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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

"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."
"In summary, this product worked well for what I needed to do."
"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."
"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 of Skype for Business is that it has many other tools that you can be integrated with it, which makes the meetings more interactive."
"I would recommend Skype for Business to others, because it's good."
"The quality of the meetings is very good."
"I think Skype for Business is scalable. However, I believe Microsoft is discontinuing the Skype platform altogether, so I don't think it's super-relevant."
"You can do meetings with your employees, and employees outside of your company."
"The integration with Microsoft Outlook for creating and scheduling meetings is nice."
"Our employees use this solution for a communal space to collaborate for organizational decision making."
"Skype for Business is good for meetings and instant messaging."
 

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 venture to say that 30% of the people using this solution at our company have had issues with stability, due to the volatility and crashes."
"WebEx has a feature that allows you to zoom in when you're giving a presentation. To get the same result with Skype requires going through the host."
"Skype for Business is not suitable for giving lectures."
"I should be able to make a desktop phone call when I click a member of my Lync directory."
"Sometimes Skype is slow, and we cannot use other elements of our devices while using the Skype solution."
"There have been a few issues working with vendor."
"The initial setup could be simplified."
"It would be ideal if the solution could make instant messages more permanent. Currently, if you close the conversation, you lose the instant messages that you shared during the meeting. If those could last beyond the meeting, that would be a great addition, due to the fact that frequently, people give each other key details, important information, or email addresses, etc., during the meeting. If you don't write it down during the meeting, after the meeting closes, it's gone forever. That can be quite frustrating."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
"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."
"Skype for Business' pricing is reasonable."
"We are using the subscription-based version of Skype for Business. There is a free version of the solution."
"To realize value from the purchase of Skype Business, you need to take advantage of all the important functions of the program."
"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
14%
Government
9%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
13%
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: August 2026.
908,877 professionals have used our research since 2012.