BigBlueButton vs. Skype Comparison


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About Engage your online students. BigBlueButton is a web conferencing system designed for online learning. Looking for a professional solution for teaching remote students online? BigBlueButton provides real-time sharing of audio, video, slides, chat, and screen. Students are engaged through sharing of emoji icons, polling, and breakout rooms. Synchronous learning tools should feel like part of your management system (LMS). Instructure, Schoology, Jenzabar, and D2L all ship their LMS with a native integration for BigBlueButton. Moodle and Sakai have plugins for deep integration. And BigBlueButton is learning tools interoperability (LTI) 1.0 compliant for widest adoption. BigBlueButton backed by a world-wide community of developers (and commercial companies) that care about making the best web conferencing system for online learning.	About Professional online meetings built for business. Easy to set up and join · Powerful collaboration tools. Made by Microsoft. With one click, anyone can join your online meeting, from any device. You can choose to meet right away, or schedule from Outlook for later. The meeting URL is personalized just for you. Record meetings, share your screen, and annotate PowerPoint for real-time collaboration with up to 250 people. Use whiteboard, polls, Q&A, and built-in IM during your business meetings to make them more productive. Expertly manage your online meetings with advanced calling options, like muting one or all participants and transferring presenter control. Trust in business-quality meetings with encrypted video and audio streams, and 24/7 phone support when needed. Enjoy industry-leading HD video for online meetings that feel top quality and trustworthy. Focus more on the people in your call, with added features like automatic cropping and head tracking.
Platforms Supported Windows Supported Mac Not Supported Linux Not Supported Cloud Supported On-Premises Not Supported iPhone Not Supported iPad Not Supported Android Not Supported Chromebook Not Supported	Platforms Supported Windows Supported Mac Supported Linux Not Supported Cloud Supported On-Premises Not Supported iPhone Supported iPad Supported Android Supported Chromebook Not Supported
Audience Teachers and schools searching for a powerful virtual classroom software solution	Audience Companies of all sizes searching for a powerful Messaging solution
Support Phone Support Supported 24/7 Live Support Not Supported Online Supported	Support Phone Support Not Supported 24/7 Live Support Not Supported Online Supported
API Offers API Not Supported	API Offers API Not Supported
Screenshots and Videos View more images or videos	Screenshots and Videos View more images or videos
Pricing No information available. Free Version Supported Free Trial Not Supported	Pricing $5.00 per user per month Free Version Supported Free Trial Not Supported
Reviews/Ratings Overall 0.0 / 5 ease 0.0 / 5 features 0.0 / 5 design 0.0 / 5 support 0.0 / 5 This software hasn't been reviewed yet. Be the first to provide a review: Review this Software	Reviews/Ratings Overall 4.3 / 5 ease 4.5 / 5 features 4.4 / 5 design 4.3 / 5 support 4.2 / 5 Read all reviews
	Pros & Cons from Real Users Pros Easy to get, easy to download, easy to use once you learn how to. You can use it pretty much everywhere. The first thing I liked about Skype was group video conferencing, users can make group video calls with up to 50 people at the same time. This is especially useful for online work meetings, virtual classes, or keeping in touch with friends and family in different parts of the world. Additionally, Skype allows users to share their screen during a group video call, making it easier for team collaboration and problem solving. Another positive aspect that can be highlighted is the extensive integration of Skype, Skype integrates with other Microsoft applications, such as Outlook and Office, which makes it easy to organize meetings and collaborate on projects online. In addition, Skype also integrates with popular platforms like Facebook and PayPal, allowing users to connect with friends and conduct financial transactions securely and efficiently. It also integrates with other Microsoft services like OneDrive, allowing users to share files and collaborate on projects online. I liked Skype's messaging system, users can send text messages, pictures and files to anyone in their Skype contact list. In addition, Skype's chat function is very secure, since all messages are end-to-end encrypted to guarantee the privacy and security of the user, this function is particularly useful for work meetings, interviews or to keep in touch with friends and family around the world. Additionally, Skype uses audio compression technology to minimize quality loss, even on slow or unstable networks. Skype is the best software for audio and video meetings as compare to other product available in the market. I use Skype for audio meetings with the Principals and directors of different campuses. Its audio quality is very good as compare to other products. Our meetings remain continue for many hours and this product does creates any issue in the communication process. Screen sharing and file sharing features also work very well. Chat feature, controls and permission features also work great. Its video meeting feature is also fantastic. This is the best software for one to one video calls. I highly recommend this software. 1.- The best feature that I like about Skype is the possibility to invite a user to a call without requiring an invitation or to schedule a meeting for a certain time of a video call. I just have to start a call with someone and hit the “+” button to call another person and include them in a group call without ending the current call. I can also select the people I want to call, as if it were a list and call, Skype will do the rest of putting them all in a single video call. 2.- I can share files of any type through instant messaging without the need to share an external link of the file stored in any part of the cloud such as Dropbox, Drive, Box, etc. It speeds me up to be able to send a file this way since I only have to search for the file, drag and drop it into the chat of the user I want to send it to without any problem. 3.- I can access instant messaging while I have a voice or video call, this is useful when it comes to group calls and not everyone can use their camera and microphone or just want to listen and write. It also works when there are many participants and only one person is allowed to speak, thus avoiding confusion and diverting the information that is being provided in a call. 4.- I can link Skype with my phone number to make voice calls or send text messages, it is very useful for when I want to receive messages or answer a call without using Skype, it is enough to acquire a phone number within this software to start using that VoIP feature. 5.- I can record the calls in case I require it. I want to have information that was given within a video call or the performances of a slide when screen sharing through Skype. I was amazed at the quality of it so I had no problem rewinding the video and annotating everything I needed to. 6.- The annotations are very complete since I can customize the pointer, such as using the pencil style for simplicity, as well as the pen, also markers or highlighters, which is useful for marking text on the shared screen and the draft that allows you to easily and quickly erase what was drawn within the video call tone. Shapes can also be included, but I have not given them a use as such, so it could be useful to another type of person with more creativity to give examples while sharing the screen to see slides. - Skype helps in connecting with people through chat, audio and video in part of the world. - Along with conferencing, it also lets the user exchange files and documents during calls. - The navigation animation makes the navigating within the application smooth and fluid. - It easily integrates with other Microsoft's application making it a great tool to use especially on Windows computers. Cons It did not evolve, it requires way too many permissions for the capabilities it offers. Microsoft decided to give priority to Teams and just kinda forgot about Skype. The first negative aspect of Skype is the high consumption that it has on absolutely all devices, it is a fairly heavy platform and its consumption is even higher when it is running in the background, which causes slowness on the computer or mobile device when it is being used. using Skype while in other applications. Another negative aspect is that there are many local numbers that you cannot call if you do not have credits within Skype, this is very negative since I would love to be able to communicate to any local number without having to recharge more credits for these calls. Skype also presents some connectivity problems, which sometimes causes calls to be interrupted unexpectedly when inactivity or without sharing audio has elapsed for a long time, it is necessary to improve the stability of calls within Skype, currently there are many connectivity problems in these calls, on several occasions my calls have been interrupted and I have had to start them again. These are the only negative things I have noticed about this platform, as most of the features it offers are very stable and provide constant communication. Skype does not offer landline dialing feature in the free version. While making audio calls, i have experienced distortion in voice sometimes. For video calls, it is good for limited number of participants. The customer service needs to be improved. 1.- The chat history is very limited with respect to how many years it can be stored within this software. I don't know if it was because of the drastic changes that Skype has undergone, but over time I have lost countless conversations with colleagues and employees at work. Data loss is critical because that information can be vital later on and if you don't have it, it can be detrimental not to have it. So for the chat I have used other platforms that do keep my conversations for life or until I decide to delete them. 2.-The interface has not changed much for a long time, therefore many acquaintances have chosen to use other video call software such as Zoom for the ease and simplicity of use that it can provide. Skype has always been reliable and stable, however it should be modernized more so that when making a video call or voice calls it is more comfortable and not with features that are no longer used. 3.- The video becomes blurry even with the best internet connection, it seems that the buffer is not optimized when the person who is in the video call moves very fast. In addition, if there is a bad internet connection, the video freezes, including the audio, which does not happen with many other software that generally only freeze the image to prioritize the connection to the audio without losing the video call. 4.- Sharing screens with others is not very optimized, it just hangs most of the time and you have to restart or have delays when the user is doing something on the computer or while I am using the annotation pen. This frustrates me a lot because I have to resort to TeamViewer for this task since Skype does not do it perfectly being installed on Windows knowing that both come from Microsoft so the compatibility and stability with remote desktop should be great but it is not. 5.- The files have a limit of size and time in which they are in Skype, as well as the problem of the conversations that are not maintained over time, the same happens with the files and this is annoying because if I want to have that file of a specific chat and a long time has passed, I simply will not have it. This feature of sharing files through Skype would only be if I want to pass files to another user quickly and not exceed the maximum size allowed. - The user interface of the application feels very cluttered, instead of introducing more and more features they should focus on improving the key features like audio-video quality and user experience.
Training Documentation Supported Webinars Not Supported Live Online Not Supported In Person Not Supported	Training Documentation Supported Webinars Not Supported Live Online Supported In Person Not Supported
Company Information BigBlueButton Founded: 2007 United States bigbluebutton.org	Company Information Microsoft Founded: 1975 United States www.skype.com
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bbbserver invokable GMBH View All	CoPointer View All
Categories Audio Conferencing Supported Tutoring Supported Video Conferencing Supported Virtual Classroom Supported Web Conferencing Supported	Categories Audio Conferencing Supported International Calling Supported Messaging Supported Screen Sharing Supported Team Chat Supported Video Conferencing Supported Web Conferencing Supported
Video Conferencing Features Electronic Hand Raising Supported Mobile Access Not Supported On-Demand Webcasting Supported Presentation Streaming Supported Presentation Tools Supported Private Chat Not Supported Real-Time Chat Supported Record & Playback Ability Not Supported Screen Sharing Supported Two-Way Audio & Video Supported Video Conferencing Supported Whiteboard Supported Web Conferencing Features Electronic Hand Raising Supported Mobile Access Not Supported On-Demand Webcasting Supported Presentation Streaming Supported Presentation Tools Supported Private Chat Not Supported Real-Time Chat Supported Record & Playback Ability Not Supported Screen Sharing Supported Two-Way Audio & Video Supported Video Conferencing Supported Whiteboard Supported Show More Features Tutoring Features Appointment Scheduling Not Supported Attendance Tracking Not Supported Automatic Grading Not Supported Billing & Invoicing Not Supported Client Management Not Supported Electronic Assignments & Tests Not Supported Employee Management Not Supported Learning Plans Not Supported Lesson Notes Not Supported Online Classes Not Supported Online Payments Not Supported Parent / Student Portal Supported Progress Reports Not Supported Virtual Classroom Features Annotation Tools Supported Attendee Analytics Not Supported Audio/Video Conferencing Supported Customizable Branding Not Supported eCommerce Integration Not Supported Electronic Hand Raising Supported File Sharing Not Supported Interactive/Collaboration Tools Supported Learning Management System Not Supported Live Chat Supported Live Streaming Supported Mobile Access Supported Multiple Camera Feeds Not Supported Notifications Not Supported Online Whiteboard Supported Schedule Management Not Supported Screen Sharing Supported Session Recording Not Supported Surveys / Polls Not Supported Web Browser-based Supported	Video Conferencing Features Electronic Hand Raising Not Supported Mobile Access Supported On-Demand Webcasting Not Supported Presentation Streaming Not Supported Presentation Tools Not Supported Private Chat Not Supported Real-Time Chat Supported Record & Playback Ability Not Supported Screen Sharing Supported Two-Way Audio & Video Supported Video Conferencing Supported Whiteboard Not Supported Web Conferencing Features Electronic Hand Raising Not Supported Mobile Access Supported On-Demand Webcasting Not Supported Presentation Streaming Not Supported Presentation Tools Not Supported Private Chat Not Supported Real-Time Chat Supported Record & Playback Ability Not Supported Screen Sharing Supported Two-Way Audio & Video Supported Video Conferencing Supported Whiteboard Not Supported Show More Features Messaging Features End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) Supported File Sharing Supported Groups / Channels Not Supported Payments Not Supported Search / Filter Supported Self-Destructing Messages Not Supported Stickers / GIFs Not Supported Threaded Discussion Not Supported Video Conferencing Supported Voice Calling Supported Screen Sharing Features Annotations / Drawing Tools Not Supported Desktop / Browser Sharing Supported Mobile Screen Sharing Supported Presenter Control Management Not Supported Remote Control Not Supported Screen Capture Not Supported Screen Mirroring Not Supported Screen Recording Not Supported Team Chat Features End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) Supported File Sharing Supported Groups / Channels Not Supported Payments Not Supported Search / Filter Supported Self-Destructing Messages Not Supported Stickers / GIFs Not Supported Threaded Discussion Not Supported Video Conferencing Supported Voice Calling Supported
Integrations Fantastical Supported Krisp Supported Accops HySecure Not Supported BroadConnect Not Supported Cayzu Not Supported CrystalSound Not Supported DigiBill Not Supported EffectsSDK Supported Flatchr Not Supported Live3D VTuber Not Supported MS Shift Not Supported Microsoft To Do Not Supported PowerSuite Not Supported Rambox Not Supported Redmine Supported SIPSNITYA Supported WorkPatterns Not Supported YouCam Not Supported Zoom Not Supported hubs101 Not Supported Show More Integrations View All 29 Integrations	Integrations Fantastical Supported Krisp Supported Accops HySecure Supported BroadConnect Supported Cayzu Supported CrystalSound Supported DigiBill Supported EffectsSDK Not Supported Flatchr Supported Live3D VTuber Supported MS Shift Supported Microsoft To Do Supported PowerSuite Supported Rambox Supported Redmine Not Supported SIPSNITYA Not Supported WorkPatterns Supported YouCam Supported Zoom Supported hubs101 Supported Show More Integrations View All 290 Integrations
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