Videochat - Ask Nick!

Videochat Software

Mastermind Lounge
	Cost	Session Owner: small percentage of session cost Students: varies, paid to Teacher (Session Owner)
	Pros	Platform for Classes Meetings Meet-and-Greets Designed for Professionals offering commercial sessions online: All personal transaction information handled by Mastermind - no private information of either Teacher or Student is ever shared All monetary transactions handled by Mastermind, including disputes Web browser, phone, tablet, app from one-on-one to "very large" groups No time limit "gray labeling" available - put a link on your own site (e.g. my site) "white labeling" available - remove all mention of Mastermind Lounge
	Cons	Initial classes can be a little tricky to set up for Mentors; free help available
AnyMeeting
	Cost	Up to 4: Free Up to 6: $18/mo
	Pros	Share slides Play YouTube videos Run a poll Invite more people Take notes which will be emailed to all other participants Meetings can be protected with an encrypted password Meeting recordings can also be password protected
	Cons	Requires a download, but only for presenters who want to share desktop screens
Apple Facetime
	Cost	Free
	Pros	Easy to use End-to-end encryption Works on iPhones, iPads, and Macintosh computers Up to 32 people
	Cons	Only works on Apple devices You have to share your phone number or Apple ID
BigBlueButton
	Cost	Free
	Pros	Use their server or download and install for yourself Multi-user whiteboard Break out rooms Chat (public and private) Polling Shared notes Emojis Share desktop or documents, as well as YouTube, vimeo or Canvas Studio videos Record meetings Integrates with Joomla, Moodle, etc. Runs on everything (browser-based) Lots of good classroom features
	Cons	Running your own server requires a fairly beefy system Can be tricky to set up on your own server Support is online only via knowledgebase and tutorials
Facebook Video Chat
	Cost	Free, but don't use it - it's Facebook
	Pros	None; it's Facebook
	Cons	*IT'S FACEBOOK*
FreeConferenceCall.com
	Cost	Well... it's free... Up to 1,000 participants for free; call for pricing on up to 50,000
	Pros	You can control the entire meeting from your phone as well as from inside the meeting itself (e.g. 5 to mute all participants) Calls can be recorded for free (1G free online storage*) Offers local numbers in more than 60 countries worldwide Integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Slack, Dropbox and Evernote Android and iOS mobile apps
	Cons	There is no "moderator" as such; call is completely free-wheeling, which can result in chaos
Google Duo
	Cost	Free
	Pros	Up to 32 people Easy to use Ad-free Works on every phone and tablet, as well as via Web browser Exceptional video quality Excellent low-light mode Optimized for low-bandwidth mobile networks "Knock Knock" shows a live preview of the caller before the recipient picks up Allows audio-only calls Users can leave video messages up to 30 seconds long End-to-end encryption Snapchat-like masks and effects "Doodle" mode to draw on screen
	Cons	At least one person needs to know your Gmail address or phone number
Google Meet
	Cost	G Suite Essentials free through 30 Sept with 24 hour meetings; otherwise: Free for up to 100 users - 1 hour per meeting - 15G/user storage G Suite Essentials: $10/user/month - up to 150 users - 300 hours per meeting - 100G/user storage G Suite Enterprise Essentials: $20/usr/month - up to 250 members - 300 hours per meeting - 1T/user storage Also supports up to 100,000 live stream viewers (that is not a typo)
	Pros	Encrypted Real-time, AI-generated closed captioning Upload items from Drive Collaborate on Docs, Sheets, or Slides Drive bot lets you know when files are shared with you, comments are made, or when people request access to your docs Integrates directly with Calendar to schedule meetings for you Share entire desktop, single Chrome tab, or single window Also available from a browser on most any platform Defaults to current speaker in main window, but can switch to grid view
	Cons	Must be a G Suite customer (waived during pandemic)
GoToMeeting
	Cost	14-day free trial $12/host/mo - 150 participants $16/host/mo - 250 participants Call/host/mo - 3,000 participants
	Pros	Secure
	Cons	May not work on every operating system May crash browsers, particularly Internet Explorer Relies heavily on Java
Houseparty
	Cost	Free
	Pros	You can lock rooms to prevent uninvited guests Phone, tablet, desktop
	Cons	Read the privacy policy carefully - it outlines some intrusive data collection practices
Jitsi
	Cost	Free
	Pros	No account needed Host your own or use their server Embed a Jitsi room on your Web site
	Cons	Not end-to-end encrypted Unless you're running your own instance on your own server, there is no way to designate a single moderator; everybody is moderator! Video & audio degrade as more participants join
Microsoft Teams
	Cost	Different levels with different included products from $5.00 to $12.50/user/mo paid annually
	Pros	Email integration Calendaring integration File storage/sharing
	Cons	If you're not all-in as a Microsoft house, this may not be the product for you Feels formal, stiff, less free-wheeling than some other products May require a learning curve for users to get up to speed on features Some small bugs (e.g. where a call goes - mobile device or desktop)
Skype
	Cost	Free for up to 50 people
	Pros	supports file send
	Cons	People may get your Microsoft ID
Webex
	Cost	Free - up to 100 per meeting $13.50/mo/host - small teams $17.95/mo/host - medium teams $26.95/mo/host - large businesses, min 5 hosts
	Pros	many participants unlimited meeting lengths encrypted
	Cons	Mac Outlook Plugin may not work Some video issues on certain platforms It's possible to join a videochat without encryption
Whereby
	Cost	Free - 1 admin, 1 room, 12 users Pro - $9.99/month - 1 admin, 3 rooms Business - $59.99/month - small & medium teams, multiple users & admins, starts from 10 rooms
	Pros	Password protected Works through browser Easy to use
	Cons	Video & audio degrade as more participants join Some connection issues Auto-arrange of video windows can get odd No dial-in Really supported best on Chrome only Vulnerable to "Zoombombing"
Zoom
	Cost	Up to 100: Free; 40-min time limit (waived for the pandemic) Up to 100: $14.00/host/month - extra features Up to 300: $19.99/host/month - minimum 10 hosts Up to 1,000: $19.00/host/month - minimum 50 hosts
	Pros	Simple to set up Easy to use for both host and participants Screenshare Chat Polls Backgrounds! Business & Enterprise customers can get auto-generated meeting transcripts Integrates with multiple email systems Business & Enterprise customers can create custom URLs
	Cons	Terrible security (new defaults have made security somewhat better) "mistakenly" routed traffic through China leaked the email addresses of "at least a few thousand" people Being investigated for shady practices Thousands of Zoom video chats have ended up online for anyone to view (hope you weren't discussing any private company information!) Vulnerable to "Zoombombing" (new defaults have somewhat ameliorated that)

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