6 Best Webinar Software Options

Webinar systems help businesses stream multimedia presentations for training or sales purposes while the best also enable audience interaction. We compared 12 of the leading programs known for high-quality streaming and those offering advantages like polling, file sharing, or slideshow editing to determine the top six for small business and the best overall.

Top 6 Webinar Software 2019

How We Evaluated The Best Webinar Software

The best webinar software should make it easy to broadcast both live and pre-recorded presentations. They should allow you to send out invites to attendees, share the contents of your screen, and allow you to interact with your audience via Q&A functionality. The best software should be easy to set up and use, and vendors should offer ample customer support in case something goes wrong. While many small business phone systems offer it as a common VoIP feature, we chose to stick with dedicated platforms for this roundup.

We evaluated the best webinar software based on:

• Price: We examined the overall monthly cost of each service
• Ease of use: Webinar software should be easy enough to set up and use for customers of all skill levels
• Browser webinars: Ideally, the best webinar software allows attendees to view content within a web browser instead of having to download a client on their machine
• Number of participants: Each service places a limit on how many participants can attend a meeting. We compared each service’s audience limits
• Scheduling: We looked at the scheduling tools available from each service, like Google Calendar integration
• Event recording: The best webinar services should offer the ability to record webinars for later reference
• Screen sharing & collaboration tools: Screen drawing, file sharing, and other collaboration tools make it easier to share information with your audience.
• Audience interaction: Chat, polling, and surveys help you communicate with your audience before, during, and after your webinar
• Call controls: Mute, meeting lock, and presenter switching modules can help make presentations more effective

Based on our research, we recommend U Webinar as the best overall webinar software for small business because it offers the best feature set at an affordable price. Here’s how the six services we looked at stack up when compared against each other in cost and functionality.

Best Overall Webinar Software for Small Businesses: U Webinar

U Webinar is webinar software from Cyberlink that integrates with Microsoft PowerPoint so you can arrange and edit slides from within the app. It also offers on-screen collaboration, webinar recording, and call controls for free. Additional features like webinar reports are available in paid plans starting at $49.99 per host per month. As a result, we find that U Webinar is the best choice for businesses that want a robust combination of features for an affordable price.

U Webinar Pricing

U Webinar offers a free Basic version with paid versions ranging from $49.99 per month for the Pro 100 tier or $149.99 per month for the Pro 500 option. While the features of the Basic plan are limited in comparison to paid plans, they are still powerful making U Webinar an excellent value.

U Webinar Tiered Features

Basic

The free Basic version of U Webinar has a robust feature set. Although meetings are limited to just 25 participants, it allows you to present slideshows and chat with your audience in real-time. It also supports use over a mobile app so that you can conduct your webinars from either an iOS or Android device if you wish, although mobile screen sharing is not as robust as what is offered by Zoom.

This participant limit is small compared to the free version of Zoom, which supports up to 100 people. However, U Webinar Basic offers call controls for muting and blocking attendees, which is rare in a free solution. It’s also the only system we looked at that lets you edit PowerPoint content from within the software. This makes it best for budget-conscious teams that want the most robust call controls and those that only need to present to a small audience.

Pro 100

The Pro 100 version of U Webinar costs $49.99 per month and increases the limit for audience size to 100 people. This version also comes with the company’s PerfectCam plug-in, which uses artificial intelligence to improve your image. It can blur out backgrounds, improve lighting, and even apply virtual makeup to your face.

However, U Webinar Pro 100 only comes with 2GB of cloud media storage. This is lacking when compared with Cisco Webex Meeting’s Plus version, which provides 5GB of storage. That said, U Webinar Pro 100 is offered at a fraction of Webex Meeting’s price and is a good fit for companies that don’t need the increased storage and want to look their best when speaking on camera.

Pro 500

The Pro 500 version, which costs $149.99 per month, is almost identical to the Pro 100 version of the system. The only difference is it supports 500 participants. Otherwise, the features are the same.

This plan has the highest attendee limit out of all the products we looked at other than GoToWebinar’s Plus plan, which allows for 2,000 participants. Most small businesses will not need to reach so many associates at once, but it’s a great fit for companies that want to hold large, public presentations.

What U Webinar is Missing

U Webinar has a lot of powerful features to help your webinars stand out. However, it only reports basic information about how many viewers see your presentations. Companies that want more granular webinar reports might want to look at EverWebinar, which can tell you things like how many users record your presentations.

What Users Think About U Webinar

U Webinar users enjoy all the features that the system has to offer. They love being able to arrange content and improve their appearance with PerfectCam. However, they also wish the price for this added functionality was a bit lower.

Best Webinar Software for GoToMeeting Integration: GoToWebinar

GoToWebinar, which starts at $89 per month, is a webinar software provider that offers features like audience polling, automated email invitations, and analytics. It also integrates with the GoToConference and GoToMeeting platforms. Higher tiers provide features like video editor and the ability to download recordings for later reference. We find that GoToWebinar is a great fit for companies who are already using other products in the GoToMeeting ecosystem.

GoToWebinar Pricing

GoToWebinar starts at $89 per month for the Starter plan and goes all the way up to $429 per month for the top-tier Plus edition. Each level supports at least 100 participants with more seats supported at higher levels. This pricing is in line with similar products on the market.

GoToWebinar Tiered Features

Starter

The Starter edition costs $89 per month and supports webinars for up to 100 participants, which is far more than what the entry-level version of Cisco Webex Meetings. This is also the only service that integrates with GoToMeeting, which is one of the most popular video conferencing applications on the market. If you already use that solution and want to add webinars for training and marketing purposes, then GoToWebinar Pro.

However, this tier doesn’t include the ability to record events for later reference. It also lacks the ability to hold webinars in web browsers, meaning your attendees will have to download a separate app to log in to your presentations. It is also very expensive when compared with other entry-level products. Still, this tier of service is good for businesses that want analytics features but don’t need to record their meetings.

Pro

For $199 a month, GoToWebinar’s Pro version supports five times as many participants as the Starter tier. In addition to features found in the Starter version, it offers things like event recording and the ability to include video content in your webinar. It also comes with source tracking, which allows you to see where your registrants are coming from when they log into a meeting. This is a unique feature not found in the competition.

This tier of service supports as many attendees as U Webinar’s Pro 500 plan but is more expensive. With that said, GoToWebinar Pro is great for businesses that want to hold large meetings and want additional insights like knowing where attendees are coming from.

Plus

The Plus plan, which costs $429 per month, is identical to the Pro edition in terms of feature set. The only meaningful difference is that it supports webinars with up to 2,000 attendants at once. If you want to support more attendees than that, you’ll have to get in touch with the company’s sales team for a custom quote.

This is one of the most expensive offerings we looked at, but no other platform we looked at supports so many participants at once. Larger companies or those who present to large audiences of associates will find an ideal solution in GoToWebinar Pro.

What GoToWebinar Is Missing

GoToWebinar is a solid webinar system, but it is also one of the costliest products on the market when you take into account long-term use. Those who are looking for a less expensive alternative featuring advanced functionality like analytics and interactive audience polls might want to consider Zoho Meetings, which has paid versions starting at $15 per month for meetings with up to 15 attendees.

What Users Think About GoToWebinar

Users generally like GoToWebinar. They find the platform easy to set up and use. With that said, many feel as though the price is a bit high for what they are getting. Still, most report being satisfied with the service.

Best Webinar Software for Broadcasting Prerecorded Content: EverWebinar

EverWebinar is a webinar solution designed for broadcasting prerecorded webinars at scheduled intervals. In addition to basic webinar features like screen sharing and sending invites, EverWebinar is unique because it costs a one-time fee of $497, giving you the ability to set schedules for webinar streams with just a few clicks. The system is good for organizations that want to broadcast evergreen content to their audience automatically.

EverWebinar Pricing

Unlike other platforms that are offered via subscription, EverWebinar has a one-time fee of $497. This gives you access to all of the system’s features and imposes no limit on participants. This is the most straightforward pricing structure out of any webinar system we’ve seen.

EverWebinar Features

EverWebinar includes a basic set of webinar features, such as live broadcast, meeting recordings, and audience interactivity features. Because EverWebinar is available in just one version, all users have access to the system’s full set of features.

Presentation Tools

When you host a live webinar with EverWebinar, you can share your computer’s webcam as well as the contents of your screen. You can mute attendees or boot them from meetings just like any other webinar system. However, unlike U Webinar, the platform does not offer the ability to share files with your attendees. Still, EverWebinar is a good fit for those who want to broadcast their webcam and screen.

Reports and Analytics

EverWebinar makes it easy to track information about the people who view your presentations. From the analytics page, you can see information such as your total registrants, live attendees, the number of people who viewed a recorded version of your presentation. All told, this is one of the most intuitive analytics features we’ve seen in a webinar system to date.

Audience Interaction

You can chat live with attendees during live presentations as well as broadcasts of pre-recorded events. A nice bonus is that you can also configure chat lines to pop up at specific times during broadcasts. This is ideal for answering frequently asked questions or recapping important information from your keynotes. It also has polls and surveys, although it does not provide as many options as U Webinar.

Event Recording

Like most webinar solutions, you can record your presentations and make them available for later reference. With just a couple of clicks, you can record your webinar and set a regular schedule for your webinar to be broadcast to those who couldn’t make to the live show. This is the platform ideal for those who want to broadcast slideshows on a set schedule quickly.

What EverWebinar Is Missing

EverWebinar is a useful solution, but it does not enable you to edit and arrange PowerPoint slideshows from within the app. If you want to make last-minute changes to your presentations before going live, you should take a look at U Webinar, which allows you to work on .ppt files within the app.

What Users Think About EverWebinar

EveryWebinar’s customers appreciate the ability to schedule broadcasts of their webinars so easily. They also like the powerful yet simple analytics module of the system. However, there have been reports by other users of software bugs while using the system.

Best Overall Webinar Software for Group Collaboration: Cisco Webex Meetings

Cisco Webex Meetings is a meeting and conferencing platform that also comes with webinar functionality. You can host webinars with the platform, interact with your audience via chat, and share ideas via a virtual whiteboard. It also provides the widest file sharing support out of any system we looked at. Cisco Webex Meetings starts at $13.50 per month and is great for companies that want to collaborate with their audience during presentations.

Cisco Webex Meetings Pricing

Cisco Webex Meetings starts at $13.50 per month for the Starter edition and goes up to $26.95 per month for the Business plan. The only meaningful difference between plans is the number of participants allowed and cloud media storage. This is one of the more affordable options in the Webinar software space.

Cisco Webex Meetings Tiered Features

Starter

The Started edition costs $13.50 per month and gives you access to all of the features of the more expensive Plus and Business tiers. You and your audience can even collaborate on a digital whiteboard during webinars. This is great for having attendees answer questions and share their thoughts during training sessions.

No other system supports as wide a range of files that Cisco Webex Meetings does. Sharing files with supplemental information during webinars can help your audience understand complex subject matter better. This is also the only tiered system that does not lock product features behind higher tier versions. However, it is very limited in the number of participants you can have in a meeting, making this version best those wanting to hold seminars for smaller groups.

Plus

The Plus version of the system is $17.50 per month and gives you all of the features from the Starter Edition. The only difference is that you can now hold meetings for up to 100 participants instead of 50. You are given 5GB of online media storage with the app, which is high compared to other offerings we looked at.

The Plus version of the system comes at an affordable price compared with other offerings we looked at. It can’t support webinars as large as that of GoToWebinar or EverWebinar, but it still comes with a wide range of features that most teams will find very useful. The Plus version is good for small businesses that want to host midsize webinars and are willing to spend the extra four dollars a month over the Starter version to double their meeting sizes.

Business

For $26.95 per month, the Business version supports up to 200 participants in a webinar. This is a decent size for most small businesses, but far less than the meeting size supported by GoToWebinar’s top-tier version. You also get access to 24/7 phone support as opposed to the limited hours offered by lesser tiers.

Although this is the top shelf version of Cisco WebEx Meetings, it’s still a bargain compared with more expensive options like GoToWebinar. If you want to hold large meetings and share valuable business content, then Cisco WebEx Meetings Business is a great option.

What Cisco Webex Meetings Is Missing

Even in its most expensive tier, Cisco Webex Meetings places a 200-person cap on webinars. This is lacking compared to U Webinar, which allows you to support as many as 500 attendees in a meeting. Additionally, the highest level of GoToWebinar supports 2,000 participants in meetings.

What Users Think About Cisco Webex Meetings

Many of the system’s customers are impressed with the video and audio quality during webinars. They also like the ability to record meetings at any tier of service. With that said, many are disappointed in the overall usability of the platform.

Best Mobile-friendly Video Conferencing & Webinar Solution: Zoom

Zoom is a high-quality video conferencing platform that gives presenters the ability to share their screen, even when on a mobile device, as well as schedule webinars for free. Paid versions range between $14.99 and $19.99 per user per month for meetings with features like webinar transcripts. This makes Zoom a more budget-friendly option for organizations willing to pay for advanced features and those who make video calls and presentations while on the go.

Zoom Pricing

Zoom’s prices range from the free Basic plan to $19.99 per host at the highest level. Each level of service supports at least 100 participants. The fact that you have so many attendees on the free version of the app makes this one of the most affordable systems on the market.

Zoom Tiered Features

Basic

Zoom’s free Basic level of service accommodates up to 100 participants in an unlimited number of meetings. It comes with standard features like the ability to mute other users and send calendar invites for Outlook, Google Calendar, and other services. It also supports high-quality video streaming from your webcam and screen sharing. You can even share your screen on an iOS or Android device, which is rare for a webinar system.

Unlike other systems, Zoom Basic is limited to meetings of just 40 minutes in length. It also lacks the analytic reports found in the more expensive versions of the software. Therefore, Zoom Basic is best for small companies that only need to have brief webinars for smaller audiences.

Plus

For $14.99 per month, you have access to administrative controls which allow you to disable meeting recordings and chat. This tier of service also comes with reports that provide detailed information on how many people are viewing your webinars and the length of your meetings.

Unlike Cisco Webex Meetings and GoToWebinar, Zoom Plus has no option to host meetings within a web browser. This means that all of your attendees will have to download the Zoom client on their own machines. It also doesn’t allow for file sharing like other webinar platforms. Still, Zoom Plus is good for smaller businesses budget-conscious businesses looking for a good mix of premium call control features.

Business

This top-tier version of the software is $19.99 per month and comes with automatic transcriptions of your recordings. It also comes with the ability to give meetings custom URLs. This is helpful because you can create memorable URLs that your audience will better remember instead of a random assortment of numbers and letters.

Zoom’s Business version lacks the cloud storage of Cisco Webex. It also lacks integrations with popular business apps unlike other platforms on the market. Still, $19.99 is a low monthly price for such a robust feature set. This is an ideal option for companies that want to use custom URLs for a more professional presence when inviting associates to presentations.

What Zoom Is Missing

Zoom provides a wide range of video conferencing features. However, its free version limits meetings to just 40 minutes. The free version of U Webinar, on the other hand, comes with more features and gives you an extra 20 minutes of meeting time at no cost. It also comes with more tools for scheduling and gathering audience insights during meetings.

What Users Think About Zoom

Users are satisfied with Zoom. Our readers gave it a four-out-of-five star rating. They find that it has great call quality and that the system is exceptionally easy to use. However, some negative reviews mention that users can get booted from a meeting if their connections are slow.

Best Webinar Software for Office Productivity Integrations: Zoho Meetings

Zoho Meetings is a webinar platform that includes features such as call controls, chat, and analytics. The platform has a free version as well as a paid version that starts at $15 per month. It integrates seamlessly with Zoho CRM, Zoho Calendar, Zoho Projects, and other solutions in the company’s ecosystem. Zoho Meetings is a strong offering in its own right, but it works especially well for those who want to run their entire office on a single suite of software.

Zoho Meetings Pricing

Zoho Meetings prices range from free to $63 per month depending on the tier you subscribe to. The webinar version supports either 25, 50, 100, or 250 participants at once depending on how much you spend. This is one of the more affordable webinar platforms on the market today.

Zoho Meetings’ paid plans are available under the following packages:

• Webinar 25: $15 per month
• Webinar 50: $23 per month
• Webinar 100: $31 per month
• Webinar 250: $63 per month

Zoho Meetings Tiered Features

Free

The Free edition of the platform is very basic compared to some of the other tools we compared, but it does allow you to poll your audience. It also provides analytics that tells you things like how many people are viewing your webinar, what date webinars were held on, and how long your meetings are. In this regard, its feature set matches that of the free version of U Webinar.

However, you can only hold webinars for up to 10 people, making it the most restrictive out of the other free plans we compared in terms of participant limits. You also cannot chat with your audience during webinars, either. As a result, this version of Zoho Meetings is best suited for teams that are looking for a way to try out the platform’s user interface before committing to a paid service.

Webinar

The Webinar version of the software starts at $15 per month for 25 attendees and goes all the way up to $63 per month for 250 attendees. However, what sets Zoho Meetings apart from other webinar tools is its integration with Zoho’s complete suite of other business products which includes Zoho CRM, Zoho Mail, Zoho Campaigns, and other products. This integration makes it possible to have all of your business software within one complete office productivity suite.

The fact that the Webinar edition offers so many pricing sub-tiers based on participant limits also gives businesses a flexibility that is rare in this space. However, it is hard to overlook the fact that webinars are limited to only 250 attendees even in its most expensive version. Zoho Meetings is best for customers of other Zoho products that want to use the connect data with those systems.

What Zoho Meetings Is Missing

Zoho Meetings cannot support more than 250 participants in a webinar. While this should suit the needs of most small business users, those that need to reach larger audiences will want to look at GoToWebinar, which can support as many as 2,000 attendees at once.

What Users Think About Zoho Meetings

Users are highly satisfied with Zoho Meetings. They find that it offers a lot of functionality for such an inexpensive tool. They find the interface to be highly intuitive, and the integrations with other Zoho apps are helpful. Still, there are some complaints that there should be more features for controlling meetings.

Bottom Line

Webinar software is great for communicating information to employees, customers, and other associated when real-life seminars aren’t possible. Systems should be affordable, accommodate ample attendees, and provide tools for managing audience members so that your webinars can be as effective as possible.

Businesses that want the best combination of features at a reasonable price should look at Cyberlink’s U Webinar solution. Not only does it allow you to host presentations, but it also allows you to edit your PowerPoint slide shows so that you can make adjustments from within the software. Visit Cyberlink’s website today to use U Webinar for free.

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