New Web Conferencing Buyer’s Guide Digs Into 7 Leading Tools

From Facetime to Instagram Stories, people love communicating visually with one another, no matter how far apart they may be. Owing to this, the market for web conferencing has steadily grown over the years and is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2020. Recently while travelling, I noticed large—and extremely engaging—advertisements for Zoom and GoToMeeting in particular. This really caught my eye, because while advertisements for food and beverage, and even entertainment like video games are nothing worthy of note, it pleasantly surprised me that web conferencing is becoming so important worldwide that web conferencing vendors are advertising in offline, public spaces.

This means that more and more people are getting hyped about web conferencing software and are looking for the particular product that is right for their organization. And they rightly should. It makes meeting and collaborating with teammates from around the world easier than ever. And with work-life balance being more important in the workplace than ever, it let’s employees gain some flexibility in from where they work.

We’ve created a Buyer’s Guide to Web Conferencing Solutions as a free tool to help you evaluate different products and compare 7 comprehensive products. Looking for more resources to use in your product research? Our Web Conferencing software buyer’s guide is a great place to start to find more information about a specific product, compare products head-to-head, and see what your fellow buyers have to say.

The guide also discusses a few key web conferencing trends that are shaping how people meet online. These include the introduction of more collaboration features into existing web conferencing solutions, support for turning online meetings into exportable slides and recordings, and optimizing the functionality and support for various mobile devices.

According to our survey of 190 web conferencing software users, 85% find their tool of choice to be essential to their day to day workflow. Whether it’s meetings with remote employees and business partners, or simply a desire to not get up from your desk, web conferencing tools bring people together comfortably and easily.

And while ease of use is an obvious important attribute of any software, web conferencing users are crazy about screensharing, showing up in 68% of users top 3 features lists. Outside of face-to-face communication, users love their tools’ ability to share their screens as it helps make presentations more interactive, and collaborative sessions more engaging. And it’s not just one screen at a time that users want, but many of our survey respondents shared that the ability to share multiple screens at once is a game-changing for their teams’ productivity. The days of having to get up out of your seat and walk across the office to look at your coworker’s screen is over—and that’s kind of a good thing.

What’s in the Web Conferencing buyer’s guide?

The guide highlights 7 of the most-reviewed Web Conferencing products on TrustRadius, and gives readers an at-a-glance view of each product, including:

• A breakdown of users by company size and industry
• Highest and lowest rated features
• Direct feedback from reviewers

Curious about whether or not the products on your shortlist made the cut? Here’s the list of the 7 Web Conferencing products included in the guide:

• Zoom
• Bluejeans
• Lifesize Video Conferencing
• Webex Meetings
• GoToMeeting
• Microsoft Teams
• Adobe Connect

The guide also provides a comparison matrix, showing feature ratings, recommended comparisons, and how often other buyers are researching each of these products–in case you want to take a page out of their book.

Looking for tips on how to navigate choosing a web conferencing tool more effectively, and avoid unwanted surprises? Along with 7 individual product profiles, this guide includes candid feedback and comments from software end users about the things they struggled with and what online meetings features they wish their current tool could improve upon.

Who should read this guide?

If you’re just starting your search for a Web Conferencing platform and wondering which products should be on your radar, this guide is for you.

If you’re midway through your product search or selection phase and want a comprehensive feature comparison matrix, the guide can help there, too.

Even if you’re at the end of your product selection phase and are almost ready to sign on the dotted line with one vendor, you may want to check this guide first for the inside scoop on what areas certain products shine in or waver in.

Where to find more resources

Reading product reviews can help provide a fuller picture of customer experience with the product. Reviews can also help you find first-hand experiences and advice from buyers who have similar job functions, are in the same industry, or have similar use cases. You can find more products and product reviews at TrustRadius.com.

Engaging with the vendor through their website, product demos, trials with key stakeholders, customer referrals, or sales reps can be another great source of product-specific information. And if you consult reviews first, you’ll be ready to read between the lines and ask the hard questions up front.

Got a tip for your peers based on your own Web Conferencing software buying experience, or want to write a review of a Web Conferencing tool? We’d love to hear from you!