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Google Hangouts [EOL] vs HCL Sametime comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 27, 2025

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

Google Hangouts [EOL]
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HCL Sametime
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (24th)
 

Featured Reviews

Mariana-Piñeres - PeerSpot reviewer
Customer Success Manager Latam at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Recording and transcription enhance global client meetings
Google Hangouts sometimes consumes significant resources. When comparing it to WhatsApp on desktop for calls, there are instances when Google Hangouts freezes or stops working, but switching to WhatsApp runs smoothly. This might be related to the resources Google Hangouts requires. The service occasionally experiences lag issues where the image gets frozen or the voice transmission becomes interrupted. When these issues occur, possibly due to internet connectivity or other factors, WhatsApp continues to function properly while Google Hangouts does not perform well.
Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA
Stable product, communicate very fast and allows to see who's online in the office or work environment
It was used for communication through text messages, primarily Being able to see who was online and communicate very fast was a good feature.  The security was quite good. However, when we tried to implement it for email at a high level, we had to use another solution, FortiMail Gateway. I view…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its ease of use is most valuable. It is just a click, and you're in the system."
"I think the simplicity of the whole thing is its valuable feature."
"Google Hangouts is an excellent tool."
"What I like best about Google Hangouts is its integration with other Google solutions, so scheduling is easy because you have the calendar. It also has a whiteboard feature. I also like its polling feature and that it even has a captioning feature."
"Hangouts is a lightweight solution that can be used across devices including phones."
"Google Hangouts is very quick and easy to use, and the quality is very good."
"The facility is always online and very easy to share the screen using the solution."
"The initial setup process is straightforward."
"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."
"Audio and video calls provide faster communication than chat."
"This solution saves time and cost in communicating with team members, streamlines tasks in my organization by encouraging us to chat directly with the relevant person, and strengthens professional relationships through increased communication among peers."
"The security was quite good."
"A very good communication and real-time collaboration software, it is simple, fast, reliable, keeps history and the best feature of all is its intelligence."
 

Cons

"It would be better to have a feature for recording the meetings in Google Hangouts."
"It would be ideal if they could include in the offering a virtual whiteboard for users when they are running meetings."
"Sometimes, due to system restrictions, I can't use blur effects or other filters."
"The solution could integrate more automation into the product."
"There is no delete option for messages which could be an added feature in a future release."
"We purchased a videoconference system called Zoom. We want to see if Google Hangouts has the ability to integrate our Zoom device to use it with Hangouts and meet directly."
"Google Meet could be more secure."
"There could be more precise instructions for beginners using the solution."
"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
"It seems that the software might in the future, support the software telephony exchange but at the current time, it is not doing that and because of that one key feature of real-time communication is missing from it."
"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."
"The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I use the free version of the solution."
"We are using the free version of Google Hangouts."
"For individual use, there's no license requirement as such. For storage or some other purposes, if I go beyond 15 GB, then I need to buy something."
"We are a small team and a small organization such as ours just uses the free version of Google, so there's no cost associated with Google Hangouts at the moment."
"We access the solution through Google Workspace. It is inexpensive to use."
"The screen-sharing feature is the most valuable feature."
"I think there is a need for payment for licensing, but as students, we didn't have to pay for it when we were using it. Our professors were the ones paying for it since they needed to record the sessions."
"There is an annual subscription to use this solution."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Outsourcing Company
18%
Construction Company
15%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise18
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Hangouts?
Google Hangouts comes as a package, so it's difficult to say or comment on the price of this particular product.
What needs improvement with Google Hangouts?
Sometimes when we have a call and need to share audio or play a video, we find it challenging to switch from sharing the complete desktop to only a particular Chrome tab, as it doesn't support audi...
What is your primary use case for Google Hangouts?
My main use cases for Google Hangouts are for calls and coordinating with my team. I find the recording feature in Google Hangouts very useful, as it normalizes what happened in the call, even thou...
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Also Known As

No data available
Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Connect2Cloud, Superior Group, Daifuku Co. Ltd., Seaward, The City of Fort Worth, Christian Brothers Services, Berlitz, Deutsche Notes User Group, Danske Fysioterapeuter, Slumberland, La Vacanza, Rheinmetall AG
Find out what your peers are saying about Zoom Video Communications, TeamViewer, Microsoft and others in Virtual Meetings. Updated: September 2026.
912,930 professionals have used our research since 2012.