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HCL Sametime vs Webex comparison

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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

"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."
"Audio and video calls provide faster communication than chat."
"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."
"Webex's main feature is you get 1,000 participants per meeting by default and can join from 75 meeting units. You don't have to buy additional licenses."
"The important feature is breakout sessions. We can create a breakout session if you want to hold a conference and make a room only for some people at the meeting."
"This is the best everyone knows about, but there are plenty other players."
"The stability of the solution is the most important thing, as I've used Teams previously and we had a lot of issues with stability."
"The most valuable option is screen sharing."
"The solution is perfectly stable, it normally performs very well."
"They have a feature called Call Me in which I need to type in my phone number and I can get a conference room to call my number rather than needing to dial in every time. I think that's a quite good feature."
"In terms of stability, the solution is reliable."
 

Cons

"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP."
"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."
"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
"The interface could be a bit more user-friendly."
"I would like to see integration with legacy video endpoints."
"The GUI of Webex should be improved. The connectivity for putting people inside the meetings or entering meetings is to be improved."
"They should work to make it simpler."
"Sometimes we've had issues with the connection."
"Webex should be more stable. I have had some problems with connection, and it can be complicated in some areas."
"Cisco could maybe make Webex more integrated and compatible with other platforms."
"It is not very user-friendly."
 

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."
"Features matter more than the price for us. As long as we get all the features we want and it fits our budget, then the price doesn't matter. I can't speak for other companies. We have tried other applications, and we run into some problems that we don't see in Webex."
"The cost is pretty high compared to the competitors."
"Price is the one area where Webex needs to improve relative to its competitors. It's difficult to sell to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) because of the license price."
"Webex is very expensive."
"The pricing of this solution is fine and I am satisfied with it."
"There is a need to pay the licensing charges to use Webex Enterprise Edition."
"I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is high price, and ten is low price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
11%
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.
919,003 professionals have used our research since 2012.