When it comes to video conference software, it seems like Zoom is getting all of the attention recently, but FreeConference.com, UberConference, FreeConferenceCall.com, and Join.me offer a variety of features for competitive prices.
This March, Zoom began hosting over 200 million users a day. Zoom is certainly a convenient and affordable way to host your meetings, but the platform has also received some negative press concerning security flaws. If you’re looking to try out another option due to privacy concerns or any other reason, here’s our picks of the leading video conference host alternatives.
FreeConference.com
FreeConference.com is a great choice for hosting your conferences because it offers a wealth of free features in addition to top of the line premium features and support. FreeConference also offers unique tools that give your meeting an additional level of security. Conference administrators can generate temporary meeting access codes, and they even lock meetings after they begin, to prevent unwanted users from crashing your calls.
FreeConference.com features
- Outlook calendar, invitation, and contact integration with the FreeConference Manager for Outlook.
- Set recurring calls to repeat at specified intervals, so you only have to schedule them once.
- Phone number recognition so you can sign up for pinless entry and SMS notifications for meetings 15 minutes before their scheduled start time.
- Chat and document sharing from within the call window so you don’t have to email your team members’ important files and links after a meeting.
- Mobile app access for all devices as well as the download-free, browser-based conference platform.
- The ActiveSpeaker feature highlights when someone talks, so all speakers can be identified and acknowledged, even if two people speak at the same time.
- Smart meeting summaries for paid plans include breakdowns of the most active participants and topics discussed. You’ll also gain access to an automatically-generated list of important details like names, dates, and places mentioned during each meeting.
FreeConference offers 4 plans that all come with the ability to host up to 100 audio meeting participants, free international dial-in numbers, and screen sharing. With the FreeConference’s Free plan, you can video conference with up to 5 participants. The Starter plan increases the limit for video participants to 15 for $9.99 per month. The Plus and Pro plans let you host video meetings with up to 50-100 team members for a monthly price of $24.99 or $34.99. The Starter, Plus, and Pro plans also come with several additional features like audio transcriptions, MP3 and MP4 meeting recordings, as well as the ability to live-stream meetings on YouTube.
UberConference
UberConference has all the features you’d expect from a leading video conference service, plus several extras that can make your remote meetings more efficient. UberConference can call you and your participants when it’s meeting time. When your meeting is over, you can access a host of helpful analytics and recording tools that ensure you get the most out of every call.
UberConference features
- Google calendar integration makes it easy to schedule and access the link to your UberConference meeting.
- Participants can connect to meetings with a link, which is more convenient than having to download software or enter a PIN to join a conference call.
- The interface highlights the call participant who’s speaking so you don’t have to guess who’s speaking during your audio-only conversations.
- By default, UberConference calls connect with video, but each participant can toggle between video and audio whenever they like.
- Screenshare and call recording functionality.
- Mobile apps for Android and iPhone, in addition to the Google Chrome browser extension.
You can sign up for UberConference for free, or opt for their Business plan, which costs $15 per organizer a month. The Business plan comes with extra features, including meeting analytics tools and the ability to organize calls between users in over 50 countries. UberConference’s innovative voice intelligence tools use AI to create searchable meeting transcripts and action items without anyone needing to take notes.
FreeConferenceCall.com
With FreeConferenceCall.com, you can hold audio and video meetings with up to 1,000 participants. Ths conference service is true to its name, because virtually all of the advanced features offered are entirely free for users. The few paid features FreeConferenceCall.com offers are incredibly affordable, including 40GB of storage starting at $3 a month and a toll-free number for U.S callers for 2¢ per-person, per-minute. One drawback of this meeting platform is that toll-free numbers are only available for users in the United States.
FreeConferenceCall.com features
- Brand your meeting room with a logo, profile photo, description, and a custom URL.
- Integrations with your favourite apps like Slack and Dropbox.
- Participants can call into your meetings from over 78 countries.
- 24/7 email and chat support, conference recording, and an app compatible with all mobile devices.
- Breakout Rooms let participants start sub-conferences if they need to move away from a larger meeting to have a separate discussion.
- Call controls let you quickly adjust settings for different types of meetings like lectures and Q&As.
- Screen and document sharing, as well as in-meeting chat capabilities that include emojis.
- A drawing tool that lets screen sharers highlight important parts of documents or presentations.
- Livestream your conferences with the radio feature.
FreeConferenceCall.com uses a pay what you can pricing model. So you don’t have to worry about comparing the features and prices of different plan options. FreeConferenceCall says the market value of their services is $15 a month. When we compare what they offer with the other conference hosts on this list, we agree. If you show your support with as little as $4 per month, FreeConferenceCall.com will give you a free phone number for your meetings.
Join.me
Join.me doesn’t offer as many features as the online conference products listed above. However, this product might be for you if you’re not interested in tools like automatically-generated transcripts and meeting analytics. You can purchase access to Join.me’s stripped-down services, for prices that are competitive with our other recommendations.
Join.me features
- Join.me Mobile Whiteboard is a feature that lets iPhone and iPad users write, sketch and share ideas with a team on an infinite canvas.
- Mobile apps for your iPad, iPhone and Android devices.
- Use join.me’s native Scheduler tool, Google plugin for Chrome, or the Microsoft Outlook plugin to conveniently schedule and sync meetings with your calendar.
- Brand your meetings with personalized links and background images.
- Screen sharing and the Pass Presenter feature let you easily hand over the stage to another team member, while allowing your viewers to know who’s presenting at all times.
Join.me offers a free trial, but if you want to continue using the service, you’ll need to purchase one of their plans. The Lite plan ($13 a month) allows you to host unlimited meetings with up to 5 participants, but no webcam streams. The Pro plan ($24 a month) lets you host meetings with up to 250 participants and 10 webcam streams. This plan also comes with call recording, 50 GB of cloud storage, and toll-free call-in numbers. The highest-tier, the Business plan, costs $36 per month and includes 1 TB of cloud storage, plus additional features like bulk user import and administrator control over feature access.
Your team may not always work remotely, but having access to a reliable online conference tool is crucial in today’s on-the-go business environment. Now that you’ve read up on Zoom’s fiercest competition, you have no excuse for avoiding setting up a free or inexpensive conference call with your team today. One of these Zoom alternatives is bound to fulfill all of your remote meeting needs.