Fuze Meeting Review

Review Summary: Conduct live meetings from any web browser with just a few clicks. Fuze Meeting’s intuitive user interface is easy to understand and doesn’t require you to download or install additional software. All you need is a phone line and web browser (with flash installed).

Pros: Works on all platforms. Simple user interface. iPhone application. Easily import contacts. Instant messenger platform that works with popular chat clients. Reliable performance. Fetch technology (calls participatns to the meeting).

Cons: No recording features (unless you upgrade to pro). No application-level sharing (must share whole desktop). No chat transcripts. No video conferencing.

Fuze Meeting Ratings

Category Score Why
Overall Rating: Fuze Meeting Overall Rating - 3.5 out of 5 stars Fuze Meeting covers all the bases with HD video, mobile applications, and other features. Fuze Meeting just missed out on our top 3 awards because it’s price to value ratio is not as strong as GoToMeeting, WebEx and Adobe Connect. They charge more for basic services like recording and extra audio minutes.
Usability: Fuze Meeting Usability Rating - 4 out of 5 stars Fuze Meeting is easy to use for both meeting organizers and meeting attendees. Surprisingly, their mobile application is less intuitive in some ways than their desktop application.
Audio quality: Fuze Meeting Audio Quality - 3 out of 5 stars The audio quality is good, but they don’t include unlimited teleconference minutes with their plans.
Video quality: Fuze Meeting Video Quality - 5 out of 5 stars Fuze Meeting really excels in the video quality. They were one of the first online meeting services to offer HD quality video.
Collaboration features: Fuze Meeting Collaboration Features - 3 out of 5 stars Fuze Meeting has basic collaboration tools. The lack of recording features in the standard version prevented us from giving them a higher score in the collaboration category.
Presentation features: Fuze Meeting Presentation Features - 4 out of 5 stars Fuze Meeting’s HD quality screencasting makes it a strong player in the presentation category.
Mobile features: Fuze Meeting Mobile Application Rating - 4 out of 5 stars You can organize, manage, and attend meetings from Fuze Mobile’s native iOS and Android applications. The presentation and sharing features aren’t as powerful as the desktop version.

What We Like About Fuze Meeting

iPhone/iPad Applications – You can start or join a meeting in progress from your iphone. The iPhone application isn’t as intuitive as the desktop (browser) version of FuzeMeeting.

Platform Support – Run online meetings from any browser that has the Flash plug-in enabled (version 10x).

Fetch Feature – Easily bring new attendees into your onine meetings with the built-in “fetch” feature. Now you don’t have to hang up to remind attendees to dial-in to the conference. Use the Fetch feature and Fuze will dial them up and bring them into the meeting. Fuze will also import your contact list so you don’t have to dial their number – simply click their name.

HD Quality Screen Sharing – FuzeMeeting broadcasts screen sharing in high definition. This feature works best with high bandwidth connections. If your attendees don’t have high bandwidth connections, the quality will suffer.

What We Don’t Like About Fuze Meeting

No recording features for basic plans – When using Fuze Meeting you better take good notes, there is no meeting recording features for the Personal and Plus plan. You need to upgrade to the Professional plan ($69/mo) to enable this feature.

VOIP is in beta – Online meeting services like GoToMeeting offer built-in and reliable VOIP, which can save you a lot of money on long distance calls. Fuze Meeting has recently added this feature, but it’s still experimental.

Control Granting and Screen Sharing Require Another Plug-in – If you want another meeting participant to share their screen, they must first install a Java plug-in.

Annotation Tools Have Limited Functionality – The annotation tools have limited functionality. For example, they don’t work on all devices (iPad, iPhone, and Android). You can’t annotate while screen sharing… this is a big drawback when you need to illustrate a point on your screen. Furthermore, annotation tools don’t work when another meeting participant takes control of the meeting.

Fuze Meeting Features

Pricing: $29 (personal), $49 (plus), or $69 (professional) – Depending on plan
Free Trial: Yes – 14 Days (all plans)
Meeting Capacity: 25 attendees (personal), 45 attendees (plus), 100 attendees (professional)
Desktop Sharing: Yes. Desktop and application sharing
Desktop Recording: Yes, but only on the Pro Package ($69/mo).
VOIP: Yes, but currently in beta
Phone Teleconference: Yes
Control Granting: Yes, but a separate Java plug-in is required for the participant.
Video Conferencing: Yes, HD quality
Private Chat: Yes
Annotation Tools: Yes, but the annotation features don’t work on all devices (iPad, iPhone, Android). Furthermore, the annotation features don’t work when another participant takes control of the meeting. GoToMeeting has full support for cross platform/meeting annotation.

Additional Resources

Before committing to an online meeting service, make sure you read the reviews for our top picks. You can also compare our top picks side by side. It’s worth noting, that most of the vendors we review on this site offer free trials.

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Go to Fuze Meeting’s website

Fuze Meeting Review Details

Reviewed by: Jeremy Palmer
Reviewed on: November 2011