Overview

Pexip is not trying to be the next Zoom or Teams. It occupies a fundamentally different position in the video conferencing landscape — one built around interoperability, self-hosted deployment, and the kind of security requirements that keep government IT directors up at night. If your organization has invested millions in Cisco or Poly meeting room hardware and now needs those systems to talk to Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, Pexip is one of the only platforms that bridges that gap reliably. It is, in fact, the only Microsoft-certified Cloud Video Interop (CVI) provider that also supports full self-hosted deployment.

That specialization comes with trade-offs. The AI feature set is minimal compared to mainstream platforms. There is no free tier, and the $39/user/month pricing reflects an enterprise-first philosophy. The setup complexity is substantial — this is infrastructure software designed for IT teams managing hundreds of meeting rooms, not a tool you hand to end users and expect them to figure out. But for the organizations that need what Pexip does, nothing else does it as well.

Features Deep-Dive

Interoperability and Protocol Support

This is Pexip's defining capability and the reason most organizations evaluate it in the first place. The platform natively supports SIP, H.323, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet — connecting legacy video conferencing endpoints with modern cloud platforms in a way that actually works. A Cisco SX80 room system from 2014 can join a Teams meeting with full video and content sharing. A Poly Group Series endpoint running H.323 can dial into a Google Meet session. Pexip handles the protocol translation, transcoding, and layout management transparently.

As the only Microsoft-certified CVI provider offering self-hosted deployment, Pexip holds a unique position in the market. Other CVI providers exist — Poly (now HP) and Blue Jeans (now Verizon) among them — but none offer the combination of Microsoft certification and the option to run the entire infrastructure on your own servers. For organizations that cannot route meeting traffic through third-party cloud infrastructure due to regulatory or security constraints, this distinction is not academic. It is a procurement requirement. The interoperability extends beyond simple dial-in; Pexip manages participant layouts, content sharing, and meeting controls across protocols so that the experience feels native regardless of which endpoint a participant is using.

Self-Hosted Deployment and Data Sovereignty

Pexip offers three deployment models: fully self-hosted on your own infrastructure, hosted in Pexip's cloud, or a hybrid approach that combines both. The self-hosted option is the differentiator that no mainstream video conferencing provider matches. You can deploy Pexip on VMware, Hyper-V, or KVM virtualization platforms in your own data center, giving you complete control over where meeting data resides, how it is encrypted, and who has access to the underlying infrastructure.

For government agencies, defense contractors, financial institutions, and healthcare organizations operating under strict data sovereignty requirements, this architecture is not a nice-to-have — it is often a hard requirement that eliminates every consumer-facing platform from consideration. Meeting media never leaves your network perimeter. Encryption keys stay under your control. Audit trails live on your servers. The security and privacy scores (9.5 each) reflect this architectural advantage. Pexip has achieved compliance certifications across multiple frameworks, and the self-hosted model means organizations can layer their own security controls on top rather than trusting a third-party cloud provider's assurances.

Enterprise Meeting Room Management

Pexip is purpose-built for organizations managing complex meeting room environments — think government campuses with 200 conference rooms across multiple buildings, each equipped with different generations of video hardware. The management layer provides centralized control over all endpoints, call routing policies, bandwidth allocation, and failover configurations. Administrators can define dial plans that route calls efficiently, set quality-of-service rules based on network topology, and monitor every active call from a single dashboard.

The platform also supports Pexip Infinity Connect, a web-based client for participants who do not have dedicated hardware or a compatible app installed. While this client is functional, it lacks the polish and feature depth of Zoom or Teams desktop apps — you will not find virtual backgrounds, breakout rooms, or collaborative whiteboarding here. The meeting experience through Infinity Connect is utilitarian, designed to get participants into a call with minimal friction rather than to impress them with features. For Pexip's target customer, that trade-off is acceptable. These organizations are not evaluating meeting software for its emoji reactions; they need reliable, secure, interoperable infrastructure that their IT team can manage and their compliance officers can approve.

Pricing Analysis

Pexip's pricing starts at $39/user/month under a subscription model, with no free tier available. This positions it firmly at the premium end of the video conferencing market — significantly more expensive than Zoom Business ($21.99/user/month), Teams Essentials ($4/user/month), or Google Meet's Business Starter ($7/user/month). For a 100-person deployment, you are looking at roughly $46,800/year before factoring in infrastructure costs for self-hosted deployments.

However, direct price comparison with consumer platforms misses the point. Pexip's pricing competes against the total cost of replacing legacy meeting room hardware, not against per-seat SaaS licenses. If your organization has $2 million worth of Cisco and Poly room systems that would otherwise become incompatible with Teams, Pexip's annual licensing cost looks reasonable against the alternative of ripping out and replacing that hardware. The value calculation is fundamentally different from "which video app should our employees use." Enterprise pricing is also negotiable at scale, and Pexip's sales team works with custom configurations that bundle deployment services, support tiers, and volume discounts. Organizations evaluating Pexip should expect a consultative sales process rather than self-service signup — this is not a product you buy with a credit card.

Who Is This For?

• Large enterprises with legacy video infrastructure who have invested heavily in SIP and H.323 room systems from Cisco, Poly, or Lifesize and need those endpoints to participate in Teams or Google Meet calls without replacement — Pexip is one of the only platforms that makes this work reliably at scale
• Government agencies and defense contractors operating under strict data sovereignty mandates who require meeting infrastructure that runs entirely on-premises, with no meeting data traversing third-party cloud networks — the self-hosted deployment model is often a non-negotiable procurement requirement in these environments
• Global enterprises with heterogeneous video environments spanning multiple office locations, each with different conferencing hardware and platform preferences, who need a centralized interoperability layer that connects everything into a coherent meeting experience regardless of the underlying protocol

Who Should NOT Use This

• Small and mid-size teams looking for a primary video conferencing tool — Pexip is infrastructure software for connecting meeting rooms, not a day-to-day meeting app for individual employees; Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet will serve you far better and at a fraction of the cost
• Organizations that prioritize AI-powered meeting features like real-time transcription, automated summaries, action item extraction, or intelligent search — Pexip's AI capabilities score 5.5 in our evaluation, well behind the 9.0+ scores of Zoom and Teams, and there is no indication this gap is closing quickly
• Teams without dedicated IT staff to manage video infrastructure — deploying and maintaining Pexip, particularly in self-hosted configurations, requires networking expertise, virtualization knowledge, and ongoing capacity planning that is well beyond what a non-technical administrator can handle

Bottom Line

Pexip does not compete with Zoom or Teams for the hearts and minds of everyday users, and it is not trying to. It competes for the infrastructure layer beneath those platforms — the interoperability fabric that connects legacy meeting rooms to modern cloud services while keeping data under organizational control. The video and audio quality is strong (8.5), the security and privacy credentials are near the top of the category (9.5 each), and the integration capabilities with existing room systems are unmatched (8.5). But the limited AI features, absence of a free tier, and high setup complexity mean this is a tool for a specific buyer: the enterprise IT architect tasked with making a heterogeneous video environment work without ripping out existing investments. For that buyer, Pexip is not just a good choice — it is often the only choice.

FAQ

Is Pexip worth the $39/user/month price tag?

That depends entirely on what problem you are solving. If you are comparing Pexip to Zoom or Teams as a meeting app for individual employees, the answer is no — you would be paying a premium for capabilities you do not need while missing features you do. But if your organization has significant investment in legacy video room hardware that needs to interoperate with Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, Pexip's licensing cost is modest compared to the alternative of replacing that hardware. A single Cisco Room Kit Pro costs upward of $15,000; keeping a fleet of those endpoints functional through Pexip's interoperability layer can deliver meaningful ROI within the first year.

How does Pexip compare to other Cloud Video Interop providers?

Pexip is the only Microsoft-certified CVI provider that supports fully self-hosted deployment. Poly RealConnect (now part of HP) offers CVI but requires cloud infrastructure. Blue Jeans Gateway (Verizon) provides similar interoperability but with less flexibility in deployment models. For organizations where self-hosted deployment is a hard requirement — which is common in government, defense, and financial services — Pexip is effectively the only option that carries Microsoft's certification. In cloud-only deployments, the competition is closer, but Pexip's breadth of protocol support (SIP, H.323, Teams, Google Meet in a single platform) remains the widest in the category.

Can Pexip replace Zoom or Teams as our primary meeting platform?

Not practically, no. Pexip is designed as an interoperability and infrastructure layer, not as an end-user meeting application. While Pexip Infinity Connect provides a web-based client for joining meetings, it lacks the collaboration features — breakout rooms, virtual backgrounds, AI-powered summaries, integrated chat, app marketplace — that make platforms like Zoom and Teams effective as daily-use tools. The typical Pexip deployment runs alongside Teams or Google Meet, serving as the bridge that brings legacy room systems into those ecosystems rather than replacing them. Think of Pexip as the middleware, not the application.