Webex and Zoom are well-known providers in the unified communications (UC) sphere, offering a range of tools for video meetings, team chat, and voice calling. Both solutions have a strong reputation for their robust video conferencing services. The key difference between Webex vs Zoom is that Webex provides more security and artificial intelligence (AI) features and supports hybrid work. Zoom shines in terms of user experience, collaboration, and app integrations.
Based on our comparison, the best use cases for Webex vs Zoom are as follows:
- Webex: Best for hybrid teams prioritizing data security
- Zoom: Best for scaling companies looking for a feature-rich business communications platform
If you’re looking for a Webex and Zoom alternative, consider an all-around UC provider with comprehensive business features for call management, conferencing, and messaging.
- RingCentral: Best scalable unified communications platform
Webex vs Zoom at a Glance
Monthly Starting Price* (per User) | $14.50 | $14.99 |
Free Plan | ✓ | ✓ |
Meeting Capacity | 100 to 1,000 attendees | 100 to 1,000 attendees |
Standout Video Meeting Features |
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Team Messaging | ✓ | ✓ |
AI Features |
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Auto-attendant | ✓ | ✓ |
Third-party Integrations | 300+ apps | 2,000+ apps |
Customer Support | 24/7 call, chat, and case form | 24/7 phone, chat, and ticket |
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*Discounts for annual billing are available.
Best Alternatives
Aside from Webex and Zoom, there are plenty of alternatives in the market that can best fit your unique business requirements. You may seek extensive call management capabilities, a no-frills video meeting solution, or a virtual collaboration space. Whatever your needs are, here are a few Webex and Zoom alternatives:
- RingCentral: A leader in business cloud communications, RingCentral offers a complete phone solution along with team messaging and video meetings. Starting at $30 per user, monthly, this provider offers a robust entry-level plan with 100 toll-free minutes, unlimited local calls, business SMS, interactive voice response (IVR), and call recording. Head over to our RingCentral review to learn more.
- Google Meet: Google personal account users have free access to Google’s dedicated video conferencing service. Enjoy unlimited one-hour meetings for up to 100 attendees. Upgrade to Google Workspace’s paid plans for additional features like polling and breakout rooms. Check out our Google Meet review for more information.
- Microsoft Teams: Microsoft has developed team collaboration software with built-in video meeting capabilities. It has a free plan that allows one-hour meetings for 100 attendees, with access to free 5GB of cloud storage and unlimited team chat. Monthly plans start for only $2 per user but must be paid annually. Read our full Microsoft Teams review for our expert evaluation.
Best for Pricing: Zoom
Pricing is based on monthly per-user fees. Save up to 16% by paying annually. |
Pricing is based on monthly per-user fees. Discounts are available for annual prepayments. |
Both providers have freemium versions of their video meeting and team chat platforms and charge almost similarly for their entry-level plans. However, we favor Zoom in terms of pricing due to its scalability and competitive feature inclusions.
Zoom has five subscriptions that let you easily scale into a full-fledged UC platform. The first two paid tiers include video meetings and instant messaging, while the Business Plus and Enterprise packages have full-featured business phone functionality. For video meetings, Zoom has better value as it has a longer meeting duration and unique capabilities like multi-share, remote control, co-annotation, and waiting rooms.
With Webex, there’s only one paid option for its Meet plan because upgrading to the Suite and Enterprise tiers automatically unlocks Meet + Call plans. While Webex plans appear to be cheaper than Zoom, it doesn’t provide much flexibility for small to medium-sized teams needing more pricing options.
Get a more detailed look at Zoom’s all-in-one communications platform in our in-depth Zoom review.
Best for Video Conferencing: Zoom
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Zoom and Webex are two of our top-rated video conferencing software, as you get all the standard features from a video meeting platform. However, we give the crown to Zoom as it offers a better video meeting experience than Webex. From virtual backgrounds, filters, and avatars, Zoom provides plenty of customization features to help you look more professional while showing off your personality.
Depending on the Zoom plan, you can choose between 100, 300, 500, and 1,000 maximum participants. Interactive tools like hand raising, polls, reactions, and music and video sharing make meetings more engaging. Share a wide range of content on your screen, including your entire desktop/mobile screen, a specific application, a portion of your screen, or content from a second camera.
Webex, on the other hand, stands out for its artificial intelligence (AI) features, such as voice commands, advanced noise removal, post-meeting transcript, and virtual assistant. These features may be useful for tech-savvy companies and hybrid teams that want to utilize intelligent tools for boosting efficiency, but may be overkill for startups and small businesses that simply need essential video meeting features.
Our Webex review provides a more comprehensive evaluation of its AI and automation tools, including the overall user experience.
Best for Collaboration: Zoom
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Zoom and Webex are quite similar in terms of collaboration capabilities. Both providers have strong team messaging features, including advanced search, file sharing, group sharing, and audio/video clips. However, Zoom takes the cake in this category because it has more built-in collaboration features for meetings and a less-cluttered interface for team chat.
Zoom’s straightforward design and manageable team chat capabilities fuel quick adoption among beginners. Channels let you create public and private chat groups to send messages, share files, and view availability status. In meetings, multiple users can share screens simultaneously and co-annotate on documents.
While Webex has plenty of notable features, its team chat platform lacks structure compared to Zoom. This presents a steep learning curve for beginners who don’t want to interact with several elements on one screen. What sets it apart from Zoom is that it allows companies to explore public spaces where teams can join and gather for a specific interest. It also enables external users to collaborate by simply adding their email address to a workspace.
Best for Call Management: Zoom
Zoom Phone
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Zoom and Webex have a dedicated phone solution (called Zoom Phone and Webex Calling, respectively) for companies needing a cloud-based business phone system. Users have the option to upgrade to the advanced tiers of Zoom and Webex plans to get a full unified communications platform. This is where the main difference comes in, as Zoom offers more advanced calling features and call plans than Webex.
The Zoom Business Plus and Enterprise plans include all the essential voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) features. These include unlimited regional calling, automated call distribution (ACD), metered outbound calling, interactive voice response (IVR), voicemail transcription, call routing, and call monitoring tools. Users can upgrade to the Zoom Phone Power Pack—a desktop user experience designed for call centers with enhanced call queue analytics and team SMS functionality.
Webex has basic call management features like auto-attendant, call forwarding, and visual voicemail. However, users must upgrade to the Enterprise plan to fully enjoy all the Webex Calling features, such as call barging, call queue, call recording, and voicemail-to-email.
Moreover, users have to rely on third-party software to enhance Webex Calling analytics and reporting functionality.
Best for Integrations: Zoom
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Zoom obviously edges out Webex when it comes to app integrations. With over 2,000 third-party apps, Zoom is one of the most highly integrated video conferencing solutions in the market. The Zoom Marketplace has a large suite of business solutions for analytics, sales, collaboration, customer service, ecommerce, and healthcare. It also offers a variety of APIs to integrate Zoom with existing platforms, including webhooks, REST API, and master account API.
The Webex App Hub has over 300 third-party apps for various business categories like calendars, customer support, human resources, and productivity. Webex for Developers offers API options that give your applications direct access to the Webex platform.
Best for Security: Webex
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Webex and Zoom provide all the basics for unified communications security, such as encrypted channels, user authentication, and passcode requirements. Although Zoom has long addressed a slew of security issues in 2020, we give the crown to Webex due to its solid reputation for security and compliance.
Webex offers robust security options, built-in compliance options, and advanced privacy features for various industry requirements. It uses zero-trust end-to-end encryption for higher levels of meeting confidentiality and a key management system for managing encryption keys for calendar, messaging, file sharing, and whiteboard services.
Webex adheres to a variety of compliance and certification standards. Meetings are authorized by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), and the platform maintains Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant security.
Meeting disruptions in Zoom have become rarer after developing its very own in-meeting security capabilities. The meeting host can expel or suspend participant activities, lock meetings, temporarily pause screen sharing, and apply a watermark on shared content.
How We Evaluated Webex vs Zoom
We compared Cisco Webex vs Zoom as unified communication as a service (UCaaS) solutions and found out what makes each provider different. We explored their unique functionalities and user feedback from legitimate review websites. From there, we established a scoring system based on a set of criteria: pricing, feature, integrations, ease of use, and expert score.
Here’s a complete breakdown of these factors:
- Pricing: We compared monthly per-user pricing for Webex vs Zoom as well as features accessible at different tiers. We also checked the availability of a free trial and discounts for annual prepayments and volume purchases.
- General features: In comparing Zoom vs Webex, we looked at capabilities essential to a UCaaS platform, such as video conferencing, team chat, and advanced call management features. We also checked which provider has more security capabilities and better customer support.
- Ease of use: We tested each platform to determine how easy it is to set up meetings, configure call routing, and add/remove users. In addition, we evaluated each provider based on ease of setup and implementation.
- Integrations: We explored how each platform connects with third-party applications, including the number and types of supported software. We also check if the provider has API tools to help users develop custom integrations.
- Expert score: We analyzed each product’s overall value by looking at the feature set and total costs. We also examine user reviews to determine the popularity of both providers while considering our personal experiences.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes. However, there were reports from Zoom users experiencing audio latency issues when singing or playing music during a live meeting. Zoom requires enabling the live performance audio profile for greater audio preservation, but this only works with better audio equipment and network connection. Webex, on the other hand, requires users to activate the music mode feature when playing music during a meeting or webinar.
Yes. Zoom Meetings has recently rebranded into Zoom One to better represent what users get when subscribing to Zoom Meetings—video conferencing, whiteboard, and team chat. With Zoom One, users get an all-in-one communication and collaboration offering with simplified pricing and user management.
Yes. Both Zoom and Webex only offer 24/7 customer support for paid subscriptions. Note that Zoom has limitations for live technical support, which depends on the price of the subscription plan. Live chat support is only available for Pro accounts with subscription plans greater than $50 per month. Meanwhile, live phone support is only accessible for Pro and Business accounts with subscription plans greater than $200 per month.
Bottom Line
As we compared the offerings of Zoom and Webex as industry-leading UCaaS solutions, we discovered how each provider caters to specific business needs and budgets. Zoom is ideal for any size business that prioritizes ease of use, communication features, and integrations. Webex, on the other hand, is best for enterprise-level organizations that value data security and want to take advantage of AI tools for better team efficiency.
Between Zoom vs Webex, Zoom wins in a landslide as the best UC solution for small businesses thanks to its generous free plan, scalable subscriptions, extensive features, and rich integrations. It combines persistent chat, meetings, phone, and whiteboard in one intuitive experience, enabling more flexible work and enhanced productivity.