The Need for Video Conferencing Software
Video conferencing software isn’t a new thing.
There are many video conferencing tools that have served as platforms for companies to connect people in the same company.
When people have meetings in different rooms or different departments, it’s easier to connect using video conferencing because they don’t have to be in the same place.
Moreover, they don’t have to move from one room to another to get their point across.
By using video conferencing, productivity can increase up to 50%.
Since the advert of Covid-19, we’ve resorted to using video conferencing software more than ever – not only for internal communication but also for external parties such as our suppliers, clients, customers and partners.
Because of the pandemic, most, if not all of the employees are now working from home.
As a result, we’re using video conferencing software more than ever to communicate with each other.
After all, video conferencing tools make it easier to do an online collaboration.
A survey shows that 76% of employees use video conferencing during their remote work.
In the future, people are more likely to stay working at home and still use video conferencing software.
Because of the big possibility, you need to understand on the myriad of video conferencing tools out there that suit your need.
So if your organization hasn’t been optimizing and using video conference tools, this article will share more on the prevailing popular and most-used video conferencing softwares in the market.
Here are the 4 best video conferencing apps we’ve compiled that you can use in your company.
1. Zoom
Zoom is perhaps the most-used video conferencing software and the most well-known. It saw a significant rise in usage ever since the pandemic and will continue to rise.
According to Okta’s 2021 Businesses at Work report, the Deployment of Zoom grew over 45% between March and October of 2020.
Looking at the chart below, we can see Zoom impressive growth in the EMEA area, signalling their continued dominance in the video conferencing industry.
Zoom is a great and simple video conferencing tool because it is user friendly and anyone can start on a free plan.
If you want to utilise more features and to have a longer conferencing time, you can easily purchase a pricing plan that suits your company’s needs.
Whether it is for personal meetings or for large enterprises, you can use Zoom to communicate with your co-workers and people in your company, or with external parties.
All of the features that you get when you use Zoom’s highest plan are:
- Can host a meeting up to 500 participants (can be extended with add-on)
- Private and group chat
- Group meetings up to 30 hours
- Unlimited cloud storage
- Social media streaming
- Recording transcripts
- Single sign-on
- Company branding
These are just features listed on the pricing plan, but if you want to customize Zoom for your company, you can add many optional add-on plans.
These plans include adding more participants, increasing cloud storage, and many other features.
Unfortunately, the free version is quite limited in its capabilities and is only suited for personal small meetings.
For example, the Free plan only allows up to 100 participants and a 40-minute time limit on its meeting.
Looking beyond the Free plan, the pricing plans is not very expensive so it’ll be great if your company wants to invest in good video conferencing software like Zoom.
- Basic plan: Free
- Pro plan: $14.99/month/license
- Business plan: $19.99/month/license
- Enterprise: $19.99/month/license
Rating: 8/10
2. Google Meet
Google Meet is simple video conferencing software that can be used for personal meetings or for your business.
What’s easy about it is that you just need to have a Google Account to join the meeting.
You can join the meeting from Google Calendar, an email invite, directly from Gmail, or you can share a short link. The short link can be accessed by anyone with who you share the meeting link.
Given the ubiquity of Google in most of our lives, having a seamless integration with the difference Google apps provides us ease and speed in initiating an online conference.
Google Meet allows you to open the meeting through its mobile app, Gmail mobile app, and web browsers (Chrome Browser, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari).
Google Meet is also fully integrated with Google Workspace, making it easier for your company to collaborate online.
The free version offers a one-on-one call for 24 hours, and 60 minutes call for 3 or more participants.
Although the meeting is limited to the free version, the features and interface on Google Meet are great. So you might want to consider getting it if your company is a mid to large enterprise.
If you want to get the paid version, the highest pricing plan in Google Workspace has all the features including:
- Unlimited cloud storage for every user
- Custom and secure business email
- Up to 250 participants video meetings with recording and attendance tracking
- Enhanced security and management controls
There are a variety of plans and prices to suit your business size, so you can try to use Google Meet with integrated Google Workspace for free for 14 days trial.
The pricing plan on the website lists out 4 pricing plans:
- Starter: $4.20 USD/user/month
- Standard: $9.60 USD/user/month
- Plus: $18 USD/user/month
- Enterprise: Depending on the customization
Rating: 8.5/10
3. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a one-in-all communication platform that can be used for chat, calls, video meetings, and project collaboration.
Teams is designed for everyone and for every business size.
Whether it be personal groups or classes to large enterprises, Microsoft Teams can accommodate a big number of people.
With just the free version, you’re already getting most of its features with some limitations. The meeting can include up to 100 participants with 60 minutes time limit.
You can also schedule meetings, customize backgrounds, screen sharing in its video conferences.
In the integrated group chat, you can also have up to 500K users and use unlimited chat messages in Teams.
Of course, if you want to get more benefits, the pricing plans include features such as:
- Up to 300 participants in one meeting
- 24 hour duration non-stop meeting
- 1 TB file storage plus an additional 10 GB per license
- Web and desktop version of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Publisher
- Microsoft Bookings
The pricing plans of Microsoft Teams are simple and if you want more customization, you can purchase additional add-on like free, unlimited video conferencing. If you’re interested in getting Teams, their price plans are listed below:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $5 USD/user/month
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 USD/user/month
Rating: 8/10
4. Bluejeans
Bluejeans is a platform that offers cloud-based video conferencing services.
It assures you the best quality you can have during video conferences and meetings.
By using Bluejeans, you can have Dolby Voice audio and HD video for an amazing experience in virtual meetings.
It’s also flexible because it can be opened from a browser, computer, or mobile device app.
Bluejeans is paid video conferencing software, so you’ll have to register to one of its pricing plans if you want to host a video conference.
But participants don’t have to pay to be able to join the meeting.
If you want to try out the full features like in the pricing plans, Bluejeans offer a free trial. When you want to buy the pricing plan, you’ll get access to features like:
- Up to 200 participants in one meeting
- Unlimited meeting hours
- Unlimited recording
- Automated Closed Captioning (CC)
- Real-time transcription
- Brand customization
Unfortunately, because Bluejeans is now owned by Verizon, it becomes unavailable to some countries.
You might want to check out the list of countries they provide on their own website yourself.
As for the price plan, Bluejeans offer several pricing plans:
- Standard: starts at $9.99/host/month
- Pro: starts at $13.99/host/month
- Enterprise: starts at $16.66/host/month
- Enterprise Plus: depends on the customized add-ons, check their website to get a price quote
Bluejeans offers options and add-ons that you can add to your plan at an additional price. Some of those add-ons include enterprise-wide access, advanced support options, meeting access, and etc.
Bluejeans is a great video conferencing software. Despite being a paid tool, it still offers a reasonable pricing plan that only applies to the host.
Besides that, there are many features it offers that can enhance your online meeting experience.
It’s interactive, it has great qualities, and it can accommodate many participants in an unlimited meeting duration.
Rating: 7/10
Conclusion
A smooth virtual meeting can also increase employees’ relationships and productivity as well.
If you want a reasonable and best overall video conferencing software, you might want to get Zoom meetings.
If you want to have easy work collaboration with big workspace storage, you might want to opt for Google Meet.
Or maybe you’re looking for an all-in-one platform for your company’s teams? You might want to choose Microsoft Teams.
Furthermore, if you want top-notch audio and video quality, you can try Bluejeans.
Although there are many other video conferencing tools that are on the market, we’ve picked these 4 for you.
These 4 tools include the best features for your company and are very versatile for any business. If you need, you can invest in these video conferencing tools to enhance the online collaborations in your company.
As there’s the need for video conferencing, there will also be a need for employees who are willing to work remotely. And if you want to employ remote workers, you can try and head over to our career platform: 9cv9.
You might also want to read:
6 best tools for team building for a remote team in 2021
Effective Communication on Zoom: 4 How-to Tips
4 Tips to Build Effective Company Culture During the Pandemic
