Navigating Next-Gen Webinar Software

Complete Guide Webinar Software: Top 10 Best Webinar Software [2024]

Max Wales

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

The Internet is full of generic and impersonal content, that fails to leave any kind of impression on its viewers. Educators, online marketers, and bloggers who want to create a strong bond with their audience should strive to offer something different and unique. Webinars have been largely accepted as one of the most efficient ways of establishing personal contact with the people interested in a particular subject or a product presented in the webinar. However, webinar software is also frequently used to improve internal communication within a team or a company or to train the newcomers and introduce them to the daily tasks on their new job.

Having a great idea for a webinar is just the first step in the process of creating successful visual content that generates profits, and in this guide, we are going to take you through each step of the process of choosing not only the best but the right webinar software that will meet all of your demands, and we will also introduce some of the best webinar software that you can use for different occasions.

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• Section 1: Brief Intro about Webinar and how to choose Webinar software
• Section 2: Top 10 Best Webinar Software in 2024 [Free & Paid]

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Part 1: What Is A Webinar?

Any video that includes a person (Presenter) explaining a certain problem or presenting services and products to an active or passive audience can be regarded as a webinar. Most events are broadcasted live, although On-Demand webinars or Evergreen webinars as they are sometimes referred to, allow you to use the existing material and simulate the live broadcast experience.

Live meetings online in which a single person or several speakers discuss, present or demonstrate a certain topic, information or a product are called webinars. The audience of a webinar varies from a single person up to 5.000 people depending on the purpose and the software that is being used for the production of a webinar. This process may sound daunting at first, but with time and experience, you’ll come to realize why most online marketers think that webinars are the second most effective b2b marketing strategy.

Part 2: How Does a Webinar Work?

A web-based seminar is run by a presenter, a person who provides information relevant to the webinar’s topic to attendees. In order to record a webinar, you’ll need a computer that is equipped with a webcam, a pair of headphones and a microphone, or you can use a Smartphone as an alternative. Most webinar software products offer tools that enable the presenter to insert all types of documents, draw on the screen and use other methods of explaining the topic to the viewers.

Participants can ask questions, post comments or even speak during a webinar if they are granted permission, and the presenter can answer questions or explain some aspects of the topic in more detail. Once the session is over, all participants of a webinar receive a video recording so they can rewatch it or go through the parts of the session they’ve missed.

Part 3: What is a Webinar Software?

Besides the hardware, you will also need the proper software to set up your first webinar. Even though live streaming is possible without the use of software products that are optimized for webinar creation, most computer programs for production of webinars offer powerful tools that broaden the range of things you can do while broadcasting.

A well-rounded webinar software enables you to set up a registration page, chat with participants or use pop-up windows that allow attendees to purchase the products or services you’re offering. However, the key ingredient of any powerful webinar software are the metrics tools that let you monitor user engagement and other statistics that are important to the success of your webinars.

Part 4: 4 Types of Webinars

On-demand and live webinars can cover a wide range of topics that have different objectives. Education and promotion are the most common reason to produce a webinar, so here are a few ideas that can help you choose the subject of your first webinar:

1. Tutorial Webinar

This is probably the most popular type of a webinar because tutorials help people solve problems and accomplish things they struggled with. Your webinars can show viewers how they can perform color grading on their videos, build a dog house for their children or make a delicious ice cream, the options are unlimited. The only prerequisite is to be really good at what you are explaining, since talking about topics you don’t know much about, can hardly lead you to success.

2. Tech Training Webinar

Technology and software are developing at an astounding rate, so most of us are having trouble to keep up with all the latest apps and software products that emerge on the market almost on a daily basis. You can use a webcam, a screen recorder or any type of camera to teach others how to use apps, software or any other modern technology.

3. Reviews and Website Audits

A lot of small brands and companies are struggling when it comes to online presentation, which is the reason why creating a webinar that offers in-depth analysis of their blog, website or sales page can prove to be very useful to the participants of your webinars. What’s more, you can offer constructive critique of almost anything, as long as it is relevant to the target group you’re addressing.

4. Software Demonstrations

Companies that manufacture software as well as individuals who consider themselves experts for a particular software can create webinars that demonstrate how a computer program is used properly. Even the high-end professionals encounter problems while using a software, which means that your audience can include inexperienced and skilled users.

Part 5: Aspects Worth Considering Before Choosing the Best Webinar Software

The decision to start producing webinars shouldn’t be taken lightly, because creating a successful webinar is anything but an easy task. You should do everything in your power to approach this task prepared since a simple mistake can ruin a lot of work.

1. Define Your Goals

Being successful requires you to know your goals, so before you start producing webinars you have to define what you want to accomplish and work on it patiently. Masterclasses, One-On-One sessions in which you share your expertise or customer training webinars can all be on the list of your objectives, but you should only make webinars that are directly related to your area of expertise.

2. Target Audience

Who is your ideal webinar attendee? How old is this person, and where do they live? These are some of the questions that might help you define your target audience and adjust the content of your webinar to the level of skills and knowledge an ideal participant of your webinar has. Knowing who your audience is, will also help you establish a stronger bond with the attendees of the webinars you are producing.

3. Choose the Right Software

The type of webinar you want to create will point you in the direction of the best webinar software for the job. Simple online applications like Google + Hangouts or Facebook Live can be a perfect solution if you’re looking for an efficient and easy way to broadcast your content live, but if you are more interested in the production of On-Demand webinars then Zoom or GoToWebinar platforms are a much better choice for you.

4. Pricing

Most professional webinar software are expensive, and if you have no intention of using the advanced features they offer, then there is no reason to invest in them. However, if you want to sell products, draw on the screen during a webinar or keep track of the user engagement statistics for each webinar you produce, investing in the right webinar software may prove to be essential for the success of your webinars.

Part 6: What Makes a Good Webinar Software?

There are a lot of factors that should be taken into consideration when trying to determine whether or not the webinar software meets the industry standards. A good webinar software offers features that make the process of creating a webinar smooth while enabling you to focus on the quality of the content you’re producing. Here are a few options that make a webinar software great.

1. The Content Authoring Tools

Setting up webinar registration pages, chatting with the participants of your webinar or selling products during a webinar are just a few among many authoring tools you will need to make your presentations look professional. The webinar software that doesn’t provide a rich selection of content authoring tools may limit your possibilities and reduce the maximum reach a webinar can have.

2. Integrations and Engagement Tracking Systems

Numbers matter. A scientific approach to webinars will enable you to stay ahead of the competition and to keep track of how well your content is performing. Besides powerful tools for measuring metrics a good webinar software should also offer social media integrations, so you can reach even more people who might be interested in what your webinars have to offer.

3. Interactivity

Being able to communicate with your audience, through live chat or video messages and to respond to each question they might have will improve your chances to make a sale or to develop a loyal fan-base that follows each of your webinars. Some webinar hosting platforms allow you to have more than just one speaker, so webinar attendees can share their opinions and feel more involved in the discussion that is taking place.

4. Branding or White Labeling

A good webinar software should help you raise brand awareness. You should be able to add logos to everything you offer through your webinars, use the brand’s colors or even include the brand’s promo materials in a webinar. Customizing webinars will help you fans recognize your work, but putting too much accent on the promotion of your brand can come across as too aggressive, so it is important to find the right measure in branding and white labeling.

Creating webinars is not a complicated process, but it does require preparation. The information we provided above should help you find the right webinar software that will enable you to produce visual content of the highest quality.

Part 7: 10 Best Free and Commercial Software Products for Webinars

Staying ahead of your competition and keeping pace with all the latest technology trends is essential if your goal is to conquer new markets or to lead teams that have great chemistry. Only a few decades ago, it was impossible to hold a conference video call that included more than thirty people, while online training courses were regarded as science fiction. The Internet, webcams, and screen capturing software have changed all this, and today we can easily produce software walk-throughs, eLearning content and a wide variety of video content that enables us to establish strong relationships with potential clients.

Choosing the webinar software that is capable of meeting all of your demands might be more challenging than it seems because there are thousands of webinar software products available. That’s the reason why we’ve put together the list of the ten best webinar software products, so let’s dive in and explore the premier options for bloggers, entrepreneurs and everyone else who wants to create webinars.

1. Google + Hangouts

Best for: Corporate communication and non-commercial webinars

Price: Free

The Google’s product lets you invite as many as thirty participants to a webinar, and if you want, you can also broadcast the webinar on YouTube Stream. All broadcasting sessions are recorded and stored on the YouTube channel you used to broadcast a webinar, and the owner of the channel can make the video private or public. However, the Google + Hangouts app has gone through a lot of changes over the last few years, and on March 9, 2017, Google has announced that it will divide Hangouts into two products, Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet.

Companies that employ large numbers of people often use Google + Hangouts because it enables more than one participant of the webinar to speak and because new members can easily join the webinar. This app isn’t perfectly suited for commercial use since it doesn’t allow you to set a fee for joining the event.

Pros: A great tool for webinars that have a lot of participants, especially if there are several speakers. The app lets you upload webinars to YouTube and share them effortlessly.

Cons: Creating paid events or keeping track of the metrics is not on the list of options Google + Hangouts offers, and you need to create an account on Google before you can join a webinar.

2. YouTube Live

Best for: Entrepreneurs who are learning how to create a webinar

Price: Free

YouTube is the largest online video sharing platform in the world that offers most of its services for free. The YouTube Live feature enables its users to stream live footage captured with screen recording software or webcams and to invite as many viewers to their webinars as they want. Anyone who has a link can join the broadcast, but replying to messages and comments viewers post during a webinar is needlessly complicated.

Besides, making communication with the participants of a webinar almost impossible, YouTube Live also doesn’t feature a lot of marketing tools that can boost the sales of the products you’re offering. To make things even worse, your broadcasts may have a lag that can be as long as 40 seconds, so paying attention to how you set up your webinars can be crucial for their success.

Pros: Easy to use and enables even the most inexperienced vloggers, eLearning content creators, and marketers to produce and share webinars.

Cons: Limited interaction with viewers as well as the lack of advanced features for marketing products make YouTube Live only suitable for newcomers to the world of webinars.

3. Facebook Live

Best for: Establishing a better bond with an existing audience on Facebook

Price: Free

Facebook, like many popular social media networks, has integrated live streaming into the services it provides. Besides enabling you to create webinars, Facebook Live also lets its users produce any other type of live stream, but only with a Smartphone. The conventional webcam method of recording webinars is not available on Facebook Live, and the app doesn’t offer any features for customization of webinars.

The number of people watching your live stream cannot surpass the number of friends you have on your Facebook account, which means that you can’t use this app to reach new clients. However, if you have a loyal fan-base on this social network, Facebook Live can help you develop a better relationship with people who already follow your work. Even though creating webinars with Facebook Live is possible, professionals will be better off using some more powerful webinar software.

Pros: Anyone who has a Facebook account can install and use Facebook Live for free, to capture handheld footage for their webinars.

Cons: No other features besides the live streaming option and you can’t record webinars with a webcam.

4. WebinarJam

Best for: Selling products during a webinar, live chat with participants of a webinar

Price: Pricing plans start at $39,99 per month billed annually

The web-based platform is designed to work seamlessly on any web-browser and any device, so its users won’t have to worry about the quality of their webinars. WebinarJam can be used for a wide array of different purposes including, Q&As, presenting products or chatting with your fans. What’s more, as many as six co-presenters can speak in a single webinar, which makes WebinarJam an excellent option for roundtables and open debates about important topics.

This tool for the production of webinars enables you to capture high-definition footage, and it automatically records each session. WebinarJam also provides features such as pop-ups that let you sell products and services while the webinar is in progress. This and countless other options make WebinarJam platform a perfect tool for marketing teams. Some pricing plans offer you to have up to 3 webinars per month that have five hundred participants, while the content sharing capabilities are nothing short of impressive regardless of the pricing plan you choose.

Pros: Makes engaging the audience look easy through a rich selection of powerful tools that enable you to interact with viewers of your webinars.

Cons: Pricey, and novice users may experience a steep learning curve

5. EverWebinar

Best for: On-demand Webinars

Price: $41 per month, billed annually

WebinarJam and EverWebinar were developed by the same team, although the two platforms offer somewhat different options. The EverWebinar is designed to facilitate and simplify the process of rebroadcasting On-demand webinars. Small and up-and-coming brands that can profit from replaying webinars that were already recorded, will find EverWebinar’s services perfectly optimized for this task.

You can schedule a new rebroadcasting session effortlessly and simulate the look and feel of the original webinar while increasing the user engagement by making the videos available for a limited amount of time. This process is automated, so you can focus on chatting with the webinar’s participants or work on other projects while the On-demand webinar is in progress. EverWebinar lets you create three types of webinars, live, hybrid and automated, and you just have to select the option that best fits your current needs.

Pros: Password protected webinar rooms, great metrics features and interactive displays that present your products and services to the audience.

Cons: Requires a professional level of marketeering skills

6. GoToWebinar

Best for: Large marketing teams and companies

Price: Free trial available, Pricing starts at $89

The fact that 2.7 million webinars have been hosted on this platform in a single year, speaks a lot about the quality of the service GoToWebinar provides. This amazing webinar tool lets you create live events, produce interactive On-demand webinars or host events that include up to 5000 participants. Surveying the audience of a webinar and adding interactive polls or Q&As is also an option you’ll have at your disposal if you decide to produce your webinars with GoToWebinar.

The online platform grants you access to advanced metrics so you can monitor how well your content is performing, which allows you to get leads and all other data you need to extend the reach of your webinars. GoToWebinar enables you to record your webinars and share them on YouTube or the GoToStage, an in-house video sharing platform that has millions of visitors.

Pros: Equally efficient at creating live and On-Demand webinars, high-end analytics tools, great for raising the brand awareness

Cons: The video files captured with GoToWebinar are stored on a computer, and they have to be uploaded manually on a desired video sharing platform, much more expensive than its competitors.

7. Zoom

Best for: Educators, large companies, marketing teams

Price: The Basic version is free, the Pro version costs $14,99 per month

This is a versatile webinar platform that is equally effective when utilized by eLearning content creators, entrepreneurs or marketers. The basic version of Zoom is free and it enables you to host events that have up to a hundred participants or have meetings that last up to 40 minutes. The number of meetings you can have in a single month is unlimited and the basic version of Zoom also offers video and web conferencing features, as well as group collaboration options.

If you would like to have admin controls or monitor the statistics of the webinars you’re producing, then the Pro version of Zoom is a much better choice. Regardless of the plan you purchase, the number of interactive participants will be limited to one hundred, but you’ll be able to have an audience that includes as many as 10.000 people, even though they won’t be able to interact with the content you’re presenting.

Pros: Affordable, and equipped with powerful tools for creating and recording a webinar

Cons: Group meetings can’t last longer than 40 minutes, and the Zoom’s interface takes some time to get used to.

8.Livestorm

Best for: Analytics oriented marketers

Price: Free trial available, pricing starts at $99 per month for Starter package

The greatest advantage Livestorm has over its competitors are the high-end analytics tools that provide the users with actionable insights. Besides being one of the best, if not the best webinar option for statistics-oriented webinar producers, this webinar software offers remarkable features for production of live events that present the company’s products on any browser, device, or platform. Its users can post polls, respond to questions instantly or chat with participants of their webinar.

Livestorm lets you create Registration and Sales pages so you can make the process of joining a webinar or making a sale as easy as it can possibly be. The webinar software stores all content on its servers, but it can also be used with other platforms that provide streaming services, such as Twitch or YouTube. However, the basic version of Livestorm doesn’t allow you to have more than a hundred attendees per webinar.

Pros: Unique analytics tools that enable you to track minute-by-minute attendance or attention rates

Cons: Expensive and the Starter package offers a limited amount of webinar tools and features

9. ClikMeeting

Best for: In-company meetings, all types of webinars

Price: One month free trial period, Pricing starts at $25

Enterprise, onboard training, sales or marketing are just a few of many tasks this webinar software can be used for. Setting up a webinar room in ClickMeeting is a simple process that won’t take more than a few minutes, and you can also create customized invitations, add your logo to the webinar room, provide information about the topics the webinar covers or introduce the presenter through the ‘Waiting Room Agenda’ feature.

During a webinar, you can insert documents as slides, via the Presentation tool or use the Whiteboard feature to insert text boxes, all sorts of shapes or to draw on the screen. ClickMeeting is equipped with several Audio modes that enable you to control who can speak while the live event is in progress, and Polls and Surveys feature allows you to get an immediate feedback from the participants of the webinar.

Pros: The webinar setup process is effortless, and the ‘Waiting Room Agenda’ feature lets you customize the webinar room in any way you see fit.

Cons: ClickMeeting’s least expensive version limits the maximum number of webinar participants to 25

10. GetResponse

Best for: All types of webinars

Price: Free trial available, Pricing plans start at $49

If you were looking for a platform that hosts all the tools for online marketing, then GetResponse is the right choice for you. You can manage your email lists, create landing pages or use the Marketing Automation feature to improve the performance of your online marketing strategy and build brand awareness. GetResponse offers standard webinar features, so you can create surveys, polls or use the whiteboard to draw and insert notes to a webinar you’re producing.

You can use the email list to send reminders to the subscribers or to inform them about the upcoming events, while the platform also enables you to share the webinar across the social media. GetResponse only provides support for live events, and currently, it is not possible to use the platform to host On-demand webinars. This online marketing platform can be useful to small and big brands that seek an effective way to boost their online marketing efforts.

Pros: Offers a wide range of online marketing tools, and enables you to steadily grow your email database

Cons: Basic pricing plans offer an underwhelming amount of marketing features

Conclusion:

Each webinar software we presented in this article has amazing capabilities, but you should opt to use the one that offers features closest to your demands. Before you reach the decision which webinar software you should choose, you must first define how large your audience is going to be. In addition, you should also determine if you would like to create live events or On-demand webinars, so you can choose the platform that provides you with the best options available.

Let us know in the comments which webinar software you like to use the most.

Max Wales

Max Wales is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Max Wales

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