Nowadays, every business needs one or more communication tools for staff to communicate better and for clients and customers communication.
Skype is a popular communication app for businesses as well as individuals. However, there are other great Skype alternatives for business communication needs.
Skype became really popular when Microsoft acquired the platform and shut down Windows Live Messenger in 2013. The application then became the number one communication tool for businesses.
Best Skype alternatives
Skype has various well-documented issues such as poor call quality and problems with Skype credit. Other known Skype issues include uncontrollable notifications, poor connections, and others.
Yes, Skype can be really easy to set up and use. However, can you really trust Skype for your business communication needs? Below are some of the best Skype alternatives when it comes to communication apps for small business:
#1). Cisco WebEx
Cisco WebEx is one of the global leaders in web and video conferencing. It has been around for a while and it’s being used by big brands to deliver webinars easily and inexpensively.
Cisco WebEx has a strong focus on HD video calling, with a key feature being its ability to show seven screens at a time. It also comes with audio and video recording options, as well as annotation, note-taking, and whiteboarding tools.
The screen sharing feature is pretty cool, allowing you to only share certain apps on your screen, instead of your whole desktop, as is the “call me” option, which can call you when everything is ready instead of you having to dial in.
#2). RingCentral
RingCentral stands in for a complex phone system as you’d get in a larger organization but without the need for a PBX – the company quips that it works for businesses that don’t actually know what a PBX is (think internal phone exchange).
RingCentral is one of the best Skype alternatives for business communications. It is voice-focused and brings a professional edge to VoIP for business.
Its solution emphasizes security, as well as ease of use, focusing on voice calls, text messaging, and conferences. And those are tasks that this app does exceptionally well.
#3). GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is another great Skype alternatives that are all about arranging meetings and it makes it pretty easy, too.
With the ability to virtually meet with up to 25 people, you can either chose to chat via video or VoIP or join with your mobile phones. It’s straightforward and really easy to use.
GoToMeeting offers such features as HD Video Conferencing, the ability to share your screen, personal meeting room, and so on. Present and collaborate right from your iPad or computer.
#4). 8×8 Virtual Meeting
8×8 Virtual Meeting prides itself as one of the best business communication apps for effective collaboration. It helps a business expand and unify teams, with web meetings that tie together chat, desktop sharing, and VoIP—anywhere, anytime.
8×8 Virtual Meeting enables user to share their desktop or conduct presentations via webcam. You can also use integrated 8×8 chat, VoIP, and private meeting features to manage calls for better outcomes.
It simply helps you to better serve your customers with a smattering of intuitive features and a squeaky clean interface. Its features also include first-class Web conferencing, faxing and mobile integration. So if you are looking for good Skype alternatives, you can try this app out.
#5). Join.me
Join.me is a good webinar training wheel if you are doing instant screen sharing and smaller webinars on the fly. It is one of the best Skype alternatives for a simple and instant online meeting. Literally, nothing to load, it’s magic.
With no downloads for viewers, it lets you share ideas and collaborate in seconds from your desktop to your tablet to your smartphone. That’s why it is the fastest-growing collaboration solution.
Join.me offers the usual VoIP, video chat, and file transfer features, plus record functionality, the ability to chat with up to 250 participants, calendar plugins, Salesforce.com integration, cloud storage, and personal chat rooms, along with integrated mobile apps.
#6). Zoho Meeting
There are a couple of features that make Zoho Meeting a particularly interesting alternative to Skype. First of all, as Zoho offers a number of other apps such as CRM, Chat, and Calendar, you can start the meeting directly from there, as well as other integrations of Google Apps.
What makes it a useful business tool is that you can rebrand the app according to your company brand, as well as easily manage users and create customized reports. Then it also comes with all the usual features, such as VoIP, video chat, and screen sharing.
#7). Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts is a singular app for instant messages, text messages, group chat, and voice or video calls. It seamlessly integrated into Android and Chrome OS, and there’s an extension for using in the Chrome browser on desktops.
Also, you can use it on iOS. All you need is a device and a Google account. Just create a Google profile to get started, and enjoy unlimited conference calls with co-workers and virtual learners.
#8). AnyMeeting
AnyMeeting covers a wide variety of features for managing a webinar from start to finish, including custom registration forms, presentation sharing, webinar recording and sharing, and follow-up emails.
Another interesting feature is the ability to sell tickets to your webinars through PayPal integration. It is an all-in-one conferencing solution for a small business.
featured image credit to secondfromthesun0
Great that I discovered these! I am looking for an application where Me and my co-workers can communicate via video conference easily. I didn’t really imagine that skype can do these things and thank you so much for letting many of us know about it.
Hey, one more very good alternative which you forgot to mention is: R-HUB web conferencing server.
Never heard of R-HUB before but I will check it out. Thanks
Hey! Great article. …just to add, I have been using Flock which is a communication app for teams providing direct and group messaging with the ability to create public and private channels. It is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian.
To add to that, its free and offers integrations with 40+ third party apps including Google Drive, Github, Trello and many others and provides a set of business apps including Shared To-dos, Reminders, Polls, Note Sharing, Code Snippet Sharing and so on. It also has video conferencing integrated into it with appear.in app which makes it so much easier to speak to colleagues at remote locations!!!
I19irM I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You have made my day! Thx again!