Antonio Boj - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Solutions Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Ability to share content is great and I appreciated the high level of audio quality
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to share content is a great feature."
  • "Extra security would be a good added feature."

What is our primary use case?

I use this solution for chat, video calls, meetings, basically for any interaction with people. I'm a network architect. 

What is most valuable?

Sharing content is a great feature. The audio quality was fantastic most of the time and I found it very user-friendly. 

What needs improvement?

Additional security would be welcome; an extra layer, whether it's an additional log-in requirement or something on the servers. There is always the possibility of meetings being hijacked or encryption going to China. It would also be helpful to have more control over who attends meetings. An additional feature I'd like to see would be a whiteboard which would be very productive for some of our meetings.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Zoom for many years. 

Buyer's Guide
Zoom
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Zoom. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
768,740 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is pretty impressive, especially taking into account the huge growth of the user community.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Skype but switched to Zoom because of the features and better quality. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very simple, it was automatically installed on my laptop. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Zoom nine out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Sr. IT Business Analyst at Citigroup
Real User
Top 20
Stable, easy to use, and useful screen sharing
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Zoom are its ease of use, screen sharing, and annotations."
  • "The chat functionality in Zoom could improve."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Zoom for the standard video communication.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Zoom are its ease of use, screen sharing, and annotations.

What needs improvement?

The chat functionality in Zoom could improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zoom for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Zoom has been fine.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 100,000 users using this solution in my organization.

How was the initial setup?

We have all of our software in our company pre-installed.

What about the implementation team?

We have a technical team that does the implementation of our software.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Zoom a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Zoom
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Zoom. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
768,740 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Sachindra S - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
MSP
Good communication, reliable, and easy to download
Pros and Cons
  • "The performance is good."
  • "In the next release, I would like to see better security."

What is our primary use case?

We are service providers. If a client has some of those licenses, they will arrange for a Zoom meeting. We share whatever storage the clients have, but we do not purchase storage.

Zoom is used for video communication.

What is most valuable?

The performance is good. 

We are satisfied with this solution, it's good.

What needs improvement?

Security is required, and I assume that it is already in place. Aside from that, we are not utilizing Zoom's high-end capabilities.

In the next release, I would like to see better security.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Zoom for three years.

It is dependent on what the client does on their end in terms of deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had any problems with Zoom in our limited use.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not had any issues with the scalability of Zoom.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Jaeger, Teams, and Grafana are the tools used in the company for remote monitoring.

We use a variety of operating systems, including Linux, Unix, and Windows.

We also use the network storage for office purposes and I personally use Google Drive, iPhone, and iCloud. 

I don't work with the Enterprise edition; instead, I use the open edition.

How was the initial setup?

It doesn't require installation, we use a link, but sometimes we have to download from the browser. This process is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

I was able to complete this process myself.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Zoom to anyone who is thinking about using it.

I would rate Zoom an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Cagdas Kardas - PeerSpot reviewer
Operations Director at Berlitz
Real User
Great for delivering online language lessons
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to record our online language lessons is great and helps our students"
  • "Our licensing model prevents us from switching off the meeting recording functionality"

What is our primary use case?

We are a language business, we utilize Zoom to hold virtual meetings with clients and customers, in addition we deliver our online lessons through Zoom. 

What is most valuable?

The features I find most valuable are its simplicity to use and we use the recording functionality within meetings. This helps students who may have missed a lesson for some reason, they can then pick up via the recorded session.

One other key feature for us is the centralized management of Zoom, our administration team finds this very useful. 

What needs improvement?

When we host meetings, all of our meetings are recorded. Some clients request that we do not record the meetings and we have to adhere to that. Unfortunately with our Zoom installation and licensing we are unable to switch to that configuration. In that scenario we have to utilize Google Meet for this type of client. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The Zoom software product is very stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Approximately 70-75 users utilize Zoom within the organization, we can scale licenses up and down to suit our needs.

How was the initial setup?

I find the initial setup of Zoom very easy to follow and install. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Customer service manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Secure, simple to manage, and easy to understand
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is easy to set up."
  • "It would be great if there was a bit more camera control. For example, cropping the image, and improving the background remover features, which can be buggy right now."

What is our primary use case?

Zoom has been a complete substitution for the personal face-to-face interview. Everything we have been doing through Zoom. Every work meeting, every customer meeting, every interview for jobs. Everything that has to do with the interactions with another person. We only use Zoom due to the fact that, even though we could use some other technologies like Teams or even WhatsApp or anything like that, we prefer to use Zoom as we have the control of what is recorded and exactly what is going on in the meeting. We have been using it for every internal and external meeting - everything that we do. My agenda is just full of Zoom meetings. That is my life.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspect of the solution is the controls that you have for security. They have been enhanced a lot in the recent versions. When you are the owner of the meeting, you basically have control over everything. It is really important when you are in a situation in which someone tries to enter your meeting and he doesn't belong or doesn't identify him or herself. You can just easily remove them. 

Understanding the different options you have is easy. The identified users have to be allowed in with authentication. You will have people that are from the organization or from some other organization and you can ask for authentification or you can have a meeting in which anyone can join. Even so, at the moment you have the option of doing something that will give you control over the meeting. For me, that's one of the most useful things.

It's very simple to manage.

The solution is stable.

The scalability is good.

The solution is easy to set up.

What needs improvement?

We are entering into these meta universes of applications in which virtual reality is going to be very, very important. They're starting to explore some of those things by having options of creating templates that visualize a meeting room, for example. There are visualizations that give you the illusion that you are in the same place. However, there are many more things that they can do, and the room there is endless in terms of improvements.

There are ways that you can get information from the cameras and try to map something that could be more 3D and try to make it much more virtual in terms of creating a virtual world. That is an area that Zoom has been just been scratching the surface of. In the future, I expect they will have better UI.  

It would be great if there was a bit more camera control. For example, cropping the image, and improving the background remover features, which can be buggy right now.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for five years or so.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable, even though it has issues such as dropping meetings occasionally. That said, that's anecdotal. It's something that might happen once every a hundred meetings or something like that. There have been glitches, however, it's not something that we are worried about.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In the beginning, scalability may have been an issue, as the pandemic hit and they went from zero to one million quite fast, however, that's mostly been resolved. 

Everybody in our company uses it right now.

We have tested for almost 2000 people internally as we have users on the webinar mode directly. The webinars that we are now doing for customers are on Zoom. That is in the tens of thousands of people. There is a limit for the meetings that we could hold in our version as the employee, however, there are versions within the company that is unlimited in terms of the people that it can hold. We have been doing very well with that technology in terms of the number of people we can handle. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to use Cisco WebEx, however, everyone wanted to switch over to Zoom.

The problem we had with WebEx was the version that we were using was not up to date. There was always a requirement for a call with a phone for the audio, and for the video and the interaction was online. That was a big problem as there were no international calls. There was a way for you to receive a callback, however, that doesn't work all the time. The quality of the sound was not good for WebEx when you were using the phone. Zoom had a very good quality of sound. You can also stream music and have high-quality audio.

I also used Microsoft Teams in the past. I didn't care much for Teams. There are things that annoy me from Teams. I use it sometimes still as some customers are required to use Teams instead of Zoom. There is this situation in Teams in which you are not actually seeing all the pictures of the faces of the people. When you enter a meeting, you're just seeing a couple of them and then you have to go to participants to see them. The interface is also not as easy as Zoom in many ways. For me to get to the chat part is like a mystery.

I've used Goot Meet occasionally too. There are some lacking features and it's not as easy to use. Sometimes the share screen or the share sound for the computer doesn't work at all. Sometimes [you have to install plugins. It doesn't have a client install on the computer. It is not very useful for me. In that area, still Zoom is more advanced than the others.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is really easy. In the beginning, they had some issues with the ports and some things. We had some issues with some customers in that, due to security reasons, they were not able to use Zoom. That was an issue, however, that was two years ago, and, largely due to the fact that it was such a massive problem at the time, it caused headaches for many people. Right now, however, it's one of the easiest solutions to deal with. 

Since it is a managed solution, a software as a service, everything seems to be completely taken care of by Zoom.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the paid version of the solution. The exact costs are handled on a corporate level, however, I understand that if you just want to own a license for your small business or something like that, it's around $300 a year, which is very reasonable. It gives you a lot of features that are good for you, such as the storage of the meetings if you recorded on the cloud, which is something that you cannot do if you have the free version.

What other advice do I have?

We're using the solution as a customer. It's our main tool right now.

We are using the most recent version of the solution.

I'd advise people that the change in the process of your work will be impacted by how you plan things. For instance, there are easier ways, when you apply best practices, to make your life easier. There is a button, for example, in Outlook in which you can just insert all the information for the Zoom meeting without having to plug in a link. Or you can actually create a specific unique meeting ID and you will not have any worries if you are always using your personal meeting room, that you will overlap with people entering into the meeting that you don't want.

I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Principal | CTO at IBE Global
Real User
Very easy to deploy, simple conference room feature, and works on any device
Pros and Cons
  • "Simple and user-friendly; works on any device."
  • "Lacks an indicator on chat to show that a message has been read."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution as part of our corporate communications system. I'm principal CTO and we are customers of Zoom. 

What is most valuable?

It was easy to deploy Zoom and it's a product that was easily accepted throughout the company, even by our management team. Zoom is just very simple for the user and it works regardless of where you are and the device you're using. The ease of integration of the conference rooms for our leadership was probably the most valuable aspect. With WebEx or Teams where you need converters in the middle and things didn't always work, the leadership team was always complaining about those solutions. 

What needs improvement?

One issue I have is that there is no indicator on chats to let you know whether a message has been read so you're never sure if it's been seen. They could implement something like Whatsapp with the two check marks. I also think that the integration with Microsoft is not as good as it was with Jabber. It's not the end of the world but it could be better. In a similar vein, I think that when it comes to document sharing the integration could be improved.

What other advice do I have?

I think that if your main focus is on communication between team members, especially with people working from home, this is a simple solution. We need to recognize that not everyone is an IT person and we're working with people at all levels in the company, whether they're in the field, the warehouses, or in fabrication. For all of them this is, quite honestly, more user-friendly than WebEx or Teams will ever be.

Based on our use cases, I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Account Executive at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Real User
Excellent features, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "Screen Sharing is the most valuable feature in Zoom for me."
  • "The only issue I have is that some clients have difficulty connecting to the audio side of things."

What is our primary use case?

I use Zoom to demonstrate my solution to my clients. We also use it to make external and internal client calls.

We use Zoom Internally, as well as with our clients.

What is most valuable?

The features are good. I don't have any issues with the features included with Zoom.

Screen Sharing is the most valuable feature in Zoom for me.

What needs improvement?

The only issue I have is that some clients have difficulty connecting to the audio side of things. It could be user issues.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Zoom off and on for many years.

I believe that we use the enterprise version of Zoom.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I don't have any issues with the stability of Zoom.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Zoom is scalable. 

We don't have more than ten users at once for my purposes. We haven't had to go any further.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted technical support directly. Any issues are addressed with my IT team.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Zoom is the only product that I have used since starting with this company.

In the past, I have used GoToMeeting, Teams, Skype, and Webex.

Teams is nice, but it's on the communication platform, you are only using one application. Aside from that, I can't think of any significant pluses or minuses.

How was the initial setup?

To my knowledge, the initial setup appears to be fine. I'm in sales, so I don't set up anything.

What other advice do I have?

I worked for OpenText for 13 years.

In sales, I use what I am given to work with.

I would rate Zoom an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
President at SystemLink
Real User
Popular, with a web-based interface, but does not support file sharing
Pros and Cons
  • "It's popular. Many people use it not only personally, but also in businesses."
  • "It would be useful to be able to share files with my colleagues."

What is our primary use case?

We use Zoom to communicate with colleagues and hold meetings with colleagues and clients.

What is most valuable?

It's popular. Many people use it not only personally, but also in businesses.

What needs improvement?

When you have a large group of people on Zoom, the focus becomes hazy. When there are larger groups, people can become easily distracted.

When you have 10 people and three or four of them are primarily engaged in the conversation, the rest of the group has ventured or wandered off. I am not sure if it's a complaint. It's simply a fact.

I would like to see better video quality, especially when it's being used by a large group of people using it.

I'm not aware of any file transfer capabilities with Zoom. It would be useful to be able to share files with my colleagues.

There are some things that we require that Zoom does not have.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Zoom for approximately one year.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our company is small. 

When we use Zoom, we may have one client and possibly another group of participants who are not affiliated with the organization. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Because we are in the software development and implementation business, we use other tools in addition to Zoom.

While we are on a call, we use Go to Assist, and Fast Support to track our time and transfer files.

How was the initial setup?

We access it through the Zoom web application. We don't install it or publish it.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Zoom a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user