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HCL Sametime vs Microsoft Teams comparison

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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

HCL Sametime
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
24th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Teams
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
180
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Social Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Virtual Meetings category, the mindshare of HCL Sametime is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Teams is 3.8%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Teams3.8%
HCL Sametime1.5%
Other94.7%
Virtual Meetings
 

Featured Reviews

Bogdan Chechlowski - PeerSpot reviewer
Kierownik Biura Informatyki at EIB SA
Stable product, communicate very fast and allows to see who's online in the office or work environment
It was used for communication through text messages, primarily Being able to see who was online and communicate very fast was a good feature.  The security was quite good. However, when we tried to implement it for email at a high level, we had to use another solution, FortiMail Gateway. I view…
Anna Virtsan - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Project Manager at UkrSibbank
Have streamlined daily workflow and task management but still face inconvenience from recent interface changes and limited integration options
There are challenges and issues in Microsoft Teams, such as after recent updates where group chats were combined with Teams, chats, and groups into one. Users have to work with settings to make it normal again so Teams are separated from chats, and that was a really inconvenient update. Many users ask me to help make it back again to separate Teams and groups from one-to-one chats. That's probably the worst update they've made recently. Additionally, there are some minor features, such as when I work with messages, I don't have an actual forward or quote option when replying to someone's message. I need to be careful not to miss the quote sign. For a lot of people, they are confused about where the quotes option is. I've received a couple of hundred support tickets just regarding this issue. The function to share email to Teams chat doesn't work sometimes due to our compliance policies, and sometimes it would be nice to be able to forward an email to the group chat and have further discussions. Microsoft Teams could improve by being less glitchy because it glitches a lot, leading to undelivered emails and undelivered messages. It would be beneficial if the MS application Shifts, which adds functionality to groups, could be integrated into the groups calendar. Currently, many teams don't use the app because it is not integrated with the general calendar or the Outlook calendar, making it basically a useless application. The platform needs less Copilot and more people. The general Copilot integration into the platform is less glitchy, but Microsoft Teams is quite heavy and glitchy sometimes. Stability depends a lot on compliance restrictions, policies, and quality of internet. Sometimes, when updates are enrolling, the platform glitches, breaks, or shuts down.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution saves time and cost in communicating with team members, streamlines tasks in my organization by encouraging us to chat directly with the relevant person, and strengthens professional relationships through increased communication among peers."
"The security was quite good."
"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."
"Audio and video calls provide faster communication than chat."
"A very good communication and real-time collaboration software, it is simple, fast, reliable, keeps history and the best feature of all is its intelligence."
"Organizing a meeting is very simple to do."
"You can easily integrate with other applications quite easily."
"What I use the most is the plugin or the optimization feature."
"It is easy to share and collaborate, including built-in, edit-in-place, autosave features, without having to download, edit, save, or upload."
"Microsoft Teams is user-friendly and flexible. I like its SharePoint feature also."
"Multiple channels and tools for recording."
"Microsoft Teams is a very stable app."
"The initial setup was okay."
 

Cons

"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
"It seems that the software might in the future, support the software telephony exchange but at the current time, it is not doing that and because of that one key feature of real-time communication is missing from it."
"The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP."
"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."
"The user interface is non-intuitive and should be improved."
"The only thing that frustrates me using Microsoft Teams is where I'm not able to properly integrate some applications, such as some chatbots, to Microsoft Teams."
"If I could completely eliminate Outlook and only use Teams, that would help me immensely."
"Teams doesn't always sync to show as Do Not Disturb during Outlook meetings."
"The solution's customer support should be faster and more responsive."
"The product needs to improve its security."
"I have faced issues with connection. Maybe, it's an issue from my side. The company accounts in Teams has some issues as well. I could not establish calls with certain domains, and then the product asked me to buy a professional account. The problem with Teams is that they are split between professional or company accounts and personal accounts. It's not very clear how you can go from one to another. That's the main issue with teams."
"I think stability definitely needs to be improved in Microsoft Teams to be more convenient for users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is moderately expensive than other Microsoft products."
"If you have content that requires more security and you want to use it in a more secure manner, with more protection, then it will come at a higher cost."
"The solution's pricing is reasonable and I would rate it an eight out of ten."
"It is the standard license which is part of many Office packets."
"We don't have to pay for the solution."
"The product is expensive."
"Microsoft Teams is a cheap solution."
"There is a need to pay for the licensing... I know that the payments are made on a yearly basis...There are no extra costs in addition to the standard licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business66
Midsize Enterprise46
Large Enterprise75
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Teams?
Pricing for Microsoft Teams has been good so far. My team does not manage Microsoft Teams pricing or how the licensing is being done, but I know there is a Microsoft E3 license that gives you acces...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Teams?
The only thing that frustrates me using Microsoft Teams is where I'm not able to properly integrate some applications, such as some chatbots, to Microsoft Teams. Apart from that, Microsoft Teams ha...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Teams?
My main use case for Microsoft Teams is for chats and meetings, majorly to schedule meetings, and those are the major things for chat and to schedule meetings. A recent scenario where I typically u...
 

Also Known As

Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime
MS Teams
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Connect2Cloud, Superior Group, Daifuku Co. Ltd., Seaward, The City of Fort Worth, Christian Brothers Services, Berlitz, Deutsche Notes User Group, Danske Fysioterapeuter, Slumberland, La Vacanza, Rheinmetall AG
Honeywll, AIRFRANCE, AccuWeather, Lilly
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Sametime vs. Microsoft Teams and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.