Webinar Review UPDATE! On a great recommendation, I added Webinar Ninja! Scroll to the bottom to find it. Also, a feature I hadn’t considered: Mailchimp Integration!
I am doing a webinar review for a free webinar I’ll be doing soon and I need to find a host to get hooked up with. I have a few requirements and I did a comparison between three highly-recommended options I’ve found in a few different places.
Requirements
The options I’m after cover features I want to have now and a couple features I might need later.
They are:
- Attendee Registration I’d like people to sign up and get messages from the webinar host who will deliver the link and supply additional support like how to connect, and troubleshooting.
- Collect funds At some point I might want to have that registration include accepting a fee for the webinar. Obviously not for my current free webinar need.
- Record meeting I really want to be able to share the webinar to people who might have missed it or use it for different purposes in my business.
- Allow questions from participants This is very important for the purposes of my free webinar and also for all future ones. I like the raise-hand moderated Q&A features many webinars have.
- Optional attendee broadcasters At some point I might actually have a moderator who is also a broadcaster on the webinar and will be sharing other information or managing questions or comments.
- Dial in option Not everyone can use sound on the computer – so can we accommodate them?
- Screen share and/or OBF integration Lastly, I need to be able to share some PowerPoint documents and other information so I need to be able to do that within the webinar.
After a lengthy review of features, and in one case contacting pre-sales support to get questions answered, I have come to some conclusions.
Clickmeeting might be best because for a Free Webinar, I can get a certain number of people in it for free, and I can get back out again. It also affords me a chance to try it for free in the way that I intend to use it.
If webinars become something to do beyond this first one, then WebinarJam is probably a better option because the cost is less and I get more features. I would probably start with WebinarJam if they had a free trial.
Webinar Review
Here are the details for the three providers I checked out.
Clickmeeting: Free trial, then $50/mo $600 annual payment
- Attendee Registration Yes
- Collect funds No
- Record meeting Yes
- Allow questions from participants Yes with moderated Q&A
- Optional attendee broadcasters Yes
- Dial in option Yes
- Screen share and/or OBF integration Yes
WebinarJam: No free trial, $480/yr payment
- Notes: Also FB Live & YouTube broadcast no extra charge. Includes Mailchimp integration
- Attendee Registration Yes, and I can link registration to my website.
- Collect funds Yes
- Record meeting Yes
- Allow questions from participants Yes
- Optional attendee broadcasters Yes
- Dial in option No
- Screen share Yes
Zoom: Free limited to 40 minutes & no registration, $15/mo 180/yr
- Notes: FB Live & YouTube broadcast support for extra $40/mo
- Attendee Registration Yes, for paid version
- Collect funds No
- Record meeting Yes
- Allow questions from participants Yes
- Optional attendee broadcasters Yes
- Dial in option Yes
- Screen share and/or OBF integration Yes
UPDATE
Webinar Ninja: Free 14 day trial, then $33/mo. or $395 a year.
- Notes: Mailchimp Integration – Nice, I need that.
- Attendee Registration Yes
- Collect funds Yes
- Record meeting Yes
- Allow questions from participants Yes
- Optional attendee broadcasters Yes
- Dial in option No
- Screen share Yes
If you would share comments about these options, or have a service you have used that you would recommend, I’d love to hear about it below!