Zoom meetings are becoming increasingly popular and a large number of people are talking about it. Is it the best video conferencing tool and works well for making video-calls and virtual gatherings?
If you need to get in touch with your personal or professional relation and want to have Zoom hours at home, this unbiased Zoom app review is for you! Read on to find out whether Zoom is the right choice for a stable and reliable connection or is not worth your money because of its security and privacy concerns? Explore here!
Zoom owes its popularity to an outstanding performance it has, large meeting capacity and overall stability but its lackluster free plans are really disappointing.
What is Zoom? Is it worth paying for zoom?
Zoom app unifies simple online meetings, group messaging and simple online meetings in an easy to use platform. It offers its users a smoother and better streaming experience. An increasing number of people are using this app for the best video, the best audio and screen sharing across all the platforms like Windows, Android, Zoom rooms, blackberry, Mac iOS, Zoom room etc.
Details of Zoom App: What is the Zoom app?
Zoom app consolidates video conferencing, simplified online meetings and group messaging all in one platform for an easy usage. The app offers the best HD quality video and disruption free audio with the feature of screen sharing across Mac, Windows, Blackberry, Android, Zoom and SIP rooms. It is founded by the expert and professional Engineers from WebEx and Cisco.
Zoom’s Meeting Capacity: Is Zoom reliable and safe?
One of the foremost considerations is how many people can attend the meet together. Well! Zoom has an edge over other video conferencing apps. A whopping 500 people can attend video calls all at once.
Zoom offers the highest meeting capacity. The best thing about the app is as many as 450-500 people can connect on call and meet without the system interrupted or overloaded anyway.
Here is a quick comparative look:
Video Conferencing App Participants that can connect
- Wire: 4
- Zoho 100
- WebEx 200
- Microsoft Teams 250
- Skype 50
- Google Hangouts 250
- Zoom 500
Zoom’s Stable Performance That is Worth Depending On:
You can expect to have a better and smoother streaming experience with zoom. It has the least amount of latency and the highest frame rates that can be obtained by any video calling app.
Other Beneficial Features: Zoom Review 2020
The app has a number of other beneficial features as well like screen sharing options, virtual backgrounds and chat functions etc. Using this app, you can have more focused meeting as you can cut down the ambient noise completely. Apart from that, you get the following:
- Meeting recording capability
- Virtual backgrounds
- Audio and camera control
- Unlimited chat time
- Easy to invite URL codes
- Gallery views and portrait.
Pros and Cons of Zoom App:
Pros
- You can share multifunctional screen
- It has connection with multiple calendars.
- Continual security improvement
- HD quality video
- Annotation tools can be used by anyone.
Cons:
- Chat can be more advanced.
- Integrate the entire participant area, surveys and chats in just one panel.
- Personalization of the annotation tools is limited and does not cover the entire range.
Zoom App Features: Zoom App Review 2020
Highest rated features of the app
- Screen sharing-Web conferencing
- Desktop application: Video conferencing
- Live streaming
- Live Chat-Video conferencing
Lowest rated features of the app
- Mobile-Web conferencing
- Scheduling-Web conferencing
- White boarding-Video conferencing
Zoom Pricing and Plans:
Zoom offers three paid plans and the plans that you choose depend on how many hours of Zoom hosting you actually need.
Business and enterprise zoom plans cost $19.99/month but for the Enterprise plan at least 100 hosts are needed so the total that needs to shelled out is $1,999/month. On the other hand, the business plan needs 10 users at least and hence it costs $199.99/month.
Basic plan:
Cost: free
Can host up to 100 participants, unlimited one to one meet, 40-minutes limit for group meetings, unlimited number of meetings and ticket support!
The plan is best for personal use.
Pro Plan:
Cost: $14.99
It is best for a small team. You get all the basic features and as many as 100 participants can join the meet. Meeting duration is 24 hours, you get user management and admin feature controls.
You can custom personal meeting ID, assign scheduler, rest IP, Skype for business (Lync) interoperability and optional add on plus 1 GB for MP4 cloud recording.
Business Plan:
Cost: $19.99 starts with 10 hosts
It is the best plan for small to medium size businesses. It includes all the pro features. You get dedicated phone support, admin dashboard, vanity URL, Single sign on, can manage domains, option for on-premise deployment, can customize emails, can have custom e-mails, LTI integration, cloud recording transcripts and optional add on.
Enterprise Plan:
Cost:$19.99 starts with 100 hosts
This plan includes as many as 500 participants, all the features of business plan, unlimited cloud storage, dedicated customer success manager, business reviews, bundle discounts on using Zoom rooms for webinars. This plan is perfect for the large businesses. Enterprise Plus plan includes 1000 participants.
Zoom Reviews and Ratings:
A large number of people have been using zoom for distant learning. The app is best known for high-quality images and audios. It is immensely easy to use and allow virtual backgrounds. It also offers a variety of settings for face to face meetings.
The app has been highly recommended for the online classes and distant learning. Zoom rooms have been very useful. However, some people notice synchronization problems because sometimes it throws password and ID errors.
Zoom enables the users to schedule their meetings easily and send links to the different members of the team. It is immensely easy to use and has proved to be intuitive for scheduling meets. Moreover, it is affordable and compatible with almost all operating systems.
An increasing number of people have been using Zoom for successfully for online classes and for video conferencing, for scheduling business meets and a lot more. The app is especially beneficial because all the meetings can be recorded. It is a powerful combination of video conferencing and desktop sharing.
It is also the best application for screen to screen interfacing with clients, co-workers and partners. The app is well suited for meetings from business to casual. You have the option to add virtual background to your screens.
Zoom Vs. Google Meet:
Google Meet is a strong competitor of Zoom in the market. While on one hand Google meet will be available for free in the time to come, Zoom already has free versions. But, free versions of both Zoom and Google Meet have their limitations. Google meet offers a 60 minute limit on the free calls and Zoom offers 40-minute limit on the group meetings in their free version.
Both the Google Meet and Zoom offers screen sharing experience and good for business meets as well as online classes but Zoom provides its users with the option to record their meetings which is not the case in Google Meet.
Also, Google is immensely popular for its gallery view and it can display as many as 49 participants on the screen. Google has recently tried to mimic that interface but still it allows only 16 participants at once.
Also see our JioMeet Review to know about the Important Features & Pricing details of JioMeet !
The Bottom Line: Whether to Use it or Not?
Users of the Zoom app are more than satisfied with its top-level performance, with its affordability and with its generous plans. In fact, some flaws pertaining to the messaging have been found out recently but the company is planning a quick action to resolve them.
The really simple and user-friendly interface, screen-sharing options and the best HD quality videos have made this app the much demanded one but the claims of Zoom over security and privacy are overrated. Zoom has come under fire against its attendee tracking feature and may have certain transparency and security issues.
Overall it is a great app for those who want to have the best video conferencing experience. Though alternatives are also available in the tech market but Zoom is leading the race currently. It has revolutionized the ways teams used to collaborate whether you are connecting to the multiple conference rooms or adding remote attendees. Face to face meetings are overtly simplified and they are as easy as single touch.
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