Assembly Line

Cisco Webex

Cisco Webex is commercial video conferencing software made by Cisco. Cisco was founded in 1995, and the company is based in California (United States).

Made by
Cisco
Maker founded
1995
Source code
Closed

Website Cisco on Wikipedia

Judgement

What it is
Complete system
What it does
Video meetings, webinars, calling and messaging, closely tied to Cisco meeting-room hardware.
Adopt it when
A large organisation or government body already runs Cisco phones and room systems, or needs its security certifications.
Watch out
The interface feels dated next to Zoom and Teams, and the value depends on the Cisco hardware estate.
Ready for
Production-ready
Runs as
Cloud service, desktop app and mobile app
What the license allows
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.

Judged on 2026-11-03 from the maker's description and Wikipedia. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Open-source alternatives to Cisco Webex

  1. 1
    Jitsi Meet jitsi

    Jitsi Meet - Secure, Simple and Scalable Video Conferences that you use as a standalone app or embed in your web application.

    Complete system Production-ready You want a mature open-source Zoom alternative you can host yourself or embed in your own product.

    ★ 30k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  2. 2
    LiveKit livekit

    End-to-end realtime stack for connecting humans and AI

    Building block Production-ready You are building video calls, live audio or voice AI agents and want open infrastructure.

    ★ 22k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today
  3. 3
    BigBlueButton bigbluebutton

    A complete web conferencing system for virtual classes and more!

    Complete system Production-ready A school, university or training provider needs online classes integrated with Moodle, Canvas or another LMS on its own servers.

    ★ 9.3k LGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  4. 4
    MiroTalk miroslavpejic85

    🚀 Open-source, self-hosted P2P WebRTC video conferencing for fast, private real-time communication. Create browser-based meeting rooms with no downloads or time limits, plus screen sharing, chat, whiteboard, recording, and collaboration.

    Complete system Usable You want quick private video rooms for small groups on your own server with minimal infrastructure.

    ★ 4.8k AGPL-3.0 JavaScript Active, pushed today
  5. 5
    Mirotalksfu miroslavpejic85

    🏆 Self-hosted, open-source WebRTC video conferencing platform for real-time communication and collaboration. A modern alternative to Zoom, Google Meet, Jitsi Meet, and Microsoft Teams, powered by scalable SFU architecture with Mediasoup.

    Complete system Usable You want your own Zoom-style meeting server for larger group calls and can run a Node.js service with open UDP ports.

    ★ 3.1k AGPL-3.0 JavaScript Active, pushed today
  6. 6
    Meet suitenumerique

    Open source video conferencing app powered by LiveKit. Built with Django and React.

    Complete system Usable A public body or organisation wants a self-hosted meeting service on LiveKit with a backing team in the European public sector.

    ★ 2.5k MIT Python Active, pushed today
  7. 7
    Chitchatter jeremyckahn

    Secure peer-to-peer chat that is serverless, decentralized, and ephemeral

    Complete system Usable You want a throwaway private room for a quick conversation with no accounts or server-side history.

    ★ 2.3k GPL-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  8. 8
    OpenVidu OpenVidu

    OpenVidu Platform: self-hosted real-time video and audio for your apps, built on LiveKit and mediasoup

    Framework or platform Production-ready You are building video calls into a product and want a self-hosted alternative to Twilio or Agora with commercial support available.

    ★ 2.1k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
  9. 9
    Jitsi Meet Electron jitsi

    Jitsi Meet desktop application powered by :electron:

    Complete system Production-ready Your team uses Jitsi and wants a dedicated desktop window with remote control instead of a browser tab.

    ★ 1.6k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 5 days ago
  10. 10
    Galene jech

    The Galène videoconference server

    Complete system Production-ready A university, club or small organisation wants its own meeting server that runs on modest hardware without a large media stack.

    ★ 1.4k MIT Go Active, pushed 3 days ago

Other commercial video conferencing software

  1. 1
    Microsoft Teams Microsoft

    Team collaboration application

    Complete system Production-ready Your business already pays for Microsoft 365 and wants chat and video meetings without another vendor.

    20k readers a month Since 2017 Commercial
  2. 2
    Google Meet Google

    Use Google Meet for secure online web conferencing calls and video chat as a part of Google Workspace.

    Complete system Production-ready You use Google Workspace and want meetings that guests can join from a browser with no install.

    4k readers a month Since 2017 Commercial
  3. 3
    Zoom Workplace Zoom Communications

    Modernize workflows with Zoom's trusted collaboration tools: including video meetings, Zoom Chat, VoIP phone, webinars, whiteboard, contact center, and events.

    Complete system Production-ready Meeting quality and external guests matter most, or you want meetings, phone and webinars from one vendor.

    3.4k readers a month Commercial
  4. 4
    GoTo Meeting GoTo

    GoTo Meeting ensures a quality web conferencing experience by offering the virtual meeting platform features your business needs. Learn more today!

    Complete system Production-ready Your company already uses GoTo's phone or webinar products and wants meetings from the same vendor.

    147 readers a month Since 2004 Commercial
  5. 5
    Whereby Whereby

    Host quick instant meetings or embed video calls into your platform with Whereby’s video conferencing API and SDK.

    Complete system Production-ready You want to add video calls to a web app, such as telehealth or tutoring, without building on raw WebRTC.

    Commercial

Under it

Every program, Cisco Webex included, runs on a microchip.

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

Facts come from Wikipedia's article on Cisco and refresh weekly.