The best virtual meeting app is the one that helps your team work the way you want. If you're on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Meet and Teams are the easy choice, but easy isn't always the best. If you need enterprise scale, Zoom has you covered, but it can feel a little formal for everyday use. If you're a remote team that wants to feel like a team (not just meet), that's exactly what Gather is for.
Quick Overview
App | Best for | Skip it if |
|---|---|---|
Google Meet | The easy choice for Google Workspace teams | You need webinars, or want more than a place to hold calls |
Zoom | Large meetings, webinars and enterprise rollouts | You want something less formal for everyday team chats |
Microsoft Teams | The easy choice if you're all-in on Microsoft 365 | You're not a Microsoft shop, or you want more than meetings |
Webex | Security-first and regulated organizations | You want something lightweight |
Slack Huddles | Quick audio chats inside Slack | You need scheduled, structured meetings |
Gather | Remote teams who want culture, not just calls | You mainly host large external webinars |
Google Meet
The easy choice for Google teams
Google Meet is the quickest way to get a team on a call. If your company already uses Google Workspace, it's already there, and guests can join from a link without installing anything. It's the easy choice, but easy and best aren't always the same thing.
Best for: small and mid-sized teams, Google Workspace companies, and anyone who wants video calls without another bill
Free plan: group calls run up to 60 minutes, with up to 100 participants
Price: included with Google Workspace, from 7 per user per month on an annual plan ($ 8.40 billed monthly). Paid plans also extend group calls beyond 60 minutes.
What stands out: it sits inside Calendar and Gmail, so scheduling takes a click, and Google's AI meeting assistance is a nice addition
The trade-off: its best features depend on Google Calendar, Gmail, and Drive, so it's less useful if your team doesn't use them. It's also built to host meetings, not to help a team feel like a team
Zoom
The most enterprise-ready
Zoom is still the default for big, formal, and external-facing meetings. It's the tool people reach for when the guest list is long, the stakes are high, or the meeting is really a webinar. For an everyday team check-in, it can feel a little formal.
Best for: large organizations, client-facing calls, webinars and events, and hybrid setups with meeting-room hardware
Free plan: group calls cap at 40 minutes, with up to 100 participants
Price: Zoom Workplace Pro is $15.99 per user per month billed monthly, with a lower rate on annual billing. It extends group meetings to 30 hours and includes Zoom's AI Companion.
What stands out: reliability at scale, a deep feature set, and AI meeting summaries
The trade-off: it's usually the priciest standalone option, and the free 40-minute cap shows up fast. It's also built around scheduled calls, so quick "got a sec?" moments still turn into another link.
Microsoft Teams
The easy choice for Microsoft organizations
If your company runs on Microsoft 365, Teams is the path of least resistance. Meetings, chat, files, and calendar already live in the same place, and your IT team already knows how to manage it. It's the easy choice, though not always the best one for helping a team feel connected.
Best for: organizations on Microsoft 365, schools and universities, and IT-managed environments
Free plan: group calls run up to 60 minutes, with up to 100 participants
Price: Teams Essentials starts at $4 per user per month, billed annually. Teams is also included in Microsoft 365 business plans.
What stands out: deep Microsoft integration. Its Copilot AI features are an add-on.
The trade-off: it has a lot of features and settings that small teams may not need, and its biggest advantages depend on using other Microsoft 365 apps.
Webex
The best for security-first organizations
Cisco's Webex is built for organizations where security, compliance, and call quality come before everything else. You won't see it in many startup stacks, and that's by design.
Best for: regulated industries, government, large enterprises, and teams with strict IT requirements
Free plan: group calls cap at 40 minutes, similar to Zoom
Price: Webex Meet starts at $12 per user per month, billed annually.
What stands out: enterprise-grade security and admin controls, and meeting-room hardware for hybrid offices
The trade-off: it's more than most small remote teams need, and it doesn't do much for team culture
Slack Huddles
The best for quick chats inside Slack
Slack Huddles turn a conversation that's already happening in Slack into a quick audio call, with no invite and no link. It's a good fit for fast questions between people who are already in the same channel.
Best for: teams already living in Slack who want a fast way to talk something through
Price: the free plan only supports one-on-one huddles. Group huddles require a paid Slack plan, starting at 7.25 per user per month billed annually (8.75 billed monthly).
What stands out: it's built into the chat tool, so starting a huddle takes a click
The trade-off: it's designed for quick, informal chats, not structured meetings. It also doesn't give a team a shared space to feel each other's presence.
Gather
The most engaging meeting platform for remote teams
Gather is a virtual workspace that feels refreshingly human. Instead of another link, you get a shared office where your team can see who's free, wave someone over, and start talking in seconds.
Zoom, Meet, and Teams give you a link for each meeting. Gather gives you one place for all of it: scheduled meetings, spontaneous conversations, and chat. Think of the quick question, the "got a sec?", the spontaneous chat that keeps work moving and keeps people connected.
Best for: remote-first and distributed teams who want to build culture, not just hold meetings
What stands out: walk up and talk, with no links or scheduling. See who's free or focused at a glance. Be present without being on camera: you're muted by default and hear public conversations only when you choose.
Also built in: meetings and chat, AI meeting notes, and a fully customizable office
Price: $12 per member per month billed annually (or $15 billed monthly), with every feature included. You pay for your team, not your guests, and you can try everything free for 30 days first.
The results teams report: an 80% reduction in Slack messages and Google Meet calls, a 70% lift in engagement, and conversations that average under 10 minutes
The trade-off: Gather isn't built for large external webinars or formal client presentations. For those, keep Zoom or Teams around for the occasional big event.
Gather has a 4.8 out of 5 rating on G2 and is trusted by 5,000+ distributed teams. Try everything free for 30 days.
One place for every kind of conversation
Remote teams talk in three ways. Most apps cover one. Gather covers all three.
Kind of conversation | What it looks like | The best meeting apps |
|---|---|---|
Scheduled meetings | Agendas, presentations, client calls, all-hands | Gather, Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, Webex |
Quick conversations | "Got a sec?", fast questions, pairing, decisions | Gather, Slack Huddles |
Presence and culture | Knowing who's around, casual chat, feeling like a team | Gather |
It also changes how many meetings and messages you need. Luke Gregory, CEO at Horaizon, says Slack and Google Chat messages dropped by about 80% once his team started using Gather.
Run a 10-minute meeting audit
Before you pick a tool, look at last week's calendar. For each meeting, ask:
Did this need a presentation or agenda? Keep it as a meeting.
Was it a quick question or decision? Imagine it as a walk-up conversation that only lasts 2 minutes instead of a 30-minute calendar block.
Was it optional coworking, mostly for feeling connected? Imagine if that happened naturally instead of being planned on the calendar.
You may find more meetings in the second and third buckets than you expected.
Which one should you pick?
Find the line that sounds most like your team.
If this sounds like you... | Start with |
|---|---|
"We already use Google Workspace and want the simplest option." | Google Meet |
"We run webinars, big meetings or client calls." | Zoom |
"Our whole company runs on Microsoft 365 and we want the easiest option." | Microsoft Teams |
"Security and compliance come first over everything else" | Webex |
"We just need quick chats between people in Slack." | Slack Huddles |
"We're remote and want to feel like a team." | Gather |
Still unsure? Try Gather with one team for a few weeks and see which meetings disappear.
How to trial a new tool without chaos
A new app only works if people actually use it. A small pilot beats a big announcement.
Start with one team. Pick a group of 5 to 10 people who talk to each other every day.
Set one simple norm. For example: "Meetings, quick questions and chat all happen in Gather."
Run it for two weeks. Long enough for habits to form, short enough to stay low-stakes.
Check in. Ask what felt better, what felt worse, and which meetings disappeared.
Then expand. Add the next team once the first one is comfortable.
Want a head start? Our pilot guide walks through rolling Gather out to a team.
Make remote work feel less remote
Give your team one place for meetings, quick chats and everything in between.
Try Gather free for 30 days. Every feature is included, with no credit card and no setup fees. Create your space, or join a free office tour to see it live first.
