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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

"This product makes my life much easier by shortening the distance between my boss and the rest of my team."
"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."
"The power of the chat function is good in terms of sharing, pasting, and the like, as it is very full-featured."
"In summary, this product worked well for what I needed to do."
"Everyone in our company uses Cisco Jabber for phone calls and internal chat."
"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."
"The Microsoft tech support are very good. They get back to you. I log a support call, and I usually have someone on the phone within a half an hour, so it is pretty good."
"The solution appears to be quite stable."
"It's is a very good product to have -- a solution for IM, voice telephony and video communication bundled into one."
"We really like the screen sharing tool. The user experience is smooth, and user-friendly."
"One of the best features of Skype for Business is that you can set it up on mobile phones, and you can set it up on laptops. You can connect to the tool from anywhere."
"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."
"I rate the solution's stability a nine on a scale where one is not stable and ten is very stable...I rate the solution's initial setup a nine on a scale where one is difficult, and ten is easy."
"There are free versions of the solution available."
 

Cons

"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."
"Cisco Jabber is not a collaborative tool."
"I feel bored with the look and feel of the tool, so it should be changed."
"Going forward, I would like to see better call quality and reliability."
"Skype for Business could improve by having a document channel or repository. Microsoft Teams has a better repository place for documents that you can share with your team. You can access it anywhere from any device."
"We have had trouble with scalability when trying to host large meetings."
"Microsoft Teams, as I see it now, is more useful than Skype for Business."
"I would not recommend Skype for Business because Microsoft Teams has more features, a lightweight application that I access on my mobile."
"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."
 

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."
"It may be slightly costly, but the features are awesome."
"We are using the subscription-based version of Skype for Business. There is a free version of the solution."
"I am using a corporate account for which I have not made any payments."
"Skype for Business' pricing is reasonable."
"I use the product's open-source version."
"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."
"It may be considered costly for certain markets, such as in India."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
10%
Healthcare 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.
902,495 professionals have used our research since 2012.