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Free Alternatives to GoToMeeting

Tuesday, 12th February 2008 7:41am
A few days ago I set out to look for a free alternative to GoToMeeting after trying to evaluate it and finding out that I needed to enter my credit card to get the 30 day trial and I wasn't prepared to do that.


I managed to sign up with Yugma and within a few short minutes I was already set up and able to share my desktop with a colleague. The free Yugma service allows me to invite up to 10 attendees and thats more than enough for me and I think its a pretty decent web collaboration tool.


I had a quick look at two other tools that give free desktop sharing. The first one is Yakkle which competes very well with instant messaging tools and remote meeting and web conferencing tools. It would be interesting to hear from other people who use the tool more often.


The other free tool that I came across is Vyew. No installation is required for this one and therefore you are able to use it from any computer with a browser. I didn't get around to test it but I hope to find some time to give it a go.


There are probably a few other tools and if I come across them I will add them to the list.



Ajay wrote on Wednesday, 13th February 2008 12:30pm
I've been using Yugma for a few months and found its just perfect for what I need. Super simple, fast, low cost (i think 10 bucks is a bloody steal). and I've been able to get things done with colleagues on different computing platforms. I highly recommend it. Plus I just got their newsletter this morning and just learned that they now have a Skype extra. I've got to check it out.
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Wes wrote on Thursday, 14th February 2008 10:52pm
Thanks Ajay. Good to hear from somebody who has been using Yugma for a while. I also got the new Skype add in e-mail and I think that can only make it better for collaboration.
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franny wrote on Saturday, 16th February 2008 2:56am
i ALSO am a Yugma fan. been using it for about 10 months. haven't strayed since i found them. and they are clearly working for the good of their customer...with the Skype integration and constant new features. seems like a feel good product and company!
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Daniel wrote on Saturday, 3rd May 2008 4:04am
I tried dimdim today. It was pretty easy to use in IE (Couldn't get firefox to work, but I didn't try very long). It includes audio and video and allows for up to 20 people on the free version.


Best of all, it's open source.


Best,
Daniel
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Wes wrote on Saturday, 3rd May 2008 11:09pm
Thanks Daniel for the heads up about dimdim, I will have a look at it and see how it goes. Cheers.
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Brian wrote on Monday, 18th October 2010 5:52am
I tried Dim Dim, and wasn't impressed. If you've got two monitors, be prepared for troubles. When wanting to cancel with them, you cannot cancel online, you have to call them during business hours to cancel. For some reason, that just gets under my skin big time.
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Cole wrote on Tuesday, 17th June 2008 4:31pm
Thanks for the information!! I tried GoToMeeting service. I like this...
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Open Alternatives wrote on Monday, 4th August 2008 11:28pm
Thanks for the post. I didnt know about Yakkle and would take a look at the tool. I have written about a few other alternatives to Go2meeting on this post.
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Wes wrote on Tuesday, 5th August 2008 1:37pm
I have visited the link in your comment and there is some helpful information there, thanks.
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LSA wrote on Thursday, 18th September 2008 1:45am
Yugma apparently does not work with Remote Desktop Connection.
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Wes wrote on Thursday, 18th September 2008 10:32pm
Thanks LSA for that piece of information, I didn't know that and I haven't tried it. Thanks.
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chad wrote on Monday, 20th October 2008 12:05am
I've found Yugma to be the WORST program out there. So far, at least 50% of my prospects cannot get logged on, their system is ALWAYS down, and after sending in 4 emails over 4 weeks requesting help, I went to their site to use the Live Help feature.
Thei tech support actually ARGUED with me and told me "It is not our policy to respond to requests for help if we don't know the problem. We don't know what's causing your problems, so we're not going to reply to your emails sir."

My jaw dropped... So no acknowledgment of help, no responses, just IGNORE your customers and hope the problem goes away? Yugma spent 15 more minutes arguing with me, and eventually this guy tells me that it's a waste of time to reply to customers if the issue cannot be quickly resolved!!!!
Really? GLad to know Yugma cares so little about their paying customers? Needless to say, that was all I needed to hear to make a switch to another service.


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Wes wrote on Monday, 20th October 2008 10:51pm
Thanks for the comment. That doesn't sound like a good experience for you Chad. I hope their tech support will get their act together quickly or people will just opt for another service like you did. I think I would have done the same in such circumstances.
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chris wrote on Sunday, 4th January 2009 3:46pm
I got the free trial of gotomeeting (it gave me an option to sign up without a ccard) and I find it pretty good, but the open alternatives such as zoho and yugma are pretty good two also, i've found that a simple vnc install can work as a free and quick meeting tool
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Wes wrote on Tuesday, 13th January 2009 10:48pm
Its good that you got an option to sign up without a credit card. Maybe they have changed they way they do things now.

Also recently I got an e-mail from somebody from Yugma who said that:


Yugma now offers a full-sharing Linux program (beta) and Outlook plug-in, you can check them out here.
The other big announcement is that Yugma Free now lets you invite up to 20 attendees into a session at once! All current Yugma Free subscribers will be automatically upgraded to the new service.
Also, there is now a \"view-only\" option that lets attendees join a meeting with out downloading anything. This options allows a person to see the desktops being shared and use the built-in instant messaging feature.
I haven't checked these options myself but when I get some time I will look at the site. Cheers.

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goldenpeter wrote on Friday, 29th April 2011 3:34am

The problem with GoToMeeting is it only logs 90 days of connections, and kind of badly at that. This makes it less useful for consultants or anyone providing remote tech support. This function would be useful when disputing billing items with clients.

Secondly, the log itself is barely useful. You can't tag the name of a session to the logged entry and you cannot export the log either. So you are back to the 1970's when you hired people just to retype from one system to another, along with the associated errors.

Lastly, the tech support people I've talked to about this at GoToMeeting/Citrix, Inc. whatever, have been like "no skin off our @ss, deal with it, y u need more logging?" So I am basically looking for something better. This thread is nice.


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Aaron wrote on Friday, 3rd February 2012 9:06am
It sounds like you're looking for something else. GoToMeeting is not oriented towards tech support. It's a conference service. That's why there is no extended logging. You should look into LogMeIn.
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Kathy wrote on Wednesday, 28th January 2009 9:12am
Thank you so much for posting this information. I tried using WizIQ but it didn't seem to allow desktop sharing. Just setup Yugma and shared the desktop with no problem. You saved me a lot of time! Thank you again!!
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Wes wrote on Wednesday, 28th January 2009 9:28pm
Its good to hear that you found this post useful Kathy. Thanks.
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Greg Newell wrote on Tuesday, 10th February 2009 2:11am
Many of us are familiar with LogMeIn, the free version. If you look at the pro version, you'll find the ability to share your desktop for $69/year! Not bad. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles of online meeting software but terrific for one on ones! I use it all the time.
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Chris Ulrich wrote on Saturday, 28th February 2009 11:28pm
We had to do a presentation on Search engine optimization and needed something that either had no plugin or a very fast plugin.


Your recommendation for Vyew.com was spot on. While it is slightly (very slightly) awkward to use the first time (when you go into desktop sharing mode, the dashboard goes away, unlike GoTomeeting which floats its dashboard), there is no plugin at all!


For an additional $10/year, they also give a dedicated URL (such as vyew.com/chris) so that you have something easier to tell prospects on the phone.


For collaboration, I still like GoTomeeting, but for sales presentations, where you are asking someone to get online and watch a presentation, I think Vyew is the best option.


Thanks for the tip!
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Wes wrote on Wednesday, 4th March 2009 11:20pm
Good to see that you found the post useful Chris.
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Greg Newell wrote on Thursday, 5th March 2009 12:59am
As a Cincinnati Ohio Internet Consultant calling on the small and medium sized business market, I have to both use and recommend solutions. If the client is cost sensitive and only needs to hold one-on-one type meetings, I steer them toward logmein.com. Their FREE package supports simple desktop sharing which is all most people are doing with these meetings. Use the phone for the audio. You can't beat it and LogMeIn is a terrific service all around for both communications and support.
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boardtc wrote on Friday, 15th May 2009 6:12am
We were using NeMeeting/Skype for ages. There had to be a batter way. After reading the thread here I chose Yugma Free/Skype to have conferences this week with 7 people in 3 different locations lasting for 12 hours over the week. Had a really excellent experience with Yugma (thanks for the tip!), it's a very good solution. Skype dropped a couple of times, Yugma maybe once.
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Norm wrote on Friday, 27th March 2009 12:05pm
This thread is very informative so thanks for keeping it going. In my business we use GoToMeeting and make no mistake about it, the product is pretty awesome...right down to ease of use, sharing desktops, recording video & audio sessions.

The downside is the pricing. It is downright prohibitive for my personal use with my website friends (for poetry open mic sessions, etc). So I tried Yugma tonight and as luck would have it, it did not install cleanly on my computer -- I have a "screaming" Vista Ultra 64 bit HP computer and it warned of a drive incompatability and then at the end of the install informed me one driver could, in fact, not be installed (didn't identify the driver though). What a bummer -- I wrote to Yugma and am awaiting a reply -- I'll keep you advised.
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john wrote on Wednesday, 6th May 2009 10:56am
we tried using dim dim at my work, unfortunately the boss was too stupid to find where to enter the room name and decided the softwares fault. we then used a trial of gotomeeting until it ran out, and now we use yugma :)
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jimmy g wrote on Thursday, 18th June 2009 1:06am
I just tried yugma and something weird happened. I set up a meeting and invited someone from the office. After that everybody got "Address Not Found" errors when trying to browse their site. Overnight it cleared up so I tried again, and again the site went dead. However we had no trouble browsing when we used a wifi connection outside our network.
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Philip Inghelbrecht wrote on Saturday, 12th December 2009 11:02am
Great thread, good comments. I installed DimDim, and it works perfectly on FF. I had to install a small exe to enable sharing my desktop (2MB, very quick installation). Did not work (yet) on FF.
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Norm wrote on Tuesday, 15th December 2009 1:44am
A year ago I tried all the other free alternatives to GTM and found them all "wanting" in one area or another. So I have stayed with GTM until someone convinces me that the freebies can provide everything GTM does -- this is what I think the alternative must have:
1) Ability to provide a phone number to call that enables automatic audio in synch with the video
2) Ability to instantly make any attendee the "presenter" so that their screen can be viewed and used by either the presenter or the meeting organizer
3) The ability to easily record the full session (both audio and video in sync for easy playback in acceptable standrad playback formats.
4) A seamless invitation process to enable meeting attendees easy access to the session.
5) Number of attendees -- usually not an issue but I have had as many as 14 in a meeting at one time with GTM with excellent quality.

Look -- I don't like paying money if I can get the same product for less or even FREE. Thanks for continuing to post to this thread so I can hear if anything has changed regarding a viable alternative to GTM -- I would stay with GTM and am only "looking" because I think their price structuring should be based more on usage than just a blanket fee for all. I may use GTM 15 times a year whereas others may use it 100 times. Why should I pay so much as a limited-use owner??

Interested in hearing more from you folks --

Norm


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Wes wrote on Tuesday, 15th December 2009 9:43pm
Thanks Norm for your contribution, you raised some interesting discussion points. I think it would be good for the freebies if they could do everything that GTM does as you say but I think its something that will take some time.
I also hope that the current alternatives will continue to improve their feature lists so as to match those offered by GTM for example.
Thanks.
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Woody wrote on Friday, 29th January 2010 7:41pm
I rate Yugma - I was all set about to use goToMeeting when I came across it. After a bit more substantial use I will see if it lives up to the first experience!
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Eric wrote on Thursday, 25th February 2010 3:05am
Hi all, I'm looking for a web conferencing software which run on Linux. So, but Yugma, is there an other one? Thanks.
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Wes wrote on Saturday, 20th March 2010 12:08am
Eric, maybe you could have a look at WebHuddle https://www.webhuddle.com/ if you are still looking for a conferencing software that runs on Linux. I haven't tried it myself though. Also Yugma should work on Linux and there could be others too.
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Pali Madra wrote on Friday, 19th March 2010 3:02pm
Yugma offers a free trial but it is not free. You need to pay for it to use the version for a longer period of time. I'm going to give it a shot and try out.
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Pali Madra wrote on Friday, 19th March 2010 3:07pm
Sorry Weston, I made an error in the comment earlier when I eluded to in my earlier comment that Yugma trail is only free for some time. I found that Yugma still offers a free version with some restrictions like maximum of 20 participants and one audio bridge. There is a paid version which has some additional features. For small business Yugma would work.
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Wes wrote on Saturday, 20th March 2010 12:10am
That's fine Pali. Cheers.
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BrianTiller wrote on Thursday, 1st April 2010 6:08pm
You may want to consider using a web conferencing appliance from RHUB to fulfill training needs. The appliance comes with free audio conferencing, recording and non-download guaranteed attendance functions ideally for training.
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Shash wrote on Friday, 2nd July 2010 6:40am
I have been using yugma for quite some time. Phones are a pain, if you are hosting a meeting on Monday morning or at peak hours you and participants have to fight to get the meeting phone picked up.
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hgh releaser reviews wrote on Saturday, 12th January 2013 4:40am
I always was concerned in this topic and stock still am, appreciate it for posting.
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Shash wrote on Thursday, 22nd July 2010 4:50pm
Since my last post, I have started using Vyew, I think it's awesome, they also provide a free meeting phone no. I have dumped Yugma since :).
Cool thing about Vyew is that the users do not have to download any viewer, this helps since sometimes you end up wasting lot of time to get not so techie meeting participants to install the software and at times some of these participants do not had admin privileges to install software, and they have to get the IT guy install stuff. I had to postpone meetings because of this at times.
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Wes wrote on Friday, 23rd July 2010 5:35am
Thanks Shash for sharing your experiences, I am sure some people will benefit from that. Cheers.
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David wrote on Monday, 16th August 2010 10:05am
Have you tried Mikogo? Works GREAT http://www.mikogo.com
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Ahmed Ali wrote on Wednesday, 1st September 2010 2:44am
It is very much helpful I will try it. Thanks
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Shash wrote on Monday, 4th October 2010 12:58pm
Adobe acrobat connect is also very nice. I tried it today, Vyew can be confusing at times since they have so many things going on. acrobat connect on the other hand is just for desktop sharing and video conferencing and was very simple and intuitive to use. Something that is simple that will get you started in minutes. Just google - acrobat connect
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Charity Brisker wrote on Monday, 18th April 2011 10:17am
Thanks for the suggestions! I'm also tired of using GoToMeeting.
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Great PPC Marketing Management wrote on Tuesday, 17th May 2011 4:53am
Thanks so much for the info and also to Shash for his experience. I'm trying to use this to share information with my clients that I manage their Pay Per Click accounts for on Google etc. This has been very helpful in the right direction. Thank you, Darren LinkCaffeine.com
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rankreviews wrote on Saturday, 30th July 2011 2:15pm
The best part of GoMeetNow is you could purchase licenses on a daily base. For example, if you have a large meeting today, you could scale your licenses to 100 people. When you finish, you could switch back to 1. gotomeeting vs adobe connect
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GaneshKB wrote on Saturday, 3rd December 2011 12:34am
I tried vyew.com it is nice, i would vote for that. Other free sites announced are no longer free
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fabrice72 wrote on Saturday, 3rd December 2011 10:12pm
join.me Super simple, super efficient, free version and fairly cheap Pro version if your require more bells and whistles. Also based on logmein, so good stable company behind it. just tried it today after running through this thread, and I'm convinced by the simplicity. I had tried Yugma before, but participants had deployment issues which caused me to drop it. Vyew seems good to, will try it out more for the presentation + annotations capabilities. good luck in your search.
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Berringer wrote on Thursday, 15th March 2012 7:49am
Honestly, I've found that MegaMeeting is a nice alternative. It seems to me that when people think about the gotomeeting free trial and how it only lasts for 30 or 45 days, they are justified in their complaints.
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Ahmad Ali wrote on Thursday, 5th April 2012 2:49pm
It is nice to find such valuable free/ open source alternatives to gotomeeting and other paid softwares for sharing and meetings. Thanks a lot.
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Alan wrote on Thursday, 26th April 2012 8:11am
As far as I know there is only ONE truly free alternative. It's called Meeting Burner.

There is a "forever free" account that is not ad supported! It's also fast and very easy to use.
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Kevin Killion wrote on Wednesday, 10th October 2012 5:53am
I agree on the poor assessment of Yugma. I've been repeatedly plagued by clients not being able to log in, or the whole Yugma service being down. They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but that might be wrong in the case of Yugma: the first clue that things are not well at Yugma is the ugly, confusing and very inconsistent interface. I'm on search for something more reliable and easier for clients.
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Marcy Mahney wrote on Saturday, 24th November 2012 1:52am
This is a wonderful list of alternatives to Goto Meeting. I am checking out all of the sites to see which one will fulfill our companies needs. Thanks so much. You have saved me so much time.
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Sean A Davison wrote on Tuesday, 26th February 2013 5:45am
rthank you so much. I'm working on  a project for my company that requires a lot of testing and I'm given a very short budget. With free hosting this gives me the opportunity to let my company know that I've done my homework and helping them to save the most amount of money with our test
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Randomperson wrote on Friday, 3rd May 2013 6:10am
Please update your post as it is no longer accurate. From your post - "The free Yugma service allows me to invite up to 10 attendees" From yugma's site - "Yugma Free gives you free web conferencing with up to 1 attendees. "
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Wes wrote on Saturday, 4th May 2013 9:29pm
Thanks for the comment. Please note that the post was correct at the time of writing and for the latest information its better to check the relevant sites/documentation. Thanks.
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