Skype, GoToMeeting, WebEx top G2 Crowd’s first report on web conferencing tools

G2 Crowd has come out with its first user-selected rankings of the best web conferencing tools, and the top-ranked names should be familiar to most businesses.

Scoring highest on the two scoring dimensions of satisfaction and market presence is Microsoft-owned Skype, followed fairly closely in the Leaders quadrant by Citrix’ GoToMeeting, Cisco’s WebEx, Google Hangouts, Microsoft’s Lync, and join.me. (Here’s the live grid.)

Satisfaction rankings are based on more than 1,200 reviews written by business professionals. Vendor size, market share, and social impact determine market presence.

“Many reviewers cited that their company switched solutions frequently, or use different tools based on the circumstance,” G2 Crowd president and cofounder Tim Handorf told VentureBeat via email.

“For instance,” he said, “some reviewers mentioned that while their company rolled out a paid solution company-wide, they also use a free solution when they experience issues with the primary product.”

About five dozen web conferencing solutions were considered, and the products needed at least 10 reviews to be ranked. Among the Leaders, Skype received the most reviews, with 446, and Lync the least, at 44.

Web conferencing software typically includes audio and video meetings of individuals or small groups, as well as text chat, screen sharing, remote control of screens, and recording. Some products also feature audience interaction controls or integration with marketing and customer relationship management software.

Join.me achieved the highest overall customer satisfaction score. The High Performer quadrant, which had strong satisfaction scores but registered lower on market presence, contained ReadyTalk and Personify.

Adobe Connect and RingCentral placed as Contenders, with high market presence and lower user satisfaction. The Niche category, with lower scores on both measurements, contained InterCall, GlobalMeet, and FreeConferenceCall.com.

“No product appears to be free of technical issues,” Handorf said. “Every one included in the report had at least some reviews that mentioned dropped connections or poor quality as negatives.”

He noted that common complaints included “unnecessary downloads, complicated entry into meetings, and incompatibility with corporate firewalls, while frequently liked features include integration with email and scheduling software, along with easy meeting initiation.”

One reviewer, CBLPath CIO Jason Jones, described Skype as “a champ with outstanding voice quality, crisp video, and some great ancillary tools for sharing.”

Compete, Inc. content and training manager Lindsey Mark pointed to GoToMeeting’s integration with Outlook, configurability for meetings of up to 25 people, and a “clean screen” function for protecting the meeting against a popup system message or application notification.

The complete report, including the original data, feature comparisons of each software product, user satisfaction rating, and other information is available for $599.