

Up until recently it was only available with a paid subscription to Google’s G-Suite service, but now the software has a free tier that can be used by anyone. Google has had a lot of video-calling apps over the years, but Google Meet is the one it’s focussed on at the moment. There’s also a Business Standard tier that adds desktop versions of Microsoft Office for all members, as well as the ability to host webinars, and costs $12.50/£9.40 per user per month. Upgrading to the Microsoft Teams Business Basic tier (which costs $6/£4.50 per user per month), brings the ability to schedule and record meetings, plus you can host online events for up to 300 people. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription ($6.99/£5.99 per month), then more Teams features are included in the package, such as upping the length of a call to 30 hours with a maximum of 300 people, plus 1TB of OneDrive storage. All calls and messages are encrypted, so no-one can listen in on the conversation.įree calls can last 60 minutes at a time, with up to 100 participants. You can make HD video calls, share your screen, and make use of the built-in chat features, plan events using the tasks features, plus there’s 5GB of OneDrive storage for documents and other files. The free tier is impressive and offers enough for most purposes. Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive service designed primarily for business users. If you need additional numbers of participants, longer meeting times, call analysis, the ability to record calls, and other benefits then there are paid tiers that begin at £11.99/$14.99 p/m. Everything is protected by AES 256-bit encryption and SSL, so the company secrets should remain safe. One of the most useful features is for participants being able to share their screens with everyone else on the call, so if you want to see the new product design or monthly performance chart, Zoom makes it easy to do so.

Alternatively, you can immediately start another meeting. If you don’t want the meeting to abruptly end you either need to switch to a Pro account (which costs $14.99/£11.99 a month). The only real limitation is that if you have a Basic account group meetings last for up to 40 minutes before being automatically ended by Zoom.


Once you’ve set up your account and downloaded the client app, the service allows users to host meetings with up to 100 participants and you can have as many sessions as you want each month. Zoom is an app whose influence grew enormously during the pandemic, with many people relying on its solid, easy-to-use interface and the impressive range of features available on the free tier.
