No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

HCL Sametime vs Webex comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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
25th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Webex
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
131
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of HCL Sametime is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Webex is 5.1%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Webex5.1%
HCL Sametime1.5%
Other93.4%
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…
DO
Web Designer / Developer & Creative Professional at Federal University of Technology Akure
Virtual training has supported collaborative learning and now needs a simpler and clearer interface
Webex can be simplified in terms of user interface, where many features should be displayed in a compact view, with similar features grouped together and a minimalistic design helping users understand what each button does. If specific features are not needed, they should not distract you, and some features should appear as sliding elements for ease of access. Additionally, connecting to Webex can be technical, and it would be beneficial to have a way to connect anonymously using a simple code instead of going through microphone issues.

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."
"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."
"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."
"It's a nice tool for virtual meetings and I'm satisfied with its performance."
"Overall, Webex is working fine for us at the time being and I recommend it."
"The most noteworthy aspect of Webex is its quality, which I found satisfactory without any notable issues."
"The stability of the solution is excellent compared to other solutions on the market."
"I am using Webex mainly to speak to my manager."
"Team members do not need to use public solutions to collaborate on complex projects, share files and screens."
"The noise cancellation feature is great; when you have a call, the noise cancellation during it is really good, and it's the best one if you're looking for that specific feature."
"The video conferencing quality is better than that of other solutions."
 

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."
"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."
"The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP."
"The product's user interface is an area with shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"We have had some audio quality issues, and troubleshooting can be difficult because of the details you need to provide to Cisco/WebEx and that the call needs to have taken place very recently."
"Everybody these days uses virtual meeting solutions because we're all remote working. It would be a benefit if there were permanent collaboration spaces for projects. For example, the way Teams has its teams folders and shared locations. Webex is missing that feature, or maybe it has it and I'm not aware of it. However, it needs a permanent sharing location for when projects can get stored and can be a collaboration space as opposed to only a meeting space."
"The solution should come as a big client for the system."
"An opportunity they could benefit from would be a version that includes meeting transcription. I usually use a third-party product to do transcription."
"There is a small bug when it comes to connecting my Webex with my Outlook Calendar. Some meetings show up, and others don't. They should fix this bug."
"I think it's very inconvenient to have to enter my email address all the time just to be a visitor."
"I do not like the solutions functions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The charges attached to the subscriptions of the product are okay. There are no extra charges to be paid in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"The pricing of this solution is fine and I am satisfied with it."
"The cost is pretty high compared to the competitors."
"I have recently switched to a different solution. WebEx is more costly. There are equivalent solutions at a lower cost."
"I am using the free version of Webex."
"The price should be improved significantly."
"We purchase the product's yearly license. It is expensive."
"There is a subscription needed to use this solution and we pay approximately $5,000 per year."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Virtual Meetings solutions are best for your needs.
917,743 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
17%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise72
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Webex?
From when I last implemented it, I found the price to be expensive. The licensing model doesn't work because if I want to implement it for an organization, I need to pay a per-user license, which m...
What needs improvement with Webex?
Webex is top-notch at this point in time. The only improvement I see is related to RAM and CPU usage, as older systems with 4GB RAM or i3 processors might slow down the application. I do not have a...
What is your primary use case for Webex?
Webex is primarily used for customer meetings, collaboration with team members, presenting to customers, and virtual calls with customers. In my daily work, I get on the meeting and take the discus...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime
Cisco Spark
 

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
Seagate Technology, Kohn Pedersen Fox, World Vision International, Glen Raven, University of Notre Dame, CEV Multimedia, The Food Group, LUMEDX, California Baptist University, and Georgetown University Law Center.
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Sametime vs. Webex and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,743 professionals have used our research since 2012.