In today's remote work landscape, having the best online meeting software is crucial for seamless team communication and collaboration.
And we understand those challenges you might face when collaborating through the screen with your remote colleagues or teams - technical glitches, disengaged participants, and limited collaboration opportunities.
This is why we've curated this list of platforms designed to address these challenges and enhance your remote work experiences.
Sure, Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams are popular choices, but there are plenty of other options out there that offer even more features to help you engage with your team and collaborate from afar.
This article will give you the lowdown on the top 13 online meeting platforms that can help take your virtual meetings to the next level.
The Most Popular Online Meeting Platforms
A few big players have become household names regarding online meetings. Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams have undoubtedly dominated the virtual meeting space, and for good reason.
1. Zoom
With its intuitive interface and seamless meeting experience, Zoom is now synonymous with virtual meetings. We hear people say, “Let’s Zoom over the weekend!” all the time, making it evident that it has pretty much taken over the industry.
It also offers features like screen sharing, breakout rooms, and interactive whiteboards, making it a go-to choice for individuals and businesses.
Pricing: They have a free account with 40-minute meeting limits, as well as levels of paid plans with varying amounts of features
2. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, combines online meetings, chat, file sharing, and project management into a single interface. It seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft tools, such as Outlook and OneDrive, providing a unified productivity experience.
Pricing: Starting from the Essentials Plan at $4/month, Teams also offers a Business Basic plan at $6 and Business Standard at $12.50.
Click here to sign up for Microsoft Teams for FREE and experience the fun of Together Mode during online meetings!
3. Google Meet
Last but not the least, Google Meet is integrated within the Google Workspace suite and provides a familiar environment for users. It offers excellent video and audio quality, live captions, and the ability to schedule and join meetings directly from Google Calendar.
Pricing: While Google Meet is free as per the availability of a required Gmail account, Google Workspace does boast paid plans beginning from the $6 Business Starter and building up to the $18 Business Plus.
Explore 5 Ways to Turn Your Next Virtual Meeting into a Fun and Engaging Event with these daily-used platforms.
What Makes Online Meetings Fun And Engaging?
Online meetings have come a long way from being dull and monotonous affairs. You can transform virtual gatherings into engaging and interactive experiences with the right tools and platforms. So, what exactly makes online meetings more fun and engaging?
- Collaborative Features: Virtual whiteboards, screen and document sharing enable real-time collaboration and brainstorming, creating an environment where ideas flow freely.
- Engaging Presentation Tools: Modern online meeting platforms provide dynamic presentation tools to engage your audience with multimedia content, interactive polls, and engaging visuals.
- Interactive Breakout Rooms: These allow participants to collaborate in smaller teams, share ideas, and work on specific tasks. Breakout rooms encourage active participation and engagement from everyone involved.
- Fun Meeting Formats: Online meetings don’t have to follow a rigid structure. Some platforms offer unique meeting formats, such as virtual team-building activities, icebreaker games, or themed sessions.
By leveraging these features and tools, online meetings can become dynamic, interactive, and enjoyable experiences.
The Best Online Meeting Platforms To Make Remote Work Effective And Engaging
Out of a plethora of virtual meeting platforms available on the internet, it gets daunting to identify which platform would best suit the requirements of your meeting. To save you from the hassle, we have compiled a list of virtual platforms that can help you unite with the best meeting software for all your future collaborations.
1. Butter
Butter is one of the best virtual meeting software on the list of virtual platforms. This platform combines the power of artificial intelligence with a user-friendly interface, making it a top contender for enhancing working from home collaboration.
With Butter, you can enjoy features like automated meeting transcriptions, real-time summarization, and smart action items. These features streamline your meetings and improve information retention and follow-up tasks.
Whether brainstorming ideas, conducting team updates, or presenting to clients, Butter makes your meetings more efficient and engaging.
Suitable for: Small to medium-sized teams looking for intelligent meeting assistance and effortless collaboration.
Salient Features: Automated meeting transcriptions, real-time summarization, smart action items, not to forget the workspace role management, recordings, and even recap histories.
Learn more about Butter’s features here.
Price: Butter has a 21-day free trial run option for managers looking to jumpstart and try out a new platform and paid options.
Complete details of Butter pricing can be found here.
2. BlueJeans
BlueJeans is an enterprise-grade online meeting platform designed to empower remote collaboration. With its intuitive interface and seamless integrations, BlueJeans offers comprehensive features to enhance virtual meetings.
The platform supports large-scale video conferences, interactive Q&A sessions, and recording options for easy playback and review. BlueJeans also integrates with popular productivity tools, allowing you to streamline your workflow and enhance collaboration.
Whether hosting town hall meetings, training sessions, or client presentations, BlueJeans provides all the tools for effective and engaging virtual meetings.
Suitable for: Enterprise organizations and teams requiring scalable and feature-rich online meeting solutions.
Salient Features: Large-scale video conferences, interactive Q&A, recording options, integrations, and more.
Price: BlueJeans boasts a variety of plans - both free and paid. A rough overview is as follows:
3. Whereby
Whereby is a user-friendly online meeting platform focusing on simplicity and ease of use. It enables you to create virtual meeting rooms with unique URLs, making joining and collaborating with team members or clients effortless.
Whereby offers video conferencing, screen sharing, and chat features, ensuring smooth team communication and collaboration during your online meetings.
The platform also provides customizable branding options, allowing you to create a professional and cohesive meeting experience that aligns with your brand.
Suitable for: Small teams, freelancers, and solopreneurs seeking a simple and intuitive online meeting solution.
Salient Features: Customizable meeting rooms, video conferencing, screen sharing, chat, and much more.
Price: A free plan is available alongside paid plans that start at competitive rates. The following image describes what Whereby will provide:
4. Tandem
Tandem is designed to bridge the gap between remote and in-person collaboration. It offers a virtual office space where team members can gather, chat, and collaborate in real-time.
With Tandem, you can create virtual rooms, making jumping into spontaneous discussions or hosting scheduled meetings easy. The platform provides features like screen sharing, file sharing, and integrations with popular productivity tools.
Tandem’s focus on recreating the office environment in virtual fosters natural conversations and enhances teamwork, making your online meetings engaging and productive.
Suitable for: Remote and hybrid teams looking for a virtual office environment to facilitate seamless collaboration.
Salient Features: Virtual office space, real-time chat, screen sharing, file sharing, and much more.
Price: With free, small, medium, and large team options, Tandem offers a wide variety. The following image perfectly summarizes your options:
5. Mmhmm
Mmhmm is a unique online meeting platform that brings a touch of creativity and fun to your virtual gatherings. With Mmhmm, you can transform into a dynamic presenter by adding engaging visual effects and interactive backgrounds to your presentation.
It lets you present your content captivatingly, keeping your audience hooked and ensuring your message is delivered effectively.
Whether hosting a team meeting, conducting a training session, or providing a sales pitch, Mmhmm adds a layer of excitement and professionalism to your online meetings.
Suitable for: Presenters, trainers, and individuals who want to enhance their online presentations and make a lasting impact.
Salient Features: Dynamic visual effects, interactive backgrounds, professional presentation tools, and more.
Price: With a free membership option, a premium ($10/month) option, and a teams ($15/month/user) option, Mmhmm provides many options. Here’s a competitive coverage of their pricing:
6. Around
Around is a video collaboration platform that brings the feeling of being in the same room with your team members, even when you’re physically apart.
With its spatial audio technology, Around creates a natural and immersive audio experience, allowing conversations to flow seamlessly. The platform automatically highlights the person speaking, making it easy to follow discussions and stay engaged.
Additionally, Around offers features like screen sharing, collaborative notes, and integrations with popular tools, making it a comprehensive solution for remote team collaboration.
Suitable for: Teams looking for an immersive and interactive video collaboration experience.
Salient Features: Spatial audio technology, automatic speaker highlighting, screen sharing, collaborative notes, and much more.
Price: Around provides three possible plans - Free, Pro, and Business. The following perfectly covers the details:
7. Cisco Webex
Cisco Webex is a robust online meeting platform offering comprehensive features to facilitate seamless remote collaboration. With Webex, you can host high-quality video conferences, share your screens with various team members, and work together on documents in real-time.
The platform also includes features like breakout rooms for group discussions, virtual backgrounds for added customization, and integrations with popular productivity tools.
Cisco Webex’s reliable performance and extensive feature set make it a top choice for businesses of all sizes.
Suitable for: Small businesses, enterprises, and teams that require a feature-rich and reliable online meeting platform.
Salient Features: High-quality video conferences, screen sharing, breakout rooms, virtual backgrounds, and more.
Price: Webex has a free plan available for users and paid plans starting at competitive rates. The following describes the pricing plans:
8. GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is a reliable and feature-rich online meeting platform trusted by millions worldwide. With its user-friendly interface and seamless video conferencing capabilities, GoToMeeting makes virtual collaboration effortless.
The platform offers high-definition video and audio quality, screen sharing, and interactive whiteboarding to enhance meeting engagement. GoToMeeting also provides robust security features, ensuring your meetings are private and protected.
Whether you’re hosting team meetings, client presentations, or webinars, GoToMeeting delivers a professional and efficient virtual meeting experience.
Suitable for: Businesses of all sizes requiring a secure and feature-packed online meeting solution.
Salient Features: HD video and audio, screen sharing, interactive whiteboarding, advanced security, and more.
Price: GoToMeeting has a professional, business, and enterprise plan. Check out the overview below for more details (courtesy of the GoToMeeting website!).
9. Demodesk
Demodesk is specifically designed to cater to sales teams, providing them with a powerful platform for remote sales meetings. With Demodesk, sales professionals can host interactive demos, share screens, and collaborate with prospects in real-time.
The platform offers features like document sharing, note-taking, and analytics to help you deliver compelling sales presentations and track engagement.
Demodesk’s focus on sales-centric features and seamless integration with CRM systems make it an ideal choice for sales teams looking to maximize their online meeting effectiveness.
Suitable for: Sales teams and professionals seeking a dedicated platform for remote sales meetings and demos.
Salient Features: Interactive demos, screen sharing, document sharing, analytics, CRM integration, and more.
Price: Visit the Demodesk website for pricing details, as they offer quite an array of options for the various plans you can choose. A brief overview is as follows:
10. Lifesize
Lifesize is a comprehensive online meeting platform that caters to the needs of modern teams. It offers HD video and audio conferencing, screen sharing, and recording capabilities to team communication and collaboration.
Lifesize also provides integrations with popular productivity tools, ensuring a seamless workflow during online meetings. With its easy-to-use interface and reliable performance, Lifesize is the best meeting software for teams of all sizes.
Whether you're conducting team huddles, client presentations, or cross-departmental meetings, Lifesize empowers you to connect and collaborate effectively.
Suitable for: Teams of all sizes looking for a reliable and user-friendly online meeting solution.
Salient Features: HD video and audio, screen sharing, recording, productivity tool integrations, and more.
Price: Lifesize has three different plans for its users - Quick start, advanced, and premium. Visit the website of Lifesize for more details regarding each pricing plan.
Choose The Best Online Meeting Platform for Your Remote Team
We've done the legwork for you and compiled a list of the top 10 online meeting platforms that are sure to keep your team engaged and productive.
TL;DR:
- Online meeting platforms are crucial in facilitating remote work and effective collaboration.
- While popular platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams are widely known, other innovative solutions can enhance your meeting experiences.
- The top 10 engaging platforms, including Butter.ai, Whereby, Tandem, Mmhmm, Around, Cisco Webex, GoToMeeting, BlueJeans, Demodesk, and Lifesize, offer unique features and capabilities to cater to different team sizes and meeting purposes.
- Consider factors such as HD video and audio quality, screen sharing, collaboration tools, integrations, and pricing when selecting the best virtual meeting platform.
- Take a quick peek below to see which one suits your needs best
Remember, consider these platforms based on your specific needs and preferences to elevate your remote meetings.
If you want to transform the remote experience right away with your next 1:1s or weekly team meetings to a more engaging and uplifting vibe, give Butter.ai, Whereby, Mmhmm, Tandem, or Around a try and make use of its innovative features.
For enhancing daily operational work and making online meetings smoother while reducing after-work tasks, platforms like Demodesk, Lifesize, and BlueJeans are great choices.
And if you require enterprise-grade features and security, Cisco Webex and GoToMeeting are reliable choices that provide comprehensive meeting solutions.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, it's super important to pick the right online meeting platform that will help you and your team work together smoothly, whether you're in the same office or miles apart.
Our recommendations have all the features you need to overcome any challenges you might face, like technical glitches or feeling disconnected.
The goal is to make meetings fun and productive by building relationships, generating ideas, and achieving your goals. With the perfect online meeting platform, you can bring your team together no matter where they are.
Check out these 30 hilarious "Working Hard" memes to spice up your remote work routine and have a good laugh!
