The Best Video Conferencing Software for 2025

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Video conferencing services have become invaluable for businesses of all sizes, whether for connecting a far-flung remote workforce or facilitating meetings with clients across the globe. That's why PCMag tests and rates the leading video conferencing software. In the process, we've learned that different products serve diverse needs. Zoom, for example, began as a service for individuals and small teams and has grown into a full-on business platform called Zoom Workplace. Webex by Cisco, meanwhile, has a long history of catering to businesses scaling all the way up to giant enterprises. Both are Editors' Choice winners. Still others specialize in mass-audience applications, such as webinars and online training, so it's worth exploring all our top picks. Make sure to click through to our in-depth reviews and scroll past the list for advice on choosing the best video conferencing service for your company.

What Is Video Conferencing Software?

Video conferencing software continues to evolve. Initially, it was available only in the form of pricey conference room systems that combined specific hardware and software. Now, however, popular cloud-based services require little dedicated infrastructure and largely work within a browser.

Contemporary video conferencing systems have a cornucopia of capabilities that their predecessors never did. Best-in-class video conferencing services offer broadcasting modes for passive viewers (also known as webinars), digital whiteboard collaboration, file exchange, remote desktop access, screen sharing, text chat, and more. Additionally, some services integrate with business voice over IP (VoIP) packages, enabling users to convert voice calls to video calls or initiate a shared meeting at the touch of a button without interrupting the original connection.

How Much Does Video Conferencing Software Cost?

Like most software-as-a-service (SaaS), video conferencing providers offer multiple pricing tiers. The lowest tier is free for many of the services we test. These offerings are great for connecting with friends and family and for occasional business use. However, they have limited features and place restrictions on how long meetings can be and how many people can attend. Organizations that plan to use video conferencing as an everyday tool should invest in a paid service.

Among the services we reviewed, the median pricing for business-grade service is around $13 per user per month. Most also offer more expensive tiers for enterprises. As usual, the greater your needs, the more you should expect to pay.

Although most services charge by the number of users, others charge by the number of hosts. Services that charge per host are generally primarily for webinars, in which only a host can initiate a meeting (and meetings typically have many attendees). On the other hand, services that charge per person are usually for peer-to-peer usage, in which anyone can start a meeting.

What Can Video Conferencing Software Do for You?

Video conferencing has quickly become an essential business tool, particularly given the rise of remote work. The products in this roundup all offer video calls via webcam, typically alongside several other features, such as text chat.

Understanding what constitutes a video conferencing platform can be confusing since some team messaging platforms, like Microsoft Teams and Slack, offer the same features. Teams offers a complete video conferencing solution, which is why we include it. Slack and some of its competitors just have person-to-person video calling, so they don't make the list. The solutions we've reviewed here can all support multi-party video meetings.

Beyond video calling, you likely want a few additional capabilities. Screen sharing is essential for presentations. You may also want to look for more granular options, such as the ability to share just one application, document, or image rather than the entire desktop. Many packages also support video annotation and virtual whiteboards, which foster participant collaboration.

Most of the video conferencing services in this roundup also offer a text chat mode during meetings and sometimes outside of video calls.

Many services offer automated recording that you can initiate with the press of a button. Typically, they save recordings to cloud storage and automatically share them with all meeting attendees. If you think this is a feature you will use often, make sure the service tier you choose offers sufficient storage capacity. Alternatively, you can integrate it with your existing third-party cloud storage provider.

Recently, video conferencing vendors started to aggressively introduce artificial intelligence (AI) to their systems. Applications include analytics and optimization, automatic call summaries and transcription, call scheduling, facial recognition, noise cancellation, and more.

What Equipment Do You Need for Video Conferencing?

Beyond the video conferencing software, you should also consider the hardware you need. Fortunately, almost every modern laptop, tablet, and smartphone has an integrated microphone and a serviceable (if fairly mediocre) camera. Many modern laptops and higher-end mobile devices ship with high-quality 1080p webcams.

Desktop PCs, on the other hand, typically require additional hardware. If you're looking for crisp sound or video quality, you need the best microphone and high-end webcam you can get. Some business monitors also come with built-in video conferencing features. You can use some digital cameras as a webcam, too.

For most use cases, consumer-grade hardware is all you need. Then again, if you want the highest possible video quality for webinars and client meetings, you might need to buy extra lighting accessories.

Although these hardware purchases drive up the total cost of your video conferencing deployment, you still save compared with old-school, end-to-end conferencing solutions. You don't need to make a huge capital outlay all at once. Instead, you can buy the licenses you need and add new seats as necessary, a method that can dramatically reduce costs.

How to Buy Video Conferencing Software

At first glance, choosing the right video conferencing service for your organization can seem challenging because most offer the same basic features. But you still need to evaluate several factors before making your decision. Assessing the software's overall user experience is a good place to start.

In each review, we discuss the ease of signing up, creating a meeting, inviting participants, and setting up audio and video controls. We also look at the experience from a meeting invitees' point of view and how easy it is to access smart meeting controls, such as annotation, file sharing, virtual assistants, and whiteboard-style collaboration.

We've also tested each service's prominent features, but it's up to you to decide which ones you need most. For example, do you need dial-in numbers, VoIP integration, or both? How about features like screen sharing or remote control? Some services offer teleconferencing with dial-in numbers (local or toll-free) and VoIP calling, while others provide just one or the other. A few offer international dial-in numbers.

During our testing, we hosted and joined meetings to evaluate the experience of registered and non-registered users. We made sure to outline how easy it is to join a meeting, including whether a participant needs to download software before joining (which could cause a delay or even be a deal breaker). Other services simply require that attendees enter a code to access the meeting.

Our reviews also cover the host's administration features. The best services let you set up various types of meetings, such as lecture-style calls in which all participants are on mute or a Q&A mode in which presenters can mute and unmute participants as necessary. Other options include allowing break-out sessions, creating a waiting room while preparing for the meeting, locking latecomers out of a meeting, and turning webcams on and off.

Most of these services offer at least a 30-day free trial, so you can test the product that looks most attractive to you. Make sure to include relevant stakeholders in your decision-making process, both within and outside your organization.