Nick Francesco

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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