Zoom has become the most popular video conferencing app for individuals and businesses. Zoom offers a free version called Zoom Basic or paid versions under the Zoom Plus plans.
But which Zoom plan is right for your business?
Zoom Basic can comfortably handle personal and small business video conferencing needs. It includes excellent features like Zoom Chat and Zoom Whiteboard.
But if you’re looking for greater control and functionality in your business communications, you should consider upgrading to Zoom Plus. And a critical first step in making any business decision is to review your financial plan. For more information on financial planning, visit My Money Sorted.
So let’s examine the differences between Zoom’s free and paid versions and see if upgrading makes sense for your business.
Longer Meetings and More Participants
All Zoom plans include unlimited one-on-one meetings. However, Zoom Basic limits you to 40 minutes per meeting. After that, the session ends automatically, and you need to restart it. With all Zoom paid plans, you can have up to 30 hours per meeting, so you’ll never have to worry about getting the boot just as you’re about to make a crucial point in your presentation.
Zoom Basic provides for up to 100 meeting participants. However, depending on the paid plan, you can have up to 500 participants.
Get Important Feedback Using Polling
Polling is a great way to get audience feedback that’s only available when you upgrade Zoom Basic to a paid plan. You can create single-choice or multiple-choice questions. The audience can answer anonymously with reporting provided to the meeting host.
Create a Custom Landing Page for Zoom Meetings
Set yourself apart from the competition with a customized Zoom landing page rather than the standard welcome page. Use a custom URL to brand your Zoom landing page with Zoom Plus.
Record to the Cloud
Zoom Basic records to your computer. Zoom Plus records to the Cloud, making it easy to share recordings with meeting participants without needing a separate content management program. Zoom One Pro and Business come with 5 GB of Cloud storage, and Zoom Business Pro and Enterprises licenses provide up to 10 GB.
Expand Your Reach with Livestreaming
Livestreaming is available when you upgrade to any Zoom paid plan. You can livestream to Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, and YouTube. It’s also available with Zoom Webinars. Use the custom livestreaming features to expand your audience and build your brand.
Video Transcription Services
When you upgrade to any Zoom paid plan, you can get a real-time transcription of what’s being said during the meeting. You can also save valuable time using text search to find key moments without going through the whole video. Only the meeting host can enable the live transcription feature.
Expanded Admin User Management Controls
Upgrading to a paid Zoom plan provides expanded admin management controls. System managers can easily manage user controls and monitor usage. Plus, they can remotely provide licenses, enable Cloud recording, remove users from the account, and enable custom notifications.
Enhanced Reporting Capabilities
With a paid Zoom account, you get access to Zoom Analytics. Track key usage and performance data to monitor, analyze, and improve the Zoom experience in your organization. For example, you’ll see how many meetings are happening, when they’re happening, meeting quality and performance, the number of participants, and how long they lasted.
Utilize Cloud Phone
Get access to Zoom Phone with Zoom One Business Plus or Enterprise plans. Team members can place and receive phone calls on their mobile devices or computers. They can also easily create automated call queues or call Zoom Chat contacts.
Translation Services
Don’t let language be a barrier to your international expansion plans. Zoom One Business Plus and Zoom One Enterprise Plus offer automated translation captions in 11 languages. With Zoom’s language interpretation services, you can also bring in live translators for your meetings, who utilize a separate audio channel.
Create Custom Zoom Applications
With a Zoom One account, you get access to the Zoom API. Developers can incorporate Zoom features into customized applications, making team members more productive. For example, team members can launch meetings from a scheduling or calendar app rather than opening a separate Zoom window. Or you can incorporate Zoom features within Chatbot programs. With Zoom API, you can better meet the needs of your customers and employees, increase customer satisfaction and retention, and drive employee productivity gains.
With so many great features, businesses of any size can benefit from upgrading to a Zoom paid plan. Plus, upgrading doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. So if you’re constantly making calls, need to manage multiple teams, and want to improve your customer and employee experiences, look into upgrading Zoom today.