A lot of low-cost video conference software programs make virtual meetings a real option. But when you’re attempting to lead your team from afar, whether that’s from a different state, coast, or continent, even the tiniest glitch in the goings on during a video conference can derail your whole meeting.
Which video conference software offers the highest quality for interactions and offers the capabilities that your business needs? Check out Arden Coaching’s meeting tech review as we highlight the pros and cons of three popular virtual meeting programs: Google Hangouts, GoTo Meeting, and Join.me.
Google Hangouts Review
Price/Availability: Using Google Hangouts for virtual communication is a great option for small organizations. It’s free to install and runs well on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS operating systems.
Noteworthy Capabilities: Within a Google Hangouts meeting, you can share screens, send links to other callers via Google Chat, and collaborate in Google Docs. If you’re a Gmail/Google Drive team, Google Hangouts is a smart choice for hopping on a call or keeping in touch.
Things to Consider: The biggest con with using Google Hangouts for video conferencing is that you can only have up to 10 devices connected and participating in the same meeting. This could be a deal breaker if you need more than just a core group of participants to meet for your regular calls.
GoTo Meeting Review
Price/Availability: GoTo Meeting offers a free 30-day trial in addition to paid packages that unlock more capabilities. Their Pro package is a good choice for small to medium organizations at $39 per month per organizer for up to 25 attendees in each meeting. If you’re part of a larger company, GoTo Meeting Plus may be more your speed for $49 per month per organizer with space for 100 attendees in each meeting.
Noteworthy Capabilities: One of GoTo Meeting’s neatest features is the ability to directly give your screen, keyboard, and mouse controls to another attendee so they can navigate materials as the new presenter. This feature helps virtual teams move swiftly through collaborative meetings. GoTo Meeting has full sharing ability, HD video quality, and a toll-free option as well.
Things to Consider: Though the base features of GoTo Meeting are available across operating systems and there’s a mobile app version, extra features such as drawing tools aren’t available across all operating systems.
Join.me Review
Price/Availability: Join.me offers a free basic version for up to 10 meeting participants and two upper level packages: Join.me Pro, which is priced at $20 per user per month for up to 50 attendees, and Join.me Business, which is priced at $25 per user per month. This package gives you the largest virtual meeting room in comparison to Hangouts and GoTo Meeting at 250 seats available per meeting. Join.me is Windows and Mac friendly and can be used on mobile devices as well.
Noteworthy Capabilities: Join.me offers full file and screen sharing, chat, and the ability to pass meeting control to other participants. Those who purchase Join.me Pro or Business gain access to 5 GB or 5 TB of cloud storage, respectively, a built-in meeting recorder, international conference lines, and more.
Things to Consider: Similar to GoTo Meeting’s qualm (drawing tool isn’t offered for all operation systems), Join.me’s whiteboard feature, which allows you to create digital whiteboard pages and instantly deploy them to your team for collaboration, can only be used on iPad devices.
Ready to Master Virtual Communication with Your Team?
We hope this video conference technology review will help you to choose the software that will help your organization create the best shared virtual space to cultivate creativity and collaboration.
The transition to all-virtual communication can be a challenge for many teams. Check out Arden Coaching’s free eBook on interpersonal and communication skills for helpful tips from our coaches that can help you turn silent meetings into productive, engaging sessions.