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Cisco Jabber vs Skype for Business comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cisco Jabber
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Unified Communications (8th)
Skype for Business
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Jabber and Skype for Business aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Jabber is designed for Unified Communications and holds a mindshare of 3.1%, down 7.6% compared to last year.
Skype for Business, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Meetings, holds 3.7% mindshare, down 13.0% since last year.
Unified Communications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Jabber3.1%
Cisco Unified Communications9.4%
3CX Live Chat7.5%
Other80.0%
Unified Communications
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Skype for Business3.7%
Zoom Workplace Business7.4%
Webex5.2%
Other83.7%
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer912129 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Manager at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Stable, easy to set up, and works fine
Everyone in our company uses Cisco Jabber for phone calls and internal chat. We have around 1,000 users. For features like video conferences, schedules, and presentations, we use Microsoft Teams.  It works fine feature-wise. The Cisco Jabber features that we use work okay. There are issues in…
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 power of the chat function is good in terms of sharing, pasting, and the like, as it is very full-featured."
"The most valuable feature for me is that it shows who is available and who is not, as well as what their current status is."
"It works fine feature-wise. The Cisco Jabber features that we use work okay."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to talk with people in real-time, instead of sending texts."
"Everyone in our company uses Cisco Jabber for phone calls and internal chat."
"In summary, this product worked well for what I needed to do."
"This product makes my life much easier by shortening the distance between my boss and the rest of my team."
"Firstly, it is an innovative and even more profitable way of communicating."
"It's a good and stable product that fits my needs."
"I think Skype for Business is scalable. However, I believe Microsoft is discontinuing the Skype platform altogether, so I don't think it's super-relevant."
"A good option for virtual meetings."
"The simplicity and ease of use are the most valuable features, as it's so much easier and quicker than writing an email to someone and waiting for them to read it."
"The most valuable feature is how useful it has been for virtual meetings during the pandemic."
"The performance is pretty good, this is a mature application with no bugs, and I have no complaints."
"The most valuable features of Skype for Business include its persistent chat, Edge Server, Reverse Proxy, front-end server, back-end server, and business calling capabilities, among others."
 

Cons

"Cisco Jabber is not a collaborative tool."
"I presume that very small businesses would have a tough time justifying the investment."
"There are issues in switching from one type of communication system to another. When I connect my wired earphone or Bluetooth earphone, Cisco Jabber doesn't switch automatically. There are some user experience issues that need to be fixed."
"Conferencing and interoperability need to be improved."
"Microsoft Teams, as I see it now, is more useful than Skype for Business."
"The solution's functionality needs to be moved to Microsoft Teams. Its technology is outdated."
"I should be able to make a desktop phone call when I click a member of my Lync directory."
"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."
"Lacks a zoom-in feature for whoever is presenting."
"It would be ideal if the solution could make instant messages more permanent. Currently, if you close the conversation, you lose the instant messages that you shared during the meeting. If those could last beyond the meeting, that would be a great addition, due to the fact that frequently, people give each other key details, important information, or email addresses, etc., during the meeting. If you don't write it down during the meeting, after the meeting closes, it's gone forever. That can be quite frustrating."
"I would not recommend Skype for Business because Microsoft Teams has more features, a lightweight application that I access on my mobile."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"To realize value from the purchase of Skype Business, you need to take advantage of all the important functions of the program."
"The cost of Skype for Business is incorporated into our Office 365 licenses."
"It may be slightly costly, but the features are awesome."
"It may be considered costly for certain markets, such as in India."
"The solution is priced fairly."
"We are using the subscription-based version of Skype for Business. There is a free version of the solution."
"We have been able to save money by moving our conferencing solution to Skype for Business Conferencing."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
10%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
 

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

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Odeabank, Eagle Investment Systems, Pella Corporation, The Republican National Convention, avodaqAG
EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services,LA Fitness, MedcoEnergi International, Tampa General Hospital, and HopewellHoldings Limited.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, 3CX, Digium and others in Unified Communications. Updated: May 2026.
902,417 professionals have used our research since 2012.