Is Zoom Better Than Facetime?

Over the last two years, the work from the home norm has become growingly famous. New gadgets and software updates nowadays also revolve around improving our efficiency and productivity while maintaining good internal and external communications for business.

While working from home, staying connected to your students/ teams/ groups could usually get difficult. Video calling apps make it easier, but choosing the right one can get tricky with a huge number of such apps. Zoom and FaceTime are two of the most popular online video conferencing apps, but which one is right for you? Many users also compare Zoom with Skype and look at comparisons for Google Meet vs. Skype and even consider the differences between Zoom and Google Meet.

We've collected details about Zoom vs. FaceTime to help you choose the best app.

Although there are numerous factors that go into choosing the best video conferencing app, a user must consider features, pricing, and services between the apps. They are elements like how many people can enter the meeting, their devices, and the app's features. Pricing is also a key feature that impacts your app choice according to your budget. 

Zoom

Zoom is an easy-to-use app with a simple setup that incorporates simple online meetings, video calls, and group messaging in a single cloud-based platform. It's best to host webinars, video meetings, teach online classes, conduct online training, video demonstrations, and hold virtual meetings. 

It has been created to hold up to 100 interactive participants or business users for a free plan and 1000 participants at the same time for more detailed meetings with additional features on a paid package. Zoom webinars can allow up to 10,000 view-only participants and extend to a maximum of 50,000 on request.

According to Forbes, “Zoom dominates the global online market share and ranks No. 1 in 44 countries and compared to rivals, Zoom's market share soared from 22.3% in 2019 to 48.7% in 2020."

Apple FaceTime

Apple FaceTime is a popular video chat app among IOS users. It is made for face-to-face conversations between people using mobile devices such as iPod touch, Mac computer, iPad, or iPhone. This app is ideal for one-to-one and virtual business meetings. Around 32 interactive participants can be invited for a group FaceTime call. 

If you are an iPhone user, you might be familiar with FaceTime to get on video calls with your friends or family. FaceTime has a very user-friendly interface, but this app reaches its limits when you want it for more professional purposes.

1.     Device Compatibility

FaceTime's greatest limitation is that it is only compatible with Apple devices. This makes it simple to choose between the Zoom vs. FaceTime dilemma. For non-apple-devices, Zoom is the obvious option. This may be shifting soon, although. Meanwhile, Zoom is on every android device. 

Supported operating systems include Android, Windows, IOS, and macOS. Users can also use Zoom through a web browser, and you can even join in with a regular phone call. There’s a profusion of extensions, plug-ins, and other additional software users can leverage from. There's no contradiction that Zoom is better than FaceTime regarding device compatibility.

2.     Features

Zoom offers the following killer features:

• Annotation, whiteboarding, chat for easy collaboration, and breakout rooms
• Application sharing, screen sharing 
• Meeting recording to cloud or device
• Call scheduling (also offers browser, client, and plug-in scheduling options)
• Dynamic voice detection ability
• The basic plan offers a 40-minute time limit on meetings with the above 2 participants
• Allows up to 1000 participants with the “big meetings” add-on

FaceTime offers the following remarkable features:

• Free to use for apple users
• Permits Group FaceTime with up to 32 people
• This app has a parental control that enables parents to set the time limit of a FaceTime call
• Any individual user can use Siri to activate FaceTime easily
• This app can also be used on Apple TV, giving a much better video call experience
• It allows transferring calls and capturing photos during the call
• It works over iPhone and through Wi-Fi
• Calls are merged with recent calls you make in the app

3.     Pricing

FaceTime is free and has no premium plans. It's a part of the Apple experience, and any user with a supported device can leverage it. The only trick here is having an Apple device to use FaceTime. Many people would think Apple products are pricy, and it may be an unwanted expense if you're already happy with a non-Apple device. 

Zoom offers free, premium, and business plans. Its free plan allows an individual user to host up to 100 participants and participate in numerous one-to-one meetings. Still, every group meeting can only be 40-minutes long. If that’s not suitable for you, you must sign up for one of the paid plans it offers. Plans are not too expensive, starting at only $14.99 per month/ host. 

According to CNBC, Zoom reported better-than-expected 191% sales growth in the first quarter with revenue of $956 million, beating the Refinitiv consensus by about $50 million.

You can go through all the pricing plans and the features every plan offers to choose the best match for you. Remember that pricing is per host and not per participant. The more hosts a business has, the higher the monthly cost.

Zoom is an industry-leading video conferencing service with additional business features to satisfy professional users.

According to Forbes, for the full 2022 fiscal year, Zoom expects revenue from $3.98 billion to $3.99 billion, about $200 million more than the Refinitiv consensus and 50% more than it generated in fiscal 2021.

Skype is also a video calling app where you can have audio/video meetings for free or go for a paid option. A free consumer account permits up to 100 participants on a call for up to 4-hours at a time. 

A user can add Skype to a Microsoft Office Bundle for only 5% more. You can also buy office Business Premium and pay $12.50 for the additional features every month. Free accounts with skype have more to offer than the time allotment for a Zoom video call. Both of them are compatible with all android devices. 

Skype uses end-to-end 256-bit encryption, and thus security-conscious users choose skype to avoid privacy issues. And FaceTime is a convenient app if you and other participants want to have a video call on Apple devices. It needs no additional downloads or signing up for another service. The app is already installed on your macOS, iPadOS, and IOS devices. It's easy and simple with the great video quality. But Zoom has much more functionality than Facetime. 

On the other hand, paid plan of Skype allows 250 participants for a video conference meeting. In contrast, Zoom allows 1000 unique users, while according to the meeting settings by the host, users can chat directly in a larger room. Every Zoom account holder can buy a 1000-user allowance for meetings. Thus, Zoom is much more accommodative for big meetings than Skype and FaceTime, and this feature makes it ideal for business meetings and presentations.

There are two ways to use FaceTime. A user can use FaceTime with a two-way video connection, or you can opt for FaceTime audio by using its audio-only option. FaceTime Audio is similar to a voice-based phone call. FaceTime audio usually offers much better call quality than a normal phone call because it uses VoIP-like services, similar to Skype.

Overall, while FaceTime is a great app, Skype remains the best calling tool because of its flexibility. FaceTime can only be used with IOS and Mac devices, which will be a huge drawback for many participants. Skype lets you call anybody, anywhere, which remains its overriding catch.

Google Meet, which was previously named Google Hangouts Meet, is a premium video conferencing software by Google, offered as part of Google Workspace (old name G Suite). A free version of Google Meet is also available. Meet is more like a video chat service offered in the consumer Hangouts but supports more participants, and as such, Google meet has disadvantages and advantages to consider as a video solution for business communication.

Google Meet has always encrypted all information in transit by default, sticking to IETF security standards for Secure Real-time Transport and Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS). Meet produces a unique encryption key for every user and every meeting. FaceTime is a simple app to share video content, or it is used for audio communication. 

While professionals use Google meet. It uses end-to-end encryption, which means messages are only encrypted between Google's servers and your device. Google Meet is compatible with Android and Apple devices and offers premium and business plans for enterprises and educators. Thus, Google Meet is much better than FaceTime.

FaceTime and Zoom are two different apps. Users can download the zoom app on IOS, macOS, and windows, while FaceTime works only on Apple devices. FaceTime allows users to easily dial a contact using their Apple ID or phone number. While with Zoom, you have to send a meeting link and invite people to the call. You can't FaceTime with Zoom.

All the features listed above are a brief insight into what Zoom and FaceTime offer. Zoom has many other features depending on the pricing plan you intend to use: Zoom Free, Pro, Business, or Enterprise. FaceTime can be convenient for users on IOS devices, and it doesn't have complex features existing in Zoom. With Zoom, you can also change the background, which is also a plus. FaceTime is ideal for personal calls but only for Apple users. For video conferencing, Zoom surpasses in many ways. 

Even the basic plan by Zoom offers extra features as compared to FaceTime. Moreover, it generally has various features that make meeting sessions more practical and manageable. Device compatibility, dependability, interactions, and screen sharing are features that FaceTime doesn't offer.

Moreover, according to Quora, FaceTime is rated 93%, while Zoom is rated 99% for their user satisfaction level.

Thus, Zoom is the best choice overall and specifically on a meeting level.