Zoho Meeting is a low-cost solution for basic video conferencing, especially for companies that have already invested in other parts of Zoho's extensive business software portfolio.
However, most organizations will need to upgrade from the introductory tier as it is limited to just 10 participants.
Overall, while Zoho has certainly worked to update Meeting since the start of the pandemic, it's still an app focused on simple business meetings on the web.
You will not find the subtleties that are contained in the main competitors, such as an intelligent assistant and, especially, cloud video recording.
Want to know more about this app? Stay tuned in this post.
About Zoho meeting pricing
Zoho Meeting starts at $2.50 USD $ per host per month at its introductory level, which is a very friendly price for small businesses on a tight budget.
It is aptly named Meeting-10, as this tier is limited to 10 session participants.
Above that are three other tiers, predictably named Meeting-25, Meeting-50, and Meeting-100, each number referring to the maximum number of meeting participants for that tier.
The price for 25 participants is $ 5 per host per month, while 50 participants costs $ 7.50 per host per month.
Lastly, 100 will cost you $ 10 per host per month.
The name might not be eye-catching, but compared to the rest of our videoconferencing competitors, the prices should be.
If you need attendee counts beyond 100, Zoho classifies these as webinars.
Although they use the same conferencing technology, Zoho has a separate product for them called Zoho Webinar.
As much as the absolute limit of 250 webinar attendees can restrict Zoho Webinar's usefulness when it comes to larger marketing webinars.
Like virtual events or simply town hall style meetings for even mid-sized organizations.
Making the most of the app
Users looking for installed clients will find versions for Apple macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows.
Mobile users can download dedicated apps for Apple iOS and Google Android.
If nothing else can get the job done, there is a web client that works best with Google Chrome.
While this was one of the few videoconferencing apps we reviewed that was completely incompatible with Internet Explorer.
A free tier is available on the Zoho website, but it's only for two participants at a time.
That's enough to start a basic meeting or for two IT professionals to review the application.
But a few participants aren't enough for a pandemic family to come together, so almost everyone will want to upgrade.
Main Functions of Zoho Meeting
Earlier Zoho Meeting was very limited as it was not possible to have multiple video streams.
This has now been fixed, along with bandwidth conservation features to help streamline the experience.
At the top you have a series of icons that allow you to display different sidebars.
Participants is the one that is active by default. Allows you to mute existing participants as well as invite new ones.
Next is the chat icon. Similar to GoToMeeting, this is just a basic chat implementation without rich text or even an emoji window.
The next step is screen sharing. You can share an entire screen or a specific application.
It's very easy to use and we had no problems sharing our screen with other participants in our test sessions.
Things like the ability to directly share web elements or simply local video files.
However, while sticking to the basics here, Zoho's implementation worked reliably and was easy to learn.
You can also lock the meeting, now a necessary feature in the days of Zoom bombings.
Combined with meeting passwords, it serves as an effective deterrent to unwanted attendees.
There is a record button, but unfortunately this doesn't include video recording like most other competitors.
However, Zoho allows for unlimited audio recordings, which is a nice feature.
Final considerations
At the end of the day, Zoho Meeting does the trick, as long as you're not looking for anything too advanced.
And if you're already using some of Zoho's other products, it fits right into that scheme.
While it's not the best product available from a features standpoint, the price is extremely competitive.
If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and we'll try to help you.
Hope this helps.