Video Conferencing..what's easiest?

Looking to suggest a Video Conferencing platform that will be easy for laypeople to use. We want to encourage our Community Groups (small groups) to still meet, but many are not tech savvy.

Zoom is very easy and has free accounts. However, free accounts have limits to 40 minute meetings.

Terry, we use Zoom. Very easy to get connected and to admin. They offer a non-profit rate of around $10 a month.

Vote # 3 for Zoom. The free account allows 100 participants and up to 40 minutes meeting time… perfect for our small groups, so we didn’t have to purchase licenses for that.

We are doing online groups at our church, led by our ministry staff, that are available to anyone who wishes to join. For this, we did purchase an account for each of our campuses, and added the large group add-on (allows 1,000 people to join, additional $90/mo). So far, haven’t had any complaints, though they launched today.

Our quick brief experience, Zoom is better quality than Google Hangouts, but expensive – too expensive for us to pay for our Community Groups leaders for PRO or BUSINESS level accounts. If groups can adapt to a 40min rhythm, we’re recommending Zoom; then Google Hangouts or Facebook Messages/Messenger

+1 for Zoom. They just set us up with some accounts and our people love it!

There have been several great discussions about this in Slack this week. Zoom (as you can see) is a popular choice. Another one that’s REALLY easy (and free) is https://meet.jit.si
Skype was also suggested.

At the risk of being salesy, here’s a blog post we did on this very topic that might be helpful as well: Tips for Hosting Virtual Small Groups and Other Volunteer-Led Remote Meetings

Thanks for that info. It sure looks like meet.jit.si would be a great way
to go for some of our groups. No app to download, and I saw how easy it is
to use by trying it.

Terry Schordock

Property & Systems Director

Bay Presbyterian Church

440-871-3822, Ext. 169

“Centered on Christ // Shaped in Community // Sent into the World”

Another free / no client / easy option is talky.io … however, I purchased Zoom (50% discount) for our church once I saw the meeting breakout room capability.

https://www.skype.com/en/free-conference-call/

Free for 50pax, and no need for attendee or host to have Skype account. Just create the url and join.

I just visited Webex website and their free plan now allows up to 100 participants and unlimited meeting time.

https://www.webex.com/pricing/index.htm

Yeah; that’s still too expensive. (It’s a temporary bump, and also you have
to use WebEx).

At our Church we took a holistic approach and signed up for G Suite for Not For Profits. This gave us access to ALL the Google apps including Hangouts Meet. We use that for conference calls and video chats.

This has come in handy for board, elders, staff, core team and leadership meetings as well as prayer sessions.

Local conference call numbers are available, it supports 250 concurrent connections and you can live stream to audiences of up to 100k.

Yes, there are a few DNS config requirements if you want google to host your domain but for conference calling very straight forward. (And it’s 100% free forever unless you wish to upgrade).

Our church has found Zoom great for small groups to use, and the groups have been able to work within the 40 minute limit. Thus far, I have been in small group, Sunday morning class, and a committee meeting.

Our school has used some paid licenses, giving longer time and the ability to record to cloud, not just locally on device. Our school found Zoom easier and more functional than Google Meet.

  • Greg