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Polycom RealPresence Clariti vs Skype for Business 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

Polycom RealPresence Clariti
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Skype for Business
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of Polycom RealPresence Clariti is 1.8%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Skype for Business is 3.8%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Skype for Business3.8%
Polycom RealPresence Clariti1.8%
Other94.4%
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

NH
Network Technical Advisor at a government with 10,001+ employees
The ability to track call flow and history simplifies call management while bridging issues persist
I find the ability to follow the calls, the call flow, the ability to look at the history, and more on the fault-finding tools to be valuable. It improved from a support model perspective. It simplified the licensing, reduced administration since it's based on calls, not based on users. It's about managing the calls and verifying we have enough space as opposed to always adding licenses for endpoints or users.
MD
Assistant Information Technology Officer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Internal communication has become more efficient while mobile usage still needs improvement
The honest answer is that the product has not really evolved in some time. Microsoft has been pushing everyone towards Teams and Skype for Business has been in maintenance mode for a while. The mobile experience is also not great. Staff who try to use it on their phones find it less reliable than the desktop version, calls drop more, and the interface is clunky. For a modern workforce that expects everything to work on mobile, that is a gap. Despite the initial setup challenges and mobile issues, we have noticed positive outcomes for our organization since adopting Skype for Business. I rate Skype for Business seven out of ten. I think that Skype for Business has served us well for what it is. A government office has different expectations from a fast-moving private company. We value stability and security over the newest features. On those terms, Skype for Business has delivered.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The product increases the ability of Teams in cases when we need to collaborate with whiteboards or specific video-coms or audio-coms to install a meeting presence room."
"It's on-prem, which is great."
"Some proprietary Polycom features include speaker tracking, acoustic fencing, noise cancellation, active noise cancellation, and noise cancellation AI."
"It simplified the licensing, reduced administration since it's based on calls, not based on users."
"I find the ability to follow the calls, the call flow, the ability to look at the history, and more on the fault-finding tools to be valuable."
"The solution is stable, there are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze."
"The most valuable feature is its integration with solutions like Zoom and Teams for endpoints. The picture quality is high, and the conference sessions are stable."
"It does a good job of integrating with other software."
"File sharing and email invitations for a conference. I can have a meeting with people at the opposite end of the Earth, sharing documentation; it is quite easy."
"Making calls and having meetings is easy."
"We really like the screen sharing tool. The user experience is smooth, and user-friendly."
"The solution has improved the flexibility of meetings for our organization, increasing our communication channels and putting everything in one place from sharing to team management, which makes everything easy."
"It saves trouble, and it saves us time."
"What is most valuable about Skype for Business is that almost everyone knows about it and almost everyone has it. You will be able to reach a large number of people."
"Skype Business is the best program that performs this type of service, and it is a benchmark in the market."
"The deployment is very fast."
 

Cons

"Polycom RealPresence Clariti is very bad when moving towards the cloud."
"The only issue we have is with some of the bridging stuff, particularly with respect to DTMF and outgoing calls."
"The customer needs this platform to be a little bit more customized."
"I'd like to see a wider range of use cases for this product."
"The idea of the Clariti 2.0 is good, however, they're still moving too slowly."
"Could have a wider range of use cases."
"There are some issues with stability during phone calls. Sometimes the connectivity drops, and it is frustrating."
"The ease of configuration or the lack of decent tooling to pinpoint your problems is probably its biggest issue."
"The solution requires deployment on a Microsoft server and its performance is heavy because it consumes too many resources from the RAM."
"Skype's overall connectivity functionality or ability is one area with room for improvement."
"I feel that the whole look and feel of Skype should be improved, including its user-friendliness. It should also improve its scalability."
"We have found that there is a lag because it cannot integrate with the internal landline."
"If one of the users has a poor internet connection, this failure will compromise the meeting, causing delays and distortions in the communications."
"We are looking for a more collaborative tool, not only in terms of virtual meetings but also for teams to collaborate, share a document, work together, and all those types of things."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Polycom RealPresence Clariti is definitely more expensive than others in the market because of its high quality."
"When it comes to the pricing of the solution, I rate it as a five out of ten. It falls somewhere in the middle between being cheap and expensive."
"Our company pays for a license for us to use the solution."
"We have been able to save money by moving our conferencing solution to Skype for Business Conferencing."
"We had a license for every one of our users to use Skype for Business. The license we used was part of an overall Microsoft license package."
"The pricing is really good. It is quite affordable because it came with our Office 365. It is on a per-user license, which is nice. I quite like that they have made it very granular with all of their licensing."
"A license is required to use the solution."
"We are using the subscription-based version of Skype for Business. There is a free version of the solution."
"I use the product's open-source version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Polycom RealPresence Clariti?
They are discontinuing the product and they are moving over to Pexip. The only issue we have is with some of the bridging stuff, particularly with respect to DTMF and outgoing calls. That's our big...
What is your primary use case for Polycom RealPresence Clariti?
We use it both nationally and internationally with our partners, however, it's used in a closed environment.
What advice do you have for others considering Polycom RealPresence Clariti?
I would recommend it, however, it depends on the environment. We have a lot of users but not a lot of usage, so the price model is really good for that environment. Overall, I would give it a nine ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Skype for Business?
If I think back, my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing involves accessing it through our Microsoft Enterprise Agreement which covers the whole Office suite including Skype for Busin...
What needs improvement with Skype for Business?
The honest answer is that the product has not really evolved in some time. Microsoft has been pushing everyone towards Teams and Skype for Business has been in maintenance mode for a while. The mob...
What is your primary use case for Skype for Business?
My main use case for Skype for Business is internal communication across departments and between different government offices. We have staff spread across multiple locations in Malacca, and before ...
 

Also Known As

RealPresence Clariti, Clariti
Skype for Business Plan 1, Skype for Business Plan 2, Lync Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baptist Health Corbin, North Carolina Central University
EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services,LA Fitness, MedcoEnergi International, Tampa General Hospital, and HopewellHoldings Limited.
Find out what your peers are saying about Polycom RealPresence Clariti vs. Skype for Business and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,563 professionals have used our research since 2012.