Webex Meetings vs Zoom

Cisco Webex Meetings and Zoom are both among the most popular web conferencing platforms on the market right now. They both specialize in web conferences but are parts of larger suites of tools that can allow users to manage their web conferencing, webinar, VoIP, and other communication software all through one system. Both also have complimentary video conferencing equipment hardware to use in tandem with their web conferencing features.

When it comes to the company size of their users, Zoom is fairly evenly spread across small businesses, mid-size companies, and enterprises. Webex Meetings is more commonly used by enterprise buyers. Cisco is a popular company across both software and hardware categories, so it may make sense for users of several Cisco products to consider also choosing Cisco for their web conferencing tool.

Features

On the surface, Zoom and Webex Meetings are very similar products, but they do have standout features that are important to consider when choosing between the two.

Webex Meetings might be better suited for larger organizations and enterprises that host a large number of external meetings. Given that Webex Meetings can be easily utilized alongside Cisco’s other Webex communications tools, it's a good choice for buyers looking to consolidate their web conferencing, webinar, and cloud-based phone system tools.

Zoom is a good fit for organizations of all sizes or those in a period of rapid growth or change. It is designed to scale with your business needs. It provides flexibility in integrating your online meetings, webinars, and conference calls with one another. It is also a great fit for those looking to consolidate their web conferencing software with their VoIP and/or team chat software. Reviewers particularly enjoy the high quality of Zoom’s online meetings in terms of audio and video, and find its user interface easy to use.

Limitations

While Webex Meetings and Zoom are leaders in web conferencing applications, they both have certain limitations.

Webex Meetings receives praise for users’ ability to host meetings on multiple device types. However, accessing and learning how to use some of its more advanced features like, interface customization for example can prove difficult. Reviewers also report that compared to other web conferencing tools, Webex Meetings experiences more occasional lag.

Zoom is often lauded for its overall ease-of-use, however, its user interface is well-known for being a bit too sparse at times, if not a bit clunky. It’s “leave meeting” button, in particular, receives ire from reviewers, due to where it is placed on one’s screen and its ability to “disappear” when not being toggled over. Zoom may not also be a good choice for those who want the most simplistic of setups. While it does have a browser-based client, it does not have all the same features as the desktop version.

Pricing

Webex Meetings and Zoom have comparable pricing plans. They both offer Free plans with similar capabilities. The key difference between the two softwares’ offerings is that Webex Meeting’s Free plan allows users to host meetings of any length, whereas Zoom caps meeting times to 40 minutes per meeting.

Compared to Zoom, Webex Meetings next two tiers designed for small teams and mid-sized teams are cheaper at $13.50/mo per host and $17.95/mo per host respectively. With Zoom it costs $14.99/mo per host for small teams and $19.99/mo per host for mid-size teams. These offerings expand upon the tools’ integrations with other applications and expansions to using other communication tools such as webinar, VOIP, etc.

When it comes to their Enterprise plans, Zoom becomes the cheaper option at $19.99/mo per host compared to Webex Meetings’ $26.95/mo per host. This tier allows users to expand upon their total number of participants. Whereas Webex Meetings allows up to 200 participants, Zoom increases that number to 500, plus allows users to benefit from its webinars and room systems solutions as well. Owing to this, buyers from larger organizations seeking to adopt online meetings across all departments may see bigger cost savings with Zoom.