What is online meeting software?
Online meeting software lets people meet over video, audio and chat without being in the same room. You start or schedule a meeting, share a link, and everyone joins from a laptop or a phone. That is the whole idea, and almost every tool does it.
Key takeaways
- The video part is the easy part. What separates online meeting software is how it treats guests, how it copes with big calls, and what it leaves behind once the call ends.
- A guest who has to create an account will often just not join. Check that outside people can join from a link, on a phone, without signing up.
- A recording nobody can search is a recording nobody watches. Look for transcripts, chapters and a place where the recording lives next to the meeting it belongs to.
So why does choosing one still feel hard? Because the basics are no longer the point. Your team already knows how to join a call. The questions that matter now are about the edges: the customer who has never heard of your tool, the all-hands with hundreds of people, and the decision someone needs to look up three weeks later.
Meetings, webinars and calls are not the same thing
A meeting is a conversation where most people can speak. A webinar is one or a few people presenting to many. A plain call is usually voice only. Many products blur the three. If you mostly run presentations, read our piece on webinar software for internal meetings. If you mostly need booking and invitations, see meeting scheduling software.
What to check before you choose
Feature lists for online meeting tools look almost identical. These checks separate the ones that hold up in daily use.
| Check | Why it matters | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Instant and scheduled meetings | Some calls are planned, many are not | Start one in a click, or book one ahead |
| Join by link | People should not need a manual to get in | One link, works in a browser |
| Guest access | Customers and candidates are not on your payroll | No account needed to join |
| In-call chat | Links and notes need somewhere to go | Chat inside the call, not in a second app |
| Screen share and annotation | Showing beats describing | Share a window, let others mark it up |
| Backgrounds | Not everyone works from a tidy room | Blur or a custom image, built in |
| Mobile apps | People join from a car park or a train | Real iOS and Android apps |
If screen sharing is a big part of your day, we go deeper in screen sharing software.
Guests and big calls
Make it easy for people outside your company
Picture a sales call with a prospect who is already a bit hesitant. You send the link. They click, and the tool asks them to create an account and download an app. Some will do it. Many will not, and the meeting starts ten minutes late or never. Guests should be able to click and join. Nothing else.
Check the ceiling, not just the average call
Most calls have five or six people. But the call that matters for your choice is the biggest one you run: the quarterly all-hands, the training for a whole region, the customer briefing. Look at the participant limit and at the maximum length. A tool that stops after an hour or caps out at a hundred people will bite you at the worst moment.
What happens after the call
Most of the value of a meeting is decided after it ends. Somebody has to remember what was agreed. In many teams that somebody is whoever takes notes, which means one person misses half the conversation.
- Recordings. Can the call be recorded automatically, so nobody has to remember to press the button?
- Transcripts. A full text of the call lets you search for a name or a number instead of scrubbing through video.
- Chapters and speaker insights. A long recording is easier to use when it is split into topics and shows who spoke when.
- Searchable history. Can you find last month's call without asking three people where it went?
- A home for the recording. A recording that lives next to the calendar event it came from is easier to find than one in a folder nobody remembers.
We cover the notes side in meeting transcription software. If your team is trying to cut the number of live calls altogether, asynchronous communication is worth a read.
How WeldMeet handles it
WeldMeet is the video meetings app in WeldSuite, and its tagline is simple: meetings that write themselves up. You can start a meeting instantly or schedule one, and share a link. Guests need no account to join. Inside the call you get chat, screen share with annotation, and custom or blurred backgrounds. Calls support up to 1,000 participants and can run up to 24 hours, and there are iOS and Android apps.
After the call, recordings land in WeldCalendar. You get automatic chapters, speaker insights, full transcripts and a searchable history, so the answer to "what did we decide?" is a search away.
WeldMeet is one of the twelve apps in WeldSuite, a complete software suite for mid-market and enterprise teams, priced per user per month. Every plan includes all twelve apps, WeldAgent among them. There is a free plan for one user. Business costs $49 a month, or $42 per user per month billed annually, for up to ten seats. Scale costs $69 a month, or $59 per user per month annually, for eleven seats and up. Enterprise is custom, with SSO, SAML and a 99.999% uptime SLA.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Web conferencing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_conferencing
- Wikipedia: Videotelephony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotelephony
Frequently asked questions
What is online meeting software?
It is software that lets people meet over video, audio and chat from different places. You start or schedule a meeting, share a link, and people join from a computer or phone. Better tools add guest access, recordings and transcripts.
Do guests need an account to join an online meeting?
It depends on the tool. Many ask guests to sign up or install an app, which puts people off. In WeldMeet, guests join from a shared link and need no account.
How many people can join an online meeting?
Limits vary a lot, and free tiers of many tools cap meetings by size and length. WeldMeet supports up to 1,000 participants and calls of up to 24 hours.
Can online meetings be recorded and searched?
Yes, with the right tool. Look for automatic recording, full transcripts, chapters and a searchable history. In WeldMeet, recordings land in WeldCalendar next to the event.
What is the difference between a meeting and a webinar?
In a meeting, most people can speak and take part. In a webinar, a few people present to a larger audience. Some products cover both, others do only one well.
See it all work together
WeldSuite brings CRM, helpdesk, accounting, mail, projects and more into one connected platform. Change something once and it shows up everywhere.
Keep reading
Meeting Transcription Software: What It Actually Saves You
Video calls are a commodity now. What separates meeting transcription software that earns its keep from one more subscription is what happens to the words after the call ends.
CommunicationScreen Sharing Software: What to Check Before You Buy
Anyone can share a screen on a call. The harder questions are who else can see it, whether they can draw on it, and where the recording goes afterward. Here is what real screen sharing software should do.
CommunicationWhat Is Meeting Scheduling Software? A Guide for Growing Teams
Meeting scheduling software replaces the email back and forth of finding a time with a booking link that reads your real availability. Here is what it is, what it manages, and how to choose the right one.
CommunicationWebinar Software for Internal Meetings: What Actually Matters
Most webinar software is built to sell tickets and capture leads. If what you actually need is a way to get the whole company into one call for a town hall or a training session, the shopping list looks different.