How to Choose a Video Conferencing Tool
A guide to selecting the right video meeting platform for your startup. Covers meeting quality, recording features, async video options, and how to balance synchronous meetings with async communication.
Key Decision Criteria
Meeting Duration and Participant Limits
High PriorityGoogle Meet allows 60-minute meetings for free (up to 100 participants). Zoom's free tier limits group meetings to 40 minutes. For startups running regular standups and client calls, these limits matter. Paid tiers remove restrictions — Zoom Pro is $13.33/month, Google Meet is included with Workspace at $7/user/month.
Recording and Transcription
High PriorityMeeting recordings are essential for distributed teams. Zoom and Google Meet include cloud recording on paid plans. Loom takes a different approach — it's designed for async video messages rather than live meetings, letting you replace many meetings entirely.
Integration with Existing Tools
Medium PriorityIf you're already on Google Workspace, Google Meet is built into Calendar and Gmail. Zoom integrates broadly but requires a separate account and app. Around focuses on lightweight, always-on meetings that live in your dock. Choose the tool that fits your existing workflow, not the one with the most features.
Questions to Ask Yourself
How many hours per week does your team spend in synchronous meetings?
Under 5 hours/week: Google Meet's free tier or Zoom's free tier is plenty — don't pay for a tool you barely use. 5-15 hours/week: Invest in a paid plan for unlimited meeting length and recording. Over 15 hours/week: You have a meeting culture problem. Consider adding Loom for async video to replace status updates and demos that don't need to be live.
Do you run meetings with external participants (clients, investors, candidates)?
If external meetings are frequent, reliability and professionalism matter. Zoom is the most universally recognized — everyone knows how to join a Zoom call. Google Meet works well if the other party uses Google. Around is great internally but less familiar to external participants.
Is your team in the same timezone or distributed globally?
Same timezone: Live meetings are easy to schedule — pick any tool that handles your volume. Distributed: Async-first communication becomes critical. Loom for recorded updates, combined with Zoom or Google Meet for the meetings that truly need to be live, reduces timezone pain significantly.
Red Flags to Watch For
Paying for Zoom Pro when your team already has Google Workspace
Google Meet is included in every Google Workspace plan. Unless you need Zoom-specific features like breakout rooms for large workshops or Zoom Webinars for events, you're paying twice for the same core functionality. Evaluate what Google Meet can't do before adding another subscription.
Recording every meeting without a system to organize and surface recordings
Unlimited cloud recording sounds great until you have 500 untagged recordings nobody will ever watch. If you're recording meetings, invest 2 minutes to title them properly and store them in a shared workspace. Tools like Loom make this easier with built-in organization and sharing.
