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What is Webex Meetings?
Webex Meetings, a Cisco product, is a robust video conferencing tool used by a range of business types and sizes. In this article, we'll go over its features, pricing, benefits, and more to help you determine if it's the ideal remote tool for your business.
Webex Meetings Users
Webex Meetings has three price levels, ranging from $14.95/month per host to $29.95/month per host. A free version is also available, and larger businesses can request a quote directly.
This means that the solution is suitable for all sizes of businesses and that its functionalities adapt well to different price levels.
The solution works with a web browser, mobile, or video device, making it highly accessible to a wide range of business types looking for a remote tool.
Features
Webex Meetings has a number of features that help your business organize meetings and successful remote conference calls. All paid plans include video conferencing with video screens for up to 25 participants, screen sharing, meeting recording, and the ability to share the presenter role.
Let's take a closer look at some of their most notable features.
1. “Function “Call me
The Webex Meetings “Call Me” feature allows meeting participants to join the audio portion of a meeting.
by asking WebEx to call their phone. It's a great option for people on the go who don't have time to enter access codes or log in themselves.
While this is a great feature, Webex does charge a fee on top of the original subscription price, which is disappointing when other solutions from videoconferencing offer it for free.
The domestic calling feature costs an additional $4/month per host, while the international calling feature costs $35.75/month per host.
2. Meeting recording
This is a handy feature for those who can't attend meetings, want to refer to meeting content, or want to use video content as training.
Depending on your plan, your recordings can be saved either on the cloud or on your computer. You can even choose the recording view layout that suits your needs.
Webex offers several meeting recording models. (Source: my own image/screenshot)
3. Polling station
This tool allows users to create questions or polls for meeting participants during the meeting. Users can select multiple question types:
- Multiple choice with single answer
- Multiple choice with multiple answers
- Short answers
Once you open a survey, the panel switches to “report mode” and shows the status of the survey, including how long the survey has been open and how much time is left, how many participants have responded, how many are in progress, and how many have not started.
This feature also gives you the choice to record the responses of each participant and share the results with the meeting participants.
4. Whiteboard
The whiteboard feature allows you to collaborate with other meeting participants by drawing and annotating documents and images on a blank sheet of paper. This function is useful for teams that are used to a communication strategy more visual. This function offers text, shapes, arrows, and pointers.
The function is fairly simple, although it could be a bit more intuitive. It's not easy to understand that you need to double-click each function symbol on the left side to be able to access other features, such as erasing the pointer and accessing various shapes.
The Webex Meetings whiteboard is good, but not so intuitive at times. (Source: my own image/screenshot)
5. Transcript
Recorded MP4 meeting audio can be transcribed so that the meeting text is displayed alongside the meeting video. You can also search the text to find a specific keyword.
This function is only available in English.
Users can enable the transcription feature for recorded meetings. (Source: Webex)
Pricing
Webex Basic Plan
Webex exists in three formulas:
- Basic plan - Free
- Meet Plan - $15 per license per month (billed annually), up to 50 users
- Calling plan - $17 per license per month (billed annually), up to 100 users
You could say the cost is reasonable for the level of quality and security you get with Webex compared to other tools. But we don't like the pricing strategy.
First, while the basic version is free, it is very limited - a single user, and you can only try (some) of the conferencing or messaging features. No calling or phone system features are available with the free plan.
And unlike other collaborative workspace solutions, rather than including conferencing and calling features in all plans with varying levels of functionality per plan, Webex offers separate plans for conferences (Meet) and calls (Call).
This means that while Webex can meet different use cases, it can become expensive
if you want to use it as both a conferencing solution and a phone system. You have to combine the two offerings (or call sales for a custom or corporate quote)).
Each individual plan can be expensive for organizations that only need the essentials. Each plan includes Numerous features that could be offered as add-ons, rather than requiring you to pay for more than you need. Conversely, we think that some add-ons should be included in the price.
Let's see what each plan offers you when it comes to conferencing, calling, and other offerings, and who it's best suited for.
Meetings and video conferences
As the name suggests, the Meet plan is the one to choose if you want to make the most of Webex's conferencing functionality for everything from meetings to online classes.
You get the most participants for the longest calls possible. You can record and transcribe calls, up to 10GB of which are automatically stored in the cloud, and speech-to-text conversion is impressively accurate.
You can change the presenter/host, who has total control over the muting and participation of participants.
And you get that powerful integration with your calendar that we talked about earlier.
You're out of luck if you want to take advantage of this feature with the Basic or Call plan, which we think is a shame, as email and calendar integration is becoming more and more standard in conference services. We think that things like the ability to change hosts, a fairly fundamental need for many businesses, should be offered in all plans compared to other tools.
Call and telephone system
This is the plan you'll choose if you're using Webex primarily as a business phone system, for use cases such as administration, customer service, or sales. Use the fast remote desktop connection for IT support, for example. You can also use call waiting and routing for customer inquiries or support cases, and call forwarding to take calls on the go.
“Advanced calling features” are included in the Webex Control Hub. You can see things like call analytics, which highlights your most committed users, call quality, call tails, which you can set up to suit your needs, and the Webex Calling app.
While this is the best plan for VoIP requires, you can still use VoIP to call anyone with a Webex account with the Meet or Basic plans.
However, note that if you need a toll-free number, you need to upgrade to the Enterprise version.
Messaging and collaboration
Webex's messaging features are pretty much the same across plans.
The ability to control who's added to a space (with the Meet plan) is useful for teams that need to use Webex for things like online classes or webinars, so you can filter who comes in for security reasons.
Other than that, when it comes to messaging tools, Webex is pretty basic, and we think of it as more of a nice addition to meeting and calling features, and not necessarily a Slack replacement.
Customer Support
Webex Meetings offers a great level of customer support, but the level of support depends on the plan you choose.
- Free plan: Free plan users only have access to online customer service options.
- Starter Plan: With this plan, users can only call support representatives during regular business hours (although Webex doesn't specify what those support hours are).
- Plus Plan: Phone support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Business Plan: Phone support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Webex Meetings online support includes a community forum, video tutorials, a multitude of how-to guides, and numerous FAQ pages. Users can also fill out a web form or “open a case” for remote support via email, or chat live with the Webex chat assistant.
FAQs
What is WebEx and how does it work?
WebEx provides communication solutions, such as the videoconferencing, business VoIP, and online collaboration tools. Once you create an account and make the payment, you will have access to a range of communication solutions.
Is there a free version of Webex?
While WebEx offers a free basic plan, the platform also offers a 30-day free trial.
Is Zoom better than WebEx?
That depends on the needs of your business. zoom and WebEx both offer similar features including video calling, online collaboration, chat, etc. However, Zoom offers a free basic plan.
Final Verdict
Webex Meetings is a bit pricey compared to its competitors, but it offers a great video conferencing service. If you rely on a lot of video or audio conferencing to run your business, Webex is worth the price.
While not as customizable or as elegant as other solutions, the features it offers make up for this lack. The solution is suitable for all business sizes, unlike other video conferencing tools that are designed for small and large businesses.
