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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 for me is that it shows who is available and who is not, as well as what their current status is."
"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."
"The power of the chat function is good in terms of sharing, pasting, and the like, as it is very full-featured."
"This product makes my life much easier by shortening the distance between my boss and the rest of my team."
"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 most valuable feature of Skype for Business is overall it is an okay solution."
"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."
"Scalable communication tool that's easy to install. Even old people are using it, because of its ease of use."
"People are now able to virtually collaborate with their staff and have a conference call. We don't need a phone line to make that conference call and we are saving on that. People are able to share their presentations. Also, they can chat using the Skype"
"The solution has improved the flexibility of meetings for our organization, increasing our communication channels and putting everything in one place from sharing to team management, which makes everything easy."
"The solution’s video quality is fine."
"Screen sharing, control in the session, and file sharing are easy."
"The calling features are the most valuable, especially now as we are working remotely because of this pandemic."
 

Cons

"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 presume that very small businesses would have a tough time justifying the investment."
"I should be able to make a desktop phone call when I click a member of my Lync directory."
"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 solution should improve the chat and add more flexibility to make a call."
"The solution feels like it's pretty bare-bones."
"There are not many options, in terms of some other third-party integration."
"Going forward, I would like to see better call quality and reliability."
"The solution lacks to provide reporting functionality, and I would like to see the solution provide that feature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I use the product's open-source version."
"When it comes to the pricing of the solution, I rate it as a five out of ten. It falls somewhere in the middle between being cheap and expensive."
"I am using a corporate account for which I have not made any payments."
"The licensing is billed on a yearly basis."
"The cost of Skype for Business is incorporated into our Office 365 licenses."
"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."
"Our company pays for a license for us to use the solution."
"Skype for Business' pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
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: August 2026.
910,479 professionals have used our research since 2012.