# Cisco Unified Communications Manager Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Is Cisco Unified Communications Manager the right Unified Communications solution for you? Explore 78 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/157096/Unified-Communications-Manager/reviews

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Cisco Unified Communications Manager

4.3 (78)

[View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/157096/Unified-Communications-Manager/alternatives/)

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/)

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Last updated March 13th, 2026

# Reviews of Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Ease of use

3.7

Customer Service

4.1

## Pros and Cons in Reviews

Ariel U

IT ManagerFood Production, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years.

“It matches the standard/ typical use cases for phone communications, and it can be scaled up to meet more complex requirements such as intelligent call routing/ multi-channel interaction (advanced contact center us cases).“

April 30, 2024

SF

Sandy F

Proj engComputer & Network Security, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months.

“Expensive and complicated setup and commissioning process“

March 29, 2025

Ariel U

IT ManagerFood Production, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years.

“Great integrations with Cisco UCCX/ Finesse for contact center/ intelligent call routing and multi-channel support.“

April 30, 2024

CS

Chirag S

CITOInsurance, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years.

“The user interface has not been thought through very well.“

February 12, 2021

Kenidra S

Sales RepresentativeComputer & Network Security, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years.

“I first got introduced to Cisco in 2021 while working from home for Working Solutions.“

January 23, 2026

Ariel U

IT ManagerFood Production, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years.

“The implementation of the on-prem Cisco gateway and physical phones is easy.“

April 30, 2024

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 1-25 of 78 Reviews

Sort by:

Most Helpful

Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

Kenidra S.  
Sales Representative  
Computer & Network Security  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "I love Cisco! "

January 23, 2026

5.0

I first got introduced to Cisco in 2021 while working from home for Working Solutions. Cisco is well known.

Pros

Cisco required hired wired internet and the specs of a laptop to be very high which is no problem for me.

Cons

it would only operate well on certain Internet providers like cox communications. Sometimes it wouldn't connect to the server properly.

Review Source

Oscar A.  
Ingeneer  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Call Manager - Good for medium and large companies"

August 20, 2021

5.0

In general I liked it. I stayed in version 11.5 and it works very well, it still has support and I can upgrade phone firmwares without problem. I think I will stick with this version for a bit longer before migrating to a subscription scheme with the new licensing.

Pros

The versatility of the tool is what we like the most. It supports all protocols and is easy to integrate with third parties. Policies can be created very easily and user control is simplified with the integration to LDAP.

Cons

Being able to upgrade software and IOS is no longer so simple. The new version 12 and 14 no longer support perpetual licensing. I think this is something that will affect small clients and will be very limited in the future.

Alternatives considered

[Avaya Cloud Office](https://www.capterra.com/p/212483/Avaya-IP-Office/)

Reason for choosing Cisco Unified Communications Manager

In itself it is much more versatile and allows a simpler growth. It is very easy to add new nodes with the same licenses and maintain a diversified high availability scheme across multiple remote offices. Other vendors do not offer this versatility.

Review Source

Cynthia G.  
IT Analyst  
  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "GUI Interface is not that intuitive. Requires a lot of patience and time to read user manuals."

May 29, 2018

2.0

Pros

I will have to admit that as long as you have a service contract with Cisco, they have excellent customer service. They've resolved many issues for us that were mission critical. But this is strictly for the CUCM itself. If you need help with specific physical phones, that requires a separate service contract and they will NOT help you.

Cons

I do not like that there is no consistent way in knowing which DID phone numbers have already been used and which ones are available. The biggest issue I have is when I think a phone number is available to assign to staff person, but often times that same number is being used as a voicemail box only for messages. Since the voicemail system is different, I have to constantly check both systems as well as a spreadsheet we have to ensure the phone number I'm assigning is actually available for use. Plus, we have several different call blocks so I never know which prefix goes with which extension. CUCM does not show the full phone number, only the last 4 digits. So unless you have running documentation knowing all the phone numbers in your call blocks, it's not very intuitive.

Review Source

Amey M. M.  
Technology Analyst  
Information Technology and Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Cisco UCS easy to integrate"

December 2, 2024

5.0

I used it since last 8 years for multiple clients. It's user interface is very smooth and easy to use.

Pros

The easiest way to manage users from single console. It is very compatible and easy to integrate with all types of other voice softwares.

Cons

Its console is user friendly but the relations between user creation and the phone ID assignment is difficult to understand.

Review Source

KKZ

Kaung Khant Z.  
Senior SDN Cloud Engineer  
Telecommunications  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Cisco CUCM: Balancing Power with Complexity in Enterprise Communications"

December 23, 2024

5.0

For my overall experience with CUCM, it's literally positive with its robust of advanced telephony features, strong security features, reliability, stability, integration capabilities, scalability and flexibility. I also strongly appreciate its cisco support and documentation too.

Pros

I like most about CUCM are its robust of advanced telephony features including call control, voice and video conferencing, mobility and more can meet the diverse communication needs of large enterprises. And I also love its high reliability and stability ensuring minimal downtime and consistent service quality.

Cons

A little bit complexity in configuration and management than other vendors.

Review Source

Justin E.  
Lead Network Engineer  
Banking  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Enterprise Banking VoIP Solution"

November 2, 2018

5.0

We have a very complex design of 4 clusters implementing 10 digit dialing scheme for everything nationwide. We were able to accomplish this with CUCM and it's extremely granular configuration ability.

Pros

I have been administering Unified Communications Manager for almost 10 years . The stability of CUCM is unrivaled. The uptime of our voice environment in the last 4 years has been over 99.99% with the only downtime being due to patch/security updates and maintenance. I sleep well at night knowing that our environment is stable.

Cons

The only complaints that I've had about CUCM have all been addressed in newer versions. The complexity of licensing was addressed with Enterprise License Manager. The difficulty of upgrades was addressed with Prime Collaboration Deployment. It's very difficult to find any cons with the current version of CUCM.

Review Source

Javier D.  
Customer Success Manager  
Telecommunications  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Excellent Call Control with multiple advanced telephony functions."

October 4, 2019

5.0

Cisco Unified Comminication Manager already has many years in the market and is an excellent solution for IP telephony in small, medium or large companies, since it adapts to any type of company. It also allows you to gradually add more features with other solutions that are integrated natively.

Pros

The best thing about Cisco Unified Comminication Manager is the possibility of having any type of phone registered even from third parties. It brings many features that help users to move in and out of the company. It also allows you to incorporate collaboration tools, Video Conference, Voice Mail, etc. All integrated

Cons

Some traditional functions of telephone exchanges do not have them, however it is possible to incorporate them but with the development of third parties.

Review Source

Juan Carlos M.  
Gerente de Servicio al Cliente Online  
Entertainment  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Great and robust product, however is for advanced users"

April 25, 2018

3.0

If you are looking for a robust and secure communication solution, it's great, I would only advise against its reporting.

Pros

It's a good product, high quality, and very robust security-wise, it has all the tools and functionalities for your communication needs, I used it personally for a Call Center and I had little to no downtime.

Cons

I really disliked its reporting system, is not user friendly also cisco does not allow you to tamper its software and it makes it really difficult to extract valuable information for analysis.

Review Source

Abigail K.  
Administrative Assistant  
Investment Management  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Cisco's Unified Communications Manager made my workplace phone system so much easier to control!"

April 17, 2018

5.0

This software helped me to control and organize my phone system according to my business and even my employees.

Pros

The aspect I like the most about this software is that I can control every phone in the office. If I want only 3 people's phones to ring when a main line call comes in, I can do that. If I want to group certain phones to roll over certain calls, I can do that as well.

Cons

One con about this software is that without instruction, you would never be able to use it. Written instructions are simply too complicated and there are a lot of shortcuts, tips, and tricks you can learn by having a cisco rep come out! However..it is time consuming!

Review Source

Ali D.  
Coordinador  
Financial Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The most powerfull tool"

September 17, 2018

5.0

I work for more than 10 years with systems associated with the UCM and I present few failures and these were never associated with the software was hardware or bad configuration, really excellent.

Pros

Its stability is impressive, practically without maintenance it is able to work a lot of time.

Cons

At present, a state of maturity has been achieved that allows it to be one of the best in the market, although it requires a little more time than other brands.

Review Source

JA

Julian A.  
IT Technician  
Education Management  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "CISCO - Correct All the Time"

April 9, 2025

4.0

Pros

I like the new updated version of the CUCM, it is way better and more user friendly. It has everything I need and want in one spot.

Cons

I do not like how everything is licensed.

Review Source

CS

Chirag S.  
CITO  
Insurance  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Reliable phone system"

February 12, 2021

5.0

Overall, Cisco Unified Communication Manager was one of the most stable products that we didn't have to worry about at all. It powered our VoIP communication, voicemail delivery by email, allowed us to automate certain feature changes and more. It was rich in feature and features were hard to find. We stayed with default feature-set as much as possible.

Pros

Cisco's unified communication manager is rock solid once set up. You won't have to worry about this system going down. We used it on-prem. While it has a lot of capabilities, we used only fraction of it. They also have APIs you could use to communicate programmatically and change ring groups/hunt groups, round-robin and more. It takes a while to master the features.

Cons

The user interface has not been thought through very well. It looks old school. In today's day and age where the user interface design is clean, well-organized and easy to find, Cisco's Unified Communication Manager looks clunky (but it works)! There are lot of opportunities for Cisco to change its look and feel to make features easier to find.

Review Source

MT

Mark T.  
Network Admin  
Mining & Metals  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Cisco CallManager - easy choice for a Cisco shop"

July 28, 2019

5.0

Been using call manager for over 10 years - this is one of the better call systems out there - sure cloud based services are popular but for enterprise with thousands of phones this is a solid option.

Pros

CallManager is a phone system seemingly built by "network guys" - it has all the major features of a call control server and is easy to manage from a network perspective. The software is solid and runs well - programming phones is very easy as well.

Cons

Updates can be cumbersome in addition some device support can be problematic. If you stick to an all Cisco ecosystem it works well but when trying to integrate its not the best. Call reporting\\details can be a bit harder to dig into without some sort of front end software.

Review Source

LJ

Larry J.  
Senior Systems Administrator  
Higher Education  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "I use Cisco UCM nearly every day. It is a robust software, but has a learning curve."

August 15, 2017

4.0

We never have to worry about down time on our phone system. We also find it easy to manage day to day changes.

Pros

You can do just about anything with a phone system that you would want to do through the software. It is low maintenance. Typically there are no problems unless you are performing an upgrade or making a major configuration change.

Cons

The cost is always a bummer. There are other solutions that are a lower cost but don't provide all of the advanced features that you get with Cisco. I also don't like how complicated some parts of the software are seems like the user interface could be much more simplified. The user interface also needs an update... perhaps it's time for it to move to HTML 5 and get rid of all of the popup windows.

Review Source

sS

shauna S.  
Executive ASSIStant  
Government Administration  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Great product with many useful features"

December 12, 2018

5.0

overall good product and many different applications within the client to use

Pros

maintenance and upgrades are usually not that time consuming. Easy transfer of regular phone services over to voip cisco phones for over 4000 employees. rarely experience any outage problems with the software. offers a wide variety of features to cover all or most communication needs. Bridge conference availability 2- 10 people to communi9cate at one time

Cons

Lots of issues with the systems paging feature. Always having to perform maintenance to get paging up and working again. When network is not working the phone is not working. When participate calls in or hangs up the bridge does not provide any warning or alert tone. Not a way to lock conference call to not allow additional people to join. issues with jabber client are often

Review Source

MG

Miguel G.  
Network Technician  
  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Cisco Unified Manager good for big deployment of VOIP"

May 17, 2018

5.0

Pros

Easy to manage alot of individual phones. Able to edit a group at a time or individual phones. Easy to make changes remotely and not having to physically go to each phone

Cons

Alot of menus and options that can overwhelm users. Process to update firmware on phones is very cumbersome and time consuming. Some things needed to be done via CLI and not the web gui.

Review Source

Justin E.  
Lead Network Engineer  
Banking  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "I am a system admin and architect"

March 7, 2018

5.0

Pros

The stability of this system is unparalleled. The granularity of management restrictions is incredible. This truly is the gold standard of enterprise voip systems.

Cons

The upgrade process and licensing structure is labor intensive. Real time monitoring tool is clunky and difficult to understand.

Review Source

JM

Joe M.  
Work Force Mgt  
Telecommunications  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "It is good, no issues"

June 21, 2017

5.0

Pros

being able to sign in and change reps skills very easily. I like the Cisco Reskill tool.

Cons

When someone signs in with the incorrect extension there is not an easy way to do a search by signed in extension. in our org the extensions go 111-111-1111, 111-111-1112, ect. Sometimes reps will transpose 2 numbers and it will not allow the other rep to sign in when their extensions being used.

Review Source

DO

Dennis O.  
IT Manager  
Legal Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Ive worked with UCM for years as a Cisco engineer and its still the only phone system I recommend."

August 8, 2017

4.0

Stability more than anything else. If the business relies on voice to work then this is all I recommend. Along with a CCIE to make it work right.

Pros

It does what I want it to 99% of the time. When it doesn't support makes it work or makes me update.

Cons

Supports is a bit to costly year over year and the cost of the system itself is far outside most SMB companies means.

Review Source

TG

Tamara G.  
Onboarding Team Lead  
Financial Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Cisco Review"

September 15, 2017

4.0

Pros

Great software/phone for both inbound and outbound calls. Great for conference calls. Low maintenance.

Cons

The software can be costly. Recommend for larger companies. Typically there are no problems unless you are performing an upgrade or making a major configuration change.

Review Source

JR

Joshua R.  
Owner & CEO  
Telecommunications  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Cisco Review"

January 16, 2019

4.0

Over all I think they are a good compony but all compnys need to inprove on things. They have come far with their stystems and I would maybe consider going back to them in ther future

Pros

So some things of Cisco i think was a pro was the call quality. It was super smooth and did not have lots of delay.

Cons

Our phones did not have good support for my bussness. The phones are bulky and hard to program. The screan is not backlit so it is hard to see if the lighting is in a dimmer setting. The wier to the phone had to be replaced three times over the few months i used it.

Review Source

MR

Maria R.  
Account Manager  
  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Cisco Review"

November 17, 2017

4.0

Pros

Cisco Unified Communications Manager is not a bad product. There's a lot of functionality there. Their tech support is good.

Cons

The user interface can be confusing to use. Sometimes I find that I have to refer to the instructions when I need to use features that I only use once in a while.

Review Source

ZK

Zach K.  
Application Engineer  
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "The absolute best in software of its kind"

June 9, 2017

4.0

very easy to communicate with inside team and outside customers and vendors while working remotely

Pros

the features and functionality of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM) are great for anyone who works remotely from their main office or travels frequently for business

Cons

This is an expensive program, it can be cost prohibitive to most small businesses, if there was a lite or small business version available it could be more accessible to other users

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Network Enginner  
Financial Services  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Cisco CUCM Review"

March 5, 2019

5.0

I am a network engineer with 6 year experiences. I used some IP pbx like avaya, alcatel and cisco.

Pros

Easy web interface, easy configuration. limitation for different user types like administrator or helpdesk personel.

Cons

There are a lot of bugs and you should fix them periodically.

Review Source

LB

Larry B.  
Assistant Director of Institutional Research and Information Management  
Primary/Secondary Education  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "Cisco Unified Communications Manger is a wste"

June 15, 2017

3.0

Pros

Cisco Unified Communications Manager is an okay product but is incredibly not user friendly. It's scalable, but not worth it.

Cons

The user interface is not very intuitive for many users. It is overly complex and hard to use for most users. It also require many many clicks to complete simple tasks.

Review Source

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