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HCL Sametime vs Webex 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
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
5.6
Number of Reviews
129
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of HCL Sametime is 1.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Webex is 5.2%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Webex5.2%
HCL Sametime1.6%
Other93.2%
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…
Akhil Viswam - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Collaborating in hybrid incident calls has become faster while the meeting interface still needs fixes
The best features are the ability to schedule meetings and launch ad hoc meetings. Additionally, we can create breakout rooms within the meeting itself, which is another excellent feature. Whenever we have production issues, many teams join a single Webex call. Sometimes we need to group together as separate smaller groups and work in parallel to identify the production issues. In those cases, we create Webex breakout rooms and each member joins the corresponding breakout session to progress on their task. Webex helps significantly in the hybrid environment. When we are working from home, it is very easy for us to meet with other team members and the management to get in touch and progress. Webex improves communication because even if we are working from home, we can connect with people and talk to them on a video call. It has improved the incident resolution time by getting into a call in Webex rooms and remediating the issues together as soon as possible. Audio and video quality is excellent for Webex. It has saved considerable time in terms of incident remediation. Whenever we have issues, we jump on a call and work together in parallel. This approach saves time and improves efficiency.

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."
"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."
"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."
"The security was quite good."
"Team members do not need to use public solutions to collaborate on complex projects, share files and screens."
"Overall, it is pretty reliable."
"The solution is very valuable for conference calls, as a lot of businesses are switching from work-from-home."
"It is a scalable solution."
"I appreciate the developers of Webex because it's a wonderful tool. What I found most valuable in it is the seamless experience it offers, in terms of connecting with any person at any time remotely, without any glitches. This is the main advantage of Webex. I also like that the platform is user-friendly, so anyone using the tool for the first time won't find any difficulties when logging in or accessing it."
"What I value most about Webex is its stability compared to other solutions."
"Webex is more similar to Zoom, but I feel it has some extra features, offering a good user experience for those who use Slack."
"I have found Webex to be stable."
 

Cons

"The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP."
"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"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."
"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
"Sometimes, the solution lags because of performance issues."
"When I use it personally, not in my enterprise, there is a time limit of about 60 minutes. After one hour, the call gets cut off. This limit should be increased."
"Usability needs improvement. Webex is more complex compared to Zoom."
"Webex support is not good. When we try to open a ticket, it takes approximately 24 hours. With Microsoft, we get support within two or three hours."
"Webex is limited to Cisco."
"The interface could be a bit more user-friendly."
"Better integration with other solutions would benefit Webex."
"Webex could add some integration with Microsoft Office or G-Suite."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I have recently switched to a different solution. WebEx is more costly. There are equivalent solutions at a lower cost."
"You can opt for yearly licensing with Webex."
"The price of the license for the solution could be less expensive."
"I am using the free version of Webex."
"There is a subscription needed to use this solution and we pay approximately $5,000 per year."
"I use the solution for free because I don't use the solution's enterprise version."
"My organization took care of the licensing. I'm guessing they did some subscription cycle, but I used the free version."
"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
19%
Construction Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise68
 

Questions from the Community

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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: June 2026.
903,807 professionals have used our research since 2012.