Zoom Free vs Zoom Paid: 4 Tiers To Consider

Out of a large pool of video conferencing systems to emerge over the last few years, Zoom has managed to stand out and has gained increased popularity through its free and paid options.

Zoom provides a free tool that offers 40-minute video calls with up to 100 attendees, making it easy to create and access a meeting.

But is Zoom really free?

Zoom Basic (free) has a lot to offer. However, as businesses grow, you’ll find it almost inevitable to upgrade to one of Zoom’s paid accounts.

What is the difference between Zoom free and Zoom paid?

Zoom has two types of offerings: Zoom free accounts, which they call Basic, and Zoom paid accounts. Among the paid accounts are Pro, Business, and Enterprise editions.

Zoom free accounts are feature-rich and can be sufficient for an individual. But for a business, even a small one, a paid Zoom account has some useful features that prove your return on investment almost immediately.

In this article, we’ll list the major advantages found in Zoom paid accounts.

Let’s start with a comparison table of all the features available so you have a fair overview of Zoom Free vs Zoom Paid.

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Next, we’ll run through some of the standout features you’ll receive when you upgrade to a paid Zoom account.

If you’re looking for a specific plan, use this menu to skip ahead:

1. Zoom Pro plan
2. Zoom Business plan
3. Zoom Enterprise plan

Zoom Pro plan

Zoom Pro is the first tier of paid accounts. It works perfectly for small teams and has some new features attractive to larger businesses.

As well as some additional business features, you also get every feature included in previous tiers.

Let’s look at what’s new when you upgrade to Zoom Pro.

No 40-minute limit on group meetings

If you’re an individual using Zoom for one-on-one meetings only, the Basic plan might be enough. It offers unlimited one-on-one meetings at no cost.

But, if you need to meet with more than one person (as a host, you count towards the meeting participants) then your meetings will be limited to 40 minutes.

After you reach this time limit, your meeting ends and you’ll need to start another meeting.

With a paid account, your meetings can virtually last for as long as you need (the cap is 30 hours) without having to worry about your meeting ending abruptly.

Record meetings to the cloud

Shahira Elgashi works as an independent real-estate coach in New Jersey. Her job involves training real estate agents, which includes recording and sharing the training.

“I really like saving over the cloud. It’s sharing-friendly and I don’t have to worry about storage.”

A free Zoom account allows you to save recordings on your computer. But, for better collaboration, recording your meetings to the cloud allows for a seamless sharing experience.

The “Record to the Cloud” feature is automatically enabled in all Zoom paid accounts. Once you start a meeting and choose “Record to the Cloud”, everything included in your meeting is recorded in the Zoom cloud.

Storage is limited to 1GB per licensed user. You can add more storage capacity if you need to, according to Zoom’s additional storage plans.

Who is considered a “licensed user”?

We just used the term “licensed user”. But what does it mean?

It’s not as simple as equating a licensed user to someone who has a paid Zoom account.

According to Zoom, there are three types of users:

• Basic on a free account:
• Can host meetings with up to 100 participants.
• Meetings are limited to 40 minutes.
• Basic on a paid account:
• Has the account tier’s default meeting capacity (e.g. 300 users on a Business account).
• Meetings with 3+ participants time out after 40 minutes.
• 1:1 meetings can run for longer than 40 minutes.
• Premium features such as large meeting, webinar, audio conference, and conference room connector are not available.
• Licensed:
• User who can host unlimited meetings without the 40-minute time limit.
• By default, can have meetings with up to 100 participants. Additional capacity available within license tiers.
• Can access features such as recording to the cloud, customizing meeting ID, room connector, large meeting, and webinars.

Live stream meetings and webinars

Streaming to your social accounts is only enabled when you upgrade to any of Zoom’s paid accounts. While you can share your Zoom meeting link with many people, live streaming offers more options.

If you need to host events or run webinars, streaming to Facebook or YouTube will get you much more exposure. People attending your meeting from any of these platforms will be able to view and comment on your video.

After you enable the “Allow livestreaming of webinars” (or meetings) option, you just need to configure the live stream settings to choose which social platform you want to use.

Easier note-taking with live transcription

A new feature that Zoom has added to its paid plans is the “Live Transcription” feature, which Zoom also calls “closed captioning.” It’s a real-time transcription of what’s being said in the meeting.

The feature makes it easier to do a text-based search and keeps a record of the meeting. You don’t have to go through the meeting video to find specific sections.

Only the host of the meeting can enable the Live Transcription feature. Until then, participants can’t see the Live Transcription option on their screens.  

Creating polls

Another handy feature that can only be found in Zoom’s paid accounts is Polling.

If your job involves holding online sessions all the time, creating polls is an efficient and quick way to gather participants’ feedback.

Zoom’s polling feature lets you create single-choice or multiple-choice polls that you can launch during the meeting. You can answer questions anonymously, and download a report after the meeting.

Zoom Pro full feature list

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Zoom Business plan

In addition to all the features of Zoom Pro, the Business plan has more that serves small and medium businesses.

You also get every feature included in previous tiers.

Increased number of participants

While Zoom Basic and Pro are limited to 100 participants per meeting, Zoom Business lets you host meetings that include up to 300 interactive participants.

Branding

This feature allows you to create a custom URL (yourcompany.zoom.us) and customize the company’s landing page. So, instead of having a standard landing page that looks like this:

You can customize your landing page to something that looks like this:

Zoom Single Sign-on (SSO)

With a Zoom Business account, you can log in using your company credentials. You don’t need to register as a user in Zoom, only an approved custom URL (vanity URL) is required.

Zoom Business full feature list

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Zoom Enterprise plan

For companies with larger numbers of users, more premium features are offered within Zoom Enterprise.  

You also get every feature included in previous tiers.

More attendees per meeting

With Zoom Enterprise, companies can host up to 500 attendees in a single meeting. You can also increase the participant capacity to reach 1,000 participants with an optional bundle.

Unlimited cloud storage

Unlike Zoom Pro and Business, where you’re limited to just 1GB of cloud storage, Zoom Enterprise gives you unlimited cloud storage when you record your meetings to the Cloud.

Zoom Enterprise full feature list

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How much is Zoom monthly?

Zoom has three paid options. Both the Pro and Business plans can be paid for either monthly or annually.

To subscribe to the Enterprise plan, you need to contact Zoom’s sales team.

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Connecting Zoom to other platforms

Whether you opt for Zoom free or Zoom paid, don’t forget to factor in your external contacts who you still message on a day-to-day basis.

If your suppliers are using Microsoft Teams, you can connect Zoom Team Chat to Microsoft Teams.

Perhaps your contractors all use Slack. You can connect Zoom Team Chat to Slack.

You might even have internal colleagues using Webex because they always used it in the office. You can connect Zoom Team Chat to Webex.

Connect Zoom Team Chat to your other platforms like Microsoft Teams, Slack, & Webex

Zoom’s growth throughout 2020 was both phenomenal and unexpected. So much so that you’ve got a pocket (or pockets) of users who prefer Zoom Team Chat for messaging.

If you want to keep those users connected to your Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Webex, and Zoom Team Chat users, learn more about Mio here.

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