Webinars allow you to share your expertise at scale, helping you connect directly with new customers and deeply engage with existing ones. But there‘s more to webinars than just the content—you also need to invite and manage attendees, run the online event, facilitate real-time engagement, and measure success.
That‘s where webinar software comes in. The best webinar platforms help you streamline and automate all the logistics related to running a webinar so you can focus on sharing your knowledge with your audience—whether you‘re leading a demo for potential customers, running a paid workshop, or sharing best practices to generate leads.
I‘ve been researching and testing webinar tools for several years now. To help you manage your webinars more effectively in 2023, I re-tested the top webinar platforms and narrowed it down to the eight best options currently available.
The Best Webinar Software Platforms
Here are my top picks for the best webinar software and platforms in 2023:
1. Demio – Best for a Simple, Intuitive Webinar Experience
Demio is my top choice for marketers who want a straightforward webinar platform that‘s intuitive to use. It only takes a couple of minutes to create a live or automated webinar in Demio. The interface is clean and uncluttered, with audience engagement features like polls, Q&As, and downloadable resources easily accessible in the presenter toolbar.
While Demio doesn‘t have quite as many advanced customization options as some competitors, it strikes the right balance between simplicity and usefulness for most small business marketing teams. It also integrates nicely with marketing automation and CRM platforms.
2. BigMarker – Best for Automating Webinar Workflows
BigMarker stands out for its workflow automation capabilities, which help reduce the manual effort of managing registrants, following up, tracking attendance, and more. For instance, you can set up automated email reminders to go out to registrants at customized intervals. Or trigger actions when attendees meet certain engagement thresholds during the webinar.
They also offer exceptionally strong video quality and reliability even at high attendee volumes. BigMarker is a nice scalable option suitable for large corporate webinars in the 5,000+ range.
3. Zoom Meetings – Most Familiar and Reliable
It‘s hard to beat Zoom in terms of familiarity and reliability. The video conferencing leader expanded into webinars years ago and continually invests in improving that product line. Key advantages include excellent uptime, quality streaming even at high volumes, and a user interface attendees already know.
Zoom Meetings webinars cover the basics very well, like registration, reminders, attendee tracking, and post-webinar follow ups. You also get access to Zoom‘s wide array of integrations with marketing and sales tools through Zapier and API connections. For people already using Zoom for meetings, it‘s a natural fit to produce webinars on the same platform.
4. Livestorm – Great for Managing Multiple Webinars
Livestorm makes it simple to produce webinars at scale. The interface allows you to schedule unlimited webinars and track analytics across all your events in one place. I especially like Livestorm for the email and landing page templates that provide a jumping off point when promoting your webinar.
This platform also stands out for its strong focus on engagement. You have access to FEATURES like real-time Q&A, polls, emoji reactions, detailed attendee profiles, and 1:1 video chat. Livestorm also offers a capable free plan, which is rare among feature-rich webinar software.
5. GoToWebinar – A Long-Standing Favorite
GoToWebinar has been a favorite webinar solution for many years due to its ease of use and reliable performance. The platform makes it simple to schedule a webinar series, customize registration flows, and track detailed analytics on attendance and engagement.
While GoToWebinar doesn’t have quite as many bells and whistles as some competitors, it nails the basics and has a clean, intuitive interface. The Webinar Benchmarker tool also stands out—it assembles attendee feedback so you can improve future events. For mid-size businesses planning regular webinars, GoToWebinar remains a very solid choice.
6. Crowdcast – Great for Simultaneous Streaming
Crowdcast offers a key feature many others lack: the ability to stream your webinar live to YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn at the same time. If you have invested in building a following on other platforms, Crowdcast allows you to leverage that existing audience.
This platform also provides exceptional analytics to assess engagement and attendee composition across all streaming destinations. Useful touched like green screen backgrounds and integrated Slido polling round out a compelling product. Crowdcast starts a little pricier than some competitors but adds capabilities that justify the cost.
7. eWebinar – Best for Automated Replay Webinars
eWebinar specializes in making it easy to produce automated replay webinars that provide attendees with a simulated live experience. You simply record a webinar video once, and eWebinar will play it back on schedule complete with pause points, inject simulated attendee chat, and more.
This creates a more engaging on-demand viewing session compared to a straight webinar video. eWebinar also handles all the replay webinar promotion by automatically sending follow-up emails and reminders to get people to show up to upcoming session replays. If you want to create an evergreen, automated webinar asset, eWebinar is purpose-built for it.
8. Vimeo – Best for Professionally Produced Webinars
Vimeo has long been the choice of video creators who care deeply about quality. In recent years, they‘ve layered on capabilities to turn high-end videos into interactive webinar-style events. Key features include polls, Q&A, countdown timers, clickable CTA overlays, and detailed viewer analytics.
While Vimeo doesn‘t provide the full suite of live webinar features, it shines when it comes to post-production editing. You can cleanly stitch together high-quality video feeds, slides, and other multimedia elements into a professional webinar asset ready to be delivered on-demand or as a live stream. For marketers already using Vimeo to host videos, their webinar features unlock new possibilities.
Key Features to Look For in Webinar Software
Now that you have a sense of the top webinar platforms available, here is a more detailed overview of the crucial features and capabilities modern webinar software should provide:
Easy Event Creation and Scheduling
First and foremost, your webinar software should make it simple and fast to put together a webinar. At a minimum, you should be able to pick a title and date/time for the webinar with just a few clicks. Even better are platforms like Demio and Livestorm provide polished templates to speed up webinar promotion.
Registration and Reminder Automation
Manually managing registrations and reminders is tedious busywork. The best webinar platforms automate this workflow by instantly capturing registrations, sending confirmation emails, and scheduling reminder emails at the intervals you specify. Integration with email services like Mailchimp allow further customization of the messaging prospects receive.
Reliable, High-Quality Video Streaming
A disappointing viewing experienced torpedoed many attendees’ first impressions of your webinar. Choose a platform with reliable uptime backed by a track record of solid streaming quality even at high volumes. Testing your chosen software’s performance under realistic audience size expectations is also wise.
Engagement Features to Keep Viewers Interested
Polls, Q&As, surveys, emojis, chat, and small group breakouts are table stakes features today to keep your attendees engaged rather than passively viewing. Make sure to use these interactive elements strategically at key points versus overdoing it.
Custom Branding and White Labeling
Apply your brand’s colors, fonts, and assets consistently across your webinar pages to aid familiarity and reinforce expertise. For agencies and consultants planning webinars for clients, choose a platform with strong white label support to showcase partner brands prominently.
Detailed Analytics on Attendance and Engagement
Understanding attendee behavior is key to improving your webinar strategy over time. Look for a platform providing granular analytics on views, drop-offs, engagement actions taken, attendee types, and more. Integrations with Google Analytics and marketing automation tools open up even more reporting possibilities.
Payments Integration
If delivering paid webinars, choose a software option that tightly integrates payment processing from the initial promotion to final registration confirmation. The ability to create coupon codes and tiered pricing options also comes in handy when monetizing webinars.
Evergreen Webinars
Innovative platforms are making it easier to repurpose a webinar recording into an automated, evergreen asset. Look for support features like simulated attendee chat injection, intelligent pause points, scheduled replay publishing, and automated follow up emails to past attendees.
Zapier and API Integrations
While each platform offers its own suite of native features, integrating with other apps via Zapier and API connections expands possibilities exponentially. Look for pre-made integrations that connect your webinar software with everything from your CRM to email marketing tools. If those don’t meet your needs, the ability to build custom integrations is key.
Tips for Choosing the Best Webinar Software
With so many software options available now, settling on the right platform can feel overwhelming. Here is a quick checklist of steps to guide your decision-making process:
Know your goals. What are hoping to achieve via webinars? Generate leads? Deliver training? Upsell customers? Sell online courses? Understanding your goals and KPIs clarity guides all downstream software choice considerations.
Document must-have versus nice-to-have features. Using the key capabilities highlighted above as a starting point, make two lists separating what’s critical for your goals vs. what would be convenient but not essential. Must-haves determine which platforms make the first cut.
Compare pricing models. Webinar software pricing varies widely, from limited free tiers all the way up to custom enterprise plans. Compare how each option charges – per attendee, event, features, etc – and model out your projected yearly costs.
Scrutinize free trial offers. Most webinar platforms offer free trials, but look closely at the limitations or cutoff volumes. Test under realistic conditions to avoid surprise hiccups down the road.
Check integrations and customization options. If leveraging other software like CRMs in your webinar workflow, verify seamless integrations are offered out of the box. Also validate to what extent the platform can be customized to match your brand identity.
Following this streamlined evaluation process will help cut through the complexity of the category and zone in on the webinar software choice delivering the right mix of essential features, pricing, and customization capabilities to match your specific marketing goals.
Webinar Software Integrations Expand Possibilities
While the platforms outlined all aim to provide an end-to-end webinar solution, even the most robust products can’t match the specialized capabilities of all the other apps marketers rely on nowadays.
That’s where pre-built integrations come into play.
Here are some examples of valuable workflows that can be created by connecting your webinar software to other tools:
- Capture webinar registrations automatically in your CRM or email marketing platform like Mailchimp
- Trigger customized sales follow up sequences to webinar attendees by connecting workflows across your webinar, CRM, and marketing automation tools
- Append rich webinar attendance and engagement behavior data to each contact record in your CRM
- Notify your team in Slack automatically when an attendee asks a question during a live webinar
- Forward questions asked during the webinar to subject matter experts on your team via email or text to respond live with the best answer during the session
- Analyze webinar registration and attendance trends across all of your events by piping data to tools like Google Data Studio or Tableau
Platforms like Zapier make it easy to build these types of multi-app workflows without complicated coding. Pre-made integration “Zaps” get you up and running quickly, allowing your webinar software to share data and trigger actions across the other essential apps your marketing team relies on daily.
Investing a little time into exploring the integrations available for your chosen webinar platform multiplies what you’re able to achieve dramatically compared to only relying on the software’s native capabilities in isolation.
The Importance of Webinar Strategy
While solid webinar software removes technological hurdles, creating compelling webinars that engage attendees and meet business goals still requires upfront strategy and continual optimization.
Here is a quick checklist of key elements every effective webinar game plan should include:
Build hype and urgency. Promote across multiple channels and partnerships weeks beforehand. Send a series of emails focused on irresistible value proposition of attending live.
Nail the basics. Write an catchy title and crystal clear description. Start on time, end on time. Test technology thoroughly. Have a backup plan for issues. Practice your delivery.
Structure content strategically. Don’t just present linearly. Build suspense, pose questions, surface pain points the product solves. Reveal key moments and visuals like a magician to hold attention.
Keep it conversational. Involve the audience constantly with questions, polls, raises hands, chats, Q&A. Make it feel like an intimate one-on-one exchange.
Guide the journey. Shepherd viewers seamlessly through key takeaways you want them most to remember. Shape the arc strategically so they arrive at desired conclusions.
Motivate action. Attendees need clear next steps after closing remarks, like links to featured resources, limited-time offers, or application forms. Automated email follow up sequences reinforce calls-to-action.
Continual optimization. Analyze engagement data, feedback, product qualification rate. Talk to attendees about experience. Relentlessly pilot new ideas to incrementally improve.
There are always ways to sharpen webinar strategy. But avoiding common novice mistakes, replicating tactics used by talented presenters, and continually testing new concepts will all help hone your skills and engagement rates over time.
Key Takeaways and Recommendations
Hosting impactful webinars that scale requires an integrated strategy encompassing coordinated software, systematized promotion, refined presentation abilities, and continual optimization fueled by data.
Key highlights to remember when ramping up your own webinar initiatives:
- Choose webinar software capable of excelling across ease of use, engagement features, streaming reliability, branding, and analytics.
- Look for platforms emphasizing workflow automation, participation tools, and post-webinar integration to maximize value.
- Invest time upfront plotting the attendee journey holistically from first touchpoint through presenter and beyond.
- Immerse yourself in best practices from talented presenters but also continually test new engagement ideas.
- Treat every webinar as a learning experience – collect attendee feedback, analyze behavior data, iterate aggressively.
Armed with a structured blueprint encompassing coordinated software and promotion plus an experimental mindset to test new ideas, your marketing team can scale webinars as a cornerstone tactic to attract, engage, and convert high-value audiences.
