6 Best Conference Call Services for Small Businesses

Zoom Workplace is the best overall conference call service because it offers collaborative tools, AI, and scalable meeting rooms. While many conference call providers are capped at 1,000 meeting participants, Zoom’s webinar plans and add-ons can host thousands of attendees. Therefore, Zoom is an excellent option for remote event planning and company-wide calls.

In addition to remote event planning, Zoom provides collaborative features that make it easier to work together on a call. From the digital whiteboard to team chat and document sharing, Zoom is great for remote teams that want to increase the productivity of their workspace. These collaborative features are also streamlined with the AI companion, a smart assistant that offers additional insights for every meeting or call.

For example, Zoom’s AI companion can be used for transcription, taking meeting notes, and sharing summaries and thematic insights with team members. The AI can also share essential meeting details to ensure that each team member is caught up no matter when they arrive. In combination with meeting recordings, AI makes searching and reviewing old meeting notes and topics easier.

At the same time, Zoom’s biggest disadvantage lies in its limited storage offering for Basic plan users. While its entry-level plan is free, it only includes local meeting recording. If you want a conference call service with unlimited cloud recording, check out GoTo Meeting, which offers local and cloud storage solutions.

• Meeting quizzes: Create questions with set answers and deliver them as quizzes during your meeting. Gather responses and download the report on the results after the meeting.
• Company branding: Add your branding to different communication elements and enhance your team’s credibility. Elements you can brand include vanity URL, custom meeting schedule email template, and global dial-in in meeting email templates.
• Team chat: This feature is available for all plans, including the free Basic plan. Communicate with team members and other Zoom users by sending messages to contacts, groups, or channels. Organize chats by priority and customize notifications to minimize distractions.

Google Meet has a positive reputation as a free conference call service, but it topped our list as a great option for team collaboration. Google Meet is included for free with a Google email account, and most of its collaborative features are available through the Google suite of products. This includes appointment scheduling with Google Calendar, creating presentations with Google Slides, analyzing data with Sheets, or working on projects with Google Docs.

When creating a call, Google Meet provides unique meeting codes for secure conferencing and dial-in access for US and international numbers. Within the call, users can integrate products from the Google Suite, which makes it easier for teams to work together online by sharing screens and placing a meeting call into the background of Google Docs or Slides.

In addition to the free plan, Google offers additional conference calling features for individuals or organizations that select a paid plan, like Google Workspace or Google One. Specifically, the Workspace plans allow you to have larger and longer meetings and conference calls. Some plans also offer meeting recordings that can be saved to Google Drive, which provides 30GB to 5TB of cloud storage.

Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, facilitates team collaboration and real-time engagement with live call captioning, virtual transcripts, language translation, and note-taking. However, Gemini is only available as an add-on feature to a monthly plan with a Google account. For a conference call provider with standard AI features, check out Zoom Workplace.

• Third-party integrations: Google Meet offers integrations with multiple platforms, like a digital whiteboard with Miro or Figma, for greater collaboration within a virtual workspace. These add-ons can be downloaded as a desktop or mobile application through the Google Workspace Marketplace or Play Store.
• Attendance tracking: Instead of losing call time by taking attendance, Google Workspace plans automatically track attendance. After a call or meeting ends, you will receive a meeting report with the attendees’ numbers, names, or meeting room codes.
• Moderation controls: With meeting moderation, you can control conference calls and eliminate interruptions and distractions. Select a meeting host to move participants across breakout rooms, control access to presentations and chatting, and turn audio and video off and on for participants. You can also add up to 25 cohosts for more advanced meeting management.

Webex by Cisco provides the best enterprise-grade security for businesses that require compliance with high-level privacy standards. All Webex plans, including its forever free plan, come with E2EE , locked personal meeting rooms, and meeting passwords. If you upgrade to a paid plan, you will also unlock cloud recording encryption.

Webex plans are also HIPAA-compliant and use transport layer security (TLS) 1.2 and 256-Advanced Encryption Standard with Galois Counter Mode (AES-GCM). These security features protect the flow of communication from one device to another and safely store call recordings within the cloud or local devices. However, only enterprise plans provide unlimited cloud storage.

Across plans, Webex offers collaborative features like screen sharing, unlimited messaging, and interactive whiteboarding. These features are paired with high-definition audio calling and advanced noise removal to ensure the highest quality conference calling experience. Additionally, each paid plan includes an AI assistant for intelligent meeting transcriptions, summaries, and translations.

Unfortunately, call captioning and language translation are limited to English, French, and Spanish. International long-distance calling is also not available on the base plans. So, if you have a global team or clients, try Zoom or Google Meet, which each provide access to live captioning for dozens of languages.

• Livestreaming: Administrators and hosts can stream meetings and events via Facebook Live and YouTube.
• Mobile screen sharing: Share an application or an entire screen in real-time using any device, including cell phones. Hosts and attendees can share content like an open document, which meeting participants can mark simultaneously.
• Interactive whiteboarding: Showcase your ideas and collaborate creatively using shared whiteboards. Users can brainstorm using a virtual canvas using pointers, magic pens, erasers, and stickies.

GoTo Meeting is the best conference call service for mobile calling because of its application interface, enhanced audio calling, and commuter mode features. When using the mobile app in commuter mode, the application automatically adjusts your audio and bandwidth to block distractions and conserve data on the go. You can also receive meeting reminders to ensure you dial into your call on time.

Each plan also offers enhanced audio calling add-ons that benefit mobile phone users. For example, use the Call Me feature to have the platform call your phone to dial into meetings remotely. The platform also offers toll-free numbers to over 50 countries for international conference calling. With the additional dial-out features, you can have GoTo Meeting call up to five meeting attendees, making coordinating a call simpler.

The mobile application’s user-friendly features, such as voice commands, color-coded screens, and audio buttons, ensure a distraction-free audio or videoconferencing experience. While many conference call providers limit meeting duration, GoTo Meetings’ unlimited meeting times ensure your meeting won’t end until you end the call.

Although GoTo Meeting offers unlimited calling, the hosting capacity for meeting participants is capped at 250. Additionally, access to GoTo Webinar features incurs additional monthly fees and only offers meetings of up to 100 participants. Therefore, businesses that need to host larger conference calls or webinars should check out Zoom, which offers calling features for more than 250 meeting participants.

• Voice commands: iPhone users can connect with Siri in the mobile application for more efficient call handling. Specifically, you can tell Siri when to start or join a meeting, freeing up your hands for note-taking or other tasks.
• Slack meeting launcher: GoTo Meeting offers integrations with popular business communication tools, like Slack. With the meeting launcher, you can start or join a meeting directly from a Slack channel.
• Distraction-free conferencing: When taking conference calls using a cellphone, it can be confusing to determine when your call is on or off mute. The GoTo Mobile app provides a color-coded screen and audio button to make the distinction more transparent while decreasing the data bandwidth used on a call.

Ooma Office is a business phone system provider specializing in services for solopreneurs and small teams—offering a limited meeting capacity of up to 100 participants, even the highest-tier plan. Each plan offers a suite of communication tools beneficial for setting up a work-from-home office. Specifically, Ooma offers conference and video calling with VoIP features, such as virtual receptionists and messaging.

For simple conference calling, all Ooma plans include three-way calling and conference bridges to dial into meetings. Higher-tiered plans offer videoconferencing with advanced features like breakout rooms, simultaneous screen-sharing, and online whiteboards. You can also use the Ooma dashboard view to manage multiple meetings and record calls.

Only two of Ooma’s plans provide videoconferencing, and only one includes meeting collaboration tools. However, Ooma’s offerings will satisfy solopreneurs with infrequent conference calls or video meetings. For large remote teams that rely on conference calling to complete projects, choose a more scalable conference call provider like Google Meet. This provider offers extended meeting capacity and a suite of collaborative tools.

• Three-way calling: Ooma offers simple conference calling with three devices across phone systems. This feature can also be used with Ooma devices, like the HD headset, Telo base station, or Genie.
• Conference bridges: Create more secure internal team meetings with dial-in numbers, meeting IDs, and custom pins. Schedule your call, invite attendees, and conduct conference calls with up to 10 participants.
• Remote control screen-sharing: For Ooma plans with videoconferencing capabilities, you can access screen-sharing features to collaborate on presentations or provide technical support.

Dialpad Meetings is best for teams looking for advanced AI features like conference call transcription, collaboration, and call insights. Dialpad AI features include automated post-meeting summaries, live and post-meeting transcriptions, and custom action items. Using automated speech recognition (ASR), Dialpad transcribes conversations into written text and delivers instant summaries based on keywords and customer sentiment.

In addition to its AI features, Dialpad Meetings with built-in AI makes collaboration easier with whiteboards, file-sharing, and the ability to start meetings straight from a message thread. With meeting timers and reminders, you can also ensure that your calls start and end on time.

Prescheduled dial-outs make dialing into a conference call easier, but additional fees apply for toll-free numbers and room licenses. Compared with other providers, DialPad has a limited meeting capacity, as the highest tier plan only allows you to host up to 150 participants for five hours. For businesses that regularly host longer calls, check out GoTo Meetings, which offers unlimited online meetings.

• Meeting transcription: Unlike other providers, Dialpad Meetings transcribes calls as they’re happening. This built-in feature even sends a recap email to attendees after the session.
• Recordings: Dialpad offers video and audio recordings, which you can turn on and off manually.
• Call forwarding: Send your number to a colleague, cellphone, or a completely different department. Users get a maximum of five forwarding numbers, ensuring you never miss another call.