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Cisco Webex is a communication and collaboration cloud platform that unifies voice calling, video meetings, team chat, analytics, and in-meeting features like file sharing and whiteboarding in a 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 include 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.
The Top Webex Alternatives
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Provider
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Reviews
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More Details
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Microsoft Teams
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| 15 Reviews | |
Zoom
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| 99 Reviews | |
GoTo Connect
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| 155 Reviews | |
Dialpad
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| 264 Reviews | |
Nextiva
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| 3177 Reviews | |
RingCentral
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| 555 Reviews | |
Google
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| 4 Reviews |
Microsoft Teams: Best for Document Collaboration
Microsoft Teams is a messaging and collaboration app with web conferencing functionality, real-time chat, and support for the separately priced 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.
Microsoft Teams is a Good Webex Alternative if You Need:
- Affordable team collaboration: Microsoft Team’s plans are all below $12.50 monthly, and as low as $4.00 monthly for team chat and video meetings. For those communication channels and meetings features, you can’t beat the price.
- Video meetings and chat: While Teams includes VoIP phone, its most advanced features cater to team chat and video meetings. These features include file sharing and cloud storage, whiteboards, and many integrated apps.
Standout Features
- Meetings “Together Mode”: During meetings, place each participant’s video stream in a shared virtual scene, such as a coffee shop, creating a fun and team-oriented tone
- Microsoft apps web collaboration: Teams share, access, and simultaneously edit web versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. This allows teams to prepare presentations, data, and text while chatting and managing to-do lists through the Tasks app.
- Tasks app: Unifies all of your tasks from Outlook, To Do, and shared tasks in Planner to offer an at-a-glance workflow overview. Sort tasks by importance, due date, and task type, or view the tasks assigned within each team channel.
- 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
Microsoft Teams Pricing
Microsoft Teams offers 3 team collaboration plans with chat and video, ranging from $4 to $12.50 monthly per user.
- Teams Essentials ($4.00 monthly): Desktop and mobile apps, team chat, 30-hour video meetings, 10 GB cloud storage, file sharing, tasks, polling, and several meetings features–whiteboard, English-only live captions, recordings and transcripts
- 365 Business Basic ($6.00 monthly): Adds a library of Microsoft 365 apps–OneNote, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and more. Adds email hosting, expanded cloud storage to 1 TB per user, and live captions in over 30 languages.
- 365 Business Standard ($12.50 monthly): Adds desktop versions of Microsoft 365 apps with premium features, webinar hosting, attendee registration and reporting tools, customer appointment management features
Why We Picked Microsoft Teams
- App library: 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
- Strong team collaboration: Microsoft Teams offers easy-to-use and cost-effective team collaboration features across all the most important channels–chat, video, and cloud-based calling
Where Microsoft Teams Falls Short
- Integrations can feel confusing: While Teams boasts hundreds of integrations, many of them can feel confusingly similar
- Doesn’t include VoIP: Teams seeking just video and chat will appreciate Microsoft Teams’ low price, but teams that want VoIP will either need to purchase a Teams Phone bundle or opt for a different communications software
Zoom: Best for Video Features
Zoom One, 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 and SMS come with the Business Plus and Enterprise plans. All plans include Zoom Meetings features like whiteboards, breakout rooms, in-meeting instant messaging, emoji responses, and more.
Zoom One is a Good Webex Alternative if You Need:
- Video and chat: Zoom One offers several low-priced plans with team chat, file sharing, and dynamic video meeting features. You can add VoIP on a higher-tier plan or choose a tier without it.
- VoIP service outside the US: Zoom Phone, included in Zoom One’s higher-tier plans, offers domestic VoIP calling plans for countries outside the US. This unique option provides non-US-based teams with full UCaaS capabilities.
Standout Features
- Whiteboards: Zoom Whiteboards gives groups a blank canvas with drawing, annotation, and ideation tools to bring ideas to life. Perfect for touchscreen presentations or remote brainstorming, whiteboards have multicolored paint brushes, shapes, smart connectors, sticky notes, and comments. They are shareable and editable both in and outside of virtual meetings.
- AI Companion: Zoom One’s new AI companion feature utilizes machine learning to automate chat and video meeting features. Companion can auto-generate responses to team chat, update meeting latecomers on what’s happened for far, summarize chat messages, and more.
- Notes: The Notes feature provides a workspace for meeting attendees to create agendas, collaborate live during a meeting, and assign tasks. Multiple users can simultaneously format notes with different fonts and styles, use different colors, and share notes.
- Meetings features: Zoom Meetings include participant engagement features like filters, up to 9 user spotlights, pinned screens, audience polling and surveys, meeting co-hosts, meeting waiting rooms, and more
Zoom One Pricing
Zoom One offers 5 business communications plans ranging from free to over $25 monthly per user.
- Basic (free): 40-minute meetings for 100 attendees, team chat, notes, 3 basic whiteboards, local storage, collaborative meeting features–polling, filters, spotlights, waiting room, multi-share, screen sharing, co-annotations, virtual backgrounds, breakout rooms
- Pro ($15.99 monthly): Expands meeting time limit to 30 hours, 5 GB cloud storage, adds AI Companion, streaming, automated captions, and reporting
- Business ($19.99 monthly): 300 meeting attendees, unlimited whiteboards, custom mail domain, branding, recording transcripts
- Business Plus ($25 monthly): Adds Zoom Phone with VoIP, routing, queueing, and call monitoring. Adds 10 GB cloud storage and translated captions.
- Enterprise (Custom pricing): Unlimited cloud storage, webinars for 500 or 1000 attendees
Why We Picked Zoom
- Intelligent AI support: Zoom’s AI Companion Tool is one of the most advanced machine-learning tools we’ve seen in a collaboration platform. It’s especially unique in that it assists both video meetings and team chat.
- Collaborative tools: Zoom’s Notes and Whiteboards features enable remote teams to be creative and ideate asynchronously or synchronously
Where Zoom One Falls Short
- Expensive for a collaboration platform: For teams that don’t want VoIP and instead seek a team-collaboration platform with video and chat, Zoom alternatives like Microsoft Teams offer a more affordable option
- Glitchy: When a user’s internet connection isn’t perfect, Zoom Meetings can become more sluggish and glitchy than some competing videoconferencing platforms
GoTo Connect: Best for One-Click Capabilities
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 calls: GoTo’s Standard plan supports a 50+ country unlimited calling area, a great value for teams that plan to make a lot of VoIP calls overseas
- High-volume customer service: The Standard plan also supports unlimited call queues, ring groups, and IVR–enabling teams to make intricate inbound call routing systems for strong customer service
Standout Features
- Custom call flows: With the visual plan editor, create custom call flows that map out the incoming caller’s self-service journey. Combine tools like auto attendants and voicemails, with actions like scheduling appointments and prompting for a password, to route callers to the correct destination or service.
- Smart Notes: Multiple meeting attendees can simultaneously write timestamped notes during a live meeting. Sync notes with the meeting transcript and share notes afterward, along with the meeting recording.
- 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, and set a duration for one-time or recurring video meetings. View all meetings in your calendar app, and set automated meeting reminders.
GoTo Connect Pricing
GoTo Connect offers 2 UCaaS plans, at $24 and $29 monthly per user.
- Basic ($24 monthly): Desktop and mobile UCaaS app, unlimited VoIP calling in the US and Canada, 150-participant video meetings, team chat, 40 monthly SMS credits per user, integrations with Outlook and Google Workspace, one usage of phone-system features–IVR, call queue, ring group
- Standard ($29 monthly): Unlimited users, unlimited phone-system features like auto attendants and queues, 250-participant video meetings, unlimited calling to over 50 countries, 80 monthly SMS credits per user
Why We Picked GoTo Connect
- International calling: Teams planning to use their software for VoIP calling outside the US will find great value in the fact that GoTo Connect’s Standard plan supports unlimited calling to 50 countries–more than any alternative. At $29, this is a steal.
- Meetings Features: For a UCaaS platform, GoTo Connect has some robust and collaborative video meetings features like no time limit, Smart Notes, desktop sharing, and a Miro integration that enables whiteboarding
Where GoTo Connect Falls Short
- Basic plan limitations: The Basic plan has a few restrictions that make it unsuitable for large teams. In addition to a 20-user limit, the plan only allows teams to create one ring group, auto attendant, and call queue. Further, the 40-SMS monthly limit is a major drawback for teams that text customers.
- Price: While not excessively expensive, GoTo Connect does not offer a plan below $24. Many alternatives, like Microsoft Teams and Dialpad, have low-tier plans that are much more cost-effective.
Dialpad: Best for Small Teams
Dialpad’s Business Communication platform packs a surprising breadth of advanced features, even into their cheapest plan. All Dialpad plans include unlimited calling, SMS, chat, and 5-hour video meetings with up to 10 participants. While large teams should take note of the small video meeting capacity, Dialpad’s advanced AI and meeting engagement features make it a great option for a small business.
Dialpad is a Good Webex Alternative if You Need:
- Cost-effective UCaaS: Dialpad offers collaborative tools–video meetings and team chat–alongside an advanced phone system with IVR, call queues, and ring groups. They include this breadth of features for as little as $15.
- AI support: Dialpad includes AI support tools that provide real-time captions and assistance on calls and video meetings.
Standout Features
- Video-conferencing: Dialpad video conferences feature personal meeting IDs and allow users to join meetings from any desktop or mobile browser with no download. Schedule meetings directly from your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 calendar. In meetings, enjoy unlimited audio recording, a waiting room, chat, virtual backgrounds, and whiteboarding.
- AI meetings: Dialpad AI transcribes video meetings in real-time, providing in-meeting captions and access to shareable post-meeting transcriptions. The software machine learning identifies important meeting moments, keywords, and action items, turning them into a summary and agent tasks afterward.
- 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, highlights list, and notes
Dialpad Pricing
Dialpad offers 3 UCaaS plans that range from $15 to over $25 monthly per user. In addition to the plans outlined below, Dialpad also offers 2 AI Meetings plans with video-only, a free version, and a $15 monthly version.
Dialpad Business Communications Plans:
- Standard ($15 monthly): Desktop and mobile app, unlimited VoIP calling in the US and Canada, SMS, team chat with file sharing, AI call and video support with transcriptions, meeting action item capture, real-time analytics and reporting, multi-level IVR, call queues, 3 ring groups
- Pro ($25 monthly): Adds international business numbers from 70+ countries, global SMS texting, multiple phone numbers per user, Microsoft Teams integration, and 25 ring groups
- Enterprise (custom pricing): Guarantees 100% uptime, unlimited ring groups, and integrations with SSO providers
Why We Picked Dialpad
- Advanced meetings features: Dialpad’s AI meetings utilize AI for live transcriptions, using machine learning to create post-meeting summaries. In addition to waiting rooms, chat, and a whiteboard integration, this UCaaS platform offers highly collaborative meetings.
- VoIP features: In addition to strong meetings features, 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.
Where Dialpad Falls Short
- Limited meeting capacity: Dialpad’s meetings are limited to 10 participants–a major restriction for large teams
- No CRM integrations on Standard plan: We think CRM integrations are a critical part of a VoIP phone system and collaboration platform. Dialpad only includes them on the Pro plan, forcing users to upgrade from the Standard plan for CRM integrations.
Nextiva: Best Real-Time Agent Support
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, plus an inbox that compiles inbound notifications across channels.
Nextiva is a Good Webex Alternative if You Need:
- Easy-to-use UCaaS: Nextiva offers a well-rounded UCaaS platform, with ease of use for companies first venturing into unified communications. The user interface includes all the necessary channels and features–like IVR and call groups–without the bells and whistles that may feel overwhelming for new users.
- Large-capacity video meetings: Nextiva’s Enterprise plan supports unlimited video meeting participants. While it doesn’t support literally unlimited participants, it does support more than many alternatives.
Standout 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.) This data is pulled from Nextiva’s native CRM tool or your preferred third-party CRM software solution.
- Automations: With the Enterprise plan, automate cross-channel outbound customer communications–welcome messages, surveys, campaign sequences, and more. Set action triggers and use templates that auto-fill with customer information.
- 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
Nextiva Pricing
Nextiva offers 3 UCaaS paid plans that range from $18.95 to $32.95 monthly per user.
- Essential ($18.95 monthly): Desktop and mobile UCaaS apps, a local and toll-free number per user, unlimited VoIP in the US, 1:1 video meetings with a 45-minute time limit, team chat, voicemail, toll-free numbers, 1500 toll-free minutes basic auto attendant
- Professional: ($22.95 monthly): Adds 1000 monthly SMS per user, 40-participant video meetings, 3000 toll-free minutes, multi-level IVR, email-to-SMS forwarding, CRM integrations like Salesforce and HubSpot
- Enterprise ($32.95 monthly): Adds unlimited video participants, 2000 monthly SMS per user, 12,500 monthly toll-free minutes, call and video-meeting recording, voicemail transcription
Why We Picked Nextiva
- User-friendly: 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, and 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.
Where Nextiva Falls Short
- No international phone numbers: While many alternative VoIP providers offer international phone numbers from around the globe, Nextiva only offers virtual numbers based inside the US.
- Limited video features and usage: While the Enterprise plan supports unlimited video participants, the Essential plan only supports 1:1 meetings. This forces teams to use the Professional or Enterprise plan for video collaboration. Even then, Nextiva video meetings only include basic features and lack valuable conferencing tools like breakout rooms, notes, and whiteboards.
RingCentral: Best AI for Video Meetings
The 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 a Good Nextiva Alternative if You Need:
- UCaaS with a collaborative edge: While RingCentral is a UCaaS platform, it includes a few advanced collaboration features: file sharing, task-management tools, and AI-supported video meetings
- Dynamic video meetings: RingCentral’s video meetings include a surprising breadth of advanced features–whiteboards, live annotations, breakout rooms, collaborative notes, and file storage.
Standout Features
- Messaging built-in task management: RingCentral chat conversations feature built-in project management for team members to assign tasks and due dates, and update task status. Each conversation’s Tasks tab tracks all tasks assigned within that chat, displaying assignees, completion status, task category, and a task-specific chat.
- Team huddle: Each group chat contains a team huddle, a persistent online meeting room
- Live meeting transcription: During video meetings, start live transcription with one click. Latecomers can scroll back through transcriptions to catch up or search for keywords. All transcripts are stored in the RingCentral cloud and downloadable afterward.
- Advanced meeting insights: Post-meeting insights from RingCentral AI include a summary of meeting keywords, snippets, topics, video highlights, and full meeting transcripts
RingCentral Pricing
RingCentral offers 3 UCaaS plans that range from $20 to $35 monthly per user.
- Core ($20 monthly): Desktop and mobile UCaaS app, unlimited VoIP in the US and Canada, team chat with file sharing, 100-participant video meetings that last 24 hours, 25 monthly SMS per user, basic call queues, multi-level IVR, on-demand call recording. Apps are accessible on Windows, Mac, iOS,iPhone, Android, and more.
- Advanced ($25 monthly): Adds 1000 toll-free minutes, 100 monthly SMS per user, advanced call queues and routing rules, automatic call recording, call monitoring, and basic business analytics
- Ultra ($35 monthly): Expands to 200 video participants, 10,000 toll-free minutes, and 200 monthly SMS per user. Adds unlimited file storage and advanced business analytics.
Why We Picked RingCentral
- Affordable and collaborative: Very few UCaaS products offer the breadth that RingCentral does, for the same price. Tools like call monitoring, AI-supported video meetings, and task management–all for $25 or cheaper.
- Call center capabilities: RingCentral’s phone system doubles as a call center, with cloud-based phone system tools like call queues, call monitoring, and real-time analytics
Where RingCentral Falls Short
- SMS limitations: Each pricing tier has highly restrictive monthly SMS allotment–25, 100, and 200 per user on each respective plan.
- Toll-free limitations: Similar to the SMS, RingCentral only provides a very limited allotment of monthly toll-free minutes. Some alternatives, like Nextiva, offer more SMS and toll-free minutes per month.
Google Workspace: Best Overall Interconnectedness
Google Workspace is a communication platform that unites a wide library of Google Apps–Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Google Meet, 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 a Good Webex Alternative if You Need:
- Something to unify Google tools: If your team already utilizes Google software, like Calendar and Drive, Google Workspace offers an affordable way to unify these tools in one platform
- Document creation: Workspace’s document-creation tools like Sheets, Docs, and Slides, integrate seamlessly with Calendar and Chat.
Standout 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–or connect via Google Jamboards, Google Workspace’s digital whiteboard.
- 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
Google Workspace Pricing
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.
- Business Starter ($6 monthly): Custom business email, 100-participant video meetings, digital whiteboards, 30 GB cloud storage per user
- Business Standard ($12 monthly): 150-participant video meetings, 2 TB cloud storage, and a variety of meetings features–noise cancellation, polling and Q&A, moderator controls, hand raising, breakout rooms
- Business Plus ($18 monthly): 500-participant video meetings, 5 TB cloud storage per user, attendance tracking in video meetings
- Enterprise (custom pricing): 1000-participant video meetings,5 TB with the ability to request more, in-domain live streaming
Why We Picked Google Workspace
- Large-capacity 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.
- Software breadth: Unlike UCaaS platforms, Google Workspace is a “do it all” collaboration app that links meetings, calendars, document creation, chat, and a custom email domain.
Where Google Workspace Falls Short
- Phone system comes separate: Google Voice integrates well with Workspace, but the Workspace plans do not include any built-in VoIP.
- Can feel disorganized: Google Drive can sometimes feel disorganized and cluttered, making it difficult to find the document or material you’re seeking.
Depending on your team’s needs, you have a variety of Webex alternatives to choose from: some emphasize team collaboration and video meetings, while some emphasize a complex phone system. Whether you want a strict collaboration software or a UCaaS platform, the offerings listed above provide some great options.
