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When a Russian platform is needed and when Zoom: data and the regulator, payment, capacity, webinars, meeting rooms, single sign-on, support. Ten criteria without names.
If your organisation belongs to the public sector or critical infrastructure, or must keep all meeting data in Russia, the regulator has made the choice for you: you need a Russian platform. That is normal, and we will say the same in a conversation.
In every other case the question is decided not by the flag on the box but by ten criteria. Where the data is stored. How the purchase is documented. How many people are in a meeting. Whether webinars and telephony are in the same licence. Whether meeting room equipment works. Whether there is single sign-on. Who answers for support and in which language. The table is below. There are no vendor names on this page: we do not compare competitors by feature tables; they go out of date within a quarter.
Since 2019 this blog has not published "Zoom versus platform X" comparisons. The reasons are the same as then. Platforms update every month, and a comparison table goes out of date before it is read. We know everything about Zoom and are not obliged to know everything about the others. And we respect competitors: each of them makes remote communication the norm.
So below is a comparison not of platforms but of criteria. Go through them with any vendor, including us. The extended checklist of seventeen questions is in the article on Zoom alternatives.
Government bodies, state-owned companies, critical information infrastructure, some banks and healthcare. The requirement for domestic software and data storage in Russia is not up for discussion here.
If you never meet foreign customers, partners and branches, you do not need the depth of an international platform.
, and a call is needed "to press a button". The built-in call will win, because there is no need to switch to anything.
with no currency component, and that is a requirement from finance, not a wish.
In all four cases we will not sell you Zoom. In a year you would give up the licences, and we would lose more than we earned.
Customers, partners, branches and candidates abroad join by link without installing anything and without asking "what program is this".
and online conferences with several halls.
Already purchased Zoom Rooms equipment and SIP and H.323 systems work with Zoom out of the box, not through adapters.
Meetings, chat, telephony, contact centre and AI in one licence and one user directory.
for hundreds of users: SSO, managed domains, centralised recording and retention settings.
The column "Russian platform" describes a typical offer, not a specific product; individual vendors may differ, and that is a reason to ask them.
| Criterion | Zoom through an official partner | Russian platform, typically |
|---|---|---|
| Where the data is stored | Zoom's cloud outside Russia; media traffic and recordings can stay in your network through Zoom Node | In Russia, in the vendor's cloud or on your own servers |
| Register of domestic software | No | As a rule, yes |
| Payment and documents | A contract with a Russian legal entity, an invoice in roubles at the Central Bank rate on the payment date, an acceptance certificate and a VAT invoice; how it works | A contract and an invoice in roubles at a fixed price list |
| Currency risk | Yes: the price is tied to the rate on the payment date | Usually none |
| Participants per meeting | Up to 1,000; a webinar up to 100,000 attendees | Depends on the plan and servers; large webinars are often a separate product |
| Webinars, telephony, meeting rooms | In the same platform and the same user directory | Often separate products or other vendors |
| Meeting room equipment | Zoom Rooms, SIP and H.323 out of the box | Depends on the vendor; check the list of compatible equipment |
| Single sign-on and management | SSO via SAML, managed domains, policies, an admin dashboard; on Business and above | Available in corporate editions; check the depth |
| External participants | Join by link from a browser, without installing | Often require installing an app or registering |
| Support and rollout | Through a partner in Russian, a contract, training, equipment | Directly from the vendor in Russian |
Ask not "where are your servers" but three things. What is stored outside Russia in any case? Can the region for storing recordings and messages be chosen? Can media traffic and recordings stay in your own network?
Zoom's answer is this. Accounts and meeting metadata live in Zoom's cloud. Meeting media traffic, recordings and telephony can stay inside your perimeter through the Zoom Node and Recording Hybrid modules. If the external link drops, meetings and calls continue inside the network thanks to local survivability. Encryption is on by default, and for individual meetings there is end-to-end encryption. If that is not enough for the regulator, this is the very case from the first section.
Comparing the price per licence is pointless until you have counted how many licences you need and what is in them. Three rules.
First: a Zoom licence is needed by the host, not by every employee. A company of three hundred people with twenty hosts buys twenty licences. If another vendor licenses "every user", multiply by three hundred.
Second: count the whole platform. If webinars, telephony and meeting rooms are separate products at another vendor, add them up.
Third: count the rollout. A licence bought and not put to use costs the same as a working one. Who trains the staff, who sets up single sign-on, who answers for the platform actually being used: that is a question for any vendor.
Zoom's prices in roubles today are on the buying page: Pro is 18,686 ₽ per host per year excluding VAT at the Central Bank rate on 6 September 2026.
If the company has meeting rooms with cameras and codecs, count them before choosing a platform. Zoom works with Zoom Rooms equipment and with SIP and H.323 systems through the Conference Room Connector. Ask the other platform for the list of compatible equipment and what to do with what you have already bought. Replacing the codecs in ten meeting rooms costs more than a year of licences.
Ask them of any vendor, including us, on the day the decision is made, not from a six-month-old review.
Nothing terrible. The platform must suit the task, not the other way round. In a year something will change: foreign customers will appear, webinars will grow, the security team will ask about single sign-on. Come back, and we will talk then.
The next step is not payment but a conversation: how many people schedule meetings, whether you need webinars and meeting rooms, whether there is single sign-on. After it, an invoice in roubles, an account in your company's name, staff training and support in Russian. Leave a request, and we will answer within a working day.
There are several Russian video conferencing platforms, and for the public sector and critical infrastructure they are mandatory. For other companies the choice is decided by criteria: data, payment, capacity, webinars, equipment, single sign-on, support.
No. Zoom works in Russia without a VPN, and companies buy licences under contract through a partner, because a Russian bank card does not go through on Zoom's site. Details on the page Zoom in Russia in 2026.
Yes, recordings and media traffic can stay in your own network through the Zoom Node and Recording Hybrid modules. Accounts remain in Zoom's cloud.
We do not compare platforms by feature tables. Zoom is chosen for meetings with the outside world without installing anything, webinars for thousands of attendees, working with meeting room equipment and one platform instead of several.
When the regulator requires domestic software and storing all data in Russia. When all meetings are internal and live in one messenger. When the budget allows no currency component.
No. If the register is mandatory for your organisation, you need a Russian platform.
We'll give you a remote demo Monday to Friday, 10:00–16:00 Moscow time, answer all your questions and provide trial access so you can explore the system yourself.
Please note: we work with legal entities only.