Zoho Meeting vs. Slack

While Zoho Meeting and Slack are both communication apps for businesses, they’re not quite the same. Zoho Meeting is primarily an online meeting and webinar platform, while Slack is a messaging app with a new video feature called Huddle. Both communication platforms come with many handy tools and advanced features, they offer different business solutions.

In this article, we’ll talk about Zoho Meeting and Slack and go into detail about the key features and differences between these two apps.

What Is Zoho Meeting?

Zoho Meeting is an all-in-one video conference and webinar solution that aims to replace in-person collaboration and classroom learning. You can use Zoho Meeting to conduct video meetings and broadcast live video webinars. Zoho Meeting also offers different analytics tools, allowing you to monitor your company’s performance. It’s browser-based, so you don’t have to install the Zoho Meeting app.

What Is Slack?

Slack is a messaging app used by businesses of all types. You can create channels, private group chats, and direct messages in Slack. You can use Slack as a desktop app, mobile app, and on your web browser. Different types of businesses use Slack, from IT and project management to marketing and sales. This platform focuses on streamlined online communication and aims to replace the need to use traditional email messaging inside a business.

Comparing Zoho Meeting and Slack

Before we go through the key differences between Zoho Meeting and Slack, it’s important to mention that these two platforms don’t offer the same features. Zoho Meeting focuses on videos, and Slack is more about written communication.

Video and Audio Features

Since Zoho Meetings is all about online videos, this platform comes with advanced video and audio features. If you use Zoho Meetings as an online meeting platform, you can host video meetings, share your screen, and even record and share web meetings. When it comes to webinars, Zoho Meetings lets you customize your emails and forms, interact with your audience with polls and surveys, and download analytics reports.

The Huddle feature on Slack was only introduced in March 2022. This video chat feature is available for all members and guests and on all plans. If you want an audio-only Huddle, you can always turn off your camera. If you’re using the free version of Slack, you can only video chat with one other Slack user. But if you’re on a paid plan, Huddles can consist of up to 50 participants.

Integrations

Zoho Meetings has various integrated applications for different categories, such as sales and marketing, group collaboration, email hosting services, marketing automation tools, and more. Some of the most important Zoho Meetings integrations include Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. Zoho Meetings even has a Slack integration. So, you can use your Google account to sign into Zoho Meeting.

Slack is integrated with numerous productivity apps, departmental tools, and essential platforms. Some of Slack’s integrations include Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Dropbox, Google Calendar, Zoom, Twitter, HubSpot, and more.

Pricing

Both Zoho Meeting and Slack offer free plans.

Zoho Meeting’s Forever Free plan allows you to invite up to 100 meeting participants and 100 webinar attendees. However, those online meetings and webinars can’t last more than 60 minutes.

There are separate Standard and Professional plans for online meetings and webinars. The Standard Meeting plan is only $1 per month, and the Professional meeting plan is $3 per month. On the other hand, the Standard Webinar plan is $8 per month, and the Professional Webinar plan is $16 per month.

Slack’s free plan gives you access to the most recent 90 days of message history, 10 integrations with other apps, and one-to-one audio and video conversations with screen sharing. Paid Slack plans include the Pro plan ($7.25 a month), the Business+ plan ($12.50 a month), and the Enterprise Grid plan. The exact price of the final plan depends on the number of users.

Ease of Use

The good news is that both Zoho Meeting and Slack are easy to use.

As a host, you will need to register for a Zoho Meeting account. However, your participants don’t need to do this. When you create an event for a video meeting, you would just need to send a link or a meeting key via email or other messaging apps.

When you’re in a meeting, you can share your screen, record the meeting, and send polls and surveys. Participants can choose to turn off their cameras or mute their microphones. Even with the Forever Free plan, there can be up to 100 participants in one video conference.

Slack has a friendly user interface that’s organized in a way that will make everything easy to find. Your channels, group chats, and direct messages are organized in the left sidebar. You can send attachments, mention other Slack users, and search for files. In addition, you can delete messages and edit the messages you have already sent. Slack also sends you notifications whenever someone mentions you, but you can turn notifications off when you’re not using the app.

Platform Availability

When you want to host an online meeting or a webinar on Zoho Meeting, you can do so on your browser. The same goes for the people you invited to your online meeting. They’re not required to download the Zoho Meetings app or register for an account. That being said, you can download the Zoho Meetings app if you want. It’s available for iOS and Android devices, but a desktop app doesn’t exist.

You can use Slack on your web browser, or you can download the Slack app on your desktop or mobile app. The mobile app is available on both iPhone and Android devices.

Choose the Best Platform for Your Business

While Zoho Meeting and Slack have a lot of similarities, these two communication apps aren’t the same. Zoho Meeting is a great app for businesses that hold video conferences often and companies that offer webinars to their clients and partners. Slack is a messaging app that can replace emails among the business and has a new video chat feature. The platform you choose should depend on your company’s needs.

Have you ever used Zoho Meeting or Slack before? Which communication app do you prefer? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.