Covid-19 has changed many aspects of how we live and work. In a 2022 study done on the state of remote work, 72% of companies are planning on permanently allowing some amount of remote work. The rise of hybrid work or a combination of in-person and remote work is evidence that people want more flexibility to choose where and how they work.
Web conferencing tools have become the primary technology that enables the world to transition to remote work. Whether you are an attorney, a tutor, or a physician, hosting online meetings through video calls has never been more accessible. Web conferencing tools offer business owners the freedom and flexibility to meet clients virtually, saving significant overhead costs and travel time.
So how do you decide which web conferencing tool is the most suitable for your business? Let’s take a look at the best 10 web conferencing tools with their strengths and limitations highlighted.
Zoom Meeting
Zoom is one of the most well-known and widely used web conferencing tools in the market. Through Zoom, businesses can host one-on-one meetings, group video conferences, share screen with attendees, chat in real-time, use whiteboards for on-the-fly diagrams, and record meetings with transcripts. You can create personal meeting rooms and share meeting links with participants with or without passcodes.
Mobile app is available for Android and iOS.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
Zoom’s ease of use and reliability make it a primary choice for individual users as well as large enterprises. Anyone with a browser can use it.
You can change virtual backgrounds, add filters, and touch up your appearance, making it more fun to host virtual events.
It also provides a multitude of add-on features and integrations that can be customized for complex video-conferencing use cases.
What to bear in mind?
Early in 2020, Zoom experienced security concerns with unwanted guests joining Zoom meetings.
Since then, the company has updated its security measures by adding a waiting room where the host can see and admit attendees. End-to-end encryption of data is added to protect meeting data.
Even if Zoom has a free plan, it limits group meetings to up to 40 minutes.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
Ranging from small businesses to large enterprises, Zoom is suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Basic plan is free and is ideal for personal meetings. You can host up to 100 participants for group meetings, with meeting length limited to 40 minutes. Private and group chat is available. 3 editable Zoom Whiteboards cab be used (with 25 MB of cloud storage).
Pro plan is $14.99 per month and per meeting host. It is ideal for small teams. You can host up to 100 participants or 1,000 participants with Large Meetings add-on. Up to 1-GB cloud recording is available. Social media streaming is included.
Business plan is $19.99 per month and per meeting host. It is ideal for small businesses. You can host up to 100 participants or 1,000 participants with Large Meetings add-on. Additional features include recording transcripts, managing domains, controlling company branding, and using unlimited Zoom Whiteboard.
Enterprise plan is $19.99 per month per meeting host. It is ideal for large enterprises. You can host up to 500 participants and record transcripts. Unlimited cloud storage and Zoom Whiteboards are included.
See Zoom’s pricing page for further details.
GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is a reliable, easy-to-use videoconferencing tool. In addition to supporting essential functionality of video calls such as personal meeting room links, real-time chatting, and live screen sharing, it offers advanced features including automatic transcription generation, meeting reports, and analytics.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
It has a user-friendly interface that requires minimal navigation, making it user-friendly for non-tech-savvy callers.
In addition, it has some cool features that set it apart from other videoconferencing tools.
- Slide to PDF feature allows meeting participants to capture presentation slides and automatically place them in chronological order within a shareable PDF.
- Smart Assistant feature automatically detects action items and highlights in a meeting through machine learning.
- Note Taking feature enables you to take notes directly during meetings. Notes are automatically saved and can be shared with others.
What to bear in mind?
There is no free plan.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
GoTo Meeting is the most suitable for small businesses and consumers that need an easy-to-use conferencing service.
Pricing
GoTo Meeting Professional plan costs $12 monthly and allows you to host meetings with up to 150 participants.
GoTo Meeting Business plan costs $16 per month. It includes unlimited meetings with up to 250 participants, plus meeting lock, transcripts, and more.
GoTo Meeting Enterprise plan has custom pricing and comes with all advanced features. You can host up to 3,000 participants for meetings.
View their pricing page for further details.
Whereby
Whereby is an easy-to-use, beautifully designed video conferencing solution. Meetings can be initiated from your browser with no need to download any software or sign up for accounts. Simply share your room link on any device, and let participants join the meeting with one click.
Key features include customizable branding, file sharing, room locking, real-time chat, screen sharing, and breakout rooms.
It offers native integrations with popular productivity apps including Miro, Google Docs, Trello, YouTube, Outlook, and Slack to streamline your video call experience.
iOS and Android apps are available.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
Whereby Embedded is a feature that allows you to add custom video calls to your website or app with only a few lines of code. There is no need to open external links or apps. Video calls can happen right on the website to keep customers engaged.
Compared to other video conferencing tools with an outdated, convoluted interface, Whereby has a sleek, modern designed interface that is easy to navigate and use.
What to bear in mind?
Compared to other videoconferencing tools, Whereby lacks features to support running webinars and live streaming events.
To enable meeting guests to share screens, they would need to download Whereby’s Chrome extension first which can be inconvenient.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
Whereby is best suitable for small and medium businesses of various business industries.
Pricing
Free plan allows 1 host, 1 room URL, and unlimited one-on-one meetings. For group meetings, it can host up to 100 participants with meeting length capped at 45 minutes.
Pro plan costs $6.99 per month per host. It includes all features in Free plan plus 3 room URLs, no time limit on group meetings, unlimited recording, and custom branding.
Business plan costs $9.99 per month per host, starting at 3 hosts. It includes all features in Pro plan, plus unlimited room URLs, shared rooms, custom subdomain, and priority support.
See their pricing page for the full feature list.
Google Meet
Google Meet is a simple, enterprise-grade video conferencing tool that can be used by anyone with a Google Account. It can be used to record meetings, share screen, and send instant messages with up to 100 participants and 60 minutes per meeting. It comes with a live caption feature that automatically captions speeches for accessibility.
Advanced features include dial-in phone numbers, breakout rooms, polls, and attendee reports which are useful for large meetings. Recorded meetings are saved to Google Drive.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
Google Meet is very easy to use. You can host or join Google Meet meetings right through a web browser without the need to install any software on your desktop. It comes with a Chrome extension that can be used across all devices.
If you are already using G-suite applications, Google Meet is the ideal choice as it syncs well with Gmail and Google Calendar.
What to bear in mind?
To host a meeting through Google Meet, you will need to create a Google account. Advanced features are limited to paid plans.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
Google Meet is best suitable for small and large businesses who have mobile and web-based google applications and need to conduct video or voice calls.
Pricing
Google Meet is free for anyone with a Google account to create and join calls but has limited features and no customer support.
Google Workspace Individual is $7.99 per month with advanced features such as intelligent noise cancellation, dial-in phone numbers, breakout rooms, polls, and 24/7 online support, and community forums.
Google Workspace Enterprise has custom pricing and includes a comprehensive suite of advanced features. View their pricing page for further details.
Join.me
Join.me is an easy-to-use, secure video conferencing software that lets you host online meetings using the internet or a phone line.
It is easy to start and join meetings. You can create a custom meeting link that makes it easy to invite participants to enter your own personal meeting room. You can either lock or passcode-protect meetings so only invitees can join the meeting. GoTo Meeting can also call you when a meeting is about to start.
During your meeting, you can share screen, draw on your screen, customize webcam background and give meeting guests presenter control. Meetings can be recorded in cloud and shared with others. You can check meeting performance analysis through diagnostic reports. ‘
Join.me also integrates with a wide variety of apps such as Outlook, Salesforce, and Slack for a more convenient meeting experience.
It has iOS and Android apps.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
Join.me has a modern, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to join meetings.
It features Smart Meeting Assistant which can automatically transcribe meetings, marks meeting highlights, and pinpoints action items. If you are presenting multiple sets of presentation slides, the Smart Meeting Assistant can capture and place them in chronological order within a sharable PDF.
It also offers GoTo Webinar that can host engaging live and pre-recorded events with flexible webinar modes and interactive features.
GoTo Training is a videoconferencing product that supports virtual learning through registration management, in-session interactions, and analytics.
What to bear in mind?
There is no free plan. Its paid Business plan can only support up to 250 participants, which is less than the meeting capacity of some of the other videoconferencing solutions. To host meetings with more than 250 attendees, you will need to contact sales to learn about the enterprise plan.
Whiteboards are only available on iOS devices, which might be inconvenient for presenting and brainstorming through the desktop app.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
Join.me is best suitable for freelancers, small businesses, and mid-size businesses.
Pricing
Professional plan costs $14 per month per user. Up to 150 participants are allowed to join. It includes screen sharing, unlimited meetings and meeting length, business messaging, personal meeting room, breakout rooms, and hand-raising.
Business plan costs $19 per month per user. Up to 250 participants are allowed to join. It includes more advanced features including unlimited cloud recording, transcription, slide to PDF, Smart Assistant, note taking, and meeting lock.
Enterprise plan has custom pricing. You can host meetings with up to 3,000 participants.
View their pricing page for further details.
ClickMeeting
ClickMeeting is a browser-based webinar tool that can also be used for video conferencing calls. With a comprehensive suite of features for webinars, it supports the entire webinar process starting from preparation, presentation, interaction, and follow-up.
You won’t need to install any software to start a meeting or webinar. During online meetings, you can share screen and documents, sketch on whiteboards, run private chats, private breakout rooms, and give and revoke access to meeting participants.
iOS and Android apps are available.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
ClickMeeting is an excellent choice for online events and presentations such as training sessions and online courses. Its high-quality audio and audience polling are well-liked by users.
Its Automation Webinar helps hosts streamline the webinar process with customized promotion options including a registration form or email follow-ups. You can upload an event recording to build an automated webinar timeline by dragging and dropping elements, which is user-friendly for non-tech-savvy users.
What to bear in mind?
The number of video participants is limited compared to other videoconferencing tools, which makes it less cost-efficient for video meetings.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
ClickMeeting is suitable for small to medium-sized businesses in sectors including Education, Sales, HR & Trainings, and Marketing that need to run webinars.
Pricing
Live plan starts at $30 per month allowing up to 25 attendees and tops at $309 per month allowing up to 1000 attendees. It supports 6 hours of recording storage and 1GB of file storage. The plan includes essential features for webinars and meetings, promotion, user and access management, integrations, and statistics & reports.
Automated plan starts at $45 per month allowing up to 25 attendees, and tops at $359 per month allowing up to 1000 attendees. It supports 10 hours of recording storage and 2GB of file storage. It includes more advanced features for webinar automation such as automated recurring webinars and follow-up.
Enterprise plan has custom pricing. This plan is for companies that are hosting huge virtual events with up to 10,000 attendees. It supports 10 hours of recording storage and 2GB of file storage.
View their pricing page for further details.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based web conferencing solution that empowers you to host one-on-one virtual meetings or large virtual events.
You can record meetings, chat with participants, enable live captions, customize backgrounds, raise hands to talk or ask questions, and view the participant list.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
Microsoft Teams has recently launched Speaker Coach, which helps you to speak more confidently in meetings, privately assisted you on pacing, notifies you if you interrupt someone, and reminds you to check in with your audience.
If you already use MS Office, you can conduct conference calls and share files via SharePoint, and join a group chat. For instance, you can schedule recurring calls and receive meeting alerts through Outlook.
The paid plan starts at $5 per user, making it affordable and cost-efficient in case your team expands.
What to bear in mind?
Microsoft Teams is most effective when working with other Microsoft Office products. You will need to create a Microsoft account to access the free Teams account.
If you are hosting webinars, there are other alternatives such as ClickMeeting that offer more extensive webinar-centric features than Microsoft Teams.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
Microsoft Team is best suitable for large teams and enterprises that run internal video conferencing meetings.
Pricing
The free plan supports unlimited group meetings for up to 60 minutes, with 5 GB of cloud storage per user. Up to 100 participants can join the meeting. You can share files and conduct polling.
Microsoft Teams Essentials plan costs $5 per user per month. It includes all features in the free plan, plus unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours, 10 GB of cloud storage per user, and up to 300 participants per meeting.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan costs $12.50 per person per month. It includes all features in the Essentials plan, plus team meetings recordings with transcripts, web and mobile versions of Office apps, cloud storage of 1TB per user, and Office apps.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan costs $20 per person per month. It includes features in the Basic plan, plus desktop version of Office apps with premium features, webinar hosting, attendee registration and reporting tools, and managing customer appointments.
For the full list of features, check out their pricing page.
BlueJeans
BlueJeans is a powerful web conferencing tool owned by Verizon that integrates high-fidelity Dolby audio and HD video with an extensive suite of features.
It supports breakout sessions, real-time closed captioning, virtual backgrounds, enterprise-graded security, interactive collaboration through screen sharing, annotation, and Collab Board.
You don’t need to have a BlueJeans account to join meetings. As the host, participants can join meetings through a browser, computer, or mobile device.
BlueJeans has iOS and Android apps.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
BlueJeans can host webinars and events for more than 10,000 guests, which is a much larger meeting capacity compared to other conferencing tools.
BlueJeans Smart Meetings lets you tag important discussion points, assign action items, access dynamic meeting summaries, and share recaps with coworkers. These features help improve productivity before, during, and after meetings for large teams.
BlueJeans Telehealth supports high-quality virtual care that is HIPAA-ready and meets applicable requirements under the HIPAA Security Rule.
What to bear in mind?
There is no free plan. If you host short, occasional meetings, BlueJeans is not the best option.
There have been reported issues with software updates and connectivity glitches.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
BlueJeans is ideal for mid-size and enterprise businesses that host large meetings and events across multiple devices and require more advanced video conferencing features.
Pricing
Standard plan is $12.49 per host per month. You can hold up to 100 participants, unlimited 1:1 & group meetings, 5 hours of meeting recording.
Pro plan is $17.49 per host per month. Host up to 150 participants, 25 hours of meeting recording, command center analysis, integration with workstream collaboration tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams) and security and incident management software (Okta and Splunk).
Enterprise plan is $19.99 per host per month. Host up to 200 participants, unlimited recordings, real-time transcription, conference room connector, and brand customization.
Enterprise Plus plan has custom pricing. It includes all enterprise features with advanced options and add-ons.
View their pricing page for further details.
Webex
Webex is Cisco’s communication and video conferencing platform that brings calling, meeting and messaging together. WebEx suite is comprised of Webex Meetings, Webex Teams, and Webex Devices.
Through Webex Meetings, users can join video calls from a desktop or mobile app. It supports screen sharing, meeting recording, automatic transcription, real-time digital white-boarding, and customizable layouts.
Webex Meetings also integrates with other popular productivity tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Calendar, Office 365, and Microsoft OneDrive.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
Webex Assistant can enhance meetings with closed captions, transcripts, hand gestures and voice commands, and keywords. It also supports real-time translation that can translate meetings into 100+ languages from 13+ spoken languages which is useful for international meetings.
Webex Suite for enterprises comes with powerful and comprehensive functionality, making it ideal not just for hosting large meetings but also for running large-scale events such as webinars and virtual training sessions for hundreds of participants.
For example, Webex Events supports live streaming, registration and ticketing, and data dashboards that make virtual events engaging.
What to bear in mind?
Webex’s pricing is higher than some of the other leading conferencing tools such as Zoom.
Users also find Webex’s interface to be difficult to navigate. Some users also have experienced audio glitches for non-Webex users during meetings.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
Webex is suitable for businesses of all sizes, though its primary customer base is comprised of enterprises.
Pricing
The free plan supports 1 host and up to 100 participants. Meeting length is limited to 50 minutes. It supports integrations, screen sharing, breakout rooms, and whiteboarding but doesn’t include advanced features such as Cloud recording storage and Webex Assistant.
Starter plan costs $13.50 per month per user. It supports 1 to 50 hosts, and up to 150 participants. Meeting length can last 24 hours. In addition to free plan’s features, cloud recording storage is 5GB. Advanced features include Webex Assistant, recording transcription, adding an alternative host, stream meetings from Facebook Live, Live polling, and Q&A by Slido.
Business plan costs $26.95 per month per user. It supports 1 to 100 hosts, and up to 200 participants. Meeting length can last 24 hours. Cloud recording storage is 10GB. It offers the complete list of basic and advanced features.
Enterprise plan has custom pricing. The number of hosts, participants and cloud recording storage can be customized based on the company’s needs.
View their pricing page for further details.
Lifesize
Lifesize is a video-conferencing tool that is designed to serve the demands of enterprises as well as businesses of any size. Their platform combines web conferencing software with meeting room devices to deliver a high-quality videoconferencing experience.
Lifesize’s key features include interoperable cloud video, screen sharing, live chat, record video calls, and control participant roles & permissions.
It has extensive integrations with various business applications including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and Slack that fit Lifesize meetings into your daily workflows. You can schedule and join meetings from Google calendar or Outlook calendar.
iOS and Android apps are available.
What makes this conferencing tool stand out?
Besides their cloud-based meeting solution, Lifesize provides hardware that connects with popular third-party cloud video conferencing services. It has an integrated, plug-and-play HD camera system and HD phone for rooms with automatic software updates, which supports the hybrid of remote and office work.
What to bear in mind?
There is no free plan. If you are a solopreneur or small business, Lifesize is not the best option as it targets midsize and large businesses.
There are users who have reported lagging and audio issues during meetings.
Lifesize’s feature set is not as extensive compared to other similar videoconferencing products. as It doesn’t support polling, drawing, and notes-sharing which are common features seen in other alternatives.
Who is this conferencing tool best suitable for?
Lifesize is best suitable for mid-sized companies and enterprises.
Pricing
The Plus plan costs $14.95 per host per month, with a minimum of 10 hosts. Up to 300 participants are allowed. It supports Microsoft integrations, phone and email support, 1 hour cloud recording storage per host, unlimited meeting duration, Single sign-on (SSO) support, and a centralized management console.
The Enterprise plan costs $14.95 per host per month, with a minimum of 50 hosts. Up to 500 participants are allowed. On top of Plus plan features, the plan supports unlimited recordings, live streaming, and premium support.
The Organization plan has customizable pricing and packages. It supports branding and customization, live streaming up to 10,000 viewers per event, and unlimited audio conferencing.
Use CozyCal to schedule video meetings efficiently
Zoom and Google Meet are two of the most popular video-conferencing tools used by small businesses as well as large enterprises. Scheduling meetings and sending reminders to participants are integral steps in running successful virtual meetings.
CozyCal makes it easy to schedule video meetings and events. It provides native integrations with Zoom and Google Meet, so with one simple click unique Zoom and Google Meet links are generated to scheduled meetings. Generated meeting links are automatically added to email notifications, and your calendar as well as the booked guests’ calendar.
Besides Zoom and Google Meet integrations, other benefits of using CozyCal to schedule video meetings include:
- Enable event requests to manually approve or decline meeting requests
- Two-way connections with Google calendar and Outlook calendar
- Send white label confirmation, reminder, and cancellation emails to keep invitees informed
- Remind invitees of scheduled events with automated SMS text messages (limited to the US and Canada)
Video-conferencing is here to stay
Whether you decide to return to the office, stay fully remote, or adopt hybrid work, video meetings will continue to play a major role in how we interact, communicate and stay connected with each other.
Finding the right video-conferencing tool that best meets your needs will help you to be more productive and efficient in running your business.
Learn more about how CozyCal can help you schedule virtual meetings easily. Try it free for 10 days.
