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HCL Sametime vs Webex 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
Webex
Ranking in Virtual Meetings
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
128
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 Webex is 5.0%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Webex5.0%
HCL Sametime1.5%
Other93.5%
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…
DO
Web Designer / Developer & Creative Professional at Federal University of Technology Akure
Virtual training has supported collaborative learning and now needs a simpler and clearer interface
Webex can be simplified in terms of user interface, where many features should be displayed in a compact view, with similar features grouped together and a minimalistic design helping users understand what each button does. If specific features are not needed, they should not distract you, and some features should appear as sliding elements for ease of access. Additionally, connecting to Webex can be technical, and it would be beneficial to have a way to connect anonymously using a simple code instead of going through microphone issues.

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."
"Audio and video calls provide faster communication than chat."
"I can view the status and availability of colleagues or team members, which makes it easy to approach them when they are available."
"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."
"The security was quite good."
"Webex improved our overall team collaboration."
"The solution combines its hardware and camera features to give it a superior edge over all others, with the camera moving in pace with the person who is communicating with other participants."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is that it is the easiest for participants to get connected to."
"The stability of the solution is excellent compared to other solutions on the market."
"The implementation of Webex is simple and does not take a lot of time."
"We can easily connect the device and create a room and then we can call many devices."
"The most valuable feature is that you can host presentations with a lot of attendees."
"As an end-consumer, I think that the product is fine; I am happy with all of the features and happy with the product overall."
 

Cons

"The webinar should be integrated into Sametime for a larger number of participants."
"Sametime hangs sometimes and therefore needs to get restarted."
"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."
"It lacks some features compared to modern solutions. For example, it doesn't allow sending screenshots or other files."
"The interface is too colorful and looks like Windows XP."
"The product needs to improve its integration. I'm not sure how difficult it is for the IT team to set up the integration. Once set up, it's easy but still not as straightforward as other platforms, like Microsoft Teams, where everything is within the same technical environment. To ensure further security, face authentication should also be added for all internal corporate users logged into the platform."
"Cisco is not in that space."
"It is not so easy to obtain information in areas like the number of participants, comments, and file transfers inside the application."
"Webex could be improved by having a password-protected system. I don't remember there being any passwords for the meetings, but, presently, Zoom has meeting protection."
"The solution could improve by having better integration with other platforms."
"The connectivity can be improved because sometimes when we talk to clients that are overseas the connection is kind of poor. The video will be pixelated and we will need to turn off the video because the voice gets delayed."
"CWMS on-premises solution does not integrate either with CMR nor with Jabber as of yet."
"I would like it if Webex's mobile interface had all the same application integration as the desktop. Maybe the applications work on mobile as well, but we have not tried it yet."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Webex is very expensive."
"Price is the one area where Webex needs to improve relative to its competitors. It's difficult to sell to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) because of the license price."
"There are no licensing fees."
"There is an annual license required for this solution."
"Features matter more than the price for us. As long as we get all the features we want and it fits our budget, then the price doesn't matter. I can't speak for other companies. We have tried other applications, and we run into some problems that we don't see in Webex."
"We purchase the product's yearly license. It is expensive."
"There is a need to pay the licensing charges to use Webex Enterprise Edition."
"I am not aware of the pricing details."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Construction Company
12%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Webex?
From when I last implemented it, I found the price to be expensive. The licensing model doesn't work because if I want to implement it for an organization, I need to pay a per-user license, which m...
What needs improvement with Webex?
Webex is top-notch at this point in time. The only improvement I see is related to RAM and CPU usage, as older systems with 4GB RAM or i3 processors might slow down the application. I do not have a...
What is your primary use case for Webex?
Webex is primarily used for customer meetings, collaboration with team members, presenting to customers, and virtual calls with customers. In my daily work, I get on the meeting and take the discus...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Lotus Sametime, IBM Lotus Sametime
Cisco Spark
 

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
Seagate Technology, Kohn Pedersen Fox, World Vision International, Glen Raven, University of Notre Dame, CEV Multimedia, The Food Group, LUMEDX, California Baptist University, and Georgetown University Law Center.
Find out what your peers are saying about HCL Sametime vs. Webex and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.