With the right webinar platform, you can easily plan short and sweet interactive webinars or big, delightful events.
But which platform should you choose?
That all depends.
Is quick setup your main priority? Is cost the deciding factor? Or, do you care about innovating the attendee experience above all else?
Whatever your selection criteria, we can help. In our rundown of the best webinar software, we offer a final verdict for each to help you make your decision. And, in our section on the best free webinar platforms, we help you navigate which free options and trials best suit your needs.
What’s in this guide:
- What is a webinar platform?
- Reasons to use a webinar platform in 2023
- 9 best webinar platforms for 2023
- What are the best free webinar platforms in 2023?
- Webinar platforms price comparison
- Host an unmissable webinar with Airmeet for free
- FAQs on webinar software
What is a webinar platform?
A webinar platform is a type of software that allows individuals or organizations to host webinars (online seminars or presentations). A webinar platform typically provides tools for scheduling, hosting, and recording webinars. Many platforms also offer promotion, registration, reminder, and follow-up capabilities, as well as features for audience engagement like chat, Q&A, and polling.
Webinar platforms can be used for a variety of purposes, such as webinar marketing, internal company meetings, sales presentations, training sessions, educational lectures, and more.
What to look for in a webinar platform in 2023
Every business will have different requirements for their webinar tools. But here’s how to choose a webinar platform in 2023.
Consider these core elements, and your needs for each to help you pick the best platform to host a webinar:
- Audience engagement – Nearly all webinar platforms offer some form of audience engagement. This might include live chat, Q&A, polling, emoji reactions, hand-raising, and breakout rooms. Some webinar tools also offer advanced opportunities for engagement like virtual networking and bringing attendees on stage. So, consider what sort of experience you want to provide.
- Analytics and intent – You’ll want to make sure that the webinar platform you choose allows you to convert more attendees into customers. Look for analytics not only on the webinar content but the attendees themselves. Event intent data can help you identify high-intent buyers.
- Branding – Your platform should make it easy to customize the registration forms, emails, and webinar recording rooms. Some companies might prefer basic branding that can be done in minutes, while others will expect full-scale white labeling.
- Tech stack alignment – Small businesses might prefer a single platform that offers landing pages, email communication, recording, replay sharing, and other webinar production needs in one place (to reduce the need for integrating it with their other systems). Large brands, on the other hand, might want to integrate their webinar platform with their sales and marketing tools (to have a single source of truth for each customer) and only use the webinar software for the live event, as opposed to promotion and follow-up.
9 best webinar platforms for 2023
We’ve rounded up the best webinar software to help you decide which webinar platform is right for you. Check out the pros and cons and pricing details.
1. Airmeet
Passive, templated experiences are usually pointless. In 2023, it’s all about attendee delight, engagement, and personalized experiences.
And that’s what Airmeet is here for — to empower you to host one-of-a-kind experiences tailored to your prospects, that can’t resist but attend again, and again.
If interactivity, engagement, and accelerating pipeline and revenue is what you’re after, then Airmeet is the best webinar software for you. Because when you delight and engage your buyers, amazing things happen for your business.
Airmeet has 4.6 stars on G2.
Pros:
- Ability to capture up to 64 intent signals to score leads, personalize experiences, and accelerate deals.
- Life-like networking spaces like virtual lounges, breakout rooms, Fluid Spaces to enhance attendee experience.
- More opportunities for sales reps and advocates to connect with prospects during the live webinar
- Ability to invite attendees to the virtual stage
- Polls, quizzes, Q&A, gamification and other gamification elements
- Extensive branding customization and white labeling
- Integrations with sales and marketing tools
- Best webinar analytics available, with 64 intent signals to help sales and marketing teams convert more attendees into customers
- One free webinar with up to 500 attendees
Cons:
- Can be expensive for small business owners
- Free plan accomodates only 500 attendees for a free webinar for one time, and up to 50 attendees afterwards
Pricing:
The Starter plan costs $500 per month and gives you access to most features and 200 attendees per event. Or opt for the Professional plan at $1,500 per month and unlock multitrack events, premium branding, and 500 attendees prevent. On both plans, higher attendee maximums are available for purchase. You can sign up to host one webinar for free before choosing your plan.
Verdict:
Airmeet is the best platform for hosting modern webinars—meaning webinars that are totally interactive and put the attendee first while giving you all of the intent data and integrations you need to drive more sales.
If you want attendees to be able to network with each other and interact with speakers, Airmeet is your best choice.
2. Livestorm
Livestorm is a simple and one of the top webinar platforms for hosting live webinars and recording podcast interviews. If a low-learning curve, and fast setup is your top priority, this platform is worth a deeper look.
Livestorm has 4.4 stars on G2.
Pros:
- Works for both live and pre-recorded webinars
- Works for automated webinars
- Customization for registration pages, event rooms, and more
- Easy to use and set up
- Live Q&A with question uploading
- CRM integrations
- Pre-event and post-event email scheduler
Cons:
- Branding customization is limited to templates, which locks you into certain styles for pages and events
- Pro plan can get expensive because of contact-based pricing
- Cost is high for relatively simple webinar features
- Doesn’t offer ways to engage attendees before and after events
Pricing:
On the free plan, you can have up to 30 live attendees for up to 20 minutes per session. Or, choose the Pro Plan for $410 per month for up to 500 contacts and 4 hours per session.
Verdict:
Livestorm has a plethora of positive reviews and is generally seen as a reliable solution. If you’re just looking for basic features like event Q&A and CRM Integrations this could be a good option for you.
3. On24
With On24, you can produce virtual and hybrid conferences in addition to simple webinars. The enterprise-grade platform can be used by marketing, customer success, HR, and other teams.
On24 has 4.3 stars on G2.
Pros:
- Host multi-session events and conferences as well as basic webinars
- Advanced webinar and attendee analytics
- Extensive integrations with sales and marketing tools
- Create ad hoc group discussions and round tables
- Great customer support and hands-on
Cons:
- Outdated UX for platform users and attendees
- Limitations when it comes to customizing the digital experience
- Lots of add-on costs for engagement features
- A relatively high price for a platform that overall isn’t modern
Pricing:
On24 only offers custom enterprise pricing based on the number of attendees and add-on features you need.
Verdict:
With its old-school UX, On24 might be not suited for software buyers that are accustomed to extreme ease-of-use and enjoy setting up things themselves. But the robust feature set and hands-on support make this a great option for enterprise event planners that would rather work directly with the customer success team than manage everything themselves.
4. BigMarker
BigMarker is an enterprise solution that can be used for small webinars as well as large-scale events (including paid).
BigMarker has 4.7 stars on G2.
Pros:
- Supports live, on demand, and automated webinars as well as summits
- Can purchase an event license for one-time use
- Offers basic engagement features like chat, polls, Q&A, and handouts
- Allows you to accept payments for paid events
Cons:
- Plans are too costly for small businesses or those who only need a small number of attendees
- You have to interact with sales to purchase the product
- Lags behind other options on this list in terms of innovation, UX, and attendee interactivity
Pricing:
BigMarker doesn’t publish their pricing information publicly, so you’ll need to get in touch for a custom quote.
Verdict:
If you want to produce a large event but don’t have an ongoing need for a webinar platform, a one-time license with BigMarker might work for you.
5. Demio
With Demio, you get everything you need to run simple webinars in one place.
Demio has 4.7 stars on G2.
Pros:
- Offers webinar pages for registration, email notifications, surveys, and other virtual event essentials
- Makes it easy to set up rooms with slides, handouts, videos, and other resources before the event
- Great UX that is easy to learn (which is really helpful if you have a lot of guest speakers)
Cons:
- The registration pages are extremely limited and offer hardly any customization
- The post-event surveys are also very limited in terms of style, format, and segmentation
- Offers little ways for attendees to participate
- To be able to customize rooms, you have to choose the Growth plan
- The per-host pricing can get expensive for event teams
Pricing:
The Starter plan gives you very basic features and up to 50 attendees for $499 per year. For premium integrations and white labeling, choose the premium plan, which costs $4,400 per hose per year for up to 1,000 live attendees.
You can also try Demio for free for one webinar (with under 1 hour run time and 20 attendees).
Verdict:
Demio is super easy to use, making it the one of the best webinar software platforms for event planners low on time. But if you want to go beyond passive webinars, opt for something that lets you engage your attendees before, during, and after events (like virtual round tables or virtual networking between webinar sessions).
6. Zoom Webinars
With Zoom Webinars, you get a bare-bones solution for running webinars to passive audiences.
As a webinar hosting platform, Zoom Webinar plan doesn’t bring much capabilities, but might still be suitable for some use cases.
Here are some pros and cons fo the platform.
Zoom Webinars has 4.4 stars on G2.
Pros
- Relatively low pricing for the number of attendees
- Reliable quality for live streams
- Registration pages, calendar Integrations, and email reminders
- Breakout rooms, Q&A, and chat
Cons
- Attendees have to download Zoom in order for it to work
- The world has “Zoom fatigue,” and the platform doesn’t inspire people to pay attention
Pricing
You need to have a Zoom account to be able to purchase Zoom webinars as an add-on. The lowest price option is to pay $149.90 per year for Zoom One ( which you can use for conference calls) and then to purchase the Zoom Webinars 500-attendee add-on for $79 per month.
To purchase the 1,000-attendee add-on, you’ll pay $340 per month.
Verdict
Zoom is a well-known webinar hosting solution. While it is affordable, it doesn’t lend itself to a great webinar experience because of the lack of engagement features.
If breakout rooms and event chat are all you’re looking for, then this webinar platform is fine. But if you want to impress attendees with networking capabilities and interactivity they haven’t seen before, then look elsewhere.
7. GoTo Webinar
8. Session
Session promises a fast and simple setup with better UX than Zoom and competitive pricing.
Session has 4.6 stars on G2.
Pros:
- Very simple setup and modern UX
- Webinar room customization including photo backgrounds and colors
- Offers basic engagement features like breakout rooms, chat, emoji reactions, and hand-raising
- Branded microsites for replays of on demand webinars
- Online webinar experience with no need to download a web app or mobile app
Cons:
- Registration page templates are rigid, and very little customization is possible
- Very basic email functionality, with no segmentation
- Breakout rooms aren’t automated the way they are with Zoom, and it can be difficult to explain to participants how to join a breakout room
Pricing:
With their free plan, you can have an unlimited number of sessions a month for up to 50 live attendees. The Pro plan gives you 250 live attendees for $39 per month. While the Pro plus plan scales your room capacity up to a thousand participants for $99 per month.
Verdict:
If price is your number one determining factor for choosing webinar software, then Session is a clear winner. But if you want to engage your audience and provide virtual networking opportunities, you won’t find that capability here.
9. WebEx
If you’re looking for a platform that offers more webinar features for live engagement than Zoom, WebEx is a webinar software alternative worth exploring.
WebEx has 4.3 stars on G2.
Pros:
- Ticketing and payment processing for paid events
- Offers more advanced engagement features beyond live chat and polls, such as participant networking and gamification
- Powerful real-time auto-captioning and real-time translations
- Includes a license to WebEx meet (for calls and team meetings) along with your subscription to WebEx Webinars
Cons:
- You can’t make registration pages with WebEx, and will need to custom code something on your website
- Attendee lists can’t be alphabetized (making it difficult for event organizers that require check-in processes)
- Add-ons can rack up the pricing quickly
- Lack of intent data, segmentation, and advanced audience analytics
Pricing:
For the Webinars plan, you’ll pay $275 per month for up to 1,000 live attendees, or $795 per month for up to 3,000.
Verdict:
WebEx is a good option for getting some more advanced engagement features at a reasonable price. But with poor analytics and intent data, you might struggle to get ROI from your webinars.
What are the best free webinar platforms in 2023?
If you’re looking for a free webinar software or a platform, check out Airmeet’s free plan. You can host one webinar for up to 500 attendees, and get access to all of our Advanced features for increasing participant engagement, including Fluid Spaces, Social Lounges, and more. There’s no time limit, so you can take your time to plan out a great event
Livestorm’s free plan works for up to 20 minutes per session and 30 live attendees. With Demio, you get 14 days to try their webinar software for up to 20 attendees and a 1-hour long session. GoTo Webinar offers a 7-Day free trial with unlimited access to their Pro plan for up to 1,000 attendees. And Session has a free plan for up to 50 live attendees and 90 minutes per session. But keep in mind that none of these platforms offer advanced attendee engagement features.
Sign up for a trial of the platform most likely to meet all of your needs in the future.
To create truly engaging events, try Airmeet. You get virtual networking, name and interest badges, the ability to invite attendees on stage, and so much more.
Webinar platforms price comparison
Price check, please!
Below you’ll find a pricing chart for the best webinar platforms. Check whether there is a free plan or free trial to test out the software with a small number of participants. And review the lowest cost paid plan to get the baseline pricing.
Free plan or free trial? | Lowest-cost paid plan | |
Airmeet | ✓ | Starter plan
*Essential webinar features plus virtual networking, engagement, gamification, sales intent data & advanced analytics |
Livestorm | ✓ | Pro plan
|
On24 | X | Custom enterprise pricing only |
BigMarker | X | Custom enterprise pricing only |
Demio | ✓ | Starter plan
|
Zoom Webinars | X | 500-attendee plan
|
GoTo Webinar | ✓ | Lite plan
|
Session | ✓ | Pro plan
|
Webex | X | Webinars plan
|
Host an unmissable webinar with Airmeet for free
What really matters in 2023? Event engagement and event ROI.
Airmeet makes it easy to prioritize both.
Sign up for our free plan and organize an event for up to 500 attendees. Get access to all of our best features:
- Event engagement: Virtual networking with Social Lounges and Fluid Spaces; attendee pair ups; breakout rooms; invite participants on stage; name and interest badges; gamification and more
- Event ROI: Essential integrations; 64 intent signals to discover high-intent attendees; sales rooms for conversations with reps live chat before during and after the event; advanced analytics for both sales and marketing purposes
FAQs on webinar software
Got questions? We’ve got answers.
What are the best alternatives to Zoom webinars?
Zoom is a popular webinar platform, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best webinar platform. Airmeet and WebEx offer better audience engagement features like virtual networking and live polling—both of which are great for making your webinars more social.
Meanwhile, Session and GoTo Webinar offer lower pricing than Zoom if you need fewer than 250 live attendees.
How do you create a webinar?
Hosting webinars is simple. all you need to do is set a date and time and title for your webinar. Use your webinar platform to create a registration page or form and share that with your audience to drive sign-ups. Then, show up live at the designated time and run your presentation. You could share your screen to show some slides or present without slides.
What is the best platform for hosting a free webinar?
If you want to host a social webinar with polling, chat, virtual networking, attendee name and interest badges, and other engaging features, then sign up for Airmeet’s free plan. You can host one webinar for up to 500 people for free and test out all of our tools.
If you’re looking for an ongoing free solution, consider Session’s free plan which works for up to 50 live attendees and 90 minutes per session.
Which webinar platform is best for marketing use cases?
With its deep integrations, event intent data, and advanced analytics, Airmeet is the best platform for marketing teams. Marketers using Airmeet will be able to create segmented follow-up campaigns and pass on enriched leads to sales.
How much does a webinar platform cost?
Depending on the features you need, you can expect to pay $50 to $500 per month to support around 200 live attendees. If you need to support thousands of live attendees on the best webinar tools, you can expect to pay thousands of dollars per month for your webinar software
What’s the need for webinar software?
Webinar software is essential for online events to protect attendees’ privacy and ensure that no one can interrupt your presentation by going off mute. If you use regular conference call software to host a webinar, you put your event at risk of interruption. In addition to separating the audience from the speakers, webinar software can also make it easier to produce and promote events by offering you registration landing page creation, email notification setup, etc.
Can you stream out to social media channels via webinar software?
Yes, you can. If you want to stream to social media channels, you’ll need a platform that comes with RTMP streaming, such as Airmeet, WebEx, On24, or BigMarker.
Which webinar software is best for small teams?
If you’re working with a small but mighty team, consider choosing a platform that is easy to set up and offers all the features you need in one place like Demio or Session.
What’s the best Zoom alternative for a webinar and why?
With Airmeet, you get a better, more engaging attendee experience, more hands-on customer support and event strategy, plus no need for attendees to download software to join your event. If you’re looking for super simple features and low pricing, Session is the right Zoom alternative for you.
What are the best webinar platforms and software for education?
Education organizations looking to support many hosts and attendees will want to consider WebEx or Zoom Webinars. These platforms are easy for educators to use and offer volume pricing.
What equipment do you need besides webinar software to host a webinar?
In addition to your webinar software, you’ll need a high-quality microphone and webcam. If you’re going on camera, make sure you also set yourself in front of a window for natural lighting or use a ring light. Great lighting can make up for a so-so camera.
What are the top picks for the best webinar software for 2023?
Because of their audience engagement features, Airmeet and WebEx are the best webinar software for 2023. These platforms help you create more lifelike virtual events. For low-cost webinar software, our best picks are Session and GoTo Webinars.
What are some other options besides the webinar software in this list?
If you want to explore more webinar platforms not mentioned on this list, check out ClickMeeting, BlueJeans, Vimeo, Adobe Connect, WebinarJam, and Easy Webinar.
Host an unmissable webinar with Airmeet. Your first event is on us.
