Software development

Most of us are working from home currently and working practices will evolve moving forward. The maximum number of conference participants is five, which rules this out as a tool for many small businesses who may regularly want to host meetings for more people. When you sign up for an account, you are assigned a personal URL that can be used to manage all of your meetings, schedule video conferences, and access the recording you have made.
Whether your team is in-office, hybrid, or remote, most meetings have at least one remote participant. Face-to-face communication is important, even if you can’t all meet in person. With the right video conferencing platforms and solutions, teams can work together or with customers and clients effectively, no matter where they’re located. Now, let’s delve into some of the best video conferencing software that companies and even individuals can use for both business and social purposes. This list will include some of the biggest names in the video conferencing market, as well as promising start-ups that offer impressive features that can rival even the more established platforms today. Circuit by Unify helps companies centralize their cross-enterprise communications and collaboration, offering its users one app to share files, search for content and host discussions with employees and coworkers.

• Skype is mounting a comeback with video conferencing, making it the perfect time to revisit the familiar software with a cute ringtone.
• Both functions are built into the same app, with an appealing user interface.
• Furthermore, GoToMeeting allows unlimited video meetings and secures these meetings with end-to-end encryption.
• Google Meet, formerly Google Hangouts Meet, is part of the Google Workspace office productivity platform (formerly known as G Suite).
• If your team’s calls tend to be focused on sharing ideas and content, then TeamViewer might be a perfect fit for you.

The most important features we looked for included offering recordings and transcriptions of meetings. Other essential features we wanted to see offered by a provider were screen sharing, whiteboard tools, third-party software integrations and a maximum participant limit of at least 200 attendees. For enterprise video conference needs, Zoho Meeting offers high-quality video support for all employees within the organization. You get a secure video platform that is conducive to remote collaboration and private meetings between clients. If you’ve already signed up to the cloud ecosystem of Zoho, switching to Zoho meeting for your webinar and online meeting needs may be a great move.

Create Microsoft Outlook events for Cisco Webex Meetings

In addition to video conferencing software, 8×8 offers voice calling, contact center services, chatbot technology and a variety of other cloud communications products to companies across the globe. The company’s products have been implemented in a broad variety of use cases and have been adopted by organizations in healthcare, education, finance, retail and other sectors. Virtual meeting software is an important tool to connect and work with remote teams. These platforms allow you to use video to chat and collaborate, as well as support useful functionality like chat, breakout rooms and screen shares.

A free basic version of the service is useful as a trial run for a service, but today’s leading providers offer such powerful free versions that they may offer enough to smaller workgroups and solo workers. Businesses looking for a decent all-around video conferencing service with an impressive AI-based virtual makeup module will find a solid fit with CyberLink U Meeting. One thing we particularly like about Zoho Meeting is that it does not lock any features behind premium packages. Every paid version of the service comes with email scheduling, meeting recordings, dial-in numbers and more. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services.

Best free video conference software

However, when using it as a standalone solution, you may find you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere. StarLeaf is outfitted with its own API, which makes it possible to customize its conferencing. The company provides an extensive range of upgrades and integrations including Slack and Skype for Business, and it comes with a complimentary https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ app for Android, iOS and Windows users. Email may be quick and easy but nothing beats the power of face-to-face meetings. In fact, meeting face to face is 34 times more successful than email communication. Video meetings, at this point, should just be called “meetings”—it’s the in-person meetings that are the exception now.
Starting and sharing a link couldn’t be much easier, and in our tests, no one had trouble joining. There’s support for up to 100 people, a prominent record button, a chat function, and screen sharing. You’re probably already paying for it because Teams comes bundled with basically every version of Microsoft Office. If you want a team chat app that also offers high-quality video conferencing, Teams is worth checking out. Google’s broad suite of connectivity products includes Google Meet, the company’s video conferencing product designed mainly for use by companies and enterprises.

Having enjoyed a recent rebrand, Google Meet aims to provide a first-class conferencing service. The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey. To get the best possible experience please use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to view this website. You can hardly go wrong with AnyMeeting, which is why it’s earned our Editors’ Choice nod for several years running. The one caveat might be that it lacks certain webinar-oriented features, such as breakout rooms.

U Meeting

Therefore, by choosing Webex, you won’t have to worry about time limits for your next online meeting. In addition to some novel image-enhancement tech, U Meeting offers a solid video calling platform. It comes with all of the call controls and standard encryption of your meetings, too. Its UI is a bit plain-looking compared to other services we looked at, but it’s still very clean and functional.

This solution is compatible with Android and iOS devices and has a relatively straightforward user interface, even for first-time users. EzTalks Meetings is a solid web application for video conferencing in healthcare, community and education. However, with less distribution and adoption as Zoom, you may find less partners familiar with the tool. Zoom is the ideal web meeting software for users who want to simply and effectively connect with customers and clients remotely. It also has Chrome and Linux OS support for increased flexibility and secure socket layer (SSL) encryption to guarantee secure communications.
If you need more time, Google Meet offers a bit more time with a limit of 60 minutes. We also looked at the affordability of its lowest and highest price tiers and the number of features that were available with each higher-priced plan. Companies that offer upfront pricing for all of their pricing tiers received higher ratings here than those that require potential users to contact the provider for a custom quote. However, what sets U Meeting apart is that each paid version of service comes with the company’s PerfectCam, a “virtual makeup” add-on that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve your appearance. It’s a unique and impressive feature that could be a good fit for those who want to look their best during meetings.
So, if your priorities are solid support and a near-unlimited capacity for growth, Webex could be the ideal choice. A noisy conference room is going to turn into a distracting meeting experience. For sound management, installing acoustic panels can enhance sound quality, eliminate echo and maximize comfort. Plus, the panels can be designed with creative visuals that amplify your brand or enhance the aesthetic appeal of your meeting space.

Google Meet, formerly Google Hangouts, is an integrated part of Google’s G Suite productivity software. Customers can integrate Google Meet with the full range of Google products, including Gmail and Google Calendar. With Google Calendar, you can automatically create a Google Meet link and call-in number. With a 14-day free trial, you can see the ease and convenience of the features first-hand. It integrates with Office applications like Word and SharePoint, and its design and infrastructure make it exceptionally interactive.

Video conferencing has been around for years, but it skyrocketed in popularity as school and work shifted into the home during the 2020 pandemic. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. We’ve also tested each service’s prominent features, but it’s up to you to decide which ones you need most. Some services offer teleconferencing with both dial-in numbers (local or toll-free) and VoIP calling, while others provide just one or the other. At first glance, it can seem challenging to choose which video conferencing service is right for your organization, because most offer the same basic features.

Instead, the site generates a unique room URL, which you share with your team. The only features Talky has are locked rooms and screen sharing, which should be a relief to less technologically-savvy team members. Just keep in mind that Talky only allows for up to six people per room, making it an ideal choice for small virtual meetings or conference calls. RingCentral offers video conferencing software that makes it possible for users to integrate outside apps like Slack and Google Suite in order to simplify scheduling meetings through external apps.