Butter vs. Zoom

Butter is the most engaging and collaborative alternative to Zoom. Because there’s no such thing as “Butter fatigue.”

But we’re not here to 💩 on Zoom.
Everyone uses Zoom. It was a simple way for us to connect during the early days of the pandemic. It became the verb for calling each other online.

But Zoom fatigue is real. Zoom was built for convenient video calls, not for hosting interactive workshops, collaborating on big ideas, or fostering engagement.

So our goal isn’t to convince you that Butter = good and Zoom = bad. We’re just going to share when you might want to use one versus the other.

The cure to Zoom fatigue

We created Butter because our founders were struggling to run engaging online workshops with Zoom.

1. Amp up the energy
Say goodbye to that grid of tired faces. Butter keeps participants engaged with emoji reactions, a hand-raise queue, polls, flashcards, and breakouts.

2. Stop juggling so many tools
Keep everyone focused on one window and one outcome. Work on Miro, MURAL, Google Docs, and more—all inside the Butter window. No extra add-ons, tabs, tools, or links required.

3. Structure your sessions. Get better outcomes.
Reduce the stress of facilitating a session. Create the perfect flow with a time-boxed agenda, pre-loaded tools, and a reusable team library. Then, access convenient recaps after your session.

They said it, not us…

When to use Zoom vs. Butter

We created Butter because our founders were struggling to run engaging online workshops with Zoom.

Zoom is awesome for:
- Basic video chatting
- Team stand-ups and 1-on-1s
- Presentation-style webinars
- Meetings that could have been an email
Butter is awesome for:
- Interactive workshops
- Bootcamps and courses
- Live training
- Highly collaborative sessions

What’s the difference between Zoom vs. Butter

Zoom

Butter

The Basics

Free time limit

40 minutes

60 minutes
(unlimited for one-on-ones)

Pricing

8 plans to decide between

One simple, $25 per-member plan

Hosting sessions

One Zoom link

Unlimited reusable rooms

Team workspace

Nope

Share rooms with your team, and save agendas and tools as Templates

Recordings

Limited storage

Unlimited cloud storage

Business phone lines

Included

What in the world is a phone line?

Mobile app

Yes

Yup, but it’s yellow!

Engagement & Interaction

Joining a session

A plain white screen

A customizable waiting room with GIFs and music

Reactions

Tiny (and nobody uses them)

Big, bold, and impactful!

Soundboard

Third-party app required

*air horn sound*

Asking to speak

Raise a little hand that everyone ignores

An ordered, hands-up queue that everyone can see

Awkward silences

Included

Not included

Chat

It’s just kinda there

Popping off with GIFs, reactions, and threads

Presenting

Someone screenshares slides 🥱

Use interactive flashcards, present a PDF directly, or share your screen (if you insist)

View modes

Speaker or gallery view

Gallery view, spotlight mode, panel mode

Breakouts

Included

Included, but like, way better (check them out)

People forgetting to unmute

Included

Okay, also included. But at least we made the buttons bright.

Integrated Tools

Polls

Simple multiple-choice polls

Built-in multiple-choice and open-ended polls with images, GIFs, and word clouds

Miro & MURAL

App required

Built in to the Butter window

Google Docs

One person screenshares and everyone else watches

Work together in the same Docs or Slides file

Play videos and music

Clumsily screenshare your video and audio

Play music or watch YouTube and Vimeo directly in Butter together

Taking notes

Third-party app required

Take collaborative or personal notes

Presenting

Someone screenshares their slides 🥱

Use interactive flashcards, share a PDF, spotlight participants, or share your screen (if you insist)

Embedded Links

Nope

Browse web pages together

Planning & Recapping

Agenda planner

Third-party app required

Built-in session planner, including an agenda and toolbox

Toolbox

A bunch of messy links on your notepad

Pre-load all your tools and links

Co-facilitators

You’re on your own

Prepare and run your sessions with your team

Session recaps

Nope

Access recordings, chat logs, poll results, and more

ACCOUNTS

Clones

Up to 20 clones per month

Categories

Business, Technology

User Limit

1 User

DESIGN INTERACTIONS

Lottie Animation

3 months

Design Interactions

3 months

DESIGN INTERACTIONS

Clones

Categories

-

ACCOUNTS

Clones

Up to 20 clones per month

Categories

Business, Technology

User Limit

1 User

DESIGN INTERACTIONS

Lottie Animation

3 months

Design Interactions

3 months

DESIGN INTERACTIONS

Clones

Categories

-

ACCOUNTS

Clones

Up to 20 clones per month

Categories

Business, Technology

User Limit

1 User

DESIGN INTERACTIONS

Lottie Animation

3 months

Design Interactions

3 months

DESIGN INTERACTIONS

Clones

Categories

-

How real facilitators are using Butter

These awesome folks swapped Zoom for Butter.

What

.

The

.

FAQ

?

.

Why should I use Butter?

A plus sign

Other video conferencing tools aren’t built for collaboration. They’re built for conversations.
Butter, on the other hand, is built for planning, running, and recapping engaging and interactive collaborative sessions. We focus on empowering facilitators, moderators, and hosts by giving them all the tools they need to engage participants in one place.

You can set up your agenda and tools in advance, create tons of engagement during your session, and then wrap things up with ease. Teams also have one workspace to collaborate, share templates, and access recaps for all their sessions.

What types of sessions is Butter best for?

A plus sign

Butter isn’t built for those could-have-been-an-email meetings. You know the ones! 🥱
Butter is a tool for facilitating highly-collaborative sessions like workshops, training sessions, bootcamps, courses, events, interactive webinars, social events, or any other session where you need to keep people energized and productive.

Of course, you can use Butter for everyday meetings too. But it’s so much more than a meeting tool.

Is Butter free?

A plus sign

Pretty much! Our free Basic plan lets you run group sessions for up to 60 minutes with as many as 100 participants. One-on-one sessions are unlimited and free.

Our Business plan comes with no time limits, unlimited rooms, unlimited cloud recordings, and a collaborative team workspace where you can share rooms and tools.

Read all about pricing here.

How many participants can join a Butter session?

A plus sign

Up to 100 participants can join a session on the Basic and Business plans.

If you need to host more people, you can upgrade up to 200 participants per session with the Large Sessions add-on (the Business plan is required to purchase add-ons).

Read more about add-ons here.

Do you need an account to join a Butter session?

A plus sign

Nope! Participants can join by clicking the shared invite link and accessing directly through their browser.
They’ll get the added bonus of accessing Recaps for sessions they’ve joined when they sign up though (for free!). 😉

Do you have a desktop or mobile app?

A plus sign

Yes, we do. You can download the Butter desktop app to run or join sessions. We also have the Butter mobile app for participants on the go!

Do you host your own video?

A plus sign

Video meetings on Butter are hosted by Daily.co

Is Butter GDPR compliant?

A plus sign

As a Danish company, we care a lot about privacy and we’re continuously striving to fulfill the GDPR. You can read all about our compliance efforts, privacy, and security in our GDPR Policy.

Ready to run buttery-smooth virtual sessions? It’s time to experience Butter for yourself!