Looking for the best webinar software for your business?
But need some additional information about the available options before pulling that trigger?
Do read on… Please.
Want to get right to the point? My top pick for the best webinar software platform for businesess is definitely WebinarJam.
Hosting webinars is the rage these days. More businesses are seeing the light in webinars and are transitioning from real-life learning to webinars.
Especially since the emergence of COVID-19 last year.
Isn’t that spike crazy as HELL?!
Definitely, webinar software is a must-have in your arsenal for engaging your audience and converting your leads.
NO MATTER WHAT!
However, choosing the best webinar platform for your business can be challenging with a lot of options in the market.
Plus, some webinar platforms are full of glitches rendering bad experiences for the attendees…
Poor internet connection, being cut-off from a webinar, and poor video quality; are just some of the bad experiences most of us have had with webinar platforms.
Although some are fairly priced, some come at a steep price with noticeable glitches to avoid.
In this post, we have curated a list of 14 best webinar platforms for small business owners and large enterprises.
With a detailed analysis of their features, pros, cons, and pricing plans.
In the end, we will walk you through the process of choosing the best webinar software for your business alongside other tools you need to launch a high-converting webinar.
Let’s get started right away…
- WebinarJam
- Demio
- Livestorm
- GetResponse
- ClickMeeting
- WebinarNinja
- EasyWebinar
- EverWebinar
- GotoWebinar
- LiveWebinar
- BigMarker
- Adobe Connect
- Google Hangouts
- Zoom Webinar
Best Webinar Software Platforms For Small Business
#1. WebinarJam
(Overall Best for Small business and large business owners)
WebinarJam is our first pick and best webinar hosting platform for business owners in every vertical.
Founded in 2013 by Andy Jenkins, WebinarJam software has undergone few updates to meet up the needs of small businesses.
Recently, the WebinarJam software was rebuilt from scratch on completely new technology to make it easier for users to stream faster and clearer.
Besides, WebinarJam offers built-in automation tools, pop-ups, offers, and YouTube live broadcast features to make selling your products easier.
And their pricing plan is reasonably affordable considering the solutions they provide.
Features Of WebinarJam
To start with, WebinarJam does not require any software download. Hosting and attending webinars can be done via your browser.
For hosts, your dashboard is equipped with built-in webinar landing page templates that enable you to create a webinar within 5 minutes.
WebinarJam records all live webinars which can be converted into evergreen webinars using EverWebinar, a sister platform to WebinarJam.
Although you have the option of broadcasting live to your YouTube channel.
WebinarJam does not support a custom live broadcast to custom platforms like WordPress.
However, you can achieve this right from your YouTube dashboard, since YouTube offers a custom broadcast to custom sites.
But you are limited to the features YouTube has to offer and will not get the unique features of WebinarJam.
That said, it gives you more control over your registration page and allows you to embed the WebinarJam registration page into your WordPress site.
WebinarJam offers engagement tools like polls, offers, and an advanced chat tool.
The polls allow you to survey your attendees during the webinar to get them fully-active throughout the webinar.
Plus, you can share the results of the polls during the webinar for attendees to see.
While the webinar chat tool allows attendees to interact and drop comments during the webinar.
WebinarJam platform offers a conversion tool that allows you to sell an offer to your attendees during the webinar.
This is one of my favorite features.
Where WebinarJam beats the competition is its attendees’ spotlight feature:
The spotlight feature gives you the option to bring an attendee to the stage and make them a guest or contributor and the analytics tool provides a detailed analysis of your webinar performance.
Pros of WebinarJam
- Webinar room can support up to 5000 attendees
- Has a user-friendly interface
- WebinarJam is a browser-based platform and can run right from your browser
- Provides advanced engagement tools like offers, polls, and chat tools.
- Can support up to 6 co-hosts for each webinar
- Has an advanced analytics tool that provides a detailed report of your webinar performance
- Allows you to stream-live to YouTube platform
- The starting plan is fairly priced
Cons
- The premium plan is expensive
- It does not support custom live broadcasts to custom sites.
- Poll data is not in-depth enough for better analysis
- Requires additional upgrade to EverWebinar in order to host evergreen webinars
WebinarJam Pricing Plan
For starters, WebinarJam offers a 30-day risk-free money-back guarantee alongside a free demo to walk you around the platform.
Notably, Webinarjam offers three pricing plans; the basic plan, professional, and an enterprise plan.
The basic plan costs $499 per year offering unlimited webinars, a maximum of 2 presenters, 500 attendees, and 2 hours max webinar duration.
The professional plan costs $699 per year offering unlimited webinars, a maximum of 4 presenters, 2000 attendees, a maximum duration of 3 hours, an Always-on live room feature, and a panic button.
Finally,
The enterprise plan costs $999 per year offering all the features present in the professional plan plus the control center except that it can support up to 6 presenters, 5000 attendees, and 4 hours max duration.
#2. Demio
(Best for businesses in teams)
Demio is an all-in-one webinar solution for hosting automated and live webinars.
Launched in 2014 by two marketers (David Abrams and Wyatt Jozwowski) driven by a hunger for a better webinar host; Demio has since moved up to become one of the best webinar platforms.
Interestingly, everyone at Demio works remotely from the comfort of their home through digital communications. So they’re practically selling what they do.
Besides, Demio provides the necessary tool for hosting webinars either you’re running a live webinar or an automated webinar.
Plus, Demio offers integration with other apps like ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, GetResponse, and the rest.
They are a top-rated webinar platform on review sites Capterra.
With almost 5 star rating!
This tells a thing or two about this system. Demio. Is. Awesome.
Features Of Demio
Demio offers a no-download webinar solution for both the hosts and Attendees. Joining a webinar does not require you to download any app; as Demio is a browser-based webinar application.
Demio offers a custom registration page feature.
With Demio, you can create beautiful registration and thank you pages for collecting attendees’ information.
Plus, the custom field set allows you to add forms (and questions peculiar to your webinar) that are not included in the default templates.
On top of that, Demio allows you to embed your registration form into your websites and collect webinar signups from your blog readers.
As for updating your registrants, Demio email notifications enable you to customize automatic email notifications for reminding your registrants about the upcoming sessions.
During the webinar. You have an array of interactive tools to boost interaction with your audience.
The interactive polls enable you to ask your attendees questions and also display the result of the poll during the webinar.
Plus, you can use Demio featured action to display offers and CTAs during the webinar.
The featured action links your audience to an offer page, sign-up page, or a sales page.
The advanced chat tool allows you to enable a private or public chat. Just like social media tools, participants can mention other participants in their chat using @mentions.
With Demio, you can bring an attendee to the stage and give them access to a microphone and webcam throughout
And the best part is that Demio automatically records your webinars, customizes, and also shares a replay page with your audience.
Lastly, Demio offers a tracking tool and also integrates with the best marketing apps in the market…
Pros of Demio
- Its has a user-friendly interface
- It offers a free trial and demo to take you on a tour
- Does not require any download
- Good image and audio quality
- Supports the direct sharing of content on social media
Cons
- Automatically recorded webinars lack engagement tools
- Demio cannot be integrated into other websites
- Offers limited branding options on the basic plan
Demio Pricing plan
They offer a demo plus a 14-day free trial to take you around the platform. Definitely, deciding if it’s the best solution for your business.
That’s said, Demio offers three pricing plans; starter, growth, and business plan.
The starter plan costs $34 per month offering a 50-attendee room, 1 host, and only supports live webinars.
The growth plan offers all Starter features plus 150-attendee room, room & email branding, and automated events coming at $69 per month.
While their business plan costs $163 per month offering all growth plan features plus a 500-attendee room, dedicated account rep, and supports 4 hosts.
#3. Livestorm
Livestorm can be regarded as the go-to solution for video communication and best for hosting product demos webinars, online courses, and customer training.
Both small businesses and large brands.
With Livestorm, you can host just any type of webinar. From live webinars to automated webinars or evergreen webinars.
Where Livestorm beats the market is their email logistic tool where you can send promotional emails, automate emails, and also personalize the emails.
Features of Livestorm
Livestorm is a browser-based webinar software designed for you to host a webinar right directly from your web browser.
With the custom registration page feature, designing your custom branded registration page is easy on Livestorm.
Plus, you have the option of embedding your registration form into your website.
For entrepreneurs, Livestorm can host large online events/webinars and accommodate up to 1000 live attendees without getting booted out.
Likewise for collaboration, Livestorm can support up to 6 co-hosts at the same time on live webinars.
With the team-wide accounts feature, you can manage your team and also assign tasks to them.
Also, Livestorm offers engagement tools like:
- Polls
- Questions and answers (Q/A)
- And chat tools
Plus, Livestorm integrates with other apps in the market and also gives you the option of exporting your webinars data to Excel or a CSV.
Pros Of Livestorm
- Can support 6 co-hosts at the same time on live webinars
- Webinar room can support up to 1000 attendees
- Advanced email automation tool
- Offers a forever free plan
- Managing a team is easy with a team-wide account
Cons
- The poor conversion rate on the landing page
- Limited customization features
- The premium plans are expensive and pricing increases based on the webinar room space.
Livestorm Pricing Plan
To start with, Livestorm offers a forever free plan offering unlimited webinars and meetings.
However, the forever free plan has a limit of 10 registrants per webinar, a maximum of 20 minutes per webinar, 4 participants per meeting.
The meet premium plan starts from $31 per month supporting 1 host, unlimited webinars with 8 participants.
Likewise, the webinar premium plan starts from $99 per month offering 1 host, unlimited webinars, 4 hours limit, and can support 100 attendees per webinar.
That’s not all!
For more attendee-room space, you can order for more space at a cost added to the plan. The 250 attendee-room costs $99 while the 1000-attendee live room costs $209 dollars.
In addition, Livestorm offers an Enterprise plan to cater to your custom needs from branding to room space; you’re protected.
#4. GetResponse
GetResponse is the first email marketing service provider to provide webinar solutions for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Plus, GetResponse is one of the best sales funnel platforms and landing page builders, easiest newsletter tool, autoresponders, and webinar software.
Definitely, GetResponse can be regarded as an all-in-one marketing suite for your marketing needs with the business solutions they offer.
Offering amazing engagement tools like polls, surveys, chat tools, and email automation tool.
GetResponse enterprise webinar solution is best for sales-minded entrepreneurs (interested in converting their customers) with seamless email automation.
Features of GetResponse
To start with:
GetResponse webinar app requires a mobile app download for mobile users unlike most of the other webinar platforms.
However, you can host your webinars with GetResponse from your web browser on your computer.
Secondly:
Setting up a webinar on the platform is easier with the flexible scheduling system.
You also get to customize your webinar URL, registration page and also choose your preferable subscription settings.
With the options to host moderated discussions, private chats with your attendees, run polls and tests, sharing your screens during a presentation; you get to increase your engagement tools.
Plus, GetResponse introduced a whiteboard feature in the new webinar interface that allows you to draw, write, insert images, and shapes during the webinar.
The call-to-action feature allows you to advertise a product or sell a product to your audience with a CTA button to take action.
Notably, GetResponse has a YouTube plugin in the webinar room that allows you to stream any video from YouTube by copying the URL and pasting it into the search box.
And vice-versa, the Facebook and YouTube streaming feature allows you to Livestream your webinar on your YouTube or Facebook profile for more audience.
An area where GetResponse beats the competition is in its CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool.
However, it’s right to note that the GetResponse webinar comes as an add-on to the basic plan of GetResponse email marketing software.
Pros of GetResponse
- Built-in professional email invitation templates
- Provides advanced email automation tool to follow-up with registrants
- Has an in-depth reporting tool
Cons of GetResponse
- Cannot support large webinar conferences as the GetResponse webinar comes as an add-on to the basic plan of GetResponse.
- The landing page isn’t as easy to customize
GetResponse Pricing Plan
For a start, GetResponse offers a 30-day free trial for all the plans.
GetResponse webinar is an add-on to GetResponse plans apart from the basic plan.
The plus plan costs $59 per month offering a 100-attendee webinar room, 5 webinar funnels, 5 sale funnels, and 3 co-hosts.
The professional plan costs $99 per month and offers paid webinars, 300-attendee room, unlimited webinar sales funnel, and on-demand webinars.
Lastly, the Enterprise plan is for businesses in need of a custom configuration for their webinar solution. This pricing is custom and requires you to contact the GetResponse support system.
#5. ClickMeeting
ClickMeeting is an all-in-one webinar solution for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Founded in 2011 by GetResponse, ClickMeeting has built ground and gained the trust of their customers.
Unlike GetResponse (the parent company), ClickMeeting was designed as an outright Webinar event hosting platform. ClickMeeting selling feature is its beautiful friendly interface.
With the flexibility for creating different types of webinar events (on-demand webinars, automated webinars, and Live webinars).
To interact with the audience, and convert your audience; ClickMeeting is out there to serve you best.
Features of ClickMeeting
Logging into the ClickMeeting dashboard, the first thing that attracts you is the beautiful user-friendly interface of the platform.
Right from the dashboard, you can get started with hosting your webinar by clicking the Schedule event button.
ClickMeeting has a standard webinar room layout that allows you to customize the appearance of your webinar room. With the layout tool, you can choose to hide or rearrange the chatbox, camera-and-voice-pod, and the attendees’ list.
Besides, you can manage your attendee list and unmute any of the attendees either to speak or appear on camera.
Definitely, you can grant an attendee the presenter’s right and bring them to the stage as a guest or contributor.
One noticeable feature is the webinar mode feature.
ClickMeeting has three webinar modes for you to choose from.
They feature the Presenters only. Listen only. AND discussion webinar modes.
- The presenters’ only feature:
It allows the presenters to speak to one another without the attendees hearing them.
- Listen only:
It is the default mode for all webinars; the presenters present, while the attendees listen without asking questions.
- While the Discussion mode:
It allows you to successfully host 25 attendees all on camera and can speak with one another. Definitely suitable if you are hosting a meeting rather than a webinar.
Plus, ClickMeeting has a whiteboard tool that enables you to write, draw, and insert images during your presentation.
The broadcasting feature that allows you to stream live to Facebook and YouTube is worthy of mention here. And vice versa, you can also insert a youtube video into the webinar for your attendees to watch.
Pros of ClickMeeting
- It’s super easy to use
- Has a whiteboard to explain complex matters on the board
- Allows you to stream-live to YouTube and Facebook
- You have the option of granting attendees permission to speak or appear on the video.
- ClickMeeting makes it easy to join a webinar just by receiving a call from them.
Cons
- Getting booted out of the webinar occasionally
- Doesn’t have a customer support hotline and you’re limited to using the email
- ClickMeeting isn’t designed for hosting webinar series
ClickMeeting Pricing Plan
ClickMeeting offers you a 7-day free trial to get the ball rolling.
That said. ClickMeeting offers three different pricing plans; live, automated, and an enterprise plan.
For starters, the live plan costs $25 per month offering unlimited live webinars, 1 presenter, and three multi-users that can share the account together.
The automated plan costs $40 per month offering unlimited automated webinars, on-demand webinars, auto-stream on Facebook and YouTube.
Interestingly, the automated plan automates nearly everything from sending thank you emails to auto-stream on Facebook or YouTube.
For companies and businesses looking for a custom solution to their webinar, the enterprise plan is a custom plan with a custom quote depending on your configuration.
#6. WebinarNinja
WebinarNinja brands itself as one of the best webinar platforms with simplicity and speed as its core.
WebinarNinja provides a demo and free trial to take you on a tour around the software and does not require any special software download to host a webinar.
Obviously, testing out the software does not require any stress or hassle.
WebinarNinja is well equipped to run live, automated, series, and hybrid webinars.
Features of WebinarNinja
Foremost, WebinarNinja is a cloud-based software that allows you to host and attend a webinar right from your browser.
Literally, it requires no download to use the platform.
Creating a webinar with WebinarNinja does not take up to 2 minutes; it is as simple as creating a Facebook account.
Plus, WebinarNinja provides built-in webinar registration and thank you page templates to get you started.
Equipped with several tools for hosting webinars, WebinarNinja supports the hosting of live, automated, series, and hybrid webinars.
Plus, WebinarNinja supports paid webinars with Stripe integration.
It offers the necessary tools for a better presentation. You have the option to share your screen, upload slides, and inserting videos.
Other than the necessary engagement tools like Q/A tool, polls, and chat tools; WebinarNinja also provides an offers-feature that allows you to create multiple offers and display them on-demand or time them to show at any given time during the webinar.
However, you have no control over where the polls should appear.
The polls automatically appear under the polls tab which is below the video tab.
So, users have to scroll down to answer the polls.
Likewise, the Offers feature also appears in the offer option in a non-compelling and poor design structure to compel attendees to take action.
The email notification automation allows you to automatically send confirmation or reminder emails to registrants.
Plus, WebinarNinja provides room to house all your webinar templates and images to simplify the webinar-launch process whenever you have to.
WebinarNinja integrates well with some of the best marketing stacks like MailChimp, Aweber, InfusionSoft, Convertkit, ActiveCampaign, Hubspot, and many other ones you’re familiar with.
Pros Of WebinarNinja
- Branded URL
- Private webinars
- Time-zone conversion
- Ban of Attendees
- Supports all devices
Cons
- Provides poor video quality
- The replay option lacks engagement features like polls and Q/A section
- Poor offers design and notification
WebinarNinja Pricing Plan
WebinarNinja offers four pricing plans; starter, pro, plus, and power.
The starter plan costs $39 per month (billed annually) offering 100 live webinar attendees and unlimited attendees for automated webinars.
The Pro plan costs $79 per month offering all starters features plus a 300-attendee live webinar room, Facebook ad tracking, and webinar series & summit.
And for the Plus plan, you get all the pro features plus a 500- attendee room and hybrid webinars at $129 per month when billed annually.
Finally, the power plan which costs $199 per month when billed annually offers all the plus plans together with a 1000-attendee live webinar room.
#7. EasyWebinar
EasyWebinar is the next webinar platform on the list. Another awesome solution perfect for small business owners.
EasyWebinar combines the power of marketing automation tools.
TOGETHER WITH face-to-face interaction with your attendees and leads-to-be.
Best for entrepreneurs, marketers, and businesses looking to grow, nurture their leads.
And ultimately convert to sales!
Features of EasyWebinar
EasyWebinar offers amazing features to host live webinars, automated webinars, and on-demand webinars right from your dashboard.
Creating a live webinar shouldn’t be a hassle, you get the option to make any of your attendees a presenter.
The attendee immediately receives a message to come on camera and microphone.
Talking of sales – which EasyWebinar is well equipped for:
You have the option to create limited offers for your attendees with a button link that directs them to your sales page. Plus, you can include a download link to download PDFs.
Also, you have the option to customize your button anchor.
EasyWebinar offers a general chatbox for attendees and hosts to engage themselves.
Unlike other webinar platforms – EasyWebinar lacks a separate Questions and answers section for administrators to be able to attend to questions that need their attention.
Another notable feature missing on EasyWebinar is the polls and survey tool that’s been the selling point for other platforms like WebinarJam and GetResponse.
EasyWebinar allows you to edit your registration page and thank you page.
However, the customization is limited, and a literal editing interface that does not support visual editing.
A notable feature that EasyWebinar provides is Facebook live and YouTube live integration. Definitely, EasyWebinar allows you to broadcast live to Facebook and YouTube at the same time.
EasyWebinar Pros
- Easy lead generation
- Provides tools to sell both physical and digital products
- Allows multiple hosts option
- Allows you to automatically send reminder emails and thank you emails to registrants
- Great customer support service
EasyWebinar Cons
- Lacks polls and survey feature
- Lacks visual editor for the landing pages
- Slow video upload
EasyWebinar Pricing Plan
EasyWebinar offers a 3-month free trial on annual billing for all their plans.
Offering three pricing plans; standard, pro, and enterprise plan; Easy webinar offers a 25% discount on the three plans.
The Standard plan costs $59 per month featuring a 100-attendee webinar room, YouTube live integration, unlimited automated webinars, and instant-onboard call.
Whereas the pro plan costs $90 per month offering all standard features plus a 500-attendee webinar room, custom fields from the registration page, and phone support.
With the enterprise plan starting from $349 per month, it offers all pro plan features plus a 2000 attendees webinar room and dedicated account representative.
Ultimately best for businesses and companies in need of a bigger room and custom branding.
#8. EverWebinar
EverWebinar simplifies hosting of evergreen webinars.
Evergreen is a sister platform to WebinarJam and has evergreen webinar creators as their major focus.
Thanks to EverWebinar, you can host evergreen webinars and also import your webinars into the EverWebinar platform.
Features of EverWebinar
EverWebinar is a browser-based platform with a user-friendly interface that provides a seamless experience.
EverWebinar has a library of landing page templates to choose from. Plus, you can customize the templates as you please; ranging from colors to text copy.
With the unique scheduling system, you can select specific days of the week and time zones based on what works best.
Plus, EverWebinar offers smart engagement tools like polls, surveys, and a live chat simulator.
EverWebinar provides clickable offers-feature that enables you to display captivating offers that lead to sales.
And with the hybrid webinars, you get to enjoy the benefits of a live experience in an automated webinar.
Their email and SMS notification allow you to schedule a notification in advance – so that your registrants do not miss any webinar.
Notably, EverWebinar allows you to import webinars from WebinarJam and also supports importing any video into an automated webinar.
And ultimately, EverWebinar integrates with other essential marketing tools. It integrates with Kartra funnel builder, MailChimp, Aweber, ActiveCampaign, InfusionSoft, and many others.
With the one-click registration hotlink, people on your autoresponder mailing list can quickly register for your webinars by clicking a link.
Pros of EverWebinar
- Simplifies hosting of evergreen webinars
- Moderate user-friendly interface
- Integrates with Webinarjam
- Allows you to upload nearly any video into EverWebinar
- Provides a library of landing page templates to choose from
Cons of EverWebinar
- Does not support hosting of live webinars
- Email reminders are not included
EverWebinar Pricing Plans
EverWebinar offers a 30-day risk-free money-back guarantee for starters.
Unlike other webinar platforms, EverWebinar has just one pricing plan but three different payment options.
The payment options are the Installment plan, Annual plan, and Biennial plan. Also, all three plans offer the same features.
The installment plan offers a 3 times payment of $199 per year. The annual plan offers a one-time payment of $499 per year. And finally, EverWebinar offers a one-time payment of $799 per two years.
#9. GotoWebinar
GotoWebinar is one of the oldest webinar platforms in the market, a sister platform of GotoMeeting.
Launched in 2006, GotoWebinar has been regarded as a reliable and stable webinar platform.
However, GotoWebinar comes with fewer features compared to most of the webinar platforms listed here. Plus, GotoWebinar has a steep price with fewer features and lesser attendees-room.
More of the reason why I wouldn’t recommend it much for small business owners. So it’d be better you check out other alternatives.
Most webinar software on this list can serve perfectly!
That said, GotoWebinar could be a good option for you if you are hosting a meeting-type of a webinar with your team.
Features Of GotoWebinar
First and foremost:
Setting up a webinar with GotoWebinar is easy thanks to the built-in templates and flexible scheduling tool.
Plus, flexible scheduling allows you to set up one-time live events, series, or on-demand webinars.
The custom registration features enable you to survey your registrants on the registration point. However, the custom registration is with limitations and also suffers from the old-fashioned webinar interface of GotoWebinar.
Moreover, the newly added GotoStage feature enables you to reach more audience and increase your attendees.
GotoStage does this by allowing you to upload your past webinars, customize your channel, and drive constant demand.
GotoWebinar is not without engagement tools.
GotoWebinar engagement dashboard allows you to keep an eye on the engagement rate of your attendees, hands raised and time elapsed.
Polls and surveys are also well designed to improve engagement.
Definitely, you can integrate pre-recorded events into your live webinars without any hassles.
Same as others, GotoWebinar integrates well with some of the best marketing CRMs in the market.
Marketo, Leadpages, Zapier, ZOHO, and InfusionSoft are some of the notable mentions.
Pros of GotoWebinar
- It’s reliable and stable
- Amazing interactive polls
- The webinar room can host up to 5000 attendees
- Has a smart mobile app
- Custom URL for your webinars
- It allows you to create certificates for your webinars.
Cons
- Old-fashioned interface
- The pricing is very expensive
- Few glitches and poor audio quality
GotoWebinar Pricing Plan
GotoWebinar offers three pricing plans; starter, pro, and plus plan.
For starters, the starter plan costs $89 per month with capabilities to host 100 participants, comes in handy with analytics tools, and payment integrations.
The pro plan costs $199 per month offering all starter plans plus a 500-attendee room, 3 channel pages, custom URL, certificates, and transcripts.
And for the Plus plan, you get all pro plan features including a 1000-attendee webinar room and 5 channel pages all coming at $429 per month.
Just like many other webinar platforms, GotoWebinar offers an enterprise plan for companies looking for a custom configuration for their webinar.
However, GotoWebinar isn’t without a free trial. GotoWebinar offers a 7-day free trial for every plan.
#10. LiveWebinar
LiveWebinar is an advanced cloud-based webinar tool specially designed for both small businesses, teams, and large enterprises.
It lets you host your webinar presentations, share screens, record your screen, stream live videos to your audience, and broadcast to your social media channels.
All at once.
LiveWebinar comes with one of the most sophisticated features you’ll ever find in webinar software.
Key Features of LiveWebinar
Besides the fact that this is a solution that combines online meetings and webinars into one package…
LiveWebinar is complex, easy to use, and lets you host up to 1000 webinar attendees.
The customization option gives you the ability to select the format of your meeting room based on your preference.
You also have the choice to personalize your meeting room branding with your preferred colors and the company’s logo.
One of the coolest parts of this webinar platform is that it lets you stream live presentations on social media platforms like Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube, and Periscope.
Kinda awesome if you ask me.
You can even connect it and work from all devices.
Including Smart TVs, PCs, and mobile phones.
LiveWebinar also integrates with your favorite autoresponders and CRMs.
This is a critical factor when choosing the best webinar software for your online business.
Finally, interactive and engagement features like polls surveys, chats, and the whiteboard to express your ideas more visually is something worth a mention.
Pros of LiveWebinar
- Supports streaming to social media platforms
- Great engagement tools like polls, surveys, chats, and whiteboards
- Supports screen share and video recording
- There is a free that allows up to 5 attendees
- Pretty easy to use
- Wide range of integrations
- Comes with a brand builder
Cons of LiveWebinar
- No inbuilt page builder
- The limit is 1000 attendees on the highest plan
- No in-built payment processor
LiveWebinar Pricing
LiveWebinar offers a free 14-day trial, and after the two weeks are up, you can decide to purchase a subscription.
Here are all the pricing packages for LiveWebinar:
- Free: $0 per month (for up to 5 attendees)
- Pro: $11.99 per month (for up to 100 attendees)
- Business: $95.20 per month (for up to 500 attendees)
- Custom: Custom pricing (for over 1000 attendees)
#11. BigMarker
BigMarker is a robust software for hosting webinars, video conferences, and summits.
Launched in 2010, BigMarker has moved up the chain to become one of the best webinar platforms in the industry.
BigMarker provides amazing tools for selling your products to your audience. From offers, polls to marketing automation integration, BigMarker makes selling easier.
Features of BigMarker
BigMarker is a browser-based application that does not require any download.
BigMarker offers a simple user-friendly interface for both ends apart from the pre-webinar interface for administrators which is overwhelming.
For starters, small businesses – BigMarker is equipped with built-in landing page templates to choose from.
You have the option to customize your landing page’s registration form, sell tickets, and accept payment.
Plus, you can also embed your registration form into your website converting all your website visitors to attendees.
Just like every other event, keeping the date is important in order not to miss the event. BigMarker automatically sends email invitations, confirmations, and reminder sequences to the registrants.
BigMarker allows you to host webinars on auto-pilot.
You don’t have to appear on camera during the live webinar. You can do this by pre-recording your webinars.
Moreover, BigMarker allows you to create offers for your attendees to take action. The offers appear as a popover. Which covers the entire page.
The popover is too aggressive as users can only continue watching the webinar by closing the offer; and then the offer goes forever.
However, the other alternative for displaying offers is at the bottom left corner of the screen which is better except for the fact that it covers a part of the screen.
That said, BigMarker allows you to stream live to YouTube channel and Facebook page right from your dashboard.
Plus, BigMarker integrates well with popular CRM tools, email automation tools, landing page builders, analytics software, course builders, payment processors, and many other tools.
Pros of BigMarker
- It’s an all-in-one webinar solution
- Can host up to 1000 attendees per webinar
- Integrates well with marketing automation tools
- Supports paid webinars
- Has a library of landing page templates
- Allows you to stream-live to YouTube and Facebook
Cons
- The pricing is a bit expensive (the starter subscription costs $79 per month)
- Poor display of offers during the webinar
BigMarker Pricing Plan
BigMarker offers four pricing plans; starter ($79/month), Elite ($159/month), Summit ($299/month), and the white label plan.
For starters, you can host unlimited webinars with a limit to the number of attendees (100) and a single host license.
The Elite plan offers all Starter plan features plus a 500-attendee webinar room, 2 host licenses, evergreen webinars, and webinar series.
And for the Summit plan, offers all Elite plans including 1000 attendees and 4 hosts.
Notably, the BigMarker enterprise plan is best for businesses looking for custom configurations for their webinars.
#12. Adobe Connect
Adobe Connect is a secured webinar platform that’s mostly used by industries running critical operations.
Although Adobe Connect can host webinars, it’s best for hosting meetings and small video conferences. And as a matter of fact, suitable for businesses.
Plus, it comes at a steep price which might be too expensive for individual entrepreneurs, bloggers, and course creators to afford.
However, Adobe Connect offers some of the best webinar features in the market apart from its pricing.
Features of Adobe Connect
To start with, Adobe Connect offers a mobile app for mobile users to either host or join a webinar. Adobe Connect allows you to host, share, collaborate, and train from anywhere and anytime.
On joining the webinar waiting list, Adobe connect offers a countdown timer that lets meeting participants know the amount of time left before your meeting begins.
Likewise in the webinar room, there’s an analog clock that lets you know the time yourself in order not to get past the time.
Connect roshambo is a game designed to keep your attendees engaged while waiting for you to start and can also be used to settle disputes among your attendees.
That said, it offers amazing interactive tools starting from hands up, polls, and survey tools. The polls pod offers a flexible display option by allowing you to switch back and forth between sections container questions.
Adobe content randomizer allows you to manage giveaways and award specific attendees.
Other notable features are whiteboard, Adobe connects extensions, etc…
Adobe Connect Pros
- High-quality sound and video
- Engages attendees while waiting for the webinar to begin
- It allows you to authenticate and control permission for a highly secured meeting.
- Includes cloud storage and VoIP
Adobe Connect Cons
- Adobe connect is very expensive
- The pay-per-attendee isn’t an ideal payment structure
- It isn’t an ideal platform for hosting webinars as the prices are reasonably high.
Adobe Connect Pricing Plan
Apart from the free trial, Adobe connector offers three pricing plans for its general video conference tools.
The three pricing plans are Adobe connect meetings, adobe connect webinars, and adobe connects learning.
The connect meeting costs £46 per month allowing you to hold a meeting of up to 25 participants. The Adobe Connect webinar costs £120 per month and allows you to deliver a webinar to up to 100 participants for a start.
Finally, the learning plan costs £349 per month for a start offering you a virtual classroom enough to conduct up to 200 students.
#13. Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts is one of the best free webinar platforms for small businesses in the market that provides basic features at a zero cost.
Originally a Google+ feature, Google Hangouts had since become a standalone product. The app was projected to become a communication Enterprise.
Although free, Google has consistently updated the Google Hangouts features in order to make it a better solution for communication.
Google Hangouts is now part of the GSuite line of products and consists of two primary products; Google Meet and Google chat.
Owned by Google, creating an account is as simple as logging in your Gmail account into the app.
However, Google Hangouts has some notable glitches probably for being leased out for free.
Features of Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts isn’t a full-flexible webinar hosting platform but can support the hosting of webinars to some extent.
The Google Hangouts was created outright as a chatting and meeting app for easy communications.
Therefore, not equipped with the features to host large webinars.
It can occupy from 250 participants to 100,000 Livestream viewers which is fair. Notably, the 100,000 Livestream viewers cannot participate during the webinar; they’re only viewers.
The live streaming feature is best for you if your interest is in educating your attendees and nothing more.
However, live streaming has a poor engagement rate and definitely not the best.
For live streaming, your audience might get bored whenever by listening and not having the opportunity to ask questions and get feedback from you.
Despite the limited features, Google Hangouts integrate with other GSuite products like Google calendar in order to implement more features through integration.
Also, Hangouts allows you to share your screen; mute your mic, and turn off your camera right from your dashboard.
In addition, the app allows you to send chats to participants, use captions in a video meeting, pin; move and remove any participant.
Hangout doesn’t dispute the fact that video can run slow or even hang during the webinar. However, you have the option of changing to a smaller screen resolution to stabilize the video.
Obviously, Hangouts lack advanced webinar marketing tools and also lack some automation tools.
Google Hangouts Pros
- It’s a free webinar platform
- Creating a webinar is super easy
- Supports different devices and operating system
- Google Hangouts lets you use a wide range of emojis
- Does not have any time limit on calls
Google Hangouts Cons
- Poor engagement tools
- The video slows down when bandwidth is low
- Requires stable and high bandwidths
Google Hangouts Pricing Plan
Google Hangouts is totally free including the Enterprise plan.
And with the free plans, you get to enjoy all the benefits and features. However, Google plans to roll out a paid plan for Enterprise plan later.
#14. Zoom
Zoom has gotten all the internet buzz as one of the best webinar platforms. In March 2020, Zoom recorded an exciting revenue of $4.21 billion dollars.
Built outright as a meeting platform, Zoom has added amazing features to support your basic webinar needs.
Where Zoom beats its alternatives is its forever free plan that offers a 40minutes limit on video calls and a maximum of 100 attendees.
A perfect solution for hosting online classes and meeting with your team.
Features Of Zoom Webinar
To start with, the Zoom webinar is not a standalone platform like other webinar platforms; it comes as an add-on to the basic zoom meeting plan.
Zoom webinar has mobile apps and has software for desktop computers.
For starters,
Zoom offers a forever free plan that allows you to host up to 100 live attendees; unlimited 1 to 1 meeting; a maximum of 40 minutes on group meetings/webinars; and a scheduling system.
Zoom webinar offers custom live streaming that allows you to live-stream your webinar to YouTube, Facebook, and custom sites.
The custom service integration allows you to live-stream your live webinar to your WordPress site or any other custom platform that you own and have access to.
Hosting live webinars with Zoom is good, but with the option of hosting on-demand and recurring automated webinars; you can increase your reach without needing your full engagement.
Plus, you can integrate a payment gateway to your webinars making it easier to sell webinars.
That said, Zoom gives you full control over managing your attendees. You can either mute or unmute an attendee to appear on a microphone and camera.
Necessary features for engagement like polls, Q/A section, chat tools, and raise hands feature are all present in Zoom.
However, the polls are limited only to the registration page and you have no control over where and when to display the polls.
The administrative dashboard helps you manage your panelists and teams for proper coordination before and during the webinar.
A supposed-downside for Zoom is the lack of advanced marketing tools.
But it compensates this by allowing you to integrate your webinars with many of the best marketing automation tools in the market.
Like, Hubspot, Marketo, Salesforce, and Pardot are just some of the tools you can integrate into your webinars.
Pros of Zoom
- Offers a forever free plan
- Free unlimited 1 to 1 meeting
- Has a virtual hand-raising feature
Cons of Zoom
- Pricing increases per host ( charges for more hosts)
- Comes in the form of an add-on with limitations
- Attendees need to install the mobile app to join meetings
- Lacks timed-offers feature
- Lacks marketing automation and sales features
Zoom Webinar Pricing Plan
For starters, Zoom offers a forever free plan that supports 100 live attendees, 40 mins duration limit for group meetings, and an unlimited 1 to 1 meeting.
Standard webinar add-on starts from $40 per month PLUS the basic plan pricing for Zoom meeting which supports 100 live attendees and 1 host.
For configurations with more than 1 host, the price increases depending on the number of hosts.
And the basic plan starts from $14.99 per month which makes the starting pricing plan for Zoom webinar $54.99 per month.
What Makes a Great Webinar Platform for Small Businesses?
The best webinar platform must be easy to use and interact with both hosts and attendees.
Creating and selling webinars shouldn’t be difficult to do.
Interactive engagement tools are essential in converting your webinar attendees to customers.
An excellent webinar platform must-have essential engagement tools like:
- Polls
- Surveys
- Q/A
- Advanced chat tools
However, depending on your webinar needs; some of these engagement tools might not find usefulness.
High video and sound quality are a criterion when choosing the best webinar platform for your small business.
Running a webinar on a platform full of glitches, occasionally booting attendees out, and many more; will only frustrate your attendees and also lead to a waste of time.
Another thing to consider is the capability of the webinar platform. You should look into the number of attendees the platform can accommodate.
Ultimately, the pricing of the platform should be your guide in choosing the best platform. The price shouldn’t be too expensive but should be reasonably priced and value for money.
What Other Tools Do I Need for a Webinar?
Obviously, hosting a successful webinar requires the cooperation of many other tools.
Email Marketing Service
The email automation tool is a must-have in your arsenal as a marketer and content creator.
Although some of the webinar platforms like (WebinarJam, Livestorm, and Demio) have their own built-in email service, it does not match the quality and advanced services that stand-alone email software provides.
Integrating your webinar platform with an email marketing service shouldn’t be difficult, because most of the webinar platforms provide custom integration to specific email marketing tools like ConvertKit, Aweber, MailChimp, GetResponse, etc.
Landing Page builders
Landing pages are the first point of attraction to your attendees.
While some of the platforms like WebinarJam offer beautiful landing page templates to choose from, the case is the same with email marketing service.
The built-in templates are no match to custom landing page builders like Leadpages and Instapage.
You can consider investing in those as well.
Or probably you desire to build your business from an all-in-one platform, then complete sales funnel software like Kartra or ClickFunnels would be awesome!
Payment Gateway
If you’re offering a paid webinar, then you definitely need a payment gateway to accept payment.
The choice of the payment gateway isn’t yours to make on most occasions, it depends on which gateway your webinar platform integrates with.
Common payment gateways to expect are PayPal, Payoneer, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.
Social Proof Software
Social proof is a way to make your webinar page visitors take action and signup for your webinar because they see some sort of proof that others are doing it.
And implementing social proof tool would take care of this.
A great marketing technique that you can use to soothe the minds of potential clients by showing them that others are using and enjoying your products and services.
There are tons of options out there, but I’ve found Useproof to be the most recommended.
Final Thoughts on Best Webinar Platforms
It’s been a long read, going through the list of the best webinar software and I hope you’ve finally settled for the best option for your business.
If you’re still not sure of what to go for, I strongly recommend WebinarJam as the overall best webinar platform for solo entrepreneurs and small business owners.
The pricing plan is reasonable and affordable for solo entrepreneurs, and the dashboard is easy to use and understand for beginners. Plus the integration with other marketing solutions is pretty seamless.
Without a doubt, WebinarJam is the only Webinar platform that simplifies the entire webinar setup, automation, and online selling process. Advanced, easy to use, and built with the latest technology.
It has all the required features small businesses need to build pages, interact with audiences, and collect payments.
To help you get started easily, WebinarJam is offering a 30-day risk-free money-back guarantee. And that’s of course after your 14 days $1 trial…
Let me know in the comments which of the above webinar platform you decide to go with.
Finally, don’t forget to check out my guide on The Perfect Webinar Secrets which shows you how to create, structure, and make sales with your webinar presentation.