Are VSee and ooVoo really that different? After all we both claim to have HD video conference, ongoing collaboration, free video calls, and no need for fancy equipment. While I can’t tell you if VSee is the ooVoo alternative for your needs, I will point out some issues with video quality, collaboration design, and security that may help. Of course, the best thing to do is to try out VSee and ooVoo for yourself, especially since both offer free group video calls.
Video Quality
I’m not alone when I say that VSee provides some of the highest quality interactive video around. VSee’s proprietary technology is designed to use 30-50% less bandwidth than most video calling solutions including ooVoo, WebEx, and Skype, which means that VSee is able to deliver high quality video over some of the weakest networks. In fact, VSee is able to deliver four HD video feeds simultaneously over a 4G wireless network. So when ooVoo says it offers HD video, while it may work in theory, it’s questionable how well it works in practice. Even Skype offers HD video, but few people are able to actually take advantage of it. In any case, we did our own little comparison of how much network resources VSee and ooVoo take up. I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves:
*Figures are for upload/download speeds, respectively and are taken from two-way video calls.
|
Resolution |
VSee |
ooVoo |
|
| Default (320 x 240 p, VSee) (352 x 288 p, ooVoo) | 50-150 Kbps | 192-216 Kbps | 180 Kbps |
| High Resolution (480 p) | 70-250 Kbps | 504-592 Kbps | 384 Kbps |
| High Definition (720 p) | 300-1000 Kbps | 960-2000 Kbps | 435 Kbps (download) |
Instant Collaboration
OoVoo, Vidyo, and Skype are not designed for fast collaboration. They are designed for video conferencing or VoIP calling, and have added on screen share and maybe some file transfer functions. VSee, on the other hand, was specifically designed to facilitate sharing and collaborating based on years of Stanford PhD research on how people work and play. This means it only takes one click for anyone to share an application window (and it doesn’t have to be your entire desktop, which saves you from having to clean your desktop of incriminating or personal information.) Furthermore, VSee allows all participants to instantly annotate, circle, and draw anywhere in a shared window. Participants are also able give and take mouse/keyboard control for any shared application. Finally, VSee’s drag-and-drop file send is an intuitive way to immediately “hand over” files that you have just finished collaborating on together.
Security
Not to continue beating a horse that’s still very much alive, but ooVoo relies on a go-between server that can expose your information to the public. With VSee, your information is encrypted from the moment it leaves your computer all the way to its final destination (the receiving person). At no point is your information ever decrypted and re-encrypted at a middleman server. Finally, I was very surprised to find that ooVoo actually e-mails your account password to you in plain text. This is a big security no-no that’s taught in any introductory security class. Even my non tech-savvy mom knows not to send passwords via e-mail.
Summary
- VSee’s network adaptive technology allows for higher quality video calls than ooVoo
- VSee’s research-based user design makes group collaboration more intuitive and more productive than ooVoo
- VSee’s client-to-client architecture creates a more secure video calling connection than ooVoo’s client-server model
In short, if high quality video, instant collaboration, and strong security are important video conferencing and video calling features to you, make sure you know what you’re getting into with your video conferencing service, so you don’t end up with any regrets!
(article updated Apr. 18, 2013)
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