If we’re all going to use video conferencing apps so often, let’s try our best to not pay for them. The world may change, but may our appetite for free stuff never change. Based on our researching and testing, these are the five best free video conference apps available right now. To get the most out of your video conferencing experience, we recommend internet plans with at least 25 to 50 Mbps download speeds. But if you’re sharing your internet with family members or roommates who also need to hop on a call or stream the latest episode of Loki, then we say aim for 100 Mbps or more. Be sure to look at the details of each service’s free plans. While a free plan is enticing, you need to ensure that the free plan offers the features your need. Speaking of features… Maximum meeting participants and meeting length are critical aspects to look at when selecting a free video conference app. Check how many participants can be in each free meetings and whether the meeting has a time limit, which may hinder your activities. Screen sharing allows you to do that (provided your problem exists on your computer). And the Webex free plan comes with screen sharing so you don’t miss out on this oh-so helpful feature. However, for business purposes, Cisco Webex is a cut above the rest. Right when you log in to Skype, you’re greeted with your chat windows. You can easily start up video conferences by clicking the camera icon in the top right corner. Oh, and you can send emojis and GIFs super easily. Once your 24-hour conversation ends (Are you okay?), you can just start up another 24-hour call if you want. You could spend full days video conferencing for free with Skype. According to Cisco, the old rule of thumb is anything above 250 milliseconds is considered unacceptable.2 Well, Zoom absolutely destroys that number and delivers the lowest latency video chat conversations we’ve seen. If someone from Zoom or Webex is reading this, we promise to give you our number one recommended spot for free video conference apps if you up the ante to 150 participants. You’ve been challenged! [Editor’s note: Not a real challenge.] In fact, Zoom just bought a security company called Keybase (its first acquisition) in an effort to enhance their security over the next 90 days. We’ll be watching if the number of Zoombombing instances dramatically drops with these efforts, but it would be wise to stay off Zoom for sensitive calls for at least the next 90 days. Hopefully, Zoom is taking notes about what other video conference apps are doing. Nobody likes having their meetings abruptly cut short. Thankfully, that’s something you won’t need to worry about with the free plan FreeConference providers. As a free option, VideoConference doesn’t make much sense for folks who know they want to do video conferencing. You’d be much better off going with Zoom or Webex if you always want to host video conference meetings. Stick with FreeConference for audio conference calls for free, but look elsewhere for free video conferencing. Put in your ZIP code below and do a little internet shopping to see if there’s better options in your area. It is essential to keep an eye on free-plan limitations, as well as overall compatibility with the devices your company utilizes so that there aren’t any roadblocks. Essential features that we analyzed included:
Service compatibility Details of plan pricing Maximum meeting participants Maximum meeting length
For example, many services such as Webex, Skype, and Zoom all have a maximum meeting participant limit of 100 people. Additionally, services may employ a maximum meeting length for free plans. We found the longest offering to be Skype, which offers 24 hours free. If you plan on utilizing Zoom’s free-plan, understand that you will be limited to a maximum of 100 meeting participants. More importantly for most users, Zoom limits its free meetings to a maximum of 40 minutes. However, in our research, we found FreeConference to be one app that has no meeting limit. You are, unfortunately, limited to five meeting participants when using video. Audio callers are limited to 100 participants.
