When teams are physically disjointed, meeting tools like Zoom and other Zoom alternatives enable real-time communication and teamwork online. Zoom, in particular, has contributed to the productivity and stability of many teams worldwide, especially in recent years.

But despite its ability to overcome limitations brought about by varying time zones and a lack of physical offices, Zoom has its downsides, too. 

Ultimately, Zoom enables virtual meetings, but that’s it. And most teams today often need a full-functioning workspace. Therefore, Zoom’s communication channels may seem inadequate for efficient online collaboration and document organization.

Even with AI integrations, Zoom meetings can feel isolated from a structured workflow due to the lack of team-friendly tools. Hence why teams search for alternatives to Zoom, such as those equipped with smart brainstorming tools and file management systems that can accommodate varying teams.

When looking for video conferencing tools, teams often check for these additional functionalities:

• Messaging and file-sharing
• Real-time collaboration features (e.g., whiteboard)
• Seamless AI integration
• Built-in task and project management tools
• Cross-device accessibility (web, desktop, mobile)

While platforms accomplishing one or two of these exist out there, settling for single-purpose work tools can be confusing. Team members shouldn’t have to scramble through different tabs and windows when they can team up on a single, fully-equipped workspace.

This guide will introduce you to 10 Zoom alternatives that can empower your team collaboration techniques and lead you to maximum productivity. Each of these platforms offers a distinct edge–from real-time documentation to optimal task management. 

Find the platform that best matches your team’s workflow and dive into our guide on Zoom alternatives.

Lark

Lark is a collaboration platform that combines video conferencing with live and real-time chat, document creation, scheduling features, and more. It integrates video meetings with native apps, like Docs and Messenger, and third-party app integrations like Meegle and Calendly.

Lark has its own video conferencing app called Meetings. A native tool in Lark, it allows teams to collaborate via calls and other Lark apps simultaneously. For example, Meetings allow users to share documents in-call and read through them at their own pace.

Some advanced features of Lark Meetings are live meeting transcription, multilingual subtitling, and AI-powered meeting notes. Lark has made virtual meetings more efficient than traditional methods by utilizing AI as a smart tool for creating minutes.

Also, Lark has web, desktop, and mobile versions that allow teams to work wherever they may be.

Unlike Zoom meetings, calls in Lark Meetings don’t get cut off when they reach a time limit. Thanks to its unlimited bandwidth, users can hold as many meetings as they need, ensuring a stable and consistent workflow.

Google Meet

Google Meet is Google’s video conferencing tool that integrates with Google Workspace. The meeting platform allows users to plan events, send emails, create doc files, and more while they’re on call. 

Within Google Workspace, users have direct access to tools like Google Meet, Tasks, Calendar, and Docs. While Google Tasks doesn’t directly connect with Google Meet at the moment, users can accomplish work within Google alone and do without the hassle of third-party integrations. 

Now integratable with Gemini AI, Google Meet can generate meeting notes in real-time. Gemini for Google Meet maximizes the platform’s conferencing capabilities while allowing its users to focus on the discussion as it occurs.

Microsoft Teams

Chat-based collaboration platform Microsoft Teams offers AI-powered video conferencing and file-sharing functionalities that generally fit enterprises. When teams utilize Teams’ deep integration with Microsoft 365 apps like Word and OneNote, they elevate the collaboration capabilities of Teams. 

Contrary to Zoom’s simple yet functional interface, Teams is richer in features and potential for team collaboration. Teams already using Microsoft 365 for their other business operations will also find transitioning to Teams much smoother than looking for other meeting platforms.

Discord

Discord became one of the most popular work collaboration and communication tools when several teams worldwide needed to scale down their workspace to virtual offices. 

Originally built for gamers, Discord utilizes servers that, in the case of businesses, can act as workspaces. These servers consist of customizable text channels or chats and voice channels that allow video, suited for online communities and teams alike. 

Teams can also create text channels solely intended for file sharing and documentation, useful for standardizing onboarding, keeping brainstorm session notes, and other routine tasks. Meanwhile, voice channels can be categorized by topic or purpose to organize and distinguish team discussions.

And with continuous voice channels, Discord allows teams to casually drop in and out of conversations, even reenter and stay for as long as they prefer. Teams can also elevate their online collaboration experience with a simple click of the video function.

The persistent voice channels and unlimited chats mimic in-office chats, thus making virtual teamwork feel as natural as in-person collaborations.

Discord uses AI as an all-around brainstorming and customizing assistant. From helping channel members create unique avatars and memes to turning Discord channels into sandboxes or testing grounds for codes, generative AI further empowers the community-driven platform with intuitive personalization techniques. 

Slack

Teams looking for messaging channels that accommodate fast-paced workflows may consider Slack. This messaging platform is perfect for teams that deal with quick or spontaneous interactions daily, enhancing user experience with AI tools that summarize chats, answer queries, and search relevant information.

In Huddle, Slack’s built-in video conferencing tool, teams can get into quick audio and video calls even with no prior arrangement. To manage unstructured workflows, Slack channels use threads signified by the number sign (#).

Creating threads within messaging channels helps distinguish conversations from one another. Teams handling complex projects or everyday tasks can create threads to reduce noise and keep their work conversations contextually relevant. 

GoTo Meeting

For high-risk work setups such as in healthcare and finance, having a smart, reliable space for work-related discussions is crucial. And GoTo Meeting is known for exactly this.

With virtual meeting functionality fit for enterprises, GoTo Meeting stands out for its prime security measures and admin controls. The platform offers AES-128-bit audio and video data encryption, so no important information gets compromised during virtual discussions.

In GoTo Meeting, only invited participants get to join online meetings. With admin controls that allow meeting locks and protected passwords, hosts can further protect meetings from unwanted participants.

GotoMeeting also leverages AI to create shareable meeting summaries. Incorporating AI into meetings can improve the platform’s accessibility by letting AI analyze and summarize meeting minutes for individuals who may have missed the discussion. 

Jitsi

Jitsi is a free, open-source web and mobile meeting platform that allows unlimited video conferencing time. While Zoom excels in basic video conferencing, Zoom, Jitsi’s selective forwarding unit or SFU called Jitsi Videobridge consolidates multiple video streams with minimal to no lag–a feature developers can benefit from.

Jitsi also surpasses Zoom in affordability. Jitsi comes free with all its capabilities, whereas Zoom offers different plans to suit teams of various sizes. But while both platforms allow up to 100 participants, the video quality of meetings on Jitsi may falter as more people join.

While Jitsi doesn’t have native messaging and file-sharing tools, it uses Jitsi AI Notetaker as an automatic, smart meeting transcriber, letting participants review discussions post-meeting with AI-generated minutes.

Being an open-source platform, Jitsi enables users to start meetings without signing up. In this case, Jitsi exhibits better accessibility than Zoom. However, Jitsi’s lack of user documentation deems Zoom as the more user-friendly platform.

Chanty

Chanty is a team messaging platform equipped with task creation features. Both Chanty and Zoom enable chat and video meetings, but unlike Zoom, Chanty also lets users create and assign tasks during team discussions.

Much like Zoom, Chanty allows exchange of audio messages, in-chat mentions or tagging, private and public messages, and customizable notification settings. 

But when it comes to team productivity and AI-powered efficiency, Chanty exhibits more functionality than Zoom.

Best for small teams, Chanty allows for the creation of online focus group discussions or Channels, elevated by in-app messages convertible into assignable tasks.

Chanty also connects to AI tools such as Personal AI through no-code automation platforms. However, there is currently no official documentation that describes how AI enhances Chanty’s team collaboration capabilities.

Often compared to Slack and Trello for its collaboration and communication features, Chanty counts as a valid alternative to Zoom, which only serves as an online communication medium.

Zoho Meeting

Zoho Meeting is part of Zoho’s business operations package called Zoho One. Designed for online conferencing, Zoho Meeting guarantees secure team communications and access to Zoho’s essential business tools like CRMs and Mail through seamless integration.

Zoho Meeting’s inclusion in the Zoho ecosystem places it above Zoom for its capabilities beyond virtual meetings. Like Zoom, Zoho Meeting has built-in chat and video call functions, including dial-in, but while both offer storage options too, Zoom’s come with a price.

To gain access to cloud storage, Zoom users must purchase a plan. Meanwhile, Zoho Meeting users can utilize cloud storage for free. And with end-to-end encryption, Zoho Meeting prevents the privacy issues Zoom users often deal with. 

ClickMeeting

ClickMeeting markets itself as a more convenient webinar software than Zoom when it comes to conducting online training and marketing events. Its all-inclusive Live plan accommodates both webinars and online events, whereas Zoom requires a separate purchase for webinars and events besides Zoom One or its paid Meeting plan.

In total, ClickMeeting offers two plans: the Live plan and Automated plan, which is basically the Live plan with added automation functionality that helps teams communicate better and plan events more quickly. With ClickMeeting’s simplified plan offering, users may find ClickMeeting more cost-effective than Zoom.

How To Choose the Best Zoom Alternative for Your Team

With a rich resource for specialized team collaboration tools in the market, choosing the best one for your business can get overwhelming. So, as you examine your options, ask these three questions:

1. “Aside from video meetings, what other collaboration tools does my team need?”

Businesses are no stranger to meetings, virtual or not. But without considering what helps your team members keep their productivity in check, meetings can waste people’s time rather than save it.

Optimized meetings begin with a goal or two. When planning a meeting, set a goal and purpose for the discussion. With that, you’ll know if your team needs note-taking tools, cloud storage, or both to achieve business objectives. 

2. “Will this platform let us get what we pay for?”

Some tools are more reasonably priced than others, even with all their inclusions and built-in capabilities. When picking a platform apt for your team, take time to compare prices and plans, and see which ones will help you maximize your investment.

3. “Is it easy to use?” 

When your team follows a busy schedule, learning about new tools is the last thing on everyone’s to-do list. And face it–the more complicated the tool, the more they tend to postpone onboarding. 

More often than not, it’s better to pick a platform that is easy to incorporate into your existing work routine than learning a completely new one with unnecessary features. 

All things considered, Lark has competitive advantages as a Zoom alternative, such as native tool integrations with Docs, Mail, Chat, Calendar tools, and seamless AI integration. As an all-in-one work management platform, Lark achieves smarter and more efficient collaboration techniques beyond video meetings. 

Interested? Have a look at Lark’s work management features and message us at Platinum Partner–we’ll help you get started.