Screen sharing software is an excellent way to help a team collaborate remotely. Instead of trying to explain what is on your screen, you can simply use your screen sharing software to show people what is on your screen. You can give a demonstration, use the screen for your discussion, or brainstorm; screen sharing is great for most industries. A lot of screen sharing options are built into video conferencing software, and like with pretty much every other type of software, there are a lot of options to choose from. Here, we will look at some of the best screen sharing software available.
Zoom
Thanks to COVID-19 forcing a lot of people to work remotely from home, Zoom is essentially a household name now. Zoom is a free video conferencing platform that allows you to have up to 1,000 people in a video conference at once. You can easily set up meetings and send out invitations through Gmail, iCal, or Outlook with ease.
When using Zoom, you can choose to share your screen with the rest of the meeting, and the host can record the meeting so that you can revisit the meeting and what was shared later on. This is great for a brainstorming session or demonstration on how to use a program. The host of the meeting can also lock screen sharing so that nobody but them can share their screens.
Zoom has four price plans available. There is a free version that lets you host up to 100 people, but the meetings are capped at 40 minutes; a little countdown clock will appear when you get close to the 40-minute deadline. However, you can start a new meeting right away for another 40 minutes. The paid versions start at $14.99 and offer meetings for up to 30 hours, going up to unlimited at $19.99 a month.
Slack
Slack is one of the most commonly used platforms for collaboration, which allows people to communicate through calls and chat. During a call on Slack, you can share your screen with others present. While sharing your screen, you can also draw on it to annotate the meeting, but only one person can share their screen at a time.
It is important to note that you have to be using the desktop app to share your screen; a Google Chrome user is stuck being a spectator who cannot share their screen. However, aside from this downside, overall, Slack is one of the best tools available for virtual teamwork, so it is worth considering for other purposes, even if you choose not to use the screen sharing and video calls features.
Slack offers a free tier, but you can also pay for it to add additional features to it based on your business’ needs.
Skype
Skype has been around as a video calling platform since 2003, making it one of the oldest platforms that is still in use. It is usable for any operating system, and it allows you to conduct video calls and share your screen with users. You can attach files up to 300MB to share with people in the call and you are also able to record calls so you can revisit your meetings later. The recordings are available for 30 days after the call for the host and other participants in the call, in MP4 format. Skype allows you to create a poll during a call, which can make it easier to get a vote from everyone in the meeting.
Skype is free to use, and it is considered to be one of the best communication platforms available for both personal and professional use.
Join.me
Join.me is an online screen sharing software that doubles as a video conferencing platform. It has easy screen sharing and can host up to 250 people at a time. You can even customize the background to fit your company’s background, so no one will see the kids running around behind you. Not only can you share your screens with Join.me, but you can also use a whiteboard feature that shares notes with everyone in real-time.
Join.me also offers audio-only conferencing internationally, so you can have a quick phone call with someone in a different country without paying for dialing internationally.
Join.me does not offer a free tier, but pricing starts at only $10, which allows you to have up to 150 users in a meeting at a time. There is a free trial before you commit to paying for the platform.
TeamViewer
TeamViewer is a little different from other screen sharing software options in this list. While you can screen share with TeamViewer, you can also allow someone to take remote control of a device. This is typically for technical support uses, where someone needs to do something more hands-on than ordinary screen sharing offers.
TeamViewer is completely secure, offering encryption and two-factor authentication. It is even designed to comply with both HIPAA and SOC2.
TeamViewer is free for personal use but offers some pricing packages for businesses starting at $35.90 per month per license. There is a 14-day free trial.
GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is another video and audio conferencing platform that allows you to share your screen and annotate the content. It has a secure SMAL SSO login so that only authorized users can join the call. This is another screen sharing software that allows you to record the calls, and it can be stored in the cloud or locally. GoToMeeting will even create a transcription of the meeting for you for an additional fee since sometimes it is easier to reference a transcript than a recording.
GoToMeeting can integrate into Office 365, allowing you to schedule through Outlook. It also has a Google calendar plugin for scheduling meetings.
GoToMeeting pricing packages start at $12 per month, and they offer a 14-day free trial.
