While the giant video communication platform does offer a generous free plan (i.e., hosts up to 100 participants and unlimited group meetings for 40 minutes), its quality is a constant cause of worry.

Videos are pixelated and freeze at times, making it unsuitable for professional meetings. The audio quality is also unpredictable. Often, it’s challenging to fix these pesky audio issues despite changing the settings and reinstalling the program.

Best Zoom alternatives

1. Best for hybrid-remote teams: Around

Source: YouTube

Around is a reimagined video collaboration platform for hybrid-remote teams to “create, collaborate, and celebrate together.”

Whether your team is editing documents in a co-working space, reviewing codes in a hotel suite (we see you’re a Sumo-ling of refined taste!), or brainstorming in a startup house, this platform’s proprietary tech and team-friendly features will help you meet more efficiently and get more work done.

Best features:

Echo Prevention: Collaborate effectively with your team in the same space on your laptop with multiple mics and speakers enabled in the same room, thanks to Around’s unique signal processing engine
Pricing: Excellent free plan with access to unlimited 1:1 meetings without time limits, integrations with Slack and Google Calendar, and AI noise suppression
User interface: Insanely unique and sleek interface
Games: Built-in team-centric features, including bonding games like Boom Party and Curve Fever and the Vibes feature that allows you to add music to your co-working sessions

Limitations:

Meetings are capped at 50 participants max, including paid plans
No recording tool, but it’s in the works according to the website

Free trial: No

Pricing:

Free for group meetings for up to 45 minutes
Pro: $8.97/month with everything in free plan + zero time limit in meetings and more
Business: $15.97/month with everything in Pro + priority support and more

2. Best for team communication: Slack

Source: Slack

Slack is best known for its instant messaging, but did you know it also offers multiple audio and video solutions?

Start live audio conversations for your rapid brainstorming sessions on Huddles, or record your screen to explain how your product works when onboarding new employees.

Slack’s video conferencing features are pretty rudimentary compared to its competitors in this category. But hey, sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If all you need is a simple business chat solution, go for it! It definitely nails the basics.

Best features:

Huddles: Start live audio conversations within a DM, channel, or group message. You can also share your screen, draw on it, and enable live captioning.
Recorder: Create audio and group video clips with screen sharing via Slack’s lightweight recorder.
Integration: Integrate Slack with your tech stack to streamline your workflow. Currently, there are over 2,400 integrations available.

Limitations:

Huddles are limited to 50 participants
Can get expensive fast, largely due to the cost-per-user model
Inconsistent connectivity in Huddles (e.g., may need to rejoin calls several times)

Free trial: No

Pricing:

Free for 10K of your team’s most recent messages
Pro: $8/person per month for unlimited messages, apps, and more
Business+: $15/person per month with everything in Pro and more
Enterprise Grid: Custom

3. Best for webinars: LiveWebinar

LiveWebinar is a cloud-based, easy-to-customize webinar hosting platform tailored to meet the needs of individuals and businesses of every size. With its wide range of integrations and customization options, you can easily set up, manage and run all types of webinars, virtual events, conferences, and online meetings–all in one tool.

Whether you want to broadcast an HD-quality webinar or live stream on social media, LiveWebinar lets you share content with your audience in an engaging way thanks to many powerful interactive features.

Best features:

All-in-one webinar tool: Set up, manage, run, and promote virtual events in one place. No need to install or download anything.
Interactive features: Choose from a wide set of features that boost interactivity, such as breakout rooms, classroom mode, polls & quizzes, translated chat, and website presenter.
Custom templates: Create customized pages and emails to promote your events with LiveWebinar’s ready-to-use templates.
Integrations: Integrate seamlessly with popular marketing and CRM tools to easily manage your events. The platform also offers an API with custom integrations and advanced functionality.
Paid webinars: Monetize virtual events and increase sales by creating tickets for your audience.

Limitations:

The free plan is only available for up to 5 attendees and has a 45-minute limitation per meeting.
Deep learning curve due to its wide range of features.

Free trial: No, but a free plan is available.

Pricing:

Pro: $17.99/month for paid features such as branding tool, ads banner, paid webinars, page templates, and more. You can also host up to 100 attendees
Business: $143.97/month with everything in Pro, for up to 500 attendees or more with add-ons
Business Plus: $275/month to host up to 1000 attendees or more with add-ons

For a limited time, you can get access to LiveWebinar’s paid features starting from a $99 one-time payment at AppSumo.

4. Ideal for Microsoft users: Microsoft Teams

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Teams’ video conferencing solution is a no-brainer if you’re looking to invest in a unified communication and collaboration platform.

Part of the Office 365 plans, you’re not just getting an online meeting solution—you can also send emails, manage apps, and store important files, all in one place.

Best features:

Pricing: With one of the most generous free plans in the market, you can host up to 100 participants in each meeting
Workflow: Since Microsoft Teams is part of the Microsoft ecosystem, you have every tool in your fingertips
To Do Tasks: Create tasks from messages in personal chats and team conversations

Limitations:

Availability of mobile apps may depend on country or region
Unable to downgrade to free plan after you upgrade, unless you use a different email address for the admin and users
Performance can run slow at times (e.g., opening a PDF file in Teams)
User-unfriendly interface looks bloated compared to competing tools

Free trial: 30 days

Pricing:

Microsoft Teams (free) for unlimited group meetings for up to 60 minutes
Microsoft Teams Essentials: $4/user per month for unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours
Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6/user per month with everything in Essentials + recordings with transcripts and more
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50/user per month with everything in Business Basic + webinar hosting and more

5. Best for unified communications: Nextiva

Source: Nextiva

Nextiva is an all-in-one tool to help you communicate with everyone—from team members to business partners to customers.

Unify your video and audio conferencing, team messaging, email, file sharing, and other internal and external communications all in the Nextiva app. This is a great solution for businesses with employees in the office, remote, or on the go.

Best features:

Live streaming and webinars: Set up, manage, and run online events with Nextiva’s built-in live streaming capabilities
All-in-one business communications provider: Communicate with customers on their favorite channels, collaborate with teams, and automate repetitive communication tasks (e.g., sending welcome messages to customers) in one place

Limitations:

No free plan
Pricey, though it is cheaper for bigger teams. Case in point: it costs $29.95/user monthly for a five-person team, but $24.95/user monthly for a 100+ employee team.
Android app isn’t as polished as desktop app (e.g., updates cause app to crash, app keeps beeping when a call is on)

Free trial: 7 days

Pricing*:

Essential: $29.95/user per month for unlimited voice & video calling
Professional: $33.95/user per month with everything in Essential + unlimited conference calls capped at 40 participants, and more
Enterprise: $43.95/user per month with everything in Professional + unlimited participants on voice and video calls, and more

*Pricing is based on a five-person team

6. Best for casual video calls: Skype

Source: Skype

Skype probably doesn’t come to mind when we think of professional online meetings. But among friends and family, it’s still very much a top performer and one of the OGs. You can get on a video call one-on-one or up to 100 people for free.

Best features:

Zoom in: Zoom in with your mouse or the screen touchpad to view small details—no keyboard necessary
User interface: Improved user interface means you can start calls, access search, view galley, and add contacts without multiple steps
Universal Translator: Communicate with real-time translation in 42 different languages

Limitations:

Frequent bugs and slow performance (e.g., unable to connect to calls), which makes it unsuitable for professional calls

Free trial: 30 days (for international calls)

Pricing:

Free for online calls
Credits for mobiles and landlines: $5, $10, $25
United States: $2.99/month for < 2000 minutes
India: $7.99/month for 800 minutes
Other North American countries: $6.99/month for < 2000 minutes

7. Perfect for enterprises: Webex

Source: Webex

The leading video meeting platform for Fortune 500 companies, Webex by Cisco integrates your meetings, messaging, and contact center on one platform.

And it looks like the team has been hard at work and adding new features!

Stellar improvements include more integrations (e.g., with InVision and CLEAR Health Pass) and enterprise-ready event experiences.

Best features:

Webex Webinars: Manage and run multiple events from one place with support for registration, ticketing, networking, and a nifty CLEAR Health Pass integration that lets attendees upload proof of vaccination, negative COVID-19 tests, and complete health surveys
Webex Control Hub: Analyze KPIs and identify the culprit behind call quality issues with access to Webex’s troubleshooting tool and detailed call history view

Limitations:

Steep learning curve since Webex is a rabbit hole of features

Free trial: No

Pricing:

Webex Suite – Basic: Free for 50 minutes + 100 users
Meet Plan: $15 license/month for 24 hours + 200 users
Call Plan: $17 license/month for 50 minutes + 100 users
Webex Suite – Business (Meet + Call Plan): $25 license/month for 24 hours + 200 users
Enterprise: Custom for 24 hours

8. Best for large meetings: GoToMeeting

Source: YouTube

Want to “power up” your video meetings experience? And by “power up,” we mean connecting with your co-workers from your TV.

GoToMeeting’s integration with Facebook Portal TV makes it ideal for an immersive video conferencing experience. Plus, you never have to worry about your audio echoing. This smart video calling tool even automatically pans and zooms to keep you in frame.

Other fantastic features include Note Taking and Slides to PDF.

Best features:

Integration with Facebook Portal TV: Leverage AI-powered Smart Camera and Smart Sounds to deliver an immersive video conferencing experience
Slides to PDF: Capture your presentation slides and automatically arrange them chronologically in a shareable PDF
Smart Assistant: Automatically detect action items and highlights in meetings
Note Taking: Take notes directly and automatically share them after meetings end

Limitations:

No free plan
Extensive features need some time to get used to

Free trial: 14 days

Pricing:

Professional: $14/organizer per month for 150 participants
Business: $19/organizer per month for 250 participants
Enterprise: Custom for up to 3,000 participants

9. Ideal for GSuite users: Google Meet

If only we could remove our noisy background in video calls… Oh wait, we can with Google Meet (formerly Hangouts Meet)!

Recent updates for premium plans include moving participants automatically from Breakout rooms, hosting meetings with up to 500 participants, and translated captions.

Best features:

Pricing: Google Meet offers unlimited meetings for free users

Workflow: Since Google Meet is part of the Google ecosystem, you can easily streamline your workflow (e.g., hover to recipient’s thumbnail in Gmail to start a video call immediately)
Improvements: Frequent updates its tool
Breakout rooms: Automatically move every participant from Breakout rooms to main room after a 30-second time limit
Translated captions: Translate spoken English to French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish (note: this feature is only available in specific plans)

Limitations:

Poor audio quality when multiple participants talk during a call

Free trial: 14 days

Pricing:

Free: Comes with 1-hour of group meeting length + 100 participants
Google Workspace Individual: $7.99/month with 24-hours of group meeting length + 100 participants
Google Workspace Enterprise: Custom with 24-hours of group meeting length + 500 participants

10. Best for meeting productivity: BlueJeans

Source: BlueJeans

BlueJeans by Verizon may not ring a bell for some of us, but it has come a long way since its launch in 2009.

Users applaud the high-quality audio and video recording (thanks to its Dolby Voice engineered tech) and user-friendly interface.

Other excellent features include Meeting Highlights and Meeting Summaries.

Best features:

Security: Enterprise-grade security allows users to avoid sharing sensitive content (with individual app share), quickly remove a participant with a click of a button, disable recording, and more
Smart Meetings: Tag key takeaways; assign action items and improve your discussion points with priority rankings, real-time screen capture, automated transcripts, and crowd-sourced commentary.
Meeting Summaries: Access meeting summaries, watch recaps in minutes, and share them with your team to reinforce the discussion points

Limitations:

No free plan
Need to purchase separate plan to unlock webinars and events

Free trial: 14 days

Pricing:

Standard: $9.99/host per month with up to 100 participants
Pro: $13.99/host per month with up to 150 participants + everything in Standard and more
Enterprise: $16.66/host per month with up to 200 participants + everything in Pro and more
Enterprise Plus: Custom + everything in Enterprise, advanced support, and more

Which Zoom alternative is right for you?

There’s no one-size-fits-all video communication solution.

Review your goals, budget, and the number of participants in your online meetings. That should help you pinpoint your ideal tool.

If you want to reduce business costs, opt for our current lifetime deals, webMOBI and Livapp. Or continue exploring your options on AppSumo.

FAQs

1. What is the best alternative to Zoom?

As always, you’re the judge of that! Review what we’ve covered so far in this list and give them a whirl in the free plans and trials.

2. What is a free alternative to Zoom?

Slack, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Webex, Google Meet, and webMOBI.

3. What is a safer alternative to Zoom?

BlueJeans. The underrated tool offers a ton of enterprise-grade security features that give you peace of mind.

4. Is Google Meet better than Zoom?

Yes… and no. Google Meet is best for GSuite users as every tool is within your fingertips.

5. Is Microsoft Teams better than Zoom?

Depends. If you’re already using Microsoft’s products, then it’s a no-brainer to use Teams to streamline your workflow.