With the kind of technology available today, it is no longer necessary to be physically present for a meeting.
There are various web conferencing and instant sharing apps that let you remotely communicate with your clients or business partners via audio and video. And I believe, that by opting for video conferencing instead of a traditional meeting, the task is at least half the amount easier.
There might be numerous reasons why you would want to do an online meeting.
- When you’re traveling
- When you’re unwell
- When you’re dealing with overseas clients or employees
In all the above scenarios, you most likely won’t be able to turn up for a face-to-face meeting, so having a web conferencing app handy can do wonders. In this article, I’ll be sharing some of the best web conferencing solutions that will help you attend, organize, and collaborate effortlessly.
But before that, let’s know the benefits of web conferencing.
Benefits of Web Conferencing
Not location-dependent
As mentioned above, having a meeting via a web conferencing app doesn’t require you to be physically present in the room. You can connect with your clients no matter if you’re at home or the airport. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can be anywhere in the world and still hold a web conference.
If you are using public wi-fi then you may consider using VPN like HotstopShield for secure communication.
Times have changed for good, unlike 15 years ago when partners had to wait for weeks and gather everyone in a room to discuss something important.
Helps save time and money
By opting for a web conference, you’re directly and indirectly cutting off your cost and time. That’s because you don’t have to travel to a specific country or city to attend the meeting. It’s all happening right from your bedroom. This way, you save up on your traveling costs and, of course, your precious time.
Opens up more client-getting opportunities
As they say, finding clients isn’t tough, but closing them is.
Web conferences put client-closing on steroids. As it can be done entirely from the Internet, you can look for new clients for your business and ask them up for a 1-1 web conference to discuss the projects thoroughly. This way, you’re gaining trust and inching closer to successfully having them as paying clients.
You can replay
One of the best abilities of web conferences is, it lets you record the entire thing and watch it later when you want to. This way, you can squeeze in more and more value out of it and also share it with your partners who weren’t able to join in.
It is next to impossible to memorize each and everything that is discussed during the conference, so having a recording helps you pick even minor details to your knowledge.
Let’s find out the available options.
Zoom
Zoom is a fantastic solution for an individual to an enterprise.
With the basic (and free!) plan, you can hold unlimited conferences with as many as 100 members for up to 40 minutes. Not only that, you get full HD video and audio quality. Their premium plans start from $14.99/month and go up to $19.99/month that including features allowing you to:
- Record the conference
- Blur the background
- Manage your users
- Let someone else hold the meeting for you
- Have an admin dashboard with information
- Create your custom URL
- Create custom emails
- Have your company branding
Zoom is, no doubt, a great tool that big brands like GoDaddy and Uber use.
You can also do a Zoom test meeting to ensure everything is in order before the start of the actual meeting.
If you need a Zoom alternative and self-hosted open-source solution, then you must check Jitsi.
GoToMeeting
If you’re looking for web conferences that are fast and easy at the same time, GoToMeeting might be your best bet. With their one-click meetings, you can attend, host, or set up a conference within a whisker. No matter if it’s audio or video, you’re in for a quick process right from your laptop or your smartphone.
Their features allow you to:
- Host up to 250 members
- Run-on full HD
- Have a “call me” add-on that informs participants of scheduled meetings
- Turn slides into information-rich PDFs
- Record the conference
- And much more!
They have a risk-free 14-day free trial for you to try it out. After that, you can choose to pick any of their paid plans starting from $19/month.
ZEGOCLOUD
ZEGOCLOUD offers web conferencing solutions to empower remote workforces to collaborate effectively in real-time from anywhere, ensuring high-quality video calls. It also provides the following features:
- Real-time messaging
- Screen sharing
- Cloud recording and playback
- Interactive whiteboard
- Virtual background
- Face beautification
- And much more!
With ZEGOCLOUD, you can experience crisp and vivid visuals with up to 4K resolution and ultra-low latency. It supports up to 10,000 video participants in web conferencing sessions.
Additionally, ZEGOCLOUD offers 10,000 free minutes or a trial version of the product, requiring no initial start-up capital and no tied credit card. After that, you can choose to pay as you go or enjoy up to a 90% discount on the starter plan.
Adobe Connect
Adobe Connect allows you to host audio and video conferences straight from your browser. Within the conference, you can:
- Share your screen
- Conduct polls
- Have Q&A sessions
- Share helpful documents
- Include quizzes and games
- And much more!
You can also choose to design your virtual meeting rooms as per your liking. For example, you can change the background, set preferred colors, and select layouts. On top of that, you can set those as default and use it for all of your future meetings.
They have a free trial that you can make use of before you switch to their paid plans starting from $50/month up to $370/month. The entry-level plan allows you to host up to 25 people, and their biggest one allows up to 200.
In between, they have a few other plans for medium-sized businesses, so be sure to check them out and pick the one suitable for your needs.
Agora.io
Allowing you to share live audio and video instantly, Agora delivers an excellent service that can be utilized for good. It will enable you to use it free for the first 10,000 minutes, and after that, you can either pay as you go or talk with their team to set a suitable price.
The pricing and plan structure of this software is pretty unique because they haven’t set a fixed price. It is all upon us to decide what we want and then pay only for that. Many brands include Hike trust agora, Talk Space, and BitTorrent.
Amazon Chime
We all know what Amazon is, but not many of us know that they have a fantastic web conferencing solution called Amazon Chime that allows you to:
- Chat
- Voice call
- Video call
- Hold conferences and meetings
- Share your screen
- Record the conference
Similar to Agora, this software has not fixed any price, so you have to get in touch with the support team and decide accordingly. All I can say is, that you certainly can’t go wrong with its software of Amazon.
Google Meet
Google Meet is a part of Google Workspace and lets you hold video meetings with ease. So that you know, Google Hangouts and Hangouts Meet are two different products, and we’re talking about the latter here.
With the sole purpose of catering to businesses, this software does a great job. All you need is a Google Workspace to start sharing your live conference link with the masses for secure virtual meetings.
Depending upon which plan you have, you can host up to:25 participants for the basic and business plan and up to 50 for the enterprise plan.
Confrere
Confrere is another great video conferencing tool that has some fantastic features allowing you to:
- Make unlimited video calls
- Be 100% GDPR and HIPAA compliant
- Sell your services within the conference with Stripe integration
- Have API access
Their plans start from $49/month and go up to $119/month which includes more or less of the above features.
In order to instantly hold a video conference, all you do is sign up and start one from their dashboard. After that, you can simply share the link with anyone and everyone so they can join in.
Skype for Business
This list would be incomplete without mentioning Skype for Business which is designed for quality online meetings. Just like Confrere, you can start a video call and share the link with anyone you want for an instant conference. They have some great features that allow you to:
- Record the conference
- Share your screen
- Bring in a PowerPoint presentation for a better understanding
- Use whiteboard
- Conduct polls
You can have up to 250 people in a single conference (which is a lot!) and hold an unlimited number of meetings. Skype for Business can be accessed when you purchase Office 365, and their plans start from $5/month up to $12.50/month.
Zoho Showtime
Zoho Showtime is yet another fantastic web conferencing solution that is best suited when you want to hold training for your learners. With this tool, you can:
- Engage with your participants
- Have an all in all dashboard to manage leads and customers
- Monetize your programs
- Build a thorough classroom for learners
What’s more? They even have a great smartphone app for IOS and Android that lets you hold and attend conferences right from your device.
Conclusion
Web conferencing can literally change the game for your business because it saves you time and money in the long run. Also, most businesses are opting for it, so staying in the trend always helps.
