Discover the best webinar platforms to create a powerful, productive, and unforgettable live event for every kind of situation and goal.
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October 22, 2021
There are so many webinar platforms on the market today that creating a shortlist is time-consuming. There is no single webinar platform suitable for every situation. A Fortune 500 company might want a webinar able to support thousands of attendees and provide detailed analytics. A small company might be more focused on an affordable price.
To help you save time, use this guide to the seven best webinar platforms and see how they compare in features, integrations, and more.
Before diving into the specifics of the best webinar platforms on the market, let’s consider goals for a moment. Webinars are typically offered for three reasons. First, sales webinars sell products and services (a good strategy for higher-priced products over $500 or $100). Second, a business can use a webinar as a lead generation tool – invite attendees to book appointments following the webinar. Third, some organizations use webinars to deliver educational content.
Don't forget to check some great resources for virtual events for education and e-learning, sports, news publishing, and ecommerce at Arena's website.
Take a few minutes to get clear on the goal of your webinar. Now, let’s take a look at some of the webinar platforms on the market.
Arena Live Chat is an excellent solution for making your audience part of the conversation. When you give webinar attendees the ability to connect and ask questions, you’re more likely to achieve your goals. Once you select a video platform for your webinar, consider adding Arena Live Chat to give webinar participants a voice in the event. See how to enhance the e-learning experience by adding Live Chat, for instance.
GoToWebinar is one of the best-known webinar platforms on the market. Capterra has also highlighted the app as a top performer for live streaming. The app includes the ability to track attendees, record sessions, and run virtual classrooms.
This cloud-based webinar platform gives users several helpful features to engage your audience. You can record webinars, run the event with multiple hosts and use polls to keep your audience engaged. The lack of a desktop app might turn off some users.
This browser-based webinar tool is easy for people to join with a single click. Capterra has recognized Capterra as an “emerging favorite” in three categories: live streaming software, video conferencing software, and webinar software. This webinar platform also makes it easy for attendees to join the conversation. It includes screen sharing, polls, and chat features. If you are looking for a webinar platform that can do double duty as a video platform for sales, Livestorm is a good option.
Zoom is best known as a video conferencing app. However, the company also has a webinar capability. While Zoom has a strong reputation as a video conferencing tool, it is less well known as a webinar platform. Zoom Webinars stands out for their scalability. It is tough to beat Zoom if you need to deliver a presentation to thousands of people with many different presenters.
Webex is the webinar solution created by Cisco. The company has a good reputation for creating robust communication tools for corporate users. The platform’s paid plans include support for MP4 recordings, the ability to stream meetings from Facebook Live, and toll-free phone numbers for people who prefer to join by phone.
Adobe is best known for its graphic design apps. However, the company has also offered a webinar tool for several years. The video app includes support for multiple hosts, polls, file sharing, and recording. That said, some reviewers have experienced problems with the product’s video quality.
Note that running Adobe Connect may require that you have Adobe Flash Player runtime installed. If you are aiming to maximize attendees, this requirement could be a problem.
Sorting through the webinar platforms to find the right tools for your company is just the first step. You have to give just as much attention to the content of your webinar. To help you craft a compelling experience, download Arena’s free ebook: How to create Live Events.