
We’re exploring diversity ranging from old webinar software to new entrants and feature-rich to feature-focused tools.
Whether you’re a student, manager, developer or belong to any occupation, this virtual ecosystem has become part and parcel of everyone’s life.
A report says that about 77% of marketers rely on webinars for lead generation.
Sometimes, article guides, explainer videos or general marketing tactics just don’t make the cut. In that case, you need to gain trust by interacting with people or making them a part of the event.
And the moment they join your session clearly indicates their curiosity or interest in what you’ve to show.
We also understand that not every one of you wants to stick to those 4 or 5 best tools the world has been repetitively recommending. C’mon folks, we’ve had enough with Zoom!
There are a lot of tools with much better features and functionality.
And here, you’re going to figure out the 15 best webinar software and apps that can really make the cut.
If you want to make an informed decision as to which webinar platform could fit your needs, don’t miss the checklist at the end.
1. Crowdcast
A creator-centric webinar software
Crowdcast is one of those conference software that is more geared towards engagement. That’s why it’s at the top of our list.
For online creators or social media influencers, Crowdcast is a go-to choice that aims to amass an audience and create a community around your content.
Forget Facebook or Instagram feeds! This webinar tool can keep your followers on the hook whenever you host online events or livestreams.
Crowdcast is a web-based tool and that’s one of the biggest advantages for users. Much like Google Meet, it supports almost every popular browser.
If you’re starting on your creator journey, you can generate a sharable link and simply post it on social media with appealing content. Moreover, if you already have followers on the platform, they would always get notified every time you schedule an event.
Overall, Crowdcast is an exciting way to build a brand around your content with a host of marketing-based features.
But considering the feature factor and price point, is that the best tool out there?
Let’s find out more about it.
What key features is Crowdcast generally known for?
- The platform is enabled with multistream, which is a great way to broadcast your webinar on social media such as on YouTube or Facebook live. Moreover, you can even share Crowdcast features like screensharing, email registration, payments, etc, over social media channels for wider outreach.
- Your audience can reuse the same registration link from your past webinar video without the need for a separate link. The platform comes with a recording feature that anyone can access for missed videos.
- Q&A, polling and comment features are separately placed so that you don’t confuse them with the overall experience of the webinar.
- With personal customization features, you can showcase your brand identity to your audience using cover images, videos, etc, to help them get familiar with your events.
- Rich integration options with many third-party vendors to give the workflow a smooth experience. Zapier integration makes it even easier to automate emails and support calls.
Things that we appreciate:
- Inexpensive plans, easy to set up and low learning curve
- Multistreaming helps to broadcast on multiple social media channels and YouTube.
- Virtual invitation to your audience on the screen through chat.
- Registered users can get recorded sessions on the go.
Things we don’t like:
- Frequent quality issues with screen sharing and voice
- Moderator can’t get admin access during live event
- Less customization options for the landing page
- You may face compatibility issues on the Safari browser
Pricing
You can save 30% with an annual subscription for each plan:
- Starter @ $20 per month
- Lite @ $34 per month
- Pro @ $62 per month
- Business @ $136 per month
It also offers a 2 weeks free trial with all business features included where you can host 10 attendees for 30 minute long sessions.
2. Livestorm
Best webinar software for marketing and sales teams
The reason you should use Livestorm is to bring the audience to your sales funnel. And therefore, this tool is purposely focused on users (especially marketers) who already have a decent user base.
Livestorm works on the WebRTC framework, which means a no-download solution and an easy time for your participants to join through the browser.
You can automate the tasks such as registration forms, fetching participant’s information, auto-scheduling the events, etc.
The platform is jam-packed with all the team integration tools a marketer would need to connect with the audience.
Many business reviews claim Livestorm to deliver a feature-rich conferencing experience. But does that make it an ideal platform for hosting webinars?
What key features is Livestorm generally known for?
- Automating the activities like emails, reminders, sending product offers, sending follow-ups, thank-you notes, and personalizing content.
- The platform offers a lot of customizable themes and flexible layouts that can adapt to different marketing requirements.
- A full-stack conferencing solution with quick setup, recording and storage facilities for both hosts and participants.
- Pre-record option for your marketing videos where you can integrate your webinar with YouTube live, Twitch or Facebook live.
- Advanced analytics features to track the behavior of your attendees and track their stats throughout the session.
Things that we appreciate:
- Automating multiple features gives you more time to focus on attendees
- Easy to manage the dashboard and quickly set up the webinar room
- Sleek UI platform with easy navigation features
- Fully customizable themes and layout for the webinar room
- Advanced marketing analytics feature
Things we don’t like:
- No option to add any link on automated emails other than CTA button
- No feature for adding co-hosts, only one host per account
- Lack of rehearsal feature where host can familiarize with the tool before the live session
- Not available as mobile apps
Pricing
In the premium version, you can add up to 1000 participants. Though the enterprise version supports up to 3000 attendees.
3. Demio
Best browser-based webinar tool for marketers
Demio is one of the serious contenders for the best webinar software. And more specifically, it is a direct competitor to Livestorm.
Demio is a full-fledged browser tool with an advantage of cross-platform compatibility.
Here, you can literally relate many automation features with Livestorm.
You’ll have all the personalization features and rich integration tools to help your business grow.
In fact, Demio is not just for professionals but equally suitable for beginners who’re just starting as a creator or independent brand.
What key features is Demio generally known for?
- Besides live webinar, Demio is widely known for automated or pre-recorded webinars as well. It offers an intuitive way to capture new leads and leverage your brand.
- No additional plan required for creating pre-recorded webinar sessions.
- Option to display product offerings during live webinar such as CTA links or sign up page. Meanwhile, you’ve engagement features such as live polls or Q&A to increase interactions and actionable steps from the participants.
- Advanced analytics to figure out attendee stats such as total attendance, average time spent, number of missed attendees and conversion rate.
- Provides a seamless browser experience. Participants can also join the session with the mobile app.
Things that we appreciate:
- Cross-browser support and availability of mobile app
- Modern UI and easy to navigate across features
- Option to enable private chat boxes in the webinar room
- Customizable themes and layout for the webinar room
- Engaging and interactive experience for the participants
Things we don’t like:
- Overall strength of the attendees should be increased
- No option to reopen once you’ve accidentally closed a live event
- Takes long to upload content, especially for pre-recorded webinars
Pricing
You can save 30% on all the plans under a yearly subscription:
- Starter @ $34 per month
- Growth @ $69 per month
4. GoToWebinar
A webinar tool focused on corporate-level conferences
Launched in 2006, GoToWebinar is one of the proven platforms to host enterprise-level conferencing.
Since the beginning, GoToWebinar has been geared towards large business meetings, training, interviews, new product launches, as well as collaboration.
Today, the platform fits well for hosting recurring live webinars for a larger audience. With age comes wisdom. And so, you can see well-detailed stats in the form of actionable reports for all your sessions.
Throughout those years, the development team consistently worked to improve the overall configuration and UI, which is apparent the moment you start using the platform.
GoToWebinar is one of the oldest (may not be the best) but a good choice for a business looking to host webinars regularly.
What key features is GoToWebinar generally known for?
- The platform stores many premade templates, easy to customize, and quick set up options without having you to spend extra time.
- Source tracking lets you see where your attendees are coming from.
- Strong control over the webinar with an option to add up to six moderators.
- Packs in a lot of tools and integration options such as automated email marketing, CRM integration, etc.
- The pricing is expensive, but the smart assistance feature can compensate for this aspect. It can help you automate meeting transcription and other administrative tasks.
- It lets you record your video sessions directly to the cloud. You can even select an option before the session to save the recording locally.
Things that we appreciate:
- Easy interaction features like Chat, Q&A and polls
- Quick configuration and scheduling options
- Smart assistant can ease the workload
- Multiple platform and cross-browser compatibility
Things we don’t like:
- No option to create reports on multiple webinar in one view
- Breakout room in unavailable
- Many features, especially for user engagement is outdated
- It’s mandatory to download the software
Pricing
GoToWebinar also has “Flex” offering, which is basically a “pay-as-you-go” plan.
Pay for only the webinars you host with GoToWebinar Flex. All the features of an enterprise solution, in a flexible pay-as-you go plan.
$19 per month + pay per event (billed individually):
- Up to 500 Attendees: $149
- Up to 1,000 Attendees: $299
- Up to 3,000 Attendees: $499
5. Microsoft teams
A promising new webinar tool with an advantage of Microsoft ecosystem
Microsoft never fails to spark interest every time they launch a product.
And with the introduction of a brand new webinar tool this year, Microsoft added yet another feather to its cap. Now this is quite interesting because the tool doesn’t ask you for any subscription.
But why?
Because the software is a part of the Office 365 suite – a new family member. So you’ve to purchase the whole suite.
There is no room for doubt regarding a professional UI, customization, and syncing abilities. Though you need to install the software, the overall setup and managing the webinar is quite easy.
With an ocean of customer bases, Microsoft teams can reach massive adoption. For the time being, this is just the beginning.
What key features is Microsoft Teams generally known for?
- Packs in complete conferencing feature such as screen sharing, virtual background, polls, Q&A, pinning participants, hand raising, and much more.
- Lobby (waiting room) allows participants to wait until they’re given access to the session. For a secured session, it ensures only invited attendees are admitted to the webinar.
- For a larger team, sessions can be categorized based on a department with particular projects or for the entire department.
- Not only natively integrated products but also syncs with a lot of non-Microsoft integration tools.
- Extra features like pre-webinar set-up, dark mode, noise suppression provide a better webinar experience.
Things that we appreciate:
- Being a part of Microsoft 365 suite makes it a complete collaboration tool
- Easy to schedule and set up your webinars using Outlook
- Audio and video quality is good
- Packs in too many features but doesn’t require much learning curve
Things we don’t like:
- Requires downloading the application which may prevent some attendees from quickly joining the webinar
- Whiteboard is missing though you can have it as a third-party integration.
- It uses a considerable about of RAM while in use for a long time.
- Microsoft Teams window pops up automatically every time you start your computer.
- May cause random crashes over hectic usage
Pricing
In “Business” plans, webinar tool is only available for “Microsoft 365 Business standard” package @ $12.50 per month.
6. Zoom
Most common tool and a household name in business and education
There was a time when Zoom was particularly confined to camera shots. It’s now an everyday buzzword for many students and professionals.
Zoom is easy to get started with video streaming and screen sharing.
Though this is not the only reason behind its blistering adaption. Zoom has been on the market since 2011. But when the time was ripe and the world needed an on-the-go solution over existing tools, Zoom successfully hit the sweet spot.
With ease of use, cross-platform compatibility and accessibility across low network, Zoom created a completely new virtual ecosystem for online classes and businesses alike.
Not just connectivity, the platform also created a cutting-edge revenue source by offering marketing tools and branding opportunities.
No doubt, Zoom is a fun and reliable way to interact with the masses. With a host of better alternative tools, Zoom may not be the best webinar software right now.
But there are many areas where Zoom performs exceptionally well and could be worth considering.
What key features is Zoom generally known for?
- All basic features such as HD video quality, recording (local), screen sharing, steady audio, breakout rooms, virtual background, etc. are free of cost forever. You can host a maximum of 100 participants with a session limit of 40 minutes.
- For brand promotion, it lets you customize registration pages and emails to highlight the theme of your brand. You can create your own post-webinar landing page as well as broadcast webinars on social pages.
- Interactivity features such as in-session chats, Q&A, polling, raising hands, etc, can help you boost engagement and invoke interest among your audience.
- Besides virtual background, you’ve Touch up my appearance feature. It’s one of the interesting features not every webinar tool has. Guess what? It helps you add beauty enhancement effects with the help of its real-time algorithm. No matter if you woke up late for the webinar session, it can identify your face and apply soft focus on your sleep scars.
- You can collect registrant details, integrate with CRM, monetize your webinars, track your audience behavior, promote your brand, and build a business out of it.
Things that we appreciate:
- Free version lets you organize 40-minute long meetings limitlessly
- HD screen sharing, crisp audio, reports on attendees
- Link sharing connectivity and user-friendly UI
- Allows up to 50,000 participants to join the webinar
- Rich options for third party app integrations
Things we don’t like:
- Attendees can’t join the webinar without installing the software
- Most criticized webinar tool considering its security and safety
- There is a lack of comment control in the live chat
- Frequent zoom bombing cases where anonymous participants invaded the session with inappropriate behaviors
- Analytics data needs fine tuning without complicating the attendee information.
Pricing
The webinar license can be extended to up to 10,000 attendees that costs $6,490/month.
In case if you want even more number of attendees, you’ll get customized pricing from their sales team.
7. Zoho Meeting
Affordable webinar software for simple use cases
As long as you don’t need anything advanced and want to keep it simple, Zoho’s webinar tool won’t disappoint you.
Zoho offers separate packages for meetings and webinars at an attractive price point. It doesn’t feature dedicated attendee plans so that you can be flexible with the number of attendees you want to invite.
The user interface is quite old-school but easy to use. You won’t even need to download the software. Your attendees can also join your sessions over a mobile device using its app.
In case your audience faces connectivity issues, they can hop on the webinar by dialing its toll-free number. Though it falls short on some advanced features like the limited number of recordings.
Nonetheless, Zoho Meeting still holds a reputation for small group webinars with its simplified functionality and seamless performance.
What key features is Zoho Meeting generally known for?
- One-click feature to access the link on the browser without having to install the tool. Participants just need to enter their email id.
- You can make an attendee a presenter in case they want to present an idea to the audience.
- Option to set pre-requisites such as questionnaire or survey to invite relevant guests and prevent any spammer.
- Automate the sessions using Google Calendar integration where you’ll get notified about upcoming webinars, applicants, and important dates.
- It allows hosts to transfer control of the screen if they want someone to troubleshoot any issues.
Things that we appreciate:
- Easy learning curve with cross-platform and browser compatibility
- Flexible and economical price points
- Screen sharing, application sharing and remote access of the screen to other devices
- Powerful moderator features to keep track of the crowd
Things we don’t like:
- It lacks advanced customization options
- Limited number of recordings (25 webinars in mp4)
- Customer support is limited even in the case of paid users.
- Lack of in-built whiteboard option
Pricing
Yearly plan for webinars starts at $15.84 per organization per month.
Add-ons: Extra storage of 200 webinar recordings per organization costs $20 per month.
8. Adobe Connect
Best viewed as a collaboration tool for designer community
Launched in 2019, Adobe Connect is one of the latest products and an addition to the wide range of digital creation tools.
But let me tell you, it’s not a part of Adobe’s creative cloud. So even though you’re a paid member of Creative Cloud, you’ll still need to purchase its webinar plan.
Now talking about the product, it serves as a great collaboration tool specially for designers, educators, and any group of professionals.
Just like Adobe’s flagship products, Adobe Connect is packed with features and lots of customizable options for its layout and screen elements.
You can expect quite a learning curve here. Now, considering the brand name, the question arises: does this product make it to the top webinar tools?
Well, just like Microsoft teams, Adobe Connect is at its initial stage and requires a lot of things to work upon.
But for now, it can serve as a great collaboration software for more niche-specific webinars like for designers or creators.
What key features Adobe Connect is generally known for?
- It features media panels termed as pods with customizable drag and drop functionality. Their placement is quite useful during the webinar and so can be placed anywhere as per the convenience.
- Customizable pods that are basically screen elements such as screen sharing, file sharing, chat, polling, notes, whiteboarding, etc. You’ll also get premade templates for branding on webinars that can save you time.
- For easier access, attendees can connect via a URL, which gives them a similar viewing, participation, and recording experience as when installed on a PC.
- Unlimited number of video feeds can be shown to participants. This is one of the marketable features you won’t find in every tool.
- Hands up feature where participants can ask questions and engage in the webinar.
Things that we appreciate:
- Easy customization options for the webinar rooms
- Allows everyone to save or email the activities on the chat pod
- Supports multiple hosts with ability to promote an attendee to the host
- Smooth navigation and transition from one feature to another
- Easy controls and troubleshooting functions
Things we don’t like:
- There is no feature to enable virtual background
- There is a deep learning curve that may not be ideal for some participants
- Video resolution is up to 640 by 480, that should have been better.
- Lacks engagement monitoring tools to track participants
- Consumes loads of internet that might affect connectivity
Pricing
The webinar service starts with 100 number of attendees @ $130 per month. Moreover, you can save on annual plan starting @ $1,250 per year.
9. Google Meet
Best browser-friendly and lightweight webinar tool
Google’s webinar tool is a part of Google Workspace.
Previously known as Hangouts Meet, Google Meet comes bundled with in-house products such as Gmail, calendar, drive, chat, docs, sheets, and slides.
With Google Meet, you won’t require a client installation. You can instantly start the webinar by visiting https://meet.google.com and clicking on “New meeting”.
Here, you can copy the webinar link and share it with everyone who wants to be invited. Isn’t that a no-brainer webinar solution? Another great thing about the free version is that you can host the session for as long as an hour.
Though it lacks many advanced features and doesn’t make it a comprehensive webinar tool.
But with inexpensive plans, secured connectivity and a complete browser experience, Google Meet is definitely one of the choices for training sessions, official streaming and education.
What key features is Google Meet generally known for?
- Noise cancelation is a pretty useful feature for larger audiences. Moreover, this is currently available under Enterprise plans only.
- It features Jamboard, which is a home-made digital interactive whiteboard – an excellent tool to host collaborative brainstorming in real-time.
- You can change your background image from the library or simply put in the light blur or upload one of yours, whichever suits you the best.
- You can create a maximum of 100 breakout rooms and let Google Meet randomly assign each participant their rooms. As a host, you can enter each room and interact with them as needed.
- With the ease of running on a browser (especially Chrome), you can find plenty of third-party extensions on its web store. To get best-in-class extensions, I suggest you use Chrome.
Things that we appreciate:
- Audio quality is fairly good on any type of network.
- Can be accessible on almost any platform on the go
- Captions are available for non-native attendees
- One-hour session time for the free users
- Subscription is quite affordable
Things we don’t like:
- Participants get hidden while sharing your screen
- There is no recording feature even in the starter plan
- Number of maximum participants (250) is less
- Video resolution needs to be improved
- Chat box size occupies a large part of the screen and needs to be resized.
Pricing
Google Meet starts with a free version with limited features where you can have 100 participants with 1 hour of duration.
In “Workspace Individual” plan, you’ll have the same number of participants but can host an event for the whole day and a whole lot of customization and collaboration features. @ $.7.99
In “Workspace Enterprise” plan, you’ll have more security features along with 250 participants. Here, you can get only-watch viewers up to 100k. For pricing, you need to contact the sales team.
10. Cisco Webex
Innovation-driven webinar tool for mid-large scale companies
Webex from Cisco is a comprehensive platform for online conference mainly suited for medium to large-sized enterprises.
The platform is powered with AI assistants specially created to handle trivial tasks such as meeting transcription, note-taking, and other administrative tasks.
And so, it lets you focus more on your attendees. You can interact with the Assistant and assign actions during the webinar.
The dashboard features a sophisticated UI and easy customization options. As a part of Cisco ecosystem, you can expect seamless connectivity and privacy.
Webex is definitely worth of attention, but its price point and limited storage might refrain you from using it.
Though, Cisco promises to roll out more enhancements to the platform soon.
What key features is Webex generally known for?
- Webex features a high-definition conferencing experience in both audio and video. The platform uses robust speaker technology from Cisco that enables clear communication even on low network.
- Webex assistance is a pretty useful and productive AI tool that understands voice commands just like Alexa or Siri. You can ask it to follow up on any task before, during or after the webinar.
- Interactive whiteboard packs in intuitive features for brainstorming sessions. Anything you create on the whiteboard is automatically stored in the cloud, which then can be easily accessed or shared with others.
- Integration with Microsoft Teams and Slack lets the participants join the Webex webinar from any of the platforms.
Things that we appreciate:
- Professional UI and simple interface make it easy to catch up.
- Recording feature that helps to store the sessions for offline use
- AI-powered virtual assistant easily understands voice commands
- High level of customization capabilities
- Advanced follow-up analytics of the attendees and track the level of engagement
Things we don’t like:
- Lobby area for participants is missing
- Webinar registration process can be complicated
- A virtual background consumes loads of computer memory and may affect smooth communication.
- Storage limit is quite low
- The platform receives updates slower than its competitors
Pricing
Webex will soon enable “Call Plan” which is a cloud-based phone number for each license. They also offer “Real-time translation” as an add-on @ $25 per user per month.
11. LiveWebinar
Cloud-based webinar tool with the best starter plan
You don’t necessarily need popular software for online conferencing. LiveWebinar is one of a kind that offers multiple engagement options and customizable at a convenient price point.
Especially when we talk about its Pro plan, the price truly justifies the range of features you can access.
Though there is a huge price difference if you want to switch over to the Business plan. Considering the business plan, I would not prefer to buy LiveWebinar.
But if you’re an independent creator or run an online brand, LiveWebinar’s Pro plan is quite an economical option.
Though you can only have 100 attendees, you’ll still be able to work on a range of advanced features and host an interactive session.
What key features is LiveWebinar generally known for?
- Hosts and attendees can share content with each other. As a host, you can assign any attendee the role of a co-host.
- While streaming, you can connect your webinar to YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook.
- With the presence manager feature, you can ping any of your attendees to make sure they’re actively engaged in the session.
- You can pre-record your content in HD and make it engaging with the range of interactive features like surveys, tests, whiteboard, CTA buttons, etc.
- With the integration of Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel, you’ll have control and can observe your audience’s behavior and track their actions throughout the session.
- It supports a range of extensions like CRM tools, marketing automation tools, templates, screen sharing, etc, to leverage branding capabilities.
Things that we appreciate:
- Easy to manage the attendees
- Attendance tracking and interaction tracking
- Permanent rooms available for ad hoc meetings in case of recurring webinars
- Easy to search or filter information on all past events/webinars
Things we don’t like:
- Design options for registration page aren’t available
- CTA offers during the session can’t be reopened once closed
- LiveWebinar performance on mobile has frequent connectivity issues
- No separate dashboard for analytics
- Better alternatives available for LiveWebinar if you consider Business plan
Pricing
You can save 20% on annual pricing at:
- Pro plan: $11.99 per month
- Business plan: $95.20 per month
12. BlueJeans
Affordable and one of the leading enterprise-grade webinar tool
BlueJeans is an enterprise-grade video conferencing tool and a part of Verizon’s unified communications portfolio.
But besides the trust and name of Verizon, there are many reasons we’re considering BlueJeans as one of the best webinar software.
It comes with features that can manage live events with large audiences.
When you talk about many participants, you can expect some poor audio connectivity or latency issues. This is where BlueJeans edges its competitors with seamless voice quality.
BlueJeans is the first webinar platform to feature Dolby Spatial Audio with noise cancelation advantage.
Some attendees even claimed to experience an immersive sound effect as if they’re surrounded in a conference room for real. But that’s just one thing from the list of the great many features this tool offers.
What key features is BlueJeans generally known for?
- One-click scheduling enables you to include your event to Google or Microsoft Outlook calendars.
- There is no need for your attendees to enter session IDs or passwords to join the session. One link is enough to get you on board.
- Smart meeting minutes are an excellent collaboration feature that lets you capture parts of the event, assign tasks to attendees, add annotations, and share them via Slack group.
- Dolby spatial audio gives an extra layer of clarity and improves latency issues when the network is low.
- BlueJeans is also known for its telehealth capabilities. Patients only need to click the appointment link to connect to the healthcare service using only browsers.
Things that we appreciate:
- Overall, the stability of the webinar is good
- Voice quality is crystal clear with effective background noise cancellation
- Easy to setup, schedule, and join the event
- Features advanced moderator dashboard for more control over sessions
- Breakout rooms are easy to set up.
Things we don’t like:
- Lacks ability to broadcast messages to attendees in breakout rooms
- Whiteboard functionalities are somewhat limited
- Polling service is yet to be included
- Strength of attendees is a bit smaller
Pricing
You can save up to 16% on yearly pricing @ $41.67 per month.
Additionally, BlueJeans offers a webinar gateway for Microsoft Teams priced @ $39 each room per month.
13. DaCast
Best webinar software for media companies
Dacast is an all-in-one solution for those who want to go beyond webinars. You can live stream, broadcast evergreen webinars, play OTT-based content, or play on-demand (pre-recorded) webinars using Akamai CDN technology to give your viewers a high-definition video experience.
But the first thing you’ll love about Dacast is that it allows unlimited concurrent Viewers. Another thing is it’s unique pricing structure.
What is unique about its pricing is that you can either have subscription-based plans (for regular use) or just buy a prepaid bandwidth (for occasional use) which can be customized as per your needs.
If you already have a lot of followers, you can even monetize your events. The platform is both feature-loaded and flexible, which makes it a demanding tool for businesses of all sizes.
What key features is DaCast generally known for?
- Supports omnichannel streaming where you can run your live events on social media or YouTube channels or even your own website.
- Dacast is ideal for broadcasting Full 1080p HD quality video for special occasions such as high profile summits or online expos.
- Lets you monetize your videos by simply copy pasting your ad URL to the account and setting up pay-per-view pricing. You can also include video ads during the webinar.
- There is no limit to onboard attendees as if you’re running something like Netflix where any number of viewers can register and join.
- Lets you calculate your streaming quantity using the bandwidth calculator on its custom plan page.
Things that we appreciate:
- Best-in-class video streaming quality
- Easy to set up the room and start live stream
- Host of customization and branding features
- Unused bandwidth gets rolled over to the next month
- Integrates perfectly with OBS studio for content curation and editing
Things we don’t like:
- Pay-per-view might be a little confusing for some non-tech users
- Lacks decent analytics features and needs improvement
- Bandwidth-based pricing seems like a tricky option over general subscription
- Frequent failures while uploading huge quantity of contents
- Lacks adaptive bitrate streaming during low connectivity
Pricing
Also, if you’re not a regular Dacast user, you can buy a prepaid bandwidth plan which can be customized from the calculator page.
14. BigMarker
Best customizable webinar platform for hybrid events
BigMarker was initially used in online education. And today, it offers an immersive webinar experience to create brand awareness, sales, marketing, tutoring, and what-not.
BigMarker has so much to offer and is suitable for any type of webinar.
Therefore, the platform delivers HD video streaming along with actionable features like polls, offers, lead forms, Q&A, and many more. Privacy has been a concern in many conferencing tools, but BigMarker.
Attendees can simply click the link to join the session instantly.
But besides that, the platform features open and closed rooms. In case the room is closed, anyone can knock on the door to let the host allow them to enter the session.
What key features is BigMarker generally known for?
- The platform features native CRM integration such as Salesforce and HubSpot, along with email marketing services like MailChimp.
- You can clone an ongoing webinar using “copy webinar” feature in case you’re conducting webinars quite often.
- The platform supports all types of webinars such as livestream, on-demand, automated, evergreen and series-based events. You can also stream your webinar to the YouTube channel, Facebook and even on your website.
- BigMarker provides time-to-time updates, which is a missing factor in most of the webinar tools.
Things that we appreciate:
- Suitable for organizing webinars of all sizes
- Wide range of pre-made landing pages with diverse customization options
- Webcast mode to allow attendees with poor network access the webinar
- Vast array of in-built tools to leverage brand awareness, marketing, and sales
Things we don’t like:
- Email integration often has issues with implementation
- Problems while exporting non-participants to different list in the autoresponder
- There is a bit of learning curve
Pricing
BigMarker offers huge savings on annual subscriptions for each plan:
- Starter plan @ $79 (for 100 attendees and 1 host license)
- Elite plan @ $159 (for 500 attendees and 2 hosts license)
- Premier plan @ $299 (for 1000 attendees and 3 hosts license)
15. GetResponse
All-in-one webinar and marketing tool
GetResponse is all about marketing automation, lead generation, sales funnel, and ecommerce website solution.
For over two decades, GetResponse has remained one of the most favored tools for marketers. Once it used to be just a traditional email marketing tool.
But its webinar offering just brings every feature under the same roof.
From registration forms, A/B testing, Q&A to post webinar templates, you’ll have every necessary built-in tool here without having you mess around.
What key features is GetResponse generally known for?
- Easy configurations that help you to setup interactive features like surveys, polls, offerings, etc; and increase audience engagement.
- Intuitive UI with drag-and-drop features that helps you build responsive landing pages or forms with options to optimize for search engines.
- Robust reporting abilities that help you get insight into the webinar. Email analytics further lets you learn about user interactions such as number of clicks, unsubscribe rate, bounces, etc.
- Marketing automation features a way to segment your audience and target them based on their location, click behaviors and autoresponder sequence.
- If a customer visits the product site, adds the product but abandons the cart, it lets you send automated emails after around 30 minutes.
Things that we appreciate:
- All-in-one online marketing solution
- Features autoresponder and workflow builder at a single place
- Affordable price points considering the number of attendees
- Availability of CRM feature to manage many audience
- A completely free version of webinars that also offers unlimited newsletters and a fully customizable landing page
Things we don’t like:
- With consistent upgrades and the introduction of new features, the UX seems a little clunky.
- Dedicated customer support is only available to Max plan holders.
Pricing
On annual subscription, GetResponse offers 18% savings on all the plans, whereas for 2 year plan, the savings offer is 30%.
Conclusion
I know, it’s not an easy task when you’ve to choose the best webinar software for your brand or company.
There are a lot of aspects to consider, such as your brand’s niche, target audience, goals, educating, or establishing authority.
That’s why we’ve carefully created a checklist with every important aspect to help you investigate and ultimately direct you to the webinar tool you’ve been searching for.
- Price structure and the availability of free or trial versions
- Ease of setting up the event
- Availability of automation features
- Availability of A/B testing feature
- Scheduling the reminder email to make sure more people join the session
- Feature availability for interaction tools like polls, Q&A, offerings etc.
- AV broadcasting or webcam quality while working with the tool
- Availability of on-demand customer support
- Feature to mail automatically webinar replay to the participants
- Asking or hand-raising feature during the replay
- Quality analytics reports from the webinar
- Ability to export analytics data
- Kind of webinar you want to host (like live stream or pre-recorded session)
- Customizability of the webinar landing page and it’s registration form
- Compatibility with different browsers and mobile devices
We hope this guide helped you find the best webinar software.
