8 Best Zoom Alternatives for Mac in 2026: Free and Paid

The best Zoom alternative for most Mac users is Google Meet: guests can join from a browser, and free group calls run 60 minutes against Zoom's 40. Choose FaceTime for calls with other Apple users, Microsoft Teams if your company runs Microsoft 365, and Whereby when guests shouldn't have to install or sign in to anything.

Free Zoom stops every meeting at 40 minutes, and Zoom's pricing page starts paid plans at $14.16 per user monthly, billed yearly. That's easy to justify when your whole week runs through Zoom, and harder when you host a few calls from a MacBook. This roundup lines up eight options using each vendor's own published limits and prices, then walks through the Mac permissions and the switch itself, so nobody ends up waiting on an old link.

Eight Zoom alternatives side by side

Free time limits and the first paid price separate these tools faster than any feature list. Zoom's own row is included as the baseline, and "not stated" means the vendor's page doesn't publish a figure, which is different from having no limit.

Which Zoom alternative should a Mac user choose?

The right Zoom alternative depends mostly on who's on the other end of the call, because a guest who can't get in costs more than any subscription. Start from your most common meeting and match it below.

• Mostly other Apple users, small groups: FaceTime. Nothing to buy, nothing to install on your side.
• Clients and outside guests on any computer: Google Meet, or Whereby if you can pay for a room with no time limit.
• A company already paying for Microsoft 365: Microsoft Teams, because the people you meet are probably in it already.
• A team that already lives in Slack: Slack huddles for quick internal calls, with a separate tool for clients.
• Privacy-minded groups, or an organization that wants its own server: Jitsi Meet.
• A community, a class or a hobby group: Discord.

Webex sits slightly apart from that list. It earns its place when a customer or partner already standardizes on Cisco, since its free plan offers the same 40-minute cap as Zoom and little reason to move on length alone.

The 8 best Zoom alternatives for Mac

1. FaceTime: best for calls with other Apple users

FaceTime is the Zoom alternative already on your Mac, and it costs nothing. Apple's Mac guide allows up to 32 other people on a Group FaceTime call, and Apple's security guide says call audio and video are end-to-end encrypted, with Apple unable to decrypt them. You need to be signed in with an Apple Account.

Guests without Apple devices can still join through a link, which is the part many Mac users never try:

1. Open the FaceTime app on your Mac.
2. Click New Call, then click Create Link.
3. Choose how to share the link, such as Messages.
4. Click the link's tile, then click Join FaceTime and Join when it's time to start.
5. Approve each guest from the waiting notification that appears on your screen.

Apple's link instructions cover those steps. The catch is on the guest's side: someone joining from Android or Windows needs the latest Chrome or Edge and can't use screen sharing or SharePlay. You can still share your own screen from the Mac. When I sent a Windows-using client a FaceTime link for a quick review, I forgot that detail until they tried to show me their slides. Now, if the other person needs to present, I send something else.

2. Google Meet: best overall for mixed guests

Google Meet suits Mac users who invite people outside their company, because it runs in a browser with no required download. Google's Meet requirements give a free personal account up to 100 participants, one-on-ones of up to 24 hours on a computer and group meetings of up to 60 minutes. Current versions of Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Edge are all recommended.

Google makes no native Mac app for Meet. To keep it in your Dock, install the Progressive Web App from Chrome: go to meet.google.com, click Install in the address bar, and the app appears in your Dock with the same features as the website. For the first call, my guide on how to make a Google Meet meeting covers starting one now or saving a link for later.

Recording is the main gap on the free tier. Google's premium features page ties it to Google One Premium with 2 TB of storage, Google One AI Pro and Ultra, Workspace Individual and eligible business plans. On Google Workspace, Business Starter allows 100 participants and doesn't include recordings saved to Drive; Business Standard raises that to 150 and adds recording. Starter begins at $7 per user monthly with annual billing, so check Standard's price if recording matters to you.

3. Microsoft Teams: best if your company runs Microsoft 365

Microsoft Teams is the sensible Zoom replacement when your colleagues and calendar invites already live in Microsoft 365. Microsoft's free Teams page lists group meetings of up to 60 minutes, up to 100 participants and one-on-ones of up to 30 hours, the longest published free one-on-one on this list.

The cheapest step up is also the cheapest paid plan here. Teams Essentials costs $4 per user monthly under a yearly subscription and raises meetings to 30 hours and 300 participants, with 10 GB of cloud space for each user. Outside a Microsoft shop, I'm less keen: Teams brings chat, channels and files along with the call, which is a lot of app if all you wanted was a meeting link. For a deeper look at this pair and Zoom, see Zoom vs. Google Meet vs. Teams.

4. Webex: best when your partners already use Cisco

Webex is Cisco's meeting platform, and its free plan is the closest match to Zoom's. Webex's pricing page lists unlimited meetings of up to 40 minutes with up to 100 attendees, plus local recording. Cisco's help article says those recordings land in your Home folder on a Mac, which is worth knowing before you go hunting through Documents.

The Mac side needs one check. Cisco's download page offers separate installers for Apple silicon and Intel and still lists macOS 12 or later, while Cisco's installation notes end macOS 12 support with the August 2026 release. Plan on macOS 13 or later. Enterprise allows up to 1,000 attendees and is priced through sales, so request a quote if you're comparing it against Zoom seat for seat.

5. Whereby: best for guests who shouldn't install anything

Whereby gives you a permanent room link that opens in the guest's browser, and its documentation says participants need no account or login. That matters for client calls. I once had a prospect spend the start of our first conversation fighting an installer, and that's not the impression you want before you've said hello.

Whereby's pricing makes the free plan a trial more than a tool: one room, four attendees and 30 minutes. Pro costs $10.99 a month with three room links, up to 100 attendees, no meeting time limit and recording. Business costs $13.99 per host a month with a three-host minimum, unlimited rooms and up to 200 attendees. Solo consultants are the natural fit, since Pro's price isn't multiplied across a team.

6. Jitsi Meet: best free and open-source option

Jitsi Meet is a free, open-source video tool. Using it requires no account, and you can choose your own room URL. One recent change matters: on October 9, 2026, Jitsi capped meetings on meet.jit.si at 95 minutes and said more changes are coming. Older pages describing no time limit are out of date, though 95 minutes is still the longest published free group limit in this comparison.

Opening a room has one wrinkle. Jitsi's handbook says the first person into a meet.jit.si room must sign in with Google, Facebook or GitHub, or wait for a moderator, so log in a few minutes early when you're the host. On a Mac you can stay in the browser or install the desktop app from a .dmg file or with Homebrew.

Encryption comes with a limit too. Jitsi's end-to-end encryption page says the option in Security options covers audio, video and screen sharing but not chat or polls, and it needs a supported browser or the desktop client. Organizations can also run their own Jitsi server, since the 95-minute notice applies to the public meet.jit.si service. That job belongs with someone who already looks after your servers.

7. Slack huddles: best for quick internal calls

Slack huddles replace the short Zoom call your team books for a question that didn't need a meeting. In the Slack app on your Mac, open a channel or direct message, click the headphones icon, then click the camera icon if you want video. Slack's huddles guide allows two people without a paid plan and up to 50 with one, with 25 on video at once and two people sharing screens at a time.

Slack's pricing starts group huddles at Pro, at $7.25 per user monthly when billed annually. That makes huddles an add-on to something you already pay for, not a reason to adopt Slack. I treat them as the corridor conversation: fine for the team, the wrong room for a client.

8. Discord: best for communities and groups

Discord fits recurring groups better than formal meetings, because its voice channels stay open for people to drop in and out of. Discord's video calls guide allows 25 people on video in a server channel and 50 viewers on a single screen share, while group direct messages hold up to 10 members.

Mac users should know two things before relying on it. Discord ended support for macOS 12 on September 17, 2026, so you need macOS 13 or later for updates. And screen sharing on macOS works through a voice channel you have permission to share in, so a server's settings can block you. Sending a Discord link to a client would puzzle most of them, which is why it sits last here for work calls.

How do you allow camera, microphone and screen sharing on a Mac?

macOS treats camera, microphone and screen access as separate permissions, and all three are set in Privacy & Security. A new meeting app that can't share your screen usually needs this change, not a reinstall. Apple's privacy guide and its screen recording page describe these controls:

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings.
2. Scroll the sidebar to Privacy & Security and click it.
3. Click Camera and turn on the app. Go back, then do the same under Microphone.
4. Click Screen & System Audio Recording and turn on the app. If it isn't listed, use the Add button under the list, select the app and click Open.
5. Quit and reopen the app before your next call, in case the change hasn't taken effect.

How to switch from Zoom on a Mac

Switching from Zoom takes an afternoon for one person, and the risk sits in the old links and recordings, not in the new app. Work through it in this order:

1. Save your recordings first. Local files go to the Documents/Zoom folder in your home folder by default. Cloud recordings need a paid plan, so download any you want from the Zoom web portal under Recordings & Transcripts before you cancel.
2. List your recurring meetings. Your calendar's next four weeks will show most of them, including the standing ones nobody thinks about.
3. Run one low-stakes call on the new tool. Pick an internal check-in, and test screen sharing with a real document.
4. Replace the link in each recurring invite, then send the update so it reaches every attendee's calendar.
5. Tell people once, in the invite itself. A line such as "We've moved to Google Meet; the link below replaces the old Zoom one" beats a separate announcement people won't connect to the meeting.
6. Cancel your Zoom plan last, after a full cycle of meetings has run on the new link.

Step 4 is the one that catches people. When I moved a standing weekly meeting away from Zoom, I changed the description and left the old link in the location field, and a colleague sat alone in the old room until someone messaged them. Now I delete the old link everywhere before sending the update.

Leaving Zoom as a host doesn't cut you off from clients who still send Zoom links. Zoom's web app lets you join from a browser without downloading software, although the host has to enable joining from a browser, and Zoom says audio and video are better in its desktop app. Zoom's guest instructions also let you join without an account unless the host requires sign-in, so attending those calls doesn't call for a paid plan.

One Mac-specific reason to look around: Zoom Scheduler, Zoom's booking-link tool, doesn't support Apple iCloud calendars. If your calendar lives in iCloud and you'd planned to use Zoom's booking links, that plan needs a different calendar or a different tool.

When to stay on Zoom instead

Stay on Zoom when most of your outside contacts already expect a Zoom link, or when your team has its habits and recordings built around it. A cheaper seat isn't always a saving if it means walking guests through a new tool on every call. Before canceling, count the meetings you actually host against the ones you only attend, because a paid seat mainly pays for the hosting.

Whichever tool you land on, the notes are a separate decision. Built-in AI summaries vary by vendor and plan, so my comparison of AI note-taking tools is the next stop if you relied on Zoom's, and the guide to live transcription in Zoom, Teams and Google Meet covers captions.