Review
Call quality on bad Wi-Fi, AI summaries that actually get used, and a pricing page with more corners than it needs. Three months of daily meetings.
Zoom still handles bad internet better than anything else, which is why it survived the competition from free bundled alternatives. Pay for it if meetings with clients matter; use the free plan if 40 minutes is enough.
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Meeting software is judged in the worst five minutes of the month: the client call from a train, the presentation over hotel Wi-Fi, the interview with a guest on a rural connection. That is what we tested across three months of daily use and around 120 calls.
Zoom's compression prioritises intelligibility over resolution, so a struggling connection produces a soft picture and clear audio rather than a frozen face and robot voice. Competitors have improved, but in side-by-side tests on a deliberately throttled connection Zoom remained usable longest.
Joining is also still the smoothest for outside guests, which matters more than any feature when the person on the other end is a client.
Summaries with decisions and action items land in your inbox minutes after the call. Across 30 recorded meetings the summary was accurate enough to use as the record in most cases.
Pro at $15 per user is reasonable. Webinars, larger meetings, phone and storage are add-ons, and it is easy to end up with a bill that surprises you. If your organisation already pays for Microsoft 365, Teams costs you nothing extra and does 85% of this.
Consultants, agencies, sales teams, anyone whose meetings involve people outside the company. Internal-only teams inside a Microsoft or Google shop should use what they already own.
Unfashionable, dependable and still the best in the specific moment it matters most. Buy it for external calls; do not pay twice for internal ones.
| Free plan | 40-minute group meetings, 100 participants |
|---|---|
| Pro | $15/user/mo, 30-hour meetings, cloud recording |
| Business | $22/user/mo, 300 participants, branding |
| AI Companion | Included on paid plans |
| Webinars | Paid add-on |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, web |
Scores from our own testing. Prices are launch RRP in USD.
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