GatherPlace Review

GatherPlace features a limited set of functionalities, which makes for instant understanding of the tool. The web conferencing solution is intuitive in its usage and offers the meeting host all essential functionalities, such as screen sharing, switching of mouse and keyboard control, change of presenter, and recording of web conferences.

The tool offers an interesting feature which is unique among the most common web conferencing solutions. The meeting host can create sessions and save them as meeting master copies. These master copies can be used and re-used any time, which is extremely useful for regular meetings with the same set of attendees. The host can specify the type of meeting, who may participate, and which phone conference will be used. Unfortunately the host can not specify a date for a meeting or even schedule a recurring meeting.

Together with the invitation process, the scheduling of meetings is the weak point of GatherPlace. After creating a session or opening an existing one the host can invite attendees with the integrated email client. However, these invitation emails do not include a date for the meeting. This means that if the host does not want to have an ad hoc meeting he will have to take the following steps to invite attendees: 1. Create session 2. Copy the session to clipboard (functionality: "invite someone by instant messenger") 3. Open local mail client, create an appointment in calendar and send it to attendees

Currently, GatherPlace doesn't support video conferencing.

Bottom line: GatherPlace is a simple and easy-to-use web conferencing solution. All the functionalities essential to web conferencing are included and well structured, so that the handling of the tool is intuitive.

Pricing

Different pricing models depending on the maximum number of attendees and additional features (VoIP and meeting recording). E.g.:

"Basic" Version for up to 5 attendees = USD 29 per month (annual subscription fee: USD 290); "Premium" (includes VoIP and recording function) Version for up to 5 attendees = USD 43 per month (annual subscription fee: USD 430);

"Basic" Version for up to 20 attendees = USD 39 per month (annual subscription fee: USD 390); "Premium" Version for up to 20 attendees = USD 58 per month (annual subscription fee: USD 580)

License options

Single user license for an unlimited number of web meetings. The maximum possible number of attendees as well as the feature scope depend on the license.

Voice over IP and phone costs

VoIP integrated