Top 10 Whereby Alternatives

Did you ever get late for a meeting, and when trying to join, got hit with a: “download app to attend,” yeah, us too. And that’s what Whereby Video SDK tries to sell its services on. It claims to be a web-based video SDK that lets users attend meetings online without downloading an app. But, there’s always a but. Whereby just plainly doesn’t deliver.

It offers poor call reliability, and its customization is basic at best. So if you have even 1 second of packet loss, consider your call disconnected for minutes, and what if you don’t like the meeting interface? Too bad you can just change the logo and the colors.

Need I go more on why you should consider an alternative for Whereby? Yes, I will. I found some reviews online [summairzed for ease of consumption]:

• It does not allow as many free users as other alternatives.
• There is a significant lack of accessible apps within the platform.
• Optimizing the available screen area can be challenging.
• Developers need to enable more integration during collaborations.

So, if you think there are other video SDK platforms you can choose to make business communication and collaboration easier, then you are not wrong.

This guide will look at the top Whereby alternatives that can help you improve business communication and collaboration via video conferencing and other cool features.

Why Is Looking for a Whereby Alternative a Good Idea

Businesses constantly strive to stay ahead of the competition. One sure-shot way to gain an edge is by incorporating live video into your operations. That's why it's essential not to stick to a single platform and explore alternative video SDK options.

But before we dive into the alternatives, here are a few things to look for when considering a Whereby alternative.

1. Collaborative features should be readily available in the SDK.
2. The SDK should provide pre-designed UI components to facilitate rapid development of the interface for your live video solution.
3. An all-in-one SDK should offer comprehensive features, ranging from video calls to streaming and everything in between.
4. Advanced analytics, such as per-meeting usage, user on-time, and interactions, should be trackable.
5. The SDK should handle backend tasks like managing publish/subscribe logic and network deterioration.

Here are the Top 10 Whereby Alternatives:

Now that we've assessed Whereby's limitations and what to look for in a Whereby alternative, let's checkout Top 10 whereby alternatives including Dyte, Twilio, Zoom Video SDK, Daily, EnableX, TokBox, AWS Chime, Mux, Jitsi and Agora.

Let's assess features, drawbacks and pricing for each of Whereby Alternatives:

1. Twilio
2. Dyte
3. Zoom Video SDK
4. Daily
5. EnableX
6. TokBox
7. AWS chime
8. Mux
9. Jitsi
10. Agora

Are you ready to take your live video-calling game and explore the above mentioned alternatives?

In the following lines, we will get a bird’s eye view of each solution and compare them to Whereby to help you make an informed decision for your business.

Please Note: Our reviews are based on extensive research and honest user feedback, so you can trust us to provide valuable insights as we have spent hours analyzing user reviews online.

Twilio

Let's start with Twilio. Twilio is built on WebRTC technology, allowing you to bring real-time communication to your app with Twilio Video SDK. This platform can integrate video chat with REST APIs and SDKs. Here are some details to help you understand more:

• Twilio's SDK supports various programming languages like Java and Ruby, making it accessible to almost any developer to integrate into their applications.
• With Twilio, developers can utilize web, iOS, and Android SDKs that allow multiple audio and video inputs. However, developers must manually configure them, which requires additional coding.
• Twilio's call insights provide error tracking and analysis in case of call drops or errors. It supports 50 hosts within a call and 50 participants, including hosts. You can switch to Twilio Live for HLS streaming if you need to accommodate more participants. Sadly, Twilio doesn't offer any plugins for easy product development.
• However, if you want a tailor-made solution using Twilio's service, they don't have any ready-made tools or plugins to facilitate a quick execution.
• If your usage is high, then Twilio's pricing could go very expensive. Learn more about Twilio Video pricing.

Dyte

Dyte is a video conferencing and voice SDK that enables developers to integrate high-quality live video and voice into their mobile, web, and desktop applications with minimal coding. Here are some unique features that make Dyte stand out from other video SDKs:

• Automated audio/video management: Dyte's SDK offers audio/video publish and subscribe logic management out of the box, which means developers can focus on designing innovative features to enhance user retention.
• Customizable live experiences: Developers can leverage Dyte's SDKs and UI kit components to create fully branded live experiences tailored to their product. The SDKs and UI kit components make it easy to create customized live events, regardless of coding experience.
• Reliable Video Delivery: Dyte ensures that users' live videos always run smoothly, regardless of the network conditions. With intelligent bandwidth switching and minimal lag and frame drops, users are guaranteed a seamless experience every time.
• Out-of-the-box features: Dyte's SDK offers rich chat, emoji reactions, whiteboard, and screen sharing to enhance users' live experiences. Developers can add even more features with Dyte's plugins to create an interactive and engaging event.
• Cross-platform streaming: With Dyte's cross-platform streaming, developers can stream live events to millions of viewers across multiple platforms, including YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
• Scalability: Dyte's technology ensures that live audio and video can scale from just a few users to over 10,000, streaming to millions of viewers with RTMP output. Dyte's SDK ensures that live events are scalable and reliable, regardless of the audience size.

Dyte pricing

Dyte offers a usage-based pricing model that is affordable for businesses of all sizes. The service provides 10,000 free minutes of usage each month, and users are charged for each minute used, with different rates for different services.

The pricing is as follows:

• $0.004 per user per minute for product pricing, $0.010 per minute for recordings, and $0.015 per minute for RTMP out.

Dyte provides an online cost estimator to help users estimate the cost of using their services. Dyte also provides 24/7 support to customers via various channels.

Zoom Video SDK

Zoom Video SDK is a platform that empowers developers to build customized video-based applications using Zoom's technology. Unlike the traditional Zoom client, the SDK offers video stream, screen sharing, chat, and data streams as a service, giving developers the flexibility to pick and choose the features they want to use while building live in their app.

With server-side APIs and webhooks, developers have complete control over the Video SDK. Here are some points that best describe Zoom video SDK.

• The Zoom Video SDK allows developers to create bespoke video layouts for up to 1,000 participants/co-hosts per session.
• While customization is limited to in-session chat, screen sharing, third-party live streaming, and call layout management, the SDK offers complete control over the features developers want to use.
• Additionally, only predetermined host and participant roles are allowed, making collaboration difficult when permission modifications are required.

Daily

Daily is a video SDK platform that claims to simplify real-time video and audio call integration into web applications.

Here is a quick overview of Daily video SDK.

• Daily offers two ways to build real-time video and audio calls - the Daily Client SDKs and the Daily Prebuilt. This nifty video chat widget can be seamlessly added to any web application with minimal code.
• Daily provides basic collaborative features such as HD screen sharing, whiteboard, customizable text chat, and more to enhance the user experience.
• A poor initial experience and the slow technical support process make using Daily slightly tricky.
• The audio significantly deteriorates as the number of people on the call increase.

EnableX

EnableX is a platform for developers, ISVs, SIs, and service providers to create live communication experiences using live video, voice, and messaging SDKs.

Here is a quick overview of the solution.

• The platform has a low-code video builder that allows you to create custom video-calling solutions, live video streams, and a self-service portal with extensive reporting and live analytics.
• However, users have expressed that EnableX needs to improve its code structure for more straightforward implementation.
• Also, with limited UI customization, businesses have fewer branding opportunities.

TokBox

TokBox's Video API offers customizable video solutions for embedding into applications or websites.

It offers many benefits for organizations that rely on video to conduct their business, but there are areas of improvement that the company can address to provide a better user experience. Here is a quick look at the platform.

• Vonage Video [TokBox] provides video, voice, screen-sharing, signaling, and chat functionality for organizations that rely heavily on video to conduct their business.
• However, users have reported that the TokBox Dashboard is challenging, and real-time user usage details are unavailable. Additionally, some users have experienced delivery issues in certain countries.
• The platform does not handle the live video backend, so you must allocate engineers to build edge case management capabilities.
• The platform supports a maximum of 55 participants per call.
• The company provides chat-based support, which may take up to 72 hours to respond to your request.
• Read more about TokBox pricing here.

AWS Chime

Amazon Chime is a video conferencing tool built for business users on Amazon Web Services. It has various features such as VoIP calling, video messaging capabilities, and virtual meeting functionality, enabling users to participate in or host meetings remotely quickly.

Here is a quick overview of the platform.

• Amazon Chime provides an interactive and immersive experience for individuals or groups with screen-sharing, remote desktop control, and text-based chat capabilities.
• The SDK requires significant resources, including processing power and network bandwidth. Applications using the SDK may consume more resources than other applications, which can impact overall system performance.
• The AWS Chime Video SDK supports both web and mobile platforms. However, there may be differences in the SDK's functionality or performance across different platforms. Developers need to ensure that the SDK is optimized for their target platforms.
• Network connectivity issues can impact the performance of the AWS Chime Video SDK. Poor internet connectivity can result in audio and video quality degradation or buffering.
• The customer support of Amazon Chime is inconsistent at times, and users report varying times for query resolution depending on the agent on the call.

Mux

Mux is an API that allows developers to enhance their applications with live and on-demand video experiences while providing viewers with real-time streaming options. Here is a quick look at the Mux platform.

• With Mux, video encoding, delivery, and renditions are simplified to ensure an optimal viewing experience on any device.
• Developers can integrate Mux's SDK into their web-based, iOS-based, and Android-based applications to enable real-time video and live to stream with up to 100 participants in a WebRTC environment!
• Although users have shared that Mux could improve its UI by offering better data representation with graphs and charts for report management.
• The Mux Video SDK currently supports iOS, Android, and web platforms. If you need to support other platforms, such as desktops or smart TVs, you may need to consider a different SDK.
• In some cases, developers have reported performance issues with the Mux Video SDK, such as slow video processing or poor audio quality. Various factors, including network connectivity and device hardware, can cause these issues.

Jitsi

Jitsi is an open-source tool that empowers developers to add video conferencing capabilities to their applications. With Jitsi, you can initiate real-time video chats, collaborate with others, and share your screen.

Here is a quick overview of the features Jitsi has to offer.

• Jitsi Videobridge is an XMPP server that supports hosting multiple video conferences and uses default encryption to ensure secure communication.
• Jitsi Meet is accessible via web browsers and mobile apps for Android and iOS.
• Jitsi provides end-to-end encryption, giving you complete control over the source code and tailoring it to your needs.
• However, recording calls and live streaming to YouTube requires additional setup and configuration of Jibri.
• Jitsi's scalability and video quality can be impacted by endpoint hardware and bandwidth consumption.
• Jitsi is a free and open-source platform, but you must set up your servers and configure the user interface from scratch.

Agora

Agora is one of the popular choices when looking to streamline video calls and live-streaming experiences. It offers a low-level solution for integrating live streaming and video calls into your websites and mobile applications.

Here is an overview of this platform.

• Its features provide a good user experience for both audio and video, and its APIs and development tools can be easily integrated with your web services and applications.
• With Agora's customizable options, you can easily cater to the entertainment industry's distribution needs. However, the platform's various options with similar titles can be confusing, and its software still has some glitches that may redirect users to the home page.
• Nevertheless, developers prefer Agora for its robust live video SDK, and with the Premium pricing options, you can enjoy up to 2K+ video quality for your audience. If you're interested in delving deeper, we've written a comprehensive article on Agora pricing that provides an in-depth analysis.
• The Agora Live Video SDK provides a set of pre-built features and functionality that may not meet all applications' specific needs.
• Integrating the Agora Live Video SDK into an existing application can be complex, and developers may need to modify their codebase or architecture to accommodate the new functionality.
• Some developers have reported that the documentation provided by Agora is not always clear or complete, making it challenging to troubleshoot issues or build custom functionality.

What’s Next?

It is time to choose a video conferencing solution that delivers on its promises. Say goodbye to complex and time-consuming SDKs and hello to effortless live experiences in under 10 minutes.

With Dyte's user-friendly and intuitive interface, you can easily integrate video conferencing into your applications and websites without any hassle.

And if you're unsure where to start, our Quickstart guide and sample apps are here to help. In addition, we're so confident in our product that we're offering 10,000 free minutes to allow you to experience Dyte's benefits for yourself.

But we're not just giving you the product; our team is also here to support and assist you with any questions or concerns.

Don't settle for an incomplete video conferencing solution. Instead, take the next step and join the satisfied Dyte users who have experienced the difference firsthand. Click here to connect with us and start building with Dyte today.