If you’re looking for an effective way to communicate with remote workers, colleagues in other locations, and prospective clients across the globe, you’ll come across a wide range of cloud-based communication tools. We’ve narrowed down your options to three of the best cloud-based communication tools available on the market today. They are:
- Zoom: Founded by Eric Yuan in 2011, Zoom is a cloud-based communication system that provides a remote conferencing service that combines video conferencing, mobile collaboration, chat, and online meetings. Recent reports indicate that Zoom has over 12.9 million monthly active users.
- Microsoft Teams: Released in 2017 by Microsoft, Microsoft Teams is a unified communication and collaboration platform that keeps team conversations, apps, files, and meetings in a single shared workspace. Recent reports indicate that Microsoft Teams has over 44 million daily active users.
- RingCentral: Since 2003, this state-of-the-art cloud-communication system has been breaking down barriers created by intricate, on-premise hardware. This call conferencing platform plus VoIP phone service combines team messaging with screen sharing, task management, and file-sharing in one collaboration tool.
Aspects of Comparison
1. Price
- Zoom: There’s a free version, as well as three paid versions, which include the Zoom Pro Plan at $14.99/mo, Zoom Business at $19.99/user per month, and Zoom Enterprise at $19.99/user per month.
- Microsoft Teams: There’s a free version, as well as paid versions whose pricing starts at $5/user per month.
- RingCentral: It has a free version, but they have a 15-day free trial available for everyone to try the service. They offer four different money-back guaranteed service plans, which include Phone at $19.99/user per month, Standard at $24-99/user per month, Premium at $34.99/user per month, and Ultimate at $49.99/user per month.
2. Call limits
- Zoom: Its basic and pro plans host up to 100 participants with a 40-minute and a 24-hour duration limit, respectively. Their Business Plan hosts up to 300 participants, while their Enterprise Plan hosts up to 1,000 participants.
- Microsoft Teams: It’s free versions have a limit of up to 300 participants per organization. Compared to Zoom’s 100 person limit for the free plan, this platform allows you to enjoy up to 350 participants.
- RingCentral: It has an add-on for all Office editions that extend the meeting capacity with up to 100-200 participants. Companies can also buy a license for certain users who need to host meetings with a larger group of participants.
Pros
- Zoom: It has a simple interface that allows end-users to operate with little to no training or IT support. It also offers a free version and paid plans with more advanced features. Zoom also has more than 100 integrations, including integration with Office 365.
- Microsoft Teams Offers an extensive list of collaborative tools at a low price. Microsoft Teams offers the most value for businesses because it’s paid plans not only feature video and audio calling, but they also give users access to other Microsoft 365 services and Office apps.
- RingCentral: Offers volume discounts that present huge savings for businesses with a huge number of users.
3. Cons
- Zoom: The free version has limited minutes of conferencing.
- Microsoft Teams: The free version does not include administration tools or Microsoft support.
- RingCentral: The pricing for a single user is much higher compared to the other two cloud-based communications systems.
In choosing Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or RingCentral, everything comes down to your business needs. Since all three versions offer free trials, it’s best to try out each one of them to find out which one suits your business needs.
Do you need help finding the best cloud-based communication system for your business? Komstadt Systems can help you find an ideal solution that can be implemented in your office environment.