webex-app-vs-zoom

Cisco Webex Teams and Zoom are communication solutions designed to help users collaborate and communicate online. Zoom is primarily a web and video conferencing platform, with additional collaboration features. Cisco Webex Teams is more of an online collaboration tool that includes video meetings, group and private chat, file sharing, and interactive whiteboarding capabilities. 

On TrustRadius, Cisco Webex Teams is mostly used by midsize businesses and enterprises. On the other hand, Zoom’s user base is more evenly distributed among small, medium, and large organizations. 

Features

Both Zoom and Cisco Webex Teams provide full-featured video conferencing and persistent chat features, but they each have their own strengths.

Cisco Webex Teams integrates well with other Cisco products, making it ideal for businesses already embedded within the Cisco ecosystem of products and services. It provides a centralized collaboration hub for users and offers multiple security features as well. Cisco Webex Teams also includes tools to help users create chatbots that automate common responses and tasks.

Zoom is primarily known for its easy setup and use. Its controls for meeting hosts are intuitive and accessible. Sidebars and breakout rooms help hosts dynamically organize attendees, making it especially useful for educators managing their students. Zoom users also appreciate its low price point and high audio/video quality. 

Limitations

However, both products also have their limitations. Before investing in either Cisco Webex Teams or Zoom, consider the common pain points other users have and any missing functionality each platform may have. 

Zoom may have a low learning curve, but it lacks some quality-of-life features for managing participants. For example, meeting hosts cannot unmute all participants or disable all participant video feeds. Some Chromebook users have experienced missing features or low-quality video. Users also report consistent issues with Zoom’s billing and support services, suggesting that these departments might be understaffed or underfunded.

Cisco Webex Teams, on the other hand, can have trouble integrating with third-party (i.e. non-Cisco) products. Users report problems integrating with Sharepoint, MS Office, Jabber, and even their headset hardware. Its administrator controls can be clunky, and some users complain about the lack of management tools for large numbers of users, teams, and workspaces. Although the product is frequently upgraded, users are often confused by poorly-explained UI redesigns and new features.

Pricing

Both products use a tiered subscription pricing model, though Zoom is billed annually while Cisco gives users the option of being charged monthly or yearly. Zoom and Cisco Webex Teams also both have a free pricing tier. The Zoom platform consists of four different products, the core Zoom Meetings platform, Zoom Phone, Zoom Video Webinar, and Zoom Rooms. The pricing information below corresponds to the Zoom Meetings part of the platform. 

Zoom has four pricing tiers, the first of which is free. The free plan allows users to have unlimited 1-on-1 meetings and group meetings with up to 100 participants, but caps meetings at 40 minutes. The three other pricing plans all charge per year per license and range from $149.90 to $199.90. Users on higher-priced tiers have access to features like hosting meetings with up to 500 participants, SSO, cloud storage for recordings, meeting transcription, and company branding options. 

Cisco Webex Teams’ free plan and allows users to host meetings with up to 100 participants for up to 50 minutes. The four other Webex Teams pricing tiers start at $14.95 per host per month and increase up to $29.95 per host per month. Users on the paid plans have access to features like up to 24-hour long meetings, automatic meeting transcription, 5 GB of cloud storage, dial-in options, and hundreds of meeting participants.