Our Adobe Connect Alternatives guide will help you determine the best tool for you.
Virtual events have been booming in the marketing world. Anyone looking for a platform, likely had Adobe Connect in mind. There’s no doubt, it is one of the best-marketed tools out there. That is no surprise for an Adobe product. Adobe isn’t shying away either. Calling their tool “the most secure, flexible, extensible and feature-rich web conferencing product”. But, is it the tool that you need for your virtual events?
In this article, we’ll explain what Adobe Connect does. Then, we’ll look at 15 Adobe Connect alternatives, giving you options to make the right decision for your business.
Let’s Go Virtual!
Is Adobe Connect for you?
Adobe Connect is a video conferencing platform. It aims to deliver a tailored user experience (UX) for each session. This makes the platform interesting for remote educators. They form the majority of the tool’s user base. Educators can deliver virtual lectures and training sessions. All in a user-friendly interface.
The tool’s sweet spot is live lectures. With some features that support webinars and teamwork. Video chat, desktop, and document sharing are available as standard. For more features, you’ll need to add apps. To add custom apps, you’ll want the Adobe Flash experience.
To enhance your virtual events further, you can integrate third-party apps. These apps are downloadable from the apps page. They include feedback for Q&A, polling, clapping and thumbs-up. Interesting, these features are key for virtual events. It helps give a sense of the experience the audience is having. Buyer be aware! Adding third-party apps can add to the cost of Adobe Connect.
Lastly, you should make note of the limit in participants. In Adobe Connect, you can host up to 1,000 participants. These can be used over rooms that have a maximum capacity of 100 people. Are you organizing a big conference? More than 1,000 attendees and multiple breakout sessions? Then Adobe Connect isn’t your best bet.
Want to know more about Adobe Connect? We did a full review!
G2 Score: 4.1 (553 reviews)
15 Adobe Connect Alternatives for Virtual Events
Let’s have a look at 15 Adobe Connect alternatives for Virtual Events. They might fit your needs better. In these reviews, we focus on User Experience, Features, and Security.
Alternative #1) Webex
Webex was founded in 1995 and taken over by Cisco in 2007. It is a leader in meetings and an Adobe Connect competitor. It integrates easily with enterprise scheduling tools.
There is an even more important feature that aids the UX. It is possible to attend a meeting using only a browser. This is powerful for people who don’t have admin rights on their work devices.
Standard is video conferencing, screen sharing, Q&A, polling, and chat. The number of participants is why larger corporations like this tool. It can host up to 3,000 participants for large meetings and corporate events.
As for security, many government meetings are hosted over Webex. Recently, they added a data loss prevention feature. This aimed to ensure security and compliance for all the participants.
G2 score: 4.3 (95 reviews)
Alternative #2) SpotMe
SpotMe VX is a leading virtual event solution. The tool includes live streaming, 2-way breakouts, personalized agendas, and whiteboard.
Webcasting is one place where this tool excels. There is low latency and high quality. This makes for a better audience experience. The tool comes with ready-to-go templates. Your virtual event is online in a matter of seconds. Templates have everything you need to get going.
SpotMe is strong on security. Live streaming is secure from end-to-end. Plus users can secure access with a password.
G2 Score: 4.6 (100 reviews)
Alternative #3) ON24
ON24 is at its core a webinar solution. This is where it is the strongest. Where ON24 excels is in live-webinar and on-demand content hosting. If webinars are it, then it is a top Adobe Connect alternative.
ON24’s strong point is also its weakness. It is a broadcast platform, not a two-way platform. The tool doesn’t do well on events where there are questions next to streamed content. It is nearly impossible for speakers to get a sense of their audience. This has an influence on the quality of the sessions. If you have needs that go beyond a webinar, you will need to look elsewhere.
When it comes to security, ON24 comes out strongly. It says to encrypt sensitive information. This is data in transit, moving through a browser, and back and forth. Also, data at rest (sitting in the database) and backups are encrypted. Data in transit is secured by SSL certificates.
Considering ON24? Check out our complete On24 review for more insights and weigh it up against our list of ON24 competitors and alternatives.
G2 Score: 4.2 (690 reviews)
Alternative #4) Zoom
Zoom was found by Eric Yuan in 2011. Together with 40 engineers, he left his position as VP of Cisco Webex to create Zoom. Inevitably, Zoom is a strong Adobe Connect competitor.
Zoom offers standard features such as chat, polling, Q&A, reactions, and annotations. The platform can provide Breakout Rooms in meetings for smaller audiences. Zoom can run virtual events up to 1,000 participants. Another product of Zoom is called Zoom Video Webinars. Here you can scale up to 10,000 attendees. It also supports streams to anyone with Facebook Live, YouTube Live, or your own custom streaming service.
If there’s one company recently been in the news, it is Zoom. The company saw a rise of 535% in daily traffic when Covid-19 appeared. Their stock price went through the roof. But there was a downside to all this. Security researchers said the app was a ‘privacy disaster’. Considering the UK government is among many of its users, it has been a serious technical and PR issue for Zoom.
Besides Zoom’s security issues, the Virtual Event features are strong and plentiful. It’s a great contender to consider versus Adobe Connect.
Considering Zoom Webinar? We review it and consider 5 alternatives.
G2 Score: 4.5 (27,090 reviews)
Alternative #5) BlueJeans Events
BlueJeans Events has been around since 2009. The name is explained as “making video conferencing as comfortable and as casual as your pair of jeans.” Verizon, the telecommunication corporation, acquired BlueJeans in July 2020.
With its easy user interface, the BlueJeans platform has attracted big companies like LinkedIn. BlueJeans Events adds interactivity to meetings, events, and webcasts. And the tool is considered an Adobe Connect competitor. It comes with immersive video, Q&A, polling, and large meeting controls. That last feature is quite necessary for heavy users. The platform can support a whopping 50,000 attendees!
Security is quite well-covered. Although the recent acquisition of BlueJeans by Verizon might be a worrying signal for some. However, BlueJeans Events are encrypted. They use standards-based protocols including SIP, SRTP, TLS and H. 323
G2 Score: 4.2 (61 reviews)
Alternative #6) Zoho Meeting
Zoho Meeting is an affordable virtual meeting and webinar platform capable of hosting up to 250 participants. Its interface is more simplistic and intuitive than its competitors, offering participants an easier way to attend webinars.
For those who value privacy and security above all else, Zoho offers many features such as:
- A Lock-Meeting feature to prevent “Zoombombers,” allowing hosts total control over allowing users into meetings, even those who have invitation links.
- SSL/128-bit AES encryption
- Two-factor authentication to prevent hackers from accessing accounts.
- A privacy policy that doesn’t sell user data to 3rd parties.
- A high security data center, monitored by CCTV cameras and authorized personnel using biometric authentication.
G2 score: 4.5 (629 reviews)
Alternative #7) Blackboard Collaborate
Blackboard Collaborate is a virtual classroom and webinar platform particularly used by thousands of high schools, colleges, and professional organizations.
Blackboard prides itself on developing a “one-click classroom” allowing students and attendees to quickly join webinars by clicking on the access link. No usernames or logins are required, which allows teachers to start classes right away. So less connectivity issues that often bog down classes.
Teachers and webinar hosts can easily draw on a whiteboard, share documents, and create breakout groups to educate students all over the world in one online space.
G2 score: 4.0 (117 reviews)
Alternative #8) Skype
Skype by Microsoft is a free video conferencing platform. It’s mainly meant for hosting business meetings, and is free up to 100 participants. With its screen sharing feature, it can be used as a webinar tool, allowing an easy way to share slide presentations and other documents.
But because it’s primarily used for meetings, it lacks the interactive features other webinar platforms offer. Users looking for more features will have to step up into Skype for Business Online, a paid service that will be replaced by Microsoft Teams in 2021.
G2 score: 4.3 (18,363 reviews)
Alternative #9) Livestorm
Livestorm is a video conferencing platform used for hosting webinars and sharing live streams.
LiveStorm offers multiple integration possibilities to connect live-time data into your existing software for maximum efficiency, including:
- Automatically adding registrants to CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot
- Notifying hosts through Slack messages when new registrants sign up
- Connecting to Zapier, allowing for data transfer between several platforms
- Working with Facebook ads, creating a tracking cookie that can be placed on website for retargeting ads
Unlike Adobe Connect, Livestorm doesn’t use Flash, a deprecated software known for causing connection issues online. This means fewer frustrated participants who can avoid running into issues when they log in.
LiveStorm offers all of the basic webinar functionalities at a competitive price, even offering a free plan. But the free plan only allows up to 10 participants to attend a 20-minute webinar.
G2 score: 4.6 (149 reviews)
Alternative #10) BigMarker
BigMarker is a virtual event platform and browser-based webinar tool capable of hosting up to 1,000 attendees.
If you’re looking for a basic and reliable webinar solution, BigMarker is for you. If interactivity is important, look elsewhere, as its interactive features are a bit lacking.
BigMarker offers live and on-demand webinars, a whiteboard, personal meeting rooms, and 24-7 webinars, which provide an always-open webinar for guests to drop into any time.
For more information on BigMarker, check out our Big Marker Review: 2020 Virtual Event Tech Guide.
G2 score: 4.6 (147 reviews)
Alternative #11) LiveWebinar
LiveWebinar is a browser-based webinar platform for small and large businesses that’s been described as “Google Hangouts on steroids.”
It offers all of the standard webinar amenities: screen sharing, live streaming capabilities, whiteboard, a mobile app, polls and surveys. But what truly sets it apart is its massive integration abilities.
LiveWebinar plays well with others, offering countless software integrations:
- Automatically subscribe new webinar leads into CRMs such as MailChimp, HubSpot, Constant Contact, SendFox, and more.
- Start meetings and webinars instantly in Slack, typing “/meet” in a chat window to automatically set up a room and provide users with a meeting ID and URL.
- Connect with Zapier, to integrate up to 1,500 web apps to host fully-automated events.
- Integrate with Moodle, the open sourced learning platform, to make presentations and lectures more engaging.
G2 score: 4.4 (72 reviews)
Alternative #12) GoToWebinar
GoToWebinar is the world’s most used webinar tool, hosting millions of webinars a year, surpassing every competitor on this list.
It also ranked #1 by G2 in early 2020 for best webinar software. So if you’re leery of picking a platform you haven’t heard of before, GoToWebinar might be your best bet for reliability and brand recognition.
It also offers more integrations than Adobe Connect, allowing Zapier and native CRM integrations, as well as offering reporting analytics, webinar automations, multi-language support, and registration source tracking.
For more details about GoToWebinar, check out our GoToWebinar Review.
G2 score: 4.2 (592 reviews)
Alternative #13) ClickMeeting
ClickMeeting is a browser-based video conferencing, meeting, training, and webinar platform. Unlike other Adobe Connect competitors that are meant for small to mid sized webinars, ClickMeeting has the capabilities of accommodating up to 10,000 viewers!
It is feature rich, offering screen sharing, screen control, whiteboard, chat, a mobile app, and live-transcription.
Using the ClickMeeting API, hosts can connect in-house applications, CMS, or CRMs to make their webinars fully customizable.
If you’re looking for a scalable webinar platform capable of hosting humongous online events, ClickMeeting might be your Adobe Connect alternative of choice.
G2 score: 3.8 (150 reviews)
Alternative #14) WebinarGeek
WebinarGeek is a webinar platform promising powerful interactions and marketing tools.
Like the name suggests, this is a webinar tool only. Unlike its competitors that blur the line between webinars and video conferences platforms, WebinarGeek is very clear in its purpose.
For companies under 50 employees that need a simple webinar solution, nothing more, nothing less, they can’t go wrong with picking WebinarGeek.
WebinarGeek outbeats Adobe Connect in terms of meeting requirements, ease of use, ease of setup, quality of support, recording, and software integrations, according to G2.
G2 score: 4.5 (68 reviews)
Alternative #15) Demio
Demio is a browser-based webinar tool used by marketers and customer-education teams.
For those who are intimidated by learning a new platform, don’t worry! Demio’s beautiful interface is extremely easy to use and setup, compared to Adobe Connect, which has been noted by many as having a steep learning curve.
Also unlike Adobe Connect, Demio features 24/7 live support that comes standard with their base package, which means you can host your event with more confidence knowing there’s backup if you need it.
For simplicity and ease of use, Demio is a great alternative to Adobe Connect.
G2 score: 4.7 (59 reviews)
Looking for More?
- Download your RFP template for virtual events from this Google Sheet
- Compare the best virtual event platforms on the market
- Discover the best virtual conference platforms
- Curious how SpotMe hosts virtual events? Here’s a handy guide!
