6 Best Zoom Alternatives
This article is part of a larger series on Unified Communications.
Although Zoom is a popular small business video conferencing tool, it has some drawbacks. You can’t get meeting transcripts or branding without buying 10 or more monthly licenses. Cloud storage is limited to 1GB on paid plans and users can’t log in on multiple devices. Unlike some Zoom alternatives, the free version restricts meetings to 40 minutes and doesn’t offer dial-in numbers. To that end, here are the six best Zoom alternatives based on use type, costs, features, and meeting capacity.
According to our evaluation, the six best alternatives to Zoom for video conferencing are:
- RingCentral: Best overall Zoom alternative, and best for companies that prefer feature-rich free and paid plans
- BlueJeans: Best Zoom meeting alternative for a small business wanting in-depth analytics and enterprise-grade features
- GoToMeeting: Best alternative to Zoom for hosting mid-size video conferences
- Microsoft Teams: Top choice for organizations needing to host meetings with up to 10,000 participants
- Google Meet: Best option for teams using Google Workspace in everyday workflows
- 8×8: Best Zoom video conferencing alternative for businesses looking for a unified communications (UC) solution with phone and video
Zoom and Best Alternatives at a Glance
Zoom & Alternatives | Starting Price | Key Features | Free Plan | Our Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
$14.99 per user, per month |
| ✓ | — | |
$14.99 per user, per month |
| ✓ | 4.72 out of 5 | |
$12.49 per user, per month |
| ✕ | 4.34 out of 5 | |
$12 per user, per month |
| ✕ | 4.01 out of 5 | |
$5 per user, per month |
| ✓ | 4.01 out of 5 | |
$6 per user, per month |
| ✓ | 3.54 out of 5 | |
$12 per user, per month |
| ✕ | 3.48 out of 5 | |
RingCentral: Best Overall All-in-One Zoom Alternative
What We Like
- In-app task management and note-taking without needing a third-party service
- Phone and live chat support with paid plan
- Paid plan supports up to 200 meeting participants
What's Missing
- No meeting analytics in free version
- No meeting transcriptions without a third-party app
- Cloud recording retention period is only seven days for the free plan
How It Compares to Zoom
- RingCentral’s free plan allows unlimited 24-hour meetings compared to 40 minutes with Zoom
- More than double the cloud storage capacity for meeting recordings
- 100+ domestic and international dial-in phone numbers on free and paid plans, whereas Zoom doesn’t offer dial-in numbers on the free plan
RingCentral[/fitlink] is a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) provider offering a cloud-based unified communications platform and a standalone video meeting app. It stands out because it’s scalable, from a robust free version for 100 participants to its feature-rich, yet reasonably priced plan for 200 attendees. As a result, RingCentral works equally well for small to mid-sized businesses and enterprises.
While you don’t need a credit card to use the free version, you may want to check out the VoIP subscriptions, which come with RingCentral Meetings and unlimited calling. Learn more about RingCentral services and features in our RingCentral review. One drawback for RingCentral is that it doesn’t offer transcriptions like you’ll find in GoToMeeting’s Business plan tier, which starts at $16 per user, per month.
RingCentral Pricing at a Glance*
- RingCentral Video Pro: Free for unlimited 24-hour meetings, 10 hours of recording storage, calendar integrations, and up to 100 conference attendees
- RingCentral Video Pro+: $14.99 per user, per month for 100 hours of cloud storage retained for a year, the call me/callout feature, up to 200 participants, and business app integrations
*The free plan’s 24-hour meeting duration is for those subscribed by December 2021. Save up to 33% with annual prepayment and receive volume discounts for more than 100 users.
RingCentral Features
(Source: RingCentral)
- Flexible ways to schedule and join meetings: After connecting your Google or Outlook calendar, schedule meetings using the RingCentral app or your calendar, and participate using the app, browser, or phone. You can also view and join meetings on different platforms, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Join.me, UberConference, GoToWebinar, GoToMeeting, and BlueJeans.
- Admin controls: The host is able to lock the meeting, mute or unmute all attendees, or send a request allowing the moderator to turn on all cameras. The RingCentral video app also lets you eject participants and allow anyone to share their screen.
- Glassboard mode: Mimic on-site presentations by putting yourself on the screen while sharing a video or using whiteboard tools. Your image will be transparent so you’re not blocking the presentation.
BlueJeans: Best Zoom Alternative for In-depth Analytics
What We Like
- Intelligent meeting recaps deliver conference highlights at a glance
- 70+ performance metrics for tracking meetings, users, and quality
- Affordable plans with enterprise-grade features are available for one or more users with no minimum commitment
What's Missing
- Doesn’t offer a free version
- Entry-level plan stores five hours of recordings compared to 10 hours with RingCentral’s free plan
- Real-time transcription only available in Enterprise plans
How It Compares to Zoom
- Host meetings with up to 200 participants without a minimum monthly license commitment
- BlueJeans plans provide more cloud storage than Zoom’s unless you purchase 50 or more Zoom licenses on the Enterprise version
- Customer service via phone with all BlueJeans subscriptions; Zoom only offers this for plans with 10 or more licenses
- BlueJeans users can log in from multiple devices at once, while Zoom only supports one device at a time
BlueJeans is a video conferencing platform featuring an updated user interface and a centralized command center. Like RingCentral, BlueJeans lets you view up to 25 participants (less than the 49 supported by Zoom). However, BlueJeans’ lower-tier plans include many features that are only available on Zoom when you buy more than 10 licenses.
For instance, access to Zoom’s admin portal, recording transcripts, and branding require a minimum monthly payment of $199.90 (10 licenses). In contrast, BlueJeans charges $19.99 per month (one license) for brand customization, real-time transcriptions, and the live command center. Unfortunately, BlueJeans doesn’t offer a free plan, so for a free Zoom alternative with meetings up to 24 hours, consider RingCentral.
BlueJeans Pricing at a Glance*
- BlueJeans Standard: $12.49 per user, per month for up to 100 participants, unlimited meeting duration, five hours of stored recordings, and smart meeting features
- BlueJeans Pro: $17.49 per user, per month for up to 150 attendees, 25 hours of meeting recordings, command center analytics, and Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations
- BlueJeans Enterprise: $19.99 per user, per month for up to 200 participants, unlimited cloud storage, command center live, and automated closed captioning
- BlueJeans Enterprise Plus: Get a quote for custom support options, such as an onboarding specialist, technical account manager, or customer success manager
*Save up to 20% with yearly prepayment.
BlueJeans Features
(Source: BlueJeans)
- Smart meetings: Simplify follow-up conversations by capturing 40-second meeting clips, assigning tasks from the meeting highlights, and sending recaps to your team or company via email.
- Command center analytics: While many tools provide reporting and analytics features, BlueJeans goes further by unifying analytics in one dashboard. It includes historical reports and video conferencing performance metrics, including endpoint and geographic distribution and user feedback summaries.
- One-click scheduling: Make it easy for employees to join your video conference with a Google or Microsoft Outlook integration. Any meetings added to these calendars let users click to join your event without a password, pin code, or conference ID.
GoToMeeting: Best Alternative to Zoom for Hosting Mid-size Video Conferences
What We Like
- Ability to schedule and start a meeting directly from Salesforce on all paid plans
- Enterprise-level single sign-on (SSO) with all paid versions
- Risk-based authentication automatically detects suspicious behavior
What's Missing
- Virtual backgrounds only available through a third-party plug-in
- No monthly plans, must prepay annually
- Free plan meetings limited to three participants
How It Compares to Zoom
- Allows up to 250 video meeting participants for $16, compared to 300 attendees with Zoom starting at $199.90
- According to GoToMeeting, “Zoom uses 50% more bandwidth than GoToMeeting”
- Fewer features on GoToMeeting’s free plan compared to Zoom, but both allow 40-minute meeting durations
GoToMeeting is one of several video solutions offered by GoTo, along with VoIP service, webinars, and rooms. It’s a better option than Zoom as far as small business paid plans go because you get more features at a lower price, including single sign-on (SSO), telephone support, and administrative tools.
Although Microsoft Teams has an enterprise package for up to 10,000 meeting attendees, overall, Microsoft Teams is a better fit for companies using Microsoft products. In contrast, GoToMeeting connects to Google, Microsoft, and Calendly calendars and allows enterprise users to host meetings with up to 3,000 attendees. With Zoom, you must purchase the large meeting add-on, where you are still only able to host up to 1,300 participants.
GoToMeeting Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: No charge for unlimited 40-minute meetings with up to three participants, screen sharing, meeting chat, and mobile apps
- Professional: $12 per organizer, per month for up to 150 participants, unlimited meetings, no meeting time limits, calendar and Salesforce integrations, and dial-in numbers
- Business: $16 per organizer, per month for 250 meeting attendees, unlimited cloud recording, meeting transcriptions, and the smart assistant
- Enterprise: Contact GoToMeeting for volume discounts, meetings with 3,000 participants, a customer success manager, and custom onboarding and training options
*All prices are based on an annual prepayment, and monthly subscriptions aren’t available.
GoToMeeting Features
(Source: GoToMeeting)
- Smart assistant: This feature uses machine learning to transcribe meetings and automatically detect action items and highlights. View key meeting details, search for keywords, view color-coordinated speaker timelines, and filter your view by the speaker.
- Slack meeting launcher: Like Zoom, you can join or start a video meeting without leaving the Slack platform, allowing your team to move from chat collaboration right into a face-to-face meeting without changing applications.
- Meeting reports: GoToMeeting provides several reporting options, including performance analysis for user-level troubleshooting, management logs, and a unified admin center.
Microsoft Teams: Best for Hosting Large Video Conferences
What We Like
- Paid plans include email hosting and 1TB of cloud storage
- Use one application for meetings, chat, and collaboration in all Microsoft software
- Instant messaging uses searchable threaded conversations
What's Missing
- Meeting recordings aren’t included with free version
- Monthly subscriptions aren’t available, must pay annually
- Navigation can be more complicated for non-Microsoft users
How It Compares to Zoom
- Share larger files with Microsoft Teams (250GB versus 512MB on Zoom)
- Free version* supports up to 300 participants and 24-hour meetings, whereas Zoom allows 100 attendees and 40 minutes
- Host events with up to 10,000 participants in Microsoft Teams compared to 1,300 with Zoom
- 2GB of cloud storage on the free plan and 1TB on Microsoft Teams paid plans compared to just 1GB on Zoom
*Microsoft Teams has been offering higher limits since 2020, but their original free plan supports 100 attendees and 60-minute meetings.
Microsoft Teams is a natural video conferencing choice for companies relying on Microsoft tools like SharePoint, Word, and Excel. It can replace applications like Slack to give your team a central workspace for online collaboration, instant messaging, and video communications. Plus, the free version offers more cloud storage, app integrations, and a longer meeting duration than Zoom.
Like GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams easily scales to support a higher number of event attendees at a reasonable price point of $12.50 per user, per month without a minimum license purchase. Likewise, enterprise users may prefer the email capabilities and desktop versions of Microsoft software, which aren’t available with any other Zoom alternative.
Microsoft Teams Pricing at a Glance*
- Microsoft Teams: Free for unlimited instant messaging, 300 meeting participants, 2GB files for content sharing, and web versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $5 per user, per month for meeting recordings, email hosting, 1TB OneDrive storage, phone support, and SSO
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 per user, per month for desktop versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, and webinar hosting features
- Office 365 E3: $20 per user, per month for hosting online events with up to 10,000 people, unlimited cloud storage, and everything in the business standard plan
*Annual prepayment required for paid packages.
Microsoft Teams Features
(Source: Microsoft Teams)
- Meeting recap: Keep everyone up to date with a comprehensive meeting review that includes the meeting recording, transcript, shared files, and chat messages. The summary is automatically shared under the meeting chat tab.
- Transcription languages: Although Microsoft Teams offers fewer language options than Zoom—28 versus 35—other tools, like RingCentral and GoToMeeting, require a third-party app for transcriptions in languages other than English.
- All-in-one collaboration: While most Zoom alternatives support content sharing and in-meeting interactions, Microsoft Teams serves as a virtual workplace. You may be able to use one application for meetings and collaboration instead of using multiple tools like Slack and Trello.
Google Meet: Best Zoom Alternative for Small Team Collaboration
What We Like
- Unlimited one-to-one video meetings for up to 24 hours
- User interface is similar to other Google products, making it an excellent choice for Workspace users
- No minimum user requirement to purchase Enterprise plan
What's Missing
- No desktop app
- Only three participants can meet by video when using the free plan
- No recording on entry-level paid plans
How It Compares to Zoom
- Google Meet’s free version supports 60-minute meetings while Zoom allows just 40 minutes
- Google provides live closed captions in multiple languages on all versions, while Zoom only offers live transcription in English on upper-tier plans
- Paid Google Workspace plans include 30GB to 2TB of cloud storage vs only 1GB on Zoom plans
Google offers many services tailored to small business and team collaboration, including Google Meet, Chat, and Gmail. The user interface for Google Meet looks like other Google products, so current Google users won’t experience a learning curve. In addition, all plans come with free Google Drive storage, allowing you to save content in the cloud.
Google Meet is similar to Microsoft Teams because the plans give you access to all Google collaboration tools. It also supports a higher number of meeting participants at a lower price than Zoom. However, you’ll need to install a third-party app for meeting transcriptions.
Google Meet Pricing at a Glance
- Google Meet: Free for unlimited one-to-one meetings, 60-minute video conferences with 100 participants, and 15GB of Google Drive storage
- Business Starter: $6 per user, per month for unlimited video meetings up to 24 hours with 100 participants, local and international dial-in numbers, 30GB of cloud storage, and business email
- Business Standard: $12 per user, per month for unlimited conferences with 150 participants, 2TB cloud storage, polling, recording, and breakout rooms
- Business Plus: $18 per user, per month for unlimited meetings with 250 participants, attendance tracking, and advanced endpoint management
- Enterprise: Contact Google for a quote on in-domain livestreaming, a security center, and noise cancellation
Google Meet Features
(Source: Google Meet)
- Breakout rooms: Google is the only provider on our list of Zoom alternatives offering up to 100 breakout rooms, compared to 50 with RingCentral and Zoom. Move people manually to different rooms, use the shuffle feature to randomly mix up groups, or let attendees choose a room.
- Native integrations: Like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet tightly integrates with Google products. You can share content from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides and collaborate via chat. Plus, you can start a video meeting during a chat session or from Gmail.
- Accessibility: Zoom only supports the use of one device per user during a meeting, but Google Meet lets you watch the video meeting on your computer while using a phone for audio. This works well for those with poor internet connections or additional accessibility needs.
8×8: Best Alternative to Zoom for Inexpensive Voice, Chat & Video Services
What We Like
- Inexpensive entry-tier plan with unlimited calling and video conferencing
- Offers dial-in meeting numbers for more than 50 countries
- Mix-and-match plans for different users
What's Missing
- 8x8 doesn’t offer a standalone meeting app or free version
- Not a good fit for companies wanting only video services
- No breakout rooms for video conferences
How It Compares to Zoom
- 8×8 costs less ($12) for unlimited domestic calling and video meetings compared to $25 for Zoom
- Unlimited storage vs Zoom plans, which cap cloud storage at 1GB
- 8×8 has built-in transcription services for meetings whereas you need a third-party service for Zoom transcription
8×8 is the only Zoom alternative on our list offering unlimited calling, messaging, and video meetings for $12 per month. Although GoTo Connect, RingCentral, and Zoom all offer voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) services, the monthly cost for each is more than the 8×8 Express plan.
With 8×8, you can connect Apple, Google, and Microsoft calendars, take advantage of VoIP business phone features like an auto-attendant, and participate in group or private chats. 8×8’s X-series plans support unlimited international calls from 14 to as many as 47 countries. In contrast, Zoom requires an add-on package costing $10 per user for unlimited calling to 18 countries per month. Learn more about 8×8’s VoIP services by reading our 8×8 review.
8×8 Pricing at a Glance
- 8×8 Express: $12 per user, per month for unlimited meetings, messaging, and calling in the U.S. and Canada, meeting recording and transcription, and up to 100 conference attendees
- X2: $32 per user, per month* for unlimited calling to 14 countries and unlimited recording storage with a 30-day retention period
- X4: $44 per user, per month* for unlimited calling to 47 countries, unlimited recording storage with a 130-day retention period, and supervisor analytics
*Save up to 25% with annual prepayment.
8×8 Features
(Source: 8×8)
- Remote desktop control: 8×8 is an excellent option for training and user support sessions because you can remotely control the desktop of a meeting participant and share their screen with other attendees.
- Captions and transcripts: Automatically subtitle your meetings in real time, then share meeting transcripts with other team members or use them to review meeting details post-event.
- International dial-in numbers: 8×8 provides dial-in access for more than 50 countries, including 13 domestic and international toll-free numbers on its cheapest plan, which costs less than Zoom’s video conferencing or phone plans.
How We Evaluated the Best Zoom Alternatives
We identified Zoom alternatives offering features Zoom lacks in entry-level plans, such as multi-screen sharing and meeting transcription. We compared free and paid plans, overall value, and ease of use. Plus, we looked at different business use cases to pick the best video conferencing tools for specific business needs.
Scoring 4.72 out of 5 stars, RingCentral was the clear winner. The free RingCentral Video app supports unlimited 24-hour meetings, dial-in by phone, and 10 hours of recording storage. The paid plan comes with live phone and chat support, 500 minutes to call participants directly, and advanced analytics. RingCentral’s free plan doesn’t require a credit card, so give it a try and see how it stacks up to Zoom.
Here’s a breakdown of the criteria we used to measure each provider:
25% of Overall Score
We considered free trial length, availability of a free plan, and the overall cost of paid plans. Also, we looked for options with cheaper annual pricing.
30% of Overall Score
To make our list of Zoom alternatives, the app had to encrypt streaming data in transit and at rest, and record meetings. We also examined tools with high definition (HD) video and audio and which have desktop apps.
25% of Overall Score
We looked for features like breakout rooms, user-friendly mobile apps, and file and document sharing. In addition, we assessed providers based on the total number of allowed meeting participants.
20% of Overall Score
We reviewed the popularity of various Zoom alternatives and rated them based on ease of use, breadth of features, and overall value.
Bottom Line
Although Zoom upgraded its security to end-to-end encryption after 2020’s pandemic-induced debacle, you may feel more comfortable using a Zoom alternative. Alternatively, your business might need a video conferencing option offering more features or including more features at a lower price point than Zoom. Either way, the best option for your company will differ based on your budget, desired features, and participant capacity needed.
The best Zoom alternative for video conferencing is RingCentral. Compared to Zoom’s free plan, RingCentral provides more cloud storage, includes dial-in numbers, and currently offers unlimited meetings for up to 24 hours at a time. Plus, the paid RingCentral plan is the same price as Zoom’s entry-level option but RingCentral gives you more, allowing up to 200 participants and 100 hours of cloud storage.