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5 best Zoom alternatives for remote team collaboration
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5 best Zoom alternatives for remote team collaboration

Want a dynamic meeting experience that boosts remote team collaboration? Check out our list of the top 5 Zoom alternatives.

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To quote the late, great Fred Astaire, “All the cares that hang around through the week seem to vanish when we dance cheek to cheek.” 

Fred had a point: dancing together is a powerful way to connect and strengthen relationships. By contrast, a solo dance routine may be beautiful to watch, but it’s a one-sided experience and doesn’t give you the opportunity to get involved. 

It’s the same with traditional online meetings and presentations that rely on one-way screen sharing and lack opportunities to interact. Creating a positive remote work culture with a healthy amount of teamwork requires you to build deep relationships between employees. And that’s easier to do when your meetings are dynamic and collaborative—not a solo act.

For example, Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing tools out there. However, it’s great for talking, but not for working together as a team. That’s why leaders of highly collaborative teams should invest in Zoom alternatives that act as a home base to support a more collaborative way of working. One that takes teamwork beyond screen sharing and makes online work feel the same as in-person—or better.

In this post, we’ll walk you through five Zoom alternatives, compare their features, pricing, and advantages, and outline who each is best for. On top of that, we’ll also demonstrate how Switchboard helps you create a truly collaborative environment where your people can work together just as well, or even better than, they would in person.

Want a collaboration hub built for multiplayer work?
Switchboard gives your people a virtual space to find each other and work side-by-side—whether they’re in a meeting or not. 
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Zoom alternatives: an overview

Before we dive into the details, here’s a breakdown of five Zoom alternatives: Switchboard, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Vowel, and Skype and how they stack up on key features.

Zoom alternatives comparison chart

Which is the best alternative to Zoom? 

When it comes to video conferencing platforms, many have similar functions, so it’s hard to figure out which is the best investment for you and your team. We’ve done the homework and analyzed each option so you can choose the right tool to get more done in meetings and better manage your remote team

1. Switchboard

Switchboard room with people working on multiple documents and apps
With Switchboard, meeting participants can collaborate in real time on a multiplayer canvas, creating a more productive remote work environment. Source: Switchboard

Switchboard is a browser-based collaboration platform that lets you and your team work on documents and apps together inside a virtual room—without having to share your screen. It’s designed to foster team connection, collaboration, and productivity through intuitive, permanent meeting rooms. 

Switchboard lets you communicate in real time with video, audio, and chat. You can also work side-by-side allowing everyone to scroll, type, and browse the same document at the same time. 

You can create cloud-based virtual rooms for brainstorming, host spontaneous meetings with your team, and connect with clients in an interactive space. 

Throughout the meeting, you can explore any file in the room, moving around and viewing whatever you want without getting in the way of others. 

Best of all, Switchboard saves all your files after every meeting, so you never need to download anything or repopulate the room again. It’s like leaving your dancing shoes and equipment backstage so you’re always ready to start the next number. 

Why is Switchboard a good alternative to Zoom?

With traditional video conferencing tools, your meetings start and end with zero. You log into an empty space that you have to populate with the document and materials you need. Then, at the end, you lose it all again; all you get to save is a static meeting recording.

Switchboard is more than just a virtual meeting app. It’s a virtual collaboration space where your teams can always find each other—before, during, and after calls and brainstorming sessions. Even after the curtain falls on real-time collaboration, everyone can keep working async on their own schedule.

Pro tip: With Switchboard, you can create dedicated “water cooler” rooms for spontaneous hangouts and getting to know each other outside of work. Kind of like a green room where performers can connect and relax when they’re not on stage.
A screenshot of meeting and 1:1 rooms in Switchboard
With Switchboard, meeting rooms are ready when you are, so you can schedule time together or just pop into a dedicated water cooler room for an impromptu chat. Source: Switchboard

Key features:

  • Shared online workspace and rooms for recurring meetings
  • Web-based canvas to add multiple apps, websites, PDFs, and images side by side
  • Persistent rooms that save your work
  • In-meeting video, audio, and messaging 
  • Secure, fast multiplayer browsers for instant collaboration
  • Screen sharing for native apps
  • Built-in whiteboard
  • Presentation mode
  • In-app support
  • Google Calendar integration
  • Unlimited rooms for 1:1s, meetings, and projects
  • Meeting recording
  • No integration required for web-based apps—they all work
  • Room permissions for members and guests
  • Sections to organize documents and apps
  • Host not required for members to enter a room
  • Up to 50 participants 

Pricing: 

  • Free: Includes limited features, rooms, and members for small teams or individuals.
  • Pro: $15 member/month for up to 200 rooms and 500 members plus Switchboard AI and additional storage.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing.

Best for:

Highly collaborative small remote or hybrid companies looking for a comprehensive and team-oriented solution to traditional video conferencing tools.

It gives distributed teams an interactive, multiplayer experience, with features that support working alongside each other. Just bring your favorite virtual collaboration tools, put some tunes on, and get moving.

2. Google Meet

Screenshot of a Google Meet meeting
Google Meet is an easy-to-use video conferencing solution that’s a good choice for quick check-ins, scheduled meetings, and webinars. Source: Google Meet

Google Meet (previously Google Hangouts) is a good alternative to Zoom if you’re already using Google Workspace (previously G Suite). It’s a user-friendly option and gives you high-quality video and audio conferencing. It also gives you plenty of dialing choices and a straightforward app so your people can join meetings wherever they are—even if their internet connection isn’t great.

To make your meetings more engaging, the software has multiple audience participation features like polls, hand-raising, emoji reactions, and virtual whiteboards. These options get everyone involved and let them work together to develop projects and tasks. 

Why is Google Meet a good alternative to Zoom?
Google Meet integrates seamlessly with all your Google Workspace apps for a more well-rounded experience. This makes scheduling and joining meetings more convenient if you use these apps regularly.

Google Meet is also free to use for smaller businesses, with no meeting time cap. (Zoom caps meetings at 40 minutes.) If your organization is already using Google Workspace, Google Meet is already included in your subscription, which makes it a more affordable option.

Finally, when you record a Google meeting, it also keeps a log of the conversation history, so you can easily refer back to what you discussed on the call.

Key features 

  • Up to 500 participants on paid plans
  • Closed captioning during calls (only available in English)
  • In-app whiteboard capabilities and Miro integration
  • Screen sharing
  • Event live-streaming
  • Meeting recording on paid plans
  • Breakout rooms
  • Seamless integration with Google Chat

Pricing: 

  • Google Meet is free to use with access to basic features
  • Business Starter: $6/month per user
  • Business Standard: $12/month per user
  • Business Plus: $18/month per user
  • Enterprise: custom priced  

Best for:

If you’re already using Google Workspace, Google Meet is a convenient solution for you. It’s easy to use, reliable, and a good choice for remote companies that focus on real-time rather than async working.

But since it doesn’t let you work together on the same documents and apps between meetings, it’s not a great choice for highly collaborative remote teams. So every time you want to start a new dance routine, you have to arrange the on-stage props all over again.

Check out this post to compare Google Meet vs BlueJeans, another Zoom alternative.

3. Microsoft Teams

Online Q&A session on Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a good choice for hosting webinars, collaborating with team members, and creating private spaces for your people. Source: Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is another popular tool that lets you host all sorts of online meetings—from webinars to video conferences and collaborative work sessions. The free version works well for simple virtual meetings, while paid versions give you more advanced collaboration options. 

Like Google Meet and Zoom, Microsoft Teams offer features to engage your team, like in-meeting emoji reactions, hand-raising, and polls. But what sets it apart from those alternatives is its new custom Together Mode. 

This function, currently not available on mobile apps, lets you host your online meeting in a virtual shared space. You can choose locations like a cafe, conference room, or resort and see everyone’s image in the same place. 

Why is Microsoft Teams a good alternative to Zoom? 

Microsoft Teams offers some more interactive features than Zoom, so it’s better for making decisions together during the call. For example, you can send the agenda or task list to meeting participants and have everyone edit it in real time. These components are saved in the meeting chat and to OneDrive, so you can continue working on them after the meeting. 

Microsoft Teams also automatically offers real-time captions and transcripts during the meeting, which makes it more accessible for everyone. Zoom only offers captioning for hosts with a live transcription license and this feature requires additional setup.

Key features 

  • Up to 1000 participants per meeting
  • Unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours
  • Unlimited in-app instant messaging 
  • Whiteboard
  • Live captioning in 28 languages 
  • Breakout rooms
  • Meeting recording
  • Screen sharing

Pricing 

  • Microsoft Teams is free to use with access to basic features
  • Microsoft Teams Essentials: $4/month per user
  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6/month per user
  • Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50/month per user 
  • Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro (without Audio Conferencing): $40/month per room 

Best for 

Microsoft Teams works well for businesses of all sizes that need to host webinars and create easy-to-navigate meeting rooms. It’s especially convenient for larger organizations and those that already use Microsoft products, like Microsoft 365. 

4. Vowel

Vowel’s meeting library with attached meeting agendas and notes
Vowel uses AI to give you meeting summaries and transcripts after every call to save you time. Source: Vowel

Vowel is a video conferencing app that gives you automated meeting transcriptions, agenda templates, and built-in notes. You can add actionable notes to your team’s meeting agenda, which are updated in real time and visible for everyone. 

After every call, you also get a searchable, highlightable, and timestamped meeting summary to get everyone on the same page. Each meeting participant can also bookmark important moments and share a clip of that highlight afterward.

Why is Vowel a good alternative to Zoom? 

Vowel’s video conference solution goes beyond letting you host meetings and provides you with searchable, AI-powered meeting summaries so you can revisit every conversation. You also get live transcriptions and recordings, even on a free plan, which makes Vowel a more attractive dance partner than Zoom.

Vowel also lets you take collaborative meeting notes in the call, without having to move back and forth between tabs or tools. Within these notes, you can create action items and assign them to team members to make your calls as productive as possible. So you can keep the action going after the show. 

Key features:

  • Up to 50 participants per meeting on paid plans 
  • Meetings of up to 40 minutes and 12 participants on the free plan
  • In-call chat 
  • Talk time counter 
  • Interactive meeting agenda, templates, and notes
  • Meeting bookmarks 
  • Meeting transcription (non-English available)
  • Call recording 
  • Screen sharing 
  • Basic integrations 

Pricing: 

  • Free version with limited functionality and attendee numbers
  • Business: $16.49/month per host
  • Enterprise: coming soon 

Best for: 

Vowel is a good option for companies with highly technical operations or international teams–like product design and engineering–that rely on accurate transcriptions in different languages and collaborative research sessions.  

Check out our other posts for a deeper dive into Zoom vs Vowel or to see more Vowel alternatives.

5. Skype

Skype video call showing multiple participants
Skype is useful for international teams that want to make video and audio calls across the world. Source: Skype

Skype is one of the original video conference softwares out there, which means many people still remember making their first video call using this popular platform. One of its main benefits is that it lets you host up to 100 participants in a single meeting and call phone numbers across the globe when you buy Skype Credit. 

This is a user-friendly app with a straightforward, traditional user interface that most people are familiar with. However, Microsoft retired Skype for Business in 2021 so you’ll need to use Teams instead. 

Why is Skype a good alternative to Zoom? 

While Skype has many of the same features as Zoom, like video and audio calling, screen sharing, and instant messaging, it has some unique features that make it stand out. For example, Skype allows users to call landlines and mobile phones, which can be useful if you need to make international calls or your team members don't have access to the internet.

Another advantage of Skype is that it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft products, like Outlook and Office 365, so you can access it from inside the MS platform.

Key features:

  • Audio and HD video calling
  • Smart messaging
  • Screen sharing
  • Call recording
  • File and document sharing
  • Live captioning and real-time translation

Pricing: 

  • Skype video conferencing for non-business users: Free 
  • Skype for Business is included in Microsoft Teams
  • Skype Credit offers a range of pricing plans for calling phone numbers around the world

Best for:

Skype is ideal for small and medium businesses with remote international teams. It also lets you make calls with up to 100 participants, which gives you some added flexibility. And if you work with internal and external stakeholders in languages other than English, Skype’s real-time translation feature lets you get your points across naturally.

However, it doesn’t have collaboration features for working on a document at the same time or brainstorming with colleagues. That makes Skype a more suitable choice for meetings or presentations that rely on one-sided communication rather than smaller collaborative gatherings. 

How Switchboard lets you create persistent workspaces

Zoom is a great tool—if you’re into solo dance routines. But if you want to build relationships in a connected remote environment where everyone can break out the moves, you need a tool that’s built for doing, not just talking. 

Switchboard changes the tempo for remote teams, because it’s designed to facilitate true teamwork through a multiplayer experience. With Switchboard, you can work together seamlessly on tasks and projects during meetings using your preferred browsers, apps, or files. Without needing to constantly switch tabs or share screens.

It also saves all of your work in persistent rooms so you never have to start from zero. For example, your design team can populate a dedicated room with everything they’ll need for their next review, including images, PDFs, and Figma designs.

Or you can prepare the room with all the documents and files you want to present during your upcoming all-hands meeting so they’re ready and waiting when everyone jumps on the call. 

With Switchboard, you’ll never be the wallflower hanging around waiting to be asked to dance. With a true multiplayer experience and real-time communication, everyone can get on the floor at the same time.

Screenshot of multiple rooms in Switchboard
Switchboard lets you upload all the documents, files, and browsers you need to your room to boost collaboration and make meetings more engaging. Source: Switchboard

Zoom alternatives: Make everyone the star of the show with Switchboard

Watching a solo dance can be fun but, beautiful as it is, it's still a spectator event. Dancing with others on the other hand, lets you get involved, build deeper relationships, and move as one. 

To help your remote teams feel more connected, your meetings need to move away from being a solo act with one person presenting and others watching. But that’s not always easy to accomplish with traditional web conferencing tools. These can lack features that encourage interaction and engagement, not to mention real-time and async collaboration. 

In this post, we reviewed four alternatives to Zoom: Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Vowel, and Skype. They’re all solid tools for when you need to get everyone together to discuss work, but they’re not designed for doing

For true engagement, highly collaborative teams in small remote companies need Zoom alternatives with features that get everyone up and on the floor at the same time. That’s why Switchboard goes beyond high-quality web conferencing to act as a dynamic virtual hub. It brings your teams together with all the tools you need for more collaborative, energizing, and productive work. You can work on projects together in real time or async and connect more deeply through the kind of spontaneous interactions you get in a physical office. All of which turns your people from solo performers into a powerful, connected dance troupe. 

Want a collaboration hub built for multiplayer work?
Switchboard gives your people a virtual space to find each other and work side-by-side—whether they’re in a meeting or not. 
Sign up for free
.

Frequently asked questions about Zoom alternatives

Who is Zoom's biggest competitor?

Zoom’s biggest competitor in the video conferencing market is Microsoft Teams. Other competitors include Google Meet, Skype, Cisco Webex, GoToMeeting, BlueJeans, and Switchboard. These companies offer video conferencing features, as well as collaboration and communication tools. This makes them popular choices for businesses and individuals who require remote communication solutions. 

Is Zoom the best option for video chat?

Zoom is a popular video conferencing software that can accommodate a large number of participants, which makes it ideal for large companies. And it offers some basic collaboration features like built-in whiteboard and messaging on both iOS and Android devices. But for highly collaborative small businesses, Zoom meetings are more like traditional conference calls as they lack the functionality for true side-by-side collaboration.

Is there a free alternative to Zoom with no time limit?

Yes, there are a few alternative platforms for free video meetings with no time limits. These include Switchboard, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype.

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Want a collaboration hub built for multiplayer work?

Switchboard gives your people a virtual space to find each other and work side-by-side—whether they’re in a meeting or not.