Video conferencing is now a great and low-cost way to connect and collaborate with other people or teams (video conferencing software) and this is why I’ve built up my list of top-rated video conferencing software. If you’re developing a website for business, you may need the features of a webinar platform such as RocketMeeting or EventAmp (great alternatives to Zoom). And if you’re working on improving your SEO strategy, then you might want to check out Unbounce (awesome for blogging).
Video conferencing has been a huge hit in recent years. You can easily setup a meeting with a cheap, cheap computer and a cheap phone. The problem is getting people together. Here are our picks for the best online video conferencing tools.
Zoho Meeting
Best for delivering presentations and hosting webinars ($10/host/mo).
Zoho Meeting is a web conferencing platform that helps you conduct online conferences from anywhere with real-time audio, video, remote control, and screen sharing.
You can record your meetings in the cloud storage or even download it on your storage. Not only this, it lets you share the meeting with all the employees who missed the meeting.
Plus, it lets you share your screen with your colleagues with remote control access options. This feature helps you control other participant’s screens, which might come in handy to troubleshoot technical issues.
You can also send emails to invite your employees or colleagues with all the information like the topic of the meeting, time, agenda, joining link, access code, etc.
Zoho Meeting also takes care of all internationally accepted security and privacy standards. They also encrypt audio, screen sharing, and video to keep your data secure.
Additionally, host webinars on your website with the help of the Zoho Meeting. You can even share your screen, audio, and application window to support your presentation.
Key Features:
- Phone audio – Join meetings through your phone in case you are facing poor internet connections. Use 55+ toll-free numbers to join from any different country and use 100+ local numbers.
- Private Meetings – Lock confidential meetings to invite only the participants you want. You also get notifications when someone wants to enter your conference.
- In Session Chat – Use the chat tab available in all meeting sessions to send important messages or links.
Pros:
- You can host up to 100 participants with 24 active video feeds displayed at a time.
- There’s no need to download anything – you can start and join meetings directly.
- It also provides a Google Chrome extension.
- iOS and Android apps available.
- RSVP scheduling.
- They also provide chat support.
- Integration with Zoho calendar, CRM, Projects, etc.
Pricing:
They provide two plans for the meetings.
- Free Edition: $0/mo
- Meeting Edition: $10/host/mo
The free version lets you host up to 5 participants with limited features. On the other hand, the premium plan enables you to host up to 100 participants and store ten recordings.
GoToMeeting
Best overall video conferencing software ($12 per month).
GoToMeeting is an online meeting software that helps you host face-to-face video conferences for up to up to 3000 participants and share your desktop screen in real-time. Besides, it also lets you conduct webinars for $49 only.
Team collaboration tools provide you with a real-life meeting experience. For instance, the turnkey room equipment transforms a standard meeting room into a collaborative workspace. This feature also helps you accommodate your remote teams.
You can also book any meetings in advance and start the session directly from your smartphone. There’s no need to take notes during a meeting either since cloud recording helps you record and store all the sessions. Additionally, you can access these cloud meetings from your smartphone as well.
Some of its most prominent video conferencing software features include:
- Meeting recording and transcription
- Join any meeting in an instant by asking Siri
- Mobile conferencing
- Live screen sharing
- Automatic bandwidth adjustment
- Cloud-based access
- Both Poly and Dolby Voice equipment
Plus, H.323 enabled video conferencing helps you and your employees join any video conferencing by just entering a number.
You don’t have to worry about your privacy and security either owing to security features like the SAML SSO login.
You can also integrate it with the Office 365 plugin to schedule, manage, and join upcoming online meetings directly from your calendar.
Key Features:
- One-Click Meeting – Schedule, join, and manage all your upcoming meetings directly from your Google or Microsoft calendar in just a click.
- Mobile Application – With their app, you can join or host meetings on the go. Their mobile app is available for both Android and iOS platforms.
- Collaborate seamlessly – Business messaging, one-click meetings, and the ability to share automatic transcripts of recorded meetings come in handy for collaboration.
- Cloud Recording – Record and store your meeting in the cloud.
Pros:
- It provides a real-time screen-sharing option and unlimited meetings without any time limit.
- Unlimited cloud-recording.
- Drawing Tool helps you draw right on the screen and share it with your employees.
- Free SSL-encryption.
- 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, group chat, and mail.
- Integration with third-party tools like Slack, Office 365, SalesForce, etc.
- You can also host webinars.
- 14-day free trial.
Pricing:
GoToMeeting provides three paid plans based on the number of participants you want to host.
- Professional: $12 per month (150 Participants)
- Business: $16 per month (250 Participants)
- Enterprise: Quote-Based (Up to 3000 Participants)
All the plans include HD video, screen-sharing, dial-in conference line, unlimited meetings, etc.
RingCentral
Best for team-management and collaboration ($14.99/user/mo).
RingCentral is a cloud-based communications solution that lets you chat, conduct video meetings, and place phone calls in one place. Making it way more powerful than a regular video conferencing software platform.
It helps you conduct HD video conferences with up to 100 participants worldwide at a time. Plus, you can conduct meetings either on mobile devices or desktops and share your screen with colleagues in just one click.
Along with video conferencing, it also lets you run audio conferencing with up to 1,000 people globally.
RingCentral’s drag-and-drop features let you share your work, pin essential documents, and share files directly from tools like Google Drive.
On the project management side, its built-in team-management tools help you assign tasks, update stakeholders, and move your projects forward.
Detailed analytics is another helpful feature. It measures metrics like quality of service report, meeting dashboard, number of missed calls, number of refused calls, and the average speed of answer.
Some of your wifi router settings can affect your meeting experience. For this, RingCentral offers a tool to check your internet connection and configure your QoS (Quality of Service) settings.
Additionally, RingCentral integrates with hundreds of tools like Google Drive, Box, and calendar tools like GSuite and Office 365.
Key Features:
- Collaborate with Global Teams – RingCentral lets you connect with a global team remotely with one-click meetings. You can also start a video meeting right from a messaging thread.
- Meeting add-ons – It also lets you host webinars and provides meeting add-ons like large meeting rooms, RingCentral Rooms, and RingCentral Room Connector.
- Extensive Video-sharing options – Share files in local storage or directly from Dropbox and Google Drive.
Pros:
- It provides mobile apps for both Android and iOS.
- Get unlimited calls in the US and Canada.
- It automatically converts voicemail to the text format.
- Diverse document sharing and team messaging options.
- 24/7 customer support via video chat and more.
- Call from any phone or their desktop app in just one click.
- You can get access to real-time analytics.
- RingCentral also lets you record your meetings and calls.
Pricing:
RingCentral offers one free plan and two paid plans:
- Free: $0/user/mo
- Essentials: $14.99/user/mo
- Advanced: $19.99/users/mo
All plans let you host unlimited 1:1 meetings for up to 100 participants. Other standard features include desktop and application sharing, whiteboarding, annotation, private and group in-meeting chat, and more.
Microsoft Teams
REASONS TO BUY
+Full Microsoft 365 integration+up to 10,000 participants+Schedule invites+Captioning+Background blurAdvertisement
Within one application, Microsoft Teams enables users to schedule video or audio meetings with a single person or a team. Administrators can also organize webinars and large meetings with up to 10,000 participants.
Full integration with Microsoft 365 means that calls can be easily scheduled and invites shared among the organization, while external guests can join from their web browser without downloading the application.
Microsoft Teams also provides the full range of features expected from a leading video conferencing software provider, including screen sharing and call recording, live captions, background blur technology, and chat functionalities. Integration with Microsoft 365 makes the platform the market leader in video conferencing and digital workspace integration.
The platform’s powerful video conferencing software is complemented by hardware options that enable users to join calls from almost anywhere. When you’re working alone or on the go, mobile devices, desktop computers, and Bluetooth conferencing headsets can power communication.
Overall, Microsoft Teams is ideal for businesses who already use Microsoft 365, or who are looking to reinvent their organization’s digital communication and collaboration workspaces.
Google Meet
REASONS TO BUY
+Google Workspace integration+Accessible and simple+Competitive pricing
Google Meet, formerly Google Hangouts Meet, is part of the Google Workspace office productivity platform (formerly known as G Suite). Having enjoyed a recent rebrand, Google Meet aims to provide a first-class conferencing service.Advertisement
Developed specifically for business needs, it can cater for a large number of users at once, and also uses smart participation and a fast interface to reduce the need to wait.
As an improved version of the standard Google Hangouts, Google Meet aims to make it easier to work with external clients. It does this first by providing a web app experience, which means there is no software to download. Secondly, it also provides a dedicated dial-in number, which not only means that employees on the go can join in, but this also ensure that line quality is maintained and that there are no drop-outs.
As well as having dedicated apps available for mobile users in the Apple AppStore and Google Play store for Android, Google Meet can also work with existing conferencing hardware. All that’s required is that it follows SIP and H.323 standards for Skype for Business users. This also applies to Cisco, Lifesize, and Polycomm in particular, and by using Pexip Infinity can join in Hangouts meets.
Another key advantage is that by being within the Google Workspace platform it’s easy to use data from other applications, not least Google Calendar, to not just plan meetings but also set up event information as required when users do sign in.
The other big plus is that Hangouts itself doesn’t come with the big monthly costs that other providers might charge.
Ultimately, Google Meet is a serious business-grade conferencing platform that doesn’t require big up-front costs for hardware, making it especially accessible for businesses of any size.
Conclusion:
Video conferencing was once a fringe technology used by only the biggest companies. Today, video conferencing is as “mainstream” as email and phone calls. Corporate video conferencing has become so prevalent that we no longer consider it a luxury — conference rooms and meeting spaces are equipped with smart screens and mimio cameras.