If you’re thinking about a Zoom webinar for your next stakeholder meeting, lecture, town hall, concert, or religious service, keep reading.
In this post, we’ll dig into Zoom Video Webinar to describe the platform and how it works. We’ll give you our overall verdict and share what users have to say about their own Zoom Video Webinar experience.
What is Zoom Video Webinar?
Zoom Video Webinar is a cloud-based webinar provider for large events and live broadcasts with 50 or more attendees, up to 50,000. Their target events include town halls, corporate announcements, quarterly updates, lectures, concerts, and more.
It is an add-on feature for existing Zoom Meeting customers, offering hosts the opportunity to connect with large global audiences.
Zoom Video Webinar is best suited to events with large audiences and event hosts looking to have control over the pacing and flow of the event.
Their closed-captioning makes it ideal for event attendees who want to join without turning on audio.
The Verdict of our Zoom Video Webinar Review
All in all, Zoom Video Webinar can be a simple enough solution for hosting a webinar. Still, it is not a generalist webinar provider. Instead, it is a targeted provider with a narrow area of excellence.
Many people consider Zoom to be the industry-standard. This has a lot to do with its user-friendly interface. Zoom’s quick and easy setup allows for a rapid launch, even for first-time users, and for large audiences, no matter where in the world they are.
While it definitely has its fans, Zoom Video Webinar is not without its flaws.
Event organizers looking to take advantage of the tool must first purchase a Zoom Pro or higher subscription, as Zoom Video Webinar is not available as a separate, standalone entity.
And you can’t create multiple occurrences of a single webinar. If you’re running one webinar at two different times in a single day, such as 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., you’ll have to create two separate, distinct webinars.
If you’re running multiple sessions over several days, this can create so much additional work that you might want to reconsider using them.
Looking for some alternatives to Zoom Webinar? Read our 5 Zoom Webinar alternatives and comparisons for virtual events.
What Types Of Events Is Zoom Video Webinar Good For?
Zoom Video Webinar is best suited for large events with a single presenter (or very few), like a lecture, town hall meeting, or entertainment event.
It’s ideal for simpler events where audience members won’t need to use a plethora of additional virtual features, and won’t be networking with one another.
It’s also worth noting Zoom Video Webinar as one of the more affordable options starting at just $40/month for the add-on feature to a Zoom Pro account.
Zoom Video Webinar Features Review
In addition to an intuitive user interface, Zoom Video Webinar offers a number of features, including the following:
- Audio sharing
- Video and screen sharing
- Recording
- Livestream
- Q&A and polling
- Whiteboard
- Closed captioning
- Integrations
- Monetization
- Email and surveys
Audio Sharing
Event organizers can access controls that allow for muting and unmuting panelists or attendees. Event attendees can also opt to participate via audio-only. An important feature of Zoom Video Webinar when it comes to ensuring unwanted audio does not distract from the event.
Video and Screen Sharing
Hosts and panelists can share video with audio from a desktop during the webinar. Attendees on the other hand cannot. The same goes for screen sharing.
This ensures hosts of large events have control over what is being shown on screen.
Recording
Event organizers can record the entire webinar or start and stop recording at specific points during the webinar. These recordings can also be auto-translated after the event.
Livestream
Live streaming is possible on Zoom Video Webinar with options including Facebook, Workplace by Facebook, and YouTube.
Q&A and Polling
Hosts can boost attendee engagement through (up to 25) custom polls per webinar or a Q&A dialog box with text answers or live chat.
Whiteboard and Annotation
Zoom Video Webinar users can make use of the built-in whiteboard and annotation tools to make notes or mark up presentations and meeting screenshots.
Closed Captioning
Event organizers can set up closed captioning for increased audience engagement and accessibility. This also allows for video-only attendees without audio.
Integrations
The Zoom App Marketplace offers webinar integrations for various marketing tools and CRMs to connect with your other systems.
Monetization
Use PayPal with Zoom Video Webinar to charge for your lecture or online class, or integrate EventBrite for ticket sales and registration management.
Email and surveys
Event organizers can use Zoom’s email feature to send reminders before the webinar and follow-up emails following the event.
Zoom also offers a post-event survey for follow-up. Event organizers can add a survey link to any follow-up emails.
Overall Webinar Platform Experience
Zoom Video Webinar is aimed at C-Suite, executive and government events, and the platform reflects that model.
Unlike Zoom Meetings, which is designed to support highly collaborative events, Zoom Video Webinar is designed to attract a specific thin slice of live events where an audience listens and asks any questions once the presentation or event is over. The platform works well within that narrow framework.
Its bare-bones set up ensures the platform does its specific job well, without any bells, whistles, or complicated automation.
What Other Online Reviews Are Saying About Zoom Video Webinar
We stopped by G2 and Capterra to see what verified Zoom Video Webinar reviews had to say about the popular video webinar provider.
What People Like About Zoom Video Webinar
Almost every Zoom Video Webinar review mentions its ease of use and simple setup.
Elisha F gave Zoom a 5-star review on G2, calling it the “Best webinar platform for experts!” The small business owner went on to praise Zoom’s connectivity, “very rarely do I get disconnected when hosting,” and added that Q&A and polling were favorite features.
Capterra reviewer Sanskriti G had a “good experience” with Zoom, using the video platform for “team discussions, ongoing project, presentation and more,” adding that it made working from home “easier” for the senior software engineer.
What People Dislike About Zoom Video Webinar
Common criticisms center around platform limitations and technical quality.
Elisha F found Zoom’s limitations frustrating. “I wish it were easier to share slides and videos” and added the screen sharing feature had room for improvement. “It’s a hassle to do,” and “it doesn’t always work properly.”
Sanskriti G’s Zoom Video Webinar review also included cons, which said, “repetition of audio as I speak” was “quite disturbing,” adding that sometimes, calls ended unexpectedly, leaving the software engineer wondering if they were missing “important announcement and team discussions.”
Zoom Video Webinar Competitors and Alternatives
The main Zoom Video Webinar competitors with G2 ratings are:
- ON24 (4.3 out of 5)
- SpotMe (4.6 out of 5)
- GoToWebinar (4.2 out of 5)
- Zoho Meeting (4.5 out of 5)
- Adobe Connect (4.1 out of 5)
- BlueJeans Events (4.4 out of 5)
Are you curious about other webinar solutions? Check out our comparison guide.
Have a specific software in mind? See some of our other comprehensive virtual platform reviews:
- Hopin Review
- GoToWebinar Review
- Whova Review
- 6connex Review
- vFairs Review
- ON24 Review and ON24 competitors and alternatives
- Attendify Review
Disclaimer: This review is provided by SpotMe. While we are a marketing event management software vendor, our reviews aim to help buyers make better informed decisions by providing honest feedback about the product being reviewed. SpotMe’s reviews are not used to deliberately promote or disparage any software vendor’ products and to the best of our knowledge the information contained herein is recent, relevant and objective.
