What users are saying about
22 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 6.3 out of 100
Based on 22 reviews and ratings
54 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.1 out of 100
Based on 54 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
- Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 4 feature sets: Cloud PBX, Call Management, VoIP system collaboration, Mobile apps
Cloud PBX
8.4
HCL Sametime
84%
8.9
Rakuten Viber
89%
Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 4/5 features
Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 4/5 features
Hosted PBX
9.0
90%
2 Ratings
8.5
85%
6 Ratings
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
9.0
90%
2 Ratings
9.1
91%
8 Ratings
User templates
8.0
80%
2 Ratings
8.6
86%
7 Ratings
Call reports
8.0
80%
2 Ratings
9.5
95%
9 Ratings
Directory of employee names
8.1
81%
7 Ratings
9.0
90%
8 Ratings
Call Management
8.0
HCL Sametime
80%
8.8
Rakuten Viber
88%
Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 5/5 features
Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 5/5 features
Answering rules
8.0
80%
5 Ratings
8.6
86%
9 Ratings
Call recording
8.0
80%
2 Ratings
9.0
90%
9 Ratings
Call park
8.0
80%
1 Rating
8.5
85%
4 Ratings
Call screening
8.0
80%
2 Ratings
8.4
84%
9 Ratings
Message alerts
8.0
80%
6 Ratings
9.5
95%
14 Ratings
VoIP system collaboration
8.0
HCL Sametime
80%
9.2
Rakuten Viber
92%
Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 4/4 features
Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 4/4 features
Video conferencing
8.0
80%
6 Ratings
8.6
86%
13 Ratings
Audio conferencing
8.0
80%
5 Ratings
9.1
91%
13 Ratings
Video screen sharing
8.0
80%
1 Rating
9.0
90%
5 Ratings
Instant messaging
8.0
80%
1 Rating
9.9
99%
9 Ratings
Mobile apps
7.9
HCL Sametime
79%
10.0
Rakuten Viber
100%
Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 2/2 features
Rakuten Viber ranks higher in 2/2 features
Mobile app for iOS
7.9
79%
8 Ratings
10.0
100%
17 Ratings
Mobile app for Android
7.9
79%
7 Ratings
10.0
100%
17 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Rakuten Viber is rated higher in 2 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Support Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
7.1
HCL Sametime
71%
10 Ratings
8.7
Rakuten Viber
87%
18 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
HCL Sametime
100%
1 Rating
Rakuten Viber
N/A
0 Ratings
Usability
8.6
HCL Sametime
86%
2 Ratings
Rakuten Viber
N/A
0 Ratings
Availability
10.0
HCL Sametime
100%
2 Ratings
Rakuten Viber
N/A
0 Ratings
Performance
9.0
HCL Sametime
90%
2 Ratings
Rakuten Viber
N/A
0 Ratings
Support Rating
8.3
HCL Sametime
83%
8 Ratings
8.8
Rakuten Viber
88%
13 Ratings
Product Scalability
10.0
HCL Sametime
100%
1 Rating
Rakuten Viber
N/A
0 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
HCL Sametime
Sametime is well suited for very quick conversations, where you know the person is an active Sametime user. It also serves as an easy way to reach out to someone you may not know when looking for an answer to a quick question, as they are likely to be a Sametime user. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to use Sametime for Audio or Video chat. The quality and reliability are horrendous.

Verified User
Engineer in Research & Development
Pharmaceuticals Company, 5001-10,000 employeesRakuten Viber
As mentioned previously, it is easy to use and access since the you can chat, send voice memos or stickers in a conversation. So in overall it's very entertaining. But throughout that, the audio quality can seem to be a bit off. (Could be personal headset issue)Overall that is the only issue that is present or consistent.
Bilingual Interpreter
LanguageLineSolutionsTranslation & Localization, 5001-10,000 employees
Pros
HCL Sametime
- Sametime's web-based interfaces are "zero load", requiring no plug-ins to be installed to join a meeting, launch a meeting, or use chat in a browser. A plugin is required only if you want to share your screen.
- Integration with IBM Notes is very tight. Sametime's chat status can change according to your Notes calendar. You can easily see if someone who just emailed you is available to chat. Your chat History is right inside Notes as well.
- IBM's mobile apps are top notch. We automated the apps for our users thanks to IBM's work with third party MDMs. This made it very simple for us to deploy the Sametime mobile apps -- Chat and Meetings -- and get new capabilities such as Audio & Video mobilized quickly.
- No down time, ever. The rock solid WebSphere back-end of Sametime means the environment is always up. Period.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Plastics Company, 1001-5000 employeesRakuten Viber
- Viber is a cross platform product. It does not matter if someone uses Android or iOS device, it will work exactly the same.
- Also the desktop version is very good. You can switch between the desktop and mobile versions within a conversation and see updates right away.
- It's a very international product. It has been available for very long time, which makes it very wide spread - it has a good user base.
- You can see the status of your messages.
Web Developer
TMP WorldwideMarketing and Advertising, 501-1000 employees
Cons
HCL Sametime
- Not convenient for a large group meeting.
- Very basic tool for internal communication only not available for third party communication
- Very basic and limited mobile app features.
- High speed connection is needed to connect to Sametime
Research Analyst and Consulting (Technology)
Frost & Sullivan Asia-PacificManagement Consulting, 501-1000 employees
Rakuten Viber
- When someone sends a file in Viber, the program automatically saves it in your phone memory. This means that you must delete them manually and it really annoys me, as it takes a lot of time to do that.
- It contains enormous amounts of adds.
- There is file sharing limit.
Risk Management Specialist
ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANKBanking, 5001-10,000 employees
Pricing Details
HCL Sametime
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—HCL Sametime Editions & Modules
—
Additional Pricing Details
—Rakuten Viber
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
$0.019 Per Minute
Rakuten Viber Editions & Modules
Edition
USA | $0.0191 |
---|---|
UK | $0.0191 |
- Per Minute
Additional Pricing Details
—Likelihood to Renew
HCL Sametime
HCL Sametime 10.0
Based on 1 answer
Sametime is now an embedded experience for our users. They know it, they like it, they use it, and they expect it to be wherever they are. Because it is pretty easy to use and NEVER goes down, users know they can rely on it and won't be frustrated by it. Sametime is right up with there with Microsoft Office in terms of user adoption and appreciation.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Plastics Company, 1001-5000 employeesRakuten Viber
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
HCL Sametime
HCL Sametime 8.6
Based on 2 answers
Just about everything works the way you expect it would and it's relatively easy for users to figure out. Sametime was one of those things that we started with only a few people as a "test" and before the test period was done we discovered a few hundred people had figured out how to log in and most got it working all on their own. Many of our users want to use Sametime and do so regularly; we do not have to create policies enforcing its usage. Users find it practical to use Sametime to do things like chat, transfer files, share their screen, and so forth.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Plastics Company, 1001-5000 employeesRakuten Viber
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
HCL Sametime
HCL Sametime 10.0
Based on 2 answers
Typically if Sametime is not available, it's because Windows Updates were done on the servers and they were not rebooted. However, that's not a problem with Sametime -- in fact, if you have Linux you could probably run Sametime for years without any hiccups whatsoever. We have no internal Linux expertise.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Plastics Company, 1001-5000 employeesRakuten Viber
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Performance
HCL Sametime
HCL Sametime 9.0
Based on 2 answers
Generally very good. Occasionally AV or screen-sharing will stutter and every now and then I hear of it dropping out altogether, but in all cases it was easy to re-establish

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Plastics Company, 1001-5000 employeesRakuten Viber
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
HCL Sametime
HCL Sametime 8.3
Based on 8 answers
I have not needed to use the Sametime support team. Our local support team was able to configure it for me.

Verified User
Analyst in Corporate
Aviation & Aerospace Company, 10,001+ employeesRakuten Viber
Rakuten Viber 8.8
Based on 13 answers
I have not frequently used the support for Viber as I have not had many problems with it on my phone. I did use support one time for problems with the computer application and used the forums to solve my problems. They were fairly easy to follow and I appreciated the online help in that format.
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Kansas State UniversityHigher Education, 10,001+ employees
Alternatives Considered
HCL Sametime
We use Jabber globally in our company and Symphony (no relevant app in able list) in some of the teams as well. All these are instant messenger tools, but Sametime is the easiest one to be used and its chat history is easy to be searched. Sametime can be used to contact almost all internal staff as it’s included in default computer package. Symphony is used to chat with front end business while Jabber is used for call.

Verified User
Technician in Information Technology
Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employeesRakuten Viber
End-to-end encryption scrambles my messages and delivers them as a scrambled code to my friend's device, whether mobile or desktop, so that only their device can decode them into plain text. If my friend's phone is turned off or they don't have access to the internet, my message will be stored on Viber's servers (for a limited time) until their device is ready to receive it.
Because Viber can't access or read my private conversations in the first place, Viber can't sell them.
Because Viber can't access or read my private conversations in the first place, Viber can't sell them.
Assistant Professor
Atish Dipankar University of Science & TechnologyEducation Management, 201-500 employees
Scalability
HCL Sametime
HCL Sametime 10.0
Based on 1 answer
Sametime is rock solid. It runs on WebSphere, DB2 and other related IBM technologies. This does mean the back-end is highly complex and very difficult to learn and get comfortable with, however.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Plastics Company, 1001-5000 employeesRakuten Viber
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
HCL Sametime
- Sametime keeps many of our team members in contact throughout the day which leads to increased productivity which makes everyone happy.
- We use the team chat room feature every day. This allows a team to stay focused on the task without any extra messages that are not on topic.
- The split between IBM Sametime, Slack and Google Hangouts has caused some issues when team members are not checking for messages on a certain app.

Verified User
Analyst in Product Management
Sporting Goods Company, 501-1000 employeesRakuten Viber
- Viber saves me financially since I am now able to communicate with my international clients for free.
- Viber helps keep my clients engaged by the fact that I can so easily share photos, which is important as a freelance photographer.
- Viber allows me to make my messages to clients appealing in a visual way, which I have noticed helps drive actions of my clients, such as remembering to book their next session or pay for their photo order.
Photographer
Liz Wade PhotographyPhotography, 1-10 employees