Zoom Review 2026: More Than Meetings, But Is It Still the Best?
Zoom became synonymous with video calls, then spent the years since expanding into phone, chat, webinars, whiteboards and AI meeting summaries. The core product remains excellent; the surrounding suite is a mixed bag.
Call quality and reliability
Zoom’s strength is still connection quality on imperfect networks. It adapts bitrate quickly, handles packet loss better than most rivals, and works on almost any device — including low-end laptops and older phones. Screen sharing is smooth, with options for sharing a single window, optimising for video, and letting participants annotate.
The free plan
Free includes unlimited one-to-one meetings and group meetings capped at 40 minutes, with up to 100 participants. That is generous for personal calls and short stand-ups, but the 40-minute wall makes it unusable for real team meetings — at which point you need a paid seat.
Features that matter
- Breakout rooms for workshops and training
- Cloud recording with searchable transcripts
- Live transcription and automated meeting summaries
- Virtual backgrounds, noise suppression and touch-up
- Whiteboard and polling built in
- End-to-end encryption available for sensitive calls
AI Companion
Zoom’s AI can summarise meetings you missed, draft follow-up messages and answer questions about what was discussed. It is included on paid plans at no extra cost, which is a genuine advantage over rivals that charge separately. Quality is good for summaries; treat detailed action items as a draft to verify.
Pricing and the add-on trap
Per-user pricing is mid-range, but webinars, Zoom Phone, large-meeting capacity and extra cloud storage are separate add-ons that inflate the bill quickly. Audit what you actually use each quarter.
Verdict
Still the most reliable, most compatible video calling product available — especially when participants are on mixed devices, older hardware or weak connections. If your organisation already pays for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, their bundled meeting tools are good enough for internal calls and cheaper overall.