The 8 best Zoom alternatives in 2026

Video meetings via Zoom used to be the norm—at least, they were for me. Then I started teaching virtually at my local college and learned that wasn't the case for everyone. Turns out, Zoom doesn't check every box for every team. 

Depending on what you need from your video conferencing software—for example, robust chat capabilities, AI-powered features, or high-quality video—there are plenty of alternatives to Zoom on the market.

We've spent a lot of time testing video call apps at Zapier, and based on that experience—and making sure we have something for everyone—here are the best Zoom alternatives to host your next video call. 

The 8 best Zoom alternatives

• Webex for high-quality video

• Google Meet for Google users

• Microsoft Teams for Microsoft 365 users

• Slack for impromptu meetings within team chat

• CoScreen for screen sharing

• Jitsi for a lightweight solution

• GoTo Meeting for cloud storage

• Discord for building a community

Why do you need a Zoom alternative?

Zoom makes it easy to connect with anyone from anywhere, so why the need for an alternative? 

For one, depending on the primary apps you use or the community you want to connect with, Zoom may not be the best option to host video calls. For example, Discord is a better platform for gamers who want to hang out with other gaming enthusiasts. 

For another, the number of vulnerabilities listed on Zoom's Security Bulletins makes it worth exploring alternatives to Zoom...just in case.

What makes the best Zoom alternative?

There are plenty of consumer-facing video chat apps on the market—for example, Apple's FaceTime or WhatsApp's video calls—but they don't come close to rivaling Zoom for everyday business needs. 

Instead, the best Zoom competitors: 

• Deliver high-definition video and audio consistently. If a web conferencing platform has one job, this is it. 

• Make it easy to initiate, plan, and participate in meetings. Ideally, meetings can be quickly scheduled and added to your calendar, complete with one-click links to join the call.  

• Simplify the process of adding people outside your team. Participants should be able to click a link to join your meeting with little added fuss. But there should also be security features to prevent uninvited guests from attending.  

• Provide video recording capabilities. Recording a meeting should be as straightforward as clicking a button in your video conferencing app. 

• Incorporate collaboration tools. At this point, screen sharing and chat functions are a given. The best Zoom alternatives offer advanced features like whiteboarding and collaboration tools. 

To understand how these capabilities in Zoom alternatives stacked up, I relied on my own experiences, along with the experiences of the Zapier team as they tested them for other articles (or, you know, for fun).

The best Zoom alternatives at a glance

The best Zoom alternative for excellent video quality

Webex Meetings (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Web)

Webex Meetings pros:

• Delivers consistently reliable, high-quality video and audio

• Great collaboration tools, including a whiteboard and document markup

Webex Meetings cons:

• Free plan has limited access to practical features like closed captions, post-meeting transcripts, and phone dial-in

• Some users have reported stability issues

If you tried Webex Meetings years ago, it's worth another look. It's been completely overhauled, and consistently makes Zapier's list as one of the best Zoom alternatives, especially for teams that care about meeting quality, reliability, and security.

Webex's focus on video conferencing quality is immediately noticeable. Meetings feel stable, and participants consistently look and sound great. Even though Zoom has narrowed much of the quality gap in recent years, Webex still has an edge in for overall audio clarity, video fidelity, and reliability.

Webex also stands out for practical, built-in collaboration. It includes unlimited whiteboards (even on the free plan) with drawing tools, text, sticky notes, and a "magic pen" that cleans up rough shapes automatically. You can also drop documents directly onto the whiteboard and annotate them together—no screen sharing required—which makes Webex a strong choice for remote brainstorming and visual thinking.

On paid plans, Webex also offers an AI assistant that can generate real-time translations in over 100 languages (same as Zoom), turn your camera off when you walk away, and summarize what you missed when you return. Combined with its slight edge on security—WebEx has a US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Provisional Authority at Level 5 while Zoom has DISA Level 4 clearance—and straightforward pricing, Webex is a particularly compelling Zoom alternative for enterprise and security-conscious teams.

You can also use Zapier to connect Webex to your other apps, so you can orchestrate AI-powered workflows to keep your business operations running seamlessly. For example, you can use AI to automatically summarize meeting transcripts, store that summary in your team's knowledge base, and create follow-up tasks in your project management tool. Here are more ways to automate Webex.

Webex pricing: Free plan includes 40-minute meetings with up to 100 people and basic features like screen sharing and local video recordings; from $12/license/month (billed annually) for Webex Meet, which includes longer meetings with more attendees and AI features.

Learn more: Webex vs. Zoom

The best Zoom alternative for Google Workspace users

Google Meet (iOS, Android, Web)

Google Meet pros:

• Deep, native integration with Google Workspace apps

• Comes bundled with Google Workspace

Google Meet cons:

• Limited meeting management features like password-protected meetings

• Doesn't degrade calls as gracefully as Zoom

Google Meet is a strong Zoom alternative for teams already using Google Workspace. Meet seamlessly integrates with other Google apps, allowing you to do things like schedule meetings with a Google Meet link in Google Calendar, share files stored in Google Drive directly from a Meet call, and start a meeting directly from your Gmail inbox. There's also the Chrome integration, which includes a tab-sharing feature that's great for media sharing (it's not compatible with other browsers, though).

Since Meet runs entirely in the browser, there's nothing to install—joining a call is frictionless. But that convenience comes with tradeoffs. Meet isn't as good as Zoom at downgrading calls when the internet connection slows. But you can work around this by switching participants to view-only mode.

On paid Google Workspace plans, Meet includes Google Gemini, which adds practical AI features like real-time translated captions, lighting and audio enhancements, and automated meeting notes (with note-taking reserved for Enterprise plans). Meet also offers a range of playful visual effects and supports dedicated conference room hardware for hybrid teams.

Ultimately, Google Meet shines as a Zoom alternative because of its simplicity and value. If your organization already pays for Google Workspace, it's essentially free—making it a cost-effective choice if you want reliable video conferencing without adding another standalone tool. 

When you use Zapier to connect Google Meet to your most commonly used apps, you can make Google Meet part of an end-to-end workflow across your organization instead of just a standalone call. For example, you can automatically schedule a team meeting in Google Meet when you've hit pre-set milestones in your project management tool. From there, you can use AI to generate a meeting summary and add follow-up tasks back in your project management app. Discover more ways to automate Google Meet.

Google Meet pricing: Free for 1-hour meetings with up to 100 participants; from $7/month/user (billed annually) as part of Google Workspace Business Starter.

Learn more: Google Meet vs. Zoom

The best Zoom alternative for Microsoft 365 users

Microsoft Teams (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Web)

Microsoft Teams pros:

• Integrates with Microsoft Office 365

• Video quality is great and works with large calls

Microsoft Teams cons:

• Inviting people outside your organization is not as seamless as Zoom

• Interface is cluttered with a lot of extra features

If your organization is already paying for a Microsoft 365 Business account, Teams comes as part of the package, making it an easy Zoom alternative to go for. 

Teams combines video meetings with deeply integrated chat and collaboration features like screen sharing, whiteboards, and basic shape cleanup for sketching ideas on the fly. After a meeting ends, the conversation doesn't disappear: chat messages, shared files, and notes live inside the relevant team and channel, keeping discussions organized and accessible. It's also straightforward to invite people outside of your organization to join a Teams meeting, but it's not as seamless as Zoom. Expect a few hiccups if someone doesn't already have the app installed. 

Where Teams really differentiates itself from Zoom is structure. Every account is tied to a single organization, with conversations grouped into teams and threaded channels. This layered setup can feel heavy at first, but it creates a tidy, predictable system that works well for larger or more process-driven companies, especially those already collaborating in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Teams also offers built-in meeting notes and tight calendar integration. And if you opt for the Copilot add-on, you can use the AI meeting assistant to transcribe meetings, summarize what's been said, and get AI-generated insights.

You can do even more by connecting Teams to Zapier. For example, when a new lead submits a form, you can automatically schedule a video call in Teams and create a deal record in your CRM. From there, AI can prepare a meeting agenda and share it with your team in Slack. Learn more about how to automate Teams.

Microsoft Teams pricing: Starts at $4/user/month (billed annually) for just Teams; from $6/user/month for Microsoft 365 Business Basic, which includes Teams. Copilot Pro starts at an additional $21/user/month. 

Learn more: Zoom vs. Teams

The best Zoom alternative for impromptu meetings within team chat 

Slack 

Slack pros:

• Offers go-to video chat functionality, including screen sharing, chat, and live captions

• Streamlined design that people love using

Slack cons:

• Expensive and not part of an existing software bundle

Slack is a good Zoom alternative if your meetings are smaller and more casual. Slack huddles offers your go-to video conferencing capabilities, such as screen sharing, live captions (English only), and chat.

The integrated chat threads are especially useful: threads are automatically published to the channel or group chat where the huddle takes place, making it easier for those who didn't attend the meeting to see what was discussed. On higher-tier paid plans, you can also use Slack's built-in AI tools to do things like draft meeting briefs or recaps, and reference past conversations to answer questions.

Huddles isn't a full-on competitor to Zoom, but if you want to host an informal video or audio-only call, it does the trick. And when you do need a more traditional video meeting, you can integrate Zoom with Slack, giving you the best of both worlds. 

With Zapier's Slack integration, you can orchestrate intelligent, enterprise-scale workflows that go well beyond huddles. For example, when a customer fills out a support form, Zapier can route the ticket to Slack, use AI to analyze urgency, and then automatically create a task in your help desk platform. Discover other popular ways to automate Slack.

Slack pricing: Free plan includes 1-on-1 huddles within your team; paid plans from $7.25/user/month (billed annually) include team huddles and huddle summaries.

The best Zoom alternative for screen sharing 

CoScreen (Mac, Windows)

CoScreen pros:

• Lightweight and simple, with intuitive screen share controls

• Generous free plan

CoScreen cons:

• No custom area screen share selection

• Both participants and hosts need to download the desktop app

Perhaps all you really need from your video conferencing app is the ability to share your screen so you and your teammates can collaborate remotely. CoScreen was built exactly for this purpose, which is also why it made Zapier's list of the best screen sharing apps.

Available only as a desktop app, CoScreen is super lightweight and simple. When you start or join a session, you can choose to turn on voice calls, video conferencing, both, or neither. You can opt to share your entire screen or choose from multiple displays. Hover over any window or app on your screen, and a yellow Share button appears—click it once, and you're in business. 

Unlike Zoom, multiple users can screen share at the same time, and the whole team can co-control shared apps and windows, making it the perfect app to collaborate in, especially for things like debugging, coding training, and app development. 

CoScreen pricing: Free to sign up and use with up to 10 participants at a time; from $20/user/month for Enterprise, which includes team accounts, single sign-on, and prioritized support.

The best lightweight Zoom alternative

Jitsi (Web, iOS, Android)

Jitsi pros:

• Free and open source

• Good video quality

Jitsi cons:

• Not as feature-rich as other options

• Occasionally laggy

If you want to create a frictionless, no-frills meeting experience for attendees, Jitsi will do the trick. While you now need to create an account to start meetings, getting set up is quick. Once you're in, the experience is refreshingly straightforward: generate a meeting link, share it with participants, and jump on a call—there's no software to download. You can also schedule meetings ahead of time.

Jitsi focuses on covering the basics well rather than piling on advanced features. Video quality is good but not great, and you won't find extras like AI-powered transcripts or automated summaries. What you do get are essentials like screen sharing and polling, along with a few playful touches like the ability to replace your video feed with a GIF. There's also screen sharing and polling built in, so you have the basics of any good video conferencing app covered. 

Jitsi is open source, which means you can install the code on your own server—a big deal for security- and privacy-conscious companies. It also means that there are lots of integrations available, and you can do things like embed Jitsi on your own website or any app you're building. Most people won't care about that, granted, but it's nice to know. 

Jitsi pricing: Free

The best Zoom alternative for inexpensive cloud storage

GoTo Meeting (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Web)

GoTo Meeting pros:

• Unlimited cloud storage at an affordable price

• Unlimited meetings with no time cap

GoTo Meeting cons:

• Audio and video quality is great but choppier on slower networks

• App integrations aren't accessible during calls

GoTo Meeting offers a lot of the same video conferencing features as Zoom, like chat, breakout rooms, polls, and an AI meeting assistant. But when you compare apples to apples, Zoom outperforms GoTo Meeting in every category. Because of that, it wouldn't have made this list except for one key feature: cloud storage. 

Users on the Business plan ($16/user/month, billed annually) get access to unlimited cloud storage, though the limits of common sense apply since the team monitors cloud storage use. Zoom, on the other hand, gives you only 10 GB of storage on its Pro and Business plans (between $13.33-$18.33/user/month). You can unlock unlimited storage on Zoom's Enterprise plan, but expect to pay significantly more than GoTo Meeting. It's worth mentioning that recordings are available for only 365 days, so be sure to download the most important ones before they disappear.

GoTo Meeting offers a good range of native integrations. For example, you can start a meeting right from Slack. But you can't actually interact with any of these apps directly during the call. 

When you connect GoTo Meeting with Zapier, you can turn it into the backbone of larger, AI-driven workflows that streamline how your team captures and acts on meeting data. For example, when a meeting with a lead is scheduled in GoTo Meeting, you can automatically add that lead to your CRM. Once the meeting is over, AI can generate a meeting summary and add it back into the lead's record.

GoTo Meeting pricing: 14-day free trial available; from $12/user/month/ (billed annually) for the Professional plan, which includes unlimited meetings (no time cap) with up to 150 participants.

Learn more: Zoom vs. GoTo Meeting

The best Zoom alternative to build a community

Discord (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Web)

Discord pros:

• Easy to set up

• Free to use with access to all the necessary features

Discord cons:

• Prone to downtime

• File uploads are limited to 10 MB in the free version

Originally designed as an audio chat app for gamers, Discord has evolved to also host video calls and screen sharing, making it a solid Zoom alternative—particularly for team-building activities like co-working or brainstorming sessions. We've found that it generally has better audio and video quality than Slack, which is why it made this list.

Keep in mind that direct messages in the app aren't server-specific, which means that employees who leave will still have access to DMs with their team members. Another downside: if you're on the free plan, you can upload files only up to 10 MB directly to the platform. For anything larger, you'll need to link to them on other services. And then there's Discord's tendency to go down more often than other chat apps. This is anecdotal, for sure, but it's still something to keep in mind.

If you do choose to use Discord, you can connect it with Zapier. This way, you can transform Discord into your command center for cross-team workflows. For example, when a new customer feedback form is submitted, Zapier can post it into a designated Discord channel, use AI to analyze sentiment, and create follow-up tickets for any feedback that meets a pre-set criteria. Here are other ways to automate your Discord server.

Discord pricing: Free to use; $3-10/month (billed monthly) for the Nitro plan, which includes higher-quality screen sharing, larger file uploads, and more emoji.

Other Zoom alternatives

There are plenty of Zoom alternatives on the market—more than I could possibly list here. But that doesn't mean they don't all have unique features to bring to the table. If none of the apps listed above quite satisfy your must-haves, here are some other options you can explore.

• Riverside.fm is a great Zoom alternative for podcasters that reliably records high-quality audio and video with separate tracks for easy editing. It also supports up to 4K video, making it a strong choice for "visual podcast" setups.

• Rocket.Chat and Nextcloud Talk are open-source Zoom alternatives. Both can be self-hosted, making them especially appealing to privacy- and security-conscious organizations.

• Whereby is another browser-based video conferencing tool that lets guests join meetings with a single link—no downloads or accounts required.

• Zoho Meeting is a natural Zoom alternative for teams already using Zoho's suite of business apps. It integrates tightly with Zoho CRM and other Zoho tools, offering straightforward video meetings and webinars without adding another standalone platform.

Find the right Zoom alternative for you

Communication is at the core of every business, but you can't communicate effectively without the right tools—or if meeting participants keep dropping off. 

And what's "right" will vary depending on things like the size of your team and what kind of content you need to share. With the release of features like Docs, Email, and Team Chat, Zoom is evolving into more of an all-in-one workspace app. So what constitutes a Zoom alternative will likely continue to shift.

Your best bet to finding the right Zoom alternative is to test a few from this list—most offer free plans—and pick the one that meets your needs. 

Related reading:

• Best AI meeting assistants

• Google Chat vs. Slack: Which is better?

• Slack vs. Teams: Which should your business use?

• Meeting minutes templates for more productive meetings

• How to make your meetings better with asynchronous techniques

This article was originally published in August 2023. The most recent update was in January 2026.