6 Best Web Conferencing Software

Web conferencing services allow users to communicate remotely via audio and video. They also offer features like screen-sharing, audience interaction, chat, and more. We compared 20 of the best web conferencing software solutions and evaluated them based on features, pricing, and customer service to find the best overall choice.

Top 6 Web Conferencing Software 2019

Which Web Conferencing Software is Right for You?

How We Evaluated Web Conferencing Systems

Web conferencing software should allow multiple people to converge in a virtual meeting room and communicate over text, voice, and video. They should also provide features for inviting users to meetings, sharing the contents of your screen, or letting people dial into meetings with their phones. However, the best web conferencing software should be easy to set up and use with ample customer support in case of a problem.

Therefore, we evaluated web conferencing software based on the following:

• Price: Services should be affordable enough for small business users.
• Ease of use: We examined how easy each service is to set up and use.
• Meeting limit: Web conferencing systems should allow you to hold conferences with your entire team.
• Mobile support: We examined whether services offer an app for Android and iOS devices.
• Recording features: It can be helpful to save recordings for future reference.
• Calendar integrations: Many leading platforms offer the ability to send integrated invites for Gmail, Outlook, and other popular email clients.
• Collaboration tools: Polls, chat, and other features help teams collaborate during meetings.
• Conference controls: Services should offer the ability to mute, boot, and block specific users from entering conferences.
• Security tools: Security measures like PINs, meeting lock, and the ability to boot attendees from meetings help keep conversations secure.
• Call quality & reliability: Web conferencing solutions should offer good audio quality and reliability during calls.
• Software integration: Leading systems offer the ability to connect meeting data to services like Google Calendar and Dropbox.

Based on the above, we find that Zoom is the best web conferencing software for most small business users. Zoom offers exceptional audio and video quality as well as all the conference controls you need to hold productive meetings. The service is also incredibly easy to use and even supports up to 100 participants in a meeting for free. Give Zoom a try today.

Best Web Conferencing System for Small Businesses: Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing system that offers high-definition (HD) video calling, chat, and call controls for managing participants. The service offers a free version and paid editions starting at $14.99 per host, per month. Zoom is an ideal fit for organizations that want affordable, effective video conferences with team members and associates.

Zoom Pricing

Zoom’s free Basic plan allows you to host conferences with up to 100 people. Meetings are limited to 40 minutes in length. There are also paid plans which range in price from $14.99 to $19.99 per month, per host. These paid plans remove the limitation on conference length and include additional administrative controls.

Zoom Tiered Features

Basic

Zoom’s free Basic package accommodates up to 100 participants in an unlimited number of meetings. It comes with standard features like the ability to mute other users and send calendar invites via Outlook, Google Calendar, and other services. It also supports high-quality video conferencing from your webcam as well as screen sharing. You can even share your screen on an iOS or Android device, which is rare for a web conferencing solution.

Unlike competing systems, Zoom Basic limits meetings of 40 minutes in length. It also lacks the analytic reports found in more expensive versions of the software. Therefore, Zoom Basic is best suited for small companies that only need to have brief webinars for smaller audiences.

Plus

For $14.99 per host, per month, Zoom Plus grants access to administrative controls that allow you to disable meeting recordings and chat. This tier of service also comes with a reporting module that provides detailed information on how many people are viewing your webinars. It also reports the overall length of your meetings.

Zoom Plus has no option to host meetings within a web browser like in UberConference and other services. This means that all of your attendees will have to download the Zoom client on their own machines. It also cannot provide attendees with a custom URL to join meetings. Still, Zoom Plus is perfect for smaller businesses looking for a good mix of affordability and premium call control features.

Business

This Business version of the software is $19.99 per host, per month, and comes with automatic transcriptions of your recordings. Additionally, it offers the ability to give meetings customized URLs. This is helpful because you can create memorable URLs that your audience will better remember instead of a web address with a random assortment of numbers and letters.

Unfortunately, Zoom Business lacks the software integrations that Join.me offers. This means you will not be able to connect data with services like Slack or Trello. With that in mind, this package has a wealth of features and is still priced affordably enough for most small businesses. It is a fantastic choice for businesses who don’t want to compromise on web conferencing features.

What Zoom Is Missing

Zoom is one of the best web conferencing systems available today. However, it requires all meeting participants to have the Zoom client installed on their computers. Making your prospects and other associates do this just to speak with you can be inconvenient. Therefore, if you want to hold meetings that users can participate in from their web browser, we suggest looking at GoToMeeting instead.

What Users Think About Zoom

Our readers are satisfied with Zoom and its features. They particularly like how easy it is to use and the video quality during meetings. However, some wish that there were more controls over the in-meeting chat rooms.

“I’ve used Zoom extensively in the past. It is great software and supports many people joining a video call. The quality is top-notch and works well with slower connections. The biggest negative is that sharing your screen takes a massive number of resources on your computer and can slow things down tremendously. Personally, I’ve found Zoom to be the best software I’ve used for web conferencing.”

―Chris Roane, Author, Money Stir

Where to Find Zoom

Zoom is one of the most popular web conferencing systems available and for good reasons. The solution is easy to use and comes with all the features you need to hold effective meetings. Click the button below to start using Zoom for free.

Visit Zoom

Best Web Conferencing Software for Collaboration: GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting, which starts at $14 per month, is a web conferencing service provided by Citrix. It offers phone and VoIP audio conferencing as well as video conferencing via screen sharing. It also includes remote screen control modules, screen sharing, and chat messaging for up to 250 participants. GoToMeeting is good for teams who want a conferencing tool designed for group collaboration.

GoToMeeting Pricing

GoToMeeting’s paid plans start at $14 per host, per month, for the Starter plan and go all the way up to $39 per host, per month, for the Plus edition. There is also a limited free version that supports only three participants and serves as a free trial for the product.

GoToMeeting Tiered Features

Starter

The Starter edition of GoToMeeting costs $14 per month and comes with a core set of features similar to other entry-level packages. It comes with the ability to have audio meetings for as many as 150 participants, a dial-in line for those who prefer to speak over the phone, and access to the company’s mobile app. It comes with screen sharing and business messaging, but you will have to upgrade to the more premium packages for more collaboration tools.

This option only supports video meetings with up to 11 webcams at once. This is lacking when compared to Zoom, which allows as many as 100 people to show their webcams for free. Still, GoToMeeting offers a strong core set of features that would be beneficial to any small team that doesn’t need to have every team member on video.

Pro

For $29 per month, GoToMeeting Pro offers several advanced features that help with team collaboration. Keyboard and mouse sharing makes it easier for a team to show a presentation, even if they are working from different locations. For example, one team member could go over a couple of slides, then hand over control to another coworker for the next content.

Unfortunately, this package still limits webcam participants to just 25 at one time. This pales in comparison to Zoom’s allowances. Still, the fact that GoToMeeting can also launch conferences within a web browser makes it a good choice for teams looking for a convenient meeting solution that doesn’t require participants to download additional software to attend meetings.

Plus

For $39 per host, per month, the Plus edition of GoToMeeting supports meetings of up to 250 people at once. It also has a feature called InRoom link. In basic terms, this lets you connect GoToMeeting with all of your existing conference room hardware quickly. This includes webcams, microphones, and presentation remotes. The software can work with any hardware meeting with the H.323 telecommunication standard.

All told, the Plus plan is only a good value for teams that have existing conference room hardware and want to bring it into GoToMeeting. Zoom’s business package supports 300 participants for just $19.99 per host, per month, which is far less expensive than GoToMeeting Plus. Still, it is nice that the company offers this option for those with legacy hardware.

What GoToMeeting Is Missing

GoToMeeting is an effective web conferencing system. However, its usefulness is limited to conferencing only. RingCentral, on the other hand, delivers conferencing features bundled with a complete internet-based business phone system. Therefore, those who are also in the market for a new telephony product should consider RingCentral instead.

What Users Think About GoToMeeting

Customers find that GoToMeeting is incredibly easy to use. They also find that it has all the features they need to hold effective web conferences. However, a few of our readers find the setup process to be a bit daunting.

Where to Find GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting is a complete, affordable web conferencing system. The fact that it comes with such helpful collaboration features makes it good for any team that wants to work together during conferences. Click the button below to start your 14-day free trial.

Visit GoToMeeting

Best Business Phone System With Web Conferencing: RingCentral

RingCentral, which starts at $29.99 per user, per month, is a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone service with call management, and unlimited calling. Its mid-level and premium editions also allow for web conferencing. RingCentral is a perfect choice for companies that are looking for both a complete phone service as well as a web conferencing system.

RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral offers three pricing plans for small businesses. The Essentials plan starts at $19.99, the Standard edition starts at $24.99 per user, per month, and the Premium package costs $34.99 per user, per month, on an annual basis. This makes it one of the pricier options on the market.

RingCentral Tiered Features

Essentials

RingCentral’s mobile app is available with every service plan, even the Essentials plan, which costs $19.99 per month, per user. The app is supported on iOS and Android devices and includes features such as short message service (SMS) messaging and group chat. As a VoIP service, it also comes with all the business phone features you’d expect, such as call handling, voicemail, and text messaging.

However, it’s important to note that this tier does not support web conferences, so you will have to upgrade to the Standard or Premium plans. Still, the service is making it right for solopreneurs or very small businesses wanting a simple, powerful business phone system.

Standard

The Standard package offers all the functionality of the Essentials plan and adds support for unlimited users for $24.99 per user, per month. With this tier of service, you can have audio and video meetings with up to four people at once. You can also share the contents of your screen as you can with Zoom and GoToMeeting.

RingCentral Standard has an incredibly low allowance of people in a meeting, and it’s not viable for organizations that want to hold all-hands meetings with the service. With that in mind, you also get a complete set of telephony features, so this is still a good deal for teams that only need to hold occasional small meetings.

Premium

For $34.99 per user, per month, the Premium package includes web conferencing for up to 100 people at once, which makes it useful for established teams that want to hold large meetings. On top of that, it offers recording functionality for all of your calls. It also features automated call recording and automatic voicemail message transcription.

While RingCentral Premium can support large meetings, it is far more expensive than most dedicated conferencing solutions. In comparison, Zoom supports meetings with up to 100 participants for free. It is only recommended for those who do not already have a business phone service in place.

What RingCentral Is Missing

RingCentral is a powerful office communications system that comes with telephone, text, and web conferencing. If you are looking for a more affordable dedicated web conferencing service, then we suggest looking at Join.me. Pricing for Join.me starts at just $10 per user, per month, for five participants.

What Users Think About RingCentral

Fit Small Business readers are satisfied with RingCentral. They find the service to meet all of their telephony needs, and they appreciate the bundled-in web conferencing features. However, several customers have complained that the company’s customer service channels are unhelpful. For more information, check out our RingCentral user reviews page.

Where to Find RingCentral

RingCentral is one of the most advanced VoIP services on the market today. The fact that it offers web conferencing makes it a powerful all-in-one communications solution for your small business. The company even offers a 15-day free trial. Click the button below to learn more.

Visit RingCentral

Best Web Conferencing Service for Integrations: Join.me

Join.me is a web conferencing solution that features unlimited audio and video conferencing as well as call controls and cloud storage. The service starts at $10 per user, per month. What makes Join.me stand out from the competition is the fact that offers a large number of integrations with customer relations management (CRM) and other business solutions, making it right for sales teams that want a seamless business app experience.

Join.me Pricing

Join.me has three paid plans that run $10 per user, per month, to $30 per user, per month, billed annually. The Lite plan supports five participants at once while the top-tier Business package can accommodate 250 people in a meeting. Join.me is moderately priced for a solution of this kind.

Join.me Tiered Features

Lite

Join.me’s Lite tier accommodates up to five participants for an unlimited number of meetings and adds pass presenter and share control, meeting lock, and reporting. At a cost of $10 per month, it also features email and phone support for enhanced customer service. Join.me Lite is a good choice for conference call hosts who want an increased level of control over meetings and participants.

This level is missing user management tools, in-meeting annotation, recording, and storage found in the next tier. It also supports fewer participants than FreeConference.com’s similarly priced plan, which allows 400 callers. However, join.me Lite offers more host controls than join.me’s comparable service plan.

Pro

The Pro edition of Join.me, which costs $20 per user, per month, supports up to 50 participants at once. It also features in-meeting annotation, recording, and 5GB of cloud storage for your content. You also get the option of adopting a unique toll-free number for users to dial in to. However, the number is an additional cost that will be given once you reach out to the company’s sales team. You will have to pay a per-minute rate for calls to that number.

Unfortunately, this plan doesn’t include the user management tool, Salesforce integration, or 5TB cloud storage options found at the highest tier. It also supports only 50 meeting participants, whereas Zoom supports 300 participants at the same price point. This level is best for business owners who want greater control over their accounts and the ability to store meeting recordings in the cloud.

Business

Join.me’s Business plan accommodates up to 250 participants in a meeting and adds feature management tools allowing admins to deploy features across large groups of users at once. For $30 per user, per month, it also offers Salesforce integration and 5TB cloud storage, giving it one of the largest cloud storage options on the market.

This tier doesn’t offer options like Zoom’s dedicated phone support or unlimited cloud storage. However, this package offers all the features that a small business should need for their web conferencing operations. It is perfect for companies that host large meetings and also need built-in CRM tools with their conference calling solution.

What Join.me Is Missing

Join.me has a complete set of conferencing features to help your team work together remotely. However, it can be expensive for companies with an international business presence as those dialing in from abroad are subject to high calling rates. If you want to accommodate overseas associates, we suggest looking at UberConference, which allows users from more than 50 countries to dial in for free.

What Users Think About Join.me

Users commend Join.me for being very easy to use. Some find it so intuitive that they find themselves participating more in meetings because the software is so friendly. Negative complaints include some delays when launching meetings and inconsistent video quality.

Where to Find Join.me

Join.me is a powerful conferencing service on its own, but the fact that it can integrate with so many popular business solutions makes it ideal for many small business users. Click the button below to start using Join.me for free.

Visit Join.me

Best No-frills Web Conferencing Service: UberConference

UberConference is a budget-friendly audio conference calling service with unlimited meetings, custom call-in numbers, and international dial-in numbers for more than 50 countries. It’s also incredibly user-friendly. The provider offers a free plan as well as a $10 per month package. This service is best suited for small teams on a budget seeking a simple, basic conferencing solution.

UberConference Pricing

UberConference offers two pricing packages. The Free version provides unlimited meetings for up to 10 people at once. The Business tier provides unlimited meetings for up to 100 participants for $15 per user, per month. UberConference offers the best value we’ve seen to date in a conferencing system.

UberConference Tiered Features

Free

UberConference’s Free package supports up to 10 participants for an unlimited number of meetings. It also includes screen and document sharing, call recording, and HD-quality audio. It also comes with the ability to require users to enter a PIN to enter meetings. These are essentially passcode to get into the conference, and they can help protect meetings from unwanted participants.

The Free version lacks the custom call-in number, analytics, and international features of the paid tier. It’s also missing the file transfer and chat functionality offered in join.me’s free plan. However, UberConference’s Free level supports 10 meeting participants while join.me’s free plan only supports three people. The Free plan is a good fit for solopreneurs and small teams wanting a no-cost product with collaboration and call recording tools.

Business

UberConference’s Business tier supports up to 100 people for an unlimited number of meetings. This tier also comes with a custom call-in number, analytics, a team management portal, international access from over 50 countries around the world, and a dial-out option to add callers.

This version does not offer the collaboration tools found in Zoom or RingCentral. It’s also missing the administrative call controls like mute and meeting lock offered by join.me. However, its low cost of $15 per user, per month, and generous participant limits makes it valuable for companies that only need screen and document sharing to collaborate during conferences.

What UberConference Is Missing

UberConference lacks a way to host conference calls for large groups of participants of over 200 people. It also offers no native way to stream conferences to YouTube, which is now a popular method of delivering online seminars. If this is important to you, we suggest looking at FreeConference.com instead.

What Users Think About UberConference

Many customers find that UberConference is a reliable, affordable conferencing solution. They like being able to share their screens and invite users to meetings so easily. Some users wish that the company would streamline its call joining process, which can be a bit cumbersome.

Where to Find UberConference

Teams that need a free, basic web conferencing system should check out UberConference. The service is highly affordable yet offers a strong core set of secure conferencing features that any business user should be able to take advantage of. The Free version allows you to try out the service for yourself. Click the button below to get started.

Visit UberConference

Best Conferencing Service for Live Streaming: FreeConference.com

FreeConference.com is a web conferencing solution that features unlimited meetings, video conferencing, call control tools, and the ability to live stream conference calls on YouTube. It offers a free edition, with paid versions starting at $9.99 per month. FreeConference.com is a good choice for sales teams and other users that use their YouTube channel to reach a wide range of customers and clients.

FreeConference.com Pricing

FreeConference.com offers a free plan and three paid packages priced between $9.99 per month and $34.99 per month. While the basic and midlevel plans are competitively priced, the premium plan is among the more expensive solutions in this category, but it’s also the only service that offers live streaming to YouTube.

FreeConference.com Tiered Features

Free

FreeConference.com’s Free edition comes with unlimited meetings. It also supports up to 400 phone participants and five participants via the web. You also get video conferencing, screen sharing tools, and a virtual whiteboard that you can draw on during meetings. This makes it especially helpful for small group meetings where employees need to brainstorm ideas.

The Free version lacks the meeting lock, audio recording, and YouTube live streaming of the more expensive editions. It also supports far fewer web participants than Zoom and other competitors. Therefore, the Free plan is best suited for companies that only need to hold simple, no-frills web conferences for smaller groups.

Lite

FreeConference.com’s Lite plan, which costs $9.99 per month, increases the number of web participants to 15 and adds a meeting lock module that prevents participants from entering the meeting after it begins. This package also comes with MP3 audio recordings of calls for later playback.

This level is missing the option to record audio and video during meetings. It also lacks the international dialing features of UberConference. Still, this version is good for businesses that want control over who attends their meetings and team collaboration features during calls.

Plus

FreeConference.com’s Plus package bumps up the number of supported web participants to 50 and adds the ability to record audio and video during conference calls for $24.99 per month. With screen sharing and whiteboarding also a part of this package, this level is good for companies that use many visual aids during conferences.

This tier does not come with the YouTube live streaming features offered at FreeConference.com’s top-tier level. It also lacks cloud storage space for audio and video recording as offered by competing solutions. However, this plan is competitively priced, considering its feature set.

Pro

FreeConference.com’s Pro edition costs $34.99 per month and increases the number of web participants to 100 per meeting. It also adds the ability to stream live conferences and screen shares to your YouTube channel.

This level is missing some of the more robust collaboration and call management tools found in other systems. It’s also worth noting that Zoom offers web conferences of up to 100 people free of charge. However, some companies may find the live streaming option worth the extra money. Therefore, this plan is a good fit for companies that want to reach the widest audience possible by giving people more options to watch meetings.

What FreeConference.com Is Missing

FreeConference.com only supports up to 100 web participants in its meetings. While this may be enough for many small business users, it can be a hindrance for those who need to hold large, all-hands meetings with remote staff. If you need to hold very large meetings, we suggest looking at Zoom, which supports as many as 1,000 people per meeting.

What Users Think About FreeConference.com

FreeConference.com has positive online reviews. Many find the solution to be reliable and affordable. YouTube streaming, in particular, is a popular feature. With that said, some users find the call joining process to be buggy.

Where to Find FreeConference.com

FreeConference.com is an effective, affordable solution made better by advanced features like streaming to YouTube and screen sharing. The service is also easy to use and comes in enough pricing plans to meet any small business budget. Click the button below to start using FreeConference.com for free.

Visit FreeConferenceCall.com

How Web Conferencing Works

Web conferencing facilitates multi-person, multimedia virtual meetings over the internet. They allow people to speak over voice, text, and video with one another instantaneously. Many leading solutions also allow users to share files during meetings. Web conferencing is available either as a standalone software product or as a feature in a larger business communications suite like RingCentral.

You can think of web conferences as virtual meeting rooms where you can have real-time conversations with employees and associates, even if they are thousands of miles away. Email and phone calls are great ways to communicate in the workplace, but web conferences are useful because you can have live conversations and, in most cases, have quality facetime with team members that just isn’t possible through other digital mediums.

One common feature in web conferencing system is the ability to share the contents of your screen to other participants. This is a useful feature for presenting slideshows or other visualizations for driving home ideas to a large group of people. As more people choose to work remotely, web conferencing services have grown more popular as a tool to bring professionals together, regardless of location.

Bottom Line

Web conferencing systems are an important part of keeping workers in touch, even when they are in different geographic locations. Being able to communicate with staff over voice call and video makes meetings feel personal, even when associates work thousands of miles away from each other. Advanced features like chat and screen sharing make these systems even more helpful.

We recommend Zoom as the best web conferencing software for most small business users. It is intuitive, powerful, and offers exceptional video quality during meetings. Best of all, you can try the solution out free of charge. Click the button below to get started.

Visit Zoom