Conference Call Savings

Web conferencing services are available from many providers. Web conferencing services all provide the same essential core services. Some have the added capability of adding video to a meeting. As Web conferencing matures as an industry, more providers are offering free lighter versions of their conferencing tools and creating specialized versions for particular conferencing purposes, like training, sales presentations or large webinars. Here, conferencecallsavings.com takes a look at the biggest Web conferencing providers and compares their pricing and features.

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting’s most notable feature is usability. It is a very simple Web conferencing system, with all the tools you would expect. These include whiteboard, screen sharing, application sharing, audio, chat and session recording. This software is intended solely for web conferencing and does not have video functionality. Citrix, the maker of GoToMeeting offers other products more suitable to video conferencing.

A monthly plan for this service costs $49.99 for up to 15 attendees. A yearly commitment is $39.00. One of GoToMeeting’s strengths is the free “Total Audio” conference call feature that is included free.

WebEx

WebEx is a robust Web conferencing platform, designed to compete with Microsoft’s LiveMeeting. Many of the advanced tools for use with WebEx also require you purchase the company’s other products, PCNow (for remote PC access) and WebEx WebOffice (for a shared workspace).

While WebEx can do a lot more than GoToMeeting, it is offered at the same price, $49.99 per month, for up to 25 participants. Video can easily be integrated for up to six Web cameras, and for an additional fee, you can hold meetings with up to 500 participants.

LiveMeeting

Live Meeting is meant to be an on-demand Web conferencing tool, aimed specifically at sales, marketing and training meetings. Live Meeting also works for companies that need professional assistance with event coordination and management. Unfortunately, some of the functions that should be included in LiveMeeting exist in separate programs, which can be confusing. These include Windows Messenger and live sharing through Microsoft OneNote. The company recently released Unified Communications to integrate these platforms.

Microsoft offers two basic licensing plans, plus separate volume licensing. The standard plan allows meetings with up to 250 participants and 5 user accounts. It is one of the most affordable plans at $4.58 per month. The professional plan also allows up to 5 registered users, but the functionality to add another 1,000 participants to a meeting. In addition, shared meeting recordings are stored up to 360 days. This plan runs $15.42 per month. Volume licensing is negotiated independently.