Video conferencing has enormously reformed the way we work and interact with loved ones. It has become an important business solution. Meetings are done online. Potential employees are interviewed through video conferencing. We get some face time with loved ones when and wherever we want. We have an enormous amount of audio video solutions out there. Majority will choose free services.
Many videoconferencing tools now offer an attractive facilities. Some of them don’t need to install any softwares, we can use it with the help of a browser.
1. Skype
Skype is so far the number one pick because it has a good balance between video and audio quality. Skype offers a premium upgrade for video conferencing for five people and up to a maximum of ten. Skype doesn’t provide a web based interface to chat without installing any software.
Subscription price: free and $8.99/month for premium
2. ooVoo
ooVoo is a pretty nice video chat application where you can chat with more than one person at a time. (At the time of this writing you can video chat with 6 people at one time for free.) It also has support for mobile phones and devices. However it does have some bugs. You need to pay for up to 12 way video chat.
The video is realtime at about 30 frames per second. The video is very clear but it is not full screen capable. After clicking some maximize buttons it finally fills almost half the screen. It would be nice if it were bigger. Also, the video looks good, but about every 30 seconds there is alot of garbage pixels on the screen covering peoples faces, but the garbage disappeared after about 5 to 10 seconds.
The audio is very clear. It doesn’t sound robotic. However, the audio is very quiet. I would give the audio a better rating, but it needs to be louder.
Subscription price: free and from $2.99/month
3. Anymeeting
Anymeeting is a video-conferencing and screen sharing tool, that allows up to 200 participants (attending a presentation) in its free version.Anymeeting allows you to:
To organize paid webinars: the host can, via his account, plan the date, time and price of the Web conference. A PayPal module allows participants to enroll and then they are automatically added to the list of participants (e-ticketing service)
To share their screen selectively, choosing the display of a specific application.
Establish dialogue with participants and get their feedback in real time: they can send notifications to the host via a chat module/update status.
Subscription price: $ 17.99/month for 25 participants, $ 69.99/month for 200 participants
4. Google Hangout
Google+ Hangouts is another social network that supports video chatting and with a group. You’ll need to install the Google voice and video plugins to get started. Google Hangouts lets you share your desktop, has built-in drawing, collaboration, and other tools and apps, supports screen sharing, and wants to be a unified video, photo, and chat interface
This service also integrates with Google Docs. Users participating in the videoconference are allowed to perform real-time modifications to documents.
5. Join.me
join.me is a low-cost, easy to set-up, accessible software that is best suited to simple desktop collaborations for two to five participants. You download an executable file and it provides the URL to where other participants can join the video conference. Its Premium service also allows organization of web conferences of up to 250 attendees. Although it’s relatively easy to use, it does not do much for the archival record of your conference.
Subscription price: $19/month
Hey..you forgot to mention one more alternative: RHUB`s web conferencing servers. It works well and provides 15 way HD video conferencing.