Cisco Unified Communications vs Skype for Business comparison

The compared Cisco and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #1 in UC , with an average rating of 7.7, and holds a 9.6% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #5 in VM , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 5.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 79% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Cisco Unified Communications

Read 9 Cisco Unified Communications reviews

985 Views
630 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Skype for Business

Read 63 Skype for Business reviews

1,935 Views
1,432 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

Cisco Unified Communications

Skype for Business

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Unified Communications and Skype for Business based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, 3CX, Digium and others in Unified Communications.

To learn more, read our detailed Unified Communications Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Unified Communications

January 2026

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Helped 881,821 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

Cisco Unified Communications

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Unified Communications (1st), IP Telephony & Unified Communications (1st)

Skype for Business

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Virtual Meetings (5th)

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Unified Communications and Skype for Business aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Unified Communications is designed for Unified Communications and holds a mindshare of 9.6%, down 15.0% compared to last year.
Skype for Business, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Meetings, holds 5.2% mindshare, down 11.5% since last year.

Unified Communications Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Unified Communications	9.6%
3CX Live Chat	7.2%
Digium Asterisk	6.9%
Other	76.3%

Unified Communications

Virtual Meetings Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Skype for Business	5.2%
Zoom Workplace Business	8.6%
Webex	6.8%
Other	79.4%

Virtual Meetings

Featured Reviews

Kani Kumar J

Cisco VOIP Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Reliable customer communication and good third-party integrations with minor server update issues

Cisco supports third-party gadgets, including workforce management systems. These can be directly integrated with Cisco, a feature not widely supported by other contact centers. Additionally, redundancy is set up, meaning if one side of the server goes down, the other side will take over to prevent the contact center from completely failing.

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reviewer1854369

Executive at a government with 201-500 employees

Relying on dependable communication features for efficient collaboration

I work with Microsoft Exchange. We use Microsoft Azure, though I am not involved with the back-end operations. I work with Microsoft Exchange and ServiceNow for the service desk. I do not work with Cloud Observability or Automation Engine. We use Microsoft Copilot with Teams. We do not use Microsoft Security Copilot as it is not cloud-based. We have moved from Skype for Business to Teams recently, though some of us still use Skype for Business because it is convenient. Skype for Business is particularly useful for remoting onto people's devices. I prefer Skype for Business over Teams for screen sharing. Sometimes there are compatibility issues when running Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business together. Phone calls in Teams might ring and then go silent, or the microphone might not detect calls from either application. I rate Skype for Business a 9 out of 10 because it works effectively with minimal issues.

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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

"We use Extension Mobility and Jabber a lot with mobile remote access. In addition to video calls with Jabber, this greatly enriched communications between coworkers."

"The Click to dial feature was one of the most important features for the customer."

"Cisco supports third-party gadgets, including workforce management systems."

"The most valuable feature is how useful it has been for virtual meetings during the pandemic."

"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 most valuable feature of Skype for Business is overall it is an okay solution."

"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."

"We chose Skype for Business after other colleagues suggested that we give it a try. It has served us well."

"It has benefited my organization because I can use it on the phone, I can use it on a laptop, wherever I want. The communication channel is very easy now and I can call and chat. It's experienced. Together, my team manages everything. It's very easy."

"I like the fact that it opens up your video conferencing, and, in many cases, the audio at the same time."

"The quality of the meetings is very good."

More Skype for Business pros

Cons

"An improvement option could be to incorporate the Voicea solution with Communication Manager, allowing it to make a translation between different languages automatically in a conversation."

"Sometimes, minor temporary issues can arise while updating the servers."

"Some features take a lot of steps to configure, so having areas where a few clicks can configure a feature for a user would be nice."

"If one of the users has a poor internet connection, this failure will compromise the meeting, causing delays and distortions in the communications."

"I should be able to make a desktop phone call when I click a member of my Lync directory."

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

"The initial setup could be simplified."

"Sometimes the connection crashes, which is understandable if you are traveling. But, it would be nice if this could be stabilized somehow."

"We have found that there is a lag because it cannot integrate with the internal landline."

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

"Skype for Business is good for the PCs with higher bandwidth, but an improvement is required for low bandwidth usage."

More Skype for Business cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"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."

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

"Skype for Business' pricing is reasonable."

"We negotiated a fair price with Microsoft. It is definitely worthwhile to negotiate with them for the best price for your solution."

"It may be slightly costly, but the features are awesome."

"Previously, I did not use another solution."

"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."

"We have been able to save money by moving our conferencing solution to Skype for Business Conferencing."

More Skype for Business pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

10%

Marketing Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	18
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	27

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Unified Communications?

I want to see improvements, especially for the GUI interface, as it should be much easier and user-friendly in Cisco Unified Communications. It would be beneficial if it could be more web interface...

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What is your primary use case for Cisco Unified Communications?

We use this only for communication purposes, which includes a few use cases for it. We haven't used the video calls and other features because we based our use on basic communication, so I cannot g...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Unified Communications?

Regarding price and value, it is already expired and has reached end of life.

See all answers

What do you like most about Skype for Business?

The solution’s video quality is fine.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Skype for Business?

I cannot think of many ways in which Skype for Business could improve in general. It works fairly efficiently for our purposes with Skype for Business. There is one issue regarding the audio settin...

See all answers

Comparisons

Spectrum Enterprise vs Cisco Unified Communications

Compared 20% of the time

Fortinet FortiVoice vs Cisco Unified Communications

Compared 13% of the time

Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise Communication Server vs Cisco Unified Communications

Compared 10% of the time

Digium Asterisk vs Cisco Unified Communications

Compared 8% of the time

Ribbon Enterprise Media Gateways vs Cisco Unified Communications

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco Unified Communications Competitors

Zoom Workplace Business vs Skype for Business

Compared 16% of the time

TeamViewer Business vs Skype for Business

Compared 15% of the time

Webex vs Skype for Business

Compared 14% of the time

GoToMeeting vs Skype for Business

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Teams vs Skype for Business

Compared 6% of the time

More Skype for Business Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Unified Communications

February 2026

Download Cisco Unified Communications product report

Buyer's Guide

Skype for Business

January 2026

Download Skype for Business product report

Also Known As

No data available

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

Overview

With Cisco Voice and Unified Communications, you can unify all your voice, video, data, and mobile applications for interactive collaboration.

Cisco

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

Afni, Allied Irish Banks, Bellevue, Came Group, Children's Hospital Colorado, Erickson Living, IDEALondon, Instituto Zaldivar, John Lewis, Linz AG, London Hydro, Lone Star College System, Lone Star College System, Mondi Group, North West Redwater, Park Nicollet, Pentana Solutions Australia, Pilatus, Pirelli, Portugal Ministry, Presidio Inc., Republic Bank & Trust Company, Saipem, SickKids Foundation, Top Right Group, Vital Images

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

Buyer's Guide

Unified Communications

January 2026

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We monitor all Unified Communications reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.