NOTE

Shortly after I wrote this raving review, Sessions suddenly and unexpectedly took a nose dive. After an incredibly bad attempt at a second funding campaign, services started glitching and I no longer recommend Sessions as a meeting platform.

After using Zoom for many years, I decided to switch to Sessions in 2023.

If you primarily use video calls for client meetings, team collaborations, group sessions, virtual coworking, coaching calls, and/or webinars and workshops, then this article is for you. While Zoom and Sessions both offer unique benefits and are both great tools, I’ve learned it’s important to find the tool that best aligns with your personal and business requirements…. and that’s what this article is about.

Zoom – Pros and Cons

Personalisation: backgrounds and widgets

Zoom allows users to personalise their meetings by adding custom wallpapers and pinned actions, providing a touch of individuality and branding to your video calls. This feature can help create a professional and engaging atmosphere during meetings.

Focus on Enterprise and Large Organisations

As a sole proprietor running my own business, I found that the needs of a smaller operation like mine were often different from those of large corporations – and I felt Zoom features (and customer support) would mostly focus on larger organisations.

I often found myself overwhelmed by the number of features I didn’t necessarily need.

Separate App Requirement

One drawback of using Zoom is the requirement to download a separate app for video calls. This extra step can be inconvenient for clients who aren’t accustomed to video conferencing tools.

And, honestly, I also found it more annoying with time: starting or joining a new call was often slow, requiring updates at random times (and always just when I wanted to start a call!), often requiring me to go back and log in before being able to access a call I’d scheduled – or join someone else’s call displaying my own profile.

On the other hand, Sessions meetings take place directly in the browser, eliminating the need for participants to install any additional software.

Slow Support

Customer support is essential for any service or software, and Zoom falls short in this area. Many users experience frustratingly slow response times or even a complete lack of response from Zoom support. In one case, Zoom support replied to my ticket after 9 months (Nine! Months!) of nudging and following up.

Limited Room Links

Zoom limits regular accounts to only one fixed room link, which means you can’t have multiple permanent links for different purposes.

When I needed a second fixed link to host coworking sessions separately from my regular meeting room (so people would be able to access or stay in the coworking room even if I had to step out for a client call), I upgraded my account – paid for an extra user (= double the yearly rate) so I’d be able to have a second link… Unfortunately, it turned out that wasn’t possible. Money absolutely wasted, since I didn’t actually need a second user account.

Limited Cloud Storage on Regular Plans

Another downside of Zoom is its restricted cloud storage capacity on regular plans. With only 5 GB of storage, long meetings or frequent calls quickly fill up the allotted space. And while Zoom does offer expanded storage options, these come at an additional cost – so most solo business owners find themselves recording meetings to their computer, then uploading the recording to Dropbox or Google Drive so they can share it with fellow attendees.

Sessions – Pros and Cons

User-Friendly Browser Experience

Sessions offers a hassle-free video calling experience within the browser itself. This ease of use makes it easy to use for some less tech-savvy clients – and I find it refreshing to simply click a link to start a call, instead of having to jump through hoops (with Zoom updates, login issues, pop-ups, etc).

Multiple Fixed Rooms

Sessions offers multiple fixed rooms for different meeting purposes. I have one link to host all regular (client and team) meetings, and a different link for our weekly coworking sessions.

Custom Booking Links

Sessions enables you to create custom booking links that seamlessly integrate with your website, ensuring a professional and streamlined booking experience for everyone.

Before Sessions, I paid for Acuity – a third-party scheduler that offers a great experience… but it’s one more tool to pay for and integrate with other tools.

Relevant Features for Hosts

Sessions has exactly the right features to enhance video call experience for both hosts and attendees. From interactive whiteboards and polls to group and private chats, Sessions offers a robust toolkit for hosts – without making things overwhelming.

The platform also includes innovative features like Takeaways (notes to share with the entire group) and Notes (notes to keep for yourself). Before Sessions, I was keeping notes in a third-party app like Notion or putting actionable items into Trello or ClickUp; I have been told the Zapier integration even allows to send notes directly to your project management software, but haven’t tried this yet myself.

Instant Shareable Recordings and Transcripts

Sessions takes the hassle out of recording and sharing meeting content – when enabled, your meetings are not only recorded but a transcript gets created on the spot.

After each meeting, participants can access the recording, transcript, and takeaways from the call without the need for manual sharing. If you choose to enable this, of course.

• This saves me (or my VA) time – no need to manually download, upload, and share recordings
• It speeds up processes: e.g. clients can access the recording and transcript almost immediately after the call, so they can get to work right away – even if I have more meetings and no time to follow up with them in the moment.
• It makes it easier for me to follow up or process calls: after a strategy call, I can access the recording, the transcript, shared takeaways from the call, and my private notes – all in one place. All things an external tool like Fathom (which I use as a note-taking app on Zoom calls) can do as well – but again, it’s another external tool.

Call Types: Regular Meetings, Meeting Rooms, and Events

Sessions features three distinct call types: meetings, rooms, and events.

• Meetings get created either when someone books a call with me, or when I create a call and invite others to join me.
• Rooms provide fixed links: I have a fixed link for most client and team meetings, a second link for our weekly coworking sessions, and I occasionally create temporary links e.g. for recurring meetings around a specific project.
• Events allow you to create registration-based gatherings (webinars, workshops, etc). This is the feature I use for our monthly planning workshops.

Stellar Customer Support

In their Slack workspace, Sessions uses AI-driven solutions first: you get an AI reply to questions within seconds of posting. But if the AI didn’t answer your question, a real person will be along soon to guide you and provide you with all the information.

I personally appreciate that Sessions developers hang out in Slack as well, which makes it really easy to escalate an issue – and they seem very responsive towards requests for fixes and improvements.

Next-Level Screen and File Sharing

Sessions offers different ways to share your screen, URLs, and other materials. You can choose between traditional screen sharing or opt for more advanced options such as uploading files or sharing links that each attendee can then navigate independently.

This makes it great for both showcasing a presentation and collaborating on documents in real-time. Or if you’ve attended one of our coworking sessions, you may have grown to love the embedded Cuckoo timer!

Multilingual Transcriptions

It’s also worth noting that Sessions’ transcriptions perform admirably across languages: even when I switch between English and another language during a call, the Sessions transcript catches on quickly.

The Downsides of Sessions

Growing Pains

I signed up for Sessions as a beta user, when they promoted the app through AppSumo – and I love that I’ve been a part of their journey, seeing the app improve and become more and more like they’d promised when I joined.

However, since Sessions is a relatively young app, occasional growing pains and compatibility issues arise.

As the platform expands and introduces new features, these also come with bugs and glitches.

Only once in the past year did it impact user experience so much that several participants weren’t able to join an event I’d planned; the link they were sent wasn’t working for them, and I couldn’t access the list of people who registered – and couldn’t tell them to come and join us in a different Sessions room.

or face temporary compatibility challenges with less common browsers and devices. Nevertheless, the Sessions team consistently works to address these obstacles and improve overall performance and compatibility.

The main downsides of switching from Zoom to Sessions primarily revolve around initial user experience hiccups. Users reported difficulties joining via phone before the iOS app launch and occasional browser compatibility issues outside of Chrome and Safari. These early-stage challenges, however, should not overshadow the remarkable benefits that Sessions brings to the table.

Compatibility Issues

Sessions has been primarily created for use in your browser, notably Chrome or Safari; this means less common browsers and devices face more bugs and glitches. The Sessions team consistently works to address these and improve overall performance and compatibility.

Users also reported more difficulties joining via phone before the iOS app was launched.

Buggy Virtual Backgrounds

At the moment of writing this (July 2024), the Virtual Background option in Sessions is glitchy – and has always been. Turning on a virtual background in Sessions often makes the screen turn black… might as well turn your camera off then.

Some video call attendees rely on virtual backgrounds to professionalise their appearance or hide whatever distractions take place behind them – and Sessions simply doesn’t offer a seamless virtual background experience just yet.

For me personally, these growing pains do not weigh up against the many perks of Sessions – and I invite everyone reading this to take their own conclusions.

Similarities between both apps

Besides distinct pros and cons for each tool, I have found there are many similarities between Zoom and Sessions.

Solid Basic Features

Both offer a video call experience that’s more seamless and user-friendly than most other tools I’ve tried in the past. Basic features like camera on and off, muting the microphone, group chat, sharing screen, etc seem to work equally well in both apps.

Integrations

Zoom seems to sync with more other apps than Sessions does – the question is, do we need all those integrations? (I never used most of them).

Zoom integrates with a range of note-taking apps, project management software, and CRM systems – whereas Sessions provides integrations with mostly popular applications such as HubSpot, Evernote, Notion, and Zapier.

“Meh” Virtual Assistance Options

Even when paying for an extra user in Zoom, my virtual assistant was never able to e.g. access recordings from my meetings or take action on my behalf. Same with Sessions: although it has different permissions levels and options for extra users, my VA can’t send out invites in my name (and from our main email address) unless they actually log in with my username and password. It’s either that, or making them the main owner of the account – and have them invite me as “co-host” to meetings. Meh.

Conclusion: Choosing the Right Tool for Your Needs

Choosing between Zoom and Sessions ultimately depends on your needs, preferences, and priorities. Both platforms offer distinctive advantages.

• Zoom allows for greater personalization, Sessions is working on this
• Zoom integrates with more apps, Sessions integrates with essential apps.
• Sessions offers multiple fixed rooms, custom booking links, and other user-friendly features in the basic plan
• Sessions opens in the browser; no need to update software or click through pop-ups when you join a call
• Sessions provides exceptional customer support through their Slack workspace.
• Sessions “Memory” features include easy access to recording, transcriptions, and notes – all in one place.

Please note: the information I share in this article reflect the my personal experiences and opinions and may not necessarily represent every user’s experience. Do your own homework and check out the Zoom website and Sessions website for yourself!