Do online meetings? Choose your platform

There are various platforms where you can come together online in a group.

Zoom

The most famous one is Zoom, an easy-to-use service where you can organize meetings with large groups. A subscription to Zoom can be purchased starting at €13.99 per month (if you pay annually it is €139.90). Multiple people can use one account, although you can only schedule one meeting at a time. You can then allow up to 100 participants in your meeting and the length of your meeting can be up to 30 hours (!). You can have a maximum of 49 people on screen at the same time (depending on the size of your screen, this may be divided into multiple windows). With a free account, you can only have a meeting with more than two people for 40 minutes.https://zoom.us/pricing

MS Teams

Another platform suitable for online meetings is Microsoft Teams. If your organization has a Microsoft 365 package, MS Teams is included, so there are no extra costs. You can also create a free account.Read the differences between a paid and free account here.Uphttps://signup.microsoft.com/You will find all subscriptions for Microsoft 365 here. A Microsoft 365 package starts at €4.20 per month per user with more advanced features, including meeting recording. In addition to video calls, there is integration with Office applications such as Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Users can participate in multiple meetings simultaneously. (Volunteers do not need to have a paid account, they can log in as guests). In Teams, you see nine people on screen by default, but this can be expanded to 49.

Google Meet

Google Meet is a third platform that we mention here. It is free and works entirely in the browser, so you don’t need to download a program. You do need a Google account. Most of the functionalities found in Zoom and MS Teams are also available in Meet: a whiteboard, breakout rooms, the chat. Up to 100 people can be in a meeting at the same time. You can see a maximum of 49 people on the screen at the same time.https://support.google.com/meet

Differences and similarities

In addition to the costs, there are differences and similarities in the various platforms in terms of functionalities. Furthermore, they are all constantly expanding their services. So, look at the provider itself to see what is included in the package.

These basic functions are available in all three:

• invite people from outside your organization
• Share your screen
• chat during the meeting
• Use a whiteboard
• attend the meeting via a phone or tablet
• create breakout rooms
• Record the meeting

Differences also lie in the layout, whether you need to download a program (with Zoom and MS Teams), and whether you can do much more than just hold meetings (MS Teams).In this article, you will read more about these three platforms.

N.B. Video services are constantly improving their offerings, so the information in this article may become outdated.