Is Mikogo a free lunch?
Since the launch of Mikogo, we have offered our screen sharing app free of charge. There are no limitations and no hidden catches. And no, you’re not dreaming.
While this is a really great offer and a great tool, we have received many questions regarding our business plan and how it is possible for us to provide Mikogo for free. We’ve all heard the expression, “There is no such thing as a free lunch”, so it’s understandable that some people are a little surprised that they can use Mikogo without reaching for their wallet/purse or without being scammed in some horrible way.
So how is Mikogo possible?
Mikogo is provided by BeamYourScreen the renowned provider of Web collaboration solutions. BeamYourScreen’s product range includes software solutions for online meetings, Web presentations, and remote support. The customers of BeamYourScreen include small, medium and large global corporations, such as Toshiba, Yamaha and Roche. Currently there are over 1400 customers worldwide benefiting from the BeamYourScreen technology.
However we received numerous requests for BeamYourScreen to provide a cheap/free screen sharing tool for private users who just wanted to host the occasional simple screen sharing meeting. For example some people just wanted something that they could use quickly to assist friends or family with computer issues via remote control. Others wanted an easy-to-use tool for online presentations and meetings.
With this in mind, the idea of Mikogo was created – a fun, easy-to-use and free tool for everyone to enjoy. Within Mikogo you’ll find all the important features of Web collaboration, such as screen sharing, switch presenter, remote control, and file transfer. However we keep Mikogo simple and easy to use for everyone, and consequently it is primarily targeted for use by private users and small businesses. On the other hand, customers using our fee-based BeamYourScreen products, who need greater Web collaboration capabilities, benefit from a wider range of features and high quality live customer support.
So why do we do it?
We hope that by providing Mikogo we will receive a lot of feedback on our tool and its capabilities, and that we can take this user experience and apply it to the BeamYourScreen tools to provide even greater service for our customers. Furthermore, small businesses using Mikogo may find that in the near future they require greater features and services, and therefore make the decision to upgrade to BeamYourScreen.
We don’t ask for much in return. A little feedback here and there via the blog and forum, but that’s about it. Other than that, it’s pretty close to a free lunch.
There are now over 45,000 Mikogo users who are enjoying our tool. If you wish to leave a comment about how you find our free service, please feel free to do so.
Cheers,
Andrew
Kudos!!! I have been using it to help my mom, over seas, with many computer problems. to the point, that she (75 year old) starts the meeting ahead of time and cannot wait for me to join.
1. on her behalf, many thanks!!!
2. seeing how well it works, i am very intersted in what features can my organization benefit from for professional use. where do we start with BeamYourScreen?
I have one suggestion for beamyourscreen. Many small businesses like ours need the upgraded features of BYS. I occasionally need a 1:20 or even a 1:30 meeting. Paying for that meeting is fine but I use it so infrequently, maybe quarterly or even semiannually, that $55 a month becomes over $200 for a meeting which is beyond our budget. What about a means to buy a meeting on an individual basis or a payment for use plan etc? thanks
ew
Hi folks,
your solution and offering is unbelievable – I tried a lot of other solutions before to support e.g. my dad and some friends with their PC issues remotely (e.g. LogMeIn). But Mikogo is really best and I’m looking forward for the upcoming new features.
Thanks a lot for offering this service for free – and I’ll provide feedback wherever meaningful.
All the best – Joerg
I have never doubted that you folks had things under control with a great business model. Keep up the great work and I will continue to recommend the great product.
I just love this Awesome Product.
A friend of mine from California Geronimo Rubio shared it with me and i am very pleased and honored to give this feedback, i have been using to share my documents with my friends and helping them how to browse online certain website that we require from our customers..
Well, we hope that in near future we will upgrade for sure to BeamYourScreen!.
All the best and once again thanks a lot and keep up the good and amazing WORK!
Mujaser
I really love Mikogo! I hope you get a Mac version some day. I would also like a dual monitor platform also. Keep up the good work!!
I think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I can help my friend who is over 2500 miles away to fix computer problems and he likes it too. It’s too bad that more people don’t take advantage of this opportunity. A lot of people are to frightened to try it. I love it.. My friend is actually watching me type this right now.
Bill and my friend Tomas
[...] others. It is absolutely free. However, in the company blog, Andrew Donnelly describes why there is no free lunch. Mikogo is a product provided by BeamYourScreen, a web conferencing company with a very [...]
[...] others. It is absolutely free. However, in the company blog, Andrew Donnelly describes why there is no free lunch. Mikogo is a product provided by BeamYourScreen, a web conferencing company with a very [...]
Bravo!! I just found Mikogo after a search and it’s exactly what we need. We’re a small business that uses online meetings once a month (or not at all) for client training. We were paying $50 a month for go to meeting and not even using it. Mikogo is the perfect solution. I’ve spread the word! Thanks for thinking of us small businesses!
@Shane, you’re welcome. And thanks for the compliments. Glad to hear you’re enjoying Mikogo. I’m sure you’ll like the new version and features. Cheers, Andrew
THANK YOU! I must admit I was completely suspicious that once I downloaded the new version I would somehow have to start paying for features! My family lives across the country and I especially use Mikogo to help my mom learn to do things. I spent days trying to set up remote control for her and I through our operating systems and was about to throw in the towel. Mikogo took seconds and was easy enough for my mom to download, without me having remote control yet
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I plan to have my other family members become users so we can easily share videos which are typically too big to email. I hope for a free video conferencing feature from Mikogo some day. We use another (free) program now for that purpose, but I would prefer Mikogo.
I really can’t thank you enough!
Just found your product through a 1:1 session I was about to do with my coach and he said scrap what you were told to use and use this….Mikogo. Its the DOGS…..What took you so long to give us the brilliant piece of superware. I would gladly pay a little extra per year for the new features.
I think software companies should look at their model and follow your lead, they would surely benefit as the biggest market as you know it is the small business end.
Well done!!
We tried Mikogo twice, and really like it for screen sharing, in combination with Skype so we can talk to each other, too.
I was reluctant to recommend a product that starts out free and then moves to a price point that’s out of reach. Knowing that Mikogo’s busines smodel is to keep it free for a small-scale use as a way to learn and gather feedback means I’ll happily spread word-of-mouth advertising for Mikogo, starting on Twitter and continuing at a presentation I’m doing tomorrow.
I like Mikogo.
I am starting to use frequent online meetings with clients. At present I use Adobe ConnectNow which only has in its free version a maximum of 3 participants.
I found Mikogo through my use of NetDocuments.
It looks a very interesting interface and I will be trying it out next week.
I don’t however think that the name is of any benefit to the product. How did such a name come about? I believe that the product name is important. Bing for example might have been good for Crosby, but I dont think it will do much for Microsoft.
Kind regards
Tom
@Tom,
Thanks for dropping by and for using Mikogo now. The name comes from a Swahili word what means “to display/show”. Such a name is quite nice for a software app for web conferencing, presentations, meetings and screen sharing. This also explains the giraffe theme in the Mikogo user interface.
While great, it could be better! It’s free but it’s slow. But I love the fact that it is free…and the website design is simply awesome, great branding…and it works…so no complaint there!