8 Must-Try Free Video Calling & Conferencing Websites for Remote Collaboration [2024]

The surge in remote work, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has significantly redefined how businesses operate.

And, as working from home is now the new normal, video calling and conferencing platforms have become essential tools for teams to connect across distances.

In this blog post, you'll discover 8 of the best free video-calling websites and apps that cater to diverse remote work collaboration needs.

You'll also see how adding Fireflies to your remote work toolkit can enhance the capabilities of these apps to further streamline communication.

Let's get started!

1. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that combines chat, video conferencing, file sharing, and other productivity tools in one unified interface.

With its video calling and online meeting features, you can meet, collaborate, and work securely with anyone from anywhere.

Microsoft Teams works on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Its free plan allows you to:

• Schedule group audio or video calls for up to 60 minutes with 100 participants
• Record your meetings
• Enjoy unlimited 1:1 meetings lasting up to 30 hours
• Communicate in real-time with instant messaging
• View and download the participant list of any meeting for reference after the meeting
• Share your screen during meetings
• Access its Community feature that lets you organize all your groups in one app
• Upload files, send links to documents, or share photos with up to 5GB of cloud storage
• Get advanced security for emails and files

2. Zoom

One of the best free video calling apps, Zoom facilitates seamless video and audio conferencing, as well as offers many collaboration features.

With Zoom's chat functionality, you can send messages, links, and files to team members during meetings or in private conversations.

It works on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android. Its free plan offers:

• Team chat so you can easily send group text, files, voice messages, and images
• Unlimited meetings across any device with up to 100 participants for 40 minutes
• Local meeting recordings
• A collaborative document editor
• Screen sharing
• 3 editable whiteboards
• Zoom clips to help you record, edit, and share short-form videos (limited to 2 minutes per video)
• Automated meeting captions
• Zoom Mail and Calendar
• Multiple integrations

3. Webex

Webex is a free video calling website that allows you to organize online meetings, video conferences, and virtual collaboration.

Developed by Cisco, this platform lets you connect with others in real-time, share documents and screens, and engage in interactive discussions.

Webex is available on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.

With its free plan, you get:

• Meetings with up to 100 participants for 40 minutes
• Interactive whiteboarding
• Local meeting recordings
• Advanced noise removal
• Virtual backgrounds
• Unlimited 1:1 and team chat messaging
• Private and public chats during meetings
• Screen sharing
• Meeting scheduling from your Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook Calendar, or Microsoft Office Suite 365

4. Skype

Skype is a communication platform developed by Microsoft that allows you to make video and voice calls, send instant messages, and share files.

It allows you to make calls to landlines and mobile phones worldwide through Skype to Phone subscriptions, providing cost-effective rates for connecting with your team.

Skype works on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.

With Skype, you can:

• Host a video or an audio conference with up to 100 people
• Record your calls
• Enable live captions and subtitles
• Get a local Skype phone number
• Send SMS and files
• Enjoy real-time translation of voice calls, video calls, and instant messages
• Set up a voicemail
• Access background effects
• Share your screen
• Set up caller identification

5. Dialpad

This free video-calling website provides a comprehensive suite of voice, video, and messaging services.

By leveraging AI, Dialpad seeks to streamline your team's communication workflows and enhance your overall business efficiency.Dialpad is available on Windows, iOS, and Android.

Its free plan gives you:

• Unlimited meetings of up to 45 minutes with 10 participants
• Screen sharing
• Personal meeting ID
• Unlimited audio recordings
• 10+ integrations
• Virtual backgrounds
• Background noise reduction

6. Google Meet

A popular free video calling app, Google Meet allows you to organize high-quality video meetings from anywhere in the world.

With its simple scheduling, easy recording, and adaptive layouts, Google Meet helps you to easily engage and communicate with your team.

Google Meet works on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.With its free plan, you can:

• Organize 1:1 or group video calls with up to 100 people (1:1s have a 24-hour time limit; group calls have a one-hour time limit)
• Use in-meeting chat
• Add live closed captions (available only in English)
• Share your screen
• Apply virtual backgrounds and visual effects
• Use whiteboards
• Join a Google Meet call from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Jamboard
• Use on-the-go mode

7. Whereby

Whereby offers integrated real-time video communication solutions that can be integrated into your platform using its API and SDK.

You can create fully branded and customizable video calls with just a few lines of code.

It's available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.Whereby's free plan lets you:

• Host 45-minute group meetings with up to 100 participants
• Host unlimited 1:1 meetings
• Collaborate in real-time with tools like Trello
• Access virtual backgrounds and blur options
• Share your screen
• Access its noise reduction feature

8. Zoho Meeting

Zoho Meeting is an online meeting platform and webinar solution designed to promote secure and efficient collaboration for remote teams.

It provides interactive web meeting tools to ensure all meeting participants effectively communicate and collaborate in real-time.

Zoho Meeting works on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.Its free plan allows you to:

• Host meetings and webinars with up to 100 attendees for one hour
• Share your screen, webcam, and applications
• Add virtual backgrounds
• Share files through chat
• Use collaborative whiteboards
• Access its meeting notes and chat feature
• Schedule meetings
• Create polls and Q&As
• Try multiple video layouts
• Access basic webinar reports and analytics

Achieve effective team collaboration with Fireflies.ai

While these platforms excel in facilitating easier remote communication, using them in tandem with Fireflies can take your meetings to the next level.

Fireflies is an intelligent meeting tool that integrates with 8 video conferencing tools (including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet) to record, transcribe, and store your meetings!

By automating your meeting workflow, Fireflies helps your team improve its productivity and focus on meaningful discussions rather than note-taking.

Key features of Fireflies

• Automatically captures and transcribes your meetings. Fireflies' transcriptions have over 90% accuracy.
• Supports transcription in 60+ languages (and 3 English accents).
• Provides detailed and customizable meeting summaries complete with action items and bullet point notes.
• Offers Smart Search so you can quickly review your calls and retrieve information in minutes. You can search for action items, dates, times, metrics, questions, and more.
• Gives you access to helpful call insights with its Conversation Intelligence feature. You can access metrics like speaker talk time, sentiment, average word spoken per minute, monologues, and more.
• Allows you to create custom topic trackers with the click of a button. You can automatically track and flag these custom keywords and phrases in your meeting transcriptions.
• Improves team collaboration and communication with:
  1. Soundbites: Create important snippets from your calls and share them with your team. Organize these sound bites into Playlist and share it with your team.
  2. Threads: Add comments at specific moments during calls to create time-stamped notes for your team to refer back to. This way, you can provide data-driven coaching for your team.
  3. Reactions: Leave pins and thumbs up or thumbs down reactions at different points in the call. Your teammates can easily revisit those moments and listen to the corresponding content.
  4. Embed: Embed the Fireflies transcript and audio player into tools such as Notion, Salesforce, and more.
• Integrates with 40+ apps, including CRM and project management platforms. Fireflies also provides custom API and Zapier integrations.
• Offers a GPT-4 powered bot named AskFred that can answer questions or summarize key moments like objections, pricing, and competitors. It can also generate post-meeting emails and write reports.
• Allows you to create a real-time knowledge base for your team and categorize your meetings using Channels. 
• Ensures maximum call security as it is SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant. Fireflies also offers a private storage option to provide dedicated storage exclusively for your organization's data.
• Allows you to attend, transcribe, and review your meetings on the go using its Android & iOS apps.

You can get started with Fireflies using its free forever plan. If you'd like to upgrade to enjoy more features, Fireflies offers flexible and affordable paid plans!

In conclusion

As remote work is increasingly becoming the norm for many businesses, the importance of effective collaboration can't be understated.

These 8 free video-calling apps come with distinct advantages that will empower teams like yours to connect and communicate effortlessly across distances.

Plus, by integrating Fireflies into these platforms, you can easily enhance your meeting productivity—all thanks to its intelligent note-taking features!