Alternatives to Cisco Webex

Enterprise video conferencing and collaboration platform by Cisco

Pricing: Free (40-min limit), $14.50/user/mo Starter, $25/user/mo Business From $14.50/mo

Common pain points:

  • UI feels enterprise-heavy and less intuitive than Zoom or Meet
  • Desktop app is resource-intensive and slow to launch
  • Free plan limited to 40-minute meetings and 100 participants
  • Less popular for casual/small-team use — perceived as corporate

3 Alternatives to Cisco Webex

BigBlueButton

Open-source virtual classroom and web conferencing system

Open Source

Free and open-source, pay only for hosting infrastructure

  • Built for education with whiteboards and breakout rooms
  • No per-user licensing fees
  • Interactive polls, shared notes, and hand-raising

Whereby

Browser-based video meetings with no downloads or installs required

Freemium

Free for up to 4 participants, Pro from $6/mo

  • No downloads — fully browser-based for all participants
  • Permanent meeting room URLs you can reuse
  • Customizable branding on meeting rooms

Galene

Lightweight, self-hosted video conferencing server

Open Source

Free and open-source (MIT license)

  • Extremely lightweight — runs on minimal hardware
  • Simple deployment with no external dependencies
  • Supports multiple groups and access control

Detailed Comparisons