Polycom RealPresence Clariti vs Skype for Business comparison

Polycom RealPresence Clariti vs. Skype for Business

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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

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Skype for Business

Ranking in Virtual Meetings

4th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of Polycom RealPresence Clariti is 1.6%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Skype for Business is 11.7%, up from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtual Meetings

Featured Reviews

Sreejith Thulasidas

Senior Engineer - UC - Service and Solutions Deployment at FVC

Provides video calling facilities with good video and audio clarity

Polycom RealPresence Clariti is very bad when moving towards the cloud. I think that Microsoft Teams and Zoom have already taken over the market. Polycom is currently looking into more end devices than server components and infrastructure. A cloud version would have been better, but that will not be feasible for Polycom now. It would have been helpful to have a cloud version during the migration stages, but now the time has gone. As a company, it's better for Polycom to look into the video conferencing devices rather than the infrastructure. Earlier, one of the advantages was that the infrastructure was very much open, and it was easy to integrate the tool with other platforms like Cisco. That is not the scenario now, and Polycom should concentrate on the endpoint hardware devices.

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Magdalena Teodorczuk

Senior at Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Wartosciowych S.A.

Offers great audio and video quality for virtual meetings

I like the instant messaging feature in the product since I prefer to use the chat functionalities provided by the solution. It is easy to integrate the product with some of the other solutions in the market. I rate the integration capabilities of the product a ten out of ten. The product's user interface is user-friendly. I use the product at a personal level, so I can't speak about the support it provides for the maintenance part. I rate the overall tool a ten out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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's on-prem, which is great."

"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."

"Some proprietary Polycom features include speaker tracking, acoustic fencing, noise cancellation, active noise cancellation, and noise cancellation AI."

"It does a good job of integrating with other software."

"The most valuable feature of Skype for Business is that it has many other tools that you can be integrated with it. It makes the meetings more interactive."

"People are now able to virtually collaborate with their staff and have a conference call. We don't need a phone line to make that conference call and we are saving on that. People are able to share their presentations. Also, they can chat using the Skype"

"The quality of the meetings is very good."

"It's a good product, we like using it."

"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."

"The solution is scalable and is capable of working on every appliance on every operating system."

"Using this solution has helped us to cut long distance calls, as well as video services from third parties."

"The ability to mute everyone else is pretty useful when there is a large audience."

More Skype for Business pros

Cons

"Polycom RealPresence Clariti is very bad when moving towards the cloud."

"The customer needs this platform to be a little bit more customized."

"The only issue we have is with some of the bridging stuff, particularly with respect to DTMF and outgoing calls."

"Could have a wider range of use cases."

"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."

"This service could be improved by adding some missing features. It lacks integration with Teams, which is a feature I would like to see in the next release."

"The user experience during long sessions could be improved to avoid issues like intermittent disconnections or login failures."

"The solution lacks to provide reporting functionality, and I would like to see the solution provide that feature."

"I feel bored with the look and feel of the tool, so it should be changed."

"I am not familiar with all of the features or whether they can hold conferences because we use Zoom for that. But, in my opinion, if they can do something similar to what Zoom is doing, it will be a complete solution."

"The solution has been discontinued by Microsoft."

"Microsoft Teams, as I see it now, is more useful than Skype for Business."

"Going forward, I would like to see better call quality and reliability."

More Skype for Business cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Polycom RealPresence Clariti is definitely more expensive than others in the market because of its high quality."

"I am using a corporate account for which I have not made any payments."

"We are using the subscription-based version of Skype for Business. There is a free version of the solution."

"Our company pays for a license for us to use the solution."

"To realize value from the purchase of Skype Business, you need to take advantage of all the important functions of the program."

"Previously, I did not use another solution."

"The solution is priced fairly."

"The licensing is billed on a yearly basis."

"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."

More Skype for Business pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

17%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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 do you like most about Skype for Business?

The solution’s video quality is fine.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Skype for Business?

Skype for Business is affordable and has decent pricing. The video quality is a bit lower than Teams or Zoom, but it remains a good solution overall.

What needs improvement with Skype for Business?

The video quality could be improved, possibly due to internet connection issues. However, there is no significant weakness in Skype for Business.

Cisco Meeting Server vs Polycom RealPresence Clariti

Comparisons

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Product Reports

Virtual Meetings

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Skype for Business

Download Skype for Business product report

Also Known As

RealPresence Clariti, Clariti

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

Overview

RealPresence Clariti is simple, powerful, cloud-ready collaboration infrastructure software for businesses of all sizes that connects people with HD voice, video, content and web collaboration.

Poly

Skype for Business offers features including presence, IM, voice and video calls, online meetings, conferencing, and telephony solutions that support enterprise-level collaboration requirements. Skype for Business Record meetings, share your screen, and annotate PowerPoint for real-time collaboration with up to 250 people and use whiteboard, polls, Q&A, and built-in IM during your business meetings to make them more productive. Skype for Business provides new client experience, Skype for Business Server provides several new features to improve manageability of on-premises servers and hybrid solutions. Skype for Business also supports the Lync client experience so that you can choose a phased upgrade approach to the new client experience for users. Skype for Business is also an integral part of Microsoft Office 365, providing PSTN Conferencing, Cloud PBX, PSTN Calling, and Skype Meeting Broadcast capabilities to Office 365 users.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Baptist Health Corbin, North Carolina Central University

EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services,LA Fitness, MedcoEnergi International, Tampa General Hospital, and HopewellHoldings Limited.

Polycom RealPresence Clariti vs. Skype for Business