requirements that mandate keeping all voice infrastructure on your own premises, for example certain security or regulatory postures. Check your actual obligations with your compliance team rather than assuming.

• Sunk investment that's still healthy. If you bought a modern system recently and it's performing well, ripping it out early rarely makes financial sense. The right time to compare is at a refresh or renewal point.

• Poor or unreliable connectivity at a site, where a locally hosted system genuinely removes a dependency.

For a business that doesn't fit those descriptions, such as one that's growing, has hybrid staff, has more than one location, or doesn't want to run telecoms infrastructure as a side job, the total-cost picture usually favours cloud. The only way to know for your business is to price both options across the full period, as above.