There are conference call providers that can support thousands of participants on conference calling sessions. These businesses offer companies collaboration and conference calling capabilities that generally are hassle free. This helps businesses to increase productivity while saving on costs associated with traveling.
Many value-added features make these services an attractive solution for businesses. Companies can save on travel costs and time wasted planning and gathering all of the members of the team. Conferencing software is an excellent way to hold virtual meetings or classrooms where team members or clients can learn about the new products and services offered by a company.
Web conferences make it easy for participants to join in on meetings and virtual classrooms. There are only a few items participants need to have, including a connection to the internet, a web browser, a computer or smartphone, an email address, and the URL for the web conference’s portal. In some cases, participants need a downloadable link to services like Skype.
This comprehensive guide will help with comparing providers based on ease of use, collaboration, cost, and integration.
Here are the top 10 best video and web conferencing apps of the year:
GoTo Meeting is one of the most well known among web conferencing services. It is one of the easiest services to use, and they have a free option available to users. They offer screen sharing and a one-click meeting solution that is useful for beginners. The software integrates with Microsoft Office programs so that meetings can be initiated through these services along with email and chat links.
The free option for GoTo Meeting is limited to audio conferencing only, and video conferencing is only offered with the paid plans. They also provide an option for voice chat through VoIP. Conference calls can be customized to suit the needs of the business. The free plan is limited because it only allows three people to join the conference making it more ideal for small companies.
Pexip is another great web conference solution where you can host web conferences or select a cloud service to host them on. This service is scalable and can be customized to work with video systems.
Zoom offers both a free and a paid version of their plan, and their paid plan is less expensive than Go ToMeeting’s paid services. With the free plan, Zoom offers 40 minutes of web conferencing per month, and they limit the conference call participants to three people.
When signing up for the upgraded plan, companies can have an unlimited number of call participants, along with added features like web video conferencing and unlimited meetings every month. Some more advanced key features include full-screen viewing, active speaker view, and dual-stream for dual screens. Upgraded access also allows for participants to call into the conference to join.
There are more advanced features for web conferencing, including personal meeting identification for participants, MP4 recordings of meetings for playbacks, desktop and application sharing, a virtual whiteboard, and group and private chat.
Zoom also allows attendees to share the keyboard and mouse at no additional charge. There is also screen sharing available for iPads and iPhones, making it easy to attend meetings on the go.
The only drawback to Zoom is that they allow meetings to last for up to 40 minutes, which is a short amount of time. On the positive side, users can host an unlimited number of meetings each month. It is also interesting to note that meetings between two people are not limited to any particular times. This is particularly good for freelancers or small businesses that meet virtually with clients.
This web conferencing software solution was created by the same company that developed the LogMeIn software. This software is fairly easy to use and is perfect for beginners. There is an easy to use interface. It is useful because users can create conferences for prospects, customers, and clients in addition to using office communications.
With the free trial, users can take advantage of screen sharing and web and audio conferencing with the two more advanced Pro and Business plans. The Lite plan does not offer webcam streams, and there is a limit of five participants per meeting. After the free trial, users will gain access to upgraded plans that provides free audio conferences with their own dedicated call-in conference number that works in the United States and in 40 countries around the world.
Join.me is also compatible with a host of integrations from Chrome to Trello and G Suite.
The service also includes video conferencing and one-click scheduling that users can integrate with Outlook and Google Calendar. This adds a level of organization to keep track of invitations. Users can also collaborate on a regular basis with the use of a permanent meeting location so that team members and clients can save the address and return to the same meeting location. With the online whiteboard, users can create presentations and share screens for an extra level of collaboration.
Skype is a popular service, and they also offer free web conferencing. Not many people really know about this conferencing solution, and Skype also offers screen sharing. It’s a great option considering that it is a free service. Users need to sign up for the service and download software to use it. For conferencing features, users should be added to the list of contacts.
People can use Skype for business purposes; however, it requires a subscription to Office 365. There are many unique applications with Skype for business. The service allows for video and audio conferencing with up to 25 participants, and it supports desktop OS, iOS phone apps, and Android for mobile conferencing.
This web video conferencing service is one of the best on the market. They offer free high definition web video conferencing along with online whiteboard collaboration tools, and they can accommodate up to 100 participants on one web conference call.
Cisco’s Webex is a good choice for web conferencing software, and there is a free version available. This version only allows for three meeting participants, and users are able to share their screens. The software can also be integrated to work with Cisco Spark. The paid versions are ideal for small businesses and large enterprises because of the added security.
Apache OpenMeetings is a simple, free web conferencing software solution that offers instant messaging, document editing that welcomes collaboration, whiteboard capabilities, and video conferencing. It is an open-source application that can be customized as well.
Additional features include audio session recording and screen sharing. Users can design more than one whiteboard, and there is a built-in chat feature.
TeamViewer is another service that provides great security. It’s another good choice for large organizations because of their emphasis on solutions and support. The company has a wide audience of over one billion customers that rely on their software for online meetings and remote support. The software allows for many remote sessions that run in browser tabs at the same time on Mac operating systems, and there is a feature for sticky notes.
TeamViewer offers add-ons like QuickJoin, which allows users to join presentations and meetings quickly and easily. It is supported by many systems, including iOS, Chrome OS, Mac, Linux, Windows, and Android. There is also audio and video conferencing available, and users have access to a text-based platform.
Google Meet features many different apps and solutions for business. Google Meet and Google Voice have some of the same functionality. Google Meet is free to use and allows users to send and receive instant messages, video chats, and SMS messages. VoIP calls are also available with Google Meet.
There is also screen sharing available, and to meet online with Google Meet, users need to add each other to meet and chat online. Google allows up to ten people at a time on a group video chat.
There are a lot of free options for web conferencing, although there are few that offer screen sharing services. For small teams, these few services should adequately meet their business needs.
Because there are so many free web conferencing services, many companies don’t have to pay for services like Google Hangouts, TeamViewer, or Apache OnlineMeeting.
Companies should take into consideration that these options do have limits and benefits that make them good options to use. The best option for your business is one that meets your needs as a team. Teams that don’t need a video chat option for customers or clients will do well with Join.me, Webex, or Google Hangouts. These might not be ideal options for teams needing a web conferencing application in order to meet with clients outside of the business.
Web conferencing solutions provide real-time collaboration, and a host of other benefits like slideshow presentations, webinars, video streaming, file, application, and screen sharing, whiteboards, and text chat services.
Teams should research and access the feature and applications needed in web video conferencing solutions for their business. It’s important to keep in mind that while there are many useful applications available, they may not be useful to the needs of the business.
One of the most important aspects of web conferencing software is cost and affordability.
The following three factors should be considered as they can impact your decision-making process.
