Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) vs. Twilio

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Call Manager is a unified call control center from Cisco that supports enterprise collaboration functions across the spectrum of IP telephony, video & web conferencing, and messaging. Features include call forwarding, call back, call transfer, ad hoc conferencing, and call park.N/A
Twilio
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Twilio offers a CPaaS and CCaaS solution, with the combination of its programmable Voice, Video, and Messaging APIs, as well as the Twilio Flex cloud contact center. Additional capabilities include Twilio's Elastic SIP Trunking, as well as API for WhatsApp.
$0
per min per participant
Pricing
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Twilio
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Programmable Video
$0.0015
per min per participant
WhatsApp Business API
$0.0042
Per WhatsApp Template message sent
WhatsApp Business API
$0.005
Per WhatsApp session message
Elastic SIP Trunking
$0.007
Per min for termination
Programmable Messaging
$0.0075
per message sent or received
Programmable Voice
$0.0085
per minute to receive a call
Programmable Voice
$0.013
per min to make a call
Elastic SIP Trunking
$0.045
Per min for origination
Twilio Conversations
$0.05
per active user per month
Twilio Authy
$0.09
per authentication
Programmable Wireless
$0.1
per MB
Twilio Flex (Contact Center)
$1
per active user hour (5000 hours free)
Programmable Wireless
$2.00
per SIM card
Twilio SendGrid Email API
$14.95
per month up to 100k emails. (Up to 40k emails free for 30 days)
Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns
$15
per month for 5,000 contacts and 15,000 emails. Your first 2,000 contacts are free
Twilio Flex (Contact Center)
$150
per named user per month (5000 hours free)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Twilio
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing1. Pay-as-you-go pricing: Simple usage-based pricing means you don’t get locked into big contracts. 2. Volume discounts: Discounts trigger as your usage grows, so you always get a fair price. 3. Start building today with free trial credit and full API access.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Twilio
Features
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Twilio
Cloud PBX
Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
7.6
43 Ratings
6% below category average
Twilio
-
Ratings
Hosted PBX9.522 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)5.631 Ratings00 Ratings
User templates6.941 Ratings00 Ratings
Call reports7.040 Ratings00 Ratings
Directory of employee names9.141 Ratings00 Ratings
Call Management
Comparison of Call Management features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
8.1
46 Ratings
4% below category average
Twilio
-
Ratings
Answering rules9.344 Ratings00 Ratings
Call recording5.528 Ratings00 Ratings
Call park9.340 Ratings00 Ratings
Call screening8.837 Ratings00 Ratings
Message alerts7.640 Ratings00 Ratings
VoIP system collaboration
Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
9.0
42 Ratings
12% above category average
Twilio
-
Ratings
Video conferencing9.132 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio conferencing9.142 Ratings00 Ratings
Video screen sharing8.417 Ratings00 Ratings
Instant messaging9.320 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile apps
Comparison of Mobile apps features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
7.2
26 Ratings
11% below category average
Twilio
-
Ratings
Mobile app for iOS7.026 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile app for Android7.324 Ratings00 Ratings
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Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Twilio
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User Ratings
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Twilio
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(47 ratings)
7.6
(79 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(2 ratings)
7.6
(5 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(7 ratings)
9.5
(10 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(24 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(14 ratings)
5.6
(16 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Twilio
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Cisco Unified Communications Manager is suited for medium to large customers who are in search for a solid call control platform with added security in mind. Cisco Unified Communications Manager also supports receptions, small groups and also a mini contact center type of set up with its Hunt Group, Pick up Group and call queuing facilities and also with set up of music on hold function while calls queuing.
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Twilio
Twilio is well suited to sending SMS reminders to prospects on the lead-up to sales appointments. This has helped us improve attendance rates for these meetings. We also use Twilio to communicate with these prospects post-meeting to make offers on products and services and for feedback on their meeting.
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Pros
Cisco
  • This solution is extremely stable and has been running in our environment for several years without (unscheduled) downtime.
  • The ability to have voicemails automatically sent as an email message is extremely helpful in helping us to keep in touch while away from the desk.
  • The Call Manager provides us very granular settings to route our calls as we want.
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Twilio
  • Easy to see my team in one place, when they log in and out and what call status they are in.
  • Twilio is a simple, user friendly way to log in and out of work activities.
  • Excellent services and support.
  • The omnichannel feature which allows agents to get request from all channels.
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Cons
Cisco
  • Administration web page is little bit hard to understand at the beginning specially if you are not familiar with naming convention and GU Interfaces.
  • Call Detail Record interface is fine but would be desirable to include more options that fit organization needs in terms of reporting purposes.
  • Self Care Portal interface could be more useful to the end user if it includes options to manage some features without administrators involving.
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Twilio
  • Segment’s email identifier is case-sensitive, which is ridiculous because emails themselves are not case-sensitive. This means that if I send a capitalized email address in an identify call, it will create a duplicate user rather than matching it with the lowercase email. I think this is a technical oversight that should be corrected.
  • I’d like to see more information about the eventual transition of existing Frontline customers to Twilio Flex
  • I’d like to see some integrations between Twilio Studio and OpenAI or another open source LLM to provide automated responses, if this hasn’t been done already
  • I would like to be able to drag and move the actual lines connecting the steps in Twilio Studio, sometimes mine can get pretty messy
  • I think a Bug Report form would be beneficial for developers
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
We have been using this product for 20+ years and will continue too. This is a great product and new features are always coming out.
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Twilio
Unless we can get this handled quickly -- less than 1 week -- we will likely switch to another provider who, in my opinion, we'll have to spend close to $3,000 in development time to build a new integration for texting. Our clients need texting and I feel Twilio has failed us miserably.
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Usability
Cisco
The usability part of Cisco Unified Communications Manager is very much simple from a usability point of view. Day-to-day Move Add Change Delete (MACD) can be performed by the administrators very easily with simple training. From the initial deployment point of view, some of the thing can be improved to simplify the process.
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Twilio
Twilio has well documented APIs and examples. There are several tutorials, videos and Q&As regarding their services. So, usability is very good. I must say that advanced knowledge of telephony, API/Programming and error-handling is essential to make good use of Twilio. It's not just plug-and-play unless you are integrated with a system that has all of the programming built for it.
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Performance
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Twilio
The problem tends to be us, the user, rather than Twilio. We don't reach out to support fast enough (spend time struggling), but when we have, they've solved our issue immediately. We are rural, so there are signal issues to accommodate, however, we find that a few staff on a few cellular networks can triangulate where we all have signal to put up a sign.
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Support Rating
Cisco
CUCM is supported by most third-party vendors for related products, so it makes finding solutions to specific needs easy. Also Cisco TAC is very knowledgeable, and we have never run into a problem they have not been able to resolve. Usually they are resolved without the need to escalate tickers either.
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Twilio
I have not had to communicate with Twilio support in the last 3 years but my past experience with them has been very positive. They replied to my previous requests promptly and kept me well informed to resolve my inquiries. With their documentation that's available, I hardly imagine why anyone would need to contact support since it's all there in a concise and easy to understand format. It would probably take you longer to type out a support ticket than to just open their doc websites.
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
This was the first phone system we implemented that could span multiple locations. We were very satisfied once fully implemented
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Twilio
The developer APIs and SDKs are super easy to follow.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
We have been a Cisco based shop and have looked at other cloud voice options such as MS Teams pbx, and others, but ultimately, the features, endpoints, and reliability of Cisco has been the common factor in staying with them as our voice provider. Their integrations, room systems, and hybrid design allows for us to be flexible and keep a high up time vs reliance on 100% cloud.
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Twilio
Twilio was referred to me by a business colleague, and I can't be more thankful! Twilio has helped my Facebook page by leaps and bounds, and I haven't even considered trying another chat option for my page. It is easy to set up, and customer service is quick to answer any and all questions you may have. I highly recommend it!
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Twilio
Being in South Africa, direct local currency support would be nice
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Communication and collaboration - Our offices are able to communicate both internally and externally due to this system.
  • Down time - Struggles with CUCM has caused a lot of down time due to the instability of the system.
  • High Costs - the cost of both the license and the maintenance was much higher than other systems.
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Twilio
  • It helps drive the adoption of multi-factor authentication by making second-factor authentication quick and easy.
  • Decreases the number of times a user spends migrating to a new device from an old one.
  • Enables easy access to second-factors of authentication by offering multi-device support, making multi-factor authentication painless.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Twilio Screenshots

Screenshot of To access any of the products in Console, head over to the “Explore Products” section and start building.Screenshot of Whether you prefer to build with a drag-and-drop visual editor or with code, Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns helps you engage your customers through email.Screenshot of Flex is a programmable Contact Center that puts you in control.