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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 3.4%, down 6.6% compared to last year.
Skype for Business, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Meetings, holds 3.8% mindshare, down 11.6% since last year.
Unified Communications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Jabber3.4%
Cisco Unified Communications9.0%
3CX Live Chat7.9%
Other79.7%
Unified Communications
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Skype for Business3.8%
Zoom Workplace Business7.0%
Webex5.1%
Other84.1%
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 most valuable feature is the ability to talk with people in real-time, instead of sending texts."
"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."
"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."
"The power of the chat function is good in terms of sharing, pasting, and the like, as it is very full-featured."
"It works fine feature-wise. The Cisco Jabber features that we use work okay."
"The tool's most valuable features are its audio and chat functions. They help us save time and have good telephone integration."
"The solution is stable and scalable."
"Using Skype allows us to connect with external agencies when a Skype call is set up and aids in sharing large files efficiently."
"The initial setup is not overly difficult; it's pretty straightforward in general and the deployment is also quick and only takes a minute or so."
"Video conferencing to hold virtual meetings helps to prevent employee displacement, where everyone can now enjoy the comfort of their own offices."
"You can do meetings with your employees, and employees outside of your company."
"The deployment is very fast."
"It is a business solution that helps our company connect globally to others in our sphere."
 

Cons

"Cisco Jabber is not a collaborative tool."
"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."
"I presume that very small businesses would have a tough time justifying the investment."
"Our user base has struggled for adoption, as using Skype audio is not a very consistent experience due to the diverse networks that they are on (home office, corporate office, and branch office networks)."
"The stability could be improved."
"Whenever someone is using a messaging platform, the messages needs to be stored. In Skype for Business, the message will not be seen later on if you're not online. It isn't useful, in my opinion."
"Conferencing and interoperability need to be improved."
"I feel that the whole look and feel of Skype should be improved, including its user-friendliness. It should also improve its scalability."
"Skype for Business is not as popular as Teams."
"We would like to better customize our instructions within the Outlook plugin/invite, but we are unable to do so."
"The tool needs to have a dynamic file updating feature, so people you share a file with could update the file dynamically, all at once, all at the same time."
 

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."
"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 are using the subscription-based version of Skype for Business. There is a free version of the solution."
"Our company pays for a license for us to use the solution."
"We purchased an open license."
"The cost of Skype for Business is incorporated into our Office 365 licenses."
"It may be considered costly for certain markets, such as in India."
"We negotiated a fair price with Microsoft. It is definitely worthwhile to negotiate with them for the best price for your solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
 

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
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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: July 2026.
907,816 professionals have used our research since 2012.