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Overview

What is Skype?

Skype (the personal edition) is a free web meeting, video conferencing, and VoIP software. The free version includes audio and video Skype-to-Skype calls, ability to call mobile phones and landlines, paid international calling, and conference calling capabilities for up to…

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Recent Reviews

Great for one on one

6 out of 10
October 18, 2023
Incentivized
It has allowed us to connect with our team members around the world in one on one scenarios. It is helpful to be able to see them face to …
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Call on a budget!

8 out of 10
November 09, 2021
Incentivized
We use Skype, to conduct and monitor all our Sales calls and reach out programs, It is used primarily by our sales, product/Ops, and …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 17 features
  • High quality audio (131)
    7.9
    79%
  • High quality video (129)
    7.8
    78%
  • Desktop sharing (114)
    7.3
    73%
  • Low bandwidth requirements (126)
    6.4
    64%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is Skype?

Skype (the personal edition) is a free web meeting, video conferencing, and VoIP software. The free version includes audio and video Skype-to-Skype calls, ability to call mobile phones and landlines, paid international calling, and conference calling capabilities for up to 25 people.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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56 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is GoTo Connect?

GoToConnect, from GoTo, is a cloud-based business phone system with built-in web-based video conferencing solutions. It includes features such as call analytics, call recording, softphone, fax to email, voicemail to email, and desktop integration.

What is PanTerra Networks?

PanTerra is a provider of unified cloud-based services for communications, enterprise file sharing and mobility solutions for mid-market enterprises (MME), headquartered in Santa Clara. The Company's Streams service provides - Unified Communications and SmartBox - Communications-Enabled Content…

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Product Demos

Skype Video Call Demo Video (No Audio)

YouTube

One Chat - All in one Messenger for WhatsApp, Fb, Skype & more

YouTube

Designing a Drawer / Sliding panel in Winform App C# (Skype Demo)

YouTube

Skype on Symbian Video Demo

YouTube

Demo of Skype for the iPhone

YouTube

Sony Xperia M Skype Video Call Demo - Front Camera Quality - PhoneRadar

YouTube
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Features

Performance & Compatibility of Online Events Software

Features related to the performance, reliability & compatibility of web conferencing and webinar (online events) software.

7.4
Avg 8.0

Screen Sharing

Features related to remote screen sharing capabilities.

6.8
Avg 7.9

Online Meetings / Events

Features related to hosting and attending meetings and events online.

6.7
Avg 8.2

Online Events Collaboration

Features related to collaboration between attendees during web conferences, webinars, and other online events.

7.7
Avg 8.4

Online Events Security

Features related to the security of meetings and other events held via web conferencing/webinar software.

7.3
Avg 8.3
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Product Details

What is Skype?

Skype (the personal edition) is a free web meeting, video conferencing, and VoIP software. The free version includes instant messaging, audio and video Skype-to-Skype calls, the ability to call mobile phones and landlines, paid international calling, and conference calling capabilities for up to 25 people. During video sessions, users also have the option to share their screen with other participants. Other distinctive features include background blurring, voice and text translation, location share, conversation search, and integration with Microsoft's Digital Assistant, Cortana.

This version of Skype works on phones, desktop, tablet, browsers, Alexa, and Xbox. Users can call landlines and mobile phones from around the world by paying for Skype Credit or signing up for Skype subscriptions, a monthly contract for users who only need service to specific regions. Users can also pay to have a local phone number through Skype Numbers, so that they can answer phone calls from their desktops, tablets, or smartphones. They can also send SMS text messages and share their location using the Skype mobile app.


Skype Video

What is Skype?

Skype Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Skype (the personal edition) is a free web meeting, video conferencing, and VoIP software. The free version includes audio and video Skype-to-Skype calls, ability to call mobile phones and landlines, paid international calling, and conference calling capabilities for up to 25 people.

Reviewers rate Live chat highest, with a score of 8.4.

The most common users of Skype are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(2598)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(51-75 of 136)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Chat/messaging feature is great. It's a replacement for texting.
  • Audio quality of calls is good.
  • Contact list is useful and you'll know if someone is online or not.
  • This is really small, but I'd love to see the emoticons updated to emojis.
  • Make calling free like some other communications app providers.
  • Grant the ability to not show that you're online even when you are. Sometimes you want to make a call, but you don't want other people to see you're online and start messaging you.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Cross-platform support is excellent. Everyone has their personal preference on ways to join meetings whether it be iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, etc. it always just works.
  • Highly reliable and [of] good quality. I have very rarely had any issues with poor video quality or disconnects and suspect the times I have were issues with personal internet rather than Skype servers.
  • Other platforms create an all-inclusive solution for meeting organization and communication. So depending on the complexity of your needs looking to products such as Teams or Slack might be of interest.
April 21, 2021

Skype Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • It is perfect for a video conference.
  • Skype provides and instant messaging service.
  • The ability to share screen during a call.
  • Skype is a main target for hackers.
  • It is not safe for kids.
April 09, 2021

Skype - End of an Era

Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Quick message colleagues
  • Quite easy to set up videomeetings
  • Kind of difficult to manage if you have had many conversations
  • The UI feels dated and unimaginative
  • Some filetypes are struggle to upload in chats
  • Struggles with audio and video meetings
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Perfect for chatting via text. Has emojis, file sharing, audio sharing, and even video sharing capabilities.
  • Good for video chats. You can do 1 on 1 sessions with a good quality video.
  • Privacy is also another important function they have. They allow for private conversations between users.
  • Ability to delete conversations with sensitive information you may not want seen by users not authorized. Can share confidential information via Skype.
  • Customizable profiles to fit your company culture.
  • Allow more options when it comes to screen sharing. Allow Skype to share multiple screens for users with 2 or more screens.
  • Allow users to take gain remote access via Skype. This would be a huge improvement and something IT departments can use for trouble shooting as well.
  • Be more comparable to Slack in regards to the chat function. Create rooms and send certain people messages in large chats.
Dan Talvi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Accessible — Easy to use and navigate the user interface, even for individuals uncomfortable with technology.
  • Compatibility — Skype can be downloaded across nearly all device types, including (but not limited to) Mac, Windows, Android, iOS... even the Xbox One gaming system.
  • Microsoft Ecosystem — If you are part of an organization already utilizing other Microsoft products (e.g. Office 365, Teams, etc) Skype is part of the Microsoft line of products and will integrate easily into an existing Microsoft-based workflow.
  • Microsoft Ecosystem — While this might be a positive for some people, many organizations are not a fan of the Microsoft ecosystem. For organizations that utilize other systems, such as Google Workplace, Skype might not be the best fit.
  • Lack of Breakout Rooms (or similar functionality) — For meetings that require the ability to break away into subgroups, Skype currently does not offer an equivalent to Zoom's breakout room functionality.
  • Technical issues — (in our experience) Skype video tends to freeze mid-call more frequently than in other competitor's software. Audio will continue to be heard from from "frozen" participants, but until the affected individual leaves and re-enters the meeting, screen will remain frozen for the duration of the call.
Sanjog Ghimire | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Easy to conduct daily official meetings.
  • The emojis used in chats make conversation lively.
  • The email notification feature when we missed a message is nice.
  • Very easy to use.
  • Sometimes the video lags despite having good connection.
  • I find difficulty to share large file which should be fixed.
  • Sometime it crashes itself.
April 27, 2020

Skype Review

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • It has promoted team work within the organization.
  • Cost-cutting due to less travel
  • Eased communication within the organization
  • Blurred images during a call.
  • Very high maintenance cost
  • Effective in internet enabled areas only
Shajae Barrett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Skype is perfect for video call conferencing. You are able to meet with many people at once, anywhere in the world, once you have an internet connection.
  • Skype provides an instant messaging service. You are able to leave a message for others to see immediately or at a later date. In addition, you can also create group chat for collaboration where you are able to share documents.
  • The software is absolutely 100% user-friendly.
  • Skype allowing users to share their screen while on video call/conferencing.
  • I wish it had some form of language translation for when speaking with a native speaker of a different language. But apart from that, the software is EXCELLENT.
March 17, 2020

Runaway from Skype

Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Video calls work great.
  • Screen share is great.
  • There are bugs with text chat history. It will not show the time correctly. The way it is supposed to show is that the latest chat is at the bottom, however, more than often the latest text chat doesn't show at the bottom but somewhere in between older chat messages.
  • It doesn't have the capability to allow call recordings if you are using Skype to call the phone number. It won't allow third parties to integrate for call recording too even if you are a business user and have Skype manager account
  • Their security is obnoxious with the Support Team not knowing what's wrong. I had one of my reps account blocked within 2 mins of renewing the account. I asked the support for help they released my account but again their system blocks it. When asked for the reason they say that the system doesn't show the reason for security purposes which is complete nonsense. Customer service is pathetic.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Document viewership is easy sometimes!
  • Involves chatting and other means of communication without usage of a data plan.
  • Simple to use for the average employee to manage communication.
  • Sometimes the audio quality suffers indignantly. Especially in our facilities, we have a requirement for needing clear communication
  • Needs more features.
  • Wish I could document convos or previous info for future reference.
Colt Bewley | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Communication - face to face from different locations
  • Conduct interviews with candidates who aren't local
  • Great for video conferences as well.
  • Sometimes we have connectivity issues, but that's probably more on our end.
  • Nothing else. We love the product.
November 26, 2019

Skype is Great

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Skype is great for instant communication
  • Skype is good for getting an answer quick
  • It's great for VoIP.
  • I kinda wish I could reach my Google Hangouts contacts in Skype.
  • Sometimes it's hard to find a user without asking them for their info.
Vivian Vassar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • It is easy to use Skype to leave messages and set up a time to connect especially if the other person is in a different time zone.
  • Everyone is familiar with Skype so we don't have to spend time explaining it.
  • It's easy to keep track of our contacts.
  • The visual and audio quality depends on the internet connection. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is broken up and we have to try again later or use the phone.
  • Using Skype on a cell phone is easy to set up but the quality on cell phones is very hit or miss.
Ricardo G Lopes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Phone calls. This is the best feature Skype produces, and it has been good since inception. You can buy new numbers; you can reroute calls, you can mute, you can do three-party calls, and more.
  • Foreign numbers. That is important for persons who have relatives in other countries, as they make local calls only to reach you and they don't get charged for the international calls, you are.
  • Call quality. For many years, Skype has produced the best audio quality and the call stability is excellent. The VoIP competitors have a much lower stability.
  • Skype for Windows takes a lot of time to load and start. Unexpectedly, a Microsoft product is so slow to start when the Windows and Skype engineers are under the same umbrella.
  • Significant confusion for login credentials. Is the phone number the primary credential? Or is the login ID? Same phone number cannot be used for two logins! So, login ID is not irrelevant?
  • Remote access functions have been deprecated but no indication whatsoever to where they have been ported if any. It would be very polite if Skype would say: "This functionality is now under product X."
  • Product vision. On Messaging, is it a competitor of WhatsApp? On Notifications, is it a competitor of Twitter? On Phone calls, is it a future competitor of the Telephone companies? Who knows where this product will be in the next three years? I like Microsoft a lot, but here is where I suggest calling Steve Ballmer for a 30-minutes vision conversation, and you guys will be all set.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Voice calls on Skype is crystal clear and don't drop like on some other apps. Skype to Skype calls are free, who doesn't like free?
  • Video calls are easy to use and set up, conferencing is a dream.
  • Quick and easy installation across multiple platforms.
  • Screen or content sharing is very easy, Much easier that some other apps.
  • It seems very stable as it doesn't crash or freeze.
  • Sometimes the system gets a little slow during video conferencing.
  • I wish there was some kind of language translation built into this app.
  • While its multi-platform it isn't as ubiquitous as I would like.
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