8 Best Zoom Alternatives and Competitors

Zoom is a great video conferencing tool overall, but if you’re searching for Zoom alternatives, you probably want a more specialized platform for webinars and online events.

And you definitely need an alternative to Zoom if you want to reduce costs and have one platform for all your video conferencing needs, rather than relying on multiple tools.

Luckily, there are a few powerful options on the market, with different user interfaces (UI) to Zoom, that are more flexible and customizable. In this article, we’ll walk you through the top features and strongest use cases of Zoom’s biggest competitors - so you can decide for yourself.

First of all, let’s talk about Zoom

Zoom is one of the most popular online meeting tools. It’s accessible through a browser or an app and supports up to 10,000 attendees (depending on your plan).

Why is Zoom a household name?

Zoom offers 40-minute free video calls and grew in popularity among households and remote teams during the COVID-19 pandemic. Zoom users like it because:

• You can go into breakout rooms and interact on a shared whiteboard
• It has several engagement features like filters, polls, and audio sharing
• It’s easy to use

Why you should look for Zoom alternatives

Zoom is a high-quality video conferencing tool, but you might be looking for an alternative that:

• Is more accessible and versatile
• Has a different user interface (UI)
• Has a better track record with security
• Allows you to plan, host, and analyze all your virtual events
• Sends email reminders to attendees before the event

8 Best Zoom alternatives to consider

The best video conferencing tool is the one that solves all of your needs, is compatible with your systems, and is easy to use. Here are eight powerful Zoom alternatives for you to evaluate and choose from.

1. Livestorm: Best all-in-one video communication platform

Livestorm is an all-in-one platform for video communication. Its secure video conferencing software manages every part of an event–from planning, promoting, and hosting the actual event, to following up and reviewing meeting analytics.

Livestorm is also highly customizable and versatile as you can host any type of interactive meeting, webinar, or virtual event with up to 3,000 attendees and pay one single bill. It also comes with thousands of plugins and integrations.

Top features

• Engagement and interactivity features: Livestorm invites attendees to participate in the event or meeting via:
  • Emoji reactions
  • Polls
  • Question upvotes
  • Virtual backgrounds
  • Screen and multi-media sharing
  • Breakout rooms
• Ease of use: Livestorm it’s also incredibly simple to use. It’s completely browser-based, so attendees never have to download any apps or make an account to use it. It’s also designed to be completely intuitive for all users, whether they’re creating an event or joining a call.
• Events and webinar features: Since Livestorm is an all-in-one video platform, you can use different functionalities to plan, host, and analyze the event’s performance. These are:
  • Custom registration pages
  • Scheduling tools like Calendly
  • Automatically record and share the event with participants
  • Get unlimited event replays
  • Access to detailed engagement analytics
  • Email reminders
  • Room customized branding
  • Access to contact records

Pricing

Livestorm is a free video conferencing software for individuals hosting 20-minute meetings with up to 30 attendees. Then, pricing starts at $88 per month based on annual billing and your number of active contacts. Large businesses and enterprises require a custom quote.

Use it for virtual meetings, webinars, and virtual events

Livestorm is equally powerful for joining a quick call with your co-worker or a giant hiring session for 3000 participants. If you’re comparing Livestorm vs Zoom, you’ll see that all paying Livestorm users receive world-class, multiple-language chat support. That amazing flexibility and expert assistance make Livestorm suitable for all kinds of business or educational needs.

Livestorm is best for:

• Product demos
• Company communication (e.g. workshops, meetings, group discussions)
• Customer training
• Live Q&As
• Employee onboarding
• Live events
• Online courses
• Podcast interviews
• Hiring sessions

2. Microsoft Teams (formerly Skype for Business): Best for enterprises and company-wide meetings

Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration tool that’s part of the Office 365 suite of products. It allows you to communicate with your team members through instant messaging, in-app video calls, or larger and planned online meetings or webinars.

Top features

• Change in status information: Teams automatically updates the status of each user so you can see if your colleagues are available, away, busy, or sharing their screen.
• Ease of access: It’s easy for external users to join meetings as it’s accessible through a browser. It integrates with your Outlook calendar, so you can join calls from either platform. But if you’re looking at Microsoft Teams alternatives, and want a more intuitive and easier-to-use tool, you should consider Livestorm.
• Together mode: This feature makes the meeting room look like a real-life conference room. It displays everyone’s face sitting next to each other on virtual chairs to mimic in-person meetings.

Pricing

The free version allows users to host 60-minute meetings with up to 100 participants. Then, pricing starts at $4 per user per month, based on the annual subscription.

Use it for enterprise internal meetings

Microsoft Teams offers versatility to teams who might have a one-to-one spontaneous meeting one afternoon and a big quarterly all-hands the next. However, since the premium plan only allows for 300 attendees, you might need an additional meeting platform for larger events or company-wide meetings at very large corporations.

3. BlueJeans: Best for department meetings

BlueJeans is a virtual meeting software owned by Verizon. It’s focused on smaller audiences as its Enterprise plan hosts up to 200 virtual meeting attendees and up to 500 for webinars and events. It’s a low-cost solution with good engagement features.

Top features

• Interactivity and engagement features: BlueJeans offers breakout rooms, digital whiteboards, screen sharing, and file sharing.
• High-quality audio and HD video: this platform offers Dolby audio and clear video quality, which makes BlueJeans a noise-free video conferencing app.
• Closed captioning: BlueJeans offers automated live captions for better accessibility.

Pricing

BlueJeans pricing starts at $9.99 per host per month. Then, prices per plan go up to $16.66 per user per month.

Use it for department meetings

BlueJeans is great for internal departmental meetings as it allows for file sharing and interactivity. It’s great for small to medium-sized companies.

4. Google Meet: Best for one-on-one meetings

Google Meet is a widely popular video meeting platform that replaced Google Hangouts. It’s mostly used by individuals and businesses that use the Google suite for communication and Google Drive for storage. It’s browser-based on a desktop, but only accessible through a mobile app when joining from your phone or tablet.

Top features

• Dial-in audio connection: Google Meet allows users to call a local phone number and access the meeting directly from their phones. That’s a good solution for when you're having connectivity issues. It also comes with a “meet now” button for hosting spontaneous calls.
• Picture-in-picture view: this platform allows you to share your screen and scroll or edit while also seeing the faces of your colleagues by activating picture-in-picture view.
• Interactivity and engagement features: Google Meet added engagement features to the platform in early 2022. You can now:
  • React using your favorite emojis
  • Use breakout rooms
  • Open a Q&A session
  • Collaborate on an interactive whiteboard

Pricing

Google Meet is part of the Google Suite and is free to anyone who has a Gmail account. Free users can host 60-minute video chats for a maximum of 100 attendees. Business plans come with the complete Google Workspace solution and prices begin at $6 per user per month.

Use it for personal and one-on-one calls

Google Meet is a great option for personal or freelance project calls. Or, for one-on-one meetings as it has great quality and you won’t need to use many additional features. If you’re comparing Google Meet vs Livestorm, you’ll see that Livestorm is better for engagement and reviewing meeting analytics.

5. GoToWebinar: Best for live and pre-recorded webinars

GoToWebinar is a webinar software that’s part of the GoTo suite of products (which also offers GoToMeeting and GoToTraining).You can use GoToWebinar for company meetings and onboarding new team members. It includes some engagement features like polls, multimedia sharing, and event analytics, and you can use it to host meetings of up to 3,000 attendees.

Top features

• Event promotion: GoTo lets you promote your webinar to its customers through GoToStage, an internal community reaching millions of people.
• In-house producer: all GoToWebinar plans allow you to connect with an event producer that will handle Q&As, lead a technical dry run, and take care of other housekeeping tasks.
• Custom registration and scheduling: just like Livestorm, GoToWebinar allows you to create registration pages and flexible schedules for one-time or multiple-session webinars.

Pricing

Prices for GoToWebinar start at $59 per organizer, per month for 250 participants, and go up to $499 per organizer, per month for 3,000 attendees—billed annually.

Use it for one-way webcasts and pre-recorded sessions

GoToWebinar is ideal for streaming webcasts and webinars and creating an evergreen lead generation strategy using pre-recorded sessions as a magnet.

6. WebinarJam: Best for end-to-end webinar planning

WebinarJam recently had a revamp, so you can now manage all the different webinar stages in the same place - including scheduling, registration, hosting, analyzing, and post-purchase engagement.

Top features

• Multiple presenters: WebinarJam lets you host webcasts with up to six different presenters. This is helpful when you invite a panel to participate in an event.
• Live stream to YouTube and Facebook: This platform allows you to stream your webinar to Facebook and YouTube as live videos.
• Offer buttons: a bit like Livestorm’s CTA buttons, this WebinarJam functionality allows you to sell a product to your webinar attendees directly from the live stream.

Pricing

WebinarJam is one of the most cost-efficient webinar platforms in the market. Pricing starts at $39 per host per month and holds up to 100 attendees. The premium plan is $379 for six hosts and 5,000 attendees (prices based on annual billing).

Use it for planning, hosting, and analyzing webinars

WebinarJam is one of the most accessible video conference platforms. It’s easy to use and lets you handle the entire process of hosting a live or pre-recorded webinar in one app. Unlike Livestorm, this platform isn’t for regular meetings.

7. Demio: Best for interactive and engaging webinars

Demio is an effective browser-based webinar platform that’s fast and easy for attendees to join. It offers some excellent engagement features, including emoji gestures, chats, breakout rooms, and interactive polls.

Top features

• Superb screen-sharing: you can upload your webinar presentation to Demio to share and interact with the materials without switching apps.
• Customizable registration pages: Demio allows you to create and edit registration pages to gather as much information from your prospects as you need. You can also embed the registration form on your website or landing page.
• Engagement and interactivity features: you can keep attendees engaged using:
  • Polls
  • CTA buttons
  • In-app handouts
  • Q&A tracking
  • Invite attendees to participate on stage

Pricing

Demio isn’t a cheap option as pricing begins at $49 per host per month and holds up to 50 attendees. You’ll also need to pay extra to access integrations like HubSpot or SalesForce. The premium plan holds up to 3,000 attendees and is $250 per host per month.

Use it for interactive webinars

Demio has a large set of engagement features. You can host powerful and entertaining live or pre-recorded webinars in real-time.

8. Hubilo: Best for online events

Hubilo is an event hosting platform for big online and in-person events. It allows up to 4,000 online attendees and comes with a large suite of engagement features. Hubilo also offers branding customization and access to event analytics.

Top features

• Event Networking Community Platform: Hubilo has a networking platform where registrants join a forum to build engagement pre- and post-event connections with other members of the community. The platform creates very intuitive virtual spaces for discussion in a chat room.
• Shallow learning curve: Hubilo users value that this platform is easy to follow and you can set up your first event in no time.
• Multi-tier ticketing: this platform lets you charge for tickets and offer different prices, discount codes, and bulk buy offers to boost your sales.

Pricing

Hubilo prices begin at $650 per month and 1,000 attendees. All the plans are charged annually and include different features.

Use it for specialized online events

Hubilo is meant for online and in-person large, branded events. With Hubilo, you can create registration pages, host events, and analyze meeting metrics.

What’s the best Zoom alternative?

Zoom is a perfectly functional video conferencing tool, but if you’re looking for a tool that’s designed to host

• one-on-one meetings,
• team meetings,
• all-hands meetings,
• deminars and sales calls,
• pre-recorded and live webinars,
• and large online marketing events,

in the same app—you should consider Livestorm.

Livestorm is the only video conferencing solution you’ll need for your video engagement activities. You can create registration pages, send automated email reminders, engage with participants during the meeting, and get access to deep meeting analytics. You can even reach a wider audience and collect attendance fees using our Eventbrite integration.

Just like Zoom, Livestorm also offers breakout rooms, interactive whiteboards, emoji reactions, and polls. So, you’ll be able to interact with your audience in a similar way and get better engagement analytics.

Frequently asked questions about Zoom alternatives

What’s the best free Zoom alternative?

The best free Zoom alternative is Google Meet as it lets you host 60-minute meetings with up to 100 participants. If you don’t already use the Google suite, and only need to host quick meetings, try Livestorm. This specialized video conferencing tool lets you host 20-minute highly interactive meetings with 30 participants.

Is Zoom or Livestorm better for virtual meetings?

Livestorm is better than Zoom for virtual meetings, because Livestorm is the only app you’ll need to host any online event. Livestorm is also a powerful tool for

• Reviewing meeting analytics in detail
• Customizing events registration pages
• Getting participants to interact throughout the event

However, Zoom offers longer sessions and allows more attendees on the free plan.

Which Zoom alternatives have breakout rooms?

Some Zoom alternatives that have breakout rooms include:

• Livestorm
• Google Meet
• BlueJeans
• Microsoft Teams

Is Zoom the best option for video conferencing?

Zoom is a great option for video conferencing, but the best option is Livestrom as you can solve all your online meeting needs with just one app. Livestorm is designed to boost participant engagement and is accessible via a browser-based link. It lets you host:

• 1:1s
• Team meetings
• All-hands meetings and TownHalls
• Deminars and sales calls
• Pre-recorded and live webinars
• Large online marketing events