Video conferencing software

What does video conferencing software include?

Video calls from a computer, phone or meeting room, plus screen sharing, chat and recording, and on most services now an AI assistant that writes the summary and action items once everyone hangs up. Some tools stand alone. Others come bundled.

Zoom, Webex and Whereby sell meetings on their own, while Google Meet arrives inside Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams inside Microsoft 365. That split decides more purchases than any feature. Plenty of companies already own a meeting tool and still pay for a second one.

Which video meeting tool fits your calls?

If you’ve already paid for a suite, start there. For small businesses that meet outside guests most days, the default is Zoom, whose Pro plan costs $14.16 a user a month on annual billing with AI Companion notes included.

• If your company runs on Gmail and Drive, use Google Meet, which is already inside Workspace from $7 a user and lets guests join from a browser tab.
• If you live in Outlook, use Microsoft Teams. Business Basic includes it.
• If you run 101 to 200-person meetings every week, choose Webex Meet, because 200 seats at $12 a user beats upgrading to Zoom Business at $18.33.
• If price is everything, pick Zoho Meeting. A host pays $1 a month for meetings of up to 10 people.
• If you coach or tutor one to one, Whereby gives each host a permanent branded link that opens with no app and no account. Pro costs $10.99.
• If you mainly host webinars, compare attendee tiers, not meeting plans: Zoho Meeting Webinar Standard starts at $8 a month on annual billing for 25 attendees.
• If you need free calls with no time limit, use Jitsi Meet and skip the paid tiers entirely. It is open source.
• If you record almost every call, GoTo Meeting Business includes unlimited cloud recording for $16 an organizer.

Tool	Free plan limit	Cheapest paid seat	AI notes included
Zoom Workplace	40 min, 100 people	$14.16/user/mo (Pro, annual)	All paid plans
Google Meet	60 min for groups	$7/user/mo (Workspace)	Business Standard and up
Webex	40 min, 100 people	$12/user/mo (Meet, annual)	Paid plans
Microsoft Teams	60 min, 100 people	$4/user/mo (Essentials)	Mainly paid add-ons
Jitsi Meet	No time limit	Free	No

When is a free video meeting plan enough?

When your calls are short, small or occasional. Google Meet gives group calls up to an hour for 100 people, Zoho Meeting allows the same 60 minutes, and Jitsi Meet sets no time limit at all on meet.jit.si.

If you’ve got Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, a separate Zoom seat usually duplicates what you own. Don’t bother adding one unless guests or classes need something your suite lacks. Zoom’s free plan is capable. It stops at 40 minutes.

What catches people out with video meeting tools?

Three things catch most buyers after signup: AI features sold as add-ons, encryption that quietly switches other features off, and reusable meeting links that outsiders can guess. All three are documented.

1. AI costs. Zoom and Webex include AI summaries on every paid plan. Microsoft does not. It keeps its best recap features for Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Google starts Gemini note-taking on Business Standard at $14.
2. Encryption trade-offs. Zoom offers end-to-end encryption even to free hosts, but its support documentation says turning it on disables AI features and cloud recording for that meeting. When you schedule a sensitive call, pick one.
3. Guessable links. In 2024 German reporters found details of military Webex meetings because meeting numbers could be guessed. Passcodes help. So do waiting rooms.

Most people skip one more check, which is how a vendor describes its own security, and the US Federal Trade Commission’s 2021 order against Zoom followed end-to-end encryption claims the product did not meet at the time. Don’t trust a badge alone.

How do we build our video conferencing reviews?

Every score is a research score from a weighted rubric applied to official pricing and support pages, regulator orders, court records and dated security reporting. We don’t run call-quality or bandwidth tests.

Meetings and limits carry 25%. Price, AI and recording, and security each take 20%, with joining and platforms on the last 15%. In practice the gap between first and fourth is under half a point, so the suite you already pay for should outweigh the rank. Related: team chat and business phone systems.