10 Best Webinar Software Platforms in 2020 

1. What is a Webinar?
2. Basic Vocabulary of the Webinar Industry
3. Why are Webinars good?
4. 10 Best Webinar Software Platforms in 2020
5. The Comparison Table of 5 Best Webinar Software Platforms
6. 5 Steps to Holding a Webinar
7. Some Tips to Have the Best Webinar
8. Conclusion

Hello, my dear reader! If you want to know a little bit more about webinars, you’re on the right path! Today we’re going to discuss, in great detail, the topic of webinars. You’ll know what a webinar is, who uses them, why webinars are good, and what you should know before making an online webinar. You’ll get some trustworthy webinar resources i.e., webinar software platforms. You’ll have the opportunity to compare five of the best webinar software platforms of today. You’ll know how to hold a seminar in the right way. As a bonus, you’ll get some tips about making a good webinar and how to have a bigger audience. So, let’s get started.

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What is a webinar?

It’s obvious that in the modern world everyone knows what a webinar is and many of us use them quite frequently. Actually, a webinar is a mix of two words “web” and “seminar” which literally means a web seminar or an online seminar. Web seminars or simply webinars are used by various companies of big and small sizes instead of regular traditional seminars. To hold a seminar, you need a computer or a laptop, a web camera, an internet connection, and some online attendees that will watch you speaking online.

A webinar can be dedicated to any topic; for example, business, sport, education, environment, medicine, religion, everyday life, etc.–any topic you can come up with and want to talk about. It’s not necessary to be a big boss to give a webinar, you can even be a single fitness trainer to talk about a healthy diet and tips on how to lose weight, a personal tutor to share your teaching knowledge with colleagues or with seniors in this field, whatever it is you are good at, someone will want to hear your presentation. As you can see, a webinar is just an online seminar used instead of an ordinary seminar.

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Basic Vocabulary of the Webinar Industry

To talk about webinars, its features, peculiarities, and so on, you have to know some basic webinar vocabulary. An ordinary webinar i.e., a web seminar, is called a live webinar because it’s an audio and video event streaming on a particular day and time. There are also on-demand webinars. An on-demand webinar is a webinar streaming on request, anytime, anywhere, that includes live webcasts that have been archived for additional viewing. The people who register to attend a webinar are called registrants. The people who register and then attend a webinar are called attendees. The one who holds a seminar is called a speaker or a presenter, though there could be more than one speaker.

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Why are Webinars good?

Different companies prefer webinars to ordinary seminars because webinars are more economical and practical. You don’t need to search for a spacious hall to hold a seminar, rent a big place for the event, or worry about organizational stuff, let alone how your attendees will find you if it’s a rented hall somewhere in the city. Moreover, if you want to have a lot of people listening to you, it would be a little bit inconvenient and expensive to put them in a little room. If you want to have your audience from another part of the globe, it’s more comfortable to hold seminars online. Also, when giving a webinar, it’s possible to share documents and information with your attendees. That’s why webinars exist: to cover a huge audience, to have guests from all over the world, to share documents online, all while saving preparation time and money on renting, organization, etc.

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10 Best Webinar Software Platforms in 2020

Today in a webinar industry there’re so many various platforms for holding a seminar that you can get lost and not know which one to choose. Check out the following selection of 10 best webinar software platforms in 2020. Choose the one that suits you best according to the features, prices, number of speakers and attendees, etc. Pay attention that the following prices depend not only on the number of attendees allowed but also on other additional features which you can find on the website of a particular website. Also, the prices shown for a one-year subscription are less expensive because of annual billing. If you’ll pay every month separately, the prices can be a little bit higher. Paying annually is a more economical way to deal with it because you can save up to 20% depending on the platform. So, let’s check out the following list of best webinar software platforms.

WebinarJam

WebinarJam is one of the best webinar platforms for today’s professional environment. It offers you great live casting, event streaming, and webinar broadcasting including excellent features.

Features:

• possibility to stream on YouTube while holding a webinar;
• existence of a secure room with a secure password;
• possibility to record a webinar;
• includes a virtual whiteboard, pools, and live chat;
• admitting pre-recorded video for perfect presentations;
• inviting up to 6 co-presenters;
• possibility to invite your attendees as presenters;
• easy and clear design;
• existence of visual editor, where you can customize the registration page;
• the fast and easy registration process for your attendees;
• automated e-mails or SMS to the registrants will provide you with better attendance;
• 60-day trial period for $1;
• 24/7 support team that will help you with any issues.

Pricing:

• basic plan: $479/year allowing you up to 3 presenters per webinar, 500 attendees;
• pro plan: $783/year giving you up to 4 presenters per webinar, 1000 attendees;
• premium plan: created especially for experts; $997/year, providing you the possibility to have 6 presenters per webinar, 5000 attendees. This one is definitely for larger, serious companies.

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EverWebinar

EverWebinar is a platform created by the same company as WebinarJam. What are the purpose and differences? WebinarJam is designed especially for live webinars. When you have a high converting live webinar, you can take the recording and convert it into an automated webinar in EverWebinar. You don’t even have to log in and start an EverWebinar, as they’re completely automated. This platform is best for small and medium companies.

Features:

• live chat moderation for a hybrid webinar;
• possibility to share files while giving a webinar;
• pre and post webinars with built-in auto-responders;
• full synchronization with WebinarJam;
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• time zone auto-detection that allows you to choose a particular date and time regardless of time differences;
• blocking of night-time webinars to keep it realistic;
• 14-day trial for $1;
• simple and convenient design.

Pricing:

• installment plan: 3 payments of $199/year;
• annual plan: $499/year;
• biennial plan: $799/2 years; save money with this 2-year plan.

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EasyWebinar

EasyWebinar is a webinar software platform that suits excellently for medium to large companies as well. Actually, this platform is a great sales and relationship marketing tool to host webinars.

Features:

• live and on-demand webinars;
• app in AppStore and Google Play;
• 14-day free trial;
• high-quality picture;
• communicate in a real-time chat;
• have up to 4 presenters;
• record and archive streams, so you can later use them as automated webinars;
• stream online on different social media platforms in real-time;
• make any attendee a presenter.

TrueVoice technology allowing you to reduce noise and make the voice stream clearer even when two presenters are talking.

Pricing:

• standard plan: $78/month, 100 live attendees;
• pro plan: $129/month, 500 attendees;
• enterprise plan: $499/month, 2000 attendees and a lot of extra bonus features.

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GoToWebinar

GoToWebinar is the next webinar software in this list. This platform allows you to hold web seminars and do it professionally. All you need to do to give a webinar is to make a few steps from preparing a webinar to presenting it to your audience. However, this platform is a little bit outdated in its design.

Features:

• Event Manager allows you to view any webinar and customize settings;
• flexible schedule;
• add your brand colors, logos, and images;
• invite your attendees as presenters;
• polls and surveys with live results;
• record webinars and share them online;
• allows pre-recorded events;
• 7-day free trial;
• attendee reports, see who attended your webinar;
• have up to 6 presenters.

Pricing:

• starter plan: €109/month, 100 attendees. Get a 20% discount by paying annually and purchase only €89/month;
• pro plan: €249/month, 500 attendees. Grab a 20% discount by paying annually and pay only €199/month;
• plus plan: €499/month, 1000 attendees. Get a 20% discount by paying annually and purchase only €429/month.

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Zoho Webinar

Zoho Webinar is a part of popular Zoho software. This platform is appropriate for small companies allowing you to have just a few attendees. But the good thing is that this platform for webinars is quite inexpensive.

Features:

• recording, watching and sharing of events online;
• e-mail notifications that allow you to send e-mails to your attendees, reminders, and “thank you” mails;
• filter your audience: you can approve, deny or cancel the registrations, so you can prevent spam, and have only those attendees who are definitely interested in your webinar;
• share your screen with the attendees;
• the questions and answers option allows you to take questions from your attendees and answer them online;
• the Raise hand function allows your attendees to “raise their hands” just like in an ordinary room at an ordinary seminar;
• storage for 25 recordings;
• 14-day free trial.

Pricing:

• webinar 25 plan: 15€/month, 25 attendees;
• webinar 50 plan: 23€/month, 50 attendees;
• webinar 100 plan: 31€/ month, 100  attendees;
• webinar 250 plan: 63€/month, 250 attendees.

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Webex

If you’re looking for an ordinary low-cost webinar platform, Webex is definitely your choice. This software is quite inexpensive and fits for ordinary webinars without marketing features, just for communication, meeting, messages, and calls. So, if you’re interested in marketing features, this platform is not the best choice.

Features:

• online meeting with screen sharing, messaging, using whiteboards;
• perfectly integrates with apps such as Google Mail, Google Drive, and others;
• the presence of calls that could inform your registrants to visit your webinars;
• appropriate and relevant prices.

Pricing:

• personal plan: 0€/month, 50 attendees, 40 minutes meetings, 1GB of cloud storage, etc;
• small teams plan: 12,85€/month, 50 attendees, long meetings, 5GB of storage, recordings, etc;
• mid-size teams: 17,30€/month, 100 attendees, and other additional features;
• large teams and businesses: 25,65€/month, 200 attendees, 10GB of cloud storage, Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory sync, etc.

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Livestream 

Livestream is a software platform that could fit a company that already has a connection with its audience. It also greatly suits such a function as holding webinars. All you do is to choose the subject to speak about, have a camera, an internet connection, and the audience.

Features:

• hold online seminars;
• share files with your attendees;
• great for marketing reasons;
• presence of analytics;
• unlimited cloud storage;
• unlimited number of attendees;
• stream your live streams to YouTube, Facebook, etc;
• interactive tools such as live pools, questions and answers, live chat, and graphical overlays, etc.

Pricing:

• Vimeo premium plan: $75/month billed annually, best for a small organization or for an individual just starting with live streaming;
• Vimeo enterprise plan: a quote-based plan that offers to have you some more additional features. This plan fits better for large organizations offering secure live streaming and video sharing with advanced security and support.

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Google Hangouts

It would not be fair if we didn’t mention Google Hangouts because this platform is quite popular in the webinar software industry. This platform suits best for small or large companies depending on the purpose of your webinar. Moreover, this platform is totally free but it has its cons as well. For example, it’s not the best platform for marketing purposes.

Features:

• hold webinars;
• up to 30 participants within one session;
• totally free;
• share your online webinar with such apps like YouTube, etc;
• several people can be presenters;
• because this app is free, it doesn’t provide you with such webinar features as a marketing purpose, paid events, the possibility to check your analytics, etc;
• easy and clear design, so you don’t need to have special skills to handle this platform;
• understandable outline.

Pricing:

• free, but has some restrictions if you want to hold a webinar.

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ClickMeeting

If you’re looking for a webinar platform for product demos, training sessions, online courses, business meetings, and video conferencing, ClickMeeting is your solution. When checking the prices, pay attention that it’s totally customizable i.e., prices are shown for up to 25 attendees here. To change it, go to ClickMeeting. What is awesome is that you can also add any feature you need for your webinar, and get another price.

Features:

• clear and understandable interface, so you don’t need any professional skills to work with this platform;
• every step is explained, great support and guidance;
• customize your webinar room and other elements just by clicking on them;
• have subaccounts i.e., you can create subaccounts for colleagues, trainers, and consultants, and manage their roles from your main account;
• an address book, so you can manage your contacts and keep them organized;
• interactive tools such as presentation, whiteboard, pools, questions, and answers, screen sharing, etc;
• have the ClickMeeting application;
• record and store the events;
• check the statistics;

Pricing:

• free trial plan: costs nothing, 25 attendees for 30 days;
• live plan: $25/month, billed annually giving you main webinar features;
• automated plan: $40/month, billed annually with Webinar flywheel automation;
• enterprise plan: contact and choose the features you need. Ideal for large companies who are looking for a scalable webinar platform.

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Livestorm

If you’re looking for an average elegant software platform, check out Livestorm, a webinar platform that became popular recently. This app is created for webinar startups and big enterprises as well and provides you with different webinar modules and tools.

Features:

• give webinars with chat, question, and pools;
• record on-demand webinars and give a chance to your attendees to watch them when they have time;
• share files and presentations during a webinar;
• screen sharing function;
• analyze your webinars.

Pricing:

• webinar basic: costs $0 and can last forever. It gives you unlimited live webinars, on-demand webinars, and meetings. You get also 10 registrants, 20 minutes limit, 4 attendees per meeting, and 1 meeting room;
• webinar premium: $99/month, billed annually. You get access to unlimited live webinars, on-demand webinars, have unlimited moderators, 4 hours limit per webinar session with all features included.

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The Comparison Table of 5 Best Webinar Software Platforms

After checking out the list of 10 best webinar software platforms you may be a little bit confused in terms of which one to choose. Actually, it depends wholly on your budget and needs. If you can’t find an appropriate platform, check out this comparison table of five of them which have totally different features, and this makes them unique. Here you can focus on those features you need starting from particular features to various prices. Enjoy!

	WebinarJam	EasyWebinar	GoToWebinar	Google Hangouts	ClickMeeting
Possibility to record a webinar	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ability to share files	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Presence of a mobile app	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Numbers of participants (depending on a subscription plan)	from 500 to 5000	from 100 to 2000	from 100 to 1000	up to 25	from 25 and more (depending on a plan)
Possibility to stream on YouTube	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Trial period	60 days for $1	14 days for free	7 days for free	free	30 days for free
Numbers of presenters (depending on a subscription plan)	up to 6	up to 4	up to 6	up to 3	you can customize
Size of a company	from small to big	from small to big	from small to medium	mainly small	from small to big
Average basic plan price, per year (totally depend on a plan), *billed annually	$479	$708	1068€	free	$300 (you can customize)

5 Steps to Holding a Webinar

After you’ve found out what software platforms are the best for webinars, let’s find out how actually webinars should be held. Here are some basic steps you need to know to give a webinar. Some of them are optional, some need to be added, some may be in another order. But knowing this general scheme, you can conduct a good web seminar.

Step 1. Choose the subject

To hold a webinar you have to choose the theme you’ll be talking about. Choose the topic, and make up a plan of things connected with this topic. It would be better if you write the plan down on paper and have it with you during the webinar, so you can always see what the next issue is about. Prepare a presentation because visual images will be remembered far longer than your ordinary talks. Choose also the length, date and time of the webinar.

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Step 2. Choose the number of speakers

You should also choose how many people will be speaking during the webinar. It could be one person, i.e. you, or you can make it with your colleague or trainer. Some webinar platforms, for example, ClickWebinar, make it possible to have subaccounts, the accounts that can help you while holding a webinar, and you can manage their roles from the main account.

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Step 3. Promote

It’s important to promote your webinar because it’ll give you more attendees. You can make it with the help of social media, e-mails, paid ads, etc. It’s up to you which one to choose, though there are more ways to promote your webinar. On social media, you can post a video that can grab the attention of potential registrants or make a bright eye-catching poster, on the e-mail you can write a message, etc.

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Step 4. Hold a webinar

Before holding a webinar, check if you have everything you need: a camera, a good internet connection, the plan you’ve prepared before, and a good mood! A good mood is a guarantee of a successful webinar. While holding a webinar, draw your audience closer: ask them to ask you questions, sorry for the tautology:) and answer them, make polls, use a raise hand option, make it possible for them to communicate in an online chat, feel free to joke, etc.

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Step 5. Thank your audience

At the end of the webinar, thank your audience for attending. You can also advertise social media accounts for your company. You can send them thank-you e-mails together with an invitation to the next webinar if you’re planning to do another. I hope that, by following these steps, you can give an ideal webinar. Remember, you should prepare everything as thoroughly and interestingly enough as possible because your company’s success and promotion partially depend on how you hold webinars.

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Some Tips to Have the Best Webinar

Now you know the general scheme on how to hold a webinar. Check out these helpful tips on the topic. They’re more about the promotion of a webinar and the main source is Benchmark Webinar Report by ON24. The last report of this webinar topic was made by this company in 2019, and the results were pretty much the same. So, check out these tips on how to have a better webinar.

Best Promotion Period

It’s clear that you have to promote your webinar before the scheduled day. The report shows that you can get more people to attend when you promote your webinar about a week or sooner before the webinar.

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Best Promotional Days

Surprisingly but not all days of the week are good for promotion and sending e-mails for a webinar. According to the report, the best days for promoting a webinar are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. These are the days when people are concentrated more on work. Amazingly the worst days for promoting a webinar are weekends.

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Best Days for Holding a Webinar

To make more registrants attendees, i.e. to have more attendees, the best days are Wednesday and Thursday. Again, these are the days when people are more concentrated on work. The worst days for giving a webinar are weekends.

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Best Time for a Webinar

It’s important to choose a suitable time of day for holding a webinar to get more attendees. Sometimes it’s tough to choose, especially when you have an audience all around the world. The report shows that at 11 am PST (Pacific Standard Time) you can reach higher attendance.

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Best Webinar Duration Time

When you’re preparing a webinar, it’s important to choose the proper duration. A webinar should be quite informative but not too long. Not all people will listen to you for 2 hours at a time. That’s why the best webinar duration according to the report is about 55 minutes.

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Best Engagement Tools

It’s essential and important to engage with your attendees because it means they will probably engage with you in the future. That’s why you should use such things as questions and answers, polls, surveys, a raise hand function, etc. Check out which ones are used more frequently during a webinar.

As you can see, those were some helpful tips and secrets on how to make your webinar more successful and get more attendees. Of course, there are more of them and if you’re interested in this topic, you can surf the net in search of more tips.

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Conclusion

Today you’ve found out what webinars are and what words you should know when talking about the subject. You know why webinars are better than ordinary seminars. More important, you got 10 best webinar software tools of 2020 and can choose the one most appropriate and suitable for you. You also have the comparison table for five different platforms, so you can pay attention to those features you need most. You know some basic steps on how to hold a webinar and some tips on how to get more attendees. I hope this info was helpful and useful, and that you will use it for preparing your next webinar. I wish you good luck and more attendees! Cheers!

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