Zoom is one of the most important developments in collaboration, and it’s all thanks to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Now that more individuals recognize that they may be just as productive if they conduct their companies remotely, the use of video conferences for commercial and personal purposes is at an all-time high.
Zoom is a popular video meeting platform with several excellent features, but it may not be the finest solution for your company’s operations. You can’t use Zoom without paying a premium unless you have 36 or fewer participants in a conference that lasts more than 40 minutes.
Zoom also has many security and privacy concerns, highlighted by the frequent reports of uninvited guests joining private zoom calls.
Fortunately, several Zoom alternatives on the market can fulfill your demands, and we’ll look at ten of the greatest free ones in this post.
Best Free Zoom Alternatives
1. RingCentral Meetings
Meetings with friends or family and collaboration with coworkers from your web browser using RingCentral Meetings is a Zoom alternative that doesn’t require you to download any software.
Signing up for RingCentral is straightforward. Provide an email address, a password, and a local phone number to call in on.
While you can use RingCentral from a web browser without much trouble, to get the most out of it, you’ll need to download and install the program on your phone or computer. It’s extremely simple and quick to download the program on your local machine, allowing you to share your screen and give expert participants commands when you need it.
You may change the way your video conference is displayed after you’ve secured a few people for it. You can set it to display in either of two ways: the speaker mode, which presents the current speaker on the biggest video frame, or the gallery view, which shows all participants at once.
Rather than Zoom, which is more limited, RingCentral offers a lot of capabilities that you won’t find in Zoom. A whiteboard allows a presenter to illustrate his ideas using drawings and images.
Users can also collaborate on screens, allowing them to work simultaneously even if they don’t know each other. This may be useful in training sessions where the instructor wants to assist many students at once.
2. Whereby
If you’re searching for an easy-to-use Zoom alternative to meet with someone quickly, Whereby may be the software for you. Type your URL into your browser and invite others to join you in a meeting room that you’ve created yourself.
The only drawback to Whereby is that it may only accommodate up to four individuals at no cost! If you want more individuals to participate in the meeting, you’ll need to upgrade to the PRO plan.
The whole procedure is entirely frictionless, as Where doesn’t demand that guests sign up. Guests can easily join the conversation simply by clicking their invite link, making the entire experience simpler. You may also make the meeting room private, so visitors must “knock” or obtain permission to join in on the discussion.
Not only does Whereby support video, audio, chat, screen sharing, and recording, but it also has floating emojis for fast feedback!
3. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams reminds us that most of a self-service insider area is divided into aisles and containers, where everything you’re looking for is simple to locate. It’s a strong Zoom alternative that’s grown increasingly popular in the last year, especially for remote work collaboration.
If you can put up with Teams’ foundations and restrictions, then the rest of the app—from its many integration choices to its versatility in working with other Microsoft products—should be quite appealing. This is a deal-breaker for non-Microsoft consumers because it is one of the features that makes it enticing to Microsoft customers.
Teams enable organizations to communicate via Microsoft technologies while also providing a variety of functions, making it an excellent choice for businesses looking to collaborate over Microsoft products.
Teams announced the introduction of a new functionality called Microsoft Viva, an employee experience platform that interacts with each individual. This implies that each person will only see materials relevant to their job role.
Although Microsoft Teams is more straightforward to utilize on a Windows10 laptop or desktop, it may be downloaded and used just like Zoom as an Android or Google app.
4. Jitsi Meet
Jitsi Meet is free video-conferencing software that allows you to host up to 50 people in a single gathering. You may invite these individuals by giving them the meeting link over the phone. One of the finest features of Jitsi Meet is that attendees can join your meeting simply by receiving the invitation via text or email.
Participants may collaborate and permit others to access their computers remotely.
As well as that, the software allows you to film your sessions and broadcast live on YouTube. You may also transcribe them.
Jitsi Meet combines with Apple, Google, and Microsoft calendars to provide you with rigorous tracking capabilities for your meetings.
5. Google Meet
Google Meet is a video-conferencing program that caters to corporate users. It’s housed in the Google workspace, but it may also be used independently.
Another advantage is that they don’t need you to download an app to get the most out of them instead of Zoom. You may go to the Google Meet page and start a meeting from there.
Once you’ve set up your workspace, you’ll be able to choose from a few options to begin your meeting. You can send invites via Google Calendar. To do so, all you have to do is include Google Meet in the invitation, and the meeting will be prepared at the specified date and time.
You may schedule a meeting by going to the Google Meet site and choosing to start a meeting right away. This method will need you to make an invite list and send out invites via email. You can also pick this option to set up a meeting for later.
The advantage of utilizing this platform is that you may effortlessly integrate Google applications, but don’t expect Microsoft apps or other third-party software to perform too well.
Google Meet is a video conferencing software that’s completely free for up to 100 people and lets you chat for an hour. While this platform is primarily designed for computers, you may download a mobile version on the Playstore or Apple store if needed.
The application’s largest features include screen sharing, live captions, and customizable settings. The paid version of Google Meet offers more participants, but small organizations can manage with the free edition.
6. Cisco Webex
If you haven’t used Cisco Webex in the last year, you might have an outdated understanding of how it works. A lot of effort has improved the platform, particularly its simplicity of use.
Webex has also added some incredible features, such as the new Webex assistant and other advanced features like its AI talents responsible for transcribing meetings.
The platform provides meeting requirements such as attendee lists, passwords, and more, and you’ll have to upgrade to a paid account and download the Cisco Webex productivity tools if you want to organize a larger meeting than the free plan allows.
The interface of Webex is one of the most uncluttered and simple to navigate. There are several standard buttons for muting and unmuting your microphone, as well as hiding or revealing your camera. You may play a multimedia file privately if you want by utilizing multiple screens.
The Apple iPad screen is one of the platform’s greatest assets. This allows you to produce images and drawings to help with brainstorming sessions.
You can get recording straight from the Webex interface by simply clicking a single button. The platform will send you an email once you activate the button telling you that your video will be ready in less than 24 hours.
Webex also has breakout sessions, which you won’t find on Zoom. This function allows you to begin a meeting as a whole class and then split into smaller groups to discuss in further detail as little teams before returning as a complete class.
Final Words
There are many more alternatives for Zoom, but these are the best ones that we have found so far. And all of them for free!
Take your time to look at all of them and decide which one suits you better for your needs. And don’t forget to let us know your final verdict!
