Online meetings and web conferences aren’t just for large corporations anymore. Video conferencing and webinars enable communication between just a few people to literally thousands. If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner, it’s imperative that you utilize one such services to help expand your business. Feel free to share your own recommendations, as well as likes and dislikes in the comments.
GoToMeeting can be used to meet and collaborate with others all over the world. You can provide presentations, demonstrations, online training, collaboration on documents and more in real-time for one low flat rate. You’ll have the option to show your entire screen, an application or just a specific document. With GoToMeeting you can invite others to your meetings via phone, email or IM. GoToWebinar, a step up, allows for unlimited webinars with up to 1000 attendees. GoToMeeting Corporate, geared toward organizations, allows multiple organizer accounts with unlimited webinars for up to 1000 attendees.
Free Trial: 30 days of unlimited meetings with up to 15 attendees.
Compatibility: PC and Mac
Costs: $49/month (which equals $588/year) or $468/year (which equals $39/month).
Dimdim lets you display synchronized live presentations, whiteboards and web pages with voice and video. It is browser based, so there is no download required. A single click is all it takes to start a meeting. A free account will let you have up to 20 attendees. Dimdim Pro gives you unlimited meetings and pro features with up to 50 attendees. Plus you can customize your meeting rooms with your own logos. Dimdim Webinar will give you up to 1000 attendees and also gives you the option to make money from your webinars by joining their affiliate program.
Free Trial: 30 days
Compatibility: Presenters – Windows, Mack; Attendees – Windows, Mac, Linux
Cost: Dimdim Pro – $228/year (which equals $19/month) or $25/month; Dimdim Webinar – $75/month; Dimdim Enterprise – call for quote
MyMeeting123 offers both live web meetings and conference calling for users. They offer multiple plans to fit your needs, a 14-day money back guarantee, they don’t require a contract, and you can cancel at any time and obtain refunds on unused minutes. Web meeting features include the ability to record meetings, file sharing, whiteboards, annotation tools, scheduling, desktop sharing, privacy control, and the ability to assign roles to participants. Conference call features include call history, multiple concurrent conference call sessions, local and toll-free access, name announcements, invitation handling, and the ability for the host to permit conference calls to begin without his/her presence.
Free Trial: 14 days of unlimited meetings restricted to the plan you choose
Compatibility: PC and Mac
Costs: $17.95/month ($215.40/year) for 200/350 mins (local/toll-free number) or $53.95/month ($647.40/year) for 500/1500 minutes.
MegaMeeting is browser based (no download required) and offers online conferencing with true VoIP audio, text chat and no long term contracts. There are four different packages to choose from. MegaMeeting Personal is designed for small businesses that don’t require any of the advanced features like desktop and computer sharing. It simply combines video and webcam software for video conferencing and allows up to 10 attendees. MegaMeeting Enterprise Private Branding lets you brand your meetings with your own logos and colors. It includes application and document sharing among participants and video conferencing. MegaMeeting Enterprise is not hosted and runs on your own dedicated servers. You can provide web and video conferences for an unlimited amount of attendees. MegaMeeting Professional offers web and video conferencing for up to 16 attendees.
Free Trial: 30 days
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux
Cost: Personal – $49/month (5 attendees) or $79/month (10 attendees); Professional – Ranges from $45/month (3 attendees) to $499/month (100 attendees); Enterprise Private Branding – $16,995 (one-time fee) or $250/month; Enterprise – $16,995 (on-time fee). Financing is available for those who may need it.
WebEx gives you unlimited online meetings for as low as $59.00/month plus, you’ll even get one month free. It incorporates real-time desktop sharing with instant record and play video or VoIP conferencing and allows up to 25 attendees. You can deliver presentations, show documents or demonstrate any application. WebEx also lets you transfer control of the meeting from yourself to someone else. For a limited time you’re able to get 1 month free with either a monthly or prepaid annual plan – so act fast!
Free Trial: 14 days
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris
Cost: Monthly plan – $69/month; Annual plan – $708/year (which equals $59/month and includes 1 host – price varies per number of meeting hosts you need).
Fuze Meeting offers online meetings in HD (High Definition); simply login and upload your content in order to start a meeting. Sharing is 100% browser based (no download required) and in real-time. With Fuze Meeting you get their “patent-pending synchronization – no lag time between presenter and viewer”. Their advanced “business-grade IM” lets you access all of your IM contacts on one application; you can sync your contacts from Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, MSN, Skype and more. You can also add annotations to your presentations. They even offer mobile meetings via the iPhone or BlackBerry.
Free Trial: 30-day free trial with access for up to 15 attendees
Compatibility: Mac, PC, Linux
Cost: $29/month; $279/year (which equals $23.25/month); pay as you go $.19/min/per web attendee and $.06/min/per audio attendee
WebConCentral offers three options for sharing in real-time: you can share one program and also share other applications as you open them; you can just share one program and keep everything else private; or you can share your entire desktop. You can either share or pass the presenter responsibilities to one of your attendees. You can also customize your webinar sign-up form to suit your preference and then send thank you notes after the webinar is over. When sharing files you’re able to save them on the site and then send your attendees a URL instead of an attachment (which can often cause problems).
Free Trial: 30 days with personal training
Compatibility: Windows
Cost: Medium – $59/month (up to 35 attendees); Large – $79/month (up to 50 attendees); Ultra – $99/month (up to 100 attendees and 2 meeting rooms)
Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro offers numerous features and lets you do things like provide online training, manage events and meetings, and provide on-demand presentations and courses. With a Pro software license you can host meetings with hundreds of participants, brand your meeting rooms, and customize the program to match your organization. You can even ensure privacy by controlling access to your meetings on an advanced level. Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is browser based (no download required) and uses Adobe Flash Player runtime.
Free Trial: 30 days with up to 5 attendees
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux
Cost: Software license – call for quote; Annual subscription – call for quote. Service plans: $375/month (5 attendees); $750/month (10 attendees); pay-per-use plan $.32/min/per user.
InterCall offers one click access for sharing documents and creating customizable online meetings. InterCall seamlessly integrates with Outlook & Lotus Notes plus provides interactive attendee tools. There’s no plugins or downloads required for attendees to join and meeting rooms do not require reservations. However, presenter will need to download the InterCall Unified Meeting application in order to conduct a meeting. Other features include full screen mode, PowerPoint compatibility, application sharing, document sharing plus chat and IM capabilities. You can also use their surveys, quizzes and polls in order to receive feedback from your attendees. During meetings, participants can provide feedback by using the integrated emoticons.
Free Trial: 30 days
Compatibility: Windows, Mac (Light version only)
Cost: Call for quote.
iLinc lets you integrate your web conferencing data with CRM to help increase your revenue. You can display and collaborate on documents, applications, websites, and more. Other features include application and desktop sharing, annotation tools, chat and polls. iLinc for Meetings is a web based video conferencing tool with multi-person videos, participation tools, sharing, an interactive whiteboard, and content uploading. iLinc for Learning lets you provide online classes and includes participation tools, sharing, LMS functionality, groups, an interactive whiteboard, multi-person video, and web sync. iLinc for Webinars can be used for larger web events and lets you enable registration, follow-up with attendees, customize your online room, and survey and assist your audience. iLinc for Support features remote desktop sharing, SSL & AES, support session recording, and caller queue management.
Free Trial: 14 days
Compatibility: Windows, Mac
Cost: Ranges from $49/month (15 attendees) to $99/month (1000 attendees).
Microsoft Office Live Meeting is a real-time online meeting space for your organization that must be hosted on your own server. Attendees will need to have it installed on their computer. They can then deliver presentations, brainstorm ideas, edit files, collaborate via the whiteboard and much more. There’s integrated audio, video and media along with application sharing and audience feedback tools.
Free Trial: 30 days
Compatibility: Windows
Cost: Standard user license option – $4.58/month/per user; Professional user license option – $15.42/month/per user. If you’d like to purchase the software you will need to call for a quote.
Yugma can be used for team meetings, webinars, sales demos, training, tutoring, brainstorming and much more. With a free account you can share your desktop with up to 20 attendees. With a pro account you get real-time collaboration with a whiteboard, annotation tools, mouse and keyboard sharing, the ability to instantly change presenters, and more. You can have up to 500 attendees. There’s also Yugma for Skype which allows web conferencing via Skype; there is a download required.
Free Trial: 15-day Yugma Pro trial with a Yugma Free account.
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux
Cost: Enterprise – call for quote. Pro 20 (1 host and 20 attendees) – $14.95/month or $149.50 yearly; Pro 50 (1 host and 50 attendees) – $44.95/month or $449.50 yearly; Pro 100 (1 host and 100 attendees) – $89.95/month or $899.50 yearly; Pro 500 (1 host and 50 attendees) – $179.95/month or $1799.50 yearly. Webinar – $19.95/month or $199.50 yearly.
