When the pandemic forced education online, Zoom was there. It was reliable, easy to use, and worked when everyone needed video calls immediately. Teachers learned it, students learned it, and it became the default.
Now, years later, online teaching has matured. What was emergency adaptation has become normal practice for many institutions. And as teachers have gained experience, many are asking: is there something better suited to education?
The Breakout Room Frustration
The most consistent frustration teachers report is with breakout room monitoring. As we've explored in detail, you can only be in one room at a time and you can't hear multiple rooms simultaneously.
For teachers whose pedagogy relies on small-group work — and that's most tutoring and language instruction — this limitation affects every session. The constant room-hopping, the lost visibility, the inability to maintain awareness of all students simultaneously — these add up to daily friction.
Security and Access Concerns
Zoom's default access model is link-based. Share a link, anyone with the link can join. "Zoom bombing" became a real problem, and while security has improved, the fundamental model remains: meetings are accessible via shared links rather than controlled accounts.
For education — especially with minors — invite-only access is more appropriate. Students should have accounts with your institution, and only invited students should be able to enter sessions. This isn't just about security; it's about maintaining a professional learning environment.
Not Designed for Teaching Workflows
Zoom was built for meetings. Its feature set reflects that: scheduling, calendars, enterprise integrations, webinar capabilities. Education-specific features have been added, but they're additions to a product designed for something else.
What teachers need differs from what business users need:
- Monitoring and oversight, not just hosting
- Student management, not contact lists
- Session scheduling with educational context, not just calendar events
- Recording for review and catch-up, with proper consent handling
Zoom wasn't built for education, and while it can be used for education, the mismatch shows in daily workflows.
Data and Privacy Questions
Zoom is a US company storing data on US servers. For European educational institutions, this raises GDPR compliance questions. International data transfers are legal with proper safeguards, but they add complexity.
Some schools and institutions have policies requiring EU data hosting. Others simply prefer the simplicity of knowing student data stays in Europe.
The Familiarity Trade-off
Zoom's biggest advantage is familiarity. Students know it. Parents know it. It requires no explanation. This is genuinely valuable — reducing friction for users matters.
The question teachers are asking: does familiarity outweigh the daily limitations? For occasional online teaching, probably yes. For institutions where online teaching is the core business, the answer often becomes no.
What Teachers Are Looking For
When teachers explore alternatives, they typically want:
Better breakout room monitoring: See all rooms at once, hear multiple rooms, join invisibly when needed.
Proper student access control: Invite-only accounts, not link-based access. No "Zoom bombing" concerns.
Education-oriented design: Features built around teaching workflows, not business meeting workflows.
Simple compliance: EU hosting, clear data handling, straightforward GDPR compliance.
Professional branding: Their own branded space rather than a generic meeting link.
Making the Decision
There's no universal right answer. Zoom remains excellent software that works well for many teaching contexts. The question is whether its limitations affect your specific teaching enough to justify switching.
For tutoring centers and language schools where small-group breakout work is central, the limitations often do matter enough. For occasional supplementary online sessions, Zoom's familiarity may outweigh its gaps.
If you're curious about alternatives, Simpleclass offers a 7-day free trial with 10 users included. Run a few real sessions and see if the workflow difference justifies a switch. That's the only way to know if an alternative actually fits your teaching better.