Zoom vs GoToMeeting – Which One Is Better for Small Business?

We all know the pain of trying to have an online video conversation, casual or business, only to spend most of the time yelling – do you hear me now? Even worse, imagine hosting a webinar you’ve been preparing for months, only to have the glitches and messy audio chase off your attendees?

With a growing popularity of outsourcing or online learning, tight-knit teams are now working from dozens of different countries. Solid video connection is now an absolute must and software developers are competing to create ever more reliable conferencing platforms. Zoom and GoToMeeting made it to the top of that list – so let’s run a Zoom vs GoToMeeting showdown to see which one is the right pick for your business.

Zoom

Zoom was founded in 2011 by a team of engineers from IT solutions companies Cisco and WebEx. With such a strong team, it’s no wonder that it took Zoom only a couple of years to develop into a solid, multifaceted platform that can stand side by side with its way older competitor GoToMeeting.

It wraps cloud video conferencing, simple online meetings, and group messaging into a neat, efficient package. It is available for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Zoom Rooms, and H.323/SIP room systems.

Zoom’s web conferencing features include:

• Video Conferencing
• Screen Sharing
• Two-Way Audio & Video
• Private Chat
• Real-Time Chat
• Record & Playback Ability
• On-Demand Webcasting
• Presentation Streaming
• Presentation Tools

Basically, everything one serious business team might need from a web conference platform. Zoom also has solid meeting and collaboration features, and for everything it may lack in terms of scheduling management, it easily integrates with simple tools such as Calendly or its alternatives.

Upsides

• Simplicity
• Reliability
• Availability
• Pricing flexibility

Our team at LeadQuizzes relies on Zoom for daily communication among four remote teams – and it would be hard to imagine our office without it. Our meetings are scheduled via Google Calendar, shared via simple link on Slack – all we have to do is click on it and join the conversation.

We use Zoom for one on one and group meetings. With a stable Internet connection as a prerequisite, audio and video quality are solid. There are also added options we regularly use, such as sharing screen when we look at stats, reports, and demos.

Zoom’s availability is one of the platform’s greatest fortes. You can opt for installing the app on your phone or computer, but what happens if you need to jump on an emergency video call with someone outside of your team? Well, nothing, you just send them the link and Zoom will automatically open in their browser. No bugs, no installations – just clear, quick connection.

Finally, if you need more advanced features, for example, if you are hosting webinars, you won’t have to go bankrupt. Zoom won’t bully you into signing up for plans that don’t suit your budget and needs. You can register for monthly or an annual plan. If you choose the latter, you can save money by “freezing” it when you are not using the software.

Downsides

• Limited free features
• Interface
• Mobile version
• Tricky setup

Zoom’s free version allows you to hold group meetings lasting up to 40 minutes, and logs you out once you reach the time limit. While the software’s free version offers a solid package of features, this limitation may be a problem if you rely on Zoom for prolonged team consultations or hosting webinars.

As a Zoom user, I will point out that its interface can be a bit tricky to navigate, as some options to customize your “presence” in a group meeting are sometimes hidden from plain sight. While this isn’t such a big deal if you are joining from your laptop or PC, it gets pretty confusing if you access Zoom from your mobile device.

Some users also complained about the mobile version’s screen share options, as well as audio and video clarity issues – which goes back to my disclaimer that Zoom requires solid Internet connection to work well.

Finally, Zoom’s simplicity for your team members or attendees doesn’t quite apply to you as a host. If you are not tech-savvy, you may find the setup overwhelming and need some customer support.

Pricing

Save for the 40 minutes limit, Zoom’s free plan is pretty generous with its features. If your group meetings don’t cross this mark, you can easily use it on a daily basis without spending a single dollar. However, if you want and to upgrade, there is a whole wide world of options in paid plans that start at $14.99/month per host.

But this is not where the pricing plans end – Zoom also offers flexible programs based on your needs. You can opt for software-based conference rooms with any number of participants starting at $49/month per room. You can also sign up for webinar plan that offers you up to 100 interactive video participants and up to 10,000 view-only attendees for $40/month per host.

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting was founded in 2004, and if we are being totally honest, most of the Zoom’s best features were taken from this platform’s book. With GoToMeeting, you can organize and attend online meetings, video-conference calls, online training, and presentations.

On top of those features, GoToMeeting enables chat and messaging, as well as real-time collaboration such as cooperative writing and synchronous editing. Some of its conference features include:

• Agenda Management
• Attendee Management
• Board/Committee/Internal/Legislative Meetings
• Invitation Management
• Materials Management
• Meeting Preparation Tools
• Minutes Management
• Post-Meeting Tools
• Scheduling

These features do not only enable you to run a meeting or webinar – but they also provide you with tools to make them organized, interesting, fully interactive and informative. You can control the time each participant takes for presentation or draw on your presentation as you speak.

Upsides

• Rich features
• Availability
• Intuitive interface
• Solid performance

I am trying to avoid being repetitive, as GoToMeeting and Zoom share plenty of their good traits, including simplicity and reliability. But what makes GoToMeeting jump miles ahead of its competitors are dozens of features that really take your meetings and webinars to a whole new level. As I already mentioned, GoToMeeting includes entire sets of tools that can help you turn meetings or online classes into fully interactive visual experiences. This sets out GoToMeeting as a software targeted at serious business users.

Just like Zoom, GoToMeetings makes it a breeze to schedule meetings, inform participants and add them to the conversation. Anyone can jump on a quick call without the previous installation, as GoToMeeting can simply open in the participant’s existing browser. Both Zoom and GTM share a perk of creating “assigned” links for each meeting that remain the same – so you don’t have to resend them.

Many users appreciate GTM for its intuitive interface, especially because of small perks like a tool that helps you make sure your audio and video connections are working properly. In general, the software is easy to understand even for the less tech-savvy users.

Finally, the video quality is extremely good without slowing your computer down – which is particularly important if you are using GoToMeeting to coordinate ongoing work or show a demanding video or presentation.

Downsides

• Takes a lot of bandwidth
• Pricing

A feature-rich software with impeccable quality does come with a price tag – in this case in the form of bandwidth. It will require more bandwidth compared to Zoom even if you are running similar functionalities. This also means that you need to provide an absolutely flawless Internet connection if you want to avoid glitches and connectivity problems.

Some of the features you get for free with Zoom are part of the paid plans with GoToMeeting. Given that GTM is a more robust, business-oriented tool, it doesn’t bother with free plans. If you want to use all the perks GoToMeeting can provide, you will have to cash out, which doesn’t quite make it a start-up friendly software.

Pricing

After a free 14-day trial, the cheapest plan you can sign up for costs $18/month – or $14/month if you opt for the annual plan. This will buy you pretty much everything you already get in Zoom’s free package, except that GoToMeeting’s plan allows 10, rather than 100 participants.

Zoom vs GoToMeeting – Final verdict

By this point showdown, it was clear which software is the winner for the small business owner. The distinction between Zoom and GoToMeeting, which are both powerful and reliable tools, maybe becomes the clearest if we study their respective clientele.

While Zoom beats GoToMeeting with a number of casual users, GoToMeeting leaves Zoom miles behind when it comes to acquiring customers who will pay for the software. Zoom is paid by 800,000 people, while GoToMeeting earns money from 2 million users.

What does this mean? GoToMeeting is designed for businesses which prominently feature online communication and cooperation in their daily routine. GTM will provide you with a flawless user experience – but it will come with a hefty price tag.

However, if conferencing, presenting and highly visual teaching isn’t alpha and omega of your daily routine, GoToMeeting is merely a pricey overkill. Zoom will provide you with all the GoToMeeting’s important features for free or for a fraction of their price.

Finally, the best thing is that Zoom is not a clunky alternative to GoToMeeting – it is a powerful tool in its own right and a perfect choice for small businesses.