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Avaya Spaces vs Skype for Business comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Avaya Spaces
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Social Software (15th)
Skype for Business
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. Avaya Spaces is designed for Enterprise Social Software and holds a mindshare of 1.9%, up 1.2% compared to last year.
Skype for Business, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Meetings, holds 3.8% mindshare, down 11.6% since last year.
Enterprise Social Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Avaya Spaces1.9%
Slack Business - Enterprise10.5%
Microsoft Teams7.4%
Other80.2%
Enterprise Social Software
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Skype for Business3.8%
Zoom Workplace Business7.0%
Webex5.1%
Other84.1%
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

TM
Channel Director at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Video meetings and presentation sharing impress but user-friendliness and pricing need attention
I don't have experience with how Avaya Spaces handles integration with other software tools, but perhaps my partners have experience regarding integration with different vendors. If Avaya can integrate Spaces with other media solutions, such as WhatsApp or WeChat, it will be more friendly and useful for customers or partners.
MD
Assistant Information Technology Officer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Internal communication has become more efficient while mobile usage still needs improvement
The honest answer is that the product has not really evolved in some time. Microsoft has been pushing everyone towards Teams and Skype for Business has been in maintenance mode for a while. The mobile experience is also not great. Staff who try to use it on their phones find it less reliable than the desktop version, calls drop more, and the interface is clunky. For a modern workforce that expects everything to work on mobile, that is a gap. Despite the initial setup challenges and mobile issues, we have noticed positive outcomes for our organization since adopting Skype for Business. I rate Skype for Business seven out of ten. I think that Skype for Business has served us well for what it is. A government office has different expectations from a fast-moving private company. We value stability and security over the newest features. On those terms, Skype for Business has delivered.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Stability for Avaya Spaces is quite good, and I would rate it a 9."
"The microphone's noise cancellation and static feature that record a human's voice are some of the most valuable features."
"We use the solution for document sharing, video conferencing, instant messaging, and file sharing."
"The solution appears to be quite stable."
"The most valuable features of Skype for Business include its persistent chat, Edge Server, Reverse Proxy, front-end server, back-end server, and business calling capabilities, among others."
"Using this solution has helped us to cut long distance calls, as well as video services from third parties."
"Skype for Business is a scalable solution and we have approximately 350 people using this solution across all departments."
"The tool's most valuable features are its audio and chat functions. They help us save time and have good telephone integration."
"Our employees use this solution for a communal space to collaborate for organizational decision making."
"The stability was good; there are no bugs or glitches, it doesn't crash or freeze, and it's reliable."
"Skype Business is the best program that performs this type of service, and it is a benchmark in the market."
 

Cons

"There were some additional features coming up, as they informed us through email. But we didn't get any update on them."
"The audio calling service needs to improve its quality."
"The initial setup for Avaya Spaces is very good for me, but for sharing with other users, the setup is a little bit complex compared to other solutions I have used, such as Zoom or Teams, as the installation is more complex."
"The challenge we had with Skype for Business was with the signing in when a user signed out and when signing in back in again, there was a bit of a problem. We switched from Skype for Business to Teams, and Teams never had that sign-in problem once we did the switch."
"Sometimes the connection crashes, which is understandable if you are traveling. But, it would be nice if this could be stabilized somehow."
"There are issues with the bandwidth, particularly for external meetings,"
"We can't rely on Skype for that and that's why we sometimes use Google Meet instead."
"If one of the users has a poor internet connection, this failure will compromise the meeting, causing delays and distortions in the communications."
"I feel that the whole look and feel of Skype should be improved, including its user-friendliness. It should also improve its scalability."
"The solution has been discontinued by Microsoft."
"We need a feature where you can virtually raise your hand to silently let the presenter know that you have a question."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license grants you a subscription and costs about $120. I am not aware of additional costs."
"To realize value from the purchase of Skype Business, you need to take advantage of all the important functions of the program."
"The pricing is really good. It is quite affordable because it came with our Office 365. It is on a per-user license, which is nice. I quite like that they have made it very granular with all of their licensing."
"We had a license for every one of our users to use Skype for Business. The license we used was part of an overall Microsoft license package."
"We have been able to save money by moving our conferencing solution to Skype for Business Conferencing."
"The solution is priced fairly."
"The licensing is billed on a yearly basis."
"We negotiated a fair price with Microsoft. It is definitely worthwhile to negotiate with them for the best price for your solution."
"A license is required to use the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
16%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Avaya Spaces?
I don't have experience with how Avaya Spaces handles integration with other software tools, but perhaps my partners have experience regarding integration with different vendors. If Avaya can integ...
What is your primary use case for Avaya Spaces?
Most of the time, I use Avaya Spaces to hold meetings with Avaya and with partners, which fulfills our collaboration needs.
What advice do you have for others considering Avaya Spaces?
I can share my opinion about Avaya Spaces and recommend it for small or medium company users, as most of them are small users. I am currently working with Azure for our cloud needs. Overall, I woul...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Skype for Business?
If I think back, my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing involves accessing it through our Microsoft Enterprise Agreement which covers the whole Office suite including Skype for Busin...
What needs improvement with Skype for Business?
The honest answer is that the product has not really evolved in some time. Microsoft has been pushing everyone towards Teams and Skype for Business has been in maintenance mode for a while. The mob...
What is your primary use case for Skype for Business?
My main use case for Skype for Business is internal communication across departments and between different government offices. We have staff spread across multiple locations in Malacca, and before ...
 

Also Known As

Avaya Cloud Application Link
Skype for Business Plan 1, Skype for Business Plan 2, Lync Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Stop Soldier Suicide, British Columbia Ski Resort, Helse Vest, Spital Limmattal, Conduit Global
EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services,LA Fitness, MedcoEnergi International, Tampa General Hospital, and HopewellHoldings Limited.
Find out what your peers are saying about Slack, Microsoft, Atlassian and others in Enterprise Social Software. Updated: August 2026.
908,344 professionals have used our research since 2012.