Good Online Meeting Service for Small Business? (license, 2014, work)

[Jakealope]

Can anyone make recommendations for a good online meeting service for a small business? I'm a 1 person business, but I need to have meetings about every three months with quite a few attendees. Some of the meeting services I've looked into are expensive when the attendees go over 100 or so.

[NYCresident2014]

I'm a huge fan of Zoom and WebEx. They have similar functionality, but Zoom is probably better for small business because it has a simple subscription model. I can't recall which tiers allow for 100+ members, but it wasn't too expensive.

The key to a successful call is the "auto mute on join" (for big meetings) and the ability to dial in using phone instead of computer, which both Zoom and WebEx have. I have had TERRIBLE luck with Skype for Business, which is supposed to be a competitor but is nowhere on the same level.

[Jakealope]

Originally Posted by NYCresident2014

I'm a huge fan of Zoom and WebEx. They have similar functionality, but Zoom is probably better for small business because it has a simple subscription model. I can't recall which tiers allow for 100+ members, but it wasn't too expensive.

The key to a successful call is the "auto mute on join" (for big meetings) and the ability to dial in using phone instead of computer, which both Zoom and WebEx have. I have had TERRIBLE luck with Skype for Business, which is supposed to be a competitor but is nowhere on the same level.

Thanks. I'll check into those. I used to work for a large company and they used Webex. I think I looked into that at some point and it was too expensive for me. I'm a one person operation but I have a lot of people who need to be in on the calls/meetings.

[NYCresident2014]

Originally Posted by Jakealope

Thanks. I'll check into those. I used to work for a large company and they used Webex. I think I looked into that at some point and it was too expensive for me. I'm a one person operation but I have a lot of people who need to be in on the calls/meetings.

I actually once paid for a Zoom license because my company used WebEx and it just didn't have the functionality I needed. I was paying something like 9.99 per month. Only did it for a few months because they finally released an update to the WebEx platform that added what I needed.

But in those few months I got a good feel for Zoom. I would say that it is basically the same as WebEx now for all practical purposes (except cost, which is where Zoom excels).

Skype Business might be cheapest but it really stinks, even now in 2020 with all the updates that it has gone through. Screen sharing is terrible, video quality not great, but the worst are the echoes- every meeting we hold on Skype, there is at least one person who joins on the computer and ruins it for everyone with their echo. Somehow Zoom and WebEx aren't affected by this, not sure why.

[Jakealope]

Thanks NYCres. I'll check out those options.