→ /zoom-alternative · verified 4 July 2026
The Zoom alternative that skips the download.
NARA Conference runs meetings for up to 1,000 participants and webinars for 5,000 attendees entirely in the browser — no app, no 40-minute cap, webinars included in the plans. Below is the honest side-by-side, including where Zoom is still the right call.
Conference vs Zoom, row by row.
Joining
- Conference
- A link opens the room in Chrome, Edge, Safari, or Firefox — no install, on any plan
- Zoom
- Limited web client; participants are steered to the desktop or mobile app
Free meeting length
- Conference
- No plan meters meeting minutes — free included
- Zoom
- 40 minutes per meeting on Basic
Free participants
- Conference
- 100
- Zoom
- 100
Biggest meeting
- Conference
- 1,000 participants (Business plan)
- Zoom
- 100 by default; 1,000 requires the Large Meeting add-on
Webinars
- Conference
- Included in plans — 300 attendees on Starter up to 5,000 on Enterprise Plus
- Zoom
- Separate Zoom Webinars license on top of a meetings plan
Polls & Q&A
- Conference
- Live polls and managed Q&A built into meetings and webinars
- Zoom
- Polling disabled on Basic; included on paid plans
Recording
- Conference
- Encrypted cloud recording on paid plans — 5 GB to 1 TB, replayable 60–365 days
- Zoom
- Local-only on free (desktop app required); cloud on paid plans
Accountability
- Conference
- Six role tiers + an audit trail of every privileged host action
- Zoom
- Host controls; admin audit via account dashboards
Billing
- Conference
- INR with GST invoices, or USD — yearly saves 17%
- Zoom
- USD (regional pricing varies)
Zoom column verified 4 July 2026 against zoom.us pricing and support documentation. Zoom is a trademark of Zoom Communications, Inc. — we compare because people ask, not because we're affiliated.
Four reasons teams switch.
Nobody installs anything, ever
The single biggest source of meeting-start friction is the app download prompt. Conference doesn't have one — every participant, on every plan, joins from the link in the browser they already have, including on phones.
Minutes are never the meter
Conference plans scale by room capacity, seats, and recording storage. There is no per-meeting clock on any published plan — the free tier's one-to-ones don't die at minute 40.
Webinars are a mode, not a license
Flip a room into webinar mode and broadcast to registered attendees with a panelist stage, Q&A, and polls. From Starter's 300 seats to Enterprise Plus's 5,000, it's inside the plan you already pay for.
The room keeps receipts
AES-256 cloud recording with consent-aware capture, 60–365-day retention, and an audit trail of every privileged action — who muted whom, who recorded, when. Compliance teams read it themselves.
Where Zoom still fits
- You're invested in Zoom Rooms hardware and certified conference-room gear.
- You need the 30-hour marathon meetings of Zoom's paid tiers plus its telephone dial-in network.
- Your events run past 5,000 attendees — Zoom's event products scale to 100,000.
If that's you, stay put — a tool you've already wired in beats a better tool you haven't. For everyone else, the browser tab is free to try: Conference plans start at ₹0 with 100 participants.
Switching questions
Asked by people
leaving Zoom.
The short version: click a link, you're in a meeting. Everything else — [email protected].
Is there a free Zoom alternative without the 40-minute limit?
Yes. NARA Conference's free plan hosts meetings for up to 100 participants in the browser, and no Conference plan meters meeting minutes — plans scale by room capacity, seats, and recording storage instead. Zoom's Basic plan caps almost every meeting at 40 minutes.
Can attendees join without installing an app?
With Conference, yes — every participant joins from a link in Chrome, Edge, Safari, or Firefox, including on phones. Zoom offers a limited web client but steers participants toward installing its desktop app for the full experience.
Can it replace Zoom Webinars?
For most teams, yes. Webinar mode is included in Conference plans from Starter upward — 300 registered attendees at the low end, 5,000 on Enterprise Plus — with a panelist stage, managed Q&A, live polls, and cloud recording. Zoom sells webinars as a separate license on top of a meetings plan.
How hard is it to switch from Zoom?
There's nothing to migrate. Create a workspace, make a room, and put the new link in your calendar invites — participants need no account and no install to join. Old recordings stay wherever Zoom stored them; new ones land in your Conference library.
See everything Conference does →