The 9 Best Free Webinar Platforms in 2023

Last Updated on October 25, 2023 by Alex Birkett

Webinars are one of the most common and most effective methods of marketing.

75% of marketers consider webinars as a great source of high-quality leads.

Webinars can serve a lot of purposes: capture email leads, promote a business, extend company reach, reach targeted accounts, attract new leads, market products—y’know, all that stuff outlined in a good content marketing strategy.

There are a lot of webinar platforms available on the market today.

Some have been around for decades, and some are pretty new but are making waves in the industry. Some are full-stack marketing automation tools, while others are exclusively webinar hosting software.

To ensure you do not make terrible webinar mistakes, you need to figure out the webinar platform that can really serve your needs.

What makes a good webinar platform?

Every organization has different wants and needs when it comes to webinar platforms. For you, it might be to help teams collaborate or to build awareness about your organization/brand. It can also be to attract new leads or to sell products to your target audience.

Whatever the reasons may be, choosing the right webinar platform for your needs is essential if you want to make the most out of your webinars. Before diving into the best free webinar platforms in 2021, let’s take a look at some factors that make a great free webinar platform.

1. A reasonable price for the amount of features it provides

2. The ability to host multiple (more than 2) presenters.

3. The ability to scale to the number of attendees you anticipate.

4. Top-notch video and audio quality.

5. Ability to record and store your webinars (locally or on the cloud).

6. Ability to replay webinars to audiences on-demand.

7. Availability of detailed webinar analytics and reports.

8. Availability of interactive features like polls, surveys, chats, audience spotlight, etc.

9. Great customer service.

10. Airtight data security.

The 9 Best Free Webinar Platforms

Below are my top picks for the best free webinar platforms to try out this year.

1. Demio

Image source: Demio

Ideal for: SMEs

Overall G2 Score: 4.7/5

Pricing: Demio offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start at $34/month.

Demio is one of the best webinar software that comes with an impressive feature set that helps users deliver content seamlessly to their audience. It enables marketers to use webinars to generate leads, ease team collaboration and hold interactive training sessions.

Since Demio is entirely browser-based, webinar attendees don’t need to download or install any software or app to join a webinar. With just one click in the browser or on mobile (iOS), users can enter and watch the webinar they want to.

Because of the real-time HD streaming that Demio offers, hosts can be rest assured that their audio and video quality would be great. Even when they’re interacting in real-time with their audience, there would not be any disturbance or delay.

With Demio, hosts can share up to three webcams with their co-presenters. The creativity and interaction made available by more than one presenter keeps the audience engaged and helps them learn more about the subject matter. Hosts can also share their screens or slides during their presentation. They can even upload the slides and share them directly without having to switch anything or leave the webinar room.

With Demio, hosts can also apply their logo and brand color schemes all across their webinar material—landing pages, registration pages, slides, email notifications, replay pages, etc.

Key features of Demio

Unlimited webinar sessions
Screen sharing
HD video
Webinar customization options
Pre-made registration templates
Automatic email reminder notifications
Interactive polls
Launch offers and calls-to-action
Handouts and gifts
Private and public chat
Attendee spotlight
Webinar recordings and replays
Live and automated webinars
Campaign analysis
@mentions and gestures
Third-party app integrations

Pros of Demio

Demio’s interface is well-designed and intuitive.
Because Demio is browser-based, attendees don’t have to download an app or software to enter a webinar.
Hosts can conduct interactive polls and calls-to-action during live events.
Demio’s video and audio quality are stellar.
With Demio, users find it easy to convert live webinars into evergreen webinars.
Demio offers integrations with popular software like Ontraport, Infusionsoft by Keap, Drip, MailChimp, ConvertKit and MarketHero.
The customer support is great.

Cons of Demio

Demio’s replay page does not have any marketing and engagement features.
Instead of offering conversion-optimized landing pages, Demio advertises itself.
With Demio, hosts cannot organize webinars in a subdomain of their primary domain. This can affect branding negatively and confuse results if they are using their own tracking and analysis.

2. Livestorm

Image source: Livestorm

Ideal for: SMBs and enterprises

Overall G2 Score: 4.6/5

Pricing: Livestorm offers a free forever plan that lets users host webinars that lasts for up to 20 minutes and has up to 10 registrants. Paid plans start at €89/month, billed annually.

Livestorm is a cloud-based all-in-one free webinar platform and video conferencing tool that helps companies create and set up any kind of virtual event, be it a meeting, conference, webinar, podcast interview, product demo or online training course. Livestorm helps the marketing, sales, HR and customer success teams in a company build great video communication strategies.

Livestorm offers users all the tools they need to host interactive online events, hold Q&A sessions, create custom landing pages, send promotional emails and reminders, set up polls, and analyze event performance through an in-depth analytics dashboard.

The element that differentiates Livestorm from most other great webinar software is that Livestorm operates entirely through a browser. There are no desktop or mobile apps to download. Users can simply log in via their browsers and share the meeting/webinar URL with potential webinar attendees. During a webinar, hosts can set up call-to-actions where they make their offers to the attendees and garner sales.

Livestorm offers tools like customizable registration forms to capture email leads and/or actionable data from the attendees: names, email addresses, job titles, companies, etc. Users can automatically send the information to their marketing and sales teams to use in their campaigns.

Apart from hosting webinars and meetings, Livestorm’s video capture functionality can also be used to create online courses, record interviews, create product demos, communicate internally and hire remote employees.

Key features of Livestorm

Automated emails
Automated webinars
Real-time interaction with audience
Analytics and reports dashboard
Browser-based webinars
1000+ third-party app integration
Live and automatic webinars
Intuitive landing pages
Webinar recording
Data integration
Emailing logistics
Registrant profile
Polls & surveys
Screen sharing
Audience chat

Pros of Livestorm

Livestorm is very easy to use.
Livestorm has a very wide range of features.
Livestorm’s free plan gives users access to all their features.
Attendees can join any webinar by simply clicking on an invitation link. They don’t need to download or install any apps.
Livestorm integrates with popular third-party software like Slack, Pipedrive, Google Analytics, HubSpot and Drift.
Livestorm has great customer support.
Livestorm is a great way to handle large-scale company training and change management.
Livestorm is an excellent tool for HR to test candidate testing and handle interviews.
Livestorm helps users optimize marketing and audience outreach significantly.

Cons of Livestorm

Livestorm’s free plan allows users to host unlimited meetings, but they are restricted to 1 meeting room and up to 4 participants per meeting.
Meeting times are limited to 20 minutes per meeting.
On the free plan, users cannot record meetings.
Livestorm’s pricing can be really expensive for some users. The add-ons quickly add up, too. For example, it costs an extra $99/month to increase the number of attendees from 100 to 350.
Because Livestorm is entirely browser-based, the feed relies largely on the strength of the host’s internet connection.
There is no slideshows upload feature in the webinar.

3. Zoom

Image source: Zoom

Ideal for: SMEs, healthcare organizations, educational institutions

Overall G2 Score: 4.5/5

Pricing: Zoom does offer a basic free plan but users cannot host webinars with it. Paid plans for Zoom Video Webinars start at $1,200/year.

Used by more than 300 million meeting participants every day, Zoom has cemented itself as one of the best webinar platforms and video conferencing tools on the market, so much so that the word ‘Zoom’ is being used as a verb.

Previously used only in business environments, Zoom quickly became the most common method of communication for people at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to rise in popularity. For many people, Zoom’s major attraction is its ease of use.

Begum Kaya, founder and SEO consultant at BK Solutions says, “I think most of the tools are essentially the same but I find Zoom rather easy to configure and utilize. It is easier to be on a platform that participants have previous experience with.”

Zoom was designed for a wide range of purposes: virtual meetings, video conferences, hosting webinars, teaching, conducting online training, teaching online courses and video demos. As per its webinar functionality, Zoom can cater to up to 100 interactive participants and 10,000 view-only attendees. Users can use a URL link generated by Zoom to invite participants to join the webinar. This URL can be copied and posted to instant messengers and social media platforms. Users can also invite participants through email.

Eletta Leung, Senior Communications Manager at KaiOS Technologies, says, “Zoom is my preferred tool to host webinars as it’s easy-to-adopt, and you don’t need to have extensive IT knowledge to do it… There’re a lot of cool features in Zoom. I like that the host is able to control everyone’s cameras and audio in order to let the meeting run smoothly. I also like the emoji and chat box features that enable the audience to interact without disturbing the whole presentation.”

Zoom’s video conferencing ability enhances webinars by providing a dual screen support system where webinar attendees can view both the panelists screen and presentation screen. There is also a dynamic screen sharing system through which users can share their whole computer screen with their audience, a whiteboard with diagrams and illustrations, or an active window in their internet browser. There is an HD video and HD voice with a voice detection feature.

During a live webinar, the attendees can send messages through chat to all the panelists and attendees, but they cannot message the host privately. To get the host’s attention, they have to use the ‘Raise Hand’ feature.

As per the negatives of Zoom, Leung continues, “What I don’t like about Zoom is that we can’t do much with the invitation design. It’s pretty standard but we’re looking to create compelling invitations that entice the recipients to discover more and get them to RSVP right away. One add-on feature I’m looking for is live transcription. Webinars are often conducted with audiences from all over the world, and, at times, we need to prepare translated documents with subtitles or have the closed captioning in cloud recordings. What would serve us the best is to have a live transcript directly from Zoom so they can easily follow along during the presentation.”

Aside from these negatives, Zoom offers quality audio, video and screen sharing abilities that help improve collaboration among employees, teams and webinar/meeting participants as they are able to start or join a meeting with just a few clicks. The video webinar functionality facilitates wireless content sharing and the broadcast of organizational, corporate or educational discussions.

Key features of Zoom

Video webinars
Zoom meetings and rooms
Local and cloud recording
Group collaboration
Video conferencing
Integrated scheduling
Browser plugins
Chat functions
Premium audio
Mobile app

Pros of Zoom

Zoom makes it very easy to set up webinars.
Zoom has lots of amazing features for meetings and work.
If you’ve used Zoom to host meetings before, then you’ll experience a really small learning curve.
With Zoom, users can change their background to any image they like. They can also blur their background if they don’t want a virtual background.
Zoom has a noise cancellation functionality that suppresses both faint and loud sounds to keep you focused on your meeting or webinar.
On higher plans, users can use the admin portal to track participants and meetings, receive insights and manage all the company’s users on one Zoom account.
Meeting hosts can create waiting rooms and smaller breakout rooms.
Depending on the pricing plan chosen, users can host up to 1,000 participants.
Zoom offers integrations with browsers, marketing automation tools and content sharing services. Examples include Dropbox, Marketo, Zapier and Skype.

Cons of Zoom

There have been many security problems since the beginning of the pandemic.
There is a 40-minute time limit for meetings on free accounts.
The free plan does not have asynchronous interviewing.
Although users can record Zoom calls, there isn’t a built-in marketing-focused webinar replay feature.
Zoom does not offer any kind of evergreen webinar or marketing automation features. If you want to create an evergreen webinar, Zoom is likely not the best free webinar platform for you.
In Zoom, there are no offers or call-to-actions. Although there is a polling feature, users cannot time the polls.
Zoom is not very good for hosting marketing webinars as users can’t add a product image/video, can’t customize the layout of the registration page, can’t embed the registration form to their landing pages, or track the registration conversions.

4. Zoho Meeting

Image source: Zoho Meeting

Ideal for: Companies with multiple teams

Overall G2 Score: 4.5/5

Pricing: Zoho Meeting offers a 14-day free trial. For webinars, paid plans start at $15.84/month for up to 25 attendees.

Zoho Meeting is a cloud-based video conferencing solution that helps users connect and communicate with customers/attendees over a secure internet network. Users can host virtual conferences from any location with real-time video, audio, and screen sharing capabilities. Users can also host webinars where they can broadcast their screens, answer questions and launch polls in real-time.

Setting up a webinar with Zoho Meeting is very fast as users don’t have to download any app or software to use it. Although meetings must be started through a browser, attendees can call in with a phone, or Android and iOS apps, which is great if they don’t have a stable internet connection.

It’s hard to mimic face-to-face conversations but Zoho Meeting’s video conferencing feature is really good at helping people build a good rapport with each other. With the free plan, the host and two other people can be on the screen at the same time. When a user upgrades to a paid plan, the screen can simultaneously display the video feeds of up to 10 organizers and co-organizers.

Users can share their entire screens, a select browser tab or a window with their audience while making a presentation. They can also grant remote access to one or more of the attendees to enable them see your screen and also collaborate with you in real-time.

Unlike Zoom, Zoho Meeting has no cut-off times. Zoom cuts off video conferences after 40 minutes but Zoho Meeting doesn’t. With Zoho Meeting, hosts can conduct their webinars or meetings for as long as they want, even on the free plan.

On the free plan, users can customize their registration forms and email invitations with their brand name and logo. Once they upgrade to a paid plan, they can customize even further. Very easily, users can create custom domains so that attendees can get to the client portal for their subdomain. This helps keep the brand intact for all future interactions.

Meeting invitations and sessions can be scheduled directly to Google Calendar once participants have received an email invitation. Calls can be automatically recorded and, after a meeting has ended, detailed analytics would be generated.

Features of Zoho Meeting

Embed meeting
Desktop sharing
VoIP support
Webinar hosting
Webinar recording
Desktop plugin
Audio conferencing
Switch presenter
Detailed reports
Corporate branding
Cross platform support
Firewall support and security

Pros of Zoho Meeting

Users don’t need much technical knowledge to operate Zoho Meeting.
Users can organize and host engaging webinars with features like Q&A sessions, polls, raise hand, broadcast messages, etc.
Through Easy Online Meetings, users can conduct sales pitches and produce demos anywhere at any time.
There is no need to download or install any app when joining webinars or meetings.
Users can quickly access meetings through their desktops without launching a browser.
Users can customize Zoho Meeting according to their brand’s logo and color scheme.
Users can embed Zoho Meeting into their websites and use it as a channel to reach a wider audience.
Zoho Meeting supports popular browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. and software like Windows, Mac and Linux OS.
Moderators can customize webinar registration forms to qualify attendees for sessions.
There are many knowledge base articles and community forums that users can take advantage of should they run into problems.

Cons of Zoho Meeting

Although Zoho Meeting is cheaper than most free webinar platforms (free-starting), it does not have very advanced features for a webinar presentation. For instance, it doesn’t offer private chat, HD audio and on-demand webcasting.
Zoho Meeting’s highest-tier plan allows for a maximum of 250 attendees. Therefore, users cannot host webinars for a whole lot of people.
Although phone support is available for other Zoho software, Zoho Meeting does not have a phone number users can reach when they encounter problems.

5. GoToWebinar

Image source: GoToWebinar

Ideal for: Institutions and individual companies

Overall G2 Score: 4.2/5

Pricing: GoToWebinar offers a 7-day free trial. Paid plans start at $44.25/month, billed annually.

An imprint of GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar is a renowned webinar platform that helps institutions and companies expand their reach, conduct interviews, create and deliver live video conferencing with their customers, employees, investors, shareholders, etc. This free webinar software has a simple user interface that has helped individuals and companies generate more valuable marketing opportunities at lower cost.

GoToWebinar has a simple control panel that makes it easy to plan virtual events. In just a few clicks, users can set up their live streams or live events. There is also an intelligent functionality that helps users create their customer webinar backgrounds that features their company’s logo, images and brand colors.

With GoToWebinar, users don’t need to export their webinar and use an external video editing tool to remove unwanted parts. GoToWebinar offers a video editor that lets users remove unwanted parts at any point in their webinar recording.

GoToWebinar also has a feature that lets users download and publish transcripts for all their recorded webinars. This helps improve accessibility, increase recognition through content indexing, meet compliance requirements and create a better user experience.

Users can also embed the code for virtual events in their video library to organize webinars directly on their blogs, websites, support site, resource center, etc. This means that their audience can view the webinars at any time and the users don’t need any third-party apps to host and playback their recorded webinars.

The GoToWebinar mobile app has a smart email invitation functionality that automatically sends alerts to participants about upcoming events and provides customers with promotional material and useful information via email.

The main attraction of GoToWebinar is the GoToStage feature built into the mobile app. This revolutionary tool lets users introduce their webinars to the millions of people who demand webinars based on GoToStage recommendations. When users create attractive channel pages, add bookmarks and make webinars that are in demand, they increase their chances of being visible.

Key features of GoToWebinar

Contact management
Access controls/permissions
Notifications/alerts
Customizable branding
Live chat
Collaboration tools
Reporting & statistics
Webinar hosting
Web conferencing
Online & local recording
Mobile access
Third-party app integrations
GDPR compliance

Pros of GoToWebinar

With GoToWebinar, users can easily and quickly manage virtual events.
There are polls, videos, GoToStage sharing and more to help boost visibility and engagement
GoToWebinar offers data on webinar attendees and performance.
GoToWebinar offers integration with CRM and marketing automation tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier.
GoToWebinar offers hassle-free meetings for internal communicators.
GoToWebinar offers automatic email invitations, confirmations and reminders.
Users can create custom registration pages that they can easily monitor and report on.
GoToWebinar is compatible with both PCs and Macs, which makes it easy for attendees to attend a webinar without worrying about system requirements.
Users can use unique registration links in their promotions to monitor their campaign performance.

Cons of GoToWebinar

GoToWebinar can be really expensive for some users.
There are no breakout rooms available.
To collect attendee payments via GoToWebinar, users have to purchase an external software.
Payment transactions are done in US dollars only.

6. Webex by Cisco

Image source: Webex by Cisco

Ideal for: Mid-sized to large businesses and enterprises with teams and clients

Overall G2 Score: 4.2/5

Pricing: Webex offers a free plan for up to 100 participants. They do not have pricing tiers. Instead, the cost for individual hosts is tailored to their purpose of purchase.

Founded in 1995 and acquired by Cisco in 2007, Webex is a video conferencing software that helps marketers organize online meetings, on-demand webinars, live videos, call conferencing, team collaboration, etc. It is a full-featured enterprise webinar solution and marketing tool that offers room devices, conferencing hardware, desk devices and other solutions to help teams work smoothly together.

Although it is more expensive than most other webinar tools, it has a very simple and easy-to-use interface with strong integration and security features and a solid user experience. Users get an HD video display where they can see up to 25 webinar attendees at once. They can chat within a call/meeting and whiteboard to collaborate on notes. There are also breakout rooms for team-building exercises or classes.

The control and screen sharing functionality does not interfere with video quality and it’s really easy to switch between separate windows on the desktop. Users can host up to 3,000 registrants and live streaming is available for up to 40,000 users. The connection between audio and video is impeccable and allows for a better user experience while hosting webinars.

Webex can integrate with a number of Google and Microsoft tools like Teams, Workspace and Sharepoint to sync a user’s meetings with their calendar of choice. This makes it easy to schedule webinars/meetings, check attendees’ availability and share external invitations.

Webex does not depend on platforms; users can join webinars from any device. They don’t need to install the desktop app to join. If a user has bad internet connection or is using a computer without a mic, they can dial in. The VoIP feature allows them to even switch between different audio devices.

Key features of Webex

Video conferencing
Webinar hosting
Webinar recording
In-app voice listening
Private chat
Real-time chat
Screen sharing
Electronic hand raising
Presentation tools
Two-way audio & video
On-demand webcasting
Record & playback ability
Presentation streaming
HD video display
VoIP
Third-party app integrations

Pros of Webex

Webex’s interface is easy to use and navigate.
The free plan has an extensive range of features.
Webex is an excellent choice for people who want to host a small number of attendees.
The video panels onscreen can be resized or moved to the users’ liking.
With Webex, users can blur their existing backgrounds or create customizable virtual backgrounds.
There are breakout rooms so that users can break up into smaller groups in a webinar.
With Webex, users can use an allocated phone number to receive and make business calls on their device of choice.
Webex offers integration with popular software like Salesforce, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and GitHub.
Webex’s data security is stellar.

Cons of Webex

Webex’s paid plans can be really expensive for users.
The free plan is limited to only 10GB of cloud storage.
In Webex, end-to-end encryption is not the default.
With Webex, people cannot host webinars to large groups (thousands) of people.
If a user wants to host multiple meetings at once, they have to purchase multiple host plans.
The ‘Call Me’ feature is available as an add-on only; users cannot call people to join a webinar or meeting by default.

7. EverWebinar

Image source: EverWebinar

Ideal for: Online creators, e-commerce stores and companies that have offers or products that convert well

Overall G2 Score: 4.1/5

Pricing: EverWebinar offers a 14-day trial for just $1. Pricing tiers start at $499/year. Users can also pay in installments ($199 three times a year)

The sister of the free webinar platform, WebinarJam, EverWebinar is a software that lets users create pre-recorded webinars that look and feel like live webinars. With EverWebinar, users can create automated webinars that customers can still participate in as though it were a live webinar.

Used by big names like Google, Tesla Motors and Apple, EverWebinar handles two important aspects of marketing: event-based marketing and marketing automation. If you’re an SMB, EverWebinar can help you increase your sales by taking an existing webinar and replaying them to customers.

With EverWebinar, users can schedule their automated webinars with the available options like:

Just-in-time option—where a registrant can see that a webinar is about to start in a few moments.
Allow late attendance—where registrants can join a webinar that has already started.
Instantly watch replay—where attendees can watch the replay of a webinar they weren’t able to attend.

EverWebinar also has a library of pre-made landing pages. Users can choose a professional template and customize without needing to have any coding or designing skills. They can change the layouts, colors, text, etc. If a user is having problems choosing a landing page template for their webinar, EverWebinar’s system will rotate two designs and, with real-time tracking, will help them secede which one would bring more webinar registrations.

EverWebinar’s registration pages are very similar to the ones in WebinarJam. The only difference is that, as opposed to WebinarJam, EverWebinar’s registration pages are adapted only for automated webinars. Users can customize these registration pages by choosing different color schemes and layouts. They can add a featured image, product video, the host and presenters, and the selling points of the webinar. Hosts can also customize the color themes of the countdown page and the webinar room, which is great.

However, users cannot add custom questions on the registration form. They can only have spaces for attendees to fill in their first name, last name, email address and phone number. Users can only add custom questions on the post-registration thank-you page. They can ask their registrants what their interests are and what they expect from the webinar.

EverWebinar also has an automated email and SMS feature that enables users to send engaging emails and text messages to their contact list. They can also segment their audience options for emails and send emails to their attendees based on their attendance behavior (those who attended, those who registered but didn’t attend, those who attended but didn’t buy a product, those who attended but left before the webinar ended, etc.). This helps hosts cater to registrants who are in different points of their purchase decision cycle.

Features of EverWebinar

Pre-made landing pages
Live chat simulator
Flexible scheduling
Visual page builder
Email and SMS notifications
Automation triggers
Hybrid webinars
Polls and surveys
Clickable offers
Countdown timer
Built-in autoresponders
Evergreen webinar
Automated webinars

Pros of EverWebinar

EverWebinar makes the automation of webinars a very easy thing to do.
With EverWebinar, users can integrate their automated webinars with third-party tools, like their email service provider.
EverWebinar offers live chat moderation for hybrid webinars.
EverWebinar provides HD quality so attendees would not experience choppy frames or pixelated streaming.
Users can use a countdown timer for their offer to create a sense of urgency and scarcity.
There is a built-in registration page A/B testing.
Users can gain access to data with EverWebinar’s advanced tracking and analytics.

Cons of EverWebinar

Just like WebinarJam, EverWebinar does not have monthly pricing. They charge annually.
Users cannot host live webinars with EverWebinar. They can only do that with WebinarJam.
Although the visual builder is a great feature, it has limited design options.
If an attendee leaves a webinar before it ends, EverWebinar’s reporting cannot identify the exact time the attendee left.

8. Adobe Connect

Image source: Adobe Connect

Ideal for: Organizations of all sizes

Overall G2 Score: 4.0/5

Pricing: Adobe Connect offers a 30-day free trial. Pricing for webinars start at $130/month for up to 1,500 participants.

Adobe Connect is a free webinar platform and web conferencing tool that allows business owners and marketers control their presentations fully. Adobe Connect has a Prepare Mode feature that enables users to control all facets of their webinar/meeting before launch. Thus, they can oversee the tiny details and ensure that each session is successful.

Adobe Connect also features great webinar tools like polls, surveys, live chats and whiteboards. All of these make it very easy for team members to collaborate with each other. There is also an in-built messaging app and a hand raise feature to help keep the session organized and interactive. Hosts can manage what the attendees can see on their dashboards.

Hosts can customize how attendees access the meetings. They can leave the meeting open (participants would not need any codes to enter the webinar) or request that participants register and create passwords. This helps ensure security and usage flexibility for each participant. With Adobe Connect, hosts can also manage user permissions and review past webinars using screen recording and analytics.

The private and public chat pods help keep attendees involved in the webinar, and hosts can allow participants to write on the whiteboard. There are also buttons that attendees can click if they agree or disagree with the topic at hand. This helps them express their opinions without interrupting the webinar. Hosts can also create breakout rooms for certain attendees to work on a specific problem during a webinar.

One of the best things about Adobe Connect is that they take data security very seriously. They use powerful TLS and AES-256 data encryption to ensure that all the files that hosts share with their employees are safe. Adobe Connect also has a multi-layered approach to security to further protect information against unethical hackers and malware.

Features of Adobe Connect

HD video quality
Webinar hosting
Fully customizable events
Detailed analytics
VoIP and storage
Collaboration tools
Screen sharing
Attendance tracker
Live chats
User permissions
Polls and surveys
Scheduling
Attendance tracker
Third-party integrations

Pros of Adobe Connect

Adobe Connect’s user interface is intuitive and easy to use.
The video quality and editing tools are high-quality.
Adobe Connect integrates seamlessly with third-party apps like Salesforce, Eloqua and other CRMs.
Hosts can create stunning registration pages and automate invitations, reminders and follow-ups.
Adobe Connect is a web-based software, so participants can access each webinar with Android, Windows, iOS, and MacOS devices.
Hosts can streamline each webinar using notes and reminders. In doing so, they are creating a productive environment for every participant.

Cons of Adobe Connect

Adobe Connect’s pricing plans can be expensive.
Sometimes, Adobe Connect can be buggy during use.
Adobe Connect does not offer ‘phone-in’ or ‘call-in’ features. If a user needs these features, they have to pay extra money to one of Adobe Connect’s partner companies.

8. WebinarJam

Image source: WebinarJam

Ideal for: Small to medium-sized businesses

Overall G2 Score: 3.7/5

Pricing: WebinarJam offers a 14-day trial for $1. Paid plans start at $499/year for up to 500 attendees.

WebinarJam is one of the best free webinar platforms in the market today. Businesses use it for live casting, streaming events and broadcasting webinars. With WebinarJam, users can broadcast to up to 5000 people through channels like Facebook Live and YouTube Live. They can also do it on WebinarJam’s site network. WebinarJam gives users the option of presenting alone or inviting up to six co-hosts. Each co-host can individually highlight their live stream event.

WebinarJam offers users landing pages and email templates that they can customize with an in-built visual editor. Users can change colors, sizes and font styles, add images and videos, customize the registration button, etc. to increase signups. Users can also engage their customers by organizing live chats and Q&A sessions.

WebinarJam’s email marketing features are second to none. Users can send email notifications to attendees pre-webinar to remind them of the benefits of the webinar and show them how to sign up. Post-webinar email notifications help leads convert into paying customers if they didn’t during the webinar. Users can also send post-webinar emails to registrants who didn’t show up at the webinar to keep them up to speed on what they missed and how they can purchase the offers.

With WebinarJam, users can segment their attendees based on their behaviors and send custom emails to each category/segment. In all, WebinarJam’s email marketing features help guide customers down a host’s sales funnel.

Features of WebinarJam

HD video display
Customizable webinar funnel pages and email templates
Compatible with popular browsers
Built-in A/B testing
Built-in autoresponders
Webinar traffic analytics
Product offers
Always-on live room
Presentation tools
Email and SMS messaging/notifications
Panic button
Automatic recordings
Live chat
Flexible scheduling
Visual page builder
Polls and surveys
Paid webinars
Attendee spotlight
Handouts
Control center

Pros of WebinarJam

WebinarJam is priced lower than most other webinar service platforms and offers many features.
With WebinarJam, users can test their live rooms and control center options before they go live.
Users can create webinar registration pages right inside WebinarJam because of the in-built landing page options.
Users can display product offers with an option countdown timer to their participants. They can also display the number of sales they’ve made in real-time.
WebinarJam integrates well with popular email service providers like ActiveCampaign, Convertkit, AWeber, Drip and Constant Contact.
Users can send both public and private messages to participants during the webinar.
Every webinar is automatically recorded and users can send the reply to attendees.
Users can pull attendees into the live webinar, show their face, and let them participate.
Unlike before, users don’t need to use Google Hangouts to record a live webinar with WebinarJam.

Cons of WebinarJam

WebinarJam does not have any monthly plans. They only have annual subscription plans.
There are no customer fields on webinar registration forms.
The process of changing camera settings in WebinarJam is not very intuitive. WebinarJam seems to like built-in cameras and users cannot change to an external webcam from within WebinarJam.
Users cannot toggle an image off in WebinarJam if they don’t want to show it.
There are no automated webinar features. Users have to use EverWebinar for that.

Conclusion

There is no free webinar platform that can be the perfect fit for every organization.

All the webinar software on this list each have their strengths and weaknesses, and are better suited for some organizations than others.

If you’re a startup, operating on a new budget or are new to hosting webinars, you might want to get a tool that has a free plan, not just a free trial.

Livestorm and Webex offer free forever plans for these purposes. If you want to get your feet wet, webinar platforms that have moderate- to high-length (14 – 30 days) free trials should do the trick e.g. Zoho Meeting, Demio and Adobe Connect.

If you’re an SME, Demio, Zoom and WebinarJam are great options. Bear in mind, though, that WebinarJam is only good for live webinars. If you need automated webinars, look to its sister, EverWebinar.

If your company is large and has multiple teams, then you want to go for a free webinar platform that will allow you to broadcast to a huge amount of people at once. Webex by Cisco and Zoho Meeting are really good for this. Zoom and Adobe Connect can also work but in my opinion, platforms that are suited for large companies should be your go-to.

Webex and Livestorm are great for enterprises, and Zoom, GoToWebinar and Adobe Connect work well for institutions like schools and hospitals. For bloggers and online creators in general, Zoom’s the way to go.

At the end of the day, your budget, the kind of organization you run, and your business needs should influence your webinar platform of choice.