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HCL Sametime vs IBM Cloud Video 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

HCL Sametime
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Cloud Video
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
29th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.4
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
CDN (29th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of HCL Sametime is 1.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Video is 1.1%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HCL Sametime1.6%
IBM Cloud Video1.1%
Other97.3%
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

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…
RL
Co-Founder & Events Producer at Think Event
Great user interface and easy to implement
I like the corporate looking user interface for the audience and very straight forward log-in process too. The user interface of other solutions such as GoToWebinar can be confusing for a less tech-savvy audience. IBM has thoroughly thought through everything and the flexibility to integrate the API to expand the registration gateway allows us to have an extra layer of security. Furthermore, the brand IBM is reputable in the market for its data and network security.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."
"The security was quite good."
"Audio and video calls provide faster communication than chat."
"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."
"I like the user interface. There aren't too many buttons that the audience will have to fiddle with."
"IBM as a brand has helped us to get through any hurdle with the client's IT and legal queries, helped us to speed up the security vetting process."
 

Cons

"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."
"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP."
"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."
"They should improve the registration gateway. Currently, you can't do a pre-event registration that's straightforward. You have to do an API to integrate. It would be a lot easier if they had that."
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Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HCL Sametime?
I view it as part of HCL Notes and Domino, and my opinion is similar to those products. It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or oth...
What is your primary use case for HCL Sametime?
It was used for communication through text messages, primarily.
What advice do you have for others considering HCL Sametime?
Overall, it was quite good. I would rate it an eight out of ten. It's a better product than some others from HCL, but overall, I wouldn't recommend it, given the availability of superior alternatives.
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Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime
IBM Ustream
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Airbnb, N3 Results, University of Notre Dame
Find out what your peers are saying about Zoom Video Communications, TeamViewer, Microsoft and others in Virtual Meetings. Updated: May 2026.
900,228 professionals have used our research since 2012.