Zoom alternative

August 8, 2023 8:06 AM

Are there good alternatives to Zoom for hosting occasional video meetings with non-techy people?

I've been using a paid zoom account to host a few regular social calls with friends and family, but with their latest TOS update I'm looking for an alternative. Have you had success with any?

- I am willing to pay and do some setup on my end
- needs to be maximally easy for participants who are non-tech-savvy, no making accounts etc. This isn't for work and there's no IT department people can call.
- meetings are usually 10 people or less, very rarely might be as many as 15
- Most people use computers but some do use phone/tablet

posted by LobsterMitten to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

Jitsi Meet?

They have a public instance.
posted by genpfault at 8:13 AM on August 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

There are government agencies near me who use MS Teams.
posted by amtho at 8:21 AM on August 8, 2023

I've been using Facebook Messenger's video chat functionality to talk to family over the last few years. We started out with Zoom and Google Meet during the pandemic but quickly discovered their limitations. Whereas Facebook's version just works if everybody is on Facebook, and works decently well on desktop or phone/tablet. If not everyone in your group is on Facebook, this may not be ideal.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:25 AM on August 8, 2023

Whereby is designed just for this. You just give the other person a link. It's also free and has European standards of privacy.
posted by seasparrow at 8:27 AM on August 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I've used a ton of them though work over the years:

MS Teams
Cisco WebEx
AT&T Collaborate


I'm not sure how much they cost, but IMO they are all about the same.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:36 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Google Meet
Skype
I've used GoTo Meeting, Webex and Teams; if they have an affordable option, they're great tools.
Alternatives to Zoom
posted by theora55 at 8:50 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I would look at Google Meet. Gmail accounts are probably more ubiquitous than Facebook at this point, and it just generally works fine. You can pay for a basic Workspace account to host unlimited-length calls.

(There’s a fascinating story to be written about how Zoom ate Google’s lunch when COVID hit. Suddenly everyone was using their Gmail to pass around Zoom links when Hangouts/Meet was right there and didn’t even require an app install, and “Zoom” became synonymous with video calling in the popular imagination. Really one of the hugest missed opportunities in tech over the past decade.)
posted by staggernation at 9:00 AM on August 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

Seconding Whereby. It’s not perfect, but it got Little e through two years of entirely virtual piano lessons, and handled small virtual recitals, too.
posted by eirias at 9:23 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

GoToMeeting is $12/month (with free trial); I've used it for about a decade for work, focused more on screen-sharing meetings than on video meetings. (Most of the people I meet with keep their cameras off).

One nice feature is you can set recurring/ongoing meeting rooms, so the same link works every time (and you can have different meeting rooms if there's groups you don't want to mix).
posted by Superilla at 9:57 AM on August 8, 2023

Facetime calls are pretty easy and free. There's a web option for those not using iOS or macOS.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:07 AM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Second Google meeting. Browser based. Free.
posted by creiszhanson at 10:53 AM on August 8, 2023

I have used all of the free options listed here to meet with (adult) students using whatever tech they have available. This is usually phones, often computers that they are borrowing or using while at their jobs. Our default is to use Teams, but when issues come up, which is at least weekly, we switch to whatever they can use that isn't paid or messenger.


The only option I've never had trouble with is google meet.
(And jitsi, but that's only come up once)
posted by Acari at 11:30 AM on August 8, 2023

I haven’t tried it yet but I’m planning on using Jitsi Meet as that’s what I’ve seen recommended the most following the Zoom ToS update.
posted by ellieBOA at 11:44 AM on August 8, 2023

The only option I've never had trouble with is google meet.

I have had issues with it crashing while sharing a single application rather than the full screen.
posted by Candleman at 2:19 PM on August 8, 2023

Zoom is the easiest/most user friendly in my opinion. Teams is difficult outside of corporate environments. I’d go with Google Meet or try another suggested here.
posted by Bunglegirl at 7:07 PM on August 8, 2023

Jitsi is usually very easy to use and quick to set up; it can be temperamental if you try to use it in Firefox though. It works well in Chrome, and the Jitsi app seems good too (on an Android phone).
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 3:38 AM on August 9, 2023

Response by poster: Thank you all for the ideas - stil listening if anyone has more.
posted by LobsterMitten at 5:57 AM on August 9, 2023

I have the kind of job where between teaching, training, and interacting with sales reps, I have exposure to pretty much every web-conferencing option that has market share in the US, among people who are separated by both geography and technological experience, with anywhere from 2-100 people on a call.

Geography is important here. Other than Zoom, Google Meet is hands down the best option for much of the globe, with the caveat that you may run into problems with callers from parts of the PRC. Messenger has better penetration in China and parts of Africa, but requires everyone to be on Facebook. You need a (Google) account for Meet too, but throwaway gmail accounts are still trivial to create for anyone concerned about that, which is no longer the case for most Meta stuff. WebEx, Collaborate, and Teams all have issues outside an enterprise environment. Skype is practically broken at this point. Jitsi has trouble with load balancing and distance. FaceTime works great across Apple devices but the web version is subpar on anything else and can again run into geographical issues outside North America and Europe.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:53 AM on August 9, 2023