Whenever you think of business meetings your mind probably goes to a large conference room in your office building, however in recent times, there has been a need to move them into the virtual sphere.
A popular online meeting platform called Zoom rapidly became the go-to place for everyone’s online meetings. But as Zoom tried to cater to anyone and everyone, it did way too much at once which in turn resulted in problems such as glitches and overwhelmed servers appearing quite often. For this reason, it became slightly problematic to use Zoom for business purposes.
Luckily there’s an abundance of platforms out there that offer similar or the same services as Zoom. And if that’s something you need, then keep on reading to see what else is out there.
1. Airmeet
Airmeet has found an interesting way to circumvent the awkwardness of large scale meetings. They have done this by creating a digital lounge you join upon sign up with digital tables of up to 8 people and a quick introduction lobby where participants get matched up for a short conversation before the official meeting takes place. The tables are set up to act as mini-conferences included in a larger meeting, and any one of the participants can screen share, text chat, or enter a private conversation to make creating genuine connections easier.
During a large scale event, keynote speakers are able to broadcast their content and take live questions both in chat and real-time. Along with that, the host can also let any of the participants present by giving them access to the virtual stage.
The option to create exhibitor booths for partners where they can showcase their brand videos has also proven extremely useful as sponsors don’t break the continuity of the meeting while still remaining noticed.
FEES: AppSumo is currently offering one-time purchase deals on Airmeet. The Single plan costs $79, the Double $158, and the Multiple $237.
2. GoToMeeting
Over the past few months, GoToMeeting has become rather popular, and the reason why is apparent. It runs smoothly on all devices and is extremely phone-friendly. It allows users to set up a quick one-click meeting, a professional business webinar, or an online conference that’s easily convertible into an interactive collaboration space with just a few clicks.
The app is also responsive to voice commands so that anyone can set up a meeting simply by asking Siri to do so.
The meeting rooms can hold 250 participants and 25 HD cameras. And some great tools to use in your potential webinars also include screen sharing by the host and chosen participants, drawing tools when screen sharing, and a digital whiteboard to capture the attention of your attendees.
You can also join a meeting simply by answering a phone call, no PINs, room IDs, or passwords are required.
FEES: There are a few options to choose from depending on how many people attend your conferences. The Professional version is going to cost you 9.50£/mo, the Business 12.67£/mo, and to find out the price of the Enterprise version, you’ll have to contact sales. Also, you can save 14% to 16% by choosing to be billed annually.
3. BlueJeans
Just one of the many features that set BlueJeans apart from the rest is its ability to split any meeting into breakout sessions, up to 20 of them for that matter. Any meeting can be recorded and split into chapters to make it easier to follow for those that weren’t able to participate.
Everything is very simple to set up and navigate, so you needn’t worry if up until now the tech part of your job wasn’t your strong suit. Admins have quite a bit of control and a lot of added benefits in the virtual meetings. They can enable or disable most features of the meeting for certain groups.
The entire system is also powered by Dolby Voice, which means that you can say goodbye to background sounds and white noise, as it cancels all of them allowing for that crisp clear sound you’ve always hoped for.
FEES: BlueJeans offers 3 different subscription plans. The BlueJeans Standard coming around to $9.99/mo, the Pro $13.99/mo, and to find out the price of the Enterprise plan you will need to have a conversation with the sales department.
4. Google Meet
Google Meet probably has the best security features you can find, and much like Zoom, it gives the option to join a meeting directly from the browser if you find installing apps and plugins tedious. It’s also extremely handy for users of Google Calendar as any user can join a meeting straight from their calendar appointment.
External participants can join the online conference and the admin can invite and let them into the meeting only when necessary.
Undoubtedly an amazing selling point of Google Meet is something called Pexip. Pexip is a tool that lets users of other meeting platforms join in on your Google meetings. And as was probably expected, the platform fully integrates with Google Workspace, so if your company is a user, this platform should definitely be considered.
FEES: To use this meeting platform, you’ll have to pay $6/mo per user for the Basic plan, $12/mo per user for the Standard one, or 18$/mo per user for the Business Plus plan.
5. Cisco Webex Meetings
This platform has a great reputation, is used by many business giants, and some of the features it has to offer, make it obvious why this is the case. Webex focuses on engagement the most and tries to elicit the feeling of actually being present as much as possible. That is why they’ve made the platform as interactive and simple as possible. Participants can join with a single click, it lessens background noises and it holds over 1000 people in any conference.
It is a great option if you or your company schedule a lot of international meetings as it works in many languages including French, Turkish, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, etc.
The entire process is made even simpler thanks to Webex performing perfectly on mobile and the ability to join through a single link.
FEES: Cisco Webex does offer a free version for one host, but as a business, you’ll likely need more than that. You can choose either the Starter plan for 12,85€/mo per host, the Plus plan for 17.30€/mo per host, or the Business plan for 25,65€/mo per user.
Final Thoughts
Trying to get your business on track online might be quite an ordeal if you don’t have all the tools required. And these days, an online meeting platform is definitely one of them.
We hope that our recommendations will make your search at least a bit easier. But, if you are however still unsure about which one to pick, we would once more advise giving Airmeet a try. It has everything you could possibly need as well as a few extras. Plus, the offers that are currently up on AppSumo are all one-time purchases, so no pesky subscription fees will ever worry you. And at those prices, it’s actually quite a steal.