Cloud Recording Plans

[bjm]

I am completely baffled by the fact that my account has only 1 GB of recording and in order to upgrade, the next level is 100 GB for $40/month.  Am I am missing a way to get additional storage that is a reasonable upgrade (like 10 GB) at a reasonable monthly fee? It makes no sense that the next level upgrade on a $149 account would be $480. Am I missing something? Is there any other options that make sense for a small business?

[Ray_Harwood]

Hi, @bjm –

A lot depends on what your purpose for recording is. There are two common use cases:

1.  Recordings are made, downloaded, and deleted. The downloaded files are edited in post-production off line, then possibly uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, or other video hosting site. 
2.  Recordings are made and left online, possibly with the beginning and ending trimmed as needed, but with no other editing; registered attendees have access to the recording, or the recording is made advisable to others via an emailed link.

 I’m guessing you’re in the first category, and possibly concerned that you might go over the 1G limit and be charged a higher overage fee.  For much of my early Zoom use, I recorded and downloaded and deleted, and frequently went over the 1G limit – but it seems that if you are not over the limit for more than 24 hours or so, there’s no charge added to the account. (I recorded full day events with all options checked and generated 6G of files, which I downloaded and “put in the trash” within 6 hours, with no problem.). There’s no documentation of this, and I can’t say it’s a Zoom policy – but has been my experience.

If you’re more of a second use case company, sorry, 100G is the next step up. I’m just a volunteer in the Zoom Community – I don’t make the rules. 

I’m a small-budget solo Zoom Meeting, Webinar, and Conference producer, and my clients expect me to be able to record, edit, and upload videos of their events. $40/month to ensure I never have to worry about it is part of doing business. I occasionally do multi day events, and run cost to the 100G limit. 

An option to consider is to link your Zoom account to DropBox, and have DropBox copy your files over as soon as your meeting ends. At that point, verify your files are present, then delete (move to trash) your Zoom files. DropBox is under $30/month for 3TB. I keep all my Zoom archives there!!

[bjm]

Thank you - this was very helpful!