Note: This article was originally written at the end of 2015.
Zoom has had significant UI + feature updates since then. If you’re curious, schedule in your free demo right now to see it in the flesh!
We get it: You love your free Zoom meetings. We’ve loaded them with all the collaboration essentials from video conferencing to screen sharing to group messaging. Aren’t we just so nice?
But, there comes a time when you should step back and consider moving up to the USD$14.99 a month Pro service.
“But why?” you say, hugging your Basic Zoom service close. Let us give you a few reasons.
Unlimited Group Meeting Minutes
With your Zoom Basic service, you get unlimited meetings, with unlimited minutes for one-to-one meetings. But if you have a group – 3 to 50 video participants – your meeting cuts out after 40 minutes. So, if you’re having a super important call with, for example, your sales team, a key customer, and your tech support team, you probably don’t want that meeting to time out just as you were starting to resolve the customer’s issue. To be safe and appear totally professional, it would be best to put up the $14.99 for a Pro account. It’s worth it!
Advanced Features
- Reporting: Pro users get daily and usage reports on their account, including reports on new users, meetings, participants, and meeting minutes.Zoom Pro is not just about unlimited minutes. There are several other features that come with Zoom Pro:
- Custom Personal Meeting ID: Your personal meeting ID (PMI) is assigned to you automatically as a permanent virtual room. You can start it at anytime on-the-fly or schedule it for a future use. If you have a Pro plan, you can customize your PMI with any ten digits you want that haven’t already been taken by someone else. We recommend using your phone number – that makes it easier to remember.
- Assign Scheduler: Now your assistant or anyone else you designate can schedule your meetings for you.
Access to Add-Ons
Zoom offers a variety of add-on features that give you greater flexibility and reach for your meetings:
- Zoom Rooms: Our software-based conference room system that runs on PC, Mac OS, and iOS + Android for the controller.
- Zoom Video Webinar: Up to 50 panelists can present on video and screen share with up to 10,000 viewers.
- Join by H.323/SIP room system: Bring traditional H.323 and SIP conference room systems into your Zoom cloud video conferences with our Room Connector.
- Premium Audio: Zoom offers free global dial-in (toll applies) numbers. You can also subscribe to Premium Audio rates for toll-free, premium dial-in, or call-out numbers.
Sound like some pretty great options, huh? Well, the first thing you have to do is upgrade to a Pro account, then you can purchase any of these add-ons. You can’t do that with your Basic account!
Time to upgrade?
Ready to bring your business to the cutting-edge with Zoom Pro?
This article was written by Zoom, and originally appeared here.
