We LOVE online meeting tools. They are the *chef’s kiss* of turning dull meetings into supercharged pockets of awesome productivity. Whether you are in the planning stages of a huge project, or just checking in with everybody along the way – making sure your team and colleagues are on the same page is the recipe for success. Meeting tools help support you on that path!
Here at tl;dv, we love virtual meeting tools so much that we not only created one, but also wish to share with you some of our other absolute favourites. Our own free Zoom meeting recorder and Google Meet Chrome extension will empower you to record, transcribe, timestamp, edit, share, integrate and download any call. We could brag all day about how it’s won awards or is used by over half a million remote workers all over the world – but let’s focus, instead, on some other awesome meeting tools that’ll take your team work to the next level.
Some of these tools are great as standalones, offering a range of functionality and perks, while others are intended to be used in conjunction with other platforms or softwares (integrations, baby!). So – read on for 13 fantastic virtual meeting tools that are sure to help you and your organization smash the hell out of your goals.
Tools To Make Meetings Easier To Organise
Calendly
So long, schedule tennis! There’s one thing that can kill productivity before a meeting even starts, it’s coordinating schedules. 💀
With Calendly, all participants connect their calendars to the app and then choose time slots that work for them. It really is that simple.
People can book onto your calendar with ease. Added bonus? You can even pop a link in your email schedule to speak with people outside your organization, AND it integrates with Google Meet and Zoom. Beautiful!
Calendly pricing starts at $0/month for the Basic plan and goes up to $12/user/month for the Premium plan.
GREAT FOR
- Allowing people to book meetings with you
- Creating different “types” of events
- Creating solid boundaries
NOT FOR
- People who never keep their calendar up-to-date
- Those who love lots of customization options
- People who have multiple campaigns and brands to manage
Undock
If you fancy something a little more ‘something-something’ than Calendly then check out Undock.
Complete with AI-powered predictive scheduling with guests, this app looks at everybody’s calendar, works it all out and then suggests times that work for everybody. Goodbye, decision fatigue! Hello seamless organization!
With its simple monochrome user interface, it’s also pretty strong at protecting that all-important boundary setting with your schedule.
Pricing for Undock starts with a free tier and then raises to $10/month/user.
GREAT FOR
- Synching with lots and lots of different people
- Time poor facilitators
People who love integration (works with Slack, Twitter, Linkedin and lots of other mobile apps) - You can hover over text to see if that time works for you
NOT FOR
- If you are really busy, it can be hard to “find” time
- Relies on people keeping their calendars up-to-date
- Not as well known as other options
Tools For Making Meetings More Productive
Hugo
Are you the kind of person who leaves everything to the last minute and finds prepping is a panicked afterthought? Then rejoice, Hugo is here to turn you into a super-organized meeting ninja.
Simply choose what kind of meeting you want to have and Hugo will give you a range of templates and tips to make sure your meeting is as effective as possible. Agendas from top companies, talking points, all the good stuff. That way, even if you’re not the most prepared person in the world, you can still make sure your meetings are valuable for everyone involved.
It’s the ultimate meeting #cheatsheet!
Hugo starts with a free tiering, graduating to $6/per user per month up on an annual plan.
GREAT FOR
- If you’re not the most organized person in the world
- Wanting to make sure your meetings are valuable
- Emulating the big leagues
NOT FOR
- Search can be a bit limited
- Teams over 25 people can get quite pricey
- More unique business models
tl;dv
Oh! Fancy seeing you here… well, of course, it would be criminal not to include tl;dv in this stellar lineup. I mean, in our humble opinion, you won’t find a better online meeting tool for the price of exactly $0.
In case you didn’t know, tl;dv is an online meeting software designed to make your meetings more effective, less frequent, and super easy to revisit. Integrating seamlessly into Google Meet and Zoom, the tool lets you record, transcribe, highlight, and tag colleagues throughout the call.
No idea is ever forgotten, and follow-up is faster than ever thanks to the handy timestamps. Sharing full recordings or edited clip is easy-peasy via your online tl;dv meetings library. That’s also where you can search on a keyword to locate specific meeting moments.
Wait – we mentioned it’s free right?
Oh, and there are tons of other productivity-powering features you can unlock when you upgrade. then pricing for tl;dv starts at $20/user per month on an annual plan.
GREAT FOR
- Asynchronous and remote teams
- Recording Google Meet for free
- Recording Zoom for free
- Creating video snippets after the event
- Taking notes and creating highlights
- Democratizing meeting notes
- Sharing call moments more effectively
- Catching up on past meetings quickly
NOT FOR
- People who use Microsoft Teams (at least, for now!)
- Anyone who wants ‘automatic note-taking’ (like an AI bot that takes your meeting minutes)
Tools To Make Meetings Visually Awesome
Sketchboard
If you’re looking to take your online meetings up a notch, why not give Sketchboard a try? This online whiteboarding tool has been designed with remote teams in mind and offers a range of features to make online collaboration easier.
Users can share ideas, draw diagrams, and even give presentations, all in one place. The feel is very organic and allows for easy freehand, different backdrops and great integration with Microsoft Teams, Slack, GitHub, Webex and Google Drive.
Pricing for Sketchboard starts at $8/user per month on a monthly basis and $9/user per month for teams over 5.
GREAT FOR
- Remote teams
- Collaboration between different departments in a simple way
- Visual thinkers
NOT FOR
- If you’re not into visuals
People who prefer more traditional meeting formats - Those who want a more “hands-on” experience
Big data
Miro
Another wonderfully visual online meeting tool is Miro. Miro is an online whiteboarding tool that helps teams collaborate on projects in real-time using visual aids and great big colored sticky notes.
It’s great for quickly jotting down ideas, mind map, and even create Gantt charts to help plan out your project timeline. If you are all about agile workflows (Oh, yeah!) Miro will deliver the goods on getting those down.
Pricing for Miro starts at $8/user per month on an annual plan
GREAT FOR
- Offering different views such as Kanban and roadmaps
- Easy peasy templates for the less visual teams
- Agile workflows
NOT FOR
- Large teams on a budget, those user liceneses can stack up quite quickly
- It can be tricky to organize past boards
Lucid Chart
If you love a workflow and a tasty diagram you’re going to be all over Lucid Chart, and its partner app LucidSpark. It’s an online diagramming tool that helps teams visualize complex processes, ideas, and systems in just a few clicks. With LucidChart, you can create flowcharts, org charts, wireframes, and more.
With great real-time collaboration features, it makes working on projects with remote team members a even easier, and the charts are available for easy reference after the call, It’s really great for creating process documentation for onboarding and mapping out flowcharts for omnichannel marketing ecosystems.
Pricing for LucidChart starts at $12/user per month on an annual plan.
GREAT FOR
- Process mapping made easy
- Making quick diagrams
- Explaining complex processes in a way that makes them easier to understand
- Flowcharts that are as fun as waterslides
NOT FOR
- No Gantt chart option
Super complex charts on a free account (it’s limited to 60 items) - The free option can feel a touch restrictive overall
- You’ll need to level up to the Team Bundle for commenting and revisions
Bluescape
If you work in a visual environment and images are your jam, then Bluescape is the meeting tool for you. With Bluescape, you can quickly and easily create visualizations of your ideas using a whole heap of online image libraries like Getty Images, Unsplash and even Google. The Popsync image search allows you to create mini moodboards and work collaboratively together. Perfect for creating concepts and sparking creativity with even the most non-visual teams.
Pricing for Bluescape starts at $10/user per month on an annual plan.
GOOD FOR
- Visual thinkers
- Creative projects
- Image junkies
- Has its own video meeting software built in
NOT FOR
- Technophobes – It can be a bit of a learning curve
- No integration for animated GIFs
- Native video meeting software can be a touch limited compared to Zoom, Google Meet, etc
Tools To Make Meetings More Collaborative
Talk Time
Have you ever had a colleague that hijacks meetings? Like, they don’t mean to but after 45 minutes of one person droning on, or jumping all over other people’s points it can be a little… tiresome.
Talk Time is a Google Meet extension that measures how much each individual participant speaks during a call. While it’s not there to call anybody out, it’s a great way to spot if participants are struggling to get their voice heard, and ensure that an inclusive and cohesive conversation is being conducted.
When used in conjunction with other tools, it’s a great way of gaining metrics to help conduct more meaningful meetings with a varied point of view.
It’s also completely free!
GREAT FOR
- Encouraging all voices to be heard
- Identifying areas of engagement improvement
- Increasing productivity
- Working out who the Chatty Kathys are
NOT FOR
- Anybody who doesn’t use Google Meet
- Creative flow can get stilted if people are aware of their ‘talk time’
Menti
Menti, or to use its full name Mentimeter, helps teams gather insights and ideas from all team members, no matter where they are in the world. With Menti, you can quickly and easily create surveys, polls, and quizzes.
Perhaps you want to float an idea and get honest feedback, or just want to know what the team ate for their breakfast. Just create a poll and away you go.
Pricing for Menti starts at $0/month for the free tier and then raises to $11.99/month, billed annually, on the paid plan.
GOOD FOR
- Getting insights and ideas from remote team members
- Creating surveys, polls, and quizzes
- Great set of templates to get you started
- Brainstorming ideas with your team
NOT FOR
- Detailed data analysis.
Automated reporting as it only offers manual reporting - Menti’s survey builder can be a bit limited
Aha Slides
Aha Slides is way more than just a polling tool, I mean you can create fun spinning wheels a la Wheel of Fortune! With Aha Slides you can create fun interactive quizzes to make sure everybody is awake, and even use Aha Slides to run an interactive Q&A for larger teams.
If you’re finding that meetings have been getting a bit stale and people are starting to switch their cameras off, Aha Slides offers a chance to change up the format and try something new to get your team talking. Oh, and if you’re stuck for a Christmas Party activity, it makes a mean interactive quiz!
Aha Slides costs nothing for up to 7 participants, $14.95/month for the Essentials plan, which gives you access to all of the features, or $32.95/month for the Plus plan.
GOOD FOR
- Interactive presentations
- Gamification
- Making sure everyone is awake during your meeting
- Budget conscious teams
NOT FOR
- If you’re not into fun and games
- Super serious stakeholder sessions
- Interactive collaborative presenting
Tools That Offer A Range of Functionality
DropBox Paper
You might be familiar with Dropbox as a cloud storage solution, but did you know that they also have an online meeting tool? Dropbox Paper is a versatile online collaboration tool that can be used for everything from taking notes to creating presentations. With Paper, you can real-time edit documents and if you need some inspiration, there’s even a library of templates to get you started.
Dropbox Paper doesn’t cost anything additional, other than your regular Dropbox account fees for storage. Plans with Dropbox for business start at around $15/user a month.
GOOD FOR
- Flexible collaboration
- Multiple editors at the same time
- Content creation
- Working within the
- Dropbox ecosystem
NOT FOR
- If you’re looking for a dedicated online meeting tool
- Handling large amount of data and complex projects
- Formatting at a grand scale
Fellow
If you’re looking for an online meeting tool that creates a centralized place for all your internal and external communications then Fellow could be the smart choice.
Kind of like an internal CRM, with Fellow, you can create a hub of organization for all your teams’ meetings, agendas and even liaise with external parties. Create templates for 1:1 sessions, track responses and build to-dos and OKR documents. It’s also brilliant for creating habits and automating regular meetings (never forget a check-in session again!)
Pricing for Fellow starts at a free package for up to 10 people, moving up to $9/user per month on a monthly plan.
GOOD FOR
- Creating lists of action items to joyfully tick off
- Getting and giving feedback
- Looping in with other tools such as Slack,
- Asana and Zoom
- Creating good internal habits
NOT FOR
- Adding flair and pizazz into your presentations
- You’ll need to upgrade for the full shebang of features
- Some of the functionality isn’t super intuitive
Virtual Meeting Tools Are A Game-Changer
Work meetings no longer have to be long, boring drone fests. With the abundance of continously improving virtual meeting tools, there’s no excuse for tedious Zoom or Google Meet calls. Leveraging great interactive apps can help boost creativity, collaborative thinking and engagement (even if the subject matter itself isn’t riveting)!
Do you have a favourite online meeting tool that didn’t make it onto this list? Let us know – we love tips on productivity and meetings software! And don’t forget to check out tl;dv in the meanwhile (it’s free!).
