Virtual meetings fill the vital need for remote teams to communicate and collaborate, and for a long time, Zoom filled this purpose.
It's relatively easy to use and offers good features that enable productive meetings to be held. Overall, Zoom provides high-quality connections for productivity.
Yet, many of the remote teams of tomorrow feel it lacks in some aspects. Many are looking for Zoom alternatives to hold more engaging virtual meetings and build stronger remote cultures.
4 Reasons Why Employee Engagement Matters When Opting For Zoom Alternatives
When members of your team are disconnected from their work, productivity drops. Businesses lose time, sales, and opportunities.
And exhausting virtual meetings can certainly contribute to this disconnect. Staring at a video grid all day just to talk to your teammates makes it harder to keep employees engaged with their work. Communication becomes a chore, feeling tedious and fatiguing instead of energizing and inspiring.
When looking for a Zoom alternative, we highly recommend choosing a tool that will enable people to feel:
Included and heard in meetings
Empowered to contribute ideas
Certain of achievement because meeting goals will be met
Connected to their team and energized by collaboration
In addition to these benefits, building a strong remote culture can empower:
Low Turnover Rate and Reduced Cost of Hiring
Companies save and profit when top talent and productive workers stay engaged. Quality video conference apps ensure everyone on your team can contribute to the conversation.
Robust Company Culture
High-performing Zoom-like platforms provide seamless online interactions. They build strong connections, mimicking those made during real-world, in-person communication.
People who are clear about the same goals and enjoy working together create a thriving company culture with which they can strongly identify.
Effective Collaboration
A strong company culture provides a backdrop for genuine cooperation and effortless sharing of ideas.
The best alternatives to Zoom provide ease of communication (in and out of scheduled meetings) and smooth integration with other productivity tools.
Dynamic Growth
With people willing to work together, there is nowhere for a company to go but up. State-of-the-art features in high-quality Zoom alternatives create engaging virtual environments.
As well-developed software increases productivity and ROI, be on the lookout for these six must-haves when shopping for the best Zoom-like platform.
6 Features Quality Zoom Alternatives Should Include
Reliable HD Video and High-Quality Audio
No one can feel engaged or inspired talking to a blurry face and a tinny voice. People need to feel like they are there in the room. HD video and clear audio are the bees’ knees for successful online conferencing.
Chat Features
Share text messages or react with emojis with everyone or just one specific person in the virtual meeting without disrupting a presentation or talking over someone’s head.
Collaboration Features
For people to easily share their work and concepts, Zoom alternatives should have enough flexibility to allow:
Screensharing
Whiteboard features
Chat options
Note sharing
Calendars
Ease of Use
Anyone, even those you invite outside your company, should be able to quickly join in and navigate their way in-app. The fewer technical issues encountered, the more quality time spent on business matters.
Security
Ease of joining shouldn’t compromise security, though. Even free zoom alternatives in 2022 must have top-notch encryption standards. Never cut corners on security and privacy.
Now that you know what features to consider, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of our top choices for the best alternatives to Zoom.
What is the best alternative to Zoom?
Before we get into the alternatives, let's recap Zoom quick. Because of its extensive audience reach and ease of use, Zoom remains as a quality virtual meeting app.
Here is why:
Zoom
Best Scaled For: Enterprise-level companies
Pros
Has almost all features for all business sizes
HD video up to 1080p, 3 editable whiteboards on the free plan, file sharing, screen sharing, and chat
Integrates with other third-party applications like Zapier, Hive, and Google Workspace
Very scalable
Cons
On mobile, many controls and options are not available as they are on the desktop
It's not very engaging and prone to meeting fatigue
Pricing: So many pricing options under a large category of services
Lowest: Free Plan. 40 minutes, up to 100 participants, 3 whiteboards, chat and file transfers
Highest: Enterprise Plan. Contact sales for pricing.
There are still a lot of features that make it great, but other virtual meeting apps have caught on fast. Today, there are better Zoom alternatives.
Luckily, you can get started with several of the top-rated Zoom alternatives for free, making it easy to try new tools before bringing introducing them to your full team.
Here's our list:
Our five choices have all the above features that merit their “high-quality” rating. We have ranked them (in no particular order) according to what they function best at.
Google Meet
Best Web-Based Video-Calling Service For Small Groups
Unlike Zoom, there’s no need to download and install Google Meet to connect with anyone. Just sign in with your Google account on the Google Meet website to create your meeting. Share the URL with a small team who also signs in for an instant meeting. Straightforward yet rife with powerful features, Meet is excellent for small to large virtual conferences.
Pricing:
Lowest: Free Plan - 60 minutes max. for 3+ participants; max. 100 attendees.
Highest: Google Workspace Enterprise - Contact Sales for pricing. Includes up to 500 participants for Google Meet, unlimited Google Drive storage, and 24/7 multi-language support with a designated Google advisor.
Pros
Free for a maximum of 60 minutes, 20 minutes more than Zoom’s time limit.
No need to download additional apps or plug-ins
Available: HD video up to 720p, file sharing, screen sharing, chat
Better encryption and security than Zoom
Offers the full range of controls on both desktop and mobile
Deep, seamless integration with other Google apps
Cons
Cannot serve over 100 participants for its Business Starter Plan
Cannot help those without Google accounts
No whiteboard
No support for HD 1080p
Not much video customization allowed
Gather
Best Virtual Meeting App for Remote Team-Building and Company-Culture Creation
Also the Best Fun Alternative to Zoom
In the world of virtual meeting apps, Gather brings an innovative, out-of-the-box concept to an otherwise stale landscape of similarly formatted online meeting platforms. In fact, Gather adds a totally different dimension to “going to the office.”
This unique video conferencing platform makes it feel like you are actually connecting with co-workers, albeit through your avatar in a virtually designed office space.
In fact, you don't even need to schedule a meeting with your workmates. You can walk right over to them, start talking, and show them your work -- just like you would do in a real office.
Gather is so engaging that you can even interact with objects. Each employee can decorate their own desk, offering a new way to interact with each other. For example, you can leave a gift box on your boss’ desk for them to open and find your pitch deck. Someone in advertising may slide over a folder with an embedded video. Neat, right?
You can hold various-sized meetings in spaces you design, share your screen, scrawl on whiteboards, and move around a shared space together.
Gather provides virtual venues for serious work and fun. It has upped the ante on making meaningful connections happen online while working towards building the foundations for the impending Metaverse.
Learn how the marketing company Lynton created their Gather virtual office and allowed them to reap the rewards of good employee engagement and strong company culture.
Gather almost shouldn’t even count as a Zoom alternative; t’s beyond Zoom in terms of keeping your remote team engaged.
Pros
Feature-packed - so many options for building and personalizing environments
HD video with the option to switch to SD quality to preserve performance
Whiteboard features for shared drawing and note-taking
Easy screen sharing
Unlimited chat
Best app for team building
Best app for building a company culture even with remote workers
Takes remote work, interaction, and collaboration to the next level
Cons
Not made for over 500 participants
Some controls available on desktop is not accessible on mobile
No recording from the app, but you can use any free online tool to record your Gather meetings
Free Plan - Max 10 users. Includes: customizable maps, unlimited interactive objects, and password-protected access
Paid Plans - All benefits of the Free Plan, up to 500 participants, email guest list, domain-restricted access
Microsoft Teams
Best Zoom Alternative for Heavy Users of Microsoft 365
Suppose you don’t mind being dependent on Microsoft’s 365 ecosystem. In that case, Teams is excellent for integrating smoothly with MS Office products such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and One Note. It also works seamlessly with Microsoft project management software. Teams offers a refreshingly clean user interface and ample cloud storage.
Pros
Option for live captions for added clarity
Available: HD video up to 1080p, whiteboard with templates, screen sharing, file sharing, and chat
Up to 300 participants for meetings
Generous cloud storage for free plan users
Cons
Not easy for external participants to join a meeting. They need to download the app and attend the meeting with a phone or tablet only. To participate via browser, they need Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
Pricing:
Free Plan includes:
Unlimited 1:1 meetings, max. of 30 hours
Endless group meetings, max. of 60 minutes
Up to 100 attendees in a meeting
5GB of cloud storage per user
File sharing, surveys, tasks
Data encrypted meetings, calls, files, and chats
Highest: MS 365 Business Standard - $10/user/month (annual subscription):
Unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours
up to 300 participants
1 TB cloud storage per user
Recordings with transcripts
Premium desktop version and web and mobile versions of Office apps
Business-class email
Webinar hosting
Attendee registration and reporting tools
Customer appointment management
24/7 phone and web support
Hopin
Best Virtual Conference Platform for Events
Hopin is an event-focused virtual conference platform. Hopin provides a way for event organizers to create their own events with the help of themes and templates. Speakers can share their presentations online with an audience. Attendees get the opportunity to learn from others who have similar interests and build connections in the process.
Pros
Offers promotional tools for event-marketing
Offers an event-registration suite with many handy tools like form builders and attendee management
Provides analytics of ticket sales, attendance, etc.
Handles ticketing in any currency
Cons
Commissions on tickets up to 15% on the free plan
No event recordings for the free plan
Pricing:
Lowest: Free Plan includes:
1 admin. seat
Max 100 participants per event
Max of 2 hours per event
Unlimited events
Email/chat support
Virtual venue with stage, sessions, networking, and expo areas
Customizable registration
Basic analytics
Highest: Advanced Plan - Contact sales for pricing:
10 admin seats
Customizable event interface and length
Full-service packages with dedicated customer support, training, and onboarding
Your event can be fully customized according to your needs
Dialpad
Best Zoom-Like Platform with AI Transcription
If you often need your meetings transcribed, Dialpad can do it for you. Its AI provides real-time transcription and captions during the event, tracks actionable items, and detects and monitors people’s moods. Post-call, it delivers meeting highlights in summary.
Pros
HD video and crisp audio
Screensharing capability
Live-meeting and post-meeting transcriptions and summaries by AI
Multiple video layouts like Spotlight, Screen share, Grid, and Filmstrip
Chat and file sharing capabilities
Polished user interface
Integration with Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce
Cons
Offers the lowest limit on the number of participants on its Free Plan than any online meeting platforms reviewed here
No whiteboards
Pricing:
Free Plan includes:
Maximum of 10 participants
Total time limit of 45 minutes
Join instantly on desktop or mobile through. No need for downloads
Virtual backgrounds
Unlimited audio recordings
Business Plan: Standard - $15/user/month (billed annually)
All in the free plan
Maximum 150 participants
Maximum time of 5 hours
AI meeting transcriptions
Automated action item capture
Post-meeting summaries
Unlimited video meetings
Unlimited video recordings
Integration with Google Workspace & Microsoft 365
24/7 web and chat support
Bottom Line: Choose a Zoom alternative that helps you raise employee engagement
All five Zoom alternatives on the list have quality features for boosting employee engagement and productivity. Meet, Gather, Team, Hopin, and Dialpad all have free plans with robust features, making them no-brainers for start-ups and small businesses.
But if you want an app that gives you and your team an added layer for building meaningful connections, Gather would be the hands-down choice.
Gather provides exciting ways of collaboration with fun, customizable virtual environments, avatars, and objects. Every team member can feel more invested in their work through these unique concepts. An engaged group is more inclined to foster their own culture. This is how Gather helps you build a strong team.
With Gather, you get more than just connections. You build a culture.