Polycom RealPresence Desktop vs Zoom comparison

Poly and Zoom Video Communications are both solutions in the Virtual Meetings category. Poly is ranked #20 with an average rating of 7.0, while Zoom Video Communications is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Poly holds a 2.0% mindshare in VM, compared to Zoom Video Communications’s 11.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Poly users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Zoom Video Communications users who would recommend it.

Polycom RealPresence Desktop

Read 1 Polycom RealPresence Desktop review

258 Views
126 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Zoom

Read 215 Zoom reviews

5,977 Views
1,083 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Polycom RealPresence Desktop

Zoom

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Polycom RealPresence Desktop and Zoom based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Zoom Video Communications, Cisco, Microsoft and others in Virtual Meetings.

To learn more, read our detailed Virtual Meetings Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Virtual Meetings

April 2025

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Helped 849,686 peers since 2012

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 Desktop

Ranking in Virtual Meetings

20th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zoom

Ranking in Virtual Meetings

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

215

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of Polycom RealPresence Desktop is 2.0%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoom is 11.2%, down from 13.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtual Meetings

Featured Reviews

Norm Hubert

VTC Network manager at a government with 10,001+ employees

Regular use enables effective communication with room for improvement in interoperability

The most valuable part of the desktop is the ability to make voice and video calls. Without getting too technical or divulging too much due to the environment we are in, it allows us to further our reach, from a traditional video conferencing room. Scalability was easy. It was based on calls, not licenses.

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Kallol Chaudhuri

Principal Consultant at Oracle

Helped us tremendously in collaborating with each other and getting our work done and offers the breakout rooms feature.

We are a team located across various locations. Not in the same geographic location. We are distributed. And it's not possible to physically travel and meet people. Sometimes it's simply not possible. But Zoom has helped us tremendously in collaborating with each other and getting our work done. Without Zoom, it would have been very, very difficult. The breakout rooms feature is also helpful. For example, I have a meeting attended by hundreds of people and want to create subgroups. I typically use it for different role-play scenarios during training if we are trying to conduct some training on presentation skills. So there's a large group, which is initially trained by an instructor. Then you get instructions that the room will be split into smaller breakout rooms. I'll give you a topic, and you'll practice in these smaller groups. That's one way I use it. So it's like a simulation of a real brainstorming session I'd have in a physical space.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It allows us to further our reach, from a traditional video conferencing room."

"Zoom's most valuable feature is communication."

"Zoom has become a straightforward solution and is valuable for various meeting types."

"One of the most valuable features is the user interface. With every new update, they introduce new useful features."

"It is a stable product."

"Zoom is easy to use and makes it easy to communicate with people remotely in meetings."

"It meets all of our basic requirements. It's easy to use."

"The product's most valuable features are chat and video streaming."

"A good option for online meetings."

More Zoom pros

Cons

"There is probably room for improvement in interoperability."

"The only thing that I can't get to work well is putting one of those little fancy wallpaper picture screens behind me during meetings so that I don't show my house or the room I'm attending from. Everyone is basically working remotely at this point. It would help to just have a neutral professional background for meetings that's easy to add."

"It takes time to acclimate end users to the product."

"The other thing I would add is maybe noise reduction. That could be improved. Everyone nowadays is working from home, so sometimes we hear the dog and stuff like that."

"Considering the main function of Zoom, it should make the video functioning part a little bit more friendly."

"In some cases, I am not able to have a special background during the conversation. It could be because my device is not powerful enough, but I am not able to share a properly designed background. I am having problems setting up my virtual background. It is very easy to set up a virtual background during the conversation with Microsoft Teams, and that's why I like Microsoft Teams, but with Zoom, I find it difficult. I am not able to set up my virtual background very easily. They can look into this area and then see how to improve it."

"They should improve the sharing file features from accessing the internal network. If we cannnot share our documents through this meeting, our meeting productivity will decrease dramatically. We need these features."

"Zoom could improve by having more dashboards."

"When you are connected to one device and you're going to log into another one, Zoom should ask you to transfer without having to disconnect you."

More Zoom cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Zoom is free to use."

"There is a yearly license for this solution. I would like it if they offered better prices."

"The tool's pricing is reasonable. I think we get discounts as an organization."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."

"Zoom can be used for free."

"There is a subscription to use the solution."

"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. It is not affordable for small businesses."

"Zoom is licensed as a subscription model and it is available on a monthly or yearly basis."

More Zoom pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Educational Organization

91%

University

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Polycom RealPresence Desktop?

The solution is built right into Clarity.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Polycom RealPresence Desktop?

There is probably room for improvement in interoperability.

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What is your primary use case for Polycom RealPresence Desktop?

We use the desktop. It was used in the same case. We use it with our partners.

See all answers

LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom

Hi @Krista Thompson - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. LucidSpark is designed to do a better job managing multiple users participating ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Zoom?

The product is scalable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoom?

There is a concern about the free version's forty-five-minute limit. For education use, having more affordable access through institutions would be beneficial.

See all answers

Comparisons

TrueConf Server vs Polycom RealPresence Desktop

Compared 38% of the time

Cisco TelePresence vs Polycom RealPresence Desktop

Compared 33% of the time

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Webex vs Zoom

Compared 33% of the time

Skype for Business vs Zoom

Compared 32% of the time

TeamViewer vs Zoom

Compared 8% of the time

ON24 Platform vs Zoom

Compared 6% of the time

Zoho Meeting vs Zoom

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Virtual Meetings

April 2025

Download Polycom RealPresence Desktop product report

Buyer's Guide

Zoom

April 2025

Download Zoom product report

Also Known As

RealPresence Desktop

No data available

Overview

Polycom RealPresence Desktop is a powerful, enterprise-grade video chat app for PC & Mac. The video conferencing software extends communications beyond the typical conference room setting to mobile professionals. RealPresence Desktop combines quality HD video, industry-leading interoperability, and security that is both cost effective and highly scalable.

When powered by Polycom's infrastructure, customers can extend desktop collaboration value with app management, interoperability, scalability, resiliency, and multi-point calling.

Poly

Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done. Our easy, reliable cloud platform for video, phone, content sharing, and chat runs across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems. Message me to learn more about how Zoom can help your business or organization Visit zoom.com and follow @zoom_us.

Zoom Video Communications

Sample Customers

John Laing, China Daily, Lincoln Fire and Rescue, NATO Communications and Information Agency, NHS Home Dialysis, Silver Chain, South Carolina Department of Mental Health, nimed

Fortinet, Veeva, Proofpoint, Box, Ticketmaster, Trend Micro, Caesars Entertainment, Santa Clara University, Pandora, Stanford Continuing Studies

Find out what your peers are saying about Zoom Video Communications, Cisco, Microsoft and others in Virtual Meetings. Updated: April 2025.

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