Amazon Chime vs Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Likelihood to Recommend

Amazon Chime is a superior alternative to other free video conference/conference call programs. The call and video quality are great, and you can have multiple participants on both video and call. It's well suited for an organization that wants an affordable option for video and conference calls, but may not be appropriate for organizations with limited budgets or those who do very little conferencing.

Read full review

Emma McCarthy

Enrollment and Eligibility Program Manager

MetrixIQInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees

View all 17 answers on this topic

It is well suited for: Clients with call managers that want to continue using Cisco and want to minimize the new CAPEX. Clients that want to outsource the platform management and support.Clients that have a variation on the number of extensions.Although, Cisco HCS, is a solution that has a higher opex than the ones supported in ISP IP Centrex.

Read full review

Rui Ferraz

Technical Consultant

VodafoneTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Feature Rating Comparison

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

High quality audio

High quality video

Low bandwidth requirements

Mobile support

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Desktop sharing

Whiteboards

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Calendar integration

Meeting initiation

Integrates with social media

Record meetings / events

Slideshows

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Live chat

Audience polling

Q&A

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

User authentication

Participant roles & permissions

Confidential attendee list

Pros

Connectivity reliability was a key buying factor for my organization.
We integrated Amazon Chime with our CRM making the call and recording process seamless for all of our sales reps.
Implementation across our organization was a quick turnaround due to good customer service from the supplier.

Read full review

Verified User

Team Lead in Sales

Computer Software Company, 51-200 employees

View all 17 answers on this topic

VoIP best practices
UC and IM
Centralized management and provisioning
Reduced OPEX/CAPEX in the implementation
Security and integration with other UC platforms using SIP (Except Lync)

Read full review

Rui Ferraz

Technical Consultant

VodafoneTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Cons

I would like to see a feature to allow people to pre-register for web-conferencing. There has been at least one incident in which no one showed up to a webinar. I don't know if no one intended to join, if something was wrong with the invitation, or if there was user error on the organizer's end.

Read full review

Verified User

Director in Other

Insurance Company, 51-200 employees

View all 17 answers on this topic

Integration with contact center plaforms
Integration with other UC platforms
Lower the tennant size and clusters capacity
Cisco's pressure to buy more and more licences, even not having a stale client pipeline (From the ISP point of view)

Read full review

Rui Ferraz

Technical Consultant

VodafoneTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Support Rating

Amazon Chime 8.3

Based on 16 answers

They were very supportive in answering all of our questions when we had problems. Their in-person calls but their support site also had a full set of information that can answer a good portion of your questions before you have to pick up the phone. But when you, you will get good service.

Read full review

Verified User

Employee in Marketing

Marketing & Advertising Company, 1-10 employees

View all 16 answers on this topic

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

Amazon's Chime is lightweight and has easy integrations with Slack. Cloud Trail has good call reports, doesn't take time to load compared to other products that I have tried. Its APIs exposed by Amazon are really helpful to customize. The shift from one user to another for screen sharing, remote control work with no hindrances.

Read full review

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 17 answers on this topic

Cisco HCS platform is to be seen as a centralized UC platforms, that can be scalable as an IP Centrex solution and as rich in functionalities as a Cisco CUCM. If you're looking for a solution and your main focus is IM & P functionalities rather than voice, Lync is a good solution. If your focus is voice and telephony, Cisco is a better solution

Read full review

Rui Ferraz

Technical Consultant

VodafoneTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Anytime that my teams do not have to have that frustrating first 5 minutes of a call asked if everyone can hear and are you on, makes life so much better and starts the meeting off on a positive note.
Knowing that Chime is very reliable, domestic and international, gives me some peace of mind that my teams and I are in good hands. Communication is vital for our business and I feel confident in Chime.
I would like our company as a whole using the same vendor for online conferences. We constantly try to streamline our vendor list, but I do understand the interface criticism. Amazon has never been known for its design aesthetic and user experience.

Read full review

Verified User

C-Level Executive in Corporate

Hospital & Health Care Company, 11-50 employees

View all 17 answers on this topic

Reduces the need to have a higher CAPEX in order to buy all the licenses at the start of the project.
The licensing is perpetual, the only associated cost with the licenses are SWSS.
Desktop sharing isn't a functionality.
Cisco SMB series can be used only with the higher cost licensing (Foundation/Standard).

Read full review

Rui Ferraz

Technical Consultant

VodafoneTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Amazon Chime Editions & Modules

Edition

Meetings - Basic	Free
Meetings - Pro	3.00²
Business Calling - Inbound	$0.002216³
Business Calling - Outbound	Country Dependent³
Business Calling - Receive Text	Free⁴
Business Calling - Send Text	Country Dependent
Business Calling - Phone Numbers	1.00⁶

*per user per day
per minute
US Only
per number per month, US Only

Additional Pricing Details

*up to $15.00 per user per month

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Likelihood to Recommend

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Feature Rating Comparison

High quality audio

High quality video

Low bandwidth requirements

Mobile support

Desktop sharing

Whiteboards

Calendar integration

Meeting initiation

Integrates with social media

Record meetings / events

Slideshows

Live chat

Audience polling

Q&A

User authentication

Participant roles & permissions

Confidential attendee list

Pros

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Cons

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Support Rating

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Return on Investment

Amazon Chime

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Amazon Chime Editions & Modules

Edition

Additional Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services Editions & Modules

Additional Pricing Details

Rating Summary

Add comparison