The idea of a web conference is to provide the users involved, with a seamless interactive atmosphere and share data with multiple individuals based at different geo locations. There are many online conferencing solutions in the market today, we will compare are review the three most popular ones DimDim, WebEx and GoToMeeting.
All three services provide a good interface to work on for the potential customers. They allow for an interaction between the concerned individuals by virtue of their product model which enables people to share their desktop workspace, presentations and even make changes to the presentations in full view of the people involved in the conference. They allow registered users to create and invite people to a conference by just including their email addresses. The recipients on their part have to just click on the link provided in the email they receive to join a particular conference. Once a conference is started, the organizer along with the attendees can share files, desktops and even work on a particular document dynamically. The control of the conference can be shifted to one of the attendees, such that they could continue the presentation. With just a click of a button, desktops can be shared and unshared at will.
Here is a closer look on these service providers:
Webex:
Webex is a popular tool for web conferencing which has been acquired by CISCO. It can be used for a wide range of purposes such as web meetings, conducting training sessions, for IT support among others. It also provides various features such as recording of the conferences. Webex provides these services at a cost of $59 per month wherein the client can arrange such net meetings with up to 25 people at a time. The payment plans also involve cheaper annual plans and prepaid plans as well. They also have a “anytime commitment cancel” system which enables users to cancel the services.
GoToMeeting:
GoToMeeting is another popular web conferencing tool. It also provides a secure way to share desktops and workspaces between the organizer and the attendees. Apart from the basic version, GoToMeeting has more advanced versions which include Webinar services which allows the organizer to conduct Webinar sessions with up to 1,000 attendees. The basic version of GoToMeeting is priced at $49 per month with options to save up to 20% on annual payment schemes.
DimDim:
DimDim is a popular, open source alternative to WebEx and GoToMeeting. Since DimDim is open source, it is free to use for up to 20 members. DimDim’s impressive list of features includes the ability to create a whiteboard where ideas can be shared among the attendees. DimDim has an option to buy a Pro version which is priced at $19 per month which enables unlimited meetings and other pro features for up to 50 people. The pro features include Webinar widget which allows the organizer to share meetings over popular third party websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
My Favorite:
Effectively, all three service providers cater to the needs of the customers and provide similar features. Having worked on all, I would say GoToMeeting is the best of the three. The user interface is quite intuitive and there is no learning involved at all. DimDim, is cost effective as compared to the others as it is an open source initiative, you might want to go with it in case of budget constraints. Though DimDim also offers a slick UI but the constraint of putting PPT over their servers before presentation is quite restrictive. As far as WebEx goes, I didn’t really find any point why a small-medium business would go with WebEx when GoToMeeting provides all the features at a comparatively lower price.
Ankur Jain is a Software Engineer in Test Automation. After a 5 years stint with Accenture and Oracle, he started his eLearning company. A long-time blogger and proud owner of the "Learn" series of websites. 
GoMeetNow http://www.gomeetnow.com
They have flexible licenses. For example, if you need to host a large meeting today, you could scale your licenses to 100 people. When you finish, you could switch back to 1.
The more cheaper is get one AMI in Amazon of BigBlueButton from the user “gineta” in chamilo forums
http://chamilo.org/en/forum you get your own server in amazon in 5 minutes not shares not networks problems
Well, all of the mentioned web-meeting tools is good and worth its money. However, you may not be looking for that functional complexity that they offer; you may just need to share some JPEG pictures and PowerPoint presentation while holding a conference call. In my opinion, DOXWOX (http://doxwox.com) solves that problem perfectly. And it is free.
Having used both DimDim and Webex, my opinion is that Webex is superior. The video is better and, more importantly, the audio is much better than DD. We’ve used DD for the past year and people are always complaining of choppy sound, sound cutting in and out, poor quality,etc.
When we first tried Webex one of the main feedback comments was that the sound/audio was so much better.
We’ve not tried GotoMeeting, but IF the user’s comment above is accurate (that it does NOT provide video) then it lacks a huge component and is not, as the article’s author states, “providing all the features at a comparatively lower price.”
GoToMeeting is absolutely worthless here: They *intentionally* refuse to work on Linux, Unix, Solaris, BSD or any other non-win, non-mac systems. They don’t even check to see if you have the required components, they simply kick users out as soon as they detect another operating system. There is not faster way to offend prospects!
I would like to know if this is still the case. I am currently deciding between Dimdim and Gotomeeting. The money is important but not as much as the functioning of the product. Any insight would be appreciated.
No change…almost anyone except GoToMeeting – GoToWebinar (same company) will work with any operating system:
* dimdim
* webex
* fuzemeeting
* yugma
* bigbluebutton
* MegaMeeting
DimDim is a very safe choice, both for interoperability & price.
Yugma looks interesting too, but I’ve never personally used it.
I go with remote control software from Proxy Networks, personally. I find real value in recording our conferences and presentations, and Proxy’s product allows us to do that. I am not sure if these other products offer this, but I have found a really quality solution with PN.
GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar doesn’t have any video output compared to WebEx or DimDim.
For Web Conferencing, I think it is quite important.
I thought you could consider RHUB TurboMeeting to collaborate with people anytime. It is on-premise hardware; so, you have the security of your own firewall unlike online hosted solutions. It allows remote access to up to 1000 PCs. Other prominent features include instant and faster remote control, remote rebooting, auto reconnection, firewall and proxy-compliance, file transfer/sharing, chat, and recording capabilities, to name a few. Moreover, unlike hosted solutions, monthly fees are not required. Once you pay for the appliance, you own it.
Another option that does all of these and more is Glance.net. The simplicity of Glance makes these options look as simple as putting together a model car in the dark. One flat-rate price, and you can try it for free for a week at glance.net. It has seamless remote control, no downloads, PC/Mac compatibility, and is easy enough that Grandma can use it (believe me, I’ve done it).
Scott, Would you mind elaborating more on Glance? Any advantage over GoToMeeting? I see cost wise both are just the same.
Thanks for adding Dimdim to your comparison. I appreciate the feedback about not being able to upload PPT files before the meeting. Our customers have been clear they need this so we are working to provide a document library that can be shared among your meetings.
Also, we now encrypt desktop sharing sessions. Ensuring you a secure way to share your desktop and workspaces, even in your unlimited free web meetings.
Thanks!
-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager
Dimdim Web Conferencing
e: [email protected]
twitter: @dimdim
facebook: dimdim.com/facebook
Experience the Dimdim Live Webinar! Register at:
http://www.dimdim.com/aboutus/events.html
@Kevin: Thanks for your comment. Appreciate DimDim is deeply involved with social world and quick to accept feedback.
My questions to you is why do you want to go with ‘document library’ at all? I guess that would mean putting documents to be shared in some centralized place. Why can’t we have features like GoToMeeting. It’s just so easy to use, there is no learning curve involved at all.
Banckle Online Meeting is another perfect DimDim alternative and offers the same set of web and video conferencing, webinars and documents + screen sharing features. Users can evaluate it for 1 complete year without paying a single penny.
You should also read this feature comparison between Banckle Online Meeting and other web conferencing tools to have a head-to head features analysis in one shot.