After being stuck in lockdown, people had to find alternative ways to speak to colleagues, family and friends. Luckily, video conferencing software and apps are accessible and affordable, in some cases free, helping people work from home and speak with loved ones during the current pandemic. By video conferencing, businesses have been able to continue to operate from home whilst speaking to family and friends straight after. For this reason, TechRound has gathered the best video conferencing software and apps for you to have a look at!
1. Whereby
- Free, Business Plan and Pro Version
- Screen sharing
- Secure conversations
- Join with a click: no download, pin or registration for guests needed
Free
The ‘Free’ plan is used by 1 user where the user can speak to 4 participants in total from either their desktop or mobile. This video conferencing allows the user to speak in a secure conversation, with the option to screen share, lock the room and integrate rooms.
Business Plan: $59.99 per month
The ‘Business’ plan can be used by small and medium sizes teams, where there are multiple users and admins. This plan allows for up to 10 meeting rooms on a mobile or desktop, allowing up to 50 participants onto the video call. The rooms can be branded and recorded if wanted. Additionally, the room is secure with features to lock and integrate rooms.
Pro Version: $9.99 per month
The ‘Pro Version’ plan is for professional individual use. This one user can use up to 3 meeting rooms with 12 different participants from a mobile or desktop, with the option to pay an additional $5 to access the screen record feature. Individuals are able to lock and integrate rooms, whilst having a secure conversation.
2. Zoho Meeting
- 14 day free trial
- Record calls
- Meetings and Webinars
After a 14-day trial, Zoho Meeting gives you the chance to join by paying a monthly fee for either meetings or webinars, embracing remote working and speaking to family and friends. For a meeting it is £6.30 per month where videos can host up to 100 participants and allows you to have the option to store 10 recordings. Additionally, there are different options for webinar payments depending on how many people will be attending will all allowing for storage of 25 recordings. These options include:
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- £12 per month for 25 attendees
- £18.30 per month for 50 attendees
- £24.80 per month for 100 attendees
- £50 per month for 250 attendees
All meetings and webinars include these features:
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- Encrypted video meetings
- Access to meetings through a link or a dial-in via web browsers, desktop clients or mobile apps
- Screen sharing
- Ability to record calls
- Secure online meeting platform and webinar solution
- Record meetings and store them on the cloud
- Replay and share recordings with members who could not make the meeting
- Download the recording for offline use
- Chat
- Lock meetings
- Engage with people in the meeting, for example launching audience polls
3. Cisco Webex
- Free and Paid options
- Up to 100 participants on the call
- Ability to show up to 25 video participants in one grid view
Cisco Webex has three different plans to pick from as well as different features within each plan:
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- Free: with up to 100 participants, Cisco Webex offers calls which last up to 50 minutes, with unlimited HD video meetings. Users can share their screen, lock the room, raise hand button to show someone has a question and use an interactive whiteboard. Additionally, users can share files and documents.
- Starter – £12.50 per month: This plan allows videos to hold up to 100 participants per meeting, with unlimited time. Moreover, the plan allows for the meeting to be recorded and transcribed, offering 5GB cloud storage, whiteboard sharing, calendar integrations, assign alternate hosts, as well as encrypted cloud recordings.
- Plus – £16.50 per month: As well as all the features in the starter pack, this pack also includes the option to schedule meetings and customise personal room links.
- Business – £25 per month: With up to 200 participants being able to join a call, people calling for business are able to interact with one another through video or audio chat with the option to have up to 10 GB of cloud storage.
4. Blue Jeans
- Join meetings in 6 seconds
- Record meetings
- Free, Standard and Pro Plans
With HD video, Blue Jeans allows users to record, screen share, use polling, ask questions and find out the answers and chat. With many features on the free plan, there is also an option to pay for the Standard (£12.49 per month) or Pro (£17.49 per month) Plan. The Standard Plan includes the following features:
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- Allows for up to 50 participants
- Unlimited 1:1 meetings
- Unlimited time
- Up to 5 hours of recording
- Gallery viewing
- Video pinning
- Personal meeting ID
- White boarding
- Breakout sessions
- Safe driving mode
- Lock meetings
- Remove participants
The Pro Plan includes all the above features as well as increasing the participant size to up to 75 participants with 25 hours of meeting record available, as well as command center analytics.
5. Microsoft Teams
- Paid and Free options
- Screen Sharing
- Ability to record meetings
Free
Key features:
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- Unlimited chat
- Online meetings & video calling
- Team (10GB) and personal (2GB) file storage
- Up to 500K users – communicate with large / small teams
- Screen sharing
- File sharing
- Secure video calling
- Schedule meetings
Microsoft 365 Business Basic: £3.80 per user/month
Key features:
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- Online audio and video calls
- Screen sharing
- Scheduled meetings
- Record meetings
- Host online and video conferencing meetings for up to 250 people
- 300 maximum number of users
- Up to 500K users – communicate with large / small teams
- Unlimited chat
- Personal file store and sharing with OneDrive (1 TB per users)
- File attachments in chat (1 TB per user)
- File sharing within teams and channels (1 TB per organization plus 10 GB per license)
- Get help anytime from Microsoft
- Five-layer security and proactive monitoring
- Easy to set up
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: £9.40 per user/month
Key features:
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- Online audio and video calls
- Screen sharing
- Scheduled meetings
- Meeting recordings
- Host online and video conferencing meetings for up to 250 people
- 300 maximum number of users
- Unlimited chat
- File sharing within teams and channels (1 TB per organization plus 10 GB per license)
- Personal file store and sharing with OneDrive (1 TB per user)
- Create a hub for teamwork with Microsoft Teams
- Use one license to cover fully installed, Office apps on five mobile devices, five tablets, and five PCs or Macs per user
- Get help anytime with around-the-clock phone and web support from Microsoft
- Five-layer security & proactive monitoring
- Easy to set up
Office 365 E3:£17.60 per user/month
Key features:
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- Install on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets, and five phones per user
- Protect information with message encryption, rights management, and data loss prevention for email and files
- 100 GB of business-class email and calendaring
- one drive for business : access to 1-5+ TB of personal cloud storage from anywhere, on any device
- Easily share documents with others inside and outside your organization and control who can see and edit each file
- Information protection
- Skype for business online
- Microsoft to do list
- Host online events for up to 10,000
- 500 maximum number of users
- Unlimited file attachment in chat
- Unlimited personal cloud storage
6. Discord
- Free
- No message or member limit
- Encrypted chat, messaging and video calls
Discord is free for all and is used for its chat and video function. You can add friends to video call to either catch up or play games together, or for any occasion. Users are able to share their screen, go live, whilst enjoying the unlimited option of messaging and no member limit. By building a profile, users have an option to connect accounts as well as upgrade to Discord Nitro. Discord Nitro is $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, offering 100MB file uploads for high-quality file sharing, high-resolution video, screen share and live streaming, as well as the option to upgrade emojis.
7. Meet Fox
- One click access: no downloads, pin or plug ins
- Schedule calls
- Join from any device
With MeetFox there are different individual or business plans. The Individual plans include:
Starter: Free
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- 3 meetings per month
- Scheduling
- Video calls
- Payments
- Support 7 days a week
Basic: $11
-
- 20 meetings per month
- Scheduling
- Video calls
- Payments
- Support 7 days a week
Pro: $29
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- Unlimited meetings
- Scheduling
- Video calls
- Payments
- Support 7 days a week
The Business plans includes the same features as the individual plan but the pricing is different, with the Basic plan coming to $10 and the Pro plan coming to $27. Users are then able to add add-ons such as increasing the number of participants, record meetings and customise the domain. Altogether, users are able to book and host meetings with a single click from any device. Businesses are able to share files, chat as well as invoice clients and charge clients per meeting or minute.
8. Google Meet
- Free for all
- Unlimited meeting time
- Secure meetings: admit or deny entry to a meeting, mute or remove participants
Google Meet has come to everyone’s rescue during this unusual time offering free unlimited meetings until the end of September 2020. With high quality video and audio, Google Meet allows users to stay connected with up to 100 participants with the option to access different features. These include low-light mode on mobile devices, screen sharing, file sharing on chat, free call ins, document, image and file share. Google Meet allows you to see 16 call participants at once and is integrated with G Suite.
9. Go To Meeting
- 14 day free trial
- HD video
- Unlimited meetings
Go To Meeting allows for up to 150 participants on the entry plan and can be accessed on Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, PC and web browsers. Users can instantly join, host and manage meetings whether they are audio, video or web. Meetings can be created in minutes, and can be recorded on the cloud, locked, screen’s can be shared, and there is an option to chat whilst using HD video. With unlimited minutes, meetings and recordings, calendars can be integrated, drawing can be shown whilst screen sharing becoming a virtual whiteboards. Users can access these meetings with a personalised meeting room link.
Altogether, there are three different plans to choose. The first is the Professional plan which is £9.50 per month allowing for 150 participants, the second is the Business plan which is £12.67 per month allowing for 250 participants and the third is enterprise which can hold up to 3,000 participants.
10. Slack
- Go from typing in the chat to video calling with a click of a button
- Free as well as a paid option
- Chat as well as video or audio call option
Slack is used by many around the world whether it is for business or personal use. People can join or make a call easily, join and leave calls and chats as needed, share their screen or simply chat on different chats created. Through audio or video calling, users are able to listen from their phone through the Slack app or join video calls from your computer as well as drag and drop PDFs, images, videos and other files directly into Slack. Data is kept securely on Slack and users have the option to go further by either paying £5.25 per month on the Standard plan which is suggested for small to medium sized business (calls up to 15 teammates) or paying £9.75 per month for the Plus plan which is suggested for larger businesses.
Video Conferencing
During the pandemic, businesses have embraced video conferencing apps and softwares, and are likely to continue to embrace them as people transition back into their original work spaces. These apps will ensure good quality communications, whether you choose to use a free software such as Google Meet or a paid option such as Whereby, there are many ways to communicate during this unusual time.