G2 Crowd announces Winter 2015 rankings of the best web conferencing tools, based on user reviews
Six platforms earn Leader status while join.me tops overall satisfaction rankings in crowdsourced report
CHICAGO, Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The first Grid℠ report for web conferencing tools, published today by business software review site G2 Crowd, ranks 13 products to help purchasers in their selections.
The Winter 2015 report is based on more than 1,200 reviews written by business professionals.
The Grid℠, which is created from G2 Crowd's software review engine, factors in customer satisfaction reported by users and vendor market presence determined from social and public data to rank products.
Web conferencing platforms enable online communication through audio and video meetings and seminars. Features often include chat, screensharing, remote control or recording. More sophisticated solutions offer audience interaction features for webinars, better security solutions, and integration with marketing automation and CRM software. These applications are implemented to enable cheaper long-distance or international communication, enhance collaboration, and reduce travel costs.
There are free web apps, as well as long-established enterprise solutions, vying for market share of this category.
To qualify as a Leader, a product must receive a high customer satisfaction score and have substantial market presence. Skype, GoToMeeting, WebEx, Google Hangouts, join.me and Lync were named Leaders. High Performers have high customer satisfaction scores with a smaller market presence than Leaders. Personify Live and ReadyTalk were named High Performers. join.me earned the highest overall customer satisfaction score.
Across all web conferencing platforms, reviewers reported the product they use meets their requirements at an average rate of 86%, and on average reviewers said they were 81% likely to recommend the product they use.
Some highlights from the web conferencing reviews on G2 Crowd:
"I could literally write for hours about this product. I have used it for daily collaboration among geographically distributed team members for years. In this theater, Skype performed like a champ with outstanding voice quality, crisp video, and some great ancillary tools for sharing."
- Jason Jones, Chief Information Officer, CBLPath
"[GoToMeeting] integrates well with [Outlook,] and is easily configurable to suit the needs of meeting with up to 25 people. Typically I've used this for groups of 3-10 people and I like the ability to easily control who presents, who can speak, and if we're recording. The 'clean screen' functions also protect you in the event a system message or outlook notification pops up."
- Lindsey Mark, Content and Training Manager at Compete, Inc.
"WebEx is relatively easy to use, has mobile applications and I can allow designated others to start and run my meetings. The ability to record meetings is a plus as well."
- Kelly Milan, Portfolio Operations Project Manager at Pfizer Global Research and Development
"Google [Hangouts], unlike [other platforms], allows large groups of people to chat simultaneously for free. The video and audio quality [are] better, and there are far fewer connection problems than I encountered [previously]. I now use Hangout for both professional meetings as well as personal calls, and it has proven to be a great tool for getting people together in one place."
- Britta Wilhelmsen, Creative Editor at Mango Languages
"[join.me is great] for screensharing and training on a smaller scale (1-30). Easy to get started with the platform. Can join meeting from within the browser, [and not require] any additional downloads. Great international dial in support, and very inexpensive."
- Sam Dresser, Director, School Information Systems at School of Rock
"The best part of Lync is its integration with other Microsoft products. It works especially well with Outlook, enabling one-touch ease for both creating and joining meetings...It's every bit an enterprise-level solution, and there's a lot of functionality under the hood of something that comes off as an instant messaging client."
- Tyler Young, UX Designer at Nokia
"Personify [Live] is an effective presentation tool that adds a bit of flair to a virtual session, whether live or prerecorded. The software is easy to use and doesn't try to 'do too much' - you can smoothly move between offscreen narration and on-screen demonstration."
- Max Burnette, Computer Scientist at Ploughman Analytics, Inc.
"I've used all the major webinar platforms...and none of them are in the same league as ReadyTalk...ReadyTalk is intuitive, it integrates perfectly with Marketo and Salesforce, and their customer support is great."
- Alex Shipillo, Senior Marketing Manager at Influitive
Of the nearly 60 software vendors listed in G2 Crowd's web conferencing category, the 13 ranked products each received 10 or more reviews to qualify for inclusion on the Grid℠.
Satisfaction rankings are generated from the user reviews, and market presence is calculated from vendor size, market share, and social impact. Based on a combination of these scores, each software solution is categorized as a Leader, High Performer, Contender, or Niche.
Premium research access can be purchased on the site for $599. These offer the original data for filtering and weighting, as well as individual profiles of each platform with the most helpful positive and negative web conferencing platform reviews, detailed company information, user satisfaction ratings, feature scores and customer metrics. Future refreshes of the Grid℠ will provide updated rankings based on the latest reviews and social data.
Be sure to check out the new Grid℠ for the best web conferencing tools and subscribe to the premium research.
About G2 Crowd, Inc.
G2 Crowd is the world's leading business software review platform that leverages its more than 23,000 user reviews to drive better purchasing decisions. Technology buyers, investors, and analysts use the site to compare and select the best software based on peer reviews and synthesized social data. Co-founded by the founder and former executives from SaaS leader BigMachines and backed by more than $4.5 million in capital, G2 Crowd aims to bring authenticity and transparency to business technology research. For more information, go to G2Crowd.com.
SOURCE G2 Crowd
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