Best Video Conferencing Software 2024: 11 Tools Compared
A new era of video communication
During the COVID-19 pandemic, 62% of employed Americans worked from home, compared to only 7% before.
COVID-19 has changed education as well, probably forever. Around 93% of households with school-age children reported some form of distance learning during COVID-19.
For many of us, remote work means spending a lot of time on video conferencing platforms like Zoom. For students, it means plenty of virtual tutoring, career counseling, and mentoring on Google Hangouts.
But Zoom and Google Hangouts are not the only players in town. The video conference tools market is booming and could be worth $20 billion by 2024.
The best video conferencing software tools come packed with built-in capabilities for file sharing, HD audio and video, screen sharing, and recording, among other features, that make video conferencing almost as good as meeting face-to-face.
Whether you’re part of a remote workforce, have offices in multiple cities, or just need a secure platform to deliver your presentation, we made a list of the 11 best video conferencing software tools for 2020.
Video conferencing software comparison chart (top 10 highest rated)
Product | Best for | Pricing* | Site |
Zoom | Overall | $14.99 /month/license | |
GoToMeeting | Ease of use | $10.20 /organizer/month | |
MicrosoftTeams | Microsoft 365 users | $5 /user/month | |
Google Meet | Quick meetings | $6 /user/month | |
BlueJeans | Breakout meetings | $9.99 /host/month | |
Join.me | Team presentations | $10 /user/month | |
Skype | Free plan | Free | |
Cisco Webex Meetings | Large, Cisco customers | $13.50 /host/month | |
Zoho Meeting | Web presentations | $3 /host/month | |
LifeSize | 4K video conferencing | $12.50 /host/month |
*Prices start at
What is video conferencing software?
Video conferencing software is an innovative tool that simulates a conference room or classroom environment. As large in-person meetings won’t resume any time soon due to the COVID-19 pandemic, video collaboration tools have become a go-to solution for business meetings, employee socialization, and online education.
Whether you need to jump to a 1-on-1 call, an online lecture, or a virtual coffee video chat, these tools provide all the features you would need to meet, collaborate, and work securely from anywhere.
Video conferencing software is a suitable tool for fully remote teams, hybrid teams, and in-office teams who can't be in the same room at the same time. Technology-powered advanced features such as HD video and audio, built-in chat tools, and integrated file sharing make it easier for teams to deliver powerful presentations, hold effective brainstorming meetings, and engage in constructive 1:1s.
A video conferencing tool does so much more than just show your face to the rest of the group. It makes it easy for participants to share files, assign tasks, record meetings, and more. Some tools take the extra step to let users share and play videos with full audio and video transmit and make meetings more fun with virtual backgrounds.
Team meetings are not the only thing you can do with a video conferencing tool. Lectures, presentations, webinars, events, and product demonstrations with up to thousands of attendees can all take place virtually live with people inside and outside your company.
In a nutshell, video conferencing software tools can help you:
Connect with your team from where you're working.
Work together with your team in real-life using features like digital whiteboard and screen share.
Meet with your team or audience in any type of situation, whether that is a sales pitch or a team training.
Host secure virtual meetings with the option to remove attendees, mute, allow people to join automatically and designate presenters.
Record your meetings and share them with participants later.
Conduct effective online lectures.
Hold presentations, webinars, events, and product demonstrations with thousands of attendees.
What are the different types of video conferencing software?
Desktop applications
Internal team members of a company often use desktop applications. Most of the tools on this list support desktop applications for all major operating systems, such as Windows and macOS. To access a desktop application, users have to download the application first. Once it's downloaded, they can start using all the functionalities the application provides, such as:
Host meetings.
Join meetings.
Schedule meetings.
Browser-based
Instead of downloading a desktop app, users can join a video conference call through a web browser. This type of video conferencing software is ideal for people joining a meeting from outside your company. For example, you may be a sales company that needs to invite external prospects and customers to join a video conference. To get people from outside your company to join a meeting, you can simply invite them by sharing the URL link of the meeting location. Once they access the meeting, the entire collaboration happens through a web browser. Zero downloads required!
Mobile
Mobile video conferencing software is best suited for those who are always on the move. And it's super easy to use! The bulk of vendors have a proprietary mobile app that users can download from Google Play or the App Store. Once the app is downloaded, users can organize, join, or schedule meetings, as long as they're connected to Wi-Fi or by connecting via the data plan provided by their cellular carrier. The mobile apps are available across all devices, including iPhone, Android phones, iPads, and other mobile devices. The more powerful mobile apps also offer toll-free and local phone number choices for dial-in and call me-back service in low-bandwidth scenarios.
Meeting room systems
Meeting room systems are designed for large spaces and large groups who are in a single location. If you're holding a video conference in a spacious executive board room with dozens of people present, a small laptop at the end of the table won't be enough. Being more complex, these solutions involve additional hardware, such as TV, microphones, speakers, external cameras, and more.
What is the best video conferencing software? Here’s our top 11 list:
We'll break our top picks in detail below. In our comparison of the top 11 video conferencing software for meetings, we explain the most notable benefits and pricing plans. Although the choices are vast, not all software is built the same.
1. Zoom (best video conferencing software overall)
If you haven't heard of Zoom by now, you may be the only one. The platform has become the go-to-meeting app for teams and is one of the leading providers of remote-video meetings, web conferencing, and screen sharing.
Fun fact: the company peaked at 300 million daily participants in April 2020, up from 10 million in December 2019.
To cut a long story short, Zoom makes it easy to schedule a meeting, chat while you're meeting, and record, transcribe, and archive meetings for future purposes.
Users love that they can count on sharp HD video and audio, regardless of how many people are attending the meeting. In fact, Zoom can support up to 1000 video participants and 49 videos on a screen.
You can even sync it with your calendar app, being Outlook, Gmail, or iCal.
Other features include the ability for multiple participants to simultaneously share their screens, hand raising, and putting attendees on hold. You can also share documents, audio and video files, even screenshots while you're in a meeting.
Need a change of scenery? The Virtual Background feature lets you add an image of your choice as your background during a meeting.
Finally, the great news is that you can choose between a free plan and three paid plans. The free plan lets you host up to 100 participants, hold up to 40-minute group meetings, and unlimited 1:1 meetings. The cheapest paid plan, which comes at $149 per year, is excellent for small teams. Enterprises can purchase plenty of add-ons, including a full Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service, cloud storage, and increase the number of participants to up to 500 or 1,000.
Zoom is best for:
Those who are looking for a generous free account.
Small and medium businesses.
Rich features.
Ease of use.
Reliability.
High-quality video.
2. GoToMeeting (best for ease of use)
GoToMeeting is another powerful tool for the mobile, remote, and globalized working world on our list of comparisons.
The platform makes hosting, managing or joining a video call a breeze. You can be working from your home office, conference room, or commuting, and still host or attend a meeting via your Mac, PC, or mobile device.
Meetings can have up to 250 participants and 25 active HD webcams. You can even create a custom meeting link that never changes so that you can schedule and attend meetings with ease.
If you're a lazy typer, you will love the next feature. The platform lets you join an online meeting or audio conferencing session in an instant just by asking Siri.
Heck, you can even record any meeting while you're on the go as cloud recording is available on the GoToMeeting mobile app. There's also a drawing mode that lets the person in control highlight text, draw arrows, and spotlight specific elements.
Other great features include calendar integrations, compiling slides from presentations and converting them to a PDF, chat/instant messaging, and freephone conferencing. The "Call Me" feature lets GoToMeeting call you during a previously scheduled meeting, making it an appealing feature for individuals who want to join a meeting quickly.
Participants don't have to download the app to access a meeting or share their screen. The platform supports screen sharing from all Chrome web browsers. You can even share your screen from an iPhone or iPad device and switch between iOS devices seamlessly.
The free plan, called GoToMeeting Free, lets you host 40-minute meetings with up to three participants, which can be enough for personal use. However, if you're a team that counts more than three people, then you can subscribe to one of the three paid plans that starts at $10.20/organizer/month.
GoToMeeting is best for:
Ease of use.
Commuter mode.
Automatic meeting transcription.
Custom meeting links.
Multiple language support.
Launch a meeting from integrated third-party apps.
Excellent customer support.
3. Microsoft Teams (great pick for Microsoft 365 users)
Zoom has received heavy criticism for its security setbacks that have turned off many enterprise customers. That has created a great opportunity for strong competitors like Microsoft Teams to woo potential customers.
Microsoft Teams has excellent video conferencing features. You cannot only record your meetings, but the automatic transcription feature lets you play back meetings and quickly find important discussions.
Hosts can mute, remove uninvited attendees, and designate presenters. People can join automatically, or if they're early, you can have them wait in the virtual lobby. Anyone in your Microsoft Teams account can call you. If you don't answer, the caller can leave a voicemail-like message. With the right permissions, you can access a person's Outlook calendar to find a good time for a video meeting.
Is the meeting too crowded and can't seem to speak your mind? Teams lets you raise your hand and get the host's attention.
Microsoft Teams provides many other features you would expect from a leading video conferencing software provider, including live captions, digital whiteboarding, and customized backgrounds.
The free plan is generous and lets you schedule an unlimited number of 45-minute meetings, with up to 300 meeting participants. There are three paid plans, ranging from $5/user/month to $20/user/month. Microsoft Teams is also included with Office 365 business accounts.
Microsoft Teams is best for:
Large businesses.
Team collaboration.
Tight integration with other Microsoft Office apps.
Groups already using Microsoft products.
4. Google Meet (a good pick for quick meetings)
Google Meet is a well-known video conferencing software tool used by workplaces and classrooms around the world. This tool may be simpler than Zoom, but it has all the basic collaboration features you would need to conduct productive meetings. The best part? It's included with Google Workspace, Google Workspace Essentials, and G Suite for Education.
Scheduling a meeting is as quick as saying "blueberry pancakes". Simply set up a meeting and share a link. There's no need to worry whether team members, students, or customers have the right accounts.
You can also share your screen so others can see what you're seeing, which can be handy during slide presentations. Through the chat feature, Meets lets you share documents, images, and files. With just a click of a button, you can turn on real-time captioning so that attendees can easily understand what's said in a meeting. One of the newest additions to the features bundle is the noise-canceling feature, making meetings even more productive.
Google Workspace users can have a great meeting experience, whether they're connected on the internet or not, as there's a dial-in phone number for each meeting.
Google Meet now offers a free plan that could be useful for smaller teams. The free version supports up to 100 participants and meetings can last for up to 60 minutes. If you want to unlock more features, you'll have to upgrade to one of the Google Workspace, Google Workspace Essentials, or G Suite for Education paid plans. The cheapest paid plan costs as little as $6 a month per user.
Google Meet is best for:
Seamless integration with other Google apps.
Businesses looking for a low-price video conferencing solution.
Quick meetings.
Smaller teams.
Noise-canceling feature.
5. BlueJeans Meetings (top pick for breakout meetings)
BlueJeans is a scalable video conferencing software tool geared towards small and large businesses. It supports up to 100 participants that can join from any location via the browser or the mobile app.
The platform offers the best audio capabilities on the market for video conferencing, thanks to Dolby Voice. BluesJeans with Dolby Voice suppresses background noise and maintains consistent volume across soft and loud talkers, allowing attendees to communicate as if they were in the same room.
Other features include breaking down meeting recordings into chapters, meeting highlights with task assignment, smart follow-up, screen-sharing, and whiteboarding tools. Trainers and educators may be seduced by the platform's breakout sessions feature which lets them create separate rooms and moving participants in and out of them as needed.
There are three paid plans to choose from, beginning at $9.99/host/month if paid annually, including unlimited meetings of up to 50 participants and five hours of video recording per month. The Pro plan costs $13.99/host/month if paid annually and supports up to 75 participants with 20 extra hours of recording.
In addition to BlueJeans Meetings, organizations can opt for BlueJeans Rooms service, which powers video conferencing rooms in your office, and BlueJeans Events, geared toward webinars.
Bluejeans is best for:
Audio and video quality.
Smart meetings.
Breakout sessions.
Integration with Facebook Live.
Trainers and educators.
6. Join.me (top choice for team presentations)
Join.me is a feature-packed platform with affordable plans and great call and video quality.
What makes the software stand out from the bunch is the feature for creating a fully personalized and branded experience. You can easily create a customized meeting link that complements your brand or the meeting subject. You can also get creative and customize your background so that attendees can look at your company logo or you chilling at a tropical beach.
But that's not where the fun ends! Join.me presents participants in video bubbles, floating visual images of you and the people you're meeting.
You can give clients or customers the option to use a toll-free number, a great feature that makes Join.me an instant and hassle-free way to host or join a meeting.
Join.me is suitable for team presentations, too. Using the presenter swap feature, you can quickly transfer the presenter role to let another participant share their screen.
Through the join.me scheduler, you can send meeting details quickly and easily. The scheduler is nicely integrated with Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook to enable you to send invites via email.
Join.me discontinued its free plan in an effort to improve the paid versions. Paid plans range from $10/user/month to $30 \/user/month. The cheapest plan supports an unlimited number of meetings with up to five participants and no time limits. You can have up to 250 participants in a meeting if you opt for the Business plan.
Join.me is best for:
Consistent branding experience.
Team presentations.
Presenter swap.
Ease of use.
7. Microsoft Skype (good free option)
Skype is another tool on this list that doesn't need any introduction. Nearly all of us have "Skyped" with a friend, family, or a client at some point in our life, which shows just how popular the platform is.
In 2019, Skype announced that it would be retiring its Skype for Business product and offering one product for both individuals and businesses. The good news is that the platform can be used free of charge and supports up to 50 participants per meeting.
With that being said, the platform comes with all the basic features small and medium-sized organizations would need for great audio and video conferencing sessions.
Hosting a meeting is a piece of cake. You need to simply create a meeting link and share the link with everyone who's attending. On the plus side, the meeting link doesn't expire and can be accessed anytime. The system lets you record your meetings and stores them for up to 30 days.
Skype even has a great feature for those who are always on the go and often find themselves unprepared for a meeting session. If this happens to you, just turn on the background blur feature and be worry-free.
You can enjoy a high level of collaboration by sharing presentations, work materials, photos, or anything else on your screen during a call. Other good-to-have features include live captions, whiteboarding and QA, Skype translate, instant messaging, and group chat.
If you want to call a person's cell phone or landline through Skype, you can upgrade to a paid subscription that starts at $2.99 per month. There's also the option to purchase Skype Credit to make phone calls if you need an extended number of minutes.
Microsoft Skype is best for:
Affordability.
Seamless user experience.
Remote team management.
Sharing presentations, work materials, photos.
Small and mid-sized companies.
High video and audio quality.
8. Cisco Webex Meetings (suitable for large, Cisco customers)
Cisco Webex Meetings is a great pick for large, existing Cisco customers looking for a powerful video conferencing tool. It's easy to use and comes packed with features.
You'll find a full suite of standard video conferencing features like screen sharing, calendar integration, storing your meetings locally or on the cloud, and automatic transcriptions. Cisco also enables in-call polls and Q&A sessions.
Additionally, hosts can share their desktop, a specific app, or files from their computer. There's a whiteboard feature for sketches and notes, as well.
Another feature that stands out is the AI-powered Webex Assistant that can create action items, take notes, and even set up future meetings through a set of voice commands.
You can join a meeting through a browser, a desktop app, with a dial-in number, or have the meeting call you directly.
In terms of pricing, Cisco is known as an upper-end product. However, the company has dropped the price considerably to appeal to budget-conscious customers. To assist businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, Cisco has expanded its free plan, which now includes unlimited meetings, no duration restrictions, and support for up to 100 participants per meeting.
Suppose your needs exceed the basic free plan. In that case, you can choose between the four paid plans, including Starter ($13.50/host/month for up to 50 attendees), Plus ($17.95/host/month for up to 100 attendees), Business ($26.95/host/month for up to 200 attendees), and Enterprise (contact Cisco for precise pricing).
Cisco Webex Meetings is best for:
HD video and audio.
Cross-device compatibility.
Automatic transcription.
Security.
Existing Cisco customers.
Larger companies.
9. Zoho Meeting (best for web presentations)
Its easy-to-use features and low price is what got Zoho Meeting on this list. The platform can be an appealing pick for small and midsize companies looking for an affordable, easy to use, and secure video conferencing tool.
Advanced moderator controls let you mute all or individual participants, allow participants to share their screen, get sound notifications for entry and exit of participants, and remove participants when they no longer need to participate in the meeting.
Many teams may find the recording feature quite useful as it lets you revisit any topic that has been discussed in one of your meetings, download a recording for offline use, or share a meeting with a link.
One unique feature that you won't find with other platforms is the ability to embed meeting links on your organization's website to allow any user in the world to tune in to see your presentation.
Until recently, you could use Zoho Meeting for free, but that's no longer the case. The only way to access its features is by subscribing to one of the paid plans. The cheapest plan will cost you €2.5/host/month for up to 10 participants. The most expensive plan supports up to 100 participants and will cost you €10 per host.
Zoho also offers four Webinar packages ranging in cost from €15 to €63 per month with up to 150 attendees. With a Webinar plan, you can host live video webinars and share your screen, an application window, or another monitor's screen to support your presentation. You can even add your colleagues or guest speakers to your webinar as co-organizers.
Zoho Meeting is best for:
Secure meetings.
Small and midsize businesses.
Web presentations.
Webinars.
Affordable plans.
Advanced moderator controls.
10. LifeSize (great for 4K video conferencing)
LifeSize has spent fifteen years developing conference room systems, wireless meeting room presentation devices, and video conferencing apps.
The platform offers all the standard features you would find with any other platform on the list, including a downloadable app for desktop and mobile, screen sharing, meeting recordings, one-click meetings, and calendar integration.
What separates LifeSize from its competitors is its 4K-capable solution for both 4K video streams and full-motion 4K content sharing. Businesses that regularly conduct important video meetings can count on unmatched video quality.
Integration with a range of other apps is possible, so you won't have to double up on work. LifeSize nicely integrates with tools like Slack, Skype, and Microsoft Teams.
Lifesize boasts some of the most comprehensive video conferencing software on the market, but it also provides some of the most powerful hardware. By combining cloud services with meeting room systems, LifeSize enables an outstanding video conferencing experience.
LifeSize offers a freemium plan in addition to three paid plans. The free plan includes unlimited meetings with up to 10 participants, making it a well-suited plan for individuals. The three paid plans include Standard ($12.50/host/month for up to 100 attendees), Plus ($14.95/host/month for up to 300 attendees), and Enterprise (price upon contact).
LifeSize is best for:
4K video conferencing.
Encrypted meetings.
Integration options.
Affordability.
Medium and large-sized companies.
Hardware and software integration.
Live streaming events.
11. RingCentral Meetings (good for businesses of all sizes)
RingCentral is one integrated communications app for phone, messaging, and video meetings that offers all the standard features such as one-click meetings, HD voice and video, recording, and screen sharing.
But what makes it distinctive from its competitors is its screen-sharing technology. The platform offers support for mobile screen sharing and integrations with Google Drive and Dropbox, making it ideal for sharing presentations during meetings. Meaning, you can share individuals windows or the screen of a connected iPhone or iPad.
The app offers a recording feature but it's good to note that it is only available as an offline functionality. In other words, you can save the recording as a video file to a local hard disk and not in your cloud storage.
You can choose between two basic modes for video conferencing, including the "Speaker Mode" that shows the current speaker as the largest video feed, and "Gallery View", which can show up to 49 participants simultaneously.
One feature that many teams may find useful is the option for more than just the primary presenter to share their screen. In addition, hosts can mute and unmute attendees and choose toll of toll-free calling options for their meetings.
There's a free plan available that includes unlimited 1:1 meetings with up to 100 participants. The group meetings are limited to 40 minutes per session. There are two paid plans, including Essentials ($14.99/user/month), offering unlimited 1:1 and group meetings with up to 100 participants, and 1,000 call me minutes. The Advanced plan ($19.99/user/month) has all the features from Essentials with the addition of 2,500 call me minutes, a usage dashboard, and service-level agreement (SLA).
RingCentral Meetings is best for:
Businesses of all sizes.
Generous free plan.
Works on all major platforms.
Smaller teams.
Ease of use.
Key takeaways
In this article, we chose Zoom as the best video conferencing software tool overall. However, that doesn't mean that the app is the best tool for you and your business.
That will depend on your business size, industry, or video conferencing needs. As we can see, certain platforms on the list are geared towards small businesses, while others can support businesses of all sizes. Some platforms come equipped with powerful screen-sharing features, and there are some with better recording capabilities.
If you're looking for a tool that contains standard features like screen sharing, video recording, and one-click access, then GoToMeeting and Google Meet are two great picks.
Microsoft Office fans may want to go with Microsoft Teams that seamlessly integrates with every Microsoft Office app out there.
LifeSize may surprise you with its 4K support for video and content sharing. So, if 4K video conferencing is what floats your boat, definitely go with LifeSize.
Whichever tool you end up choosing, one thing’s certain: once you add a video component with strong collaboration features to your meetings, you’ll start communicating better with everyone. And as stay-at-home work orders look to become a long-term trend, you better choose wisely!
