Zoom may look perfect for your remote communication needs, but it comes with its fair share of concerns. No wonder there’s a huge demand for better, safer, and more engaging Zoom alternatives.

In this post, we bring 15 fantastic Zoom alternatives for meetings, live streams, video calls, and more.

Why look for Zoom alternatives?

Here are a few reasons why Zoom alternatives are an excellent pick for those seeking a safer, more straightforward platform to communicate with clients, colleagues, friends, or family:

Webcam or Audio Issues

Choppy video quality, freezing screens, poor audio, echoes, etc., are some common issues Zoom users tend to face. Regardless of their form, these issues are frustrating and may require more robust alternatives.

Zoom Crashing

Zoom crashing is another problem that could be a burden when it comes to remote communication. Although it can be fixed with a few clicks, if you live stream or attend time-sensitive calls often, you’ll be sorted with an alternative.

Zoom Recording Issues

Zoom allows you to record your meetings, but issues like being unable to access a cloud recording or no audio on a saved recording could be troublesome.

Disappearing Features

Many Zoom users face this problem where several or all Zoom controls may disappear. While it’s likely because of accessing Zoom from a browser, it can annoy those who want to avoid downloading the app and are looking for a browser-based solution for their remote meetings and live streams.

Zoom-bombing

Nobody wants trolls to “gate-crash” their Zoom meetings and intimidate genuine attendees with disruptive and inappropriate content. But, these worries of Zoom-bombing are real. While the platform offers specific security measures to prevent invasions, looking for alternatives is often considered easier to connect over video conferences, meetings and live streams.

Best Zoom Alternatives: Our Top 15 Picks

Finally, let’s take a look at Zoom alternatives that offer good security and make remote communication more fun and simpler:

1. Wave.video

The first step of frictionless remote communication is instant access to the tool. With Wave.video’s live streaming studio working right in your browser, you don’t need downloads or installs to slow you down.

But does it work out as a Zoom alternative? Yes, of course! In fact, Wave.video surpasses its rivals with vast customization features like customized scenes, stream graphics, logos, animated elements, display banners, audio files, layouts, and more. Add to it the advantage of multistreaming and you don’t have to wait on different platforms to expand your reach.

Reasons to Use:

• Integrated Video Hosting and Editing

Saved recordings are hosted on the platform and available for effortless editing and sharing. Have a single tool for all your remote communication needs, no matter where your audiences are.

• Multistreaming

Reach multiple audiences by broadcasting your live streams or conducting video calls on several channels at once.

• Mouse-free Control

Enjoy mouse-free control and switch between visuals and sounds with keyboard shortcuts.

• Better Collaboration

Rethink collaboration by easily assigning roles to your co-hosts and guests. Creating professional-quality live videos or hosting advanced video calls becomes a reality with Wave.video.

• Screen Recording

Want to record your screen without leaving the platform? Use Wave.video’s free online screen and video recorder to record your computer screen right from your browser.

Reasons to Avoid:

• No specialized live streaming app for smartphones

Platform: Web

Pricing: Free, Streamer – $20/month, Creator – $30/month, Business – $60/month

2. Google Meet

Zoom competitor Google Meet is another well-deserving candidate on this list. This secure and high-quality Google app is great for holding video meetings and hosting virtual events. Apart from letting the guests join using Wi-Fi or mobile data, Google Meet also enables joining a meeting using a dial-in phone number.

Scheduling, recording and changing layouts is a breeze, and users can invite up to 500 participants to a meeting. Premium plans also offer features like noise cancelation, breakout rooms, polls, adding co-hosts, etc.

Reasons to Use:

• Screen Sharing

You can present slides and share documents and spreadsheets on your screen or a window.

• Digital Whiteboard

Ideal for live tutorials, explaining concepts and brainstorming ideas gets better with Google Jamboard.

• Broadcast Internal Events

Have a domain? You can leverage Google Meet’s capability to live stream events for up to 100,000 viewers within your domain.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Limited features on the free plan
• No option to edit videos directly on the app

Platform: Web, Android, or iPhone & iPad

Pricing: Free (up to 100 participants, 60 minutes video duration), Google Workspace editions starting at $6/user/month

3. Discord

A hit amongst gamers, Discord is also a terrific free alternative to Zoom. As the tool has evolved, people find it easier to use for communication. For example, you can use Discord to conduct video calls, meetings, or chats.

The USP here would be the ability to set up dedicated, invite-only servers. So, you get complete control over who becomes a part of your interactions. Those looking for a communication alternative to Zoom that can be used to create and nurture a community would find Discord a good bet.

Reasons to Use:

• Text and Voice Channels

Discord makes communication simpler through its text and voice channels. For example, you can talk over text or join a voice channel to hang out over voice and video. To enter a voice channel, all that’s needed is to click on it.

• Screen Sharing

You can use this tool to share your screen. There’s an option to select an individual application window to share or an entire screen.

• Community-building

With Discord, building, onboarding and managing a community is easy. You can even set up built-in rules pages to foster healthy discussions and create a safe space for your community.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Discord’s primary focus on gamers means lesser features for personal brands and corporate communication users
• To enjoy Discord’s feature-rich experience, you need to upgrade to its paid version, Nitro.

Platform: iOS, Android, Linux, macOS, Windows, Web

Pricing: Free, Nitro starting at $4.99/month

4. Around

Around is changing the workspace with its video calling capability — designed especially for hybrid-remote teams.

Opt for this Zoom alternative if better collaboration is on your mind. Featuring a sleek and intuitive interface, it makes 1:1 sessions and team meetings a walk in the park.

Reasons to Use:

• Echo Prevention

This feature lets people easily collaborate in the same space on different computers. Using multiple laptop microphones and speakers in the same room without echo or feedback is something only Around can pull off.

• Live Transcriptions

For the sake of clarity, live transcriptions offered by Around are a boon. You can check what’s being said in real-time and also search the transcriptions.

•  Games

Around offers quick multiplayer games to break the ice or energize meetings. Use this feature to make remote communication more fun and interactive.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Currently, the meetings are capped at 50 participants.

Platform: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Web

Pricing: Free (up to 45 minutes), Pro – $8.97/month, Business – $15.97/month

5. Livestorm

Managing live streams, meetings and webinars is no easy feat, but Livestorm makes it effortless with its built-in tools. From customizable and pre-built registration pages to engagement features like emojis, whiteboards, and live polls, the Zoom alternative offers all this and more.

You can also integrate your Google Calendar, add your branding to your event assets and display up to 25 streams simultaneously.

Reasons to Use:

• Powerful Analytics

Make the most of Livestorm’s reports built into the dashboard to analyze the event’s engagement data.

• CRM Integrations

Livestorm’s native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, etc., make data syncing easier and better.

• Event Automation

You can automate the start and end of an event or play a pre-recorded video during the event.

Reasons to Avoid:

• No option to edit the recorded video in the native app

Platform: Web

Pricing: Free (up to 30 live attendees, 20 minutes per session), Pro – $110/month, Business – Custom Quote, Enterprise – Custom Quote

6. Zoho Meeting

A perfect pick for large-scale virtual meetings, Zoho Meeting is a wonderful tool for online meetings, video conferencing, and webinars.

For brands who don’t want to wing it when it comes to video calls, Zoho Meeting offers plenty of excellent features like RSVP and reminders, admin control, scheduling and calendar syncing, etc. There’s also an option to record calls and moderate them. In addition, you can share screens, documents, and presentations as well.

Reasons to Use:

• Enhanced Security

This tool offers audio and video feeds protected by TLS 1.2 protocols and the latest 256-bit AES encryption standards. You also get the option to lock your virtual meetings and prevent intruders from ruining the experience.

• Multi-video Feed

You can share up to 25 video feeds on the screen using Zoho Meeting and interact with your audience more innovatively than otherwise.

• Effortless Scheduling

With Zoho Meeting, you can schedule meetings and even set up recurring meetings.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Although you can host webinars with up to 3000 attendees, the meetings are limited to a maximum of 250 attendees

Platform: Desktop, Android, iOS, Web

Pricing: Free, Meeting starting at $1/host/month, Webinar starting at $19/host/month

7. Microsoft Teams

Don’t want to juggle a massive tech stack? Then, this Microsoft Zoom alternative could be the right tool for you. Microsoft Teams not just offers standard video conferencing features like screen sharing and recordings but also advanced features like data encryption, live captions in meetings, etc.

Microsoft Teams is integrated with Office 365, making it a good choice for corporate users. In addition, participants can join a call directly with a link — without downloading the app.

Reasons to Use:

• Noise Suppression

Teams provides three levels of noise suppression to prevent background noise from hampering the meeting experience.

• Hassle-free Collaboration

There are advanced collaboration tools, including whiteboard, templates, and Loop collaboration tools

• Task Organization

Microsoft Teams’ Tasks app helps bring individual tasks from To Do and Outlook to organize them better.

Reasons to Avoid:

• The interface can be a bit complex for some users

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Web

Pricing: Microsoft Teams (Free), Microsoft 365 Personal – $6.99/month, Microsoft 365 Family – $9.99/month, Microsoft Teams Essentials – $4 per user/month, Microsoft 365 Business Basic – $6 per user/month, Microsoft 365 Business Standard – $12.50 per user/month

8. Skype

Skype probably is one of the most common Zoom alternatives and a hit amongst those looking to host personal one-on-one meetings. With Skype’s “Meet Now” feature, you can set up a collaboration space and invite up to 99 people.

Apart from being a free tool, it’s also easy to use and works on almost any device. It doesn’t even require sign-ups or downloads to join a call. And calls can go up to 24 hours each.

Reasons to Use:

• Intuitive UI

Skype’s incredibly intuitive user interface lets you make calls without any difficulty.

• Chat History

You can access Skype’s chat history to find a previous conversation, which is a boon for business conversations.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Skype’s meeting organization tools fall by the wayside. If you need a tool to organize and customize your video calls and live streams, you may look elsewhere.

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web, Alexa, Xbox

Pricing: Free, Subscriptions – Custom

9. GoTo Meeting

GoTo Meeting takes remote communication several steps ahead with its integration with Facebook Portal TV. So, if you want to give your audience an immersive video conferencing experience, try this Zoom alternative.

Besides audio and video encryption, there’s also automatic panning and zooming, which means you stay in the frame without having to worry about your video call’s security.

Reasons to Use:

• Optimized Audio

GoTo Meeting offers background noise suppression, automatically cancels echo, and adjusts the audio volume for an optimized voice and speech delivery during a meeting.

• Slides to PDF

This tool captures presentation slides and automatically generates a PDF of the slides for faster sharing.

• Note Taking

One of the key features of GoTo Meeting, organizers can take notes during a meeting and view them later.

Reasons to Avoid:

• The high-end features involve a steep learning curve

• GoTo Meeting may also require higher bandwidth than other platforms, thanks to the variety of functions it offers

Platform: macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Web

Pricing: Free (up to 3 participants, 40 minutes), Professional – $14/organizer/month, Business – $19/organizer/month, Enterprise – Custom

10. Jitsi Meet

With so many video conferencing platforms costing several dollars each month, finding a completely free alternative to Zoom might seem challenging. However, try Jitsi Meet, and you’d be sorted with your free remote communication needs — especially if you are a small business or personal brand.

This 100% open-source platform is fully encrypted and doesn’t require creating an account or downloading an app to join a video meeting.

Reasons to Use:

• Good Security

Even though it’s a free video-conferencing tool, Jitsi Meet takes security seriously. With this encrypted software, you can use a password to control access to your rooms.

• No Guest Sign-ups or Downloads

As with most entries on this list, Jitsi Meet doesn’t require guests’ sign-ups or downloads. Instead, they can join a meeting room simply with an invitation link.

• Enhanced Collaboration

With Jitsi Meet’s Etherpad feature, you can collaborate on documents. There’s also screen sharing and presentation live streaming, along with an integrated chat app for video meetings.

Reasons to Avoid:

• The video quality needs improvement, especially during screen sharing
• It requires a high storage space, which makes it challenging to use for large meetings

Platform: Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, Integrations, Web

Pricing: Free

11. Chanty

Looking for a team communication tool with built-in task management? Chanty‘s free plan may offer just one guest user, but it’s near close to perfection with its task management capabilities. From setting due dates to viewing and managing with the Kanban board, you can do it all with Chanty.

The free plan offers unlimited public and private conversations, voice messages, one-on-one audio calls, etc. However, you will have to upgrade to enjoy features like unlimited group audio/video calls, one-on-one video calls and screen sharing.

Reasons to Use:

• Built-in Task Management

With Chanty’s focus on assigning and completing tasks, you can better manage tasks by filtering, reassigning, and discussing them with the team members.

• Integrations

The paid plan provides unlimited integrations with third-party apps like Asana, Google Drive, Zapier, etc. — which is pretty cool for corporate users.

• Searchable History

Chanty offers excellent search functions with unlimited searchable history, helping you quickly find the required information.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Only one guest user permitted on the free plan
• There’s no dedicated support line for free plan users

Platform: macOS, Windows, Debian, Fedora, iOS, Android, Integrations, Web

Pricing: Free, Business – $4/member/month

12. Dialpad

Dialpad Ai Meetings is a brilliant demonstration of how far business communication has come. With impressive features like real-time transcriptions and captions, meeting timers and automated post-call summaries, it’s one of the best Microsoft Zoom alternatives.

It boasts HD video for high-end video quality and offers background noise suppression so that you’re always seen and heard clearly. In addition, there’s file sharing and you can also share agendas in team channels to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Reasons to Use:

• Meeting Controls

The host can control various aspects of the meeting, like locking, muting/unmuting, and even removing guests.

• Unlimited Meeting Recordings and Transcripts

Dialpad Ai Meetings also offer a complete view of all your past meetings. So, you can easily access unlimited meeting recordings and chat transcripts to search for any information you want.

• Custom On-hold Music

Offer a unique and personalized meeting experience by uploading and choosing your on-hold music using Dialpad.

Reasons to Avoid:

• The maximum meeting duration is just 5 hours

• You can host up to 150 meeting participants, which is quite low for large virtual meetings

Platform: Web

Pricing: Free, Business – $20/user/month

13. RingCentral

What if somebody told you, “You can hop from a phone call to a video call just with a tap“? You might be pleasantly surprised.

Fortunately, RingCentral offers this functionality along with standard video meeting features like whiteboarding, screen sharing, drag-and-drop file sharing/editing, etc.

But there’s more to it. You get to experience AI-driven capabilities for better productivity. From meeting insights like summaries, video highlight reels, etc. to automatic voice transcription with speaker identification, RingCentral’s features are as amazing as they sound.

Reasons to Use:

• Noise Reduction

RingCentral’s AI-powered noise reduction automatically filters out unwanted background noise to deliver clear, crisp audio in every meeting.

• Auto-follow

The auto-follow functionality lets you move around freely while the camera follows your every movement.

• Easy Switching Between Devices

RingCentral lets you easily switch between devices without leaving your meeting. For example, you can flip from mobile to desktop and back to the desktop again with a single tap. No logging into different devices, no dropping out of meetings.

Reasons to Avoid:

• The clunky UI can often throw a spanner in the works of users
• There’s no built-in video editor in the app to edit recordings

Platform: Web

Pricing: RingCentral Video Pro – Free, RingCentral Video Pro+ – $11.99/user/month

14. Talky

Talky is an uncomplicated, free alternative to Zoom for small groups. This tool lets you add up to 6 people to your video chat. The UI is highly intuitive and features like screen sharing make collaborating easier.

While you can create a meeting room without downloading an app or creating an account, there’s also the perk of locking your room for an extra layer of privacy.

Reasons to Use:

• Simple Interface

Talky is extremely easy to use. No need to download or log in. All you got to do is create a room and share the URL with your video call participants.

• Encrypted Audio and Video

To ensure the security of your audio and video calls, Talky offers data encryption. The tool also encrypts the setup and call control for enhanced privacy.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Ads might be an annoyance for some users
• The maximum number of participants in a call is just 6, which may not be sufficient for many users

Platform: Web

Pricing: Free

15. Melon

If multistreaming is your gig, try Melon for its seamless multistreaming and peer-to-peer private meetings. In addition, you can customize your video calls and meetings with logos, overlays, headers, backgrounds, and more.

You can record your live streams and access the video files later, similar to Wave.video’s webcam recorder. Then, there’s also an option to record without going live, which is great for podcasters.

Reasons to Use:

• Separate Raw Audio/Video Tracks

Melon gives you access to separate raw audio/video tracks once the live stream is over. You can download the recordings and use them for repurposing as needed.

• Scheduling

With scheduling, you can plan and share with guests ahead of time.

Reasons to Avoid:

• The interface is not so intuitive and involves a significant learning curve for beginners
• Built-in editing is not an option

Platform: Web

Pricing: Free, Standard – $9/month, Popular – $17/month

Break Free from Zoom with these Alternatives

Make Zoom bombing, freezing screens, and choppy audio in meetings a thing of the past. Try these Zoom alternatives and unlock high-quality video meetings, streamlined processes and better user engagement.

Wondering how your video conference etiquette stacks up when it comes to attending professional meetings or hosting them? Check out this guide and learn some important rules to make the right impact during video conferences and live broadcasts.