Best Video Conferencing Software

If you’re looking for a seamless video conferencing experience that allows for effective collaboration, then look no further than RingCentral. Our team of remote workers has tried and tested numerous video conferencing tools, and we confidently recommend RingCentral as the best option out there.

RingCentral offers all the necessary features to create an engaging virtual environment, with the added benefit of no installation required. With its free plan, up to 100 participants can join your meetings hassle-free, and your team can easily connect from anywhere in the world. Trust us, RingCentral is the video conferencing software you need to streamline your digital collaboration and take your remote team to the next level.

The Best Video Conferencing Software for Most

Hey there! If you’re on the hunt for a top-notch communication tool, look no further than RingCentral! These guys are killing it in the communications category and for good reason.

With RingCentral, you can host meetings with up to 100 participants for a whole 24 hours – and the best part? It’s absolutely free! That’s right, you can chat away with your team without worrying about time limits or extra costs.

Compared to other alternatives out there, RingCentral offers the most generous free plan on our list. No more 40-minute time caps, you and your team can hop on calls whenever you like, without shelling out a penny.

What’s more, RingCentral comes with a bunch of other cool features such as HD-quality video and voice, internal messaging, basic task management features, and 10 hours of encrypted storage space for your recordings. It’s the ultimate package for seamless communication and collaboration.

So why settle for anything less? Choose RingCentral and experience the power of a top-notch communication tool that doesn’t cost you a dime.

The 5 Best Video Conferencing Options to Consider:

1. RingCentral – Best video conferencing software for most
2. Zoho Meeting – Best for simple webinars at a budget-friendly price
3. Microsoft Teams – Best video conferencing tool for large businesses
4. Vectera – Best for branded 1:1 video calls with customers & clients
5. Livestorm – Best if you focus heavily on webinars and live events

When It Makes Sense to Invest Into Video Conferencing Software

Video conferencing software has become an essential part of our lives, helping us stay connected with colleagues, friends, and family, no matter where we are. While any conferencing tool may suffice for personal use, it’s important to be more selective when it comes to business use since these tools come in a variety of shapes and sizes beyond hosting virtual happy hours with beach-themed backgrounds.

From free options to premium solutions, tools for hosting webinars or live events, simple solutions for smaller teams, fully customizable options, and everything in between, there is a video conferencing tool out there for every need. Whether you’re facilitating large meetings with thousands of participants, meeting with clients, connecting with your audience, or bridging the gap between remote employees, video conferencing software is crucial.

With video conferencing software, you can connect with your people face-to-face, from anywhere in the world. Most video conferencing tools offer a free plan, moderately-priced premium tiers, and custom enterprise plans, depending on the size of your conferences and the features you need. In fact, you may not even have to pay anything to invest in video conferencing software, as many free plans offer robust features that are perfect for small teams or personal use.

So, whether you’re looking for a simple solution or a feature-packed tool, video conferencing software has got you covered. Choose the one that best suits your needs, and stay connected with your team, clients, and audience, no matter where they are.

#1 – RingCentral Video — The Best Video Conferencing Software for Most

RingCentral is the ultimate all-in-one business communications platform, offering a wide range of services including VoIP phone services, internal messaging, faxing, business SMS, video conferencing, and more. But if you’re just looking for a comprehensive and free virtual meeting solution, RingCentral Video is the tool for you.

RingCentral Video has a generous free plan that allows up to 100 participants and a 24-hour meeting duration, making it the most robust free plan available. Unlike other free video conferencing tools that limit group calls to 40 minutes or an hour, RingCentral Video’s free plan is perfect for teams that rely on video conferencing as their primary method of collaboration.

One-click access from desktop or mobile devices without downloading anything, the ability to switch between devices during calls, and two-way sync for Microsoft and Google calendars make scheduling and attending meetings effortless.

As the host, you have complete control over who can join and can easily mute everyone or individual users as needed. The free plan includes HD video and voice, ensuring that your meetings are productive and hassle-free.

With RingCentral Video, you can also enjoy 10 hours of encrypted recording storage space with a retention limit of seven days. For added convenience, you can download and save recordings elsewhere as long as you do so within the seven-day timeframe.

Aside from video conferencing, RingCentral Video also provides 1:1 or group instant messaging, chatting with external users, file sharing, and basic task management. Turning attendee lists into chat rooms is also a breeze, making it easy to keep all communication related to a project in one place.

If you need to host larger meetings, you can upgrade to RingCentral Video Pro+, which allows up to 200 participants and comes with 100 hours of secure video storage for 365 days.

However, not everyone on your team needs a paid account. With just one paid account, you can unlock RingCentral Video’s premium features for everyone else to use.

If you’re in need of a complete VoIP setup, free phone numbers for your team, unlimited faxing and SMS, audio conferencing, and all the features from RingCentral Video, you can upgrade to RingCentral Office.

It starts at $27.99 per month and is recommended for those in need of an all-in-one communications package.

Overall, RingCentral is the perfect solution for anyone looking for an all-in-one business communications platform. Whether you need a free virtual meeting solution or a comprehensive package, RingCentral has got you covered. Sign up for a free-forever account or a free trial today to see what RingCentral can do for you and your team.

#2 – Zoho Meeting — The Best for Simple Webinars at a Budget-Friendly Price

Zoho Meetings is an excellent choice if you’re looking for an affordable way to host webinars with up to 1,000 participants or if you’re already using other Zoho products like its CRM or Marketing Hub. With its excellent balance of functionality and affordability, Zoho Meetings offers everything you need to offer an exceptional webinar experience, whether you’re funneling leads into your sales funnel, training existing customers, or offering free educational content.

Zoho Meeting is one of the easiest live event and webinar solutions to use, with a focus on simplicity. The first step is creating a registration form so your audience can RSVP and get notifications about your upcoming event. With Zoho Meeting, you can customize these forms to match your brand, including adding custom fields and questions to help you understand who’s attending your event and how you can help them.

As registrants start to flow in, you can approve, deny, or cancel registrations to ensure only the right people attend your event. No spammers and no scammers allowed. Once your webinar starts, participants can easily join in with one click from any browser, without having to download software. Attendees can also use a free dial-in number from 100+ countries to join by phone, instead.

Zoho Meeting also offers tools to gather valuable insights before or during your event, such as real-time polls, which provide the opportunity to ask attendees what specific topics they want to hear about. Additionally, attendees can message each other, ask questions, raise their hands, ask to speak, and share their screens if you let them. Once you’re done presenting, you can automatically redirect users to any URL and invite them to take the next steps.

Although Zoho Meeting focuses on webinar basics, it comes with all the essential tools you need at a much more affordable price than most webinar-specific tools. There are seven pricing tiers to choose from, with the free version allowing up to 10 attendees with limited features. There are also affordable plans for virtual meetings starting at just $3 per host per month for meetings with up to 10 participants and going up to $12 per host per month for up to 100 participants.

Zoho Meeting may not come with marketing tools, advanced customizations, attendee acquisition features, or the ability to stream on social media, but it’s an excellent option for small to medium-sized businesses looking for an affordable way to host webinars with less than 1,000 participants. Compared to other options on the market, Zoho Meeting is an absolute steal.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial to take Zoho Meeting for a test drive today!

#3 – Microsoft Teams — The Best for Virtual Meetings with More than 200 Participants

Are you in need of a meeting space that can accommodate more than 200 participants? If so, RingCentral may not be the best option for you as it has a maximum limit of 200 attendees. Luckily, Microsoft Teams is a flexible and affordable alternative that can host up to 10,000 meeting participants.

For only $20 per month, Microsoft Teams’ top tier plan is an absolute steal and less than twice the price of RingCentral. Additionally, if you already use Microsoft 365 for business email accounts, you already have access to Microsoft Teams at no extra cost. No software installations are required, so you can start using it right away.

Microsoft Teams also offers a free forever plan, which allows up to 100 participants with a 60-minute meeting duration limit. Upgrading to a paid plan is simple and can be done in just a few clicks. You can invite anyone with an email address to join your meetings, and participants don’t need an account to hop on a video call.

During meetings, users can share their screens, set virtual backgrounds, blur their backgrounds, raise their hands, and start virtual whiteboarding sessions to keep creativity flowing. Live captioning is also available.

Paid plans include business emails for your team (if you don’t already have them), real-time file collaboration with Microsoft Office apps, and 1 TB of personal file storage plus 10 GB for every paid user. You can use the storage space for meeting recordings, documents, and other files in one place.

Microsoft Teams offers two plans – Business Basic and Standard ($5 per user per month and $12.50 per user per month, respectively) – that allow users to host meetings with up to 300 participants and a 24-hour meeting duration. The Standard plan comes with desktop versions of all Microsoft Office apps for all users and a built-in appointment scheduler.

For businesses that need to host meetings with more than 300 participants, upgrading to Office 365 E3 is required. With this plan, users can hold meetings with up to 10,000 participants simultaneously and enjoy unlimited personal storage space and priority support.

You can mix and match licenses, allowing everyone on the team to use the free plan, with a few paid users regularly hosting your large meetings. This strategy can help you keep your costs low while giving you all the virtual space you need.

In summary, Microsoft Teams offers an excellent meeting space solution with various pricing plans to choose from. You can sign up for a free forever plan or a 30-day free trial to see if Microsoft Teams is the right fit for you, your team, and your business.

#4 – Vectera — The Best for Branded 1:1 Video Calls with Customers & Clients

Vectera is a unique video conferencing solution that offers a customizable and personalized experience for 1:1 and small group calls with customers or clients. While other platforms focus on large calls, Vectera provides a fully customizable solution that lets you deliver a white-glove experience that keeps your customers coming back for more.

With Vectera, you get to control the entire interaction, from your logo to custom colors, branded themes, and advanced JSS customization. You can even embed your meeting rooms on your website for highly personalized and custom experiences, and choose personalized meeting room URLs.

Despite its focus on customization, Vectera offers essential video conferencing features, such as HD video, real-time chat, screen sharing, and one-click recordings. Clients and customers can join your call without having to download software, making it easy for them to connect with you.

You can even upload documents and work on them together with real-time annotations, mark-ups, and notes, and co-browse websites and documents at the same time to ensure your meetings are productive.

Vectera offers granular control over what features are available to which clients, giving you the flexibility to customize the interface to meet your needs. Each client gets a permanent and personalized meeting room, acting as a centralized hub for all your conversations, recordings, documents, files, and chats. You and your client can pick up right where you left off, even if it’s been weeks or months since your last call.

Vectera’s built-in meeting scheduler is fully customizable, letting clients see your availability and schedule meetings around your open time slots. You can set your availability as granular as you’d like, define buffers between meetings, and embed your scheduler on your website for public access. You can even set up predefined appointment types and charge for your time using your preferred payment method.

Vectera has three pricing plans to choose from, including a free plan for up to four clients with 1:1 video calls, a Pro plan for unlimited clients and calls with up to four participants at $9.99 per month, and an Enterprise plan with custom pricing for full API access, SSO, and analytics.

Try Vectera for free forever or sign up for a 14-day trial to see if it’s the right video conferencing solution for you and your clients.

#5 – Livestorm — The Best If You Focus Heavily On Webinars and Live Events

If you’re looking to host webinars with a professional-grade experience or have more than 250 attendees, Zoho Meeting might not be the best fit for you. Instead, we suggest trying Livestorm, which offers high-end features without the advanced pricing or learning curve of pro-level software.

Livestorm provides everything you need to host live webinars, automated events, and on-demand webinars that users can access at any time. Additionally, Livestorm also offers basic options for small meetings with up to 12 participants, ideal for sales calls, internal chats, or small customer training sessions.

With Livestorm, you can set up automations to run webinars on autopilot, scheduling pre-recorded videos, and YouTube clips to play at specified times. This feature allows you to focus on answering questions and interacting with users in the chat while the webinar runs. Additionally, Livestorm makes it easy to offer live events at multiple times throughout the day, so users can select a time that suits them.

Livestorm also provides unlimited storage space, allowing you to record and store your events forever. Webinars and events are recorded automatically and can be embedded anywhere for easy 24/7/365 access.

Livestorm makes it easy to charge for your events through its Zapier integration, which handles everything for you. Furthermore, Livestorm provides pre-built registration pages that are easy to customize with your logo, colors, and imagery. You can also customize the entire platform to match your brand for 100% white-glove events.

Livestorm integrates with more than 1,000 business tools and is GDPR compliant. You get a lot of value-added functionality for your buck, as Livestorm is more expensive than other options on our list.

There are five pricing plans to choose from, including a free plan with up to 10 attendees per webinar and a 20-minute time limit. The Premium 100 plan costs $99/host per month for 100 attendees, the Premium 250 plan costs $198/host per month for 250 attendees, and the Premium 1,000 plan costs $328/host per month for 1,000 attendees. You can add more hosts for $99 per host per month, but you can have an unlimited number of moderators for free.

To summarize, Livestorm provides a comprehensive webinar experience that is perfect for professional-grade webinars and events with large audiences. Sign up for a free account to see if Livestorm is right for you and your business today!

Methodology For Choosing The Best Video Conferencing Software

In selecting their top picks for video conferencing software, the authors considered three main factors: intended use cases, participant limits, and user interface. They break down their methodology into a step-by-step process that readers can follow to identify the best choice for their business.

The intended use case of the software plays a significant role in determining which software is best and the features that users should look for. Some software tools offer simple virtual meeting rooms for collaborating with team members, while others are better for facilitating client or customer meetings. Some tools focus on streamlining webinars and live events, while others attempt to do it all. For virtual meetings with fewer than 200 participants, the authors recommend RingCentral, while Microsoft Teams is recommended for meetings with more than 200 participants.

For branded meeting experiences for clients and customers, users need to be more selective since most virtual meeting solutions are not customizable. To provide a white-glove meeting experience for clients, the authors suggest looking for a brandable interface, advanced customizations with JSS, and a built-in appointment scheduler. Vectera is recommended for client and customer calls, while RingCentral or Microsoft Teams are suggested for occasional client calls.

When it comes to webinars and live events, users need to look for registration pages, customizable emails, paywalls for paid events, recording tools, automatic replays, CRM integrations, audience engagement tools, brandable rooms, and automations. For live events with up to 250 participants, Zoho Meetings is an excellent cost-effective option, while Livestorm is suggested for those who need more room, advanced customization options, or want to automate their webinars.

Most providers offer limited free plans and various tiers that depend on the number of participants needed. However, most of them also have a maximum number of participants on the top tier. Users should choose a provider that they will not outgrow in a few months, even if they start with a free plan. For example, RingCentral Video’s paid plan allows up to 200 participants, while the free plan allows up to 1,000 participants and 24-hour meeting durations.

If users are teetering between two or three options that all have the features they need, the best thing to do is sign up for a free trial. During the trial, users can set up test meetings and events to see how things work from both the host and participant point of view. The interface should be user-friendly for hosts and admins, and the joining experience should be simple for participants.

Finally, users should pay attention to participant limits, intended use cases, and the user interface when selecting video conferencing software. They should choose a provider that will not restrict their growth and has a user-friendly interface.

Summary

For a video conferencing software to be considered the best, it should be affordable, easy to use, and provide excellent call quality consistently. RingCentral is our top pick for most users because of its features, security, ease of use, affordability, and versatility in use cases. Nevertheless, there are other good options to explore. To find the best video conferencing software that meets your specific needs and situation, make sure to use the methodology and recommendations outlined in this guide.