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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
24th
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
128
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 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 5.0%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Webex5.0%
HCL Sametime1.5%
Other93.5%
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

"The security was quite good."
"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."
"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."
"You can configure whatever you want in great detail."
"The stream is very smooth; that's what I like about Webex, as other video conference solutions like Zoom sometimes freeze and get buggy, but Webex doesn't."
"The video quality is good."
"The solution makes it easy for us as a team to collaborate remotely."
"Having a sales service that doesn't need to travel to present every single pitch can save money for nearly every sized organization."
"The most valuable feature of Webex is if you are using the Cisco hardware it is simple to integrate. Additionally, it can integrate well with mobile devices."
"The installation of Webex is simple. You only need to click an executable file to run it. it is very easy."
"WebEx is the corporate gold standard for what it does best, that is easy, reliable sharing of content on my screen to one or several hundred people in real time."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"I lost a lot of my recordings and I think they should have a longer retention period for the recordings."
"This solution would be much better if we could install an endpoint and have centralized management."
"I would like to see more integration, with respect to some more unified communication activities."
"Webex's stability could be improved. It crashes very often. The user interface could also be improved to be more modern because it looks outdated."
"It would be better if I could just join meetings directly on the web without extra downloads and steps."
"Recordings are slow to start, sometimes fail, and are difficult to edit."
"The price of the solution could be slightly reduced."
"The charges for US and Asia vary greatly. It costs more to subscribe to WebEx in Asia."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I use the solution for free because I don't use the solution's enterprise 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."
"I am using the free version of Webex."
"Webex is very expensive."
"There are no licensing fees."
"The tool is expensive."
"You need to make yearly payments towards the licensing charges of the product. You need to opt for a subscription-based licensing model for your organization. The product is a bit expensive."
"Webex is expensive, especially compared to Zoom or Google."
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911,952 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise69
 

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: August 2026.
911,952 professionals have used our research since 2012.