What Free Video Conference Software Exists For Mac To Pc
A reviews-based short list of best-in-class free and open source video conferencing software
With a fast, lightweight interface and smart participant management, multi-person video calls are a breeze. Designed for every kind of business. Meet is fully integrated with G Suite, so you can join meetings directly from a Calendar event or email invite. EzTalks for Mac is powerful and reliable video conferencing software for Mac. It provides with simple and useful Mac video conferencing services to make video collaboration easier. It features: 1. HD video and audio It delivers high-definition video and crystal audio to ensure the video conference on Mac smoothly and seamlessly.
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Hollywood has lied to you. We’re not getting hologram meetings anytime soon.
Until then, perhaps you should look to video conferencing (or web conferencing) software to help you meet up with all those distant relations and workplace proximity associates. After all, 63% of businesses are currently using group video conferencing software and 30% are currently implementing or deploying it, according to a Gartner survey.
Video conferencing software lets you host remote meetings, which cuts down on overhead, makes it easier to hire speakers since you no longer need to worry about travel, and helps you reach a much wider audience because you’re not bound by a single location.
You can use video conferencing software for events, internal meetings, webinars, and lectures, so it’s incredibly valuable. And it’s even more valuable if it’s free.
We’ve compiled a list of five of the top free video conferencing software for you. Several products on this list are open source, which means they’re infinitely customizable. However, you should approach those only if you a) have at least a rudimentary knowledge of programming and b) are comfortable not having much in the way of live customer support.
Methodology
Products considered for this article have to:
- Offer a free version of software that offers screen sharing, video conferencing, and presentation streaming functionality.
- Be listed on Capterra’s web conferencing software directory with an overall rating of at least 90/100. (After analyzing almost 61,000 reviews of web conferencing software, we developed a 100-point rating system to reflect that reviews data.)
The products are listed in alphabetical order, and the open source options are noted as such.
1. FreeConferenceCall.com
Open source: Yes Overall rating: 91.3/100 Reviews: 133 |
If you have fewer than 1,000 participants attending your event online, you’re covered by FreeConferenceCall.com’s free plan. Founded in 2001, they now have more than 800,000 businesses listed as clients, so they’re a titan in the industry.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
|
|
Cost to upgrade:
The cost to upgrade overall is $12.95 per user, per month. You can also upgrade for specific features, including custom hold music for $2 per month and extra storage for conference recordings at $3 per month for 40GB.
Best suited for:
Midsize businesses that are looking for an affordable and customizable video conferencing option.
The profile page for a FreeConferenceCall.com user (Source)
2. Livestorm
Open source: Yes Overall rating: 95.2/100 Reviews: 91 |
With a primary focus on webinars, Livestorm’s free plan offers unlimited web conferences for up to four participants. Depending on how your event is structured, that might be all you need.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
|
|
Cost to upgrade:
To upgrade the video meetings feature, it costs $31 per host, per month. To upgrade the webinars feature, it costs $99 per host, per month.
Best suited for:
Businesses just breaking into the world of open source video conferencing software. Livestorm’s biggest customers, based on reviews data, are small telecommunications companies and government administrators.
Livestorm allows for more than just text chats during a video conference , with options such as questions and polls (Source)
3. Samepage
Open source: No Overall rating: 95.4/100 Reviews: 706 |
The free version of Samepage offers you unlimited users and meetings, chat, and search history. The search history option is especially helpful for internal events so you can centralize all of your data and interactions for improved event follow-up.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
|
|
Cost to upgrade:
The pro model is $8 per member, per month and allows for an additional 1TB of storage per member, as well as extended administrative capabilities.
Best suited for:
Businesses looking for collaboration software that plan on using video conferencing for internal purposes. The product is most frequently reviewed by small nonprofits and education management companies.
Samepage lets you chat while video conferencing (Source)
4. UberConference
Open source: No Overall rating: 90.7/100 Reviews: 323 |
UberConference’s free plan offers you an unlimited number of video conferences under 45-minutes long with up to 10 free participants. They’ve also added one small tweak to the standard video conference fare: They’ve eliminated pin numbers, making it easier for users to join.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
|
|
Cost to upgrade:
The business model is $15 per user, per month and lets you have five-hour long meetings with up to 100 participants. You can also upload your own custom hold music if theirs isn’t groovy enough.
Best suited for:
UberConference’s highest ratings come from large businesses, and most reviewers are in the marketing and advertising and computer software fields.
Reviewers love the ability to share their screen during video conferences (Source)
5. Zoom Video Webinar
Open source: Yes Overall rating: 92.6/100 Reviews: 3,289 |
Zoom Video Webinar offers an unlimited number of one-on-one meetings and meetings under 40-minutes long for up to 100 participants. The software also sends you post-webinar/video conference reports to help you plan your next event.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
|
|
Cost to upgrade:
Just have your family member, and you can find any device that you or your family members use with Family Sharing. Find my ihpone mac app. By changing your Apple ID password, you can prevent anyone from accessing your iCloud data or using other services (such as iMessage or iTunes) from your missing device. Your device might be covered under your wireless carrier plan.If you use, any family member can help locate another member’s missing device. If you didn't turn on Find My device before your device was lost or stolen, it can't be used to locate your device. But you can use these steps to help protect your data:.
The pro model is $14.99 per user per month and gets you a 24-hour time limit on group conferences of up to 100 participants and 1GB of MP4 or M4A cloud recording.
Best suited for:
Businesses that are focused on video and audio quality. Zoom gets its highest ratings from small companies focused on education management and eLearning professionals.
Zoom offers high -quality video, even in the face of a litany of participants (Source)
Next steps
Hopefully by now you have a stronger sense of which web conferencing software might be a good fit for you. If you’re still not sure, though, take a look at our buyer’s guide to give you a better sense of what video conferencing can do.
Or, if none of those options appeal to you, check out our directory for web conferencing software and see if there’s another option that feels like a better fit.
Methodology
Gartner 2018 Unified Communications Managed & Professional Services: Results presented are based on a Gartner study to understand trends in end-user spending on UC Managed and Professional Services and service providers along with key drivers of change. The primary research was conducted online during September to October 2017 among 408 respondents in North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Europe.
What Free Video Conference Software Exists For Mac To Pc Free
Companies were screened for revenue (>$250M) and have already implemented managed & professional services for at least one Unified Communications technology category out of Cloud-based telephony, Premises-based telephony, Cloud-based conferencing, Group video conferencing systems and infrastructure in the past 5 years (after 2012).
Respondents were IT decision-makers with primary focus on IT executive leadership (C-level) or on Applications-Content and Collaboration (Unified Communications). Respondents are at least members of organization group which investigates or evaluates service providers or solutions and/ or make the final decision(s) of purchase.
The study was developed collaboratively by Gartner Analysts and the Primary Research Team who follow the Unified Communications Managed and Professional Services Market.
Disclaimer: “Results do not represent “global” findings or the market as a whole but reflect sentiment of the respondents and companies surveyed.
Looking for Event Management software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Event Management software solutions.