Video conferencing has become a million dollar market in today’s world. In current hard times of a pandemic like corona virus, it is the best plausible way to connect with someone while maintaining social distancing. Skype and Zoom are two heavy hitters in the wide array of options available in video chat applications and services. The comparison between Skype and Zoom is a hot burning topic for debate among people. Below, we compare the two to help you in making right decision for your video conferencing needs.

What is Skype

Skype is a communication application that enables world’s conversations. It works best on all devices: mobiles, computers or tablets and is compatible with Android, iOS, web browser alike. It’s currently available in nearly 108 languages providing a wide arena of communication tools like video conferencing, VoIP and instant messaging. Though, Skype is primarily designed as a commercial product, it is frequently used by educationalists and other individuals and groups to facilitate exchange of thoughts.

What is Zoom

Zoom is a cloud-based innovative technological video and web conferencing application that can simultaneously collaborate up to 300 participants over the internet. It is widely used by persons and personnel around the world for personal and professional work. Due to its wide range of qualities it is highly recommended tool for employers, trainers, event hosts, educationalists, counselors, hospitals and health care service providers etc.

Skype Vs Zoom

In this article, comparison between Skype and Zoom are made to help you find the best video conferencing application suiting your unique needs.

Web features

Skype allows millions of individuals and professionals to make free one-to-one or group video and voice calls, share messages and files with other people on the network. Skype to Skype calls are free of charge, giving it an upper edge over traditional telephone networks that have either pre-paid or post-paid charges. Skype texts allow group chats, use of emoticons, storing chat history and editing of previous messages.

Zoom has an upper hand than other communication tools in the way that it is optimized to share screen video content. Coming with a large number of fascinating features and specifications, zoom provides dynamic voice detection, co-annotation, recording and uploading of data on local disks, cloud storage as well as internet, generation of transcripts, etc.

Supporting devices

Skype is supported by Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Web-based, Windows mobile. The supported integrations are Agile CRM, Slack, Microsoft Systems, Grasshopper and more.

Zoom is supported by Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Web-based, Linux and Windows. The supported integrations are Google drive, Pardot, Dropbox, Eloqua, HubSpot, Infusionsoft and more.

Control

Skype is mostly used for voice and video calls to near and dear ones. It allows video conferencing for a group of people not more than 50 members. It is controlled by the organizer of the call. Any new joiner or attendee has to login and stay till termination of the session by organizer. So, the sole control remains in the hand of organizer.

Zoom allows the organizer full control of the session as he has the option to control attendees presentation and other features access. It is an easy and reliable tool to organize audio or video meet ups, to share presentations, call in  seminars from any place with a good internet connectivity. It is a great tool for collaborating businessmen, trainers, trainees, etc across the globe.

Number of participants

Skype supports voice calls, video conferences and screen sharing between 25-50 people at a time. It also has a split view mode to keep conversations separate.

Zoom’s best feature is that it can be used to cater webinars for groups as large as 500 interactive participants and can have an audience of 10,000 viewers. Zoom meeting allows the participants to share their screens, turn on their audio and video to see who else is in attendance. Zoom webinar allows the designated conductor to share their video, audio and screen. It allows only view-only attendees. The audience can interact only through the mode of Q&A, chat or via their answers to polling questions. Zoom meeting session can be broken into smaller groups for better interaction.

Pricing

Skype is basically free. However, if you are using Skype for business and looking forward to improve productivity, then Skype offers an Enterprise pricing package for 2 dollar per month per user. Other plans include Business plan, Online Plan 2 and Office 365 Business Premium.

Zoom offers four enterprise pricing plans: Zoom Basic Plan, Zoom Pro Plan, Zoom Business Plan and Zoom Enterprise Plan. These plans vary according to the number of participants and time period of sessions. Optional add-on plans are available with every plan.

Clients

Both Skype and Zoom provides best video conferencing solutions- a valid reason for their loyal clientele. Renowned clients like University of Washington, UBER, Zendesk make Zoom capable of a good show-off. Skype is a trustworthy choice of Verbalizelt, AIRDEX and Diverse Learners.

Skype versus Zoom: Final decision making

The toughest task while considering Skype versus Zoom is that both are incredible communication channels. Both are cost-effective and efficient at the same time. Both offers premium solutions and are designed to meet your communication needs. Skype is ranked as one of the best communication apps for smaller group chats due to its security features. Concerns from private experts have come forward over zoom’s privacy risks which can be avoided by protecting the meetings using techniques like keeping per-meeting ID OR enabling the ‘Waiting Room’ feature for new joiners. These specifications and usability undoubtedly makes zoom the best free video conferencing software available today connecting agencies and busy marketers in a remote world; thus making this world a ‘Global village’.