Zoom is one of the most widely used video conferencing services in the world, and in New Zealand it has become shorthand for “let’s jump on a video call”. This review explains what Zoom actually gives you for free, where the paid plans start, how New Zealand billing works, and which alternatives are worth comparing before you pay. It is written for individuals and small businesses who want the facts rather than a sales pitch, so prices, limits and features are stated plainly and checked against Zoom’s own pricing page.
Quick Facts
| Developer | Zoom Communications, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Official download | zoom.us/download |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, web browser |
| Licence | Proprietary; free Basic tier plus paid subscriptions |
| Free plan | 40-minute group meetings, up to 100 participants |
| Paid from | US$14.16 per user/month (Pro, billed annually) |
| Latest | Rebranded as Zoom Workplace (2024) with Zoom AI Companion on paid tiers |
What is Zoom Workplace?
Zoom Workplace is the current name for Zoom’s meetings, chat, phone and scheduling suite. In 2024 the company folded its older “Zoom One” bundles into a single platform branded Zoom Workplace and built an AI assistant, Zoom AI Companion, across it. The core product most people recognise — the video meeting app — works the same way it always has: you install a small desktop or mobile app (or join straight from a web browser), start or join a meeting with a numeric ID or a link, and share video, audio and your screen.
Zoom is made by Zoom Communications, Inc. (formerly Zoom Video Communications), a US company. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, and offers a browser-based client so guests can join without installing anything. Because the host’s account sets the rules for every meeting, the plan the organiser is on — not the attendees — decides how long a call can run and how many people can join.
Although most people use Zoom only for video meetings, the Workplace suite also includes several other tools under the same account: Team Chat for persistent messaging and channels, an online Whiteboard for brainstorming, Notes and a Mail and Calendar client. Zoom Phone — a cloud phone system for making and receiving calls to real phone numbers — is a separate paid add-on rather than part of the standard meeting plans. For a straightforward video review like this one, the meeting app is the part that matters, but it helps to know the extras exist so you can judge whether a paid plan is replacing several tools or just one.
How Zoom works and how to get started
Getting started is quick. You create a free account with an email address, download the Zoom Workplace app, and you can host your first meeting in a couple of minutes. To join a meeting, you only need the link or the meeting ID and passcode — no account is required for guests. On a phone or tablet the dedicated iOS and Android apps give you the same core controls as the desktop, which is handy for joining from the road. Before an important call it is worth doing a quick test: Zoom has a test-meeting page that checks your camera, microphone and speakers so you are not troubleshooting audio while everyone waits.
Video calls are demanding on your connection, so a stable internet link matters more than raw speed. Zoom recommends roughly 1.5–3 Mbps up and down for group HD video, which most modern home connections handle easily. If calls stutter or drop, it is usually a Wi-Fi or router problem rather than Zoom itself — it is worth running a quick broadband speed test and, if numbers look fine but calls still lag, learning to tune your router settings for smoother video. Picture and sound quality also depend on your hardware; a dedicated webcam and microphone make a noticeable difference over a laptop’s built-in camera, and our guide to webcams for working from home covers options for every budget.
What does the free Zoom plan include?
The free plan, called Basic, is genuinely useful but has one well-known catch: the 40-minute limit. Here is what you get and where the walls are.
The 40-minute limit
Group meetings on the free Basic plan end after 40 minutes. When the timer runs out the meeting closes and everyone is dropped; the host can simply start a new meeting for a fresh 40 minutes, but it interrupts the flow. The limit is set by the host’s plan, so if a free-plan user hosts the call, it still ends at 40 minutes even when paid users are in the room. One-to-one calls have historically been treated more generously, but Zoom has applied the 40-minute cap broadly, so you should plan around it for any meeting you host on the free tier.
How many people can join
Free meetings allow up to 100 participants. That is plenty for a family catch-up, a club meeting or a small class, and it matches the entry paid plan — paying for Pro does not raise the headcount, it only removes the time limit. To go above 100 participants you need the Business plan or a Large Meeting add-on.
What the free plan leaves out
Besides the time cap, the free Basic tier omits several things that paid users get: cloud recording (you can still record locally to your own computer), full Zoom AI Companion features such as meeting summaries, single sign-on, admin management tools, and longer whiteboards. For casual and personal use the free plan is often all you need; the limits only start to bite when meetings run long or you need recordings and administration.
Zoom paid plans and New Zealand pricing
Zoom prices its plans in US dollars and bills New Zealand customers in USD, with GST added at checkout for local accounts. The figures below are Zoom’s official list prices at the time of writing; the annual column is the discounted rate when you pay for a full year up front. New Zealand card charges will convert at your bank’s exchange rate, so treat any NZD figure as approximate.
| Plan | Monthly (per user) | Annual (per user/month) | Meeting length | Max participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic (free) | US$0 | US$0 | 40 minutes | 100 |
| Pro | US$16.99 | US$14.16 | 30 hours | 100 |
| Business | US$21.99 | US$18.33 | 30 hours | 300 |
| Business Plus / Enterprise | Contact sales | Contact sales | 30 hours | Up to 1,000 (add-on) |
At current exchange rates, Pro works out to roughly NZ$23–$28 per user a month and Business to roughly NZ$30–$36 per user a month before GST, depending on whether you pay monthly or annually. Always check the running total on Zoom’s checkout, because add-ons and GST change the figure.
Pro
Pro is the plan most solo users and tiny teams actually need. It removes the 40-minute limit (meetings can run up to 30 hours), adds cloud recording with transcripts, and unlocks more of the AI Companion features. It keeps the 100-participant cap, so you are paying for longer meetings, not bigger ones.
Business
Business raises the participant cap to 300, adds single sign-on, company branding, managed domains and admin dashboards, and is sold per user with a minimum seat count — typically from around ten seats — so it is priced for teams rather than individuals. The admin tools let one person provision accounts, enforce security settings and see usage reporting across the organisation, which is the real reason businesses pay for it rather than stacking individual Pro licences.
Business Plus, Enterprise and add-ons
Business Plus and Enterprise are quote-based plans aimed at larger organisations; they bundle Zoom Phone allowances, higher support tiers and advanced compliance tools. Across every plan, participant caps can be lifted with the Large Meeting add-on (up to 500 or 1,000 attendees) and webinar capacity is sold separately, so the sticker price is rarely the final price for big events.
Key features worth knowing
Zoom’s reputation rests on doing the basics reliably, then layering extras on top. The features below are the ones that come up most often in day-to-day use.
- Screen sharing and co-annotation: share your whole screen, a single window or a document, and let participants draw on it in real time.
- Breakout rooms: split a large meeting into smaller rooms for group work, then pull everyone back together — widely used in classrooms and workshops.
- Recording and transcripts: record locally on the free plan or to the cloud on paid plans, with automatic transcripts and, on paid tiers, AI-generated summaries.
- Virtual backgrounds and filters: replace or blur your background for privacy or a tidier look.
- Webinars and events: a separate, paid product for one-to-many broadcasts with registration, Q&A and attendee controls, scaling to large audiences.
- Calendar and app integrations: schedule from Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook or Apple Calendar, and start meetings from Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- Zoom AI Companion: an assistant on paid plans that summarises meetings, drafts follow-ups and answers questions about what was said.
Security and privacy
Zoom’s security is much stronger than it was during the “Zoombombing” headlines of 2020, when uninvited guests crashed public meetings. Standard meetings are encrypted in transit, and hosts have practical controls to keep meetings private: passcodes, waiting rooms (where the host admits each guest), locking a meeting once everyone has arrived, and restricting screen sharing to the host.
Zoom also offers optional end-to-end encryption (E2EE), where only participants — not Zoom’s servers — can decrypt the call. E2EE is a trade-off: turning it on disables features that rely on Zoom’s servers, such as cloud recording, live transcription, phone dial-in and breakout rooms, so most people leave it off for everyday meetings and reserve it for sensitive conversations. For any business handling personal data, it is worth reviewing Zoom’s data-handling and where your meetings are processed, and setting a company policy on recording consent, because New Zealand privacy rules apply to recordings of identifiable people.
Zoom vs the alternatives
Zoom is not the only option, and for some uses a free competitor is the smarter choice. The table below compares the free tiers of the main video-calling services so you can see where Zoom’s limits sit. Microsoft’s consumer Skype was retired on 5 May 2025 and its users were moved to the free version of Microsoft Teams, so Skype is no longer a live alternative.
Video Call Alternatives Compared
| Service | Free group limit | Free participants | Notes / best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom | 40 minutes | 100 | Polished meetings, breakout rooms, many integrations |
| Google Meet | 60 minutes | 100 | Browser-based, tied to a Google account, 1:1 calls up to 24 hours |
| Microsoft Teams | 60 minutes | 100 | Chat plus meetings; now the home for former Skype users |
| Cisco Webex | 40 minutes | 100 | Enterprise focus, strong admin and security options |
| Jitsi Meet | No fixed limit | Varies | Open source, no account, runs in a browser or self-hosted |
In short: Google Meet and Microsoft Teams both give you 60 minutes free versus Zoom’s 40, which can be decisive if you only ever host short, casual calls. Zoom tends to win on polish, breakout rooms and the sheer number of integrations, and it is the default many clients already have installed. If you want a completely free, no-account option with nothing to pay ever, open-source Jitsi Meet runs in a browser; the site’s rundown of open-source VoIP and communication software covers self-hosted routes in more depth. For calling landlines and mobiles rather than other apps, a proper calling service is a better fit — see the comparison of VoIP providers in New Zealand.
Common mistakes to avoid
Most Zoom frustrations are avoidable. These are the ones that catch people out most often.
- Paying when the free plan would do. If your meetings rarely run past 40 minutes and stay under 100 people, Basic is enough. Many solo users subscribe out of habit rather than need.
- Buying Pro to fit more people. Pro keeps the 100-participant cap. If headcount is your problem, you need Business or a Large Meeting add-on, not Pro.
- Assuming the host limit comes from attendees. The time and participant limits follow the host’s account. A paid attendee cannot rescue a meeting hosted on a free account.
- Turning on end-to-end encryption by accident. E2EE silently disables cloud recording, transcription and dial-in. Only enable it when you specifically need it.
- Skipping meeting security. Posting a meeting link publicly without a passcode or waiting room invites gate-crashers. Keep waiting rooms on for anything open to the public.
- Blaming Zoom for a Wi-Fi problem. Frozen video is usually a weak connection. Move closer to the router, use a wired connection, or improve coverage before switching apps.
Who should pay for Zoom?
Pay for Pro if you regularly host meetings longer than 40 minutes, need cloud recordings and transcripts, or want the AI Companion summaries — it is the best-value upgrade for individuals and very small teams. Choose Business if you have multiple hosts to manage, need more than 100 participants, or want single sign-on and admin controls. Look at Business Plus or Enterprise only when you also want Zoom Phone, large webinars or compliance features, and are comfortable talking to sales.
Stay on the free plan if your calls are short, personal or occasional, or if 60 free minutes on Google Meet or Teams covers you. Many New Zealand home offices run perfectly well on a mix of free tools alongside paid productivity software for home offices, keeping Zoom only where its features genuinely earn the subscription.
Sources
Vanliga frågor (FAQ)
Is Zoom free to use?
Yes. Zoom’s Basic plan is free and lets you host meetings with up to 100 participants, but group meetings are capped at 40 minutes and you miss cloud recording, single sign-on and the full AI Companion. For many personal and occasional users the free plan is all they need.
How much does Zoom Pro cost in New Zealand?
Zoom Pro is listed at about US$16.99 per user a month billed monthly, or US$14.16 per user a month when paid annually. New Zealand customers are billed in US dollars with GST added, so at current exchange rates expect roughly NZ$23–$28 per user a month. Check Zoom’s checkout for the exact total.
Why do Zoom meetings end after 40 minutes?
The 40-minute cap applies to meetings hosted on the free Basic plan. When it is reached the meeting closes and the host has to start a new one. Upgrading to any paid plan lifts the limit to 30 hours per meeting. Because the host’s plan sets the rule, a paid guest cannot extend a free host’s meeting.
Is Zoom secure for business use?
Zoom encrypts meetings in transit and offers waiting rooms, passcodes, meeting locks and optional end-to-end encryption for sensitive calls. It is widely used in business, but you should set a policy on recording consent and review how meeting data is handled, since New Zealand privacy rules apply to recordings of identifiable people.
What are the best free alternatives to Zoom?
Google Meet and Microsoft Teams both offer free plans with a longer 60-minute group limit and 100 participants, while open-source Jitsi Meet is free with no account and runs in a browser. Microsoft retired consumer Skype in May 2025, moving its users to the free version of Teams.
