Katmai vs Zoom in 2026: An Office or a Meeting?

A video call is a meeting. A virtual office is an office. Zoom gives a remote team scheduled meetings: a link, a grid of faces, and silence when the call ends. Katmai gives a remote team a place to work: a photorealistic 3D office in the browser where your team is present on live video through the day, so you can see who is around, walk over and talk, and bring clients in by link. Katmai is $25 per user per month with every feature included, no minimum number of users and free guests. Zoom has a free plan and paid plans priced per user on zoom.com/pricing. Zoom is the right tool for a scheduled call with people outside your company. Katmai is the right tool for the hours between those calls, which is most of the working day.

This page is published by Katmai, which makes virtual office software. Zoom's plans and prices come from zoom.com/pricing; check them before you buy.

Katmai vs Zoom at a glance

What Zoom is good at

Zoom is the standard for scheduled meetings with people outside your company. Everyone has it, it works on every device, and a link is all a guest needs. For a webinar, a board meeting or a sales call with a prospect who will never install anything, Zoom is the safe choice, and a team on Katmai can keep using it for exactly those moments.

What a call can't do

A meeting has a start and an end. Between meetings, a remote team on Zoom is invisible to itself: you don't know who is working, who is free, or who is stuck. So the quick question becomes a calendar invite, the calendar fills up, and people complain about meeting overload while feeling more isolated than before. Back-to-back calls are the symptom of a team that has no office, not a sign that it is collaborating well.

What Katmai adds

Katmai is where your team is, not something you dial into. Each person is present on live video in a photorealistic 3D office, at a desk or in a room, and everyone can see it. If you need two minutes with a colleague, you walk over. If a client is due, they join by link and find you in your office rather than on a disposable call link. Conversations get shorter because they happen when they are needed, and the calendar empties out. Katmai runs in the browser with nothing to install and no headset; Katmai recommends 16GB of RAM and an i7 processor or better.

What each costs a team

Katmai is $25 per user per month, every feature included, no minimum number of users. Ten people are $250 a month, twenty-five are $625 a month, and guests add nothing. Zoom's paid plans are priced per user, with a free plan for basic meetings; the current figures are on zoom.com/pricing. The two overlap less than they look: Katmai replaces the office your team lost, while Zoom remains the way you meet the outside world.

Which should you choose?

Choose Zoom alone if your team only needs scheduled calls, mostly with people outside the company, and nobody misses being in the same room.

Choose Katmai if your team spends the day on back-to-back calls and still feels disconnected, if new hires take months to find their feet, or if you want clients to walk into your office rather than a meeting link. Keep Zoom for the outside world. Katmai is $25 per user per month with every feature included, no minimum number of users and free guests.

How Katmai compares to other virtual offices

FAQ

Can Katmai replace Zoom?

For your own team, yes: colleagues are already present on live video in the Katmai office, so there is nothing to dial into. For calls with people outside the company who expect a Zoom link, a team can keep Zoom alongside.

Is Katmai a video conferencing tool?

No. Katmai is a virtual office: a photorealistic 3D space where your team works together on live video all day. Meetings happen inside it, but presence is the point.

How much does Katmai cost compared to Zoom?

Katmai is $25 per user per month with every feature included, no minimum number of users and free guests. Zoom has a free plan and paid plans priced per user on zoom.com/pricing.

How do clients join Katmai?

By link, in the browser, at no charge. They arrive in your office rather than on a meeting link.

What does Katmai need to run?

A browser and a computer with 16GB of RAM and an i7 processor or better, which Katmai recommends. No download and no headset.

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