In the course of running a blog or owning a business, there is probably going to come a time when putting on a webinar is necessary. This could be for any number of reasons: teaching a course, training employees, running a workshop, conducting an online panel discussion, hosting distributed events, or any other reason you might be able to think of.
In today’s post we’re going to go over the best software currently available for making all of those things possible.
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1
The 15 Best Webinar Software Available
- 1.1 1. Google+ Hangouts
- 1.2 2. Skype
- 1.3 3. GoToWebinar
- 1.4 4. Facebook or YouTube Live
- 1.5 5. Cisco WebEx
- 1.6 6. Adobe Connect
- 1.7 7. MegaMeeting
- 1.8 8. ReadyTalk
- 1.9 9. AnyMeeting
- 1.10 10. OnStream
- 1.11 11. ClickWebinar
- 1.12 12. omNovia
- 1.13 13. Crowdcast
- 1.14 14. Blackboard Collaborate
- 1.15 15. Zoom
- 2 A Note on Quality & Finding the Right Fit
- 3 So What’s Our Conclusion?
The 15 Best Webinar Software Available
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To be clear, in case anyone is unfamiliar with the term webinar, they are nothing more than an online conference or meeting–in whatever flavor you may choose.
The list of software options below will all help you conduct meetings of various types. Some are better for certain use cases than others, but the list as a whole is not in any sort of ranking order; such as best to worst or anything like that.
Basically, if it made the list it is worth checking out. Only you will know if one solution suites your personal needs better than the others. That said, I have a brief note below that is also worth checking out in light of all the reviews I read while researching this post.
1. Google+ Hangouts
Google+ Hangout is the breakout video calling/chat feature of the Google+ social platform. It’s been baked into Google Chat, Gmail, and the standard Google+ Profile. All you need to use it is have a free Google+ account.
While not your standard premium webinar platform, it comes with a remarkable number of features for collaborative meetings, presentations, workshops, etc. About the only thing it doesn’t do (yet) is allow you to charge your audience to hangout or sell within a hangout.
Key Features:
- Up to 10 people in a single video/audio call. Gsuite subscribers can have up to 25 people per call.
- Ability to live stream straight to your attached YouTube Channel and/or a website. All while live at the hangout link too.
- Can automatically record and publish hangouts to YouTube.
- Works on all devices and platforms.
- Send photos, emoji, and chat messages during hangout.
- Screen share
Price: FREE | Visit Site
Google Hangouts is for you if…
…price is an issue. Or if you need a simple solution that doesn’t require a lot of tweaking to get up and running. With loads of extensions and apps that you can add to your calls, Hangouts really is a fantastic piece of webinar software, specifically for beginners. While not limited to newbies to the field, Hangouts is very beginner-friendly. You can see if webinars are for you, then move on to advanced apps. Or you can stick with Hangouts like many pros and just extend the software.
2. Skype
Skype is one of the world’s most popular calling and video conferencing apps already. Which is why many choose to use it for group meetings, coaching, workshopping, etc.
Key Features:
- Skype to Skype calls
- Group Voice Calls (up to 25 people)
- Group Video Calls
- File Sharing
- Screen Sharing
- Group Screen Sharing
- Contact Sending
- Multiple Third-Party Apps to Extend Functionality
Price: FREE | Visit Site
Skype is for you if…
…you need a budget-friendly option, and you don’t use Google products. If your institution is on Microsoft’s Office 365 or Exchange, Skype may be the best option. Additionally, if you need to record the webinars for later, there are incredibly powerful apps that can do that for Skype, while the options for other free webinar software apps aren’t quite as simple or available.
3. GoToWebinar
GoToWebinar is by the folks at GoToMeeting, the popular meeting and screen sharing application/service. The webinar version is, as you can probably guess, catered specifically to the needs of people putting webinars on as products/services in and of themselves.
Key Features:
- Full Services Attendee Registration
- HD Video Recording
- Archived Recordings
- Polls & Surveys
Price: Starts at $89/month per organizer with up to 100 attendees | Visit Site
GoToWebinar is for you if…
…webinars make up a major portion of your business model. If you are hosting multiple sessions a day or week with lots of people, checking out GoToWebinar might be a good option. With its ability to archive your past webinars (and in HD, no less), a webinar-centric business will definitely thrive with GoToWebinar. Also, if you run a SASS company, GTW may work well for you as a way to get additional contact and engagement with your audience.
4. Facebook or YouTube Live
Both Facebook and YouTube are two of the largest streaming platforms out there. They both also offer a number of ways for you to reach a broad swath of viewers, as well as having the built-in ability to interact directly with your audience.
Key Features:
- Massive audience because everyone has accounts already
- Platforms are set up automatically for audience interaction
- Can schedule streams on both platforms
- On Facebook, you can limit privacy of your streams by posting to groups only your registrants are members of
- YouTube has a stable URL for live video where a dedicated audience can always find your streams
- Massive support by third-party apps that extend functionality by API to make them competitive for even large-scale clients
- Absolutely no viewer limit
- In-depth analytics buried within the platform dashboards
- Ability to stream natively from mobile devices
- API access lets you either stream from within the platform itself or by third-party client that gives extra features (such as Wirecast or OBS)
Price: Free. Third-party extensibility (such as Restream.io) varies by company
Facebook Live or YouTube Live is for you if…
…audience engagement is your primary goal. While lots of platforms such as Restream and OBS (check out our OBS livestream guide.) support them and give you much extensibility, the real draw here is that you’re going to where your audience is. Simply set up a Facebook Event and invite folks. They will be notified of your webinar multiple times. Same for YouTube — if you want, you can schedule the webinars in advance, have specialty links, and even do a live premiere. The audience for these platforms is massive, so the engagement for your webinars can be as well. Consider these live streaming tools and plugins that can help you in your efforts.
5. Cisco WebEx
Cisco WebEx is part of a whole family of Cisco products for remote collaborative work. Specifically, their Event Center product is used for putting on events and webinars.
This is one of a handful of higher end options–including GoToWebinar above and a few more–that scale well but are not for those with a tight budget. That said, you get a lot of great features for what you pay for.
Key Features:
- Branded Registration and Invites
- Registration tracking
- Lead generation tools
- Display 5 panelists at a time plus slides/data
- Polls
- Chat
- Hight Quality Video/Audio
- Professional Webinar Planning & Production (add-ons)
Price: starts at $19 monthly for 8 people up to $39.99 per month for up to 200 people. | Visit Site
Cisco WebEx is for you if…
…you want a high-end, slick, professional piece of webinar software. Cisco made a name for themselves decades ago by providing high-quality telecomm products, and this is no different. If your company wants to be on the cutting edge and make sure that your webinars run as smoothly as possible, WebEx is a definite option. Additionally, with features such as 5 panelists as well as data presented at the same time, your webinars can be much more in-depth and complex than on Google Hangouts or Facebook Live.
6. Adobe Connect
Most of you are familiar with Adobe’s Creative Suite of products, but through their product Adobe Connect they also empower organizations to put on impressive webinars and events.
Key Features:
- Complete mobile collaboration
- Rich multimedia options
- High-quality audio/video
- Video conferencing integration
- Real-time collaboration with presenters
- Invitation and privilege management
- Breakout rooms to focus discussion
- Broad set of collaboration capabilities
- Streaming video integration
- Microsoft Outlook integration
- Analytics and tracking
- Recording
- Archiving
- And more
Price: starts at $50/month per host with up to 25 attendees | Visit Site
Adobe Connect is for you if…
…you are already an Adobe user and want to stay within that software ecosystem. Like Cisco in telecomm, Adobe has a reputation for premium software. Connect is no different. If you use Photoshop or Illustrator or any of their other software, you will feel right at home with their webinar software. If you really need data, analytics, and the ability for small-group presentations outside of your primary webinar, Connect is where to go. It’s incredibly feature-rich and maybe near the top of the list, but it’s not for those with small budgets, either.
7. MegaMeeting
MegaMeeting is for online training, seminars, product demonstrations, and more. It’s 100% browser based and mobile-ready to make collaboration easy.
Key Features:
- Video streaming
- Multiple ways to join a meeting
- Secure conferencing
- Text Chat
- Works across multiple platforms (Mac/Pc)
- Share powerpoints, docs & websites
- Screen sharing
- Polls & Surveys
- PayPal integration
- Multiple meeting rooms
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android
Price: starting at $39/month (no stated attendee limit) | Visit Site
MegaMeeting is for you if…
…you need a light-weight, mobile option. Maybe you aren’t at the same computer all the time. Or perhaps you have to travel and need flexibility for how you use your webinar software. Or perhaps your IT department just doesn’t like to install more software than is absolutely necessary. In those cases (and obviously more), MegaMeeting is a great choice. By being browser-based, you can host your webinar from essentially anywhere, and despite the lightweight browser integration, the software itself is robust and allows for screen sharing, PayPal within the app itself, and your users can connect via mobile apps in case they can’t sit at a computer where a separate piece of webinar software is required of them.
8. ReadyTalk
ReadyTalk has a suite of products for everything from web conferencing, to audio conferencing, video conferencing, mobile conferencing, webinars and events, recordings and archiving.
Key Features:
- Customized branding
- “Add to Calendar” invitation links for Outlook and Google
- Customized registration forms
- Flexible confirmation options
- One-click recording
- Chat/Q&A sessions
- Sharing options
- Social promotion tools
- Polling
- Follow-up emails
- Archive hosting and distribution
- And more
Price: starting at $24/month with up to 10 attendees | Visit Site
ReadyTalk is for you if…
…engagement is high on your priority list. If you are looking for webinar software that allows for the highest engagement and social sharing, ReadyTalk is one to keep an eye on. With calendar scheduling, follow-up emails, built-in social promotion, ReadyTalk is all about getting the word out about your webinars. With the customized branding, too, you can really be your brand and make your webinars exude your personality.
9. AnyMeeting
AnyMeeting is aimed at providing a solid web conferencing solution to small businesses.
Key Features:
- Hold large or small meetings
- Share your screen
- 6-way video conferencing (or 6 different presenters per webinar)
- Custom meeting branding
- Audience interaction and reactions
- Recording
- Phone support
- Play YouTube videos
- Built-in conference calling
- Present powerpoint slides
- Mobile friendly
- Facebook and Twitter integration
- Personalized meeting url
Price: FREE up to 4 attendees (ad supported). $18/month for 10 attendees. | Visit Site
AnyMeeting is for you if…
…you run a small business. Some folks don’t want their business to use services like Google Hangouts or Skype as webinar software for fear of looking unprofessional (it is generally not seen that way, though). In those cases, a free option like AnyMeeting should definitely be a contender. With their focus on small businesses, you can lift your brand up for little effort or money. With phone support and mobile friendliness, your users can engage you directly from wherever they are. Or wherever you are.
10. OnStream
OnStream Media has a number of cloud-based solutions for media hosting, webcasting, and webinars. Their specific webinar product is enterprise-grade, meaning it’s meant to scale dramatically.
Key Features:
- Cloud-based platform
- Event management
- Messaging and chat
- Live audio and video streaming
- Live and on-demand webinars
- Screen sharing
- File sharing
- Participant list and rights management
- Recording and archiving
- Real-time polling
- 128-bit end-to-end enncrypted streams
Price: $49 per 300 attendees with 10 webcams for the presenter. Or $0.04/minute for conference calling | Visit Site
OnStream is for you if…
…a cloud-based platform works better for you than a locally hosted one. Because they are cloud-based, their infrastructure handles scale very well. If you are planning on having hundreds of people (or even thousands) attend your sessions, OnStream is definitely worth the price simply from the technical side of things. You don’t have to worry about scaling for your users or connectivity — just your content.
11. ClickWebinar
ClickWebinar is by the same folks who created ClickMeeting. ClickWebinar aims to be a high end (but at a low(er) price) solution for anyone needing to collaborate remotely for events and webinars.
Key Features:
- Global web conferencing
- Webinar rebranding
- Full desktop and browser sharing
- Moderation tools
- Simultaneous chat translation
- ClickMeeting API
- Social Sharing
- User ratings
- Attendee analytics and statistics
- Integration with the following tools/services:
- Microsoft Office
- Adobe
- Google Calendar
- YouTube
- Flickr
- iCal
- And more
Price: Free 30-day trial. Plans start at $25/month with up to 25 attendees | Visit Site
ClickWebinar is for you if…
…you want webinar software that integrates with most popular productivity platforms, and also has a reasonable price tag. While it’s not free, even smaller businesses on fixed budgets could use ClickWebinar successfully. With attendee analytics, you can more easily market toward future webinar audiences, too, which also goes in well with the automated chat translations. ClickWebinar is for people who want a large audience who are easily accessible.
12. omNovia
omNovia is a powerful presentation platform for creating high-quality online events. This includes webinars, webcasting, services (such as coaching or training), and more.
Key Features:
- Co-browsing (take control of user screens with permission)
- Slide show presentations
- Instant polling
- Event registration
- Recording
- Fully customizable interface
- Credit card integration
- Chat and Q&A
- Twitter integration
- Documents sharing
Price: Starting at $119 per month if billed annually, or $170 monthly, for 100 participants and 600 on-demand views). | Visit Site
omNovia is for you if…
…your events need to be fully interactive on both sides of the screen. Between an integrated chat/Q&A feature, a fully customizable UI to facilitate engagement, and co-browsing, your audience can be truly brought into your webinar. The co-browsing specifically will allow your training webinars to be personalized to each situation, and with the built-in document sharing, you avoid clumsy link-sharing and attachment loss. If your training sessions or coaching aren’t meant to be lecture-esque, omNovia will let you do more than a lot of webinar software.
13. Crowdcast
Crowdcast is a professional live streaming and webinar platform that is designed for the audience and the presenter to interact in real-time in order to promote conversion and relationship building through interaction.
Key features:
- Incredibly in-depth analytics
- Unlimited registrations, but you can limit seats, if you prefer
- Accept Stripe payments
- Events over multiple sessions for a single registration
- Facebook Pixel
- Stream to Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Periscope, and more
- Obtain referral sources
- Zapier integration, as well as 750+ other apps
- And more
Price: Starting at $49 per month for 100 attendees, with additional available on a by-user fee. | Visit Site
Crowdcast is for you if…
…you are putting together a virtual conference or online retreat. Everything that you need for a huge, scaled, multimedia event is contained within Crowdcast. The cost for attendees can be steep if you scale quickly (or vastly), but that can be accounted for by event registration fees. While Crowdcast might not work best for one-off webinars, if you are doing a series and want to maintain contact and build a relationship with your audience, there may not be a better solution than Crowdcast.
14. Blackboard Collaborate
Blackboard Collaborate is a webinar software designed with a focus on education. They have specific services and resources for K-12, Higher Education, Government, and Business.
Key Features:
- Web conferencing
- Voice authoring
- Mobile collaboration
- LMS integration
- Enterprise instant messaging
- Licensing
- Online Classrooms
- HD broadcasts
- Live whiteboard and screen-writing
- Interaction with audience
- Entirely browser-based
- And more
Price: Free trial. Pricing plans upon request. | Visit Site
Blackboard Collaborate is for you if…
…your business is part of the education industry. Whether it’s a class or tutoring session or something else entirely, there is no other webinar software out there that can compare to Blackboard Collaborate when it comes to learning. The live whiteboard means that your students can get personalized, written examples — not just typed. You could do online office hours, for instance, or even hold class entirely within the webinar software. Some universities use Blackboard Collaborate as their online LMS, which indicates its stability. Basically, if you’re in education (and can afford it), Blackboard is the right fit. That said, the price can be high, and is generally tailored to your needs.
15. Zoom
Zoom has made a name for itself with stable, high-quality conferencing and webinar software that can handle loads at scale for enterprise use, while also providing quick-and-easy service for personal and small-business use as well.
Key Features:
- Browser-based or desktop app, depending on your needs
- Mobile apps seamlessly integrate with calls
- Screen sharing
- Slack integration
- Local and cloud recording
- Vanity URL/custom meeting ID
- Telephone integration with VOIP and video conferencing
- Mobile app sharing for hosts on tablets or phones
- AES 256-bit end-to-end encryption as well as SSL secured meetings
- And more
Price: Free for up to 100 participants on unlimited calls, but limited to 40 minutes per call. Paid plans start at $14.99 per month to include reporting, recording, and other features. | Visit Site
Zoom is for you if…
…you want as seamless a webinar as possible. Your users don’t need to sign up for accounts or have any software downloaded. They simply click a link you send them, and they are brought into the call. That reduces barriers between you and them, and it reduces UX friction so they don’t back out before the webinar begins because of a download, installation, or registering for yet another account. Zoom is powerful and minimal, but at the same time robust and easy. If that and it being free sound goood, it’s probably worth checking out.
A Note on Quality & Finding the Right Fit
I have a confession to make. When I made the title of this post “The Best Webinar Software Available” I may have misled some of you to believe that there is such a thing as really great, all-purpose webinar software to begin with.
According to my personal experience and the wider range of experiences I’ve read about via reviews and similar posts–that doesn’t exist.
The general consensus of all the posts, comments, and reviews I read was that GoToWebinar is the most reliable choice–but it’s also clunky, ugly, and not that fun to use.
Others hold lots of promise in terms of design, usability, etc. but fail to meet expectations in a few key places: reliability, scalability, cost, and flexibility. But of course not necessarily all at once or to the same degree across the board.
What I mean when I say “reliable” should be pretty straight forward. They simply don’t work reliably. They might work great during a practice run, then bug out and wreck a live presentation.
Scalability and cost are often linked. Many of these services are capable of reaching large groups of people with all of the features a user may want–but they’re too expensive at that level.
And finally, flexibility is an issue for many of these programs because of the nature of the problem they’re trying to solve.
You may have noticed that at the top of this post I mentioned a handful of reasons someone might want to put on a webinar–which means many of these programs are designed for specific niches or are trying to be too many things at once.
It’s a tough nut to crack, I’m sure. I’m not an enterprise software developer so I don’t know all of the inherent problems they face when attempting to create this type of software, but it doesn’t seem like anyone has created that breakthrough product in this field yet.
At least not that I could find.
So please, if you have, tell us about it in the comments section.
So What’s Our Conclusion?
For those of us who are actively doing webinars right now or have plans to do them in the future, some of us will have to choose a platform based solely on features. Whether or not we like the design, usability, or cost.
This is because when it comes right down to it, we have to make money via our efforts and whether that means charging for attendee spots, selling products during a webinar, or improving the sales of our business through effective training–we may not get the perfect package.
The Content Team here at ET uses Google Hangouts for our weekly meetings, while some other teams use Zoom for theirs. With our live streaming efforts, we make use of OBS combined with Restream.io to reach audiences on Facebook and YouTube both live and on-demand.
It is hard to recommend OBS as a single solution to anyone because it requires lots of set up, third-party integration, and has a steep learning curve; however, as part the suite we use, it has worked pretty well. I don’t think an enterprise client would have the same results. Before that, we had used Wirecast, and we ran into those same reliability issues I mentioned earlier. Like I said, it’s a hard nut to crack.
But that’s just my personal situation. I know a lot of people who do something similar, and still more for whom this sort of solution just doesn’t meet their needs.
What is your webinar solution? Do you have a software you’d recommend? Did seeing any in the list above make you want to try something new?
Please share your thoughts and experiences with the community in the comments below.
Article featured image by sliplee / shutterstock.com
Hi Nathan thank you for this article. Im using webinarjam studio which I havent seen on your list. Im not sure Im pleased as I had isdues lately on my online course. They also use the hangouts. Do you know them and what do you think when comparind the specs?
I’m not familiar. However, this blog post has been popular for a while now. I’m thinking it’s about time for an update.
Of these platforms are there any that allow you to restrict entrance? We charge for our presentations. Each registration is allowed to have as many people in their location as they like, but we need a way to limit how they access the webinar.
Example: We sell a seat to company A, they have a code that allows them entrance. The code can only be used by one “participant” at a time, even if that participant has 100 people in their conference room. If they share their code with Company B, whoever enters the room first is in – the code can’t be used by more than one “participant”
Do any of these platforms allow the host to control individual participant registration?
I personally like crowdcast the most!
Awesome list! I was searching for some extra-ordinary webinar software as I love to work on board and don’t like the Google Hangout service, so this article was very helpful for me. Thanks a ton mate!
I have used WebinarJam for months and I think it’s a great option. Seems to me that GoToWebinar has a better performance on webinars than the majority of the platforms but the price is quite elevated for much of us, so I rather use webinar Jam as a good alternative.
Anyone tried Webinar Ignition??
Does anyone tried freeconference call?
what about webinar fusion pro it seems to have the most features
Yes, is full of features, but need little update. Not very gud responsive în diferit terminals
Additionally, you may try a R-HUB web conferencing server for all your webinar needs.
Ive heard google hangouts is getting dropped, wonder if anyone else can validate this. Im struggling to find the best option which will record, auto broadcast, have an integrated sign up feature, link to paypal and be a good looking modern interface. If it gave auto response messages too even better, as it stands I m guessing Ill have to link to 3rd party like mailchimp for the sign up.
I don’t think Google Hangouts is going anywhere. The direction Google seems to be taking is one of pruning their Google+ offering, not doing away with it entirely. They want to emphasize the features people love and take away or de-emphasize the ones that are not popular. The recent redesign seems to show this in action.
Just wanted to drop a comment to thank you so much for this roundup. One of my clients was getting a headache researching the best webinar software for her requirements and, before landing on this post, I was too.
Great article! But a little on overwhelm right now as to all the possibilities. I had a bad experience with a company called Big Marker when my webinar registrants couldn’t log in easily and other quirks that had me to ultimately have to cancel. Glad to see they weren’t listed. However, reading that none of the platforms are 100% has me a little squeamish about choosing another company that I can trust their reliability.
Great summary and comments.
What I want to do is conduct webinars and make a stand alone products from them that I can sell in my online store, replay etc that’s not dependent on an outside service going out of business or crashing etc. Do any of you know of a source (affordable) that allows this with webinar services? Thanks so much.
Citrix has worked for me, over the past 6 years, and they have kept up with the times, during this period, the satisfy all my needs, and at first I thought pricing was steep, but I can see they are right in there with the average. Their real live human being telephone support sucks badly, otherwise I wouldn’t even be reading this article.
Thanks to Nathan for the article and to the rest of you for valuable comments. Does ayone have pros or cons with TeamViewer? Our company has a corporate license, I have used this for small meetings, but never tried larger groups. People sometimes strive to download and establish a connection, and configuring sound-capabilities can be a challenge for un-experienced users.
Thanks 🙂
Jon
Skype is not free for group video chat
Can I use persicope for this?
Great post! Hosting a webinar has always been a best way to grow your approach towards your target audience. Highlighting the points which your customer usually have, approaching your target audience .
Thanks Nathan for your article.
I was loking for a webinar solution and your post and comments offered me more options, review and approaches.
What about Skype for business?
Why skype for businesses-
1) @$5/ month for 250 participants
2) Manority of features of webinar software.
Not known about skype for business-
1) Integraion with mailchimp or any other email.software.
2) Entry page, paypal integration, email reminders
If anyone of you have experienced the skype for business, please share.
Thanks,
Bhavesh Desai
Mumbai
India
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for the article and also others for their views. I have done a webinar yet. Plan to do my 1st webinar and looking out for options. It has been a great help with all these suggestions and reviews.
Looks like I will try out with Google Hangout first…..
Please do not use go to webinar, it is a disaster. We have just had two additional webinars this week where the recording did not work, we were bumped off the connection, the slides didn’t match the presenters view. The software is buggy and they are continually upgrading and needing to download new software. They had a known MAC bug but didn’t release a fix until I got in their face. That said I find it hard to go with one the the newer companies because we all know 90% of them wont be around in 2 years. That has me looking into Google hangouts.
George
The best webinar and conferencing service I have seen here in 2015 is called iMeet by PGI. The ease of use, quality of video & audio and pricing really cannot be beat by the more popular GoToMeeting, WebEx and Adobe who all charge more for less attendees. My primary use is for screen sharing to demo CRM software and for holding spontaneous online meetings with clients and prospects. Each iMeet interaction reflects well on our company and is often a top 3 reason why prospects decide to buy from us. Saving a few dollars by using the lesser-known services or Google Hangouts makes no sense when thousands of dollars in new sales or your reputation are at stake.
Thanks. T’was really a great and helpful compilation! Webinars are one of the most popular digital marketing tactics, used by 93% of technology marketers. Not surprisingly, most marketers are using Webinars for lead generation and awareness-building.
I love ClickMeeting! 🙂
Seems like the best option today are the services that use google hangouts for the video portion. Webinars On Air looks pretty good. But I’m going to look at the WordPress plugins. A one time fee certainly is appealing, but then again, you have to worry about something going wrong with the plugin, updates, etc.. Anyone had issues with the WordPress plugins?
As a neurobiologist and corporate consultant, I incorporate a variety of learning techniques that maximize the way the brain learns and remembers. These approaches is key to the virtual events I offer. I use a “whole brain” approach. This means I am not offering a one-way, passive lecture to them.
I have found most webinars or pre-recorded video options are passive, one-way communication that is not particularly interesting. This form of teaching requires the least amount of brain stimulation (your participants might fall asleep on you) and relies heavily on auditory learning. Anyone who learns spatially, visually, empathetically, etc… loses out.
Therefore, I create virtual events that feel and look just like you are at a real, live training. This means high levels of interaction: hand raising, polling and verbal contributions.
It also means teaching in an emotionally stimulating way. The more heightened our emotions while learning, the more we retain in long-term memory. (Think about it, when’s the last time you remember brushing your teeth -a mundane event; compared to remembering your first kiss -a highly emotional event, that might have happened decades ago.)
Finally, the more senses we can use while teaching the more information we retain. So, I incorporate lots of activities and exercises for my participants.
MaestroConference is the company that I have found that has a platform that allows me to transform a whole brain in-person event into a virtual one. Unfortunately, the regular webinar companies just don’t have the functionality. MaestroConference has tools like breakout groups, hand raising, polling, microphone control (so you can mute people with background noise), and RSVPs with email reminders.
I also work with a global audience from countries to continents like Korea, Japan, Canada, South America, Israel and Europe. MaestroConference has a computer plug in so people can simply use their internet and get a clear call. I have often found that Skype and webinars usually don’t mix well and this has been the case for the breakout group functionality with MaestroConference. That’s another reason I love the plugin for my global clients. Additionally, MaestroConference has toll free numbers for specific countries, so participants calling in from a landline can call a local number for their country. I use this option less as most of my clients are on cell phones, but it is still useful to know about.
The final reason I use MaestroConference is that they have free training clinics every Tuesday at 11 am Pacific Time and exceptional call drivers & facilitators for hire. The driver I’ve used consistently, when I need one, is Joshua Edwards. He’s been a top driver there since 2012. During my virtual trainings, no one usually knows that he is assisting in the background, but because of him the trainings I offer are smooth and seamless. When I put on a virtual event like this, it is easy for people to register for my next training while still being on the call. This is essential for my company’s growth.
Also MaestroConference doesn’t really have any problems with scalability. I can have 5,000 participants just as easily as 5. Now that’s good for my company’s global expansion! Check them out.
Hi Gina! I’m happy you are happy with them. I tried Maestroconference last year and it was a disaster. I loved all of their features and i was so excited to give it a try. unfortunately, it seems like they have so many separate software pieces working together that testing the platform was time consuming and several things didn’t seem to work together very well. when i finally thought i had it all worked out (hours and hours later), i held my first webinar and it wouldn’t share my presentation… after trying to trouble shoot i had no luck… i tried to contact Maestro for emergency help but no one got back to me until the webinar was over. i had to email the participants the presentation and they had to follow along. i was very embarrassed. I’ve been using webex ever since. it doesn’t have as many features but it’s very reliable.
What if we don’t charge for webinar but still want the following:
1. Sharing slideshow presentation or video
2. Panelist & attendees able to use phone
3. Up to 50 attendees
4. Registration on our company website as a widget or via email invite
5. Online or phone q&a
6. Email Reminder.
Hello Jan,
All of the criterias are met by ClickMeeting and this platform will exceed your expectations.
Best,
Need some help, we’re looking for hosting webinar with the following criteria, looking thru all the services and the technical terms are really confusing. Can someone please give us recommendation based on your experience.
The only one with paypal I found is Webinar On Air but they don’t have phone-in capability due to limitation on google+ with hangout.
1. Charging attendees for webinar (paypal or own system)
2. Sharing slideshow presentation or video
2. Panelist & attendees able to use phone
3. Up to 50 attendees
4. Registration on our company website or via email invite
5. Online or phone q&a
6. Email Reminder.
We’ve used Go To Webinar a lot and have been happy with it. Thanks for compiling the list, it allows me to easily check out some of the others.
This is great info, several I have not heard of and plan to research. Thanks for compiling.
Thank you everyone for the great information. Does anyone have any experience with Jabber?
Hi Nathan, I’ve recently come across a company called workcast. They genuinely seem to have everything and unlike the others, don’t cap attendee numbers or add costs onto it on the sly! gotowebinar like you say is clunky and just a bit basic really, workcast took the branding guidelines we gave them and created a really nice looking auditiorium for our webinar, which incidentally was very highly commented on by our attendees. maybe one to look at?
Elle
Whoa – WorkCast starts at $690/mo! Good thing they don’t add costs on the sly…
Hi Nathan- Thank you for your information and thank you Andrej and John Carl for introducing me to Webinar Jam…Nathan, did you use the WebinarJam photo for the top of your blog?
What about InstantTeleseminar? They seem to be the flavour of the month with all the live events. And they’re great if you just want voice no video. Uses Skype, phone in and chat box on your computer so people can participate or listen (and the host decides who and how that works), it records and leaves the replay up for a month.
I think it’s $47 for the first level sign up. Any thoughts?
I really liked InstantTeleseminar when I was using them. I found it easy on the participant side as well as the presenter side.
Just ended up being out of my price range.
Hi Nathan.
I just wanted to drop a comment to thank you so much for this roundup. One of my clients was getting a headache researching the best webinar software for her requirements and, before landing on this post, I was too.
As a result of your great work, we’ve discovered Webinars OnAir and despite not yet a Google+ user, my client has decided this is the route for her.
Thank you!
Sue Jones, Virtual PA
Google Hangouts on Air seem to be the best option. The problem with the HOA is you have to be hardwired for it to work properly.
2nd best would be GoToWebinar in my opinion but i totally agree that there are no Really great solutions out there at the moment.
I tried WebinarJam too. While i think its probably an ok product, their guides are lacking and support needs some work.
Thanks for the Post Nathan
Hi, does anyone know of a webinar tool that allows video conferencing along with call-in options, so that while some members are joining the conference via their laptop, someone on the go could call in from their cellphone and listen in or even participate?
Thanks
Hey Dina – I know that GoToWebinar has a toll/toll-free/voip option. Cell phone or tablet users can use the free GoToWebinar app to watch the event from their device and participate as well, ie hand raising, sending chats or speaking when un-muted. The mobile app works really well especially if you’re on a tablet. The cell phone version is great if you’re driving and just want to listen over your cars Bluetooth connection.
Hey. Thanks for the post. I looked at all of them. I am going to go with Mike and Andy’s great software – http://ww2.webinarjam.com/#buy – I think its better, they are cooler, and for the price, they offer lots more….thought I would let you know..
Steve
I just did a review of webinar software on my blog, and was researching another service provider in response to a comment left, when I found this article. One thing that has become clear to me is that depending on what you want to use webinars for, two different “streams” present the best option for you.
In other words, there are companies wanting to use webinars to connect with an existing list of people (whether employees or current clients), and those wanting to use webinars to market to new contacts.
If you are in the first “stream,” you will do best with something like GoToWebinar, which is simply reliable and does the job with little fanfare.
If you are in the second, then things like registration page customization, thank you page redirect/customization, automatic meeting reminders, automatic meeting recording, the ability to integrate with autoresponders/mailing lists, the ability to integrate with sales confirmation pages for sales tracking, etc. become very, very meaningful to you. This rules out all the systems in the GTW camp.
Those of us in the marketing stream are better served by options like WebinarJam, Easy Webinar, etc. I’m going to take a look at WebinarIgnite and Runclick, based on the comments on this article. If neither of those work for me, I guess I’m resigned to using either WebinarJam or Webinars on Air, both of which make me reliant on Google free technology (which is certainly a vulnerability, given they have no incentive to keep their tech in synch with that of these add-on vendors), but gets me the marketing features I need.
So main thing, choose your intention, then you can rule out a lot of options and test the final handful.
I don’t know what to rave about more: the great article or the incredible comments! Kudos everyone: e-learning at its best! Many thanks to everyone for all their wisdom, time and generosity.
Personally speaking, I gave up on Google Hangouts long ago. Disaster! I move around the world and can’t hard wire my connection, so that’s a no-go – which means so are WebinarJam and Webinars on Air.
Skype and ooVoo used to be good intermittently but now both seem to be faltering – even if I use video only and dial in separately. I was running teleconferences years before they became popular (I need to see my clients’ faces when I’m coaching them).
I tried MegaMeeting but found it frustrating. I just ditched Webex – so many bugs including loss of control to participants that I couldn’t reclaim. Really appreciated Indigo’s distinction re: existing/potential clients. Going to go experiment! Many thanks!
What a great piece of advice. Thank you!
I’ve seen your analyses before, Indigo, and appreciate your simple explanations very much – just wanted to say. Your description of the 2 camps helps me understand so I can move forward, along with Nathan’s review here.
Where is your blog’s review? And would you say which service you use, if you use it for your own business (vs. a corporation.)
Thanks!
Indigo, I am in the second camp and found your comments very, very helpful. Who knew there were so many options, so many considerations. Thank you for clarifying what marketing folks, those wanting to reach new contacts, will consider helpful. Feeling less overwhelmed and I will resist the temptation of doing a conference call. Webinar world, here I come.
Hi Nathan and thank you for this informative post!
I’ve used subscription webinar service providers (GoToWebinar, Join.me and MeetingBurner) in the past and each have left me unhappy for one reason or another.
After completing my run through from all the suggestions, I’ve decided on WebinarIgnition.com because has unlimited attendees and a 1x fee ($297), plus it also integrates with WP and Mailchimp. The marketing features and sleek uncluttered look were also huge selling points.
The runner up would have to be Runclick @ $197. It appears to do the same as WebinarJam but at a way overall lower price (1x charge/no annual fee). Both have the Hangout integration but after reviewing the features I’ve decided not to go that route due to the clean simplicity of Webinar Ignition.
Moving forward it just makes sense to pay 1x and have control of my content.
If anyone has some more points to share about Webinar Ignition, I’d love to hear.
All the insights have proven quite helpful. Thanks again for providing all these options in one place!!
Webinar Ignition will crash your server. The memory usage is huge. When 100 people enteres the webinar at the same time, the memory usage will peeak at 1.6 GB of memory, and even if your server is configured with a high PHP memory it will propably not be enough.
I have conteacted the support, they recommend a dedicated server with 16gb of memory.
That just do not work well with WordPress.
I had this exact issue.
I have a virtual server with 8gb ram and a quad core processor. It crashed under just 50 users (more than 500 had registered and I typically get 200-300 live).
Support wasn’t that helpful, so now I’ve tuned the plugin to handle thousands of users (but then don’t really give any meaningful statistics as this is the worst sinner when it comes to performance).
In WebinarIgnition every participant on the webinar basically “calls home” (pulls) every 20 second. And each of those calls loads the entire WordPress framework (including all plugins).
I’ve suggested several fixes to the WebinarIgnition team, however I don’t think they’re actively developing this.
Right now I’ve been forced to try out WebinarJam that (because it’s a SaaS and not installed on my server) should scale fine.
However I by far prefers WebinarIgnition’s interface and features.
Stay away from self hosted solutions: they WILL crash your server if you invite a certain number of people. All those cheap, one-time payment providers that you install on your server are fine if you invite only a firstful of people into your webinar sessions, but there’s no way you can truly grow big with them.
What do you know about maestro conference? I’ve know people who swear by it.
I’ve used it years ago, and it’s amazing. The function for “break-outs” like breaking out a group into 2’s or 3’s like a class or a workshop is amazing.
Unfortunately, the annual fee is quite pricey.
Hello Nathan!
Thank you for good list. I’ve tried many service but I’ve had perfect experiences with Myownconference. This is web-based webinar platform. Its key features are recording, screen sharing, video demonstration, chat and more.
Price starts at $22 up to 60 attendees.
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for your recommendations. I did a search on RunClick and your article appeared. Have you used it before? It incorporates all of the google hangout features. I purchased it last year when it first came out and there were a few bugs.
I know a few people that have had a lot of success with easy webinar.
Cheers
Carly
Interesting article! But why didn’t you include the webinar platform with the largest market share, ON24? (Also my employer, FYI.)
My vote goes to GoToWebinar. It has limitations and it does not offer the perect user experience but it worked great for me and my company for the last four years, doing weekly meetings for little teams of less than 15 and bigger ones of 80.
Wow great article Nathan!! I am aware with only first 3 webinar software, other are new for me. So thanks for share 🙂
I have used WebEX, Adobe Connect, and Click Webinar. WebEX maybe one of the industry standards, but it wasn’t as user-friendly or as versatile as Adobe Connect which we used for many years. Having persistent rooms and reconfigurable layouts was a plus for us.
For the past couple of years, we have used ClickWebinar. It looks and works a lot like Adobe Connect with multiple layouts, though lacks the persistent rooms. It’s recording feature was better than Adobe’s (Adobe had some proprietary recording format that had to be converted to an mp4 or other web-friendly format). Plus ClickWebinar allows you to brand the layout without an extra fee where Adobe you had to pay through the nose for that feature.
ClickWebinar’s price is right as we do multiple online classes and trainings throughout the year and need a reliable set up as we charge for these classes.
Google+ Hangouts must be my first choice. BR.
Thought the article was going to be about software not service providers.
What about a part 2 covering software and embedding into sites. Their are loads of wordpres options.
THERE are
Thanks for the pro & cons webinar shortlist.
I am just testing out a cool Webinar WP plugin called Runclick.
Unlimited Webinars.
Unlimited Attendees
Evergreen Funnels….
Automatic recording
Inbuild Marketing features…..etc
And no monthly fees!
best regards
Thanks for that – it says it’s US $147 dollars on their website?
Yes +1 for that. Runclick is one of the smartest to using Google Hangle API to carry out webinar using WorPress and it sure compatible with Divi theme-like-framework.
Thanks Nathan for the expensive bunch you listed outta there!
Cheers!
Hello Natha!
Thanks for your post. I have used Blackboard Collaborate, it is an application with and easy interface for teachers and students and you can recording sessions,create groups, create private sessions with a key for participant and the application send the automatic notifications about sessions to students, upload your Power Point presentations, share your desktop computer for demostrations to students, etc. It is a product 100% for universities, colleges, etc and I think that it is expensive for personal use.
Best Regards
Definitely not oriented toward individuals to buy. We use it with our non-profit and it is our biggest expense.Their lowest tier is designed for multiple meeting managers and is a bit under $5000 per year. If you have several people, then it is cost effective per person. Be aware that there is a required training fee that runs close to $1000 for the first year of use. That is a one time fee.
Collaborate is getting ready to shift to a very different interface in the coming month. They bought another webinar company that runs completely in the browser. If you are looking into a near in the future purchase, wait a bit until they get some resources out there for you to understand what the new version will have in the way of features or to get a head start on training. It may be very different than what is in the current version.
Interesting timing! My wife just did a webinar today for her business using Easy Webinar. Most everyone in her network recommended it. It supported a way to integrate a Google+ Hangout as the provider of the lifestream.
My personal thought on EW is that it could use some UI help… it felt like what I imagine surgery to be like: Connecting many moving parts from disparate places into one place. Maybe it’s a fairly new offering in the webinar landscape and maybe (hopefully) they’ll improve the interface in future versions.
I have no experience with using other webinar software, so would be interested to see people’s thoughts on EW. We’ll have to check the other ones out for the future.
I use join.me – got it for $99/year. Love it!
Does join.me allow you to record for that $99/year price?
Join.me does allow you to record, but we have so many issues with people getting on and the audio that we will not be using it any more. Not very user friendly for attendees
Awesome timing of your post. I’m in the process of looking at webinar software – I’ll look further at some of those in your post. I have been looking at Evergreen Business System and was wondering if anyone has used or heard them – evergreenbusinesssystem.com – would appreciate feedback. Thanks, Shannaam
Nathan,
As I slowly begin to contemplate webinar options this post is quite useful, thank you. I appreciate your ‘conclusion’ at the bottom of your list. This is ‘fresh air’ in the online marketing world to not be subjected to the hype.
I have only looked over their site however, EasyWebinar.appears promising.to me – so I thought I would toss it out here for others to consider. And I’ll point out too… I’m not affiliated in any way.
Thanks,
Doug
You forgot Webinarjam, which has awesome features if you are a marketer and is billed annually an much more affordable than for example gotowebinar.
Just my point of view.
I concur, my research has been long and deep and the best solution all round is WebinajJam hands down + googlehangouts on Air using the Xsplit encoder will allow sharing of desktop & video switching. Im buying the whole damned package too to get the evergreen replays which can also be monetised.. wow!
I dont understand how this could have been missed off this list. Wrter may need to rework this post for credibility.
I’m a WebinarJam user myself, and I’m very very VERY happy. It’s crazy powerful and flexible, and rock solid even if you push 1,000+ people into your webinars.
Totally recommend it.
I agree – WebinarJam is BY FAR the best webinar platform in the market, and I believe me… I’ve tried them all!
I decided to give WebinarJam a go too! Thanks for the heads up – let the journey begin.
WebinarJam looks awesome. Hoping to try this out tomorrow for a live event
I currently use Fuze (www.fuze.com). I’ve been mostly happy with it but it does get buggy at times. The pricing is much lower than most other options which is why I started with it. The pricing when I signed up was actually MUCH less than it is now so its hard to give up when my annual subscription is the same as a one month subscription on the big boy platforms.
That said, there are some things that I wish it did, or did better. However, in my searching for alternatives it seems that I’m going to have to settle on features or price, as their just isn’t a solution that really fits perfectly for me.
As Charles mentioned, MeetingBurner was my next choice if I had to pay more but there are things about it that I don’t like either.
UGH!
Two other options I’ve looked into this week are EasyWebinars and WebinarIgnite. Both of these run within WP as a plugin, look impressive and have a one time cost. Technically, these aren’t “platforms” as they are similar to “Webinars-On-Air” in that they use another video source such as Google+ Hangouts for the video feeds. However, they still look very interesting for what they can do.
There are some drawbacks… but also some very cool pros for this method.
As this article concludes… the choices are plentiful, frustrating and sometimes confusing.
You forgot to mention Zoom
http://zoom.us/
It’s made by some guys who didn’t like the direction WebEx was going so they quit and made Zoom. Might not be WebEx but the main concept is that they saw shortcomings and thought they could make a better product.
Been using it a year and it’s got some nice features and responsive support.
I second this… I’ve used all but 3 of the providers on this page… each had a weird quirk or made promises they could not reliably deliver… Zoom is the most consistently solid platform I’ve used to date… and happens to be one of the least expensive too!
they suck though 🙁
I use appear.in which is great for small teams and impromptu meetings. As a company we use go to meeting and go to webinar as our official software and while that’s great for more official type presentations I find that appear.in is great for quick pop up meetings..it also plays well with other software such as HipChat and Slack which makes collaboration a breeze
Very honest and very accurate Nathan
Hello Nathan,
I’ve tried many of theothers but I’ve had really good experiences with MeetingBurner. It is a good place to start as you can have a webinar with up to 10 participants for free and it is a great way to get some experience in doing webinars. You get the full product for free with no limitations for as long as you want to use it. The hosting platform is reliable and easy to use. Which was important to me. The cost for larger groups up to 50 is less than $40. I really like it.
However, It does not give you IP voice! A free call in webinar is not fun if you live abroad!