Zoom is an excellent unified communications platform that allows users to place and accept voice calls, chat with team members, and launch video meetings in one place. The Pro plan costs $15.99 per user a month, but a free version is also available. While Zoom is a comprehensive, affordable tool, it has a few drawbacks that may not appeal to some businesses.
Its free plan caps the meeting duration at 40 minutes, a dealbreaker for budget-conscious teams. Hosting 1,000 participants carries a monthly fee. Zoom also lacks advanced instant messaging features, like task management, keeping users from working on projects directly on the platform. In addition, the platform’s business phone system doesn’t support international calling. You must subscribe to Zoom Phone to access the international calling add-on, which still requires an extra fee.
While Zoom is primarily video meeting software, Zoom Phone is a business voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) platform. In this article, we provide alternative solutions for both VoIP and video conferencing so that all of your communication needs are covered.
Based on our conference calling-focused scoring criteria, these are the best Zoom alternatives for 2024:
Top Zoom Alternatives
| Top Zoom Alternatives | Business Phone Features | Video Conferencing Features |
 |
• Up to 10,000 toll-free minutes • Call monitoring • Receptionist console |
• Up to 500 participants • Maximum of 24 hours duration • Meeting insights powered by artificial intelligence (AI) |
 |
• Call queue • Call barge • 6-way conference call |
• Up to 1,000 participants • Maximum of 24 hours duration • Integration with Apple CarPlay |
 |
• Warm and direct call transfer • Ring groups • Exec-assistant pairings |
• Up to 10 participants • Maximum of five hours duration • Waiting room and lock meeting |
 |
• Up to 12,500 toll-free minutes • Call log reports • Unlimited internet fax |
• Up to 250 participants • Maximum of 45 minutes duration • Screen and file sharing |
 |
• Time-based routing • Call queues • Call recording • Teams Phone is a separate subscription from Microsoft Teams. |
• Microsoft whiteboard • Together mode • Noise suppression |
 |
Not available (N/A) | • Polling and question and answer (Q&A) • Attendance tracking • In-domain live streaming |
RingCentral: Best for unified communications
Pros
Cons
Our Rating: 4.39/5
Live transcription: Follow discussions closely by reading the transcribed texts of spoken words in the meeting. While the transcription appears in real-time, you may also download it after the meeting.
Collaborative notes: Have different team members contribute to the minutes of the meeting. RingCentral allows you to edit notes simultaneously in real-time.
Toll-free minute allowance: Connect with long-distance clients and not worry about incurring exorbitant charges. RingCentral offers an allowance of up to 10,000 toll-free minutes in its highest-tier plan.
Call takeover: If you need to talk to a customer on a live call, use takeover to join the conversation and remove the agent. This is especially useful for de-escalating tense situations.
Call flip: Move an active call to a different device, such as a desktop or smartphone, without interrupting the conversation. This way, you won’t have to cut the call short and dial the contact again to resume the discussion.
The pricing below is for one to five users on a monthly billing arrangement. Paying annually can save you up to 33%.
Core: $30/user/month for unlimited domestic calling within the United States (U.S.) and Canada, multi-level auto attendant, up to 100 video meeting participants, whiteboard and annotations, and collaborative notes
Advanced: $35/user/month for call monitoring, hot desking, unlimited internet fax, and integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) systems
Ultra: $45/user/month for unlimited storage, device analytics and alerts, and customizable analytics reports
RingCentral is our top pick among Zoom alternatives because it offers a full suite of communication tools. This allows businesses to handle phone calls and collaborate with colleagues without switching to an external team collaboration app. On RingCentral’s entry-level plan, you already have access to call management tools, instant messaging with task management capabilities, and video conferencing. In contrast, you must upgrade to Zoom Workspace’s Business Plus package to unlock the business phone features.
When we drill down to specific call management features, RingCentral steps ahead of Zoom. For instance, its audio conferencing feature accommodates up to 1,000 participants, while Zoom only supports 500. Unlike Zoom, RingCentral offers a toll-free minute allowance. Moreover, it has unlimited internet fax, which Zoom doesn’t have. Because of these capabilities, RingCentral is among our top picks for Zoom Workspace and Zoom Phone alternatives. In case you need a refresher on the solution’s call management capabilities, refer to our Zoom Phone review.
While Zoom Workspace is more affordable upfront, with the Business Plus package costing $26.99 per user a month, the add-on features, such as the audio conferencing ($100 a month), whiteboard ($2.49 a month), and translated captions ($5 a month), inflate the cost. All these add-ons are default features in RingCentral, available in its entry-level plan priced at $30 per user monthly.
Pricing: 3.59/5
General features: 4.44/5
Core VoIP features: 4.58/5
Advanced features: 4.75/5
Integration and compatibility: 4.38/5
User experience and usability: 4.69/5
Security and compliance: 4.69/5
Customer support and service: 4.25/5
User scores: 4.10/5
RingCentral is a voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) platform that offers call management features, including an interactive voice response (IVR) system, call queues, and shared lines. Access to the phone system is convenient and versatile, as users may log in via browser, desktop, and smartphone apps.
Aside from the phone system, RingCentral enables businesses to establish a strong presence in target communities as it offers local, toll-free, vanity, and international numbers. With its excellent capabilities, the provider has been a consistent recipient of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant Leader awards since 2014. RingCentral has three subscription plans, which cover business phone and video conferencing features.
Webex: Best for large meetings
Pros
Cons
Our Rating: 4.19/5
Meetings on the go: Through Apple CarPlay integration, you can Access Webex right from your car’s dashboard. You can see and join upcoming meetings with only a few taps.
Post-meeting transcript: Keep a record of matters discussed during the meeting. When you record the session, the system automatically generates an editable, shareable transcript, which may be accessed via the User Hub.
Co-host: Manage meetings more efficiently by assigning one of your team members to be the co-host. The co-host can start the session even without the primary host. They may also mute and unmute participants, record the session, manage breakout groups, and lock and unlock the meeting.
Mobile screen sharing: Share content from your smartphone by clicking the three dots icon in the menu bar and selecting the “Share Content” option. This is a handy tool for on-the-go employees with limited access to their laptops while in transit.
Voice commands and keywords: Webex works with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, allowing you to make voice commands and manage meetings conveniently. Some actions supported are launching the Webex app, joining an upcoming meeting, and calling a specific contact.
Webex Free: $0 for up to 100 video meeting participants, 40-minute meeting duration, whiteboarding, local recording storage, and Apple CarPlay integration
Webex Meet: $14.50/user/month for up to 200 video meeting participants, 24-hour meeting duration, 10GB cloud storage, virtual backgrounds, live polling via Slido, and recording encryption
Webex Suite Meet + Call: $25/user/month for auto attendant, call forwarding, unlimited local and domestic long-distance calling, and metered international calling
Webex Enterprise: Custom pricing for up to 1,000 video meeting participants, unlimited cloud storage, live streaming of meetings, simultaneous interpretations, call queue, and call barge
When it comes to large meetings, Webex is a better choice than Zoom, as it accommodates a maximum of 1,000 participants in one session and offers advanced tools for managing multiple participants. For instance, it allows users to see 81 video thumbnails in the grid view. Additionally, they can pin video thumbnails and customize stage layouts. When you have a panel of speakers, attendees can easily alter their views to remove distractions and follow the speakers closely.
If you have a multi-lingual audience, Webex enables you to create audio channels and assign interpreters for each group. This effectively reduces language barriers and ensures participants understand the discussion.
Aside from being the best software solution for large meetings, Webex matches Zoom’s free offering, allowing small teams to virtually meet for 40 minutes and host 100 participants without cost. The system stores meeting recordings locally on the computer, making it easily accessible for hosts and organizers. Choose this Zoom alternative free solution when you want to save on virtual meeting costs. Given its excellent tools, Webex also made it to our list of the best Skype alternatives.
Pricing: 4.22/5
General features: 3.89/5
Core VoIP features: 3.75/5
Advanced features: 4.25/5
Integration and compatibility: 4.38/5
User experience and usability: 4.69/5
Security and compliance: 4.69/5
Customer support and service: 3.5/5
User scores: 4.37/5
Webex is a popular video conferencing and team collaboration platform that lets users manage voice calls, messaging, meetings, and webinars in one place. Its free video meeting plan accommodates 100 attendees and has a 40-minute duration. Participants may collaborate through screen sharing and unlimited whiteboards. Teams needing more in-meeting collaboration tools must pay for a subscription plan, which starts at $14.50 per user a month.
The Webex Suite plan is ideal for those needing voice-calling capabilities in their communication platform. It combines business phone and video conferencing features.
Dialpad: Best for artificial intelligence (AI) tools
Pros
Cons
Our Rating: 4.09/5
Waiting room: Create a waiting room to control who attends your meetings. Hold music plays as participants wait for access.
Virtual backgrounds: Customize your virtual background to reflect the company logo and make your thumbnail more professional. Alternatively, display a fun image when engaging in remote team-building activities.
Lock meeting: Prevent individuals from accessing a live meeting by locking the session. Dialpad automatically locks the meeting after a specific amount of time has passed from the start of the meeting.
In-meeting chat: Message team members while the meeting is ongoing. The messaging feature lets users send emojis and files.
Browser-based meetings: Participants don’t need to download the Dialpad app to join meetings. Simply enter the meeting link on the browser to secure access. Browser-based meetings come with collaboration tools, such as meeting recording, transcription, and chat.
Dialpad Standard Plan: $15/user/month (billed annually) or $23/user/month (billed monthly)
- Unlimited calling
- Unlimited AI Meetings for up to 10 participants
- SMS, MMS, and team messaging
- AI-powered call and voicemail transcriptions
Dialpad Pro Plan: $25/user/month (billed annually) or $35/user/month (billed monthly)
- Includes all features of the Standard plan
- 24/7 live agent support
- CRM integrations with Salesforce, Zendesk, HubSpot, Zoho, and more
- Microsoft Teams integration
- Supports up to 10 office locations
- Multiple phone numbers per account
- Open APIs and webhooks
Dialpad Enterprise Plan: Contact for custom pricing
- Includes all features of the Pro plan.
- Guaranteed 100% uptime.
- Unlimited office locations.
- Unlimited ring groups (departments).
- Dial-by-extension.
- Integrations with leading SSO providers including Okta, OneLogin, and Azure AD.
- Enhanced data retention policies.
- Priority live agent support.
Dialpad is among the top Zoom competitors in the area of AI. While Zoom’s AI Companion generates meeting summaries and splits recordings into chapters, Dialpad Ai is more advanced. Aside from creating recaps, it offers real-time transcription and outlines action items after the session.
The smart tool extends to calls. The live transcription applies to phone conversations, and the system automatically detects call purpose and customer sentiment. It features Custom Moments, highlighting moments when a preset word or phrase is mentioned in a conversation. This makes tracking of specific customer concerns easier.
Pricing: 3.13/5
General features: 4.17/5
Core VoIP features: 3.75/5
Advanced features: 3.75/5
Integration and compatibility: 4.17/5
User experience and usability: 4.38/5
Security and compliance: 4.69/5
Customer support and service: 4.5/5 User scores: 4.33/5
Dialpad is a reliable cloud-based private branch exchange (PBX) solution vendor offering a suite of products. Its business phone system offers three subscription plans, with an entry-level cost of $23 per user monthly. The package covers valuable call-handling tools, like multi-level auto attendant, custom call routing, and automatic spam call detection.
Its meeting platform has a free version that can host up to 10 participants and last a maximum of 45 minutes. The paid subscription package is priced at $15 per user monthly. Meanwhile, the contact center starts at $95 per user monthly and provides access to the IVR, automatic call distribution (ACD), and call monitoring tools.
Also read: Best PBX Phone System for Small Business (2024)
Nextiva: Best for customer communications
Pros
Cons
Our Rating: 3.97/5
Screen sharing: Present slides while in a meeting to better illustrate topics. It’s easier for team members to follow the discussion with visual aids.
Meeting scheduler: Plot your sessions on the calendar to inform participants about the upcoming meeting. The system lets you use NextOS Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. Enter your contacts’ email addresses to send the invite.
Conversational AI: Nextiva’s IVR system is equipped with conversational AI, which allows callers to voice their concerns instead of choosing from a phone menu to be directed to the right department. This reduces customer friction and improves the overall experience.
Call screening and blocking: Stop robocalls and telemarketers from reaching your system and wasting your time. With selective call rejection, you can set criteria for declining calls from specific phone numbers.
Call analytics: Collect and examine call data to determine how to improve call-handling strategies. Nextiva displays various metrics, including average talk time and the total number of resolved cases.
Essential Plan: $18.95/user/month
- Easy, quick start plan
- Unlimited voice and video calling
- Voicemail
- Toll-free numbers
- Outlook and Google Contacts integrations
- Unlimited internet fax
Professional Plan: $22.95/user/month
- Ideal for smaller teams
- Includes all features of the Essential plan
- Unlimited conference calls for up to 40 participants
- Unlimited video conferencing with screen sharing
- Multi-level auto attendant
- Mobile and desktop SMS/MMS
- CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot
Enterprise Plan: $32.95/user/month
- Suited for small to medium teams
- Includes all features of the Professional plan
- Unlimited participants in voice and video conferencing
- Call recording
- Unlimited video conference recording
- Voicemail transcription
- Integrations with Microsoft Teams and enterprise software
- Single Sign-On (SSO) capability
Nextiva is the ideal alternative to Zoom’s VoIP solution if you want to organize customer communications more effectively. Its business phone system features threaded conversations, which essentially put all customer interactions, from texts and calls to video meetings, in one place. This means you can see a contact’s communication history without needing to click too many buttons.
In addition, the platform features a built-in ticket management system. Assign team members to customer requests, determine the tickets’ priority level, and send alerts to colleagues. With instant messaging, service representatives can quickly consult each other for more information when handling customer concerns. Because of Nextiva’s robust call management tools, the provider earned a spot in our list of the best VoIP for small businesses.
Pricing: 2.97/5
General features: 3.89/5
Core VoIP features: 3.75/5
Advanced features: 3.75/5
Integration and compatibility: 4.38/5
User experience and usability: 4.06/5
Security and compliance: 4.38/5
Customer support and service: 4/5
User scores: 4.57/5
Nextiva is a popular communications software provider specializing in cloud-based solutions. Its unified communication system supports voice calls, instant messaging, short messaging service (SMS), and video conferencing. The subscription plan starts at $30.95 per user monthly, but businesses can save more with annual billing and volume users.
The provider’s contact center is equipped with advanced call management, digital engagement, and workforce optimization tools. These enable businesses to respond to customer queries on different communication channels more efficiently. The contact center’s four subscription plans come with custom pricing.
Microsoft Teams: Best for instant messaging
Pros
Cons
Our Rating: 3.65/5
Together mode: This feature puts all participants in one shared virtual background, helping meeting attendees feel like they’re together in one place. It supports up to 49 participants.
Join as an avatar: Create a digital representation of yourself in meetings. You may use the base avatars to get started or let the system generate one from an uploaded photo. With an avatar, meeting attendees will see your image even with your camera turned off.
Breakout room: Divide a large meeting into smaller groups to facilitate more engaging discussions. Teams accommodate up to 50 breakout rooms.
Whiteboard: Explain concepts and processes using sticky notes, colors, shapes, and texts. Take a screenshot of your whiteboard, as Teams doesn’t include it in the meeting recording.
Guest access to chat: Let external stakeholders join your Team channels and meetings. The system allows you to configure calling, messaging, and meeting settings and determine what actions guests can take on the platform.
Business Plans:
Microsoft Teams Essentials: $4/user/month for unlimited meetings for a maximum of 30 hours, up to 300 participants per meeting, 10GB of cloud storage per user, and unlimited chat with colleagues and external stakeholders
Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6/user/month for 1TB of file storage for the organization, meeting recordings and transcripts, breakout rooms, and default Outlook calendar view
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50/user/month for webinar tools like attendee registration pages, email confirmations, and reporting, AI-powered writing recommendations, desktop versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Publisher
Team Phones Bundles:
All plans feature cloud-based phone system features, including auto attendant, call queues, call forwarding, call transfer, and hold music.
Microsoft Teams Essentials with Phone: $12/user/month for auto attendant, call queues, call forwarding, up to 300 participants, and 30-hour meeting duration
Teams Phone with Pay-as-you-go Calling: $15/user/month for metered outbound calling minutes and real-time collaboration on the Microsoft 365 mobile app
Teams Essentials and Teams Phone with Domestic Calling: $20/user/month for 3,000 calling minutes for the US, UK, and Canada and 1,200 minutes for the rest of the world
While Zoom Workspace offers a chat platform, Microsoft Teams is the better software solution for instant messaging, as it features advanced tools Zoom lacks, including guest access. Customers and suppliers can directly message you on Teams even though they’re external stakeholders. Moreover, the Microsoft app lets you attach files of up to 1TB in size. Zoom only allows 1GB.
On top of these, Teams support task management. Add “Tasks” as a tab to create and assign to-dos to team members. Users benefit from the platform’s intelligent writing assistance. If you want to reply more professionally to messages, the platform’s AI tool recommends responses.
While primarily an instant messaging platform, Teams has video conferencing features that can rival Zoom. It has a large meeting capacity, accommodating 300 attendees, and a long meeting duration, a maximum of 24 hours. For these robust tools, Microsoft Teams is one of our top picks for Zoom alternatives.
Pricing: 2.97/5
General features: 3.75/5
Core VoIP features: 3.33/5
Advanced features: 2.25/5
Integration and compatibility: 4.38/5
User experience and usability: 4.38/5
Security and compliance: 4.38/5
Customer support and service: 3/5
User scores: 4.43/5
Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration app that features instant messaging and audio and video conferencing. It offers three affordable subscription plans, with the entry-level package priced at $4 per user a month. Beyond team chat and meetings, the plan includes access to the web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which further improves team collaboration.
Businesses needing call management tools will benefit from the Teams Phone Bundles plans, which start at $12 a month per user. Its capabilities include call queues, call forwarding, call blocking, and call park.
Google Meet: Best for Google Workspace users
Pros
Cons
Our Rating: 3.55/5
Meeting recording: Capture the entire virtual discussion and have a reliable source of matters agreed upon. The recordings are automatically saved to the meeting organizer’s Meet Recordings folder in Google Drive.
Attendance tracking: Keep track of the individuals attending your sessions. On Google Meet’s Settings, select the “Host Controls” and toggle on the “Attendance tracking” option.
In-domain live streaming: Broadcast your sessions to a wider group of audience. When plotting the event on your calendar, go to the event details settings to add the live stream. A link to the live stream will automatically appear. Copy that link and share to contacts you want to invite to the event.
Polling: Let meeting participants voice their opinions through a survey. After the meeting, the system automatically sends the poll results to the moderator’s email.
View-only roles: Enabling view-only participants will help manage large meetings better. Viewers will be able to raise their hands, answer polls, and use reactions, but they will not be able to share their screens or audio and chat with other attendees.
Business Starter: $6/user/month for up to 100 video meeting participants, 24-hour meeting duration, 30GB of cloud storage per user via Google Drive, whiteboard, and team messaging
Business Standard: $12/user/month for up to 150 video meeting participants, 2TB of cloud storage per user via Google Drive, meeting recordings on Google Drive, polling, and breakout rooms
Business Plus: $18/user/month for up to 500 video meeting participants, 5TB of cloud storage per user via Google Drive, and attendance tracking
Enterprise: Custom pricing for up to 1,000 video meeting participants, 5TB per user with the option to request more, and in-domain live streaming
Google Meet is the most suitable Zoom alternative for Google Workspace users. It lives in the Workspace ecosystem with other Google products like Gmail, Google Chat, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. With this suite of productivity tools readily available, workflows are more efficient.
For example, when you receive an email from a customer asking for a video meeting, you can easily jump to the Calendar and schedule that session. Or, you can click the Chat button at the sidebar of your Gmail interface and message a colleague about their available schedule.
When you record meetings, the sessions are automatically stored in Google Drive, ready to be shared with contacts. The best part about Google Meet is that it has a free plan, which you can use to see if it suits your communication requirements. It accommodates up to 100 participants and 60 minutes of meeting duration. As long as you have a Google account, you’ll have access to the free version. Google Meet is among the best free alternatives to Zoom worth considering.
Pricing: 2.81/5
General features: Not applicable (N/A)
Core VoIP features: N/A
Advanced features: 0.75/5
Integration and compatibility: 4.17/5
User experience and usability: 4.38/5
Security and compliance: 4.69/5
Customer support and service: 3.5/5
User scores: 4.53/5
Google Meet, part of the Google Workspace ecosystem, is the tech giant’s video conferencing platform. It features collaboration tools like chat, hand-raising, and emoji reactions. It boasts easy accessibility since joining meetings doesn’t require an app and only involves keying in the meeting URL on a browser. The platform was first introduced in 2017, emerging from Google Hangouts.
Is Zoom right for you after all?
Zoom is a powerful video conferencing and cloud-based phone solution for small businesses. It supports up to 500 participants in one session, with the option to expand to 1,000 attendees. Its maximum duration is 30 hours, more than enough to accommodate lengthy virtual discussions.
The robust collaboration tools, namely screen sharing, co-annotation, pin and spotlight, and chat, facilitate more efficient meetings. Amid the pandemic and the new normal of remote work, it was businesses’ top choice for a video conferencing solution.
Meanwhile, its business phone system features advanced call management tools. Its IVR and ACD systems route callers to the right departments and agents. Call recording and monitoring let managers evaluate agent-customer conversations and introduce better communication strategies. Call handoff promotes mobility, letting users seamlessly switch from one device to another without interrupting a live conversation.
Considering all these tools, Zoom offers affordable subscription plans. Zoom Workspace’s base package costs $15.99 per user a month. If you only need a business phone system, Zoom Phone’s entry-level plan is priced at $10 per user monthly. It’s worth considering that you might need Zoom, not a Zoom alternative.
Choosing the best Zoom alternative
While Zoom features excellent video meetings and business phone tools, it falls short on a few aspects. For example, its free plan only allows 40 minutes of meeting time. While it can host up to 1,000 attendees, it lacks advanced tools for managing a huge crowd of participants. Its AI tool is still in the infancy stage and meeting summaries need fine-tuning.
The chat tool doesn’t support task management. Meanwhile, Zoom Workspace’s business phone features don’t include internet faxing capabilities and a toll-free minute allowance, which are typical for VoIP solutions. If these drawbacks are dealbreakers to you, consider Zoom alternatives.
- If you handle a large volume of calls and need advanced team collaboration tools, RingCentral’s robust unified communication features are for you.
- For businesses hosting a large number of participants regularly, go for Webex and maximize its 1,000-participant capacity, customizable stage layouts, and simultaneous interpretations.
- Dialpad is the ideal solution for streamlining meetings and call management using AI.
- If you want to improve customer engagement, Nextiva’s threaded conversations and help desk tools will organize your workflow for resolving client queries.
- Choose Microsoft Teams when you rely heavily on instant messaging, want to communicate with external stakeholders, and assign tasks to team members without leaving the platform.
- Google Meet is the better Zoom alternative for Google Workspace users, as it seamlessly works with other Google products, like Gmail, Google Chat, Google Calendar, and Google Drive.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
