Webinars are great for engaging remote audiences and driving people to action.
Unfortunately, many popular options come with a pretty hefty price tag šµš·ļøš²
To identify the cheapest webinar platforms I’ve combed through the pricing pages of all the major and many of the minor webinar tools.
That way you can pick a solution that meets your needs but is also affordable.
This post has two components:
- A comparison table you can sort by lowest cost per month or attendee.
- A review of my top webinar picks for marketing, training, & small business.
Speaking about cheap webinar tools: For the longest time, webinars were a freemium-free zone but two free webinar options are now out. We’ll take a look at these, too, and I’ll give you my verdict.
Let’s do this…
The most affordable webinar platforms of 2020
Quick disclosure: I’m affiliated with pretty much all vendors on this list and receive a commission when you sign-up with them š°š„³
|
Webinar Software Vendor |
Best for |
Monthly Cost (paid annually / monthly) |
Max Attendees |
Cost per Attendee |
Free Plan Available? |
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Zoho Webinar |
Training | $15 / $19 | 25 | $0.60 | ā | Free | No integrations. Limited features & customizability. |
| Crowdcast | Small Business | $20 / $29 | 50 | $0.40 | ā | Affordable. Great engagement tools. Streaming included. | Attendees need to create CrowdCast user ID. |
| ClickMeeting | Marketing | $25 / $30 | 25 | $1.00 | ā | Affordable. Tightly integrated with GetResponse. | Only remaining tool based on Flash |
| GoToWebinar | Marketing | $32 / $34 | 100 | $0.32 | ā | Affordable when added on to GoToMeeing. Reliable. | Dated in-session experience. Limited customizability. |
| LiveStorm | Startups | $99 / $109 | 100 | $0.99 | ā | Free. Great user experience. Beautiful landing pages. | High entry price for paid tier. |
| Demio | Startups | $34 / $49 | 50 | $0.68 | ā | Great user experience. Beautiful built-in landing pages. | Removing Demio logo costs extra |
| Zoom Webinar | Training | $46 / $55 | 100 | $0.46 | ā | Very feature-rich. Fantastic breakout rooms. Reliable. | Somewhat confusing admin experience. Password mandatory. |
| BigMarker | Marketing | $79 / $99 | 100 | $0.79 | ā | Geat user experience. Highly customizable LPs & emails. Automated webinars included. | Pricey |
| WebinarJam | Small Business | $42 / ā | 500 | $0.08 | ā | Lowest cost per attendee. Unique set of marketing features for solopreneurs | No monthly subscription. Reliability has been questioned in the past. |
| WebinarNinja | Small Business | $39 / $49 | 100 | $0.39 | ā | Solid set of marketing features for solopreneurs | Mediocre screen sharing quality |
Finding the Best Webinar Software for your Needs
Still wondering which platform is right for you? Let me explain how I determined the “Best for” category above.
Here are the typical webinar uses cases,Ā the software requirements they bring, and my picks for each (& the reasoning behind it):
Webinar Platforms for (Corporate) Marketing š£
If you’re an in-house marketer, this is your category.
What you need is a stable platform that has native integrations with the main marketing automation platforms. You also need a tool that can scale to high attendee capacity if your program takes off.
š Best Value: GoToWebinar š
The cheapest webinar platform in this category, somewhat surprisingly, is GoToWebinar. GoToWebinar recently introduced a bundle where you can add it on to GoToMeeting for $20. GoToMeeting starts at $14, so you end up with $34/month.
That’s a great deal considering you’re getting a tool that is extremely stable and sports a broad range of native integrations with Hubspot, Marketo, Eloqua, Zapier, and many more.
š„ Top Pick: BigMarker š
That said my top pick in this category is BigMarker. Its entry price is more than double that of GoToWebinar but for that price is comes fully loaded while GoToWebinar’s entry tier has many features tripped out. Pre-recorded webinars, phone audio on top of VoIP, and live streaming to Facebook and Youtube already come included with BigMarker’s “Starter” plan.
BigMarker also comes with a more modern interface, stronger engagement features, and better branding flexibility for landing pages and emails. Combine that with native integrations that match GoToWebinar’s and you have a winner.
Webinar Tools for Training / Learning & Development š
If you’re a professional instructor or train people in a sales or customer success role, you have slightly different webinar needs.
Promotion and branding go out the window. Instead, you care about learner engagement and retention.
What you need is a platform with solid engagement tools, breakout rooms to split classes into smaller workgroups, and integration with your corporate LMS.
š Best Value: Zoho WebinarsĀ š
Zoho is your cheapest training option. It doesn’t have any integrations and its landing pages and email invites are spartan but it does have the necessary core features to run live training. But most importantly, it’s free for 10 attendees and even the entry tier is very affordable at just $15/month.
š„ Top Pick: Zoom Webinar š
Zoom Webinar is an altogether different beast. It is very feature-rich and everything is included even on the cheapest plan.
Zoom also has by far the best breakout room implementation of any tool in the market. Splitting learners up into groups and bringing them back together is a breeze and makes it easy to take your in-person classes online.
Lastly, Zoom sports a robust set of native LMS integrations of any tool on this list.
Webinar Software for Small Business & Solopreneurs š·ļø
Are you a business of one? A solopreneur, consultant, coach, or course creator?Ā
Yes? Great. Forget the standard platforms above. What you need is a tool that makes it easy to build and maintain an online sales funnel. Ideally with support for evergreen webinars – pre-recorded webinars that run fully automated.
š Best Value: CrowdCastĀ š
The most affordable tool for small businesses is CrowdCast. It has its roots in live-streaming but can be used as a complete webinar solution. While its integration with Infusionsoft is through Zapier only, it’s hard to beat CrowdCast’s low entry price of $20/m.
š„ Top Pick: WebinarJam š
WebinarJam is the granddaddy in this category but it’s come a long way. Originally a bunch of smart marketing features built around Google Hangouts, WebinarJam pivoted to creating its own platform and has added some unique features.Ā
Apart from integrating with Infusionsoft WebinarJam also comes with a sister product called Kartra, an all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses built by the same team.
Where WebinarJam goes above and beyond is in how it supports sales-heavy webinars that drive to an online purchase. From text message reminders,Ā timed offers, to paid webinars, the tool has you covered if webinars are a direct revenue stream for you.
Best Webinar Platforms for Startups š
As a startup, you want software from a team that thinks like you. Quick on their feet, pivoting quickly, with open APIs and modern design.Ā
š Best Value: DemioĀ š
Demio fits that need pretty well. It’s been built by a young team and the user experience got a lot of attention.
It doesn’t do anything other tools wouldn’t do but it has a cohesive feel to it and at $34/m comes with a pretty affordable price tag.
š„ Top Pick: LiveStormĀ š
LiveStorm is built by a French team and also places a lot of value on the user experience. A lot of thinking clearly went into the design and the onboarding process is really smooth.
LiveStorm is one of only two tools that offer a free version (Zoho being the other one). But while Zojo is a pretty barebones platform, LiveStorm offers all the critical webinar functionality. The only downer: The free version is limited to only 10 attendees and caps the webinar time at 20 minutes. Too short to be very useful.
The other consideration is that the upgrade to the first paid tier is pretty expensive at $99/m.
Webinar Providers for All-Hands & Townhalls ā
If you’re primarily looking for a tool to host virtual all-hands or town hall meetings, you might not be looking for a webinar tool at all.Ā
If you have many employees on the same network, most webinar tools tend to provide a sluggish, laggy experience. That’s because all connections are made separately, overloading the local network.Ā
There are a few dedicated video streaming services optimized for this Enterprise-level use case like BrightCove, DaCast, or Kaltura.
šš„ Best Value & Top Pick in one: Zoom WebinarĀ š
That said, if you are looking for something user friendly that can serve multiple purposes, your best option is probably Zoom.
Zoom has a massive infrastructure, room connectors, and can serve the whole spectrum of collaboration needs.
Still confused? Your choice isn't listed?
There are so many webinar platforms out there, it’s not easy to provide an overview. I’ve tried to pick the cheapest ones that have a solid track record.
If you still have questions, don’t hesitate to post them in the comments below and I’ll let you know my thoughts. For a custom evaluation tailored to your needs, take a look at the webinar consulting services I offer.
Likewise, if the webinar tools you’re evaluating aren’t listed here, just ask in the comments. (Although most likely the webinar provider isn’t listed because it’s a niche player or doesn’t share its pricing publicly – looking at you On24 and Webex).
