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HCL Sametime vs Microsoft Teams comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 3, 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

HCL Sametime
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
24th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Teams
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
179
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Social Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of HCL Sametime is 1.5%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Teams is 3.7%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Teams3.7%
HCL Sametime1.5%
Other94.8%
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…
Anna Virtsan - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Project Manager at UkrSibbank
Have streamlined daily workflow and task management but still face inconvenience from recent interface changes and limited integration options
There are challenges and issues in Microsoft Teams, such as after recent updates where group chats were combined with Teams, chats, and groups into one. Users have to work with settings to make it normal again so Teams are separated from chats, and that was a really inconvenient update. Many users ask me to help make it back again to separate Teams and groups from one-to-one chats. That's probably the worst update they've made recently. Additionally, there are some minor features, such as when I work with messages, I don't have an actual forward or quote option when replying to someone's message. I need to be careful not to miss the quote sign. For a lot of people, they are confused about where the quotes option is. I've received a couple of hundred support tickets just regarding this issue. The function to share email to Teams chat doesn't work sometimes due to our compliance policies, and sometimes it would be nice to be able to forward an email to the group chat and have further discussions. Microsoft Teams could improve by being less glitchy because it glitches a lot, leading to undelivered emails and undelivered messages. It would be beneficial if the MS application Shifts, which adds functionality to groups, could be integrated into the groups calendar. Currently, many teams don't use the app because it is not integrated with the general calendar or the Outlook calendar, making it basically a useless application. The platform needs less Copilot and more people. The general Copilot integration into the platform is less glitchy, but Microsoft Teams is quite heavy and glitchy sometimes. Stability depends a lot on compliance restrictions, policies, and quality of internet. Sometimes, when updates are enrolling, the platform glitches, breaks, or shuts down.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"There is a new Skype feature in Teams that is excellent."
"When comparing similar solutions, there aren't many differences between them, but the best feature I would highlight is the quality and stability of their platform."
"The most valuable features are visual and audio, as they are very clear with no interruptions."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Teams is that it is integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem."
"It provides a collaborative space for efficient work processes."
"Microsoft Teams is a friendly and easy-to-install solution."
"The tool is simple to use."
"File sharing is the most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."
"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
"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."
"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"With respect to security, there needs to be more work done. I was surprised, for example, yesterday, when my daughter was able to use my Microsoft Teams interface for her schoolwork. I was surprised that they could do that, because I believe it was only for my own personal use."
"There can be more customization and also the task management tools needs better tools for integration."
"One challenge I've encountered with the tool is that it's not as intuitive as it could be. For example, when making invitations or initiating calls, it often takes two or three clicks to get started, which feels less efficient compared to other tools like Zoom. The interface seems to have too much functionality packed into one environment."
"The solution needs to integrate ChatGPT so that the solution can summarize the meetings. The solution needs integration with AI. Copilot is already in the pipeline."
"The desktop and mobile apps are quite different."
"In addition the video conferencing is not as good as Zoom, which is a more powerful solution."
"The product needs to improve its stability."
"The solution’s stability could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The tool's price is high. We purchase Microsoft Office 365 on per user basis and we get support also on that basis."
"The product's pro accounts are cheap."
"Microsoft Teams is a cheap solution because it's included in the Microsoft 365 suite."
"The solution has a reasonable price in the market."
"I rate the pricing as a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"I would rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."
"If you have content that requires more security and you want to use it in a more secure manner, with more protection, then it will come at a higher cost."
"It is a bit more than moderately expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
14%
Educational Organization
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business66
Midsize Enterprise46
Large Enterprise74
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Teams?
When we pay for Microsoft Teams, it is always expensive. I do not know exactly how much the license is, but when we pay, it is always expensive.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Teams?
There are too many features in Microsoft Teams, and I think it is not good. I believe they should have fewer features in Microsoft Teams and limit it to calls, presentations, and sharing, similar t...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Teams?
My main use cases for Microsoft Teams are for meetings and calls. I have not yet used it for collaboration.
 

Also Known As

Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime
MS Teams
 

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
Honeywll, AIRFRANCE, AccuWeather, Lilly
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Sametime vs. Microsoft Teams and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.