Businesses, small or big, are no longer limited to local markets; they can now reach global audiences with just a click-through webinars. However, in 2024, the competition for your audience’s attention is intense. You’re not only up against other businesses but also platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Netflix. This makes selecting the right webinar software more crucial than ever.
Navigating the myriad of webinar platforms available can be daunting, with each offering different features and pricing models. This article aims to simplify that process for you.
If you own a business or are simply a marketer looking to make an impact with your webinars, this guide is tailored for you. Let’s explore the best webinar platforms for small businesses in 2024.
Features to Look Out for in a Webinar Software
Webinar software is a tool that enables individuals and organizations to host and conduct live or pre-recorded online presentations, seminars, workshops, and meetings over the Internet. Great webinar software is characterized by several key features that ensure an excellent user experience for both hosts and participants. Here are some essential attributes:
1. User-Friendly Interface: An easy-to-navigate interface eases the learning difficulty and allows users to focus on content rather than technicalities.
2. Scalability: The ability to support a range of attendee numbers, from small meetings to large webinars with thousands of participants, ensures the software can grow with your needs.
3. Engagement Tools: Features like live chat, Q&A, polls, hand-raising, and interactive agendas help keep participants engaged and make sessions more interactive.
4. Integration Capabilities: Seamless integration with other tools and platforms, such as CRM systems, email marketing software, and social media, enhances the overall functionality and workflow.
5. Automation Features: Automated processes, such as scheduling, reminders, follow-ups, and content delivery, help streamline the organization and execution of webinars.
6. Recording and Playback: The ability to record sessions and provide on-demand playback is crucial for reaching a wider audience and for participants who want to revisit the content.
7. Customizability: Options for branding and customizing the webinar experience ensure that the software can align with your company’s identity and specific needs.
8. Security and Compliance: Robust security features, such as encryption, GDPR compliance, and secure logins, protect user data and ensure privacy.
9. Analytics and Reporting: Detailed analytics and reporting tools provide insights into attendee behavior, engagement levels, and overall webinar performance, which are essential for measuring success and making improvements.
10. Reliability and Performance: High-quality audio and video, minimal latency, and reliable performance without crashes or significant downtime are critical for a professional and smooth webinar experience.
11. Customer Support: Accessible and responsive customer support helps users quickly resolve any issues and make the most of the software’s features.
12. Affordability: Competitive pricing that provides value for money, with flexible plans that can cater to different business sizes and needs, is also a significant factor.
Webinar software that excels in these areas can provide a robust platform for delivering impactful, professional, and engaging virtual events.
Best Webinar Software of 2024 to Look Out For
1. Livestorm
Livestorm is my top choice for a cost-effective yet feature-rich webinar platform for both small businesses and enterprises. It offers advanced capabilities that help small businesses host impactful webinars to generate leads and drive sales. For instance, it can accommodate up to 3,000 live attendees, supports unlimited team members, and allows up to 25 guest speakers to have the mic simultaneously.
You can choose to pre-record webinars or make them available on-demand. I particularly appreciate the restreaming feature, which provided an excellent experience when I used it to stream a webinar live on LinkedIn. Additionally, this webinar software has recently integrated AI into its operations, simplifying the process for small businesses to create, design, and host effective webinars.
Pros
• Offers a free plan
• Available in English, French, and Spanish
• User-friendly
• Background noise cancellation
• Video tutorials for guidance
• Suitable for large businesses and companies
• Complies with GDPR to protect your data
• No credit card is required for the free plan
• No software installation needed
• Provides customer support
Cons
• Available in just three languages
• The free plan lacks advanced features
Pricing
• Free Plan (Webinar Basic and Meet Basic)
• Pro Plan (Webinar Premium) starts at $79/month
• Business and Enterprise (For large organizations) offer best-in-class services. Contact them for pricing details.
2. Demio
If you want to focus more on your audience and content rather than learning complex webinar platforms, Demio offers a no-fuss, intuitive interface.
With Demio, you can easily create live, scheduled webinars, a series of sessions, or on-demand pre-recorded webinars. Setting up a live, scheduled webinar takes less than two minutes—just add the title and select the date and time.
Demio also offers customization options if needed. You can brand the registration page, build a custom thank-you page, handouts, create polls, or calls-to-action, and set automated email notifications for 24 hours, one hour, or a few minutes before the webinar begins.
When it’s time to go live, the hosting experience is equally straightforward. Unlike some webinar apps with cluttered presenter screens, Demio’s interface is clean and minimal. You’ll find a toolbar at the bottom to control your microphone and camera and another bar on the right to administer chats, polls, and handouts.
Pros
• Simple user experience
• Extensive audience engagement features
Cons
• Less customizable than some other platforms
Pricing
Starter plan is priced at $42/month (billed annually) with 50 participants per webinar.
3. Easy Webinar
Easy Webinar is a robust webinar software widely used by small businesses to host online events. It includes a comprehensive marketing platform that simplifies connecting with clients, scaling campaigns, and automating engagement.
Easy Webinar enables you to build your webinar funnel with various integration tools. It features a customer tracking tool that helps you connect with potential customers and transform them into paying clients. With this webinar software, you can achieve the following:
• Organize online training seminars
• Sell digital and physical products
• Establish yourself as an authority in your niche
• Build your email list
• Generate quality leads
• Acquire new customers
• Showcase your products and services to your target audience
Pros
• Responsive and customizable
• 14-day free trial, cancel anytime
• WordPress plugin for automating live webinars
• Easy registration for new users
• Built-in email notifications before and after webinars
• Social sharing feature
• Simple export of webinar CSV reports
• Customer support
• Registration box embedded on web pages
• Streams events in the attendee’s local time
Cons
• No phone support
• Setup can be somewhat confusing
Pricing
• Standard – From $78/month
• Pro – From $129/month
• Enterprise (For large-scale businesses) – From $499/month
4. Livewebinar
Many top business leaders and entrepreneurs rely on Livewebinar not only for hosting webinars but also for delivering superb video events.
As one of the most advanced cloud-based webinar software solutions, Livewebinar is versatile enough for organizing seminars, sales presentations, training sessions, webinars, and meetings. Its features are customizable to suit any business type.
Participants can join your webinars or video events seamlessly using smart TVs, smartphones, and PCs. Over 150,000 businesses trust Livewebinar to host their online events.
Pros
• GDPR compliant
• A free trial facility with no credit card requirement
• Allows full HD webinar recording
• Holds a 5-star user rating on Capterra and Crowd
• Offers good customer support via email and has a comprehensive FAQ section
Cons
• No live chat or phone support
• No dedicated landing page; must be embedded into your website
• The user interface can be challenging for newbies
Pricing
• Pro Plan: $14.99/month
• Business Plan: $119/month
• Custom Plan: Customize features with pricing based on monthly or yearly usage
5. BigMarker
Small, manual tasks—like managing the waiting room, starting the webinar, texting in the chat, and ending the session—can add up and increase stress for webinar organizers. BigMarker helps alleviate this by offering built-in automation features.
In the Automation tab, you’ll find a customizable timeline of activities you can trigger for your webinar. You can automatically open and close the waiting room, schedule messages, and polls to post at specific times, and set up downloadable handouts, giveaways, and pop-up calls-to-action to engage attendees with this webinar software.
This webinar software also offers unique capabilities that are not commonly found in other webinar apps. For instance, you can set a pop-up inside the webinar window that attendees must click to show they’re paying attention or conduct a lucky draw during the webinar to award prizes.
Pros
• Excellent automation options
• Unique engagement features
Cons
• Pricing requires a quote and has historically been more expensive
Pricing
Historically, BigMarker has been pricier than other apps, but you now need to request a quote from the BigMarker team.
6. Crowdcast
One standout feature of Crowdcast that sets it apart from other webinar platforms is its ability to broadcast simultaneously on multiple platforms. It has built-in support for streaming to YouTube and Facebook Live, and you can also stream to any RTMP-supported service, including Twitch and LinkedIn Live. This webinar software is ideal if you have followers across various platforms, allowing you to reach your entire audience without needing them to switch services.
The core webinar features are somewhat basic, including chat, polls, Q&A, and hand raising. Additionally, you can add clickable buttons for links, which is perfect for calls-to-action, such as selling a product or registering for an event. These features can be set up either before or during the webinar.
This webinar software also excels in providing in-depth analytics, offering insights on attendee numbers, traffic, conversion rates, funnels, referrals, UTM tracking, and more.
Pros
• Livestream to multiple services simultaneously
• Extensive event analytics
• Option to create paid webinars
Cons
• Limited feature set
Pricing
Lite plan starts from $34/month (billed annually), which supports up to 100 attendees and ten hours of streaming per month.
7. Sessions
Generative AI is still emerging in the webinar space, but Sessions is one app that’s ahead of the curve. Its AI Copilot can generate agendas, automatically transcribe webinars, and compile session summaries and notes. While these features aren’t the flashiest, they effectively streamline your workflow.
Sessions supports both live and recorded webinars and offers numerous ways to interact with your attendees, including chat, polls, Q&A, takeaways, reactions, notes, product offers, and an interactive agenda. You can easily toggle any of these features on or off when creating a webinar or during the event.
The presenter’s screen, though not highly customizable, is clean and easy to function in this webinar software, with the option to display your agenda on the left side of the screen.
Unlike many tools on this list, Sessions isn’t solely focused on webinars—it also supports online meetings, booking, and virtual events. This versatility comes with a trade-off: limited reporting. After a webinar, you can click on Memory from the left-side menu to view basic stats like RSVPs, participants, and interactions (messages, polls, and questions), but that’s the extent of the analytics.
Pros
• Advanced AI features
• Clean, user-friendly interface
• Strong audience engagement tools
Cons
• Plans can become costly
• Limited reporting capabilities
Pricing
• Free plan is for one 1-hour session per month with up to 25 participants
• The solo plan starts at $19/month (billed annually) and offers support for 50 participants per session. It also includes custom branding and access to the AI Copilot feature.
Final Thoughts
The success of your webinar software hinges on creativity and effective audience engagement before, during, and after the event. As you explore the different platforms listed above and choose a tool for your webinar, consider this: which webinar software will best help you and your company engage your unique audience?
FAQs
How can I promote my webinar effectively?
Promoting your webinar effectively is crucial for maximizing attendance and engagement. Some strategies for promotion include creating compelling event descriptions and titles, leveraging email marketing campaigns, utilizing social media platforms, partnering with influencers or industry experts, posting on relevant forums and communities, creating promotional graphics or videos, and offering incentives for attendees to register.
What are some common challenges with webinar software?
Some common challenges with webinar software include technical issues such as audio or video glitches, connectivity problems, compatibility issues with devices or browsers, learning curve for new users, managing large attendee numbers, ensuring participant engagement, dealing with potential distractions or interruptions, and measuring the success of webinars effectively.
Can I monetize my webinars using webinar software?
Yes, many webinar software options offer features for monetization, such as selling tickets or access passes to webinars, offering premium content or exclusive access to certain sessions, incorporating sponsorship opportunities, promoting products or services during webinars, and using pay-per-view or subscription models for accessing content.
