Zoom vs GoToMeeting: Which Is Better for Small Businesses?
Corey McCraw is a staff writer covering VoIP and Unified Communications. Corey has over a decade of experience in marketing, tech writing, and corporate communications and has even penned content for the former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.
This article is part of a larger series on Unified Communications.
Zoom has become one of the most popular choices for video conferencing, dominating the market as a user-friendly, yet feature-packed platform. However, there are concerns about call security on the platform and there is a limit to meeting minutes. GoToMeeting is more of an enterprise-size video conferencing tool, enabling businesses to host meetings with up to 3,000 participants (without becoming a webinar).
Based on our comparison, the best use cases for Zoom vs GoToMeeting are as follows:
- Zoom: Better for businesses that value ease of use and the widest range of conferencing features
- GoToMeeting: Better for businesses with enormous teams that want to control the small display details of every meeting
Zoom and GoToMeeting are both go-to dedicated solutions for business video conferencing. Both deliver top-notch call quality and reliability, making them perfect for teams looking for standalone conferencing solutions, and are especially good for rapidly growing companies. That said, if you’d rather use an all-in-one solution for communication or need more advanced video conferencing features, check out our list of the best video conferencing software for alternatives.
Zoom vs GoToMeeting at a Glance
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Starting Price | $14.99 per user, per month* | $14.00 per user, per month** |
Meeting Capacity | 1,000 | 3,000 |
Free Plans | ✔ | ✔ |
HD (High Definition) Video Conferencing | 1080p | 1080p |
Call Recording Capacity | Unlimited on Enterprise Plan | Unlimited on Business and Enterprise Plans |
Screen Sharing | ✔ | ✔ |
Whiteboard | ✔ | ✔ |
Breakout Rooms | ✔ | ✔ |
Meeting Livestream | ✔ | N/A |
Meeting Limits | 30 hours | Unlimited |
Integrations | 1,000+ | 71 |
For More Information |
*Based on a monthly pricing plan. There is a 17% annual discount available.
**Based on a monthly pricing plan. There is a 15% annual discount available.
How We Evaluated Zoom vs GoToMeeting
Zoom and GoToMeeting offer the best video conferencing experience and features to small businesses. Businesses get high definition (HD) video conferencing, whiteboards, screen sharing, breakout rooms, and security protocols, all at comparable prices.
However, Zoom and GoToMeeting have slight nuances that make them more appropriate for certain users—and that’s what we set out to discover in our evaluations. We looked at head-to-head pricing comparisons, general features, ease of use, integrations, and our own experience with the platforms to determine which is better for small businesses.
Here’s a complete breakdown of these factors:
25%
Pricing
25%
General Features
20%
Ease of Use
20%
Integrations
10%
Expert Score
25% of Overall Score
We dug deep into the features behind the plans to determine how much value each platform delivers. We also looked at the functionality of the free plans to evaluate which solution provides a better experience for free users.
25% of Overall Score
Modern-day video conferencing platforms must deliver on a few must-have features, and these include screen sharing, whiteboard collaboration, video settings adjustment, in-meeting chat, and call recording.
20% of Overall Score
Video conferencing solutions must be user-friendly for both businesses and their customers. While tech users typically have no problems navigating a new piece of software, we evaluated Zoom and GoToMeeting to see which was better for end-user customers that might be unfamiliar with video conferencing applications.
20% of Overall Score
Small businesses must rely on various software applications, and these applications should easily collect and trade data with one another. We analyzed GoToMeeting and Zoom’s third-party integrations to see how easily they work with other tech stacks.
10% of Overall Score
We tried the video conferencing tools for ourselves to see how we felt about the functionality. We also took popularity, familiarity, and other real user experiences into consideration.
*Percentages of overall score
Best for Pricing: Zoom
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Zoom’s pricing above is based on a monthly subscription plan. There is a 17% annual discount available.
GoToMeeting’s pricing is based on a monthly subscription plan. There is a 15% annual discount available.
Zoom and GoToMeeting’s pricing comparison is close, but Zoom takes a slight edge thanks to its comprehensive free plan and add-on options. Zoom’s Basic plan lets users host up to 100 participants for up to 40-minute meetings for free. GoToMeeting’s Free plan allows users to only host up to three participants for up to 40-minute meetings. Both platforms’ free plans give users access to most general features, like screen sharing and chat.
Zoom offers almost all of its in-meeting features on the Basic plan, but GoToMeeting locks features like mouse sharing, meeting lock, and whiteboard behind the premium Business plan. While Zoom only offers up to 500 meeting participants on its Enterprise plan, businesses can purchase a Large Meetings add-on (on any plan) to gain up to 1,000 interactive participants in a meeting. GoToMeeting offers 3,000 meeting capacity on its standard Enterprise plan.
Best for Video Quality: GoToMeeting
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Zoom offers HD 1080p video conferencing, a 49-participant gallery view, and touch-up settings. | GoToMeeting offers HD 1080p video conferencing, a 25-participant gallery view, and advanced video settings control. |
Both Zoom and GoToMeeting provide HD 1080p video conferencing. The only factor that’ll impact this quality will be your internet bandwidth. When it comes to video management, users can view up to 49 simultaneous screens when using Zoom’s gallery view, while users can only see 25 on GoToMeeting.
Zoom enables users to customize video layouts during meetings, giving them an option to view all or hide select participants. (Source: Zoom)
However, GoToMeeting is the better tool when it comes to fine-tuning the details of your video settings. You can adjust the video brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, hue, power line frequency, white balance, and backlight settings. This control empowers you to have a good-lacking video image, regardless of your lighting or environment.
GoToMeeting limits its gallery view to only 25 participants at one time. (Source: GoToMeeting)
Zoom’s video settings are strong too, but they’re not quite as robust as GoToMeeting. You can change the aspect ratio and background image or blur to tune your video quality. You can also use a special touch-up setting to soften the presenter’s features during a call. This feature is great for combatting the effects of harsh lighting.
Best for Encryption: GoToMeeting
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Uses a 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) key. However, Zoom is only compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) on Zoom for Healthcare plan. | Uses a 128-bit AES key. GoToMeeting is compliant with HIPAA on every plan. |
While Zoom and GoToMeeting offer comparable encryption and security protocols, Zoom has a troubled history with privacy issues. GoToMeeting’s past has less baggage, giving it a better reputation for providing secure encryption. Zoom uses a 256-bit AES key, while GoToMeeting uses a 128-bit AES key.
Beyond encryption keys, there are other standards businesses must follow to be compliant with HIPAA regulations. Zoom provides HIPAA compliance, but it only does so under the Zoom for Healthcare plan, which costs $14.99 per user, per month for less than 10 licenses. On the other hand, GoToMeeting offers HIPAA compliance on all its plans—even the Free plan.
Best for Call Recording: GoToMeeting
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Offers 1GB of cloud recording per license for Pro and Business plans. Enterprise users get unlimited cloud storage. | GoToMeeting offers unlimited cloud storage (for 365 days since you recorded a session) on the Business and Enterprise plans. |
GoToMeeting is the winner when it comes to call recording. Once you upgrade to the Business or Enterprise plans, you’ll get unlimited cloud recording storage. Record and store as many meetings as you’d like, and get access to your recordings for up to 365 days.
Zoom’s Pro and Business plans get you 1GB of cloud recording storage per license. Often, this is more than adequate for most users’ needs, especially since users can download the video files and store them elsewhere if necessary. However, businesses must upgrade to the Enterprise plan if they need unlimited cloud storage.
Best for Integrations: Zoom
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Zoom offers 1,000+ third-party integrations. | GoToMeeting offers 71 third-party integrations. |
When it comes to integrations, it’s hard to find a video conferencing platform that connects with more apps than Zoom. Zoom boasts an impressive, more than 1,000 integrations in its Zoom App Marketplace, allowing you to type in an app, browse through the categories, or filter your results. If you need to integrate Zoom with your tech stack, there’s a good chance third-party integrations already exist.
GoToMeeting has a strong integrations MarketPlace too. You’ll find around 71 third-party apps, including popular solutions like HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Workspace (formerly G suite), and Microsoft Teams. It doesn’t have the number of integrations that Zoom has, but there’s a good chance GoToMeeting provides what you need.
Best for Customer Support: Zoom
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Zoom offers a help center and ticket, live chat, and phone support. | GoToMeeting provides a help center, live chat, and phone support. |
Zoom is the more straightforward option when it comes to requesting customer support. You can easily start a live chat with a representative, jump into the phone queue, or submit a ticket for less urgent requests. The help center provides all the phone numbers and links you need to find the right extension and get help quickly.
GoToMeeting’s support is a bit more complex. It’s hard to find where you can contact a live agent. Even after going through the live chat with their bot, Sparky, the virtual assistant kept navigating users back to the home support page rather than helping connect them with a human being.
Best Alternatives
While GoToMeeting and Zoom are industry-leading video conferencing platforms, their solutions might not be right for your business. Whether you need different features or pricing, an alternative might be a better fit.
A few GoToMeeting alternatives and Zoom alternatives include:
- Google Meet: Google Meet (formerly Google Hangouts) is a low-cost alternative to Zoom and GoToMeeting. The free plan offers 60-minute long meetings for up to 100 participants. Individuals can upgrade to a Google Workspace Individual account for just $7.99 per month to get access to longer meetings, cloud storage, breakout rooms, and intelligent noise cancellation.
- Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams is a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solution that offers video conferencing, team messaging, and cloud storage. Plus, when you upgrade past the free plan, you get access to Microsoft 365, which includes Microsoft Office apps.
- Cisco Webex: Cisco Webex has a reputation for being one of the world’s most secure, scalable video conferencing solutions. The pricing is comparable to GoToMeeting and Zoom, but you can also add a cloud-based phone number to your plan (with phone menus, extensions, and forwarding options) for just a small additional monthly fee.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is GoToMeeting cheaper than Zoom?
Not by a large margin. When you visit Zoom’s pricing page, they’re using a monthly subscription estimate. GoToMeeting uses an annual subscription estimate, making the price discrepancy appear much larger. On a per plan basis, GoToMeeting costs about 99 cents less per user, per month.
Which is better: Zoom or GoToMeeting?
Neither is universally better—each caters to a different business. For example, businesses that demand HIPAA compliance will be better off with GoToMeeting, while users who need extensive integrations will want to choose Zoom. Check out our comprehensive Zoom review for more information.
Is there a free version of GoToMeeting?
Yes. It’s not easy to find on its website, but GoToMeeting offers a free version to users. It only allows 40-minute meetings for up to three participants, but it’s a great way to experiment with the tool and determine if you like the experience and user interface. If you want to discover other free platforms aside from GoToMeeting, read our list of the best free conference call services.
Bottom Line
Most businesses can’t go wrong when deciding between Zoom and GoToMeeting—both provide HD video conferencing and high-end, in-meeting features like whiteboard, breakout rooms, and meeting recordings. If you want more integrations, better customer support, and a better free plan, we recommend Zoom. If encryption, video settings control, and unlimited cloud recording storage are priorities for your business, we suggest GoToMeeting.
