As more organizations embrace remote working and learning, the need for reliable video conferencing solutions has skyrocketed. If you’re exploring virtual meeting platforms, you’ll find that Webex by Cisco and Zoom are among the most popular video conferencing services on the market today. But which is best? The answer depends on your specific needs.
We conducted an in-depth review of Webex vs. Zoom and compared video conferencing features, pricing, security, reliability and user experience. This review provides everything you need to make an informed decision for your team.
Webex vs. Zoom at a Glance
Webex
Free plan
Available
Paid plans range
From $10
per month per license
Participants allowed
Up to 200
per meeting
Available
From $10
per month per license
Up to 200
per meeting
- Excellent video and audio quality
- Easy screen and document sharing
- Strong reputation for security
- Difficult to set up and navigate compared to other apps
- Sluggish app launch speed
- Limited integrations available
Zoom
Free plan
Available
Paid plans range
From $15.99 to $25
per month per license
Participants allowed
Up to 1000
per meeting
Available
From $15.99 to $25
per month per license
Up to 1000
per meeting
- Easy to set up and use
- Reliable and fast connectivity
- Excellent video and audio quality
- Security issues (such as meeting disruptions)
- Breakout rooms somewhat difficult to navigate
How Webex and Zoom Stack Up
| Webex | Zoom Meetings | |
|---|---|---|
|
Price
|
$0 to $12 per month per license
|
$0 to $25 per month per license
|
|
Meeting Participant Capacity
|
Up to 200
|
Up to 1,000
|
|
Meeting Duration
|
Up to 24 hours per meeting (free plan limits all meetings to 50 minutes)
|
Up to 30 hours per meeting (free plan limits group meetings to 40 minutes)
|
|
Unlimited Group and 1to1 Meetings
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Breakout Rooms
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Private and Group Chat
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Audience Polling
|
✔
|
Available on paid plans
|
|
Whiteboarding, App and Screen Sharing
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Social Media Streaming
|
Stream live to Facebook; available on paid plans
|
Stream live to Facebook, YouTube or a third-party service; available on paid plans
|
|
Record Meetings
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Cloud Storage for Recorded Meetings
|
10 GB per month to Unlimited
|
From 1 GB per month to Unlimited
|
|
Meeting Scheduling
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
User and Participant Authentication
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Participant Waiting Room/Lobby
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Control Over Participant Roles and Permissions
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Touch Up Appearance Filters
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Meeting Background Manipulation
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Telephone Only Dial-In Option
|
✔
|
✔
|
|
Integrations
|
Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Microsoft Office Suite 365, iOS, Samsung Smart Signage, Workplace from Facebook and more
|
1,000+, including Zapier, Marketo, PayPal, Eventbrite, HubSpot, Salesforce, Calendly, Chili Piper and more
|
Both Webex and Zoom offer high-quality video and audio, easy meeting scheduling, user and participant authentication, waiting rooms and meeting recordings. Each platform also comes with desktop/file sharing, application sharing, interactive whiteboards, background manipulation, live group and private chat and the ability to assign user roles and permissions.
All Webex paid plans include 10 GB of cloud storage, while lower-tier Zoom plans offer only 1 GB. Webex offers participant polling on its free plan; Zoom does not. All Zoom plans come with touch-up filters for lighting and appearance; these features are not available through Webex.
Webex offers fewer integrations than Zoom. You’ll find a complete list of integrations on the Zoom website, but you’ll need to search by app name in the Webex Help Center to determine whether a specific app is supported.
Featured Partners
1
RingCentral
$20 per user, per month (paid annually)
Yes
Yes
2
Zoom Phone
Starts at $10 per user, per month
Yes
Yes
3
Nextiva
$18.95 per user, per month
Yes
Yes
Webex vs. Zoom Prices by Plan
Webex offers five plans. The Basic Plan and Meet Plan offer premium HD online video-based meetings, while the Call Plan offers a unique cloud-based phone number for each license and premium calling features. The Webex Meet + Call Plan offers both online video meetings and telephony services.
Prices for Webex plans range from $0 to $25 per month per license, with exception to the customizable cost of the Enterprise Plan. Other differences among the plans include participant capacity and meeting duration limits, which are explained in the chart below.
| Webex Basic | Webex Meet | Webex Call | Webex Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Price Per Month
|
$0
|
$12
|
$17
|
Custom
|
|
Max Meeting Duration
|
50 minutes
|
24 hours
|
50 minutes
|
24 hours
|
|
Max Participant Capacity
|
100 | 200 | 100 |
Custom
|
|
Min Number of Licenses Required
|
1 | 1 | 1 |
Custom
|
Zoom offers four plans that range from $0 to $25 per license per month. Key differences among the plans include price, meeting duration and participant capacity.
| Zoom Basic | Zoom Pro | Zoom Business | Zoom Business Plus | Zoom Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Price Per Month
|
$0
|
$15.99
|
$19.99
|
$25
|
Custom priced
|
|
Group Meeting Max Duration
|
40 minutes
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
|
One-to-One Meeting Max Duration
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
30 hours
|
|
Max Participant Capacity
|
100 | 100 | 300 | 300 |
1,000
|
|
Min Number of Licenses Required
|
1 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 50 |
|
Large Meetings Add-On Available?
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
A key difference between Webex and Zoom is participant capacity limits on the platforms’ various plans. Zoom’s $14.99 Pro plan caps out at 100 participants, while Webex’s $15 Meet Plan permits up to 200 participants. If you want your online meetings to scale beyond 200 people, Zoom’s Business plan at $19.99 is a better value as it comes with built-in support for up to 300 participants.
With Zoom paid plans, you can expand participant capacity to up to 1,000 per meeting via Zoom’s Large Meetings add-on, which starts at $50 per month.
Ease of Setup and Use
The steps to setting up and using each video conferencing platform are similar, though user feedback overwhelmingly suggests that Zoom is consistently more user-friendly than Webex.
You don’t need a Zoom account to attend a meeting, but you will need to download the Zoom meeting application to your computer or mobile device. Zoom software updates are issued regularly, so it’s always best to check whether you have the latest version installed before attending a meeting. Using up-to-date software assures a more secure and stable video meeting experience.
You need to sign up for a Zoom account to set up a meeting. Register for a free Zoom account via email, Google, Facebook or single sign-on (SSO). Once your account is live, you can schedule meetings and invite others to your meetings. The process is straightforward, and Zoom’s meeting management dashboard is exceptionally user-friendly.
Webex application download and meeting set up is much like Zoom’s. To attend a meeting, you must download the Webex software onto your device. To host a meeting, you must register for a Webex account, which you can do for free. It is worth noting that you can also join meetings from your web browser. Webex takes a hit on user-friendliness due to somewhat clunky set-up instructions, lengthy registration and check-in times and a meeting interface that can confuse less tech-savvy users.
Related: Grasshopper vs. RingCentral vs. Zoom
Security
Video conferencing use has surged since the pandemic began. Virtual events are up 1000% since COVID-19, and virtual meetings have experienced similar growth.
Increasing user rates and systems that weren’t prepared to handle the surge led to Zoom’s widely publicized security issues. A string of meeting disruptions affected the platform in 2020, but Zoom has addressed its security shortcomings, and instances of security breaches are rarer now.
Zoom offers TLX encryption to establish communications, AES-256 encryption for real-time content and password-protected meetings. Meeting hosts can opt to have users stop in waiting rooms and then admit participants one by one after user identity and permission to enter has been verified. Hosts have complete control over screen sharing permissions. Zoom also provides HIPAA-compliant security with its Zoom for Healthcare solution.
Webex maintains a stellar reputation for video conferencing security. The platform offers locked personal room meetings, password-enforced meeting connections and encrypted cloud recordings. The Webex lobby feature allows the meeting host to control who can enter a meeting and when. Meeting hosts and admins can grant or revoke participant access to meetings at any time.
Support
Webex offers customer support to its free users through its online Help Center. Paid plan subscribers can contact Webex customer service via chat or phone. Enterprise customers are assigned a dedicated Webex representative.
The Zoom Help Center is the only support offered for those on the free Zoom plan. Zoom Pro plan customers can submit support tickets or chat live online with a Zoom representative. Zoom Business and Enterprise plan customers can opt to receive support via phone.
Telephony Extensions
Both Webex and Zoom offer telephony extension plans. To access telephony services with Webex, you’ll need a Webex calling plan, which you can get with both the Call Plan and the Meet + Call Plan. Call waiting, call forwarding and up to six-way conference calls are included in these Webex plans. Unlimited local and domestic long distance is also offered, and international long distance is billed per minute.
Zoom Phone is the provider’s global cloud enterprise phone solution. Zoom’s service includes unlimited internal calling, three-way ad hoc conference calls, call recording, voice mail transcription and more. There is also an appliance program that can provide you with telephony hardware straight from the company. This telephony service is a separate offering from Zoom Meetings, and prices for plans range from $10 to $20 per month per license.
Bottom Line
Both Webex and Zoom offer feature-rich, stable video conferencing solutions. Overall, though, Zoom is the better platform in terms of total features and user-friendliness.
Zoom’s simplicity makes it a favorite across all types of video conference users. Since Webex holds a stronger reputation for system security, Webex is often a favorite for tech-savvy users and organizations where system security is paramount.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is VoIP?
Voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) is an internet-based technology that uses a broadband connection
What is video conferencing?
Video conferencing is a type of virtual, online meeting where two or more people talk through a video and audio call in real time.
Do you need a Zoom account to join a meeting?
No. While the person who starts a meeting and invites you will need an account, participants aren’t required to sign up for Zoom.
How can you make your video conferencing platform more secure?
There are several ways to enhance the security of whichever video conferencing platform you choose. These include creating unique meeting passwords and IDs for each meeting, allowing attendees into the meeting rather than everyone getting into the meeting at the same time, restricting who can give out meeting invitations and limiting on-screen access to documents when screen sharing.
What are the benefits of video conferencing?
Video conferencing allows for face-to-face communication, and often includes options like screen sharing, document markup, breakout rooms, chat, reactions and quizzes that give participants more ways to interact, compared with audio-only calls. Connecting people through video conferencing expands an organization’s options by not requiring participants to be in a single location.
