Looking for some great WebRTC alternatives? 

Sure, WebRTC is the best video calling technology or platform for succeeding basic video chat features in your app. 

But it lacks many features natively that developers have to achieve with custom solution or code. 

In simpler words, WebRTC lacks many important features that do not provide a smooth video calling experience to a team. 

That’s why many developers prefer video chat API – Zujo Now – over WebRTC. 

Yes, Zujo Now is the paid video calling SDK. So you might have a question – why should I pay for Zujo Now if WebRTC is already free. 

Well, there are 10 big reasons! 

Let’s compare both and understand what you are missing with WebRTC.  

10 reasons to choose the best video calling API – Zujo Now – over WebRTC

Let’s start with the most significant one. (We’ve left best for the last!)

1) Adaptive Video Calling or Dynamic Video Configuration

If you want to have a video chat app that automatically reduces or increases the video resolution based on internet speed and meeting size, WebRTC will disappoint you. 

WebRTC Limitation: 

Often, no separate server is built and managed for the WebRTC chat app. 

As a result, it does not have the native ability to take many real-time factors into consideration and configure videos dynamically or adjust video resolution dynamically. 

This limitation causes major frustration to the user if he does not have enough bandwidth. 

Because, in such a case, the WebRTC chat app shows him the ‘poor connection’ error message – rather than adjusting the video resolution according to bandwidth. 

Zujo Now Advantage

Zujo Now team has built and is actively managing the server for video conferencing. 

With a server, the chat app will have the capabilities to change the video resolution based on real-time factors such as bandwidth, meeting size. 

Such a mechanism ensures a smooth video calling experience. 

Because, now in the case of slow internet connection, the video chat app will reduce the video resolution rather than sending an error message. 

2) Bandwidth Consumption 

Generally, video chat apps are notorious for consuming more bandwidth. 

WebRTC Limitation:

We already discussed that WebRTC cannot change the video resolution in real-time. 

Because of this, the bandwidth consumption increases with the increase in meeting size. 

Let’s understand it with an example. 

User A and User B are having a video call and the bandwidth consumption for each user is 20kbps. 

Now, another User C joins the same call. The bandwidth consumption will increase because now the video chat app has to stream 3 videos. 

Zujo Now Advantage

When it comes to bandwidth consumption, Zujo Now works differently and intelligently. 

It utilizes its unique capability – reducing or increasing the video resolution based on meeting size – to keep the bandwidth consumption 50% lower than WebRTC. 

Here is how it achieves such: when a new team member joins a video conference, Zujo Now decreases the video resolution and keeps the bandwidth consumption unchanged.  

3) Packet Loss 

Packet loss is a very common issue with the video chat app. One major consequence of the packet loss is very poor video quality & user experience. Thus, it is essential to handle it. 

WebRTC Limitation 

WebRTC natively cannot handle the packet loss as it works on UDP which does not guarantee automatic retransmission that kills the scope of dropped packets’ recovery. 

You either need to write a complex algorithm or use a video chat API like Zujo Now to handle packet loss in WebRTC. 

Zujo Now Advantage

The complex algorithm we just mentioned has already been implemented in Zujo Now. 

That algorithm makes sure that there is 0% packet loss and a user needs to send only one outgoing signal to receive streams from all other users.  It works as follow: 

• The server receives incoming video/audio from all team members’ devices.

• The server sends multiple copies of uncompressed video/audio of other team members to each team member.

• The devices of the team members merge incoming video/audio.

4) Device Support 

Users use multiple mobile and computer devices running on different operating systems to have video calls. Meaning, your video chat app should not have any compatibility issues. 

WebRTC Limitation

WebRTC only supports the latest versions of popular browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Edge.

It also supports several operating systems such as Windows, Android, Linux, Mac OS X. 

However, the major limitation of WebRTC is that it does not support iOS Safari. 

Zujo Now Advantage

Like WebRTC, Zujo Now supports all popular web browsers and operating systems. But unlike WebRTC, Zujo Now supports the iOS Safari! 

5) Video Aspect Ratio

You must be aware of the Hangouts layout. With every new layout, the video chat app changes the video aspect ratio. 

WebRTC Limitation 

WebRTC natively cannot change the video aspect ratio with respect to meeting size. You have to use a custom solution to achieve such a feature. 

Zujo Now

Zujo Now does not only change the video aspect ratio with respect to the meeting size, but it also considers the type of device (mobile or tablet, or laptop) a person is using for video call. 

6) Security 

Most sensitive audio and video data are being transferred in every video call. Thus, without any second thought, security should be the utmost priority. 

WebRTC Limitation

WebRTC is indeed a very secure video calling technology. It not only encrypts the video and voice data, but it also encrypts the data channels used to transfer this video and voice data. 

However, to have some extra security features, you have to use a custom solution as WebRTC lacks it natively. 

For instance, the WebRTC video chat app asks users permission to access the camera and microphone. But that permission isn’t automatic and cannot be made automatic. 

Zujo Now Advantage

Zujo Now is the most secure video calling API. In addition to encrypting all data and data channels, Zujo Now restricts data access and logs every access to identify the threat. 

Most importantly, every other participant except for the main participant needs to have a link to join the call. 

7) Documentation / Terminology 

The time it requires to develop a video chat app depends on the skill of the developers and how easily he can get help or support if he encounters bugs or challenges. 

WebRTC Limitation

WebRTC is a widely used technology. 

But when it comes to the learning curve, a developer with knowledge of only JavaScript or Node.Js cannot easily develop it as there are complex protocols and security practices involved. 

Things get harder when developers have to develop an advanced video chat app for business-centric use cases in enterprises. 

Though there are many tutorials available both in terms of blogs and videos, it does help developers to develop the video chat app client has asked for!

Zujo Now Advantage

Zujo Now is very easy to learn and implement because of the following reasons. 

• Since it satisfies all your requirements natively, you don’t have to write custom codes. 

• Zujo Now offers clean documentation with easy-to-understand terminologies and in-depth tutorials. 

• Zujo Now team always remains on the edge to solve any doubt of developers. 

8) Meeting Size 

Imagine you have developed a video chat app for online schooling and it can only accommodate 5 users in the video call!  Which school is going to use your video chat app? 

WebRTC Limitation

Ideally, WebRTC is the peer-to-peer video calling technology. 

To fit more users in the WebRTC video chat app, you have to write a custom solution on different architectures. 

Even with custom solutions, you cannot provide a remarkable user experience as with increasing meeting size, WebRTC consumes more bandwidth and struggles to change the video aspect ratio automatically. 

Zujo Now Advantage

Zujo Now is the enterprise-level video calling SDK that by default supports the video call of up to 20 participants. You can easily increase the meeting size without writing any complex code. 

9) Call Recording 

Video chat apps are the medium of academic and business communication. Thus, many times users want to record the video calls for future reference. 

WebRTC Limitation

Users cannot record the video call in the WebRTC chat app. 

Zujo Now Advantage

Zujo Now not only facilitates users to record the call, but users can also save recorded calls in internal storage or on cloud storage i.e., Google Drive. 

10) Interactive Video Calling in Real-time 

WFH culture is changing the way our offices used to work. Employees are now preferring to collaborate online for planning, designing, and reviewing. This requires interactive video calling. 

WebRTC Limitation

Interactive video calling in the WebRTC video chat app is simply not possible. It is also very costly and complex to use a third-party solution to achieve interactive video calling in real-time.

Zujo Now Advantage

Zujo Now natively supports interactive video calling in real-time. 

One example of interactive video calling is white-board. Users in a video call can plan out activities or draw some design on a white-board presented on each user’s screen. 

Another example is the poll. A user can generate the poll and other users can vote in real-time. 

Let’s schedule a call. We promise you to have it through Zujo Now! (You will get an instant & honest demo)

There are several video call APIs available in the market. 

But we haven’t seen any ‘developer-friendly’ APIs that cost less, have a high benefit-cost ratio (BCR), and are easy to integrate. 

Zujo Now – the best video calling API – has been developed by developers, for developers! 

And this is why Zujo Now is solving the challenges developers are facing with WebRTC (that end-users and CxOs don’t care about)!