The abomination that is to be held responsible for affecting workforces, educational institutes and so much more is the COVID-19 pandemic. People have no choice but to go toe-to-toe with the new societal, professional and educational norms that have now been set for the safety of not only a few states in the U.S. but for the whole world.

Remote working and learning aren’t new to many of us. It was never a far-off thought because the platforms for eLearning have been advocating the same for a while already. The only difference is that the complete 360-degree shift to video conferencing tools for a work-related meeting, project brainstorming and online-real-time lectures burgeoned the existing video conferencing platforms, and Zoom is one such tool that faced the said impact.  

Zoom for Video Conferencing – A Brief Overview

Amid a plethora of video conferencing tools, Zoom became the prime preference of businesses and educational institutes alike. The platform gained over a 225% increase in Zoom participants and the overwhelmed response allowed Zoom to accommodate users on a global scale.

While the Zoom’s success wasn’t short-lived, it’s sudden surging popularity led to an increase in security breaches. The recent data leak through Zoom made a few Fortune 500 firms reconsider its use and led them to resort to similar or more expensive alternatives.

So, in case, you have been a Zoom user or were intending to use it and you want to keep a few more substitutes in your repository then you are in luck.

Top Zoom Alternatives

Here are a few alternatives you can resort to.

Google Hangouts Meet

One simply cannot leave the tech behemoth out of the list. Despite being a paid program, Google Hangouts Meet is a fair alternative to Zoom. It comes with the paid G-Suite version and allows you to add over 250 users in a single video-conference. On the other hand, the free Google Hangouts versions let you create a video conference party of over 150 individuals. Both the free and paid versions are scaled up for small or substantially large businesses and even for educational institutes that require a secure video conferencing platform to conduct online classes.

Zoho Meeting

If the idiom ‘to hit multiple birds with one stone’ has a literal meaning then it would resonate well with Zoho Meeting. The platform has three paid plans that start at $10/mo. for up to 100 participants and go up to 250 participants for $79/mo. Other than the affordable price tag, Zoho allows you to record up to 25 recordings, however, the actual number depends on the pricing tier you have chosen. Overall, Zoho Meeting is great for those who intend to record eLearning sessions, hold webinars, employee training or day-to-day work meetings.

Microsoft Teams

If you’ve stayed familiar with Microsoft’s Skype for Business then it’s the same tool but with a new makeover. Microsoft Teams comes together with Office 365. The host can accommodate up to 250 participants in a single conference call. The tool is similar to Skype in a few aspects such as its video recording and screen sharing features. Since it’s a part of Office 356, you even get up to 1 TB OneDrive storage for file sharing/receiving and collaboration through SharePoint Online and Office tools.

Discord

Discord is widely known for being a voice-chat hub for gamers but in desperate times, it can be a great free alternative to Zoom or any other paid video conferencing tool. Don’t judge the tool’s security levels just because it’s free-to-use. Discord uses a full-fledged encrypted environment where members can create private servers, add invite-only members, send messages, share screens and even attend channels for multi-user calls. The user limit for Go Live video calls is up to 50 users.

You would require stable internet connectivity to run each vide conferencing platform smoothly. Video buffering and the endless loop of buffering hell is the last thing anyone would want to see during an online lecture or a meeting with the CEO. What you can consider getting is MyRCN. You won’t have to dread over restarting your router every time you disconnect.

To Conclude

There you have it. Plenty of Zoom alternatives you can now rely on. Each tool and desktop platform comes with its set of pros and attributes that shall make your video conferencing needs quicker and simpler than ever. So start choosing away and don’t wait it out any longer!