Top 10 Best Microsoft Teams Alternatives (Pros and Cons)
Top 10 Best Microsoft Teams Alternatives (Pros and Cons). Over the past few years, collaboration platforms have been on a rise. There are lots of new collaboration platforms with top features that enable companies to enhance communication and engagement for better productivity. Microsoft Teams have revolutionized how business teams interact. It’s ultimate features are ideal for both large and small organizations. The workspace provides real time collaboration and file sharing, all in one place and is accessible to everyone.
As a result, Microsoft Teams is a persistent chat based collaboration tool with features allowing document sharing and online meetings. In turn, you and your team effectively make creative decisions to improve your overall business ROI. With Microsoft Teams, remote teams collaborate easily regardless of the number of members sharing the platform. Other outstanding features are chat function, video conferencing, audio calling, screen sharing, and more.
Despite its popularity and plenty of features, Microsoft Teams is not the only platform with reliable, collaborative features. This article looks at the top 10 best Microsoft Teams alternatives with similar features while others are notably unique. Read on!
Top 10 Best Microsoft Teams Alternatives
1. Zoom
Zoom is a platform to innovate, create, and connect. It allows you to bring teams together, engage new participants, reimagine workspaces, and delight your customers. Signing up is free, giving you access to flexible solutions for modern team collaboration. The smart tool keeps projects moving because teams work from anywhere.
Whether you work in the education, financial services, government, healthcare, retail, or manufacturing sector, Zoom enhances collaboration and increases performance, trust, and engagement. Although, your team may start a phone call or video meeting from a chat message. Certainly, the whiteboard allows collaboration from desktop, and file sharing. It’s also possible to see if colleagues are available with the presence status icon.
Pros of Zoom
- Workspace Reservation for hybrid workforces that work from anywhere.
- Communication is instant via Zoom team chat, file sharing and phone calls.
- Virtual backgrounds, light controls, and touch up my appearance features.
- Streamlines calendars to schedule meetings directly from Gmail, Outlook, or iCalendar.
- HD audio and video meetings gives support of up to 1000 video participants and 49 videos on the screen.
Cons of Zoom
- No option for deleting chats sent in the live team chat.
- Too many subscriptions and add ons.
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2. Google Meet
Google Meet, previously known as Google Hangouts Meets, is a secure video meeting for teams and businesses. It enables your team to securely stay connected with enterprise grade video conferencing built on Google’s robust and secure infrastructure with global recognition.
Concurrently, the platform includes Google Workspace, Google Workspace for Education, and Google Workspace Essentials to meet the needs of various teams. No need to have accounts or the right plugins to join a meeting. The interface is lightweight, and the smart participant management multi person video calls are seamless.
See scheduled meetings easily and join with a single tap directly from the dedicated Meet app or Gmail mobile app. Through Google Workspace, you or your team members create a dial in phone number for each meeting, a feature that delivers a great experience even on the go without data or WiFi.
Pros of Google Meet
- Free video conference calls that support up to 100 meeting participants.
- Screen sharing.
- Users do take notes in real time with the automated live captions.
- The meeting host is in total control of the meeting and mute or remove attendees.
- Supported across multiple devices such as Chrome, Edge, Android, iOS, Safari, and Firefox.
Cons of Google Meet
- Only one person share their screen at a time.
- Messages are only sent to groups hence no communication privacy between individual participants.
3. Cisco Webex Teams
Cisco Webex Teams is another excellent Microsoft Teams alternative that keeps people and teams connected anytime, anywhere. Asynchronous collaboration keeps you connected with internal and external stakeholders to get work done smoothly and securely. Bring groups together with secure messaging organized by work streams.
Consequently, it has a meeting scheduling feature that prevents burnout by ensuring teams only schedule the number of sessions they able to handle within a given time.
Pros of Cisco Webex Teams
- Participants co edit documents, thread messages, and access meeting for clear communication.
- Identical experiences for internal and external users.
- No need to switch between accounts and functionality depending on who you’re collaborating with.
- The platform takes a cloud first, not a cloud only, approach to achieve full functionality.
- Enforces crucial policies to protect sensitive content even when your employees are working outside the office.
Cons of Cisco Webex Teams
- Supports limited integrations compared to other Microsoft Teams alternatives.
- Free version doesn’t provide customer support via call ins and chat.
4. Rocket.Chat
Rocket.Chat is an open source communications platform for real time conversations between you and your teams, companies, or customers. Built for teams that need more control over their communications.
For a custom messaging experience, you integrate while labelling Rocket Chat components and enterprise features. Easy to extend and customize your workspace with custom apps, powerful plugins, open APIs, and webhooks.
Pros of Rocket.Chat
- A single point for internal and cross company communication and collaboration.
- Offers omnichannel customer collaboration for seamless integrations with customers.
- Chat engine that customizes messaging experiences within mobile or web app.
- Wide range of apps and native integrations for more effective communication within the business.
Cons of Rocket.Chat
- Setup and configuration processes are complex for those unfamiliar with server administration and network protocols.
- Some features like screen sharing and video conferencing need to be included.
5. Zoho Meeting
Another option of Top 10 Best Microsoft Teams Alternatives is Zoho Meeting. Another secure online meeting and webinar platform that helps you find new ways to collaborate with your team, allowing them to work remotely. This solution is easy to scale and has an affordable pricing structure with no hidden charges.
Applicable in diverse environments. From hosting secure real time virtual meetings, cost effective sales and marketing meetings, and meetings that target new prospects or product launches. Also use it to manage webinars and media launches.
Pros of Zoho Meeting
- Integrates deeply within the Zoho’s ecosystem and other primary third party services.
- Provides industry standard security.
- Participants add context to web conferences by sharing presentations and documents through screen sharing.
- Record, replay, and share web meeting recordings with non attendants.
- Customize registration forms, webinars, and emails, and have complete control of meeting attendees.
- Host secure web conferencing sessions by locking the sessions and muting participants when necessary.
Cons of Zoho Meeting
6. BlueJeans Meetings
BlueJeans Meetings is a collaboration platform that provides a variety of features to enable you host successful meetings. It’s simple yet user friendly interface makes it ideal choice for many businesses. Conversely, it allows users to join a meeting from an array of platforms and devices easily. Besides, BlueJeans leverages the power of AI and computer vision to deliver excellent video quality. The gallery view displays up to 25 attendees at a go.
Excellent audio performance with advanced noise cancelling technology. Equally, the built in support tools like screen sharing and file sharing it streamlines online meetings. Thanks to these features, you rely on BlueJeans Meetings to host interactive meetings virtually without compromising on quality or convenience.
Pros of BlueJeans Meetings
- Supports integration with popular third party tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
- End to end encryption for additional security.
- Record meetings and access the recordings anytime.
- 24/7 live customer service support.
Cons of BlueJeans Meetings
- The web version has limited features compared to the mobile and desktop versions.
- Lags on Apple devices.
7. ClickMeeting
ClickMeeting is a Microsoft Teams alternative chosen by experts to enable you to teach, sell, and inspire your audience with scalable meetings, conferences, and webinars. Run every type of online event and create a lifelike online experience regardless of the size of your audience. Tools to organize events of all sizes, whether large or small, through webinars and extensive virtual events.
Webinar automation tools, you easily reuse your webinar content to attract a larger audience. Especially, the ease of putting online events on autopilot allows you to provide on demand webinars when your audience needs them. Also reach your audience with follow up messages and invitations for upcoming events.
Pros of ClickMeeting
- Suitable for a wide range of purposes including education, marketing, and training.
- Allows communication with participants through a chat and QA session.
- Webinar automation tools that enable you to reuse webinar content.
- Brings together over 10,000 viewers for huge virtual and lively events through webcasting technology.
- Creates up to 20 dedicated spaces for virtual classrooms via the breakout rooms feature.
Cons of ClickMeeting
- Creating a meeting recurrence must be done manually.
- No option for simultaneous streaming to multiple platforms.
8. 8x8 Meet
8×8 Meet is a viable video conferencing solution for businesses of all sizes with fully reliable, secure, and simple to use features. Customize the meetings by blurring the background or choosing an image as their virtual background. Participants can use their mobile browser to enjoy the platform’s experience when using a desktop browser.
As a meeting host, use advanced moderation controls such as meeting lock, host delegation, participant lobby, and participant permissions. Also have the option of encrypting any meeting through the end to end encryption capabilities. That would only allow participants with the shared key to join the forum.
Pros of 8x8 Meet
- The platform has 11 toll free numbers for a conference call in and call out from over 50 countries.
- High definition video conferencing on any device to support up to 500 participants.
- Rich content sharing capabilities and collaboration.
- Enterprise grade reliability and availability for businesses with teams of between five and 50,000.
- 100% encryption and security to keep meetings safe and data protected.
Cons of 8x8 Meet
- Some features such as call logs, are difficult to find.
- Takes a lot of time to load when used on a VPN.
9. GoToMeeting
Following choice of Top 10 Best Microsoft Teams Alternatives is GoToMeeting. Engaging and collaborative web conferencing solution with simplified features and enterprise grade security. Comes as part of GoToConnect, an all in one communication solution for SMBs looking for flexibility, not complexity. Used by businesses because of its real time virtual communication and collaboration.
Evidently, customers and employees can meet face to face through the platform or connect through in meeting chat or conference calling. When hosting a meeting, you screen share your presentations at the click of a button, letting employees work effectively from anywhere, anytime and on any device.
Pros of GoToMeeting
- High quality HD videos with preview webcam features, screen sharing, in session chat, and one click meetings.
- Suppresses background noise to enhance audio quality.
- Latest security features such as single sign on, meeting lock, and encrypted sessions.
- Seamless integrations with email templates, recording and transcriptions.
- Records meetings in the cloud to enhance accessibility in the future.
Cons of GoToMeeting
- Relatively expensive compared to other conferencing Microsoft Teams alternatives.
- Server provides slow download speed as it’s susceptible to freezing.
10. Jitsi Meet
Last but not least of Top 10 Best Microsoft Teams Alternatives is Jitsi Meet. All in all, it is a subsidiary of VoIP company 8×8. Fully encrypted, open source video conferencing that’s a great alternative to Microsoft Teams. Perhaps its most outstanding feature is its integration with YouTube, which most other video conferencing solutions lack. Allows you to hold meetings in various apps if you use Jitsi as a Service. Its numerous features create an unforgettable user experience for 300 participants per meeting.
When you use Jitsi as a Service, you have your own on premise deployment using telephony service in the cloud. Whatever industry your business operates in, the platform has a suitable plan to suit your business needs. Share meeting invites by creating a custom URL and distributing it to the invitees.
Pros of Jitsi Meet
- Meeting control options such as automatically muting participants.
- Integrates with Microsoft, Google, and Slack, allowing for connection to the calendar, chat, and live stream features.
- Invite meeting participants through a dial in number or meeting URL.
- Advanced security measures to easily toggle during calls, such as password creation and end to end encryption.
- Open source platform with several audio and video communication projects.
Cons of Jitsi Meet
- Doesn’t support remote access control through the web or desktop.
- Need a subscription to enjoy and explore the wide range of features.
Top 10 Best Microsoft Teams Alternatives (Pros and Cons) Conclusion
While Microsoft Teams allows you conduct virtual meetings on the go, you should also rely on the above tools for reliable team collaboration and communication. These tools have the ultimate features you and your teams needs for a better overall online experience. By determining your business’s key priorities and collaboration objectives, it is easy to choose a suitable tool. Consider the number of users, available integrations and your budget as well.
