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Are you looking for the best webinar platform for your business? Which is better, Zoom or GoToWebinar?
How do you actually decide which platform will meet your business needs better?
Also, are there any other better Zoom and GoToWebinar alternatives?
In this article, I am going to share with you everything you need to know to help you make an informed decision.
Zoom
Zoom was founded in 2011 out of frustration with the existing video conferencing software in the market back then.
First of all, let’s take a look at the three main types of Zoom products:
- Zoom Meetings
- Zoom Rooms
- Zoom Webinar
Zoom Meetings allows you to do video conferencing with real-time messaging and content sharing.
It’s very easy to host and join any video meetings once you have downloaded and installed the Zoom App on your device.
Now, what about Zoom Rooms?
Zoom Rooms is essentially both a software technology that allows you to host video meetings from your conference room with other people joining your meeting online from elsewhere.
To use Zoom Rooms, you will need certain hardware (e.g. camera, speaker, microphone, big screen display, etc) set up to run Zoom Rooms software.
This is useful for companies with offices in different parts of the world because it makes team meetings and collaboration easy and quick.
Lastly, You can also use Zoom to host webinars.
To get Zoom webinar function, you have to first purchase the Zoom Meetings Paid Plan and then add Zoom Webinar as an add-on.
Now, let’s first examine the features of Zoom Webinar software.
With Zoom, attendees have to down the Zoom app to join your webinar.
Alternatively, they can dial in to join.
Next, what types of webinars can you host with Zoom?
Zoom allows you to host both live webinars and on-demand webinars.
Unlike GoToWebinar, Zoom does not offer automated webinars that allow you to run pre-recorded webinars on auto-pilot.
Zoom only automatically records your live webinar and then makes it available as an on-demand webinar.
What’s an on-demand webinar?
An on-demand webinar is a pre-recorded webinar that can be watched at any time.
With Zoom on-demand webinar, your existing registrants and registrants who register after the live webinar has already ended can watch the webinar replay anytime they want.
So, I would say that Zoom is primarily a live webinar solution.
When it comes to hosting live webinars, you can expect the following from Zoom webinar software:
- HD video and audio
- Up to 100 video panelists who communicate with the audience, respond in Q&A, and share video and screen share.
- Up to 10,000 view-only attendees
- Webinar engagement tools such as Live Chat, Q&A and Polling, virtual Attendee hand-raising
- Promote Attendees to Panelists & Mute/Unmute Panelists
- Send reminder emails & follow-up emails
If you are hosting a large-scale live event, Zoom allows you to stream your events to unlimited audiences across social channels with its Facebook Live and YouTube Live integrations.
So, I would say that Zoom is perfect for businesses that want to use webinars for large-scale live events.
When it comes to third-party app integration, you can integrate Zoom Video Webinars with CRM and marketing automation systems such as Marketo and Salesforce.
If you are hosting a paid live event, Zoom Video Webinars provides the option to monetize your webinars through our integrations with PayPal, Eventbrite, and CVent.
So, how much does Zoom Video Webinar cost?
Its cheapest plan is $55/month/host (or $46/month if billed annually).
With this plan, you can have up to 100 participants.
If you need to host more than 100 participants, then you will need to upgrade your plan.
For example, to host up to 500 participants, it costs $155/month/host (or $129/month/host).
Of course, the more participants allowed, the more expensive the webinar plan is.
GoToWebinar
Now, let’s take a look at GoToWebinar.
GoToWebinar, together with GoToMeeting, GoToRoom, GoToConnect and GoToTraining, are all owned by LogMeIn.
Now, let’s go straight into examining the features of GoToWebinar.
GoToWebinar has been around for quite a long time and is one of the leading webinar software providers in the market.
With GoToWebinar, attendees can join your webinar very easily from any web browser on any device.
Also, you can download and install its app to join the webinar or dial in to listen to the webinar.
Now, what types of webinars can you host with GoToWebinar?
GoToWebinar allows you to host live webinars, on-demand webinars as well as automated pre-recorded webinars.
Next, let’s take a look at GoToWebinar’s features.
#1. Easy to set up webinars with flexible scheduling
GoToWebinar has a very intuitive user interface.
It’s very easy and quick for you to set up a webinar even if you are a complete beginner.
In terms of webinar scheduling options, you also can choose from:
- Host live webinar right now
- Host a single webinar session with a specific date & time or multiple timing options
- A recurring webinar series (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly)
#2. Customized webinar registration page
Webinar registration page is the very first page that your audience will see.
So, it’s important to have control over the design and the layout of your webinar registration.
GotoWebinar allows you to customize your webinar registration page to match your branding.
Also, you can track the source of your webinar registration to determine which traffic source converts the best.
#3. Webinar presentation tools
To help you engage your audience, GoToWebinar provides a lot of useful webinar presentation tools:
- Drawing tools (e.g. you can draw directly on the shared screen for all attendees to see)
- Polls (i.e. conduct polls during your webinar)
- Handouts (i.e. you can give you handouts and files to your attendees)
- Video sharing (i.e. you can share videos with your attendees)
- Live chat (i.e. your attendees can interact with you through messaging in real-time)
- Q&A
#5. Email Marketing Automation
When you host a webinar, you want to make sure that attendees will receive reminder emails with instant-join links to join the webinar on time.
Also, if they, for any reason, cannot make it to your webinar or left your webinar early, you want to send automatic follow-up emails to them with a link to a webinar replay.
GoToWebinar can help you do that, so you can focus on your webinar.
#6. Webinar Analytics
If you are using webinars to generate leads and sales for your business, you will want to know all the key webinar analytics to measure the effectiveness of your webinar.
Here is a list of the webinar analytics and reports that GoToWebinar can provide you with:
- Sessions Overview Report (i.e. it shows a high-level summary of the webinar)
- Registration Report (i.e. it shows when each person registered for the session and their answers to the registration questions)
- Multi-Session Attendee Report (i.e. it shows additional attendee information to compare across multiple sessions)
- Attendee Report (i.e. it shows details about each attendee, including registration information, join and leave time, in session time, interest rating which measures who engaged they are in your webinar)
- Engagement Report (i.e. it shows questions asked by attendees, engagement details, and contact information)
- Q&A Report (i.e. it shows details about the questions asked and answers given during each session)
- Survey Report (i.e. it shows a session’s Survey questions and attendee’s answers)
- Recorded Webinar Report (i.e. it show how many registrants, how many attended the recorded webinar, etc)
Now, how much does GoToWebinar cost?
GotoWebinar‘s most basic annual plan starts at $109/month (or $89/month if billed annually) with 100 participants allowed.
This basic plan only allows you to host live webinars, but not pre-recorded webinars.
Also, the basic plan is different from the Pro Plan and Plus Plan in terms of features available to you.
Below is a list of features that are only offered to Pro Plan and Plus Plan members:
- Pre-recorded webinar
- Registration source tracking
- Video sharing
- Video embed
- Video editor
- Automatic webinar transcription
- No download to join webinar through the browser-based version of GoToWebinar that can be run entirely online
Depending on the number of live webinar attendees you expect for your webinars, you can choose between its Pro Plan 500 Attendees at $ 249/month (or $199/month if billed annually) and Plus Plan 1000 Attendees at $499/month (or $429/month if billed annually).
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Zoom Vs GoToWebinar
So, which is better, Zoom or GoToWebinar?
When it comes to hosting live webinars, both Zoom and GoToWebinar offer the following features:
- Great reliability with high-quality video and audio ( the last thing you want is a webinar software that always crashes)
- Host & Join the webinar through App Download
- Join the webinar via phone dial-in
- Webinar engagement tools such as Drawing tools, Live Chat, Q&A and Polling
- Multiple panelists who can speak, present, share webcams and answer assigned questions during a session
- Promote Attendees to Panelists & Mute/Unmute Panelists
- Send automatic reminder emails & follow-up emails
Both Zoom and GoToWebinar are two of the most reliable webinar software providers in the market and allow many more panelists than the other webinar software out there.
So, is there any difference between Zoom and GoToWebinar?
Yes, here are a few key differences.
First of all, GoToWebinar allows attendees to join through any web browser from any device without downloading its app, while you must download the Zoom app before you can join the webinar.
This is quite an important feature because it makes it so much easier for attendees to join your webinar.
Secondly, GoToWebinar allows you to offer both automated pre-recorded webinars and live webinars while Zoom only allows you to do live webinars.
If you want to leverage the power of pre-recorded webinars to help you save more time, then GoToWebinar is the better option of the two.
On the other hand, Zoom also has a few unique features that GoToWebinar does not.
For example, Zoom allows you to live stream to social media such as Facebook and YouTube, effectively giving you an unlimited audience, but GoToWebinar does not have that.
Also, Zoom allows up to 100 panelists to present at the webinar while GoToWebinar allows up to 24 panelists.
If you are planning to host a webinar where a lot of panelists are invited to speak, then Zoom will be a better choice.
In terms of pricing, GoToWebinar’s plans are more expensive than Zoom while Zoom’s pricing is more confusing than GoToWebinar.
With Zoom, you can only purchase the video webinar as an add-on to Zoom Meeting.
So, which one should you choose?
If you are hosting webinars primarily for large live events, then I recommend Zoom because it allows you to live stream to social media.
But, if you are hosting webinars to generate leads and sales for your business, then there are better alternatives for you because both Zoom and GoToWebinar are not specially designed to help you sell through webinars and they are also very expensive.
So, depending on what types of webinars you are going to use, here’s my recommendation.
If you are ONLY using automated pre-recorded webinars to help you generate leads and sales, then I recommend EverWebinar.
When it comes to running automated pre-recorded webinars, EverWebinar allows you to do the following:
- Join webinars from any devices without download
- Unlimited webinars
- Customizable registration page and you can also embed the registration form anywhere on your website
- Webinar presentation tools such as Polls and Surveys
- Live real-time chat
- Automated Email Notification
- Analytics & Stats
- Integrations with third-party email marketing apps and CRM apps
On top of that, EverWebinar has simulated live chat as well as display attendance to make your pre-recorded webinar feel like a live event with many audiences.
If you are selling your products through your webinar, you will love this “Launch Offer” feature that EverWebinar provides.
It allows you to launch your offer with a clickable link to a sales page or product page for your webinar attendees.
So, how much does EverWebinar cost?
EverWebinar has one annual plan and one biennial plan.
Its annual plan is $499/year (or $42/month) while its biennial plan is $799/ two years (or $33/month).
If you don’t want to make one-time payment, it actually offers an installment plan which is three payments of $199 ( or 597/year).
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If you are using both live webinars and automated pre-recorded webinars, then I recommend Demio.
With Demio, webinar attendees can join your webinar through any web browser from any device.
Also, you get unlimited webinars, unlimited registrations, unlimited storage, and 24/7 live chat support.
On top of that, Demio is very easy to use for both you and your attendees.
Its platform design is probably the most beautiful I’ve seen out of all the webinar platforms.
When it comes to hosting live webinars, the quality of video and audio is of paramount importance.
Demio helps you give your audience a seamless webinar experience through its zero-delay real-time live streaming with crystal clear video quality.
In terms of its webinar features, Demio gives you all the essential tools you need to host a smooth live webinar and sell more your products and services:
- A wide range of webinar scheduling options
- Customizable registration page that you can embed on your website
- Webinar presentation tools (e.g. upload presentation slides, screen share, share video, Q&A, live chat, polls, etc)
- Launch offer(i.e. use “Featured Actions” to link your audience to an offer, sign up page, or any URL during webinar)
- Promote attendee to presenter
- Automatically records your live sessions in HD quality in the cloud for replay and for also automated webinars
- Webinar Analytics
In terms of pricing, Demio offers both monthly and annual plans.
Only Demio’s Growth Plan and above allow you to run both live webinars and automated webinars.
And Demio‘s Growth Plan is 99/month (or $69/month if billed annually).
Under Demio’s Growth Plan, you get everything you need to run automated webinars.
For live webinars, you are allowed up to 150 attendees, 5-hour session limit, and 1 host.
If you have up to 500 attendees, then you can consider Demio‘s Business Plan ($163/month if billed annually)
If your business needs to run both live webinars and automated webinars to generate leads and sales, Demio is definitely a better choice than both Zoom and GoToWebinar because it gives you more value for your money.
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