Webex Reviews

Webex – One App for everything

Collaboration is a buzzword in the business world nowadays. It seems that connecting and collaborating across all levels of an organization has become a permanent and integral part of modern business practices. With the rise of remote work and digital meetings, in-person meetings are no longer the only way to connect with colleagues and partners. In this Webex review, we will explore how meetings have evolved in the current business landscape.

Gone are the days when in-person meetings were considered the only way to conduct business. The advent of new technologies, remote work, and the impact of the global pandemic have made online meetings an essential source of connection for businesses worldwide. Cisco Webex is one of the leading video conferencing platforms that offers enterprise-grade features for organizations seeking a comprehensive platform for online meetings and collaboration.

While Zoom is currently the most popular video conferencing platform, other successful tools, such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Google Meet, are also available. Cisco Webex offers a dedicated service for online meetings, similar to Zoom, Skype, and Meet, but with a more comprehensive range of features for enterprise-level organizations.

To keep up with the changing requirements of modern business conferencing, Cisco has recently revamped the Webex platform. This includes new features, a significant price reduction, and a sleek, user-friendly UI. While Webex is still relatively expensive, its enterprise-grade security, rich features, and seamless integration make it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes.

About Webex

Cisco Webex is a suite of cloud-based collaboration apps that focus on video conferencing and online meetings. The platform gives access to different software such as Webex Teams, Webex Meetings, Webex Events, and Webex Devices. In 2018, Cisco rebranded the service by combining the Cisco Spark collaboration app with Webex to create a new experience.

Cisco claims that Webex is “one app for everything. And everyone.” This is a bold claim and similar to the approach taken by Microsoft Teams. Instead of focusing on one area of the communication/collaboration pipeline, Webex tries to cover all bases. Using the Webex productivity tool allows you to manage your teams and nurture collaboration in one place. What sets Webex apart from its competitors is its focus on major corporations as much as SMBs and individual users. Moreover, Webex is accessible on mobile and desktop applications, along with a web version (with fewer features than the apps).

Communication is fundamental to the success of businesses. However, in the enterprise world, there are obstacles that are increasingly turning to remote work. Cisco Webex is a tool that aims to tie teams together and promote collaboration wherever they are. Webex meetings are a powerful way to stay connected, making it one of the leading video conferencing platforms. The following Webex review will compare the service to Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

About Webex Meetings

As remote work has become increasingly necessary and valuable, holding digital meetings is standard for most organizations. That means Webex Meetings is now one of the most important tools available on the Webex platform.

It taps directly into the Webex video conferencing tools to provide virtual team meetings and collaboration tools for organizations worldwide. The real-time features available during meetings include recording content, custom backgrounds and layouts, broadcasting, screen sharing, and co-hosting.

Cisco also ensures users can integrate seamlessly with other popular collaboration services, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. That means users can start Webex meetings directly within those applications. Furthermore, Webex Meetings also works with popular productivity apps like Microsoft Office 365, OneDrive, Outlook, IBM Connections, Google Workspace, and Google Calendar.

How to use Webex?

Cisco Webex makes it easy for organizations to get up and running. For example, you can be setting up a meeting or video call in no time after creating a Webex account. You must download the Webex app, verify your email, and create a username and password. You can then access the Webex login and start using the platform.

While we would not rank Webex as the best communication/collaboration UI – that distinction goes to Microsoft Teams – it is quite easy to use. The interface has a nice aesthetic and an attractive menu system, but it is also a little too complex. In addition, there is a business focus on the design, so newcomers to Webex may be confused by elements of the UI.

How to set up a Webex meeting?

Starting a meeting on Cisco Webex is a smooth experience that takes just a few seconds. Because meetings are at the core of the Webex experience, you can start one directly from the home screen. In addition, if you are creating a meeting for later, the integrated calendar makes it easy to schedule meetings.

Customization is robust on Webex Meetings. Among the choices available when setting up a meeting are attendee lists, a plan, a password, and more. It is worth noting bigger meetings will require features available in Cisco Webex Productivity Tools. To get this integration, you can download it from your Webex account if you are a paid customer.

The interface remains easy to use when setting up a meeting, with the standard controls accessible at the bottom of the screen. For example, you can mute/unmute your microphone, start/stop the video, and share your screen. A separate sub-menu hides further abilities such as multiple monitors, app selection, play media files, and document sharing.

Webex Detailed Features

Cisco Webex is a complete collaboration and communication platform that covers meetings, calling, messaging, whiteboarding, video conferencing, and more. We will dive into all the major Webex features, but first, we want to look at the Webex Meeting features and Webex calling features that we like the most.

General meeting features

We love the Webex-integrated whiteboard. It is probably the best whiteboard outside of Microsoft’s stellar Whiteboard app. Either way, the Cisco whiteboard does some cool things, like work across Apple iPads, allowing users to access the Apple Pencil for note-taking and diagrams in a meeting.

Call recording is an enterprise-level feature that many organizations will value. It is built into Webex Business, allowing you to record video meetings and calls. Cisco will send you an email telling you the video will be ready within 24 hours when you stop recording. Of course, the longer the video is, the longer it will take to do within those 24 hours.

If you like to record most of your meetings, the 10GB of storage included in the Business price tier (our review package) will not cut it. However, you can upgrade for more storage, move your files to a cloud storage/file-sharing service like OneDrive or Dropbox, or move to local storage.

Events Features

During a meeting on Cisco Webex, many of the essential tools are readily available on the screen. However, some administrative tasks are hidden behind a button. By clicking on this button, you can access more granular features, such as the ability to lock meetings. This feature is essential for security purposes, as it prevents any uninvited users from accessing the meeting. You can also invite more users or remind those already on the list through this button.

During a call, you can control the standard meeting controls on the screen. For instance, if you are the admin, you can see which users raise their hands to ask a question. If you participate in a meeting, you can use the same button to raise a hand. In some meetings, such as presentations, participants are muted, and the raising hand feature is incredibly useful.

You can also mute or unmute participants, and Webex has a new feature that automatically mutes participants as they enter a meeting. This prevents any interruptions if the meeting is already in progress. However, admins can give individuals control over muting and unmuting themselves, which is useful for smaller meetings. Cisco Webex is great for meetings, and this is the primary focus of the platform.

Chat & Note-Taking Features

Besides meetings, the platform also has chat and note-taking options. Although we appreciate these features, they are not as good as those of rivals like Microsoft Teams or Slack.

Webex has an expandable chat panel that you can use to text chat with meeting participants. You can target a chat with an individual user, a group, or the whole meeting. This is a standard feature, and we are glad it is included here. However, the lack of support for rich text is a drawback. Other video conferencing services support rich text with gesture emojis and other perks, but Webex doesn’t.

Webex’s note-taking feature seems like an afterthought thrown in because users demand it. Formatting options are average, and they lag far behind those of rival services. However, Cisco may have done this by design, perhaps preferring users to use integration for notes. Nevertheless, we think the note-taking feature on Webex is almost pointless.

With the general meeting features taken care of, let’s take a look at the wider suite of features available on Cisco Webex:

Meeting Tools

Collaboration Tools

Enterprise Tools

Detailed Integrations

When it comes to pricing, Webex charges extra for some features in meetings held on Webex. However, both Zoom and Webex offer similar meeting features, each with its own unique tools. For instance, Zoom has Break-Out Sessions, which Webex has now included as well. While Webex offers 10GB of storage, which is more than Zoom’s standard plans that only have 1GB of storage, we don’t believe it is a lot.

Considering all factors, such as usability and video quality, Zoom remains the better video conferencing service. Although Webex has some great features, it still falls short in some areas, especially when it comes to price.

To sum up our Webex review, we believe that this video conferencing platform is suitable for major enterprise customers who will benefit from its features. However, for small and medium-sized businesses, the high cost of Webex and the lack of some features may not be worth it.

Alternatives to Webex

Before spending money on Webex, it is good to consider all your options. As companies increasingly pivot to remote work and digital meetings become valuable, the number of solutions providing video conferencing is rising. Services like AnyMeeting and GoToMeeting handle pure meeting tasks just as well as Webex and at a fraction of the price.

Still, we think that the two main alternatives to Webex are Microsoft Teams and Zoom. These are the main competitors whether you want to pay for software or a Webex free alternative. We will start by looking at Microsoft Teams and how it stacks up against Cisco’s platform.

You may argue comparing Teams with Webex is unfair, considering Teams is built into the wider Microsoft 365 product. However, this integration makes Microsoft Teams such a potent alternative to Webex. Microsoft Teams matches and often betters the conferencing features of Webex, and on top, adds all Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Whiteboard, etc.) and best-in-class security.

Let’s not forget Microsoft 365/Microsoft Teams is also more affordable than Webex by quite a distance. In fact, the only area where Cisco Webex is clearly better than Teams is in terms of available integrations. Even then, we could argue Teams makes up for it by having access to Microsoft’s entire ecosystem, including integration in Windows 11 and Dynamics 365.

Zoom vs. Webex

Zoom is a more direct competitor to Webex because the feature set and focus of the platforms are mostly the same. Below we will cover the main points and compare both apps to see how they perform against each other:

• Pricing – Once again, price is a big problem for Cisco Webex. Zoom is simply more affordable, with even the top tier of Zoom plans ($19.99 pu/pm) costing less than the standard Webex business tier ($26.95 pu/pm). Even though Cisco has significantly lowered the price of Webex, it still costs more than Zoom.
• Meeting Capacity – As major organizations turn to remote work, the ability to conference or hold events for many participants is important. Cisco Webex does a solid job on its Business plan by allowing up to 200 people, but Zoom’s more affordable Enterprise tier supports over 1,000 participants. It is possible to extend the number of people in a meeting on Webex but at an extra cost.
• Conference Tools – There is no separation between Zoom and Webex regarding meeting features. Each score wins over the other, and both have interesting unique tools. For example, Zoom’s Break-Out Sessions, which Webex has since included. While we don’t think 10GB of storage in Webex is a lot, it beats Zoom’s standard plans, which only have 1GB of storage.

If we consider all metrics, including usability and video quality, Zoom continues to be the superior conferencing service. Cisco Webex does a lot right, but it still lacks in some areas, not least with the price.

Webex Review Conclusions

That concludes our Webex Review, and you now probably have a good idea whether this is the video conferencing platform for you. We find a lot to appreciate about the platform and all its features, making it an excellent choice for larger corporations. However, for small and medium-sized businesses, the high cost of Webex and the availability of other excellent alternatives like Zoom and Microsoft Teams makes it difficult to recommend Webex.

While we do like the software, we believe it may not be the best option for video conferencing and online meetings.