Cisco Room Series vs. Sangoma Asterisk

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Room Series
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
The Cisco Room Series is a video conferencing solution that wakes up when users walk into a meeting room where it is installed and provides theater-quality voice and video, as well as content sharing from personal devices. For small to medium rooms with 6-8 people, there's Cisco Room 55, and for larger rooms of 7-14 people there's Cisco Room Kit (camera and codec in one device) and Cisco Kit Plus (separate codec plus and quad camera). Any of these systems can be run in the cloud or on-premises.N/A
Sangoma Asterisk
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Asterisk is an open source toolkit for building communications applications, now owned and supported by Sangoma (acquired with Digium in 2018). Most Asterisk-based systems and solutions require additional components (e.g. IP-phones, VoIP gateways or telephony interface cards, and other hardware), and expertise.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Room SeriesSangoma Asterisk
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Room SeriesSangoma Asterisk
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Room SeriesSangoma Asterisk
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Room SeriesSangoma Asterisk
Small Businesses
Zoom
Zoom
Score 8.2 out of 10
Sangoma Switchvox
Sangoma Switchvox
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Webex DX80 (discontinued)
Cisco Webex DX80 (discontinued)
Score 9.2 out of 10
3CX
3CX
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Webex DX80 (discontinued)
Cisco Webex DX80 (discontinued)
Score 9.2 out of 10
Cisco VoIP PBX
Cisco VoIP PBX
Score 7.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Room SeriesSangoma Asterisk
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(73 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
5.6
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.5
(61 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.8
(64 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Room SeriesSangoma Asterisk
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Firstly from well suited: I have implemented Codec Device and Room Kit Pro in governmental place and it suited very well. It was again on Prem solution working with Cisco Meeting Servers and different countries were connected to the meeting. Network quality was perfect and Video quality voice quality were above the great. Everybody asked about the device which we were using after the call. Mainly the IT guys. For not so well experience I can say the place where we used Board Pro 55 but we have faced with the microphone problems. For the solutions we used wired Cisco SX20 devices microphones it solved the problem. But Board pro 55 itself made our experience little bit bad.
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Sangoma
Digium Asterisk is well suited for a city government as a communications solution for internal and external use. Other options like PBX are more expensive and hard to escalate. VoIP makes it easier to use the communications infrastructure instead that already exists rather than having to wire every phone when the solution is a digital or analog phone. In my city, government offices are not in the same place, which makes it harder to communicate everything together.
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Pros
Cisco
  • Probably one of the best ones we had recently was using some of the new layouts within the room kits. We've had some kind of hybrids of large groups on site as well as individuals connecting through WebEx and being able to display things out properly and have the presentations easily visible as well as still seeing the presenter. It just makes things a lot easier to work with.
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Sangoma
  • Easy communication and configuration with many soft phone and hard phone models
  • A great community that helps the software have more and more functionality
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Cons
Cisco
  • Does not work with other platforms like Zoom or Microsoft team
  • It is very expensive compared to other similar products on the market like Polycom.
  • Needs cisco webex licensing which makes it even more expensive to have this equipment in small offices.
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Sangoma
  • I have had trouble having my favorites list from Digium connect to my phone and save my preferences there. I have only managed to do this once, but now we have an added person in our Dept. I can add them on Digium, but my phone does not update.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
We like our Cisco endpoints a lot. However, the technology is getting better in the Zoom room market and we are interested in exploring those options. I'd really like to see some new improvements in the room kit series such as wireless controllers and the ability to mount the room kits in multiple configurations. I would also like to see the Room Kit and Room Kit Plus series standardize their audio line inputs to accommodate 3rd party microphone and DSP solutions.
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Sangoma
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
There is a considerable amount of tech know-how needed to really make the Room Series work for most scenarios. This might be a due to the stark increase in remote based productivity as a result of COVID-19 and quarantine protocols. But CISCO support and documentation have not caught up the increase in adoption of these technologies. As a result, only personnel with substantial technical expertise are able to really make these systems work for the use-cases that is most relevant to our setting here at Clemson University.
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Sangoma
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Cisco
Once the order was place we received very quickly
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Sangoma
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cisco
Great product with a great user experience
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Sangoma
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
With our Cisco service contract, NBD replacement and 24/7/365 support are included. We have not had any issues with trying to get a replacement for defective parts or for support (ie: software or troubleshooting). Very satisfied with the level of support available.
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Sangoma
I have asked in the not so recent past about having my phone updated with my saved Digium "favorites" list but it doesn't seem that this is possible
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
Very easy to implement. Integration into our Unified Communications platform was simple and quick
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Sangoma
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
The Webex Room Kit is without a doubt a much higher quality experience with audio and video. Especially with the recent enablement of USB passthrough mode in certain models, there is almost no comparison. Cisco has committed to the Room Kit being an open solution that will work in any use case on any platform. To get the best collaboration room experience there is no better choice.
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Sangoma
Recently I've been using Vonage Business, and while it is far more expensive and a lot less configurable than Digium, the mobility is essential for my new role. Digium is ideal for a business with both a very technical staff and a user base that is not remote. Digium was selected due to price and ability to create custom applications.
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Scalability
Cisco
The product and backend systems are designed to scale from small to very large organization seamlessly and easily
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Sangoma
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cisco
  • With this system, our staff is able to collaborate remotely, eliminating the need for an expensive office space.
  • So that HR can handle a steady workload, we can plan meetings using this tool.
  • Facilitates problem solving, reducing the need for product replacement.
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Sangoma
  • being zero cost, we saved at least 3 million on what a legacy pbx would have cost
  • the savings and speed means lower cost on our service making us more competitive
  • stability
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ScreenShots

Cisco Room Series Screenshots

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