The best virtual meeting platforms 2022

In light of lockdowns enforced during the Covid-19 outbreak, millions of people across the world were either required or encouraged to work from home wherever possible. As a result, meetings in person were made illegal in some places and so the demand for effective virtual meeting rooms dramatically rose overnight.

Even before Covid-19, there was a place for virtual meeting platforms in the world of business, especially among small startups wishing to avoid the expense of purchasing or leasing permanent office space. International companies and other businesses where it can be logistically challenging to get workers together were also using virtual meeting platforms for years before Covid-19.

In this article, we take a look at the most popular virtual meeting software companies and discuss the pros and cons of both the longest standing platforms and those that have grown in popularity over recent years and quickly adapted to keep up with businesses’ needs.

Microsoft Teams

Initially released in 2017, Microsoft Teams is Microsoft’s answer to online meetings. The beauty of Teams is that it not only makes an effective platform for business meetings but it can also be used for communicating with family and friends. Microsoft Teams is also the platform of choice for many educational institutions such as schools and colleges.

According to Statista, Microsoft Teams users increased from 75 million in April 2020 to 145 million in April 2021. This huge surge in the uptake of users was significantly influenced by lockdowns enforced in response to Covid-19.

Microsoft Teams is free to sign up for and has free plans available for both personal and business use. Depending on the size of your organisation, there are several other plans available, for prices ranging from £3 to £9.40 per user per month. The most expensive plan allows for Teams meetings of up to 300 people at one time, with a maximum meeting duration of 30 hours. 

For small startups with limited funding, Microsoft Teams’ free option includes the capacity to meet with up to 100 participants at a time for a maximum meeting duration of one hour. It also works seamlessly alongside Microsoft’s other software, such as Microsoft OneNote, which has proved particularly popular for educational establishments wishing to distribute individual worksheets to remote learners.

Zoom

According to Backlinko, Zoom was hosting roughly 300 million meeting participants every day as of January 2022. In comparison with the 10 million daily users who were meeting on this platform in December 2019, this is a 2900% increase in the use of Zoom’s virtual meeting services.

This significant rise is in part due to a drastic change in the way people work, caused in reaction to a global pandemic. However, there is a lot to be said for running a remote company and conducting all of your business through online meeting platforms such as Zoom.

Like Microsoft Teams, Zoom offers several price plans depending on your needs. Personal meetings can be accessed via their platform for free, with up to 100 participants in attendance at any one time, and for a time limit of 40 minutes for group meetings and 30 hours when meeting with just one other person.

Paid options are also available with Zoom. For just £11.99 a month, you can hold group meetings for up to 30 hours at a time, for £15.99 a month you can also access recording transcripts, and host up to 1,000 participants with a large meetings add-on.

Google Meet

Google Meet offers a secure virtual meeting platform for businesses and comes included with Google Workspace and Google Workspace for Education. Similarly to Microsoft Teams, Google Meet works in unison with Google’s suite of software, allowing for seamless sharing of documents, and collaboration on tasks.

As part of Google Workspace, you and your staff will gain access to your own email addresses customised to fit your domain name, and cloud-based storage for all your files so you don’t need to invest in installing software that takes up a lot of storage space on your hard drives.

Like other providers, Google Meet offers several different price plans, with the added advantage of a 2-week trial before you need to commit. For £4.14 per user per month, you can access 30GB of storage and host meetings with up to 100 participants. £8.28 per month per user will fetch you 2TB of cloud storage each and the capacity to host meetings with up to 150 people, as well as the opportunity to record these. The most expensive plan costs £13.80 per month per user, for meetings with up to 500 people and cloud storage of 5TB, and for packages greater than this, Google encourages you to contact their sales team for pricing options. 

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Online meetings hold a lot of benefits. Not only do they limit the chances of spreading diseases amongst attendees, but they also allow companies of all sizes to meet with specialists across long distances. 

Sometimes meeting in person is the most productive way of moving an idea forwards. For remote companies without their own permanent office space, hiring a meeting room is a viable solution. It is advisable to check that the meeting room you book also has video conferencing equipment available beforehand, as this will also provide you with the option to host attendees from across the globe, should they be unable to attend in person for any reason.

However you meet with your company, having now compared some of the leading virtual meeting software, you can easily meet in the best way that suits you, both online and in person.