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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 (7th)
Skype for Business
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
63
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 8.8% compared to last year.
Skype for Business, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Meetings, holds 4.3% mindshare, down 13.3% since last year.
Unified Communications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Jabber3.1%
Cisco Unified Communications9.5%
3CX Live Chat7.3%
Other80.1%
Unified Communications
Virtual Meetings Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Skype for Business4.3%
Zoom Workplace Business7.7%
Webex5.7%
Other82.3%
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…
reviewer1854369 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The power of the chat function is good in terms of sharing, pasting, and the like, as it is very full-featured."
"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."
"This product makes my life much easier by shortening the distance between my boss and the rest of my team."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to talk with people in real-time, instead of sending texts."
"It works fine feature-wise. The Cisco Jabber features that we use work okay."
"In summary, this product worked well for what I needed to do."
"What is most valuable about Skype for Business is that almost everyone knows about it and almost everyone has it."
"The deployment is very fast."
"The calling features are the most valuable, especially now as we are working remotely because of this pandemic."
"You can do meetings of up to two hundred people in a single conversation."
"Skype for Business optimizes our network, encourages adoption, standardizes optimized headsets, supports strong change management, and enhances mobility."
"Skype for Business is good for meetings and instant messaging."
"The most valuable feature of Skype for Business is that it has many other tools that you can be integrated with it, which makes the meetings more interactive."
"Using it is very straightforward, and it just sits on your desktop as an icon, so it's easy to access when you need it."
 

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."
"I presume that very small businesses would have a tough time justifying the investment."
"I presume that very small businesses would have a tough time justifying the investment."
"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 would not recommend Skype for Business because Microsoft Teams has more features, a lightweight application that I access on my mobile."
"Sometimes Skype is slow, and we cannot use other elements of our devices while using the Skype solution."
"Skype for Business is good for the PCs with higher bandwidth, but an improvement is required for low bandwidth usage."
"Voice telephony and video calls utilize lots of bandwidth."
"Lacks a zoom-in feature for whoever is presenting."
"The solution requires deployment on a Microsoft server and its performance is heavy because it consumes too many resources from the RAM."
"The integration with Outlook could be improved."
"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
"It may be considered costly for certain markets, such as in India."
"We purchased an open license."
"The licensing is billed on a yearly basis."
"We negotiated a fair price with Microsoft. It is definitely worthwhile to negotiate with them for the best price for your solution."
"The cost of Skype for Business is incorporated into our Office 365 licenses."
"I am using a corporate account for which I have not made any payments."
"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."
"Our company pays for a license for us to use the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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.
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...
What is your primary use case for Skype for Business?
We use Skype for Business for internal meetings, conference calls, remoting into PCs, and phone calls. Our virtual meetings typically include two or three participants, keeping them small. It is ea...
 

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: April 2026.
890,124 professionals have used our research since 2012.