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The Best Conference Call Services of 2020

Conference calls are a necessary part of the corporate world. Whether you are a small business or a Fortune 500 company, every company can benefit from this service. But which conference call service company is right for your company? We have done all the leg work to find out which service is best for your company’s needs. In our simple and straight forward charts we show you the necessary categories you should take into consideration and grade them on the conference call service companies product.

Last Updated:
CompanyRankingRatingPriceDescription
Grasshopper1st9.8 out of 10$12.00 Per Month

Grasshopper Review

A stellar VoIP solution for businesses of any size thanks to its scalability, it offers toll free and local numbers, company caller ID and many more.Full Grasshopper Review »
GotoMeeting2nd9.6 out of 10Free

GotoMeeting Review

This conference call service offers ease of use, screen sharing, HD video, call recording, and even a handy mobile app for meetings on the go!Full GotoMeeting Review »

Skype

3rd9.4 out of 10Free

Skype Review

Audio and video conferencing, call forwarding, caller ID, screen sharing, and more, make up one of the best platforms out there today.Full Skype Review »

UberConference

4th9.2 out of 10Free

UberConference Review

A great conferencing call service that offers social media and mobile integration, as well as features such as file sharing, recording and more.Full UberConference Review »

InterCall

5th8.8 out of 10$19.00 Per Month

InterCall Review

From a browser plugin, to Google Calendar integration, custom rooms, scheduling and beyond, this service takes conference calls to new places.Full InterCall Review »

Paltalk

6th9.4 out of 10Free

Paltalk Review

A free, multi-platform audio/video conferencing tool that offers a wide network with tons of chatrooms, group chat, mobile app, and more.Full Paltalk Review »

Join.Me

7th8.6 out of 10Free

Join.Me Review

A solid conference call service that comes with some unique features in two, like a mobile whiteboard, screen sharing, one-click scheduling and more.Full Join.Me Review »

Tokbox

8th8.4 out of 10$50.00 Per Month

Tokbox Review

A solid conference call service thanks to its various features like mutli-platform capability, easy voice and video calls, screen sharing, and more.Full Tokbox Review »

FreeConferenceCall

9th8.3 out of 10Free

FreeConferenceCall Review

A free conference call service that, surprisingly, provides a lot of features -- from international calls, to recording, screen sharing, and more.Full FreeConferenceCall Review »

FreeConferencePro

10th8.2 out of 10Free

FreeConferencePro Review

A simple, yet solid free conference call service that offers quite a lot for something that costs nothing -- call recording, 24/7 access, and more.Full FreeConferencePro Review »
Also, here are some important things we looked at for our rankings.

Rules for Effective Conference Calls

With the every expanding global market, getting everyone into a single room has become near impossible. If you have a global company it be absolutely impossible. The next best thing is the conference call. Modernly there are many variations of the “conference call.” Whether it is on video with skype or Google Hangouts or by landline, conference calls be very effective if you follow these simple rules.

Avoid Using Cellphones

No cellphones. Too many things can go wrong if your entire team is using cellphones. Dead or dying batteries, loss reception or accidental hang-ups are just some of the possible problems that you might have with a cellphone. Try to stick to landlines or conference call hardware.

Be Prepared

One of the worst problems of the ineffective conference call. When you start a conference call make sure that you are ready to go. If you have material that needs to be sent out to team members take care of that immediately before the conference call starts. You need to start the call with a lot of energy and stay strong through the whole call to maintain your team’s attention. If you break to find files or look at figures, there is a very good chance that your team will stop paying attention.

No Slides!

Slides with walls of text can be extremely boring. It is even worse if you have someone read the walls of text while on the conference call. So try to avoid slide use when you can. If you can’t avoid using slides then send them immediately before the conference call. Also try to only send relevant slides or slide summaries to teammates after the meeting. You don’t want team members believing they can just read the slides later and get the full presentation. In the end, less is more. Have a very minimalistic approach when it comes to the number of slides you use in a presentation. This means relevant data only.

Start On Time

Starting on time should be a give in. There shouldn’t be any reason that you cannot start your meeting on time when you have planned the date. Conference calls usually are already long and your team members have important business to take care of. Also make sure the moderator logins in early so you don’t have any problems when the meeting starts.

Set Time Limits

Let your team members know how long the meeting is going to last. If you don’t know exactly when the meeting will end try to let your team members know what topics you will be going over. This should give them an estimated amount of time. Please try to keep your conference call meetings short. If they go too long you will lose the attention and the energy of the people involved.

Don’t Multitask

We have all be tempted by the conference call gods to multitask while we are on calls. Close down your e-mails and other work related items. If you are bored during the call and are not contributing, maybe you shouldn’t be on the call. Maybe your time would be better spent elsewhere. If you feel yourself starting to feel bored, stretch your legs a bit, sit in your chair and lean forward a little bit. Understand that everything on the call should be relevant.

Get Everyone Involved

Getting everyone involved in the call will help keep the energy levels high. When prepping for the call ensure that all members of the call are there for a purpose. Have everyone contribute to the call and avoid talking at your team. Give your team an equal opportunity to participate. If there are members who are not participating try to ask them questions in order to get them involved.

Stay Away From Broad Questions

Questions like “What do you guys think?” and “Do you guys have any questions?” are terrible questions to ask on a conference call. Instead you should try to get everyone involved by asking specific team members on the call what they think about a topic. General and overbroad questions often lead to dead air and silence because everyone will want to get off the call. So if you think a specific topic was not covered enough or you would like to dive in a little deeper direct a leading question to a person on the conference call.

Take Charge

Many times on a conference call people can be distracted because there is no leader. Start the call of strong and take charge. This will grab everyone’s attention so they understand the conference all is important.

End Effectively

Ending effectively is often one of the most important aspects of the conference call. You want to send the people away with a sense of purpose so they feel their time wasn’t wasted. Inform them of when the minutes of the meeting will be arriving and let them know of any future calls.
Follow these rules and your conference calls will be extremely effective in getting your message across. You fill find that there will be less confusion after the calls and less time wasted.

6 Comments

    • Shafiq
    •  · 

    Hi,
    great article.
    Besides Freeconferencecall/FreeconferencecallHD, do any of them offer international dial-in numbers? I know UberConference does but only on their paid plan but want to try it first before paying.
    With Freeconferencecall, I’m often getting a buzzing noise (never used to get that) but it could just be one of my regular participants that is causing this.

    Reply

    • Hi Shafiq,

      As far as our top list goes, the ones you mentioned are the ones that can cater to your needs. Also, you may be right, the buzzing noise you hear when using Freeconferencecall might be from one of your participants. You can try isolating the issue by muting participants one at a time. Once you identify which participant the sound is coming from, ask him/her to turn off or move any electronic devices near their phone’s receiver. Hope that helps! 🙂

      Reply

  • Another very good conference call service which you may try is R-HUB web conferencing servers. It is an on premise solution which provides 6 real time collaboration applications in one box.

    Reply
      • Janus Jarapa ➦ Prasun Bose
      •  · 

      Thanks for the suggestion, Prasun! We’ll check it out and see if it fits our list. 🙂

      Reply
    • Yaron
    •  · 

    Check QCONF. Best price, great audio. I think this is the best business solution for online meeting.

    Reply

    • Hi Yaron,

      We will look into it and see if it fits our list. Thanks for the heads up! 🙂

      Reply