Best Free Video Conferencing Software in 2025

By all accounts, video conferencing platforms became the de facto savior of organizations beleaguered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether in the form of premium or free video conferencing software, the enabling applications allowed organizations to function via remote work setups. The compilations of video and web conferencing statistics reveal as much, with organizations pushing the subscription of video conferencing free software past the 100% mark. As the use of this class of applications has become so ingrained in the culture of organizations that emerged out of the pandemic, it is unwise to bet on these platforms going out of fashion soon.

Much has been made about the great service that video conferencing has given organizations, families, and friends for much of the pandemic. It became absolutely indispensable for communication among remote workers and their managers, allowing disparate employees from virtually any place on earth to keep in touch in order to deliver work.

The same situation is true in academia, where educational organizations frantically installed video conferencing platforms to connect educators and students, taking much of the sting of the pandemic and its threat of halting education for currently enrolled students worldwide.

In both academic and business situations, users found that the video conferencing solutions did well with such features as raising hands, note-making, annotating, and video recording to exceed even the highest expectations of their capabilities.

No matter if you’re looking at open source video conferencing software, a free or premium version, the most reasonable route in the selection process is to take advantage of the vendor’s free trial or demo offer. Ideally, you will engage the staff who would actually use the platform. It ensures you get them on board in the final decision, considering that they were part of the selection process. For example, you may sign up for the free trial offered by the top video conferencing free software, RingCentral.

As a substitute for face-to-face conferences or meetings, video conferencing software vendors position these applications across industries, organizations, professions, communities, and individuals. For business use, the targeted users include the following:

• Freelancers: These could be educators selling educational courses and other materials online.
• Startups and small businesses: Small businesses with field and remote staff are ideal users of video conferencing software open source, free, or premium.
• Medium-size businesses: These are growth companies that oversee an increasing number of employees with remote or fieldwork setups.
• Enterprises: These could be businesses with multiple national or international presence.

• RingCentral: A global brand that packs video conferencing, messaging, and a cloud phone system to meet all demanding business needs.
• Zoho Meeting: From the popular SaaS ecosystem brand, the paid and free video conferencing software provides a nifty video communication capability you’d expect from this vendor.
• GoToMeeting: This is a versatile paid and free video conferencing software that you can access via a desktop app, mobile app, or simply through the cloud.
• GoToWebinar: You will want to opt for this video conferencing software if you are dealing with large teams, customers, stockholders, and the like.
• Glip: It is your gateway to free unlimited team collaboration with a video meeting and team messaging capabilities, the closest you can get to an open source video conferencing software.

• Telepresence videoconferencing systems – Video conferencing software platforms that simulate physical presence even while the attendees are coming from disparate locations.
• Integrated videoconferencing rooms – Useful video conferencing software solutions that allow educational institutions and enterprises to enable virtual conference rooms, board rooms, and classrooms.
• Set-top or appliance videoconferencing systems – These systems will allow you to hook up codec equipment, a conference phone, and a camera to your monitors.
• Desktop videoconferencing systems – While mobile deployment for video conferencing software is now largely available, many users will find this type of implementation more suitable for their communication needs.
• Service based-video conferencing systems – Go for this type of video conferencing software if you want less of the hassle of setting up hardware and software for your video conferencing needs.

• Whiteboard – As with physical boards, this feature allows participants to present their ideas.
• Video streaming – This allows organizers to live-stream a video conference session via the internet for audience viewing.
• Two-way audio and video – This feature makes the video conferencing approach a face-to-face meeting, facilitating easy interaction.
• Record & playback ability – It allows participants to record a video conference session for later viewing.
• Private text chat – This feature enables participants to chat and text with other participants privately.
• Presentation streaming – It allows organizers to stream presentations to a wider audience via the internet.
• On-demand webcasting – A useful feature for paid or free subscription content, allowing sessions to be made available based on schedule and demand.
• Electronic hand raising – Like its live counterpart, this feature allows participants to raise a point by virtually raising their hands with the push of a special button.
• Application sharing – Good for collaborative sessions, allowing participants to share applications as they see fit.
• Virtual background – A useful feature for participants who find their current physical environment lacking a fitting conference background.

• Enables live, virtual events. Video conferencing software allows you to connect, communicate, and engage with your team members, clients, stakeholders, or the public wherever in the world they are located. You can conduct webinars, panel discussions, product launches/presentations, and just about anything you could do with face-to-face meetings and gatherings. Even enterprising musicians can do online concerts if they want.
• Enhances communication. Projects, tasks, specifications, expectations, and goals should be handled with clear communications to achieve business ends. Humans are visual entities, learning faster and retaining information better with images that video conferencing affords them.
• Streamlines collaboration. Seeing and hearing your team members are the cornerstone of physical collaboration. Video conferencing software provides the same benefits while making it easy to share files so everyone can contribute to the discussion and work on the business goals.

Ongoing advances in AI and machine learning should push the capabilities of video conferencing software, allowing for virtual setups and more robust security.

The wider availability of 5G technology and better video conferencing hardware and software should further enhance the video and audio qualities of current systems.

• Hardware compatibility. Video conferencing platforms may fail to work with participants’ microphones, video cameras, and other peripherals needed to conduct the sessions as required.
• Bandwidth issues. Video conferencing platforms demand speedy and reliable internet connection, specifications that may be lacking in regions the participants are coming from.
• Slow tech support. For critical projects, tech support that takes time to resolve issues is the last thing you want. Technical issues can pop up anytime during video conference sessions, so you should prepare for those.
• Integration issues. While most hardware peripherals are configured to work with any operating system, you cannot discount encountering problems when pairing new systems with new software versions or vice versa.

As with many SaaS tools, video conferencing software—whether video conferencing software open source versions, free or premium offerings—can be targets of cybercriminals proliferating on the internet.

The threats include illegal access to ongoing video conferencing sessions may expose confidential information, including trade secrets, account login credentials, and other contact information.

Aside from free video conferencing software, expect to scale up to paid/premium versions of this platform if you find that your business needs have outgrown the free editions.

As with SaaS pricing schemes, what you pay will depend on the number of users and the special equipment that you will need. Expect to pay for advanced capabilities to serve your business better.

As with organizations everywhere, businesses averted total collapse by deploying video conferencing and other remote work-enabling solutions during the pandemic. Businesses managed to function with some level of normalcy as video conferencing allowed decent meeting scheduling, presentation of project specifications, and distribution of tasks among employees. Remote workers are, thus, enabled to deliver work otherwise impossible tasks without these software-driven solutions.

The pandemic taught a valuable lesson in preparedness, allowing them to anticipate disruptive events and meet them squarely. A few numbers from Twilio should illustrate how video conferencing helped businesses emerge out of the pandemic relatively unscathed.

• 30% of organizations worldwide began using web conferencing solutions for the first time due to COVID-19.
• 97% of employers think that their digital transformation programs had been accelerated by COVID-19.
• 95% of all organizations worldwide are seeking new strategies to engage customers due to the pandemic.
• 92% of employers across the world report that adapting their digital communications strategy to the current business environment will be key to their survival. (Twilio, 2020)
• 92% of business owners say their organization will likely increase their digital communication channels as restrictions continue to ease across the world.