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Cisco Jabber vs Skype for Business comparison

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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

Cisco Jabber
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Unified Communications (7th)
Skype for Business
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Jabber and Skype for Business aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Jabber is designed for Unified Communications and holds a mindshare of 3.5%, down 4.9% compared to last year.
Skype for Business, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Meetings, holds 3.9% mindshare, down 8.6% since last year.
Unified Communications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Jabber3.5%
Cisco Unified Communications8.6%
3CX Live Chat8.4%
Other79.5%
Unified Communications
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Skype for Business3.9%
Zoom Workplace Business5.8%
Webex5.0%
Other85.3%
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer912129 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Manager at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Stable, easy to set up, and works fine
Everyone in our company uses Cisco Jabber for phone calls and internal chat. We have around 1,000 users. For features like video conferences, schedules, and presentations, we use Microsoft Teams.  It works fine feature-wise. The Cisco Jabber features that we use work okay. There are issues in…
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

"The most valuable feature for me is that it shows who is available and who is not, as well as what their current status is."
"This product makes my life much easier by shortening the distance between my boss and the rest of my team."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to talk with people in real-time, instead of sending texts."
"It works fine feature-wise. The Cisco Jabber features that we use work okay."
"Everyone in our company uses Cisco Jabber for phone calls and internal chat."
"The power of the chat function is good in terms of sharing, pasting, and the like, as it is very full-featured."
"In summary, this product worked well for what I needed to do."
"We have no problems with the stability of Skype for Business."
"The simplicity and ease of use are the most valuable features, as it's so much easier and quicker than writing an email to someone and waiting for them to read it."
"Screen sharing, control in the session, and file sharing are easy."
"The quality of the meetings is very good."
"The ability to mute everyone else is pretty useful when there is a large audience."
"Skype for Business and video conferencing makes it easier to work from home."
"Skype for Business optimizes our network, encourages adoption, standardizes optimized headsets, supports strong change management, and enhances mobility."
"I like the fact that it opens up your video conferencing, and, in many cases, the audio at the same time."
 

Cons

"There are issues in switching from one type of communication system to another. When I connect my wired earphone or Bluetooth earphone, Cisco Jabber doesn't switch automatically. There are some user experience issues that need to be fixed."
"Cisco Jabber is not a collaborative tool."
"I presume that very small businesses would have a tough time justifying the investment."
"Skype for Business is good for the PCs with higher bandwidth, but an improvement is required for low bandwidth usage."
"Our user base has struggled for adoption, as using Skype audio is not a very consistent experience due to the diverse networks that they are on (home office, corporate office, and branch office networks)."
"We can't rely on Skype for that and that's why we sometimes use Google Meet instead."
"The group feature of Skype for Business needs improvement. It should also be improved for online lectures."
"I don't recall coming across any big missing features."
"I feel bored with the look and feel of the tool, so it should be changed."
"The solution's functionality needs to be moved to Microsoft Teams. Its technology is outdated."
"I believe optimizing the solution for lighter endpoints, particularly for embedded endpoints on mobile devices, would be valuable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The cost of Skype for Business is incorporated into our Office 365 licenses."
"We purchased an open license."
"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."
"We negotiated a fair price with Microsoft. It is definitely worthwhile to negotiate with them for the best price for your solution."
"Our company pays for a license for us to use the solution."
"It may be considered costly for certain markets, such as in India."
"To realize value from the purchase of Skype Business, you need to take advantage of all the important functions of the program."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
11%
University
8%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
 

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

Ask a question
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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

Jabber
Skype for Business Plan 1, Skype for Business Plan 2, Lync Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Odeabank, Eagle Investment Systems, Pella Corporation, The Republican National Convention, avodaqAG
EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services,LA Fitness, MedcoEnergi International, Tampa General Hospital, and HopewellHoldings Limited.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, 3CX, Digium and others in Unified Communications. Updated: October 2026.
921,148 professionals have used our research since 2012.