Video conferencing
Zoom alternatives
4 credible replacements for Zoom, compared on price, capability and the reasons teams actually leave. 3 of them cost less per seat.
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The honest case
Why teams replace Zoom
Zoom is the reliability benchmark for meetings, webinars and large events. These are the specific reasons it stops fitting.
- 01
Add-on pricing means the quoted seat price is rarely the real one
- 02
Host-seat licensing wastes money on occasional meeting hosts
- 03
Meeting length caps on the free tier push upgrades early
If none of those describe your situation, staying is probably the right answer. Switching costs real weeks, and a tool that merely annoys you is usually cheaper to keep than to replace.
4 alternatives
What to replace Zoom with
Ranked here by price. Ranked properly once you tell us about your team.
Bundled with Google Workspace, so it usually costs nothing extra.
free · cheaper than Zoom
Browser-only rooms with fixed links, plus an embeddable video API.
$6.99/seat · cheaper than Zoom
Browser-based webinar platform with registration and attendee analytics built in.
$99/seat · dearer than Zoom
Prices are unverified estimates — useful for comparing orders of magnitude, not for budgeting. Confirm the current figure with the vendor before you commit to anything.
In detail
What each one is actually good at
And what it costs you in exchange — every tool here trades something away.
Google Meet
freeBundled with Google Workspace, so it usually costs nothing extra.
- Included with Workspace — effectively free if you already pay Google
- No client to install; joining from a calendar invite just works
- Live captions and transcripts are solid and included
Watch outWebinar and large-event features are thin compared with Zoom.
Jitsi Meet
freeOpen-source video you can self-host with no per-seat cost.
- No licence cost at any team size
- Self-hosted, so meeting data never leaves your infrastructure
- Embeds cleanly into your own product
Watch outCall quality at scale depends entirely on how well you run the servers.
Livestorm
$99/seatBrowser-based webinar platform with registration and attendee analytics built in.
- Registration pages, reminder emails and attendance reporting included
- No download for attendees, which lifts show-up rates
- CRM and marketing-automation integrations that actually close the loop
Watch outPriced for webinars, not for daily internal standups.
Whereby
$6.99/seatBrowser-only rooms with fixed links, plus an embeddable video API.
- Guests join in a browser with no download and no account
- Permanent room links that clients can bookmark
- European data residency and a genuinely embeddable API
Watch outParticipant caps are low — this is not a town-hall tool.
Questions
Zoom alternatives, answered
What is the best alternative to Zoom?
There is no single answer — it depends on your team size, budget and non-negotiables. In video conferencing the credible alternatives are Google Meet, Jitsi Meet, Livestorm, Whereby. Google Meet is the most common starting point because bundled with Google Workspace, so it usually costs nothing extra. Our three-minute questionnaire ranks all of them against your specific answers rather than guessing.
Is there a free alternative to Zoom?
Yes. Google Meet, Jitsi Meet, Livestorm, Whereby all offer a free tier, though the limits differ significantly — usually on history, seats, or exactly the features that pass a security review. Check what the free tier withholds before you plan around it.
Why do teams stop using Zoom?
The recurring reasons are: Add-on pricing means the quoted seat price is rarely the real one; Host-seat licensing wastes money on occasional meeting hosts; Meeting length caps on the free tier push upgrades early. None of these mean Zoom is a bad product — they mean it stops fitting certain teams as those teams change shape.
How much does Zoom cost?
$15.99/seat/mo, which works out at roughly $9,594 a year for a 50-person team. That excludes the add-ons most teams end up buying, and it is our unverified estimate rather than a quote — confirm it with the vendor before budgeting.
How hard is it to migrate off Zoom?
It depends on history, integrations and headcount far more than on the tool itself. For a team of 50 with a handful of integrations, expect a few weeks of elapsed time and one to two weeks of actual work. Above 200 people, or with compliance in scope, plan a quarter. The questionnaire produces a scoped estimate with line items if you would rather not run it yourself.
Which of these is right for your team?
A price table cannot tell you. Answer about a dozen questions and get these 4 ranked against your team size, budget and requirements — plus what it would cost to move off Zoom.
Rank them for my team