Since the announcement of FreePBX 17 GA, we’ve been pleased to witness its steady and growing adoption. As the FreePBX 17 install base expands, our team diligently conducts additional development and QA for PBXact, the commercially supported PBX system built on Asterisk and FreePBX. We are excited to announce the completion of our work, and today we officially release PBXact 17 GA.

PBXact 17 offers the following key features:

• Debian OS: PBXact 17 running on Debian 12 GNU/Linux offers several advantages, including enhanced stability, improved security, and streamlined performance. The Debian base provides a reliable environment, backed by regular updates and strong community support. We have thoroughly tested and verified that the Debian OS is fully compatible with all our appliances, whether they operate with or without analog/digital hardware cards.
• PHP 8.2 Support: Keeping current with PHP support, PBXact 17 uses PHP 8.2, with security support guaranteed through December 2026.
• Asterisk 21 Support – Version 17 is the first PBXact release that supports Asterisk 21. It includes significant updates to the PBXact-generated dialplan, designed to accommodate:
  • Upgrade to the chan_pjsip SIP driver, with improved performance and scalability.
  • Removal of the chan_sip SIP driver, which was deprecated in Asterisk 17 and removed from Asterisk 21.
  • Move from the deprecated Asterisk Macro application to GoSub.
  • Removal of the Asterisk MySQL application(s).
• Updated NodeJS and Front End Libraries: PBXact 17 stays up-to-date with tech and security trends by using NodeJS v18.16, and updating numerous front-end libraries, including jQuery, Bootstrap, and their dependencies.