WebEx is #3 in Top 10 Videoconferencing software

Positions in ratings

#3 in Top 10 Videoconferencing software

#2 in Top 19 Webinar services

Alternatives

The best alternatives to WebEx are: GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, Adobe Connect, Google Meet

Latest news about WebEx

2021. Cisco to acquire startup Socio to bring hybrid events to Webex



Cisco buys startup Socio, which helps plan hybrid in-person and virtual events. Socio provides a missing hybrid event management component for the company to add to its Webex platform. The goal appears to be to combine this with the recent purchase of Slido and transform Webex from an application mostly for video meetings into a more comprehensive event platform. Socio was founded in 2016 and raised around $7 million in investment capital, according to Crunchbase data. It has a prestigious list of enterprise customers that includes Microsoft, Google, Jet Blue, Greenpeace, PepsiCo and Hyundai.

2020. Cisco is buying Slido to improve Q&A, polls and engagement in WebEx



While Zoom continues to hold a lot of mindshare (and market share) in the world of videoconferencing, Cisco’s WebEx division today announced an acquisition to underscore its own intention to keep its hat firmly in the game. It is picking up Slido, the company that lets people moderate questions and interactions from a larger group participating in virtual conferences as well as in live events. Slido’s solution is to let people ask questions in a margin to the main event, so to speak, and then people can upvote the questions they like to give them higher priority. Moderators can also set up polls and simply read feedback in real time to get a better sense of the room. This can help cut down on chatter in the main video screen while still letting audiences speak out and respond.


2018. Webex Teams gets BroadCloud Calling integration



Webex Teams, a service for continuous teamwork with video meetings, group messaging, file sharing and white boarding, has added cloud calling via the integration with enterprise-grade cloud-based PBX phone system BroadCloud Calling. The addition of calling to Webex Teams’ content sharing and messaging capabilities makes it a “single UC (unified communications) application, which was the original vision of UC. Webex Teams was launched earlier this year when Cisco merged its two collaboration platforms – Webex and Spark – into a single platform.


2018. Cisco morphed Spark into Webex



Cisco announced that its Spark team messaging app will be rebranded and rolled into its Webex platform.The move follows a decision to ditch the Cisco Spark brand, which will become Webex Teams. The app will include all of Spark’s collaboration features, including persistent messaging, whiteboarding, simple guest access and content sharing.  Cisco also launched a new Webex Meetings videoconferencing app, which will replace Spark’s meeting app. Spark video meetings had previously operated independently from Webex, hosted in the public cloud rather on Webex data centers. As a result of the changes, both Webex Meetings and Webex Teams will run on the Webex infrastructure backbone.


2018. Cisco acquired Accompany to add AI to Webex



Cisco has agreed to acquire startup Accompany, which uses artificial intelligence to build databases of people and relationships at companies. It's like a personal assistant, giving executives the context they need before conversations and meetings. Cisco plans to incorporate Accompany technology into its collaboration products, for example by introducing company and individual profiles into Webex meetings. Cisco says it will pay $270 million in cash and stock in the deal.


2018. Cisco Spark & Webex combine into single collaboration platform



Cisco has unified its two, largely separate, collaboration packages – Spark and WebEx – into a single platform that supports a single set of features. The move makes sense because Cisco had been developing the somewhat similar packages separately, and there was some confusion about that in the market and sales channels. No more. Webex Teams combines collaboration features in Cisco Spark and WebEx such as whiteboarding, persistent messaging, roster, meeting controls, content sharing and so on. Before, the Cisco Spark management tool – Control Hub – provided some basic analytics for Cisco Spark. WebEx customers used a different tool – Site Admin – with a separate set of analytics capabilities. Now the Control Hub supports customers using both WebEx Meetings and WebEx Teams, and provides analytics functions for WebEx


2015. Cisco to acquire video conferencing provider Acano



Cisco announced that it will buy video conferencing service Acano for $700 million. Cisco already offers that same kind of service - WebEx (that it acquired in 2007 for $3.2 billion). In addition, they launched a more modern alternative to WebEx they called Project Squared, last year. But Acano is offering much more sophisticated than what Cisco has been providing and really fills out its video portfolio. Acano will enhance the company’s ability to make connections in a heterogeneous environment. In other words, it helps make video conferencing work, even when there are multiple vendor tools involved — and across multiple devices from mobile to a big screen in the board room. “Acano’s portfolio includes video and audio bridging technology and gateways to enable customers to connect different collaboration solutions from disparate vendors across cloud and hybrid environments.


2012. Free Webex is already available



As Cisco promised, its web-conferencing service WebEx is becoming free. True, the number of free conference hosts (i.e. users that can create and manage online meetings) was reduced from 3 to 1. But the free disk space was increased up to 1 GB. The free online meeting can support up to 25 people simultaneously and provide the variety of tools: screen-sharing, whiteboard, remote control, file sharing, presentations, VoIP, video in HD-format, recording. You might be surprised that the service is currently in Beta status (after all, WebEx has been the web-conferencing market leader  for many years). The fact that it's not just the free version. It's a new version of WebEx, which in addition to web-conferencing adds a workspace for collaboration before and after online meeting. ***


2011. WebEx adds free version, online office workspace



Finally, the most popular Web-conferencing service Cisco WebEx is getting closer to small business. At the Collaboration Summit in Miami Cisco has introduced the new version of Webex and the subscription free plan for 3 people and 250 MB of space. In addition to basic functions (screen-sharing, whiteboard, online presentations, document collaboration, VoIP and instant messaging) the free version also provides video conferencing (but not in HD-quality). Of course, there are several other web-conferencing services that offer free version, but WebEx differs by high quality and extensive functionality. According to the Cisco representatives the free version is already available, but we couldn't find it on the WebEx site. So, let's wait. We also have to wait till Q1 2012 for the new version of WebEx, which includes the very interesting feature - online workspace. ***