What is the best alternative to Meetings.io?

Question

Built By the Slant team

Find the best product instantly.

Lustre recommends the best products at their lowest prices – right on Amazon.

4.7 star rating

Add to Chrome

Try it now - it's free

score 100 · Answer 1

Riot

Top Pro

Bridges to other networks

You're not confined within Riot's or even Matrix garden, and you don't have to make users of other networks switch to Matrix. See More

Top Pro

Simple interface

Riot has a very simple interface, adding the ability for more unexperienced users to use it. See More

Top Pro

VOIP and Videoconferencing

Top Pro

Supports Encryption

Riot allows for fully encrypted text, voice, and video chatting. See More

Top Pro

Widgets support

Want to watch that flick at YouTube and discuss it at the same time? Have Grafana graphs stacked above your DevOps team chat? Collaboratively edit Google Docs and chat over without switching applications? This is possible with Riot. See More

Top Pro

Decentralized

An open network for secure, decentralized communication. See More

Top Pro

Markdown support

Code snippets in chats can be highlighted with Markdown. See More

Top Pro

Self-hosting and federated network

Top Pro

Libre/open source

Top Pro

Search

Search messages in your current room, or all the rooms you're in. Not subject to a message history limit like Slack. See More

Top Pro

Etherpad real-time document collaboration

An easy to activate integration that allows multiple authors to edit a document simultaneously. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

Web browser Linux OS X Windows Android iOS See More

Top Pro

Large existing community

With public rooms for many people, and you can create your own and let people from the community join. See More

Top Pro

File Sharing

Top Pro

Supports text, voice, video

Specs

Platforms:Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, Browser, IOS

Search:Yes

End-to-end encryption:Yes

Service integrations:Yes

See All Specs

See All Experiences

100 4

score 4 · Answer 2

ooVoo Video Chat

Top Pro

Web video chat

Browser-based video call allows the creator of the web chat to invite non-ooVoo users into the call via email, instant messaging, or social network. See More

Top Pro

File sharing

Send files (up to 50MB) to any ooVoo contact quickly and securely. See More

Top Pro

Video messaging

Video messages up to 100 minute long (50 minutes for a fee) can be recorded and sent to another user, to email, or shared on YouTube. See More

Top Pro

Video chat and text chat between a total of 12 people at a time

4 0

score 52 · Answer 3

Jitsi

Top Pro

Open-source

Project available on github for anyone to contribute to or use. See More

Top Con

Abandoned android development

They switched focus to Jitsi Meet client for android. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

Mac, Windows & Linux availability. See More

Top Con

Uses Java

Not a native app, takes awhile to load. See More

Top Pro

Video calls

Top Con

Gui not as slick or streamlined as competitors

Top Pro

OMEMO encryption without plugin

Secure Jabber Texting, better than legacy sms texting. See More

Top Pro

Supports SIP accounts

well implemented SIP SIMPLE (texting), SIP presence, XCAP. See More

Top Pro

supports XEP-0016, Privacy Lists

Jabber Texting apps without Privacy Lists are WOEFULLY deficient See More

Top Pro

Encryption out of the box

Encryption for chat, desktop sharing, and web confrencing available. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS, Linux, MacOS, Windows,

Audio recording:Yes

Videoconferencing:Yes

VoIP:Yes

See All Specs

See All Experiences

52 5

score 82 · Answer 4

Tox

Top Pro

Privacy focused

Tox uses military grade encryption and works completely peer-to-peer. See More

Top Con

Early stages of development

Since Tox is relatively new, it has important features missing (like group video) and requires a proper code review before it can be deemed reliable and ready for everyday use. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

The code is licensed under GPL (may change in the future) and is available on GitHub. See More

Top Pro

Multiple front-ends for multiple platforms available

At the moment there is no official Tox client, but a selection of 32 and 64 clients for Windows, OS X, Linux and Android is available. See More

82 14

score 507 · Answer 5

Slack

Top Pro

Robust integration with a huge number of tools

Slack integrates with tools like Trello, GitHub, Dropbox, Mailchimp, and dozens of others, so you can have a centralized event feed of your project right alongside your chat. This is tremendously useful for keeping context with your discussions. See More

Top Con

Expensive when you need to upgrade

At $6.67 per user / month (or $8 if billed monthly) , Slack is significantly more expensive than the competition if you need features such as unlimited integrations (more than 10) or unlimited message storage (more than 10,000). However, the free version of Slack includes unlimited users. However if you need only unlimited messages you can use storage services like https://slarck.com to upload then browse and search your entire message history, while staying in Slack's free plan. So with a combo of Slack+Slarck this con is not that major. See More

Top Pro

Drag & drop files in channels

You can upload a file to any channel over HTTPS simply by dragging and dropping. See More

Top Con

No self-hosting available

If you are worried about third-parties getting access to your data you should consider self-hosting. With self-hosting you are in control over where your data is stored, who has access to it. You will also not be vulnerable to exploits of a third-party provider. See More

Top Pro

@mentions

You can ping people to get their attention even if they are not online by @mentioning them. Slack supports desktop notifications. See More

Top Con

Hidden max limit of free users per channel

Slack says that their free accounts support an unlimited number of users, which is true. However they don't mention that there is an undisclosed maximum number of users per channel (8462). For a large open source community, this is something to keep in mind. See More

Top Pro

Fantastic search functionality

You can deep search messages, files and snippets. Given Slacks integration into many external services, Slack is good enough to act as the central search interface for your entire team. See More

Top Con

Proprietary (non-free/libre)

Top Pro

Apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mac OS, Linux, and Windows

Slack has apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mac OS, Linux, and Windows to give you the full functionality of Slack with some extra features not found on the website on most major platforms. See More

Top Con

Linux client is very RAM intensive

Top Pro

Very polished user experience

The entire Slack interface is polished and intuitive to use. There are very few bugs or inconsistencies in the UI and it's very fast to use. There is nothing in particular that is new with Slacks implementation of team chat, but the execution of the groups (called channels), search, external service integration and notifications is close to perfect. See More

Top Con

Slow and lags sometimes

Top Pro

Syntax coloring

Pasted code can be colored based on syntax. See More

Top Con

"Native" desktop apps are web apps

While it's great that Slack provides installable apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux, they're just the Slack web app wrapped in Electron shell. This means they don't offer the same level of native UX that a truly native toolkit app would. See More

Top Pro

Supports multiple teams

You can be signed into multiple teams simultaneously and quickly switch between them. See More

Top Con

No E2E encryption

Data is sent of SSL only, not E2E encrypted. See More

Top Pro

Flexible, granular notification settings

Notifications are handled separately for mobile and the web app. You can receive notifications for all messages, just direct messages, or based on filters, and you can have different settings for different channels: you don't have to get notified every time someone pushed to GitHub or every time someone posts to off-topic chat, unless you want to. See More

Top Con

API doesn't allow custom widgets in chat

Top Pro

Freemium plan

Free forever, only restriction on searchable message archives, up to 10k of your team’s most recent messages and 10 apps or service integration. Great for trying out first. See More

Top Con

API is overall very poor

Can't do much with integrations. See More

Top Pro

Inline link previews (photos, mockups, etc.)

When a link is added, some content in the link is shown such as image - like how Facebook does it when you share a link. See More

Top Con

Awful performance and constant glitches, since it is Chromium-based

You will experience a lot of hangs and glitches and it eats immense (for as basic as UI is) amount of RAM. See More

Top Pro

Slackbot extensible chat robot

The "Slackbot" can is an extensible robot that can be set you remind you about tasks, auto respond to certain phrases and a variety of other functionality. See More

Top Con

Replies are the worst feature implementation of all time

Top Pro

Edit messages easily

It allows you to change what you sent by hovering to the message and selecting "Edit message" under the ellipsis (...). See More

Top Con

No dark theme

Top Pro

Emoji reactions to limit excessive posts and notifications

Top Con

Cannot share screen through the browser client

Top Pro

Dev team is invested, responsive, and friendly

Having submitted both feedback and support requests for bot development, I can personally attest that the team takes feedback seriously, and responds quickly to communication. This is vital for any closed-source or hosted project. See More

Top Pro

Shows local time of each participant

You can click on the profile of a user to see their local time. An especially useful feature when members of your team are working in different timezones. See More

Top Pro

Self chatting

Creative implementation which is very good for personal journaling or drafting/collecting ideas. Previously, to do this, users needed to create a private channel with themselves. Note that some other team-chat apps may disallow creating group/channel with no 2nd person(s). See More

Top Pro

Multiple channels for different groups

Top Pro

IRC connectivity over SSL

Top Pro

Can Create Diagrams with Creately

You can just create flowcharts, org chart, mind maps, UML charts, infographics and many more by typing /creately new <document name> See More

Top Pro

GIFS

easily embed gifs with /giphy slash command. See More

Top Pro

It can surprise you

There's a checkbox in preferences under advanced options that may surprise you. See More

Specs

Platforms:Chrome, iOS, Android, Mac OS, Windows

Service integrations:Yes

Screensharing:Yes

See All Experiences

507 127

score 4 · Answer 6

AnyMeeting

Top Pro

Has screen sharing and presentation uploading

Top Pro

Custom URL

Custom URL for your account and all of your meetings. See More

Top Pro

(Paid) Can record meetings

You can record your meetings and web conferences for future playback. See More

Top Pro

YouTube video sharing

You can share your recorded video directly to youtube. See More

4 2

score 173 · Answer 7

Hangouts

Top Con

Lack of end to end encryption

Communications are encrypted between client and Google servers but not from sending client to receiving client. This means that there is still a possibility for someone other than the receiver to read your message if they have access to internal Google servers. But it allows also lightweight chat history search, spam protection and other features. See More

Top Pro

Group video support

If you have signed in your Google account, Hangouts allows making video calls with up to 10 people or one-on-one. There are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 as well as offers support for those accounts. Additionally, you can switch between using either the front-facing or rear-facing camera on your phone or tablet. See More

Top Con

Transitioning to corporate orientation

Google is turning Hangouts in to a Slack competitor. It's unclear what the future of Hangouts is, but Google has said the consumer Hangouts we now have 'isn't going anywhere.' See More

Top Pro

Free and cross-platform

Google offers all features of Hangouts completely free on iOS, Android and web with quick and reliable sync across all platforms. It's also tightly integrated in other Google services - it can be accessed from services such as Gmail, Google+, Chrome. While the standard Hangouts offering is completely free, there are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 and offers support that may cost money. See More

Top Con

Is owned by Google

Google is a cooperation that earns money from collecting data and breaching privacy. See More

Top Pro

No need to create a separate account if you use any other Google service

Hangouts uses Google account credentials. If you use any other Google service, then you already have an account set up. See More

Top Con

Poor interface

The app tends to lag, the design can be confusing and considering that another app has to be installed that supplies another icon in the home screen in order to get a dialer for calls in Hangouts, overall it is very confusing and cluttered. See More

Top Pro

Chrome browser extension

Use the extension on any computer you can run Chrome browser to text from your computer or tablet! See More

Top Con

No rich text editing

On Android you can receive messages with bold or italic text. However, you cannot bold or italicize text on Android, only on iOS devices or via the web interface. See More

Top Pro

Excellent read receipts in group chat

It's possible to know what each and every participant of the group has read. Their icons are displayed below the last message. See More

Top Con

No way to moderate groups

If a member of a group chat room becomes disruptive, or there's some other need, there's no way in Hangouts to remove somebody from an existing chatroom. Similarly, if somebody is no longer active, there's no way to remove that user from the chat room to make slot for new active members. See More

Top Pro

Save and sync your chats across multiple devices

Start chatting on your phone, then on your computer, then on your tablet seamlessly! See More

Top Con

Buggy video calls

Whether video calls work on your device is pure lottery, and there's nothing you can do to fix it. See More

Top Pro

Can share animated GIFs

If you have gifs in your mobile phone, you can share them in the conversation and your partner will be able to see it animated in the chat. See More

Top Con

Poor indication of who's online

There is no way to find out if a person in your contact's list is online or not in the Android app. See More

Top Pro

Google Voice integration

Google Voice is a service that enables making and receiving free phone calls within US. Google Voice forwards incoming calls to all connected devices and allows placing calls from any of the connected devices, but they will show as coming from the Google Voice number. Hangouts completely integrates Google Voice, allowing you to place calls and receive texts and voicemail from all of your devices. The Hangouts app for Android also includes a needed dialer for making calls with the users Google Voice number. See More

Top Con

Poorly manages data

Doesn't cache images well either received or sent. Often users will see the sent images re-downloading, same for conversations. See More

Top Pro

Free calls to US and Canada from anywhere in the world

Hangouts app for Android can be extended with an optional dialer for making calls. Most calls to US and Canada are free and international calls have cheap rates. A Google Voice account will be needed in order have a number that allows these calls to be made. See More

Top Con

API support was removed

This change closed options for integrations and connections between similar apps. See More

Top Pro

Advanced status sharing

Hangouts can inform about the status of other users including what device they are currently using, whether they are in the middle of a call and when were they last seen. This allows making sure that you're not disturbing someone when initiating a conversation. It's possible to granularly turn off status sharing. See More

Top Con

Not available on Windows Phones

There is no Hangouts app for the Windows Phone. See More

Top Pro

Video tools

Hangouts can add different effects and overlays to video calls that can be viewed on your device. Unfortunately, they can't be set from your phone. See More

Top Con

Doesn't support sending voice notes or video recordings

Currently there is no built in function that supports creating and sending voice notes or video recordings. See More

Top Pro

Seamless integration with OK Google for voice control and typing

Hangouts can be used completely hands free, even if the app is not open and the phone is locked: "OK Google, send a Hangouts message to Mary". See More

Top Con

No customer support

Free product, you're on your own. See More

Top Con

Won't send SMS/MMS anymore

They removed support for sms/mms. The same goes with integration to hangouts. See More

Top Con

No SMS/MMS backup

They don't have options to backup sms to cloud. See More

Top Con

SMS messages sent from the web app can't be sent outside North America

SMS messages sent from the web app can only be sent to number in America and Canada - sending to foreign numbers won't work, although you can still receive texts from anywhere. See More

Specs

Platforms:Web / iOS / Android / OSX / Chrome

Publisher:Google Inc

File Size:Varies with device

Required Android Version:Varies with device

See All Specs

See All Experiences

173 67

score 1209 · Answer 8

Discord

Top Pro

User friendly

Discord follows the same type of interface design popularised by Slack, which is extremely clean and attractive, and doesn't clutter the interface with unnecessary chrome and cruft. See More

Top Con

Proprietary software

Discord is closed-source, meaning their code isn't available for inspection or reproduction See More

Top Pro

Free for unlimited users

Unlimited amount of users. See More

Top Con

No self-hosting avaliable

Discord is wholly hosted by Discord (the company), you cannot run private instances, and all servers are hosted on their infrastructure. For most people, this won't really impact their usage. See More

Top Pro

Can be used in browser

Users can invite others to join a Discord channel via a web link, which means no installation is required to use the software - which is one of the big typical barriers to entry for social software. See More

Top Con

Developer's previous company was sued for privacy violations, among other things

See: http://classactionlawsuitsinthenews.com/class-action-lawsuit-complaints/openfeint-green-international-privacy-class-action-lawsuit-complaint/ https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/closing-letters/openfeint-inc Discord's privacy policy also states that while they might not sell your data, a company they get sold to will quite possibly attain said data and thus may be in "more" shady hands. See More

Top Pro

Good 1-click invite system

Discord allows inviting people to a specific channel with a link. Links can be set to expire. Low effort/passive invite mechanics. See More

Top Con

Based on Electron = eats a lot of ram

Top Pro

Easy setup

You can quickly send invites to people and they can join in using the web client without having to create an account or install the app. See More

Top Con

Some functions cut out and available only with "Nitro" subscription

Top Pro

Open source bots and management tools

Discord has a wide variety of bots for things from airhorn noises to automated server management, to leveling systems for chat. The bot API is open and there are dedicated sites for finding bots. See More

Top Con

Very unstable on Linux

Top Pro

Game integration

Discord shows which game each user is currently playing, which among other things helps users to form PUGs with minimal hassle. See More

Top Con

Not a generic "team chat" tool

All the UI and the features are aimed specifically at communicating with your gaming team/clan. See More

Top Pro

Has low-latency VoIP support

Top Con

Anti-privacy license terms

Top Pro

Supports video and text communication

Behaves and looks like Slack for regular text channels, but with the ability to create voice channels as well See More

Top Con

Can change "Now Playing" status to something inappropriate

Top Pro

Android app has push notifications

Top Pro

Familiar for Slack users

For those that are used to the way Slack (a similar chat client) works, Discord will be familiar in its use, which lowers the learning curve quite a bit for those that have switched or tried Slack before. See More

Top Pro

Syntax highlighting and Markdown support

The support is limited but still exists. It's a killer feature for dev teams. See More

Top Pro

Numerous controls for setting member roles.

Deny access, Deny write message, Allow read messages etc. See More

Top Pro

Low effort invite mechanics

Top Pro

DDoS mitigation

Discord prevents users from being DDoSed out of games. See More

Top Pro

Targeting of roles

Targeting roles allows for quickly requesting someone from a group e.g. artist, moderator, etc. See More

Top Pro

Ability to thread channels

Ability to create channel categories for channels to sit inside of. See More

Top Pro

Ability to create bots

Discord provides an API for creating custom bots. See More

Top Pro

Friendly payment policy

Free account have no tangible restrictions. Premium account is just a way to say "thank you" to developers. And it work for all servers of discord (not as in slack). And it can be purchased by one who wants. In contrast to Slask, where all active members of the server should be "premium". See More

Top Pro

Language localization

Have localization for many language, including Russian. See More

Top Pro

Dark theme out of the box

Top Pro

Does not allow NSFW related things to be posted unless in a NSFW channel

Specs

File Size:8 MB free, 50 MB paid

Search:Yes

Audio recording:no

Videoconferencing:Yes

See All Specs

See All Experiences

1209 419

score 14 · Answer 9

FaceTime

Top Pro

Easy to use

To make a FaceTime call, click the icon in the contacts. See More

Top Con

Apple users only

No applications for Windows, Linux or Android are available. See More

Top Pro

Already part of your iOS device

FaceTime is already integrated in your iOS device. No need to install or set it up. It can be accessed from contacts on iPhone or as a separate app on all iOS devices. See More

Top Con

Not suitable for teams

Top Pro

Group chats

Easy to initiate from iOS/OSX messages with a group. See More

14 13

score 95 · Answer 10

Skype

Top Con

Plagued by bugs on all platforms

Crashes and other bugs are prevalent on Android, Windows and other platforms. See More

Top Pro

Easily connect with others due to how popular the service is

There's a good chance that whoever you're trying to reach has Skype already set up and familiar with it, avoiding the hassle of installing and getting to know new software. See More

Top Con

Not a feasible alternative as a professional team chat

Missing key feature such as centralized mgmt, centralized billing, data retention policies, ... See More

Top Pro

Screen sharing

You can show your whole desktop, a select part of the screen or a specific window over Skype. See More

Top Con

Poor quality when screensharing

It is not possible to manually set resolution or bitrate, and Skype often defaults to a resolution so low that text is unreadable. It is also not possible to transfer control over mouse and keyboard. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

There's software for Windows, Mac & Linux and apps are available on iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. See More

Top Con

Slow filesharing speed

Top Pro

Group video for free

You can hold video calls with up to 10 people. See More

Top Con

Owned by Microsoft

Top Pro

Available on Linux

A stripped down, minimalist version of Skype is available for Linux. See More

Top Con

Obnoxiously large ads

Ads take up over 25% of the usable space. See More

Top Pro

File sharing

Skype allows you to send any files (MP3s, images, text, etc.) by simply dragging and dropping then in the chat window making it simple to share things with colleagues. See More

Top Con

Poor Linux support

The version available for linux users is quite outdated, and does not support some of the newer functionality, such as the free group video calling and screen sharing. See More

Top Pro

Cheap fixed phone number

Starting at $5/mo you can get a Skype number. See More

Top Con

Requires both ends to be online (if neither end is using a cloud-enabled device)

Messages are sent and received only when both ends are online, if neither end is using a cloud-enabled device. In this case, if you are online 9-17 and your recipient is online 18-3, messages will never be delivered. See More

Top Pro

Send SMS and make regular calls

With Skype Credit bought or a subscription, you can send SMS and make direct calls. See More

Top Con

MIcrosoft (Skype's owner) actively assists eavesdroppers

On the other hand, if you lose your copy of one of your conversations, you may be able to get a copy of it from your government with a little bit of luck and a public records request. See More

Top Pro

Group chat with archive / records

Top Con

Subpar video quality with more than 5 users

Skype has significant problems with multiple users and video quality. Skype recommends that a max of 5 users group chat as video quality is severely affected. Even webcams tested with other chat services showed lower quality when used with Skype. See More

Top Pro

Powerful 1:1 chat and also group chat

Specs

Platforms:iOS Android WP OSX Windows Linux Web Blackberry Chrome OS BSD iPad

Publisher:Skype

File Size:Varies with device

Required Android Version:Varies with device

See All Specs

See All Experiences

95 147