Webinar Software

How We Ranked the Best Webinar Software

In the following section, we’ll provide the details behind our evaluation methodology. We have customized the steps to cover all the important aspects of a solid software for webinar hosting and get an accurate picture of whether or not a webinar tool deserves to be ranked among the best in the industry.

Key Capabilities of Webinar Platforms

Features are the most important aspect of any software. What follows are the most essential capabilities we expect to find in the best platforms for webinar hosting:

Reliability

Your webinar shouldn’t fail you! That’s why reliability is the first thing we test in every webinar software. We check how long the software has been around, its the rate of customer satisfaction, and finally, we test it ourselves.

Performance & Compatibility

It goes without saying that any quality webinar platform should deliver high-quality video and audio without glitches or delays. Beyond that, the best webinar software should be compatible with multiple browsers including Chrome, Safari, and Firefox and should be able to accommodate operating systems such as Windows, OS X, and Linux. Last but not least, the platform should support mobile access so that you can attract more attendees who want to join on the go.

Ease of Use

Next, we check how easy it is for users to set up and run a webinar. We take note of the webinar’s initial set-up and organization, as well as the ongoing management, how easy it is for co-presenters to take part in an event, whether attendees can easily sign in and interact with presenters, etc.

Branding & Customization

The webinar software should provide customization of forms and emails by adding your logo, fonts, signatures/sign-offs, and brand colors. This is an excellent way to keep your branding consistency for maximum visibility. We give a boost to platforms that allow full customization over those with only partial or no customization at all.

Interaction

An interactive webinar will reinforce your message, leaving a greater impact on your audience and improving the engagement rate. Webinars usually offer real-time chats, Q&As, CTAs, polls, quizzes, and more. We pay special attention to the chat feature, check the availability of both private and public chats, and make sure there aren’t any delays.

Reporting

Reporting helps you learn whether your webinar is impactful and whether it meets your ROI, helping you stay focused on what’s important and make the needed improvements. This feature usually covers the number of registrants and attendees, what questions, comments, and poll answers were submitted, the engagement rate, what attracted the most attention, and more.

User Reviews

Beyond assessing the features of the webinar platforms, we make sure to scout third-party directories to find reviews from past clients and get some insight into their experiences with the product. We note all the aspects where the software shines but also look for warning signs such as accessibility issues in particular regions, any irregularities regarding features, etc. While we don’t immediately discard software if we come across a few bad reviews, we take that as a sign to dig deeper and find out whether the issues have been resolved or if they continue to appear.

Customer Support

When you’re using the software, chances are you’ll have some questions. They might be about the setup or an issue you’ll encounter while running your webinar. We look for platforms with useful material available to customers, and a dedicated support team you can reach out to.

Pricing Policy

The goal of this page isn’t to just recommend cheap webinar software; instead, we try to introduce platforms with good value for money. With this type of software, the price usually depends on the number of presenters and attendees allowed. A platform designed to serve 50 participants would typically cost $50 a month while the enterprise-level platforms can reach up to $500 a month.

While we take this into account, we also evaluate each product based on the features included in the price and consider how that compares to the industry standard. Software products with a free trial or a money-back guarantee will get a boost in our rankings.

Webinar Software Reviews

Choosing the best webinar hosting platform among the industry leaders will largely depend on its features and pricing. Researching all this by yourself can be quite time-consuming which is why we decided to provide you with in-depth reviews of the platforms, including what makes each of them special, their features, pricing policy, and more.

EasyWebinar

EasyWebinar is a unique platform that seamlessly integrates webinar technology with marketing strategy. Reliable and easy to use, this webinar software offers a full range of automated and integrated features great for boosting sales and establishing lasting customer relationships. You can easily integrate EasyWebinar with CRM marketing automation and your email provider.

Pros

• Stable and easy to use
• Allows up to 100 attendees in the basic plan
• Robust chat features

Cons

• UI can be improved
• Occasional technical issues

Features

EasyWebinar allows you to host conferences, training, or online meetings. If you opt to run live events, you can rest assured there will be no delays in streaming, while your audience will be treated to pixel-perfect pictures and amazing audio thanks to the TrueVoice technology. You can also record, archive and download your sessions, engage your audience with real-time chat, or use the latest EasyCast feature to stream live on multiple social media platforms at once.

EasyWebinar is one of the best webinar platforms when it comes to evergreen webinars. It promises real-time streaming that looks and feels the same as the live-streaming experience. It supports right-on-time registration which enables streamings in 15-minute increments. What’s more, there is a “wait for it” block days option that gives you control over the viewer experience.

This webinar solution allows you to repurpose your live event by converting it to automated. You can also make use of its advanced analytics feature that gives you insight into overall stats, the number of registered attendees, as well as individual attendee engagement.

Collaboration is another strong suit of EasyWebinar — you can easily send real-time or time-based offers, invite people, answer questions in live chat, and more.

Pricing

As one of the best webinar software solutions on the market, EasyWebinar offers three plans. The Standard plan costs $78 a month for up to 100 live attendees. The Pro plan comes in at a monthly fee of $129 for up to 500 live attendees and access to the EasyCast streaming tool. The monthly rate for the Enterprise plan stands at $499 for up to 2,000 live attendees. If you opt for annual billing, you’ll get three months free.

ClickMeeting

ClickMeeting is a browser-based software suitable for organizations of all sizes. It’s easy to use and navigate, and takes care of all webinar processes from preparation, to integration and follow-up.

Pros

• Great flexibility in branding
• Straightforward UI
• Numerous presentation options

Cons

• Export quality could be better

Features

ClickMeeting is among the best webinar software platforms, letting you run live or automated events that can be customized to fit your brand, including a tailor-made profile page. Additionally, this software provides the possibility to run paid webinars and monetize your experience through a seamless PayPal integration. ClickMeeting allows creating multi-user accounts as well as sub-accounts for external consultants, trainers, or colleagues.

The platform features a waiting room with an agenda that will keep your audience engaged before the event starts. There are also various features that entice engagement such as audio modes, simultaneous translation, moderated Q&A, versatile presentation tools, whiteboard, etc. What’s more, you can expand the reach of your webinar by streaming on YouTube and Facebook. You can further build on the relationship with your audience by going through extensive analysis and leverage the follow-up features.

Pricing

ClickMeeting is an affordable webinar software that provides three pricing plans, depending on the number of attendees. Live is the best plan for running meetings and live webinars, at $30 a month. The Automated plan comes with Webinar Flywheel automation and its monthly rate stands at $45. These are the lowest prices of the Live and Automated plans, valid for up to 25 attendees. The Enterprise solution is perfect for large-size organizations in need of customized and scalable webinar software. Annual subscriptions are discounted by 20%.

Livestorm

Focused on automation, user experience, and marketing, Livestorm has established itself as one of the leading webinar platforms. You can host recurring, pre-recorded, on-demand, or live streaming webinars at an affordable price.

Pros

• Sleek UI
• Custom Landing Page
• High quality

Cons

• Pricey

Features

With Livestorm, you’re bound to offer a great user experience for your attendees. As a start, joining events is simple and convenient since users don’t need to have an account or download anything ‒ they can click on a link using a web-enabled device and they are in.

Attendees will be able to rewatch every session thanks to the instant recording features. This webinar broadcast software further enables real-time engagements through chats, polls, Q&A sessions, and more. Any participant can also be invited to speak.

Livestorm offers great features for analysis, including a report of the number of attendees and engagement, tracking the sources of registration, insight into when attendees left the room, and more. This software further takes care of email logistics, including sending promotional emails, reminders, or follow-up Thank You letters. Livestorm integrates with over 1000 apps and enables real-time notifications on Slack.

Pricing

If you are hoping to find webinar software for free, Livestorm can certainly meet those expectations. The Webinar & Meet Basic plan is free but limits webinars to a duration of 20 minutes and 10 participants. Then, there is the Meet Premium plan which costs $31 a month for up to eight participants. Last but not least, the Webinar Premium subscription is $99 a month for up to 100 attendees and a four-hour limit per session.

Demio

Demio is a top software that automatically records and stores every session in the cloud. Trusted by some of the best SaaS companies worldwide, Demio is the perfect platform for those looking to generate leads, educate customers, or activate users. It ensures strong and adaptive streaming for a reliable experience.

Pros

• Intuitive UI
• Excellent image and audio quality
• Attention-grabbing polls

Cons

• The Q/A management could be better
• Limited sub-user availability

Features

Demio enables users to join your event with just one click from a web-enabled device. You can easily customize the registration options and add your logo, images, embed the form, add custom fields, and more. You can also keep the audience engaged through real-time chats, interactive polls, handouts, and even invite an attendee on stage.

Demio is considered one of the best webinar recording software platforms. Every session is automatically recorded in the cloud, giving you the opportunity to share or repurpose the content. The effectiveness of the webinar can be easily measured through in-depth analytics. To top that, Demio comes with a wide array of integrations through Zapier.

Pricing

Demio offers three pricing plans. The Starter plan includes a 50-attendee room and costs $49 a month. It has the standard features best suited for SMBs and solopreneurs who are just getting started with webinars. The Growth plan comes with a 150-attendee room and is packed with more advanced tools, branding options, and automated events. The monthly price for this plan is $99. The Business plan is great for larger companies that need bigger room size and dedicated support. You’ll get a 500-attendee room, the option to invite up to three sub-users, and a dedicated account rep for $234 a month. With annual billing, you’ll get up to a 30% discount.

WebinarJam

WebinarJam is one of the best-rated webinar software platforms out there and is easy to use even if you lack technical knowledge. What makes WebinarJam unique is its Broadcast Distribution technology which creates a universal signal, enabling you to stream live on a variety of platforms. They also use other technologies, including RTMP, HLS, WebRTC, and Flash.

Pros

• Built-in integration with EasyWebinar
• Excellent support
• One-click registration

Cons

• It takes some time to set it up correctly
• Limited landing-page designs

Features

WebinarJam is flexible software with a dynamic layout control to optimize the display. It allows inviting up to six co-presenters and enables excellent collaboration with the attendees through a fully controllable live chat feature. Attendees can also take the stage, participate in Q&A or consulting sessions, etc. The Express Jam is another notable feature of this amazing webinar software — it gives you the opportunity to set up a webinar to broadcast easily in less than 30 seconds.

With WebinarJam you can present your ideas in many interesting ways. First, you can import a presentation file and seamlessly run it in HD. Then, you can draw and mark important notes directly on the screen. You can also use the video engine to include a pre-recorded video that you can play while running the webinar. Last but not least, what makes WebinarJam a unique webinar tool is its feature to introduce offers to attendees as you run the webinar. They, in turn, can easily accept the offer and make a purchase.

Pricing

The annual subscription for this webinar software will cost you $39.99 per month. Considering its impressive features, the price seems fair. Plus, you get a 30-day money-back guarantee.

GoToWebinar

GoToWebinar is one of the best webinar solutions renowned for its high-quality lead generation effectiveness. It includes an easy setup and gives you a variety of features that will improve your experience as well as the experience of your attendees.

Pros

• Flexible branding
• Excellent analytics & marketing tools
• Automatic invitations and follow-up emails

Cons

• The Starter plan limits the count to 100 attendees
• Pricey

Features

GoToWebinar is a leading automated webinar software with a clean and well-designed dashboard that makes event management easy. You can also save the customized templates and use them for new events. The flexible scheduling allows you to set up an on-demand or one-time event, as well as a series of events. GoToWebinar features the most flexible branding solutions — you can easily add your logo and brand colors on all webinar materials, create a custom registration form, channel page, and more.

With impressive features such as invitations, polls and surveys, presenter webcams, and automated webinar recording, you can rest assured that your attendees will be engaged throughout the event and after. You can discover event analytics along with source tracking, and generate attendee reports to improve your efforts in the future.

Pricing

A simple webinar software comparison shows that GoToSoftware is pricier than the competition. Still, if you consider the features you get with each subscription, it’s a good value for money. The Starter plan limits the number of attendees to 100 for a monthly fee of $109. The Pro plan subscription with a 500-attendee room costs $249 a month. Finally, there is the Plus plan which comes with a 1000-attendee room for $499 a month.

Zoho Meeting

Zoho is the best webinar software for small business organizations because it’s fairly affordable. Zoho Meeting also has a clean interface and a set of useful features to help you organize your webinar and engage the attendees in a meaningful way.

Pros

• Affordable
• Seamless integration with other Zoho products

Cons

• Lacks support for a large group of attendees
• Analytics can be better
• Lacks customization of attendee information

Features

Zoho Meeting is a solid web-based webinar broadcasting software that records every session, enabling you to revisit it at any time. You can add members to your account and easily schedule meetings, manage notifications, and settings, or add co-organizers. The registration forms can be customized with questions and fields to understand your attendees better, and can be embedded on any pages your target audience will visit.

Zoho Meeting allows you to filter registrants to prevent spammers and avoid those who have not completed the pre-requested steps. Through polls, Q&A, and the Raise Hand feature you can actively engage your attendees. You can further invite an attendee to speak in the webinar through the Allow to Talk feature, or make an attendee a presenter. This webinar software also includes analytics. While this feature could be improved, it offers helpful reports on registrants, poll results, Q&A sessions and more.

Pricing

As noted above, Zoho Meeting is the best software for smaller organizations that don’t need big rooms. There are four subscription plans, starting with the lowest at $21 a month for a 25-attendee room. The Webinar-50 costs $32 a month, the Webinar-100 is $43, while the fee for Webinar-250 stands at $87.

Adobe Connect

Adobe Connect is a top webinar software that enables collaborative experiences. This solution is perfect for small to mid-sized organizations that don’t mind splurging on good software. Adobe comes with an impressive set of features and is fully customizable, giving you complete control over the look of your rooms.

Pros

• Dynamic participation
• Prepare Mode
• Polls, games, and quizzes
• Highly customizable

Cons

• Lack of a dial-in service
• Lack of a private chat option
• Pricey

Features

You can easily create a virtual room and customize it according to your preferences. You are also able to adjust the layouts and optimize the same room for different purposes, reusing the same URL. You can further reuse the content across multiple sessions, including videos, presentations, polls, and more, saving your time and maintaining consistency.

Adobe Connect is packed with powerful features. One of them is the virtual backstage area that enables you to collaborate with other presenters during the session. Then, there is the Prepare Mode which allows you to set up different layouts as you go. When it comes to attendee engagement, Adobe Connect is one of the leading webinar platforms as it offers many possibilities such as quizzes, polls, chat pods, breakout rooms, and games.

Pricing

Adobe Connect has a subscription plan for meetings that starts at $50 per month and a plan for learning for a monthly fee of $370. The Webinar subscription starts at $130 per month. The Enterprise plan is custom-priced for users who need a more tailored package.

ZOOM

Zoom is an excellent video conferencing software and webinar platform that caters to both SMBs and larger organizations, providing a perfect balance between premium features and an affordable price. This product is notable for its HD video and high-quality sound, as well as its amazing engagement tools.

Pros

• Affordable
• High-quality audio and video
• Highly functional mobile app

Cons

• Chat could be improved
• Integrations could be stronger

Features

Zoom is one of the most reputed webinar hosting platforms. It’s reliable and scalable. It’s fairly easy to set it up, customize it, and brand your registration forms and emails. It features bespoke video and sound quality. Up to 100 video participants can share their webcam and interact with over 10000 attendees. You can opt to broadcast on Facebook and YouTube on-demand while recurring webinars are possible courtesy of the recording feature.

Zoom also gives you full control over the event. Namely, you can choose to mute or unmute panelists, promote attendees by giving them audio and video capabilities, and more. The robust reporting and analytics webinar services provide you with insight into the registrants, attendees, the engagement rate, as well as follow-up Q&A. Interactivity is another strong suit of this particular webinar software. Although the chat could be improved, the polling and Q&A, Attendee Raise Hand, and Attention Indicator are some excellent features with the power to improve sales.

Pricing

The Basic plan for personal meeting is completely free. You can host up to 100 participants and hold unlimited one-to-one meetings free of charge. That being said, there is a 40-minute limit on group meetings. The priced subscriptions start with the Pro plan which is excellent for small teams and costs $14.99 a month, per host. The subscription for small and medium-sized businesses is for a minimum of 10 hosts and its monthly price is $19.99 per host. The Enterprise plan has the same price but requires a minimum of 50 hosts.

BigMaker

BigMarker is one of the best webinar platforms for education, technology, and non-profit industries. With this software, you can host live, automated, or on-demand webinars, training, and presentations, establishing a meaningful connection with your attendees.

Pros

• Excellent marketing & engagement features
• Sleek design
• Feature-rich

Cons

• Costly to scale up

Features

When doing the webinar platforms comparison, we found out that BigMarker stands out with its unique features that help you put your content in the spotlight with up to nine presenters, while also successfully marketing it through its built-in promotion and monetization tools. You can easily create branded landing pages that will capture more leads, and customize your room by adding theme colors and your logo. BigMarker also enables you to make handouts available to the attendees to provide content they can take away.

BigMarker takes the interactive game on a new level by letting you play videos directly from YouTube or upload an MP4 file inside the webinar. You can also easily highlight or mark up the key points of your presentation thanks to the Whiteboard tool. Public and private chats, Q&A and upvoting, as well as polls and quizzes, are some of BigMarker’s outstanding collaboration features that enable you to gather feedback from your audience and engage them. This webinar software also has a pop-up feature, which is especially useful for those looking to sell products or services.

Pricing

Scaling up with BigMarker can be costly; however, you get a good value for money considering the features. The basic subscription is the Plus plan at $89 a month which allows for unlimited webinars with up to 100 attendees. For a monthly price of $199, the Elite subscription includes two host licenses and up to 500 attendees.

Organizations in need of more hosting licenses and larger rooms could use the Summit subscription which costs $399 a month (includes four host licenses and 1000 attendees). If you plan to host massive events with up to 10000 attendees, you should opt for the fully customizable White Label plan.

How to Choose the Best Webinar Software for You

Now that you have all the details behind our evaluation methodology, and the specifications of the best software platforms, we will help you shortlist and find the top choice for you.

Step 1: Define Your Goals

First, you need to establish your goals. Consider what you want to accomplish with your webinar. Are you looking to expand your audience, or do you want to raise awareness about your brand? Or maybe you want to increase your revenue? Next, figure out how you plan to accomplish your goal. This will help you outline a list of all the necessary features of your ideal webinar software. Also, consider how often you will be hosting webinars. Are you looking for a platform for running a one-off event or are webinars something you will be doing on a regular basis?

Step 2: Define Your Target Audience

After filtering the products based on your goals, you need to determine your target audience. Consider the age of your ideal webinar attendee and where that person lives. This will help you define the content you need to create and determine the features you need. For example, if your target is a younger demographic, you’ll have to look for software with mobile compatibility, along with access to social media.

Step 3: Define Your Budget

The final step is determining how much money you can afford to spend on a monthly or yearly basis. Since the price is almost always determined by the number of attendees allowed, try and make an educated guess. If you aren’t sure, start small and scale up later. Compare the options that fall within your budget frame against the shortlist you’re left with after Step 2. The webinar software that best fits your budget is the one you should go with.