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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

"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."
"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."
"The security was quite good."
"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."
"The most valuable features of the solution are communication, screen sharing, and collaboration."
"The transcripts from Webex calls get delivered to the inbox five minutes after the call. However, out of 20 people on a call, maybe only one person bothers to read through the entire transcript, which can be lengthy for an hour-long call."
"I am completely satisfied with the tech support."
"The most valuable feature of Webex is ease to use."
"The tool simplifies our work by allowing us to have hybrid meetings instead of always meeting in person, which saves time in organizing these meetings. It also offers good video quality."
"One of the most valuable features of WebEx is that it's very quick for ad hoc meetings, and I use it all day, every day, for internal chat with my team. It's just a good platform."
"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward."
"Webex is very good for webinars and presentations."
 

Cons

"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."
"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"Webex's stability could be improved."
"The only thing it maybe needs is a chat. It is not very comfortable to use."
"The initial setup was a little bit complex."
"The pricing could be improved."
"I would like to see integration with legacy video endpoints."
"They should integrate the solution with multiple hardware vendors."
"I would appreciate improvements in communication stability and performance. Sometimes we experience a poor communication stream, but I am uncertain whether it is due to the internet link or something else."
"Although we utilize it for team collaboration, it's not very efficient. Most people don't bother turning on their video during meetings. We feel stuck in the past, relying on outdated technology."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
"There are no licensing fees."
"There is a subscription needed to use this solution and we pay approximately $5,000 per year."
"We paid for our Webex license as a bundle."
"There are licenses for business to use the solution but for end-users, there is not."
"The tool's licensing is expensive, but it should be cheaper."
"My organization took care of the licensing. I'm guessing they did some subscription cycle, but I used the free version."
"I believe the license to be monthly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
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

Ask a question
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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.
906,781 professionals have used our research since 2012.