Best Webex Alternatives for Business Video Conferencing

Cisco Webex is a communication and collaboration cloud platform known for unifying voice calling, video meetings, team chat, analytics, and in-meeting features like file sharing and whiteboarding in one desktop and mobile app.

Webex’s business phone system includes call management features like call merge, IVR, call forwarding, call hold, call queueing, do not disturb, visual voicemail, and audio conference calls for up to 6 participants.

While Webex meetings have useful tools, some alternative UCaaS platforms, team collaboration software, and call centers offer distinct advantages. Let’s take a look at our top Webex alternatives.

At-a-Glance Comparison of Alternatives to WebEx

Here’s a quick breakdown comparing WebEx to its top competitors.

Why Seek a WebEx Alternative?

WebEx is a powerful and secure collaboration platform that enables companies to host large video meetings with up to 1,000 attendees. WebEx also offers unlimited whiteboard and team messaging, and a plethora of advanced video features such as screen sharing, co-hosting, and closed captions.

On the other hand, WebEx is more expensive than many of its competitors, and it lacks the call management capabilities of other UCaaS providers. Even basic VoIP features like call queues, call recording, and voicemail-to-email are only included with WebEx’s Enterprise plan. WebEx also offers limited integrations, mostly with niche third-party tools instead of mainstream applications.

The alternative platforms below all offer video conferencing and collaboration tools like WebEx, but excel in some of the areas where WebEx falls short.

How We Evaluated These Alternatives

Here’s how we researched each of the following WebEx alternatives:

• Video Features: We compared video conferencing features and looked out for advanced features like AI-powered summaries and live transcription
• Security: We evaluated the platform’s security features and compliance certificates (HIPAA, GDPR, PCI, etc.)
• Audio and Video Quality: We tested the audio and video quality of each provider from desktop and mobile devices
• User Experience: We evaluated platform user-friendliness in design and functionality
• Price and Value: We looked at the various pricing plans of each provider as well as the availability of free versions, trials, and add-ons
• Voice features: We compared the available voice features of each provider (IVR, call monitoring, recording, call routing, etc.)
• Customizability: We evaluated how easy the platform was to customize with integrations, APIs, permissions, and settings
• Mobile App: We looked at how intuitive the mobile apps were and what features were available

Best WebEx Alternatives

• Microsoft Teams - Best low-priced plans and task management features
• Zoom - Best AI-supported video tools and mobile app
• GoTo Connect - Best IVR system and calling queue management
• Dialpad - Best for cost-effective UCaaS and AI-enhanced meetings
• Nextiva - Best for ease of use and toll-free minutes
• RingCentral - Best for video summaries and live meeting transcription
• Google Workspace - Best for large meetings, streaming, and advanced video features

Microsoft Teams 

Microsoft Teams is a messaging and collaboration app with web conferencing, real-time chat, and a scalable VoIP phone system. Its feature-rich desktop and mobile apps integrate with over 250 third-party platforms (Zoho, Salesforce, Slack, social media platforms, etc.) while providing standout native features like virtual cafes, 30-hour web conference time limits, and chat-based task automation.

Unlike WebEx, Teams users must purchase a separate phone plan. However, Teams is still more affordable than WebEx, especially considering that WebEx only includes advanced calling features such as queues and recording in its Enterprise plan.

Teams offers better integrations than WebEx, but many Microsoft apps are too similar. WebEx offers live streaming on third-party social media apps, while Teams provides a more seamless user experience with intuitive organizational and message formatting tools.

Cool Features

• Meetings “Together Mode”: During meetings, place each participant’s video stream in a shared virtual scene to increase attendee engagement
• Microsoft Apps web collaboration: Share, access, and simultaneously edit web versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files
• Tasks App: Streamline personal and shared tasks from Outlook and To Do in Planner’s at-a-glance workflow overview. Sort tasks by importance, due date, and task type, or view the tasks assigned within each of your chat groups
• Power Virtual Agents App: Design omnichannel AI bots with natural language understanding (NLU) and Natural Language Generation (NLG) to manage customer-facing and internal team tasks, access knowledge bases and calendars, and route customers to appropriate agents

Cost

Microsoft Teams offers a free version and 3 team collaboration plans with chat and video, ranging from $4 to $12.50 monthly per user. Adds-on include Microsoft Copilot, a generative AI bot, and advanced security and cyber threat protections.

Why We Like It

• Affordability: All Microsoft Teams plans are below $12.50 monthly (cheaper than WebEx) and plans with video meeting and chat features are available from $4.00/month
• High-level integrations: Microsoft Teams’ network of over 250 built-in apps lets users customize their experience and enhances core channels with features like annotations, bot creation, business flow builders, and team collaboration within Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Zoom 

Zoom Workplace, built around the popular Zoom Meetings, provides a video-optimized internal collaboration platform.

The free Basic plan, the Pro plan, and the Business Plan include only chat, video, and whiteboard features–Zoom Phone can be purchased separately for VoIP calling and SMS services. All plans include Zoom Meetings features like whiteboards, breakout rooms, in-meeting instant messaging, emoji responses, and more.

That said, Zoom’s team chat platform is not as robust as WebEx. For example, Zoom does not allow for video and audio clips to be embedded into chats like WebEx does. However, Zoom’s chat space is more user friendly over all.

Zoom offers more advanced video conferencing features than WebEx, with a built-in note-taking window, real-time translation in several languages, and AI-powered meeting summaries and highlight reels.

Cool Features

• Whiteboards: Drawing, annotation, and ideation tools with multicolored paint brushes, shapes, smart connectors, sticky notes, and comments
• AI Companion: Automate chat and video meeting features, auto-generate responses to team chat, update meeting latecomers on what’s happened so far, summarize chat messages, and more
• Notes: Separate Workspace for meeting attendees to create agendas, collaborate during meetings, and assign tasks. Multiple users can simultaneously format and share notes with different fonts, colors, and styles
• Meetings features: Participant engagement features include filters, 9 max. user spotlights, pinned screens, audience polling and surveys, meeting co-hosts, waiting rooms, and more

Cost

Zoom Workplace pricing is similar to WebEx as Zoom offers a free plan and two paid plans from 13.32-18.32 per user, per month when paid annually. Zoom also offers month-to-month pricing from $15.99-$21.99 per user, per month. Several add-ons are available such as translated captions, additional whiteboards, etc.

Why We Like It 

• Low-priced plans: Affordable plans with team chat, whiteboard, collaborative notes, file sharing, and dynamic video meeting features–plus scalable VoIP phone access
• AI Companion Tool: Zoom’s unique AI Companion feature for video and chat provides automated meeting/chat channel summaries, transcripts with action items, and conversation highlights

GoTo Connect

GoTo’s business collaboration platform, GoTo Connect, combines a VoIP phone system, video calls, and chat with call management capabilities like a drag-and-drop dial plan editor, advanced ring strategies, do-not-disturb, and unlimited call queues. GoTo Meeting includes useful collaboration features but only hosts up to 150 participants maximum–less than the competition.

GoTo Connect is a Good Webex Alternative if you need international calling, as all plans support a 50+ country unlimited calling area with unlimited call queues, ring groups, and IVR–enabling teams to make intricate inbound call routing systems for strong customer service. Alternatively, WebEx only offers domestic and international calling in its Suite and Enterprise plans.

While WebEx allows for video meetings with 100-1,000 meeting participants, GoTo Connect caps participants at 250 in all plans.

Cool Features

• Custom call flows: With the visual plan editor, create custom call flows that map out the incoming caller’s self-service journey
• Smart Notes: Multiple meeting attendees can simultaneously write timestamped notes during a live meeting
• One-click video and audio conferencing: Switch from a chat into a group or one-on-one meeting with a single click
• Meeting scheduling: Easily create, schedule, add co-organizers to, and set a duration for one-time or recurring video meetings

Cost

GoTo Connect offers 3 paid UCaaS plans with quote-based pricing. GoTo Connect also offers a contact center plan as well as several add-ons including business continuity and integration packages.

Why We Picked It

• International calling: Businesses needing affordable international calling rates will find great value GoTo Connect’s Standard plan, which supports unlimited calling to 50 countries–more than any alternative
• Video conferencing: GoTo Connect also has robust video meetings features like no time limit, Smart Notes, desktop sharing, and a Miro integration that enables whiteboarding

Dialpad 

Dialpad’s Business Communication platform packs a surprising breadth of advanced features, even on the cheapest plan. All Dialpad plans include unlimited calling, SMS, chat, and 5-hour video meetings with up to 10 participants.

Although Dialpad’s participant cap is much lower than WebEx’s, Dialpad’s advanced AI and meeting engagement features make it a great option for a small business. Teams that require larger video meetings can add on a Dialpad Meetings Business plan, which allows video meetings for up to 150 participants.

Cool Features

• Video conferencing: Dialpad video conferences feature personal meeting IDs and allow users to join meetings from any desktop or mobile browser with unlimited audio recording, a waiting room, chat, virtual backgrounds, and whiteboarding
• AI meetings: AI transcribes video meetings in real-time, providing in-meeting captions, access to shareable post-meeting transcriptions, and identification of important meeting moments, keywords, and action items
• Live speech coaching: During live voice call transcription, Dialpad AI identifies keywords indicating customer sentiment and intent, triggering in-call agent assistance pop-ups with suggested topics, actions, and information pulled from the internal knowledge base
• Post-call summaries: After each phone conversation, agents automatically receive a call summary email containing the recording, participant list, transcript, action item to-do list, meeting highlights, and notes

Cost

Dialpad offers 3 UCaaS plans that range from $15 to over $25 monthly per user when paid annually. Month-to-month pricing is $27-$35 per month, per user. In addition to its UCaaS plans, Dialpad offers 2 AI Meetings plans that are video only: a free version, and a Business plan for $15-$20 per month which includes video meetings for up to 150 participants.

Why We Like It

• AI-powered productivity tools: Dialpad uses AI and machine learning for live meeting transcriptions and post-meeting summaries. In addition to waiting rooms, chat, and a whiteboard integration, this UCaaS platform offers highly collaborative meetings
• Affordable pricing: Dialpad’s phone system is robust across all plans. Even the $15 Standard plan includes unlimited auto attendants and call queues, and the Pro plan supports international business with DID numbers from over 70 countries

Nextiva 

Nextiva’s Business Communications plans unify Nextiva’s VoIP business cloud phone system, team chat, video conferencing software, and SMS into one dashboard on desktop and mobile apps. A side menu displays agent notifications on each channel, and an inbox compiles inbound notifications across channels.

Nextiva’s user interface includes all the necessary video features–like in-meeting chat and video recording–without the bells and whistles that may overwhelm new users.

Nextiva is more expensive than WebEx, but it offers a fully featured customer experience platform with numerous digital channels, smart call routing, and a chatbot builder.

Cool Features

• Call Pop: Inbound calls trigger a pop-up on the agent screen  showing key customer data (contact info, last survey response, sentiment, account value, CSAT score, etc.)
• Automation: With the Enterprise plan, automate cross-channel outbound customer communications–welcome messages, surveys, campaign sequences, and more
• Virtual voicemail, voicemail-to-text, and voicemail-to-email: Agents access voicemail audio recordings or transcriptions from desktop/mobile devices, email, or via SMS text–then return customer calls with one click
• Customer journey AI: Natural Language Processing analyzes conversations, providing live agent assistance and customer experience scores in an interactive graph format

Cost

Nextiva offers 4 UCaaS paid plans from $20 to $60 monthly per user when paid annually. Month-to-month pricing is $25-$75 monthly per user.

Why We Like It

• Ease of use: Nextiva’s UCaaS system is straightforward and easy to use, with all the basic channels a company would expect from a business communication tool
• Toll-free calling: Each Nextiva plan includes at least 1,500 toll-free minutes (the Enterprise plan supports 12,500.) Teams that receive inbound calls from around the world will appreciate this high limit, which is more than most alternatives

RingCentral 

RingCentral’s RingEX UCaaS platform brings team chat, VoIP, and video meetings into a mobile or desktop application. In chat, teammates can share files, whiteboards, and task-management to-do lists.

One-click HD video supports high-quality meetings with up to 200 participants, whiteboards, video chat, and AI capabilities.

RingCentral is less expensive than WebEx and offers a higher level of security with end-to-end encryption on calls. RingCentral does not offer a free plan while WebEx does.

Cool Features

• Messaging built-in task management: RingCentral chat conversations have built-in project management tools, allowing team members to assign tasks, set due dates, and update task status
• Team huddle: Each group chat contains a team huddle, a persistent online meeting room
• Live meeting transcription: One-click live video meeting transcription lets latecomers scroll back through transcriptions to catch up or search for keywords
• Advanced meeting insights: Post-meeting insights from RingCentral AI include a summary of meeting keywords, snippets, topics, video highlights, and full meeting transcripts

Cost

RingCentral offers 3 UCaaS plans that range from $9.99 to $35 monthly per user when paid annually. Month-to-month pricing is $30 to $45 monthly per user.

Why We Like It

• Good Value: RingCentral provides superior value compared to alternative UCaaS tools, offering call monitoring, AI video meetings, and task management for under $25/month
• Advanced call center features: Cloud-based phone system features like call queues, real-time analytics, call whisper, and multi-level IVR increase FCR and keep call wait times low

Google Workspace 

Google Workspace is a communication platform that unites a wide library of Google Apps–Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Google Meet (formerly Hangouts), Chat, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and more.

It includes additional business-grade services not included in these apps’ free plans: custom business email domains, extra cloud-based storage in Gmail and Drive, longer group meetings with advanced interactive features, a Google Chrome extension, extra security features, and more.

Google Workspace is significantly cheaper than WebEx and still offers high volume capabilities with a participant cap of 1,000, but it lacks whiteboard functionality.

Cool Features

• Custom email: Create a personal email for team members with a custom email domain, then access all business emails in the familiar Gmail and Workspace layout
• Advanced collaboration tools: Hundreds of users can simultaneously co-edit, share, and chat within files from Google Sheets, Slides, and Docs
• Calendar sharing and appointment booking pages: Share calendars and availability with an open audience, allowing customers and teammates to view available times and book appointments, consultations, and meetings
• Work Insights: Admin can customize a Work Insights dashboard, a reporting tool providing digestible charts and insights about Google Workspace team use, work patterns and productivity, and cross-team collaboration

Cost

Google Workspace offers 4 plans ranging from $6 to over $18 monthly per user. Each Workspace plan unifies a suite of Google Apps–Gmail, Drive, Meet, Calendar, Chat, Jamboard, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms.

Why We Like It

• Large-scale video meetings: Google Meet supports up to 500 or even 1000 users on the high-tier places, with the ability to live stream. Users planning to have a large audience will find excellent value in Google Workspace
• Integrates with all other Google apps seamlessly: Unlike UCaaS platforms, Google Workspace is a “do it all” collaboration app that links meetings, calendars, document creation, chat, and a custom email domain

Which WebEx Alternative Should You Choose?

Depending on your team’s needs, you have a variety of Webex alternatives to choose from: some emphasize team collaboration and video meetings, while others emphasize a complex phone system.

• For Enterprises and Large Businesses: Microsoft Teams and RingCentral both offer large-scale video conferencing, enterprise-grade security, and hundreds of integrations
• For Small and medium-sized businesses: Nextiva and Dialpad both have intuitive user interfaces and are scalable
• For Startups and Solopreneurs: Zoom offers low prices and reliable service
• For Remote Teams: Google Workspace and GoTo Connect offer state-of-the-art video conferencing and collaboration tools

FAQs