Zoom and GoToMeeting are great conference call services. Zoom is the best option for video conferencing—it’s generally affordable, easy to use, and built to scale.
GoToMeeting is a top choice for remote teams. The service offers screen sharing, unlimited recording, and is extremely quick to use.
Both offer excellent service in their respective areas. Read on to find out more.
Zoom Compared to GoToMeeting
Zoom is the best service for video conferencing. While most conference calls offer video conferencing, Zoom specializes in the category. Specifically, the platform provides excellent features and reliable video calls. Laptop and desktop users don’t have to install any software to join either.
If you’re ready to check out Zoom, you can sign up for free.
GoToMeeting is the best for remote teams. While most services are suitable for remote teamwork, GoToMeeting excels in the area. You can host calls with up to 3,000 participants in a few clicks, and the user interface is a breeze to use. The service is also highly flexible with multi-device use.
If you’re ready to check out GoToMeeting, it’s free to try for 14 days, and no credit card is required.
More Top Conference Call Services
We reviewed countless conference call services and narrowed them down to the best options. See all of our top picks and get an in-depth look at where each product stacks up. You’ll also find out who we think the call services are best for overall.
- Nextiva – Best conference call service for most
- Ooma – Best for small businesses
- RingCentral – Best standalone conferencing solution
Both Zoom and GoToMeeting made our top list. Zoom was the best for video conferencing, and GoToMeeting the best for remote teams.
Where Zoom Shines
Features: Zoom doesn’t struggle when it comes to features. The service offers HD video calling, audio calls, and social media streaming. On top of that, you can record all meetings locally, and cloud recording is available as well.
With the higher plans, you can track meetings, usage insights, and participants. That’s not to mention audio transcription on the paid plans.
Most of these features are available on other services, but Zoom offers some unique ones too. For example, the “Touch Up My Appearance” feature applies a softening filter that smooths out your skin tone. You’ll also be able to display an image or video as your background during a Zoom Meeting.
Zoom also offers advanced screen-sharing features that others don’t. You can share just a portion of your screen, which you can resize as you please. The service also lets you share the audio from your computer without actually sharing your screen.
You’ll even be able to share content from a second camera that isn’t your computer screen.
The Zoom App Marketplace allows third-party developers to build custom apps for the platform. Great integrations here include Zapier, Asana, ScheduleOnce, Slack, and Google Workspace.
This marketplace has an equivalent on GoToMeeting called the “Integration Marketplace,” so while good integration is not an exclusive feature, it’s still something all top conference call services need to offer, and we’re happy to see it here with Zoom.
Call Quality: Zoom offers some of the most reliable call quality on the market—both video and audio. We’re looking at high frame rates and low latency. In a nutshell, latency refers to how long it takes to send and receive data.
Zoom does very well here, and it takes around 17 milliseconds from saying something until it’s heard on a call.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that call quality also depends on your internet speed. You’ll need at least five Mbps to have a good Zoom call, and the service does the rest.
Interface: Across all devices, a top conference call service needs an efficient interface. Zoom offers a tidy and uniform interface on both desktop and mobile apps.
Downloading Zoom is the best option here, as using it in a browser removes the ability to record meetings.
The home screen itself uses large icons, and everything is clear and easy to understand. There are buttons to turn on your mic and camera and tabs separate things like your chat, share, and record functionality.
You’re unlikely to have trouble with the interface on any device you use the service.
Pricing: The free version of Zoom allows you to host up to 100 participants, hold group meetings for up to 40 minutes, and hold unlimited one-on-one sessions. The free plan is really free, so there’s no need to pay anything if that’s all you need.
The free Zoom plan is undoubtedly generous in what it offers—for instance, GoToMeeting doesn’t have a free plan and only offers a limited trial.
Zoom’s paid tiers are generally affordable, too, and offer a host of advanced features such as social media streaming and company branding.
The prices are as follows:
- Pro – $14.99 /month/license
- Business – $19.99 /month/license
- Zoom United Business – $30 /month/license
- Enterprise – $19.99 /month/license
For longer group calls, some users will find the 40-minute cut-off point in the free plan a problem.
That’s where the Pro plan comes in and offers group meetings for up to 30 hours. 1 GB Cloud Recording (per license) is available on the tier as well.
The participant capacity on the first and second tiers is 100, proving how good that starting plan is. You’ll be able to increase participants up to 1,000 with the “Large Meetings” add-on in both the Pro and Business plans, should that be a limitation.
We particularly like Zoom’s built-to-scale pricing. Whatever team size or circumstance, there’s something for you.
Where Zoom Falls Short
Security: Zoom hasn’t always offered great security and has been open to successful attacks from hackers—it’s something that most potential users will be aware of due to media coverage.
With that said, we’re pleased to say things are improving. Zoom meetings are secured using 256-bit TLS encryption, and all shared content can be encrypted using AES-256 encryption. In layman’s terms, this is top security.
However, we would have liked to see this enhanced security from the start, and it remains to be seen how secure the platform is in practice. We’ll measure the results over time to see how it stacks up.
Where GoToMeeting Shines
Features: GoToMeeting provides its users with many great features. Users have access to screen sharing, unlimited cloud recording, and advanced security features such as SSO login.
The service offers unlimited storage for calls on both its business and enterprise plans—a real highlight.
For instance, with Zoom, you’ll need to pay extra for more cloud storage. For certain businesses, that could add up rather quickly. GoToMeeting removes this problem from the start—the business plan, in particular, is affordable and costs $19 per user per month.
We like GoToMeeting’s powerline frequency feature—this permits you to reduce flicker on monitors with low refresh rates.
There’s no image softening feature of the kind Zoom offers, but we do have access to settings such as saturation, sharpness, and gamma. These are all tweakable as users wish.
The bottom line: there are many settings here that can help you adjust your call’s look and feel. These are welcome additions indeed.
Pricing: GoToMeeting’s pricing is nice and simple. There are three main plans here: Professional, Business, and Enterprise. The Professional plan costs $14 per user per month, the Business plan costs $19 per user per month, and you will need to get a quote for the Enterprise variant.
The number of call participants jumps from 150 on the Pro plan to 250 on the Business variant. The Enterprise level plan allows for up to 3000 participants depending on your needs. Remember that GoToMeeting doesn’t offer a free plan as Zoom does.
With that said, these plans, certainly the Pro and Business tiers, are affordable and are packed with features.
For instance, the Business tier allows users to search through and share automatic transcripts of their recorded meetings. In other words, we think the level of features on offer with each tier is substantial when you factor in the price of each.
The pricing is fair and transparent, and we like that a lot.
Interface: GoToMeeting’s interface shines across all of its different apps. Whether on mobile, desktop, or as a web interface, it’s consistently straightforward and easy to use. Scheduling meetings is fast on any device, as is inviting others to the platform.
You’ll be able to password-protect your meetings, personalize your meeting links, and can even add a co-organizer. Whatever you want to do with GoToMeeting, it shouldn’t leave you scratching your head—it’s navigable and a pleasure to use.
Customer Support: There’s good customer support available with GoToMeeting. The service offers 24/7 phone support, a live chat option, and an online knowledge base with answers to the most pressing questions. These areas of customer support are a solid combination. Not all competitors in the market offer all of these together.
For example, some users state that Zoom’s phone support isn’t always reachable when they need it.
Where GoToMeeting Falls Short
Sound Quality: Generally, the call quality of GoToMeeting isn’t a huge cause for concern. Users have noted video calls are reliable and have few problems. However, on the audio side of things, there have been some issues. Users have pointed out audio problems like not being able to hear the other people in a call.
There are also reports of sound effects playing when users enter and leave a call, which can be disruptive. It’s always worth users checking their connections and inputs in these cases.
With that said, it’s clear that GoToMeeting isn’t perfect in this area, and we’d like to see these issues addressed over time.
The Final Verdict on Zoom Compared to GoToMeeting
It’s more than fair to say that both Zoom and GoToMeeting are excellent conference call services. We’re not talking about one leaping ahead of the other here—it’s more about what’s best for you and your circumstances.
Suppose you’re a small or medium-sized business now embracing the post-pandemic world of remote work or plan to do so in the future, like many other businesses. In that case, GoToMeeting is most likely the best choice for you and your team.
If you’ve never used a conference call service before, GoToMeeting’s slick interface, affordable pricing, and unlimited cloud recording is a strong option. Just be aware of potential audio issues and the lack of a free plan—although there is a free trial.
On the other hand, Zoom is generally one of the most consistent and reliable conference call services.
With low latency, loads of top features, a simple interface, and a great free plan, it’s also more than worth a look. The service is suitable for businesses of almost all sizes.
Zoom’s security issues of the past do appear to be improving, although it’s always worth being somewhat wary here.
Comparing the Best Conference Call Services
We spent many sleepless nights comparing the best call services. You can check out the best conference call services here.
There’s a reason Zoom has become so popular across the world: it’s easy to use, it has a great free plan, and the call quality is hard to beat. It’s more than worthy of your time and consideration and will serve most users admirably.
However, we still think that for most users, GoToMeeting is a top choice. The quality, features, and pricing are ideal for the majority of businesses and personal use cases.
It comes down to what’s best for you, so think carefully about your specific needs before ultimately deciding which of these to use.
Be sure to take advantage of the free trial with GoToMeeting and Zoom’s free plan to test these call services out without spending anything.
It’s worth mentioning that we still think Nextiva is the best of the best due to its video conferencing capabilities, collaboration tools, and built-in messaging. If neither Zoom nor GoToMeeting offers what you want, it might be best to give that a try instead.
