While Zoom is the most popular and convenient site for holding virtual meetings, the free version has a 40 minute barrier which can become quite frustrating. However, there are alternative applications offering similar services and longer meetings free of cost.
RingCentral Video
This software has a dynamic free video meeting service, allowing you to host meetings longer of unlimited length, and with more than 100 participants. The service also offers 10 hours of cloud recording that is saved and can be retained for seven days.
Video calls are captured in HD, allowing you to access to virtual backgrounds, closed captioning, multiple screen-sharing at the same time, breakout rooms, cloud recording and other essential features.
Jitsi Meet
Jitsi Meet is the least known yet most easy-to-use alternative for Zoom, using its site to start a meeting. Once you begin a meeting, a unique URL is generated to be shared with up to 100 people who can join your meeting using the link. Meetings on the site are encrypted end-to-end, with high quality HD video. The service allows you to control other people’s desktop and is conveniently integrated with Google, Microsoft and Slack.
Microsoft Teams
The free version of Microsoft Teams is a great service letting you have meetings for an hour, without the feature of recording. However, the application offers an enhanced set of collaboration tools like instant messaging members of your team, storing and sharing up to 5GB of data per person. It also access to web versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This year Teams announced a new feature called Microsoft Viva which allows for an employee experience aiding interaction with each indivitual instead of together. The application also lets you set your personal status to available or offline, irregardless of if you’re available or online.
Google Meet
Google Meet’s free version lets you hold meetings for up to an hour, letting you invite participants with the Google Calender, while external participants with no Google account can also join in on the meeting. With its application, you can access the services on your tablet or mobile phone. While the video quality is excellent, the free version does not let hosts record meetings. Google Meets does not make you install its application like Zoom, you can easily use its services on the Google Meet page.
Webex
Webex is another venerable platform used by many to host webinars online, and offering video meetings of 50 minutes with up to 100 participants. The service allows you screen sharing, breakout rooms, polling, letting you have presentations, use emojis, remove background noise, real-time translation and access to a whiteboard. This application is excellent for brainstorming, but does not offer cloud recordings.
