How to Create a Webinar: Ultimate Guide
Jake Lizarraga
You have many options when picking the best webinar software. But before making that choice, you must first figure out which category of webinar software to choose from.
Webinar software falls into two: live or pre-recorded. (Pre-recorded webinar software is also known as on-demand webinar software or automated webinar software.)
So then how do you decide which type of webinar software to use?
Keep reading to find out. But wherever you land, we’ve got you covered with our two shortlists of the best webinar software platforms in each category:
Best Pre-Recorded Webinar Platforms
DISCLAIMER: eWebinar is our product. It exists because we struggled for years with the shortcomings of automated webinar software and wanted to create a tool that would let you offer pre-recorded webinars with the feeling and effectiveness of a live event.
To experience a pre-recorded webinar hosted by eWebinar firsthand, join our demo now:
How to Choose Between Live and Pre-Recorded Webinar Software
Choosing between live and pre-recorded webinar software is a simple three-step process:
Step 1: Question your assumptions about webinar software.
(Yes, really.)
This step is necessary because the nature of webinar software, particularly on-demand webinar software, has changed dramatically over the last few years, and you could easily rule out your best option based on outdated info.
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☠️ WARNING ☠️ If you came here looking only for live webinar software, do not dismiss pre-recorded webinars out of hand. They aren’t just videos on landing pages anymore. In fact, if the nature of the content lends itself to webinar automation, switching from live to pre-recorded webinars can easily result in greater attendance, longer watch times, increased engagement, and higher conversion rates. |
Here are 3 common false assumptions people make about webinar software:
Assumption #1: Live webinars are always more engaging than recorded webinars.
This is not true anymore. To illustrate, modern on-demand webinar software no longer requires you to give up chat or interactivity, or sacrifice a high-quality attendee experience just because the webinar is pre-recorded. So it really depends on the nature of the webinar with respect to whether it’s best offered live or on-demand.
Assumption #2: People always prefer live webinars.
We live in an on-demand world. With the advent of Netflix and other streaming services, more often than not people expect video content to be available on demand. So unless a webinar is a special online event — like seeing a band play live instead of listening to them on Spotify — people prefer to access content at a time that works for them. Otherwise, they won’t make the time.
So, again, it depends on the type of webinar, especially considering the main reasons people have historically preferred live webinars — like the ability to ask questions and interact with the host — are no longer a factor since these are now possible thanks to the audience engagement features of automated webinar software.
Assumption #3: Software that supports both live and pre-recorded webinars is best.
Software that combines both live and pre-recorded capabilities invariably treats its webinar automation features as an afterthought. That’s why most people still think of an on-demand webinar as a plain video and not an engaging, interactive webinar experience. So if you want to do pre-recorded webinars right, make sure you choose the right tool for the job.
What’s more, if you decide to do both live and pre-recorded webinars, which is typical, we recommend you use two separate tools – one that is specialized for each type of webinar. (A hammer is not a wrench, after all.)
If you are skeptical of this, look specifically at the features that make both live and pre-recorded webinar software great. (They are very different!) We have identified what we think those features are below and used them as the principal criteria when making our top picks in each category.
Step 2: Think about the type of webinars you want to do.
At a high level, there are essentially two types of interactive webinars in business:
- Special one-time webinars
- Fundamental recurring webinars
Based on their descriptions below, think about which of the two types of webinars you do now or want to do — it could be both — so you can match them to the right type of software.
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⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️ Live webinar software is best for special one-time webinars, and pre-recorded webinar software is best for fundamental recurring webinars. |
Type of Webinar #1: Special one-time webinars
A special one-time virtual event is typically what comes to mind when people think of a webinar, an event where one or more speakers give a live presentation on a high-value topic with broad appeal to a mid- to large-sized audience.
These are classic webinars. They are great for building awareness, growing your audience, demand or lead generation, and communicating big things happening in today’s world.
They include things like marketing webinars, thought leadership, panel discussions, guest speakers, product launches, and town halls.
Live webinar hosted with Zoom
They happen on a set day at a set time in a particular time zone.
These webinars usually have public chat, where participants can comment on what’s being said and ask questions. Traditionally, questions are not answered in real time. Rather, there is a Q&A at the end where the speaker responds to select audience questions from chat.
Interactivity in these kinds of events can come in the form of polls, quizzes, and surveys that pop up in the webinar room, and also as live discussions with audience members or small-group breakout sessions.
What makes these events special is often the appeal of the speaker, although it can be a variety of other things too, like a panel of experts who have been especially invited to participate or a webinar on a timely topic, such as a current event or a new theory or trend.
The thing that is inherent to these types of webinars that makes them special is their extemporaneous nature. For example, you might see a spirited discussion unfold in real-time while watching how the audience reacts and then later gain unexpected insight by listening to other’s questions as they are answered by the host.
In other words, a big part of why these webinars are special is because they are live, and also a group event.
Type of Webinar #2: Fundamental recurring webinars
On the other hand, you might be hosting webinars daily if they're fundamental to the growth of a business. These types of virtual presentations include sales pitches, product demos, new customer onboarding, and training sessions.
On-demand webinar hosted with eWebinar
Think of your sales team giving the same demo over and over again, or your customer success team who host webinars weekly to make sure new customers see the benefit of your product quickly so that they stick around.
Because these webinars are fundamental to your business, prospects and customers expect them to be available at their convenience. Without them, they are stuck.
For example, if a prospect can’t join a self-service demo of your product, even if it's just a high-level overview that ends with a CTA to speak with a sales rep, they can’t evaluate your product or make a purchase decision – and you risk them going to a competitor.
87% of buyers now want to self-serve part or all of their buying journey. And an astonishing 57% make a decision to purchase without ever talking with a sales rep. (TrustRadius)
Another example is a new customer who needs guidance to get started with your product or service and who may otherwise leave without ever realizing its benefit. An onboarding webinar is where that new customer can learn the fundamentals of what you offer, ask questions, and get whatever individual support they need to see benefit quickly.
Fundamental recurring webinars are more about meeting basic individual needs in a timely way than they are about having a special group experience.
Step 3: Match your webinars to the right type of software by its strengths.
Once you’ve thought through the kind of webinars you want to do, it becomes easy to pick the right type of webinar software to host virtual events with.
That’s because the two types of webinar software, live and pre-recorded, were specifically designed and developed for the two different types of webinars, special one-time and fundamental recurring, respectively.
And there you have it!
- Live webinar software is best suited for special one-time webinars.
- Pre-recorded webinar software is best for fundamental recurring webinars.
So next we’ll look at the best webinar tools in each category and identify what specific features make them stand out, precisely because of how those features facilitate the type of webinars they were built for.
Let’s start with live webinar software. (Or you can skip ahead to pre-recorded webinar software.)
2024 Best Live Webinar Platforms
When we made our picks for best live webinar software, we focused on their most important features, the ones that make a live event special and unique.
The key features to look for in live webinar software are:
1. Options and tools for presenters
The software you choose should have the tools presenters need to deliver engaging presentations, like using a slide deck, screen sharing, playing a video, sharing a handout with the audience, or explaining something using a whiteboard. If you want to have guest speakers or panel discussions, it must also support multiple presenters.
2. Moderated public chat
Public chat is a big part of what makes a live webinar interesting, since you get to see how others are reacting to the content and what their questions are. It’s what makes it a group experience. Be sure to choose software with good chat moderation tools, so you can manage people in chat if they try to hijack your session.
3. Audience participation
Since live webinars are group virtual events, you will want to have a few different ways to get the audience to participate. Make sure the software you choose supports interactive features, like polls, quizzes, surveys, and special offers for sales webinars.
To really take advantage of the nature of live webinars, choose a webinar tool that lets you invite one or more audience members to “join you on stage” by unmuting their mics and turning on their webcams, so you can have a live discussion together.
While we think these are the most important features to look for in live webinar software – because of how they make for an engaging and interactive live experience – you need to also be sure you are satisfied with the software’s basic features, the ones all webinar platforms have.
For example, make sure that its live video quality, landing pages, registration forms, email notifications, and analytics meet your needs. Make sure it can support the number of attendees you expect at your events. (Capacity for live attendees varies widely from product to product.) Check to see it integrates with the other products you use (directly or via Zapier), like your CRM or email marketing tools, like MailChimp. And, finally, look at how easy it is to use – its reviews and a free trial are good ways to find that out – and at its design – will it represent your brand well?
Just remember, if you want great live events, you must pick software with the key features necessary to bring those experiences to life, so focus on evaluating those things first.
All right! Now let’s look at our top 5 picks in this category:
1. ClickMeeting
ClickMeeting is another great live webinar solution. You can set up a custom registration page and webinar broadcasting room, a waiting room with an agenda, and customizable invitations. ClickMeeting supports large-scale (10k+ attendees) events, paid webinars (if your business wants to sell a particular course or seminar), and integration with live streaming on social media, like Facebook Live and YouTube. They are also completely browser-based so no software installation is necessary.
Tools and options for presenters
- Give other presenters or moderators privileges
- Upload files and videos to share during the presentation
- Screen share with audio and video
- Interactive whiteboard that allows up to 40 people to collaborate with a pencil, text, and sticky note tool
Takeaway: ClickMeeting has all the standard options you would expect for presenters, plus more that are not-so-standard. Overall, great webinar features for presenters.
Moderated public chat
ClickMeeting’s chat works in the following ways:
- Chat can be enabled or disabled, including public and private chat.
- “Chat Moderation Mode” can be enabled to require each message to be reviewed by a moderator before it is seen publicly. Moderators can accept, edit, or delete each incoming message.
- Individual users can be blocked from chatting or removed from the meeting as necessary
Takeaway: ClickMeeting offers public chat and gives you all the tools you need to have full control and ensure that what people say is appropriate and productive for your webinar.
Audience participation
Outside of public chat, you can encourage audience participation through:
- Q&A mode where attendees can flag their messages with a question mark that separates them into a separate window for hosts to see
- Enabling attendee camera and video (up to 8 cameras and microphones can be active at the same time) for live audience discussion
- Host-generated surveys and polls
- Custom landing pages and CTAs
Takeaway: Audience members have plenty of ways to interact during the webinar, and there’s more customizability for your brand. Overall hits every mark.
Final thoughts
ClickMeeting has great brand integration and lots of options for large businesses. It also does not require any software installation and runs directly through your browser, which is a big plus. They have great chat moderation options and the ability for attendees to turn on their cameras when asked, which is perfect for “face-to-face” audience participation.
Pricing & Reviews
ClickMeeting's Live plan starts at $32/month, but with only 25 attendees. 1,000 attendees is $335/month.
At the time of this writing, ClickMeeting holds a 4.4-star rating on Capterra and 114 reviews.
2. Livestorm
Livestorm is another brand-oriented webinar platform that offers custom registration pages, event analytics for engagement data, polls, custom email reminders, along with breakout rooms, screen sharing, whiteboards, and chat.
Options and tools for presenters
With Livestorm, presenters are able to:
- Upload a PDF version of their slide deck to present
- Share their screen with audio and video
- Create breakout rooms
- Invite others to be moderators or guest speakers
- Use a whiteboard
Takeaway: This checks all the boxes for what we would look for in this category. The built-in PDF upload for presentations is a nice touch.
Moderated public chat
Livestorm’s chat works in the following ways:
- Both public and private chat
- Delete any messages or questions
- Edit any answers to questions
- Enable/disable public or private chatting and questions
- Remove users from the event
Takeaway: Livestorm has both public and private chat with basic chat moderation options. However, you are unable to block individuals from chatting or see public messages before they are sent.
Audience participation
Outside of public chat, you can encourage audience participation through:
- Allowing participants to publicly send questions, which appear in a separate tab from chat
- Host-generated polls
- Sending out CTAs
- Asking participants to join the stage by unmuting and/or turning their camera on
Takeaway: Standard participation options which checks all our boxes. It’s also nice to have a separate questions tab that both presenters and attendees can keep track of.
Final thoughts
Livestorm offers all the webinar essentials as well as some nice brand customization options. They require no software download and allow for up to 3,000 live attendees, which is on the smaller side compared to some other products mentioned.
Pricing & Reviews
Livestorm offers a free plan, though their pro plan is best for small businesses, which starts at $99/month.
Livestorm has 383 reviews and a 4.8 star rating on Capterra. Here’s what one user thought:
3. BigMarker
BigMarker advertises itself as the world’s most customizable platform for webinars, and they do indeed offer many great options for audience interaction and business branding. They are completely web-based so no download is required. Their webinar sizes scale from 1,000 to 500,000 attendees.
Options and tools for presenters
With BigMarker, presenters are able to:
- Upload files and handouts
- Share their screen
- Use the draw feature
- Promote others to gain presenter privileges
Takeaway: Good standard features for presenters, checks all the boxes.
Moderated public chat
BigMarker’s chat works the following ways:
- You can enable and disable both public and private chat, as well as a Q&A mode
- Questions sent by audience members can be deleted, flagged as answered/unanswered, as well as marked as having higher priority.
- In moderation mode, questions are sent to a queue for review before being posted
Takeaway: Great chat features and built-in moderation is a big plus. Note that only the questions can be moderated, not the regular chat.
Audience participation
You can encourage audience participation through:
- Sending out polls, surveys, and handouts
- Asking participants to unmute and turn their camera on
- Enabling chat reactions such as thumbs up and various emojis
- Sending out an attendance monitor pop-up to ensure they’re paying attention
- Enabling the lucky draw feature that can select audience members at random to receive a prize
Takeaway: Lots of audience participation options that go beyond the standard ones, such as the attendance monitor and lucky draw “gamification” features, creating an engaging experience that stands out from other software.
Final thoughts
BigMarker has fantastic chat and audience participation options, along with all the standard tools you’d need for presenters. They also specialize in virtual and hybrid events, so that is something you could take advantage of based on your business needs. Their basic plan allows for up to 1,000 attendees, which is a great option for even larger companies. One significant drawback is that the software, with so many options, is overly complicated and tricky to learn.
Pricing & Reviews
BigMarker publishes no pricing on their website, which is extremely frustrating when evaluating software.
Currently BigMarker has 374 reviews on Capterra at 4.9 out of 5 stars.
4. Zoom
Zoom is a tried and true webinar and video conferencing platform that is commonplace in many business, education, and government settings. It’s great for both small and large scale live webinars and online meetings, offering team chat and breakout rooms as well as support for large community events and special ticket-only webinars. The webinar size scales from 500 to 50,000 attendees depending on your plan.
Options and tools for presenters
With Zoom, presenters are able to:
- Share their screen, which includes video and audio
- Give screen share permissions to multiple hosts in the meeting (only one person can share their screen at a time)
- Annotate slides and draw on a white board
- Send participants to break out rooms
Takeaway: This pretty much checks all the boxes for what we would look for in this category. They don’t, however, have the option to upload files and videos before the start of a webinar to share during the presentation.
Moderated public chat
Zoom’s chat works in the following ways:
- You can choose whether participants chat with everyone publicly and privately, only publicly, only with the host, or no one.
- You can also moderate the chat by removing individual messages as you see fit.
- You cannot, however, mute individual participants from chatting (it’s “all or nothing”), though you do have the option to remove them from the meeting and report the user.
Takeaway: Zoom offers public chat, but not being able to mute individual users means that there is not as much control as you might like.
Audience participation
Outside of public chat, you can encourage audience participation through:
- Host-generated polls
- Sharing links with your audience, like to a special offer, through chat
- Using reactions such as a “thumbs up” or “clap hands”
- Unmuting participants to ask questions (during a webinar, attendees are not able to turn on their cameras)
Takeaway: Overall Zoom hits the main marks we look for in participation options. It’s worth noting, however, that they do not have a native call-to-action feature (can be enabled through a 3rd party application), which may limit its usefulness for sales-oriented webinars. Additionally, no video option for attendees limits the audience’s participation possibilities during the webinar.
Final thoughts
Zoom has the chat and interactivity features you need in a familiar and straightforward design. It’s best suited for large businesses and organizations that can take advantage of its Business plans. Drawbacks include minimal chat moderation capabilities and no option to add CTAs (besides providing links in the chat), as well as no option for attendees to turn on their camera. They do allow for up to 100 panelists, however. Zoom also requires attendees to install their software, which is less preferred than browser-based webinar software.
Pricing & Reviews
Zoom Webinars starts at $79/month with a minimum of 500 attendees.
Zoom currently has a 4.6 star rating with 13k+ reviews on Capterra, a popular review site.
5. GoTo Webinar
The last one on our list is GoTo Webinar. It emphasizes analytics, such as tracking engagement and which webinar marketing channels brought attendees to your webinar. It’s great for growing businesses and entrepreneurs who want to learn more about their customers and find better ways to target them. They have a variety of tiered payment plans, and their basic plan allows for up to 250 participants, which scales up to 3,000.
Options and tools for presenters
With GoTo Webinar, presenters are able to:
- Share their screen
- Upload videos and handouts before a meeting for attendees to view
- Make others a panelist or staff member
- Keep track of guests’ attentiveness through a built-in feature that shows who has their webinar screen in primary view on their computer
- Draw on the screen
Takeaway: Good standard features for presenters. Being able to track attentiveness can be a useful tool to know when audience members are engaged and when they are not.
Moderated public chat
GoTo Webinar’s communication features are limited:
- Rather than public chat, they have a question panel that can be enabled/disabled
- Attendees can ask questions publicly or privately, and presenters can answer these out loud or via chat (can be private or public as well)
- Staff members can assign questions to different presenters
- They do offer a chat, but it can only be used by presenters and staff members
Takeaway: Not having a public chat for attendees is a pretty big drawback. The way they’ve set things up does allow for more streamlined Q&A sessions, but in a controlled environment which takes away from the feeling of spontaneity of a live event.
Audience participation
You can encourage audience participation through:
- Sending out polls
- Enabling the question tab and raise hand features
- Asking attendees to unmute and turn on their camera to join the discussion
- Uploading handouts such as slide decks
Takeaway: The Q&A functionality is a useful feature, but other products that have a Q&A tab also support public chat, which helps keep audience members feel more engaged and connected. They are also missing a “reaction” option that is fairly commonplace, though they do have the ability to let attendees raise their hand to get the host’s attention.
Final thoughts
Overall, GoTo Webinar has many solid features as well as some stand-out ones like the attentiveness tool. The questions tab is also useful, but not having any type of regular chat for attendees might make guests feel less connected. Hosts need to download the software but attendees can use it via browser (though they can choose to download the software as well). Note that most presenter tools like the draw function, polls, and handouts are only available on the desktop application, so any attendees that would be promoted to a presenter role should have the software downloaded.
Pricing & Reviews
GoTo Webinar's pricing starts with their Lite plan at $59/month with 250 participants and goes up to their Enterprise plan at $499/month with 3,000 participants.
At the time of writing, GoTo Webinar has 1959 reviews on Capterra and 4.5 out of 5 stars.
To wrap up the topic of best live webinar software, here are a few platforms you may also want to look at: Zoho Meeting, Adobe Connect, WebinarNinja, GetResponse, and WebEx.
2024 Best Pre-Recorded Webinar Platforms
Pre-recorded webinar software’s most important features are the ones that leverage the power of automation. They make it so you can run your webinars around the clock without needing to be there, skimping on the attendee experience, or sacrificing a personal touch. They are what make the fundamental recurring webinars they were designed for successful and effective.
The three key features to look for in pre-recorded webinar software are:
- Direct, private communication (live or asynchronous)
- Lots of options for pre-programmed interactivity
- Flexible availability (more than just “watch now”)
While it’s true any pre-recorded webinar software can save you time (simply because the video is pre-recorded), it’s the three features above that put pre-recorded webinars in a category of their own and are responsible for dramatically driving up attendance, audience engagement, watch times, conversion rates, and CSAT scores. It’s why we weighted them most heavily when choosing our top picks for best pre-recorded webinar services.
Below, we explain each feature in depth – in the context of our own product, eWebinar – and the reasons they deliver such amazing results.
NOTE: Not a single product from the best live webinar software list made the best pre-recorded software list (and vice versa), which demonstrates just how different the key features that support each category of webinar software are.
As with live webinar software, you need to make sure that the standard features of the software you choose meet your needs, including its landing pages, registration forms, notification emails, analytics, and product integrations, like with your CRM or marketing automation tools. Also look for an easy, intuitive user interface, customizable templates, and a modern design.
Just remember, when it comes to webinar automation, these secondary features are not the ones that can breathe life into a pre-recorded video and turn it into an engaging, interactive webinar that you can set on autopilot and still get amazing results.
So choose wisely!
1. eWebinar (our product)
eWebinar is an automated webinar platform that lets you deliver pre-recorded presentations with the feeling of a live webinar. This is done through the use of a hybrid chat model, a variety of interactive features, and flexible scheduling options.
The end result is not an attempt to mimic a live webinar, however, which is what most pre-recorded webinar software tries to do. Rather, we leverage the power of automation to create an attendee experience so compelling it doesn’t matter that the video is pre-recorded.
The quickest and easiest way to get an idea of what eWebinar is and what it can do is to watch this 2-minute explainer video:
For a detailed overview of eWebinar, and a first hand experience of our product as an attendee, join our 25-minute demo on demand.
As mentioned above, there are three key features that pre-recorded webinar software must have if you want your webinars to be successful.
Let’s go through them now, using eWebinar as a model to demonstrate how they work and why they matter.
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⚠️ SPOILER ALERT #2 ⚠️ eWebinar is the only product that has the first key feature: live or asynchronous chat. |
Key Feature #1: Direct, private communication (live or asynchronous)
Something people expect to be able to do during a webinar is chat with the host. It’s one of the things that makes a webinar a webinar.
Other webinar software providers don’t let you chat live with attendees during on-demand webinars. Instead, if you want to engage in live chat, you must set your webinar on a recurring schedule and then literally attend every single session, which is completely contrary to the purpose of a pre-recorded webinar.
The only other option they offer is to disable chat and let webinar attendees submit questions to your email, which you can respond to later by email. (But that’s not chat, is it?)
So while the second option prevents you from missing inquiries, it also takes away your ability to converse with your customers in real-time during your webinars which, in sales, is how you address objections and close deals and, in customer success, how you deliver exceptional customer service and drive product adoption.
eWebinar is the only webinar software platform whose unique chat system gives you the best of both worlds by letting you respond to chat live or asynchronously.
Here is how our chat works:
- When an attendee joins your webinar, they get a private welcome message, inviting them tochat ask you questions. If the attendee sends you a message, you get notified (by email, browser alert, or Slack).
- If you (or someone on your team) is available, you can click the notification and chat live with the attendee from your desktop or phone.
- If you are not available to chat live, an auto response lets the attendee know you will get back to them later.
- When you do respond later, the attendee gets your reply by email.
Since the nature of recurring webinars is about meeting individual needs, private chat gives attendees a direct line of communication to you when they need it, makes them feel valued and heard, and frees them from the fear of asking questions in a public setting.
And you don’t ever miss a question or leave your attendees feeling they’ve been ignored.
All of our chat-related features work together to allow you to run your webinars around the clock without sacrificing the golden opportunity to chat live with attendees when you can.
eWebinar is the only webinar software that makes this possible.
Key Feature #2: Lots of options for pre-programmed interactivity
eWebinar lets you make your entire webinar experience interactive and engaging from beginning to end through the use of a variety of interactions.
We offer more of them, in fact, than any other webinar platform, 15+ and counting. (The closest competitor has less than half of what we do.)
Our interactions include everything from the typical poll, special offer (or other call-to-action), handout, or quiz, to a contact form that lets you surface your highest quality leads, or a private message you can trigger mid-webinar to encourage chat – plus many more! Check out the full list here. 
Lots of interactivity in a live webinar can be hard to plan for, distracting to the speaker, and frankly kind of annoying. With a pre-recorded webinar, however, which you can make available for months or even years, it’s worth spending a little extra time planning things out to create a purposeful, interactive experience for the length of the webinar.
But why do this? Because interactions get attendees to engage with you more and watch your video longer. These two testimonials from our customers are typical:
Most importantly perhaps, interactions give you a channel for collecting data about your audience, so you can discover who they are, solicit feedback, ask qualifying sales questions, and segment them in your CRM (e.g. Hubspot or Salesforce) for post-webinar follow up.
Finally, our unique, user-friendly interactions editor, inspired by video editing software, makes it incredibly easy to add, edit, and move interactions around on your video’s timeline, a process we’ve made at least 10X easier than it is in other software.
Key Feature #3: Flexible availability (more than just “watch now”)
Making pre-recorded webinars available on-demand is kind of the point of pre-recorded webinars. Attendees can watch your webinar right away, at a peak moment of interest. (Which is a big reason why conversion rates can be so much higher.)
But only offering pre-recorded webinars on-demand isn’t enough.
Think about it in practical terms. If someone discovers your webinar but can’t attend at that moment, what are the odds they will remember and return to watch it later? Basically zero.
This is why it’s critical to offer more availability options than just “watch now”.
Below is an example of a drop-down menu from a simple eWebinar registration form showing a list of available sessions to choose from, as seen from the point of view of a person who landed on the webinar registration page at 1:12 PM on a Saturday.
This is a great example of eWebinar’s three main scheduling features: webinar replays, just-in-time sessions (or on-demand), and a recurring schedule in the attendee’s local time zone. Let’s go through each one quickly.
Webinar replays
The first option that the visitor sees on the list above is to register to watch a replay.
Webinar replays function like you might expect. Registrants are sent a link to watch the webinar at their convenience as a video.
Like in other webinar tools, eWebinar’s replays let viewers control the video (play, pause, skip around, etc.) But that is where the similarities end, as our webinar replays include all the interactivity and chat of our regular webinar sessions.
Just-in-time (or on-demand) sessions
The second option on the list above, the one starting in just 3 minutes, is called a just-in-time session.
When you enable just-in-time sessions, it means there is always a session starting within a few minutes of someone discovering your webinar. This option may be enabled in lieu of on-demand. (Otherwise, it would say “Watch now on demand”.)
The benefit of a just-in-time session (over strictly on-demand) is the visitor sees a clock counting down to the start of a session beginning in a few minutes, creating urgency to join right away.
A just-in-time session also signals to the registrant that they will be joining a webinar (which starts at a set time) and not watching a video (which can be played or paused whenever).
This shifts their mindset in two ways.
First, it creates a deeper commitment to watch the whole video, since traditionally you must stay for the duration of a webinar unless you don’t want to miss anything.
Second, it lets the registrant know there will be a real person on the other end to answer their questions during the webinar, if they have any. This is an expectation that on-demand webinars hosted in other platforms can never meet.
Think of just-in-time sessions like “on-demand plus”, since people can still join at a moment’s notice, but with the added benefits for you described above.
A recurring schedule in the attendee’s local time zone
The remainder of the sessions, shown in the drop-down list above, are part of a recurring schedule: three times a day, six days a week, in the local time zone of the attendee (meaning the start times appear at 10 AM, 2 PM, and 6 PM, whether the registrant is in San Francisco or Singapore.)
Here is what this exact schedule looks like on the back end of eWebinar, so you can see how it has been set up and what your other options are.
So now that we’ve discussed our three main scheduling features, let’s think back to the person who has discovered your webinar but can’t join at that very moment.
With the options available above, the registrant can either grab a link to watch a replay later or sign up for a scheduled session that fits their calendar in the next day or so. Either way, they don’t leave without you capturing the lead!
It’s important to note that while other webinar platforms offer some or even all of the scheduling features we’ve discussed, only a small handful let you enable all three at once for the same webinar like we do — which is where the real benefit lies.
Giving registrants so many different options to watch your webinar is why the average attendance rate across all of eWebinar’s customers is 65%. That’s 25 percentage points higher than the industry average for live webinars, which is roughly 40%.
The attendance rate of our own on-demand demo, which you can join here, is 92%. (No joke.) We hope you will sign up for it and experience eWebinar for yourself!
Pricing & Reviews
eWebinar pricing starts at $99/month. See all pricing here.
At the time of writing, eWebinar has a 5-star rating on Capterra.
2. Demio
Demio is a decent option when it comes to automated webinar software. They offer automated webinar functionality with a brand-oriented design, along with polls, email reminders, data analytics, and the ability to create custom registration forms.
Here’s a breakdown of the 3 key features we were looking for:
Direct, private communication
Demio offers live chat during scheduled sessions only, not for on-demand webinars. They also do not offer live chat notifications. As a result the host must be present at each session.
On the flip side, users can submit questions during on-demand sessions that get sent to you via email, but not for scheduled sessions.
Takeaway: Demio’s chat option is rather limited as you can either have live chat or questions submitted via email post-webinar (but not both at the same time), and the live chat requires that you physically attend each session. This is inefficient and defeats the purpose of having automated webinars.
Pre-programmed interactivity
Demio offers three interactions that can be set to appear throughout the webinar, which are polls, handouts, and CTAs (either as a link or special offer).
Takeaway: These interactions are fairly standard and do help to increase engagement, however the options are very limited and could get somewhat repetitive. We would not say that they have “lots” of options.
Flexible availability
Demio allows you to make webinars available on a recurring schedule or on demand. Note that you cannot have these two features available at the same time.
They also do not offer on-demand replays, and scheduled sessions cannot be automatically set to the attendee’s time zone.
Takeaway: There is little of the flexible availability you should look for in automated webinar software. For example, not being able to set a webinar on a recurring schedule and also make it available on demand can negatively impact attendance rates. Also, On-demand replays are the most preferred option for some attendees, so not having this feature is a big drawback.
Final thoughts
Demio is focused on sales and conversions, and offers a variety of business analytic tools that could be useful. There are some notable drawbacks in their automated webinars, as mentioned above. Particularly, not having on-demand replays and limited chat options reduce its overall effectiveness.
Pricing & Reviews
Demio pricing for automated events starts with their Growth plan at $109/month.
Demio currently has 240 reviews on Capterra and a 4.7 star rating.
3. EasyWebinar
EasyWebinar is another webinar software that allows you to take live recordings and turn them into evergreen webinars. They emphasize leveraging automation to generate new leads and bring in new customers with solid analytics and metrics and flexible scheduling options.
Let’s look at the key feature breakdown:
Direct, private communication
EasyWebinar’s communication features are very limited. They do not offer any form of live chat, so your only option is for attendees to write messages that get sent to your email post-webinar.
Takeaway: No live chat is a big drawback here.
Pre-programmed interactivity
EasyWebinar’s interaction and engagement features are limited as well, having only polls and special offers.
Takeaway: Fewer interaction features means missed opportunities for increased engagement.
Flexible availability
EasyWebinar has all the availability features we look for, which are webinars available on a recurring schedule, just-in-time sessions, and on-demand replays. Scheduled sessions are also available on the attendee’s local timezone. Most importantly, all of these options can be turned on at the same time for the same webinar.
Takeaway: Great flexibility when it comes to webinar availability. It checks all the boxes.
Pricing & Reviews
EasyWebinar's pricing starts at $26/month and includes 25 simultaneous attendees in up to two automated webinars.
At the time of this writing EasyWebinar has a 4.3 star rating on Capterra and 83 reviews.
4. WebinarGeek
WebinarGeek is another great automated webinar solution offering great options for brand integration, with a focus on ease of use. They offer a 14-day free trial that includes all of their premium features.
Here’s the key feature breakdown:
Direct, private communication
WebinarGeek allows for live chat during automated webinars as well as post-webinar email replies, but these two forms of communication cannot be enabled at the same time for the same webinar. Their live chat includes email notifications of new messages for moderators, but there is no direct link to the chat in the email so you are required to manually log in and find the conversation that needs a response.
Takeaway: The fact that WebinarGeek has moderator notifications for their live chat is a big plus. However, not being able to enable live chat and post-webinar communication via email for the same webinar is an even bigger drawback.
Pre-programmed interactivity
WebinarGeek stands out with a wider variety of interactive features compared to other products. This includes single and multi-answer polls, info boxes, one-click contact request, subscribe to next webinar, and more.
Interactions replace each other when they appear in the webinar, so it can be difficult for attendees to keep track if there are too many at once.
Takeaway: WebinarGeek has good options for pre-programmed interactivity, but they need to be used sparingly because they replace each other. It is also more difficult to time the interactions exactly how you want because they do not offer a video timeline editor like in eWebinar.
Flexible availability
WebinarGeek allows you to offer automated webinars on a recurring schedule, but these are not automatically set to the attendee’s timezone. You can also offer a webinar on-demand. You cannot however have a recurring schedule and on-demand options enabled for the same webinar. Finally, they do not offer a just-in-time session option at all.
Takeaway: WebinarGeek’s availability options are okay but do not offer the greatest flexibility since you cannot enable all options at the same time, nor are scheduled webinars available in a registrant’s time zone. Not having just-in-time sessions either is a big drawback since these are effective tools in capturing the urgency of joining a webinar.
Final Thoughts
WebinarGeek is pretty easy to use and good for brand integration, but is lacking when it comes to flexibility – particularly relating to the scheduling and timing of webinars.
Pricing & Reviews
WebinarGeek's pricing for automated webinars starts with their Premium plan at $79/month with 125 viewers.
At the time of this writing WebinarGeek has a 4.6 star rating on Capterra and 210 reviews.
5. EverWebinar
EverWebinar focuses solely on automated webinars and integrates with its sister product, WebinarJam, so you can easily create a webinar replay from a previous live event.
Here’s the key feature breakdown:
Direct, private communication
EverWebinar only offers communication via post-webinar questions that get sent to an email inbox. They do not have any live chat option during the webinar, though you can add simulated chat to your pre-recorded webinars.
Takeaway: Communication is limited to post-webinar email responses only.
Pre-programmed interactivity
EverWebinar has five options for pre-programmed interactivity, which are polls, surveys, special offers, handouts, and announcement banners, which can be timed to appear at specific moments in the webinar.
Takeaway: Though they do offer more interactive features than some other products, it is still limited to standard types.
Flexible availability
EverWebinar has great availability options, checking off all of the boxes for this category. They offer the option for a recurring schedule on the attendee’s time zone, just-in-time sessions, and a webinar on-demand. These features can all be enabled for the same webinar, which is a huge plus.
Takeaway: Has everything we look for in scheduling features.
Final Thoughts
EverWebinar has good availability options, but their options for communication are very limited (no live chat at all). Their interactivity features fall somewhere in the middle.
Pricing & Reviews
They offer a 30-day risk-free trial period, but after that you can only choose an annual plan for $499/year or biennial plan (once every two years) for $874/year, with no tiered options.
Currently EverWebinar has just under 10 reviews on Capterra and a 3.9 star rating.
Choosing the best webinar platform for you, whether for pre-recorded or live webinars, depends on the type of webinars you want to offer and your business’s specific needs. After all, you don't want to put your reputation in the hands of free webinar hosting platforms.
If, after looking at your options, you decide you want to do pre-recorded webinars, we hope you will give our product, eWebinar, a try since it was built from the ground up for that purpose only.
We ‘eat our own dog food’ at eWebinar, which means we use eWebinar to demo eWebinar.
And we get results. Here are four core stats from our demo:
(If you work in SaaS sales or marketing, you know how stunning these numbers are for a product demo, especially considering a conversion for us is a trial sign-up.)
So if you’d like to experience the magic of eWebinar firsthand, and find out what it can do for you too, join our 25-minute on-demand demo now!
It’s so easy to get started.
Begin your 14-day free trial today!
