Webinars are becoming increasingly popular with companies. With the right webinar software, learning content and parts of the sales process can be digitized. In our comprehensive market overview, we have compared 7 solutions. The webinar software comparison is based on more than 120 different attributes, which we have assigned to 13 different categories. You can download the complete market overview as a PDF version.
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They’re not really that new, the tools that can be used to conduct and design webinars, but they have gained unprecedented popularity in recent months. That’s because the Corona pandemic has significantly accelerated digitization in many places – including content delivery and digital distribution. From one day to the next, trade shows were canceled and appointments with customers were no longer possible. Out of necessity, many companies quickly oriented themselves and found interim solutions. Are there solutions that better fit the task and the setup of the company?
Webinars are the format of the moment – software providers have their hands full
If you are in this phase of re-evaluation or even if you want to orient yourself for the first time as far as webinar tools are concerned, this market overview will be very useful for you. We have put seven solutions side by side for you and checked them for their range of functions. Are there only seven providers on the market, you will rightly ask. Of course there aren’t, but the new popularity of webinar and conferencing tools has had a clear effect: the providers are simply overwhelmed with requests and orders. That this has a significant impact on the workload of all departments of the respective companies, we had to painfully experience with our media inquiries. So please forgive us if we have not listed some heavyweights like the industry shooting star Zoom in our market overview. But you may already be familiar with these providers anyway. Maybe you’ll find the alternative you’ve been looking for here?
Choosing a webinar software: We have queried these criteria for you.
The requirements for a webinar software depend very much on the purpose for which you want to use webinars. There are various categories of criteria that play a role in the selection. We have compared the solutions in these categories for you.
Industry specialization
Is there a noticeable concentration of expertise among the providers in certain industries? No, the focus areas named by the companies are broad. However, it can be seen that none of the providers specialize in the insurance, energy, logistics or healthcare/care industries. This could indicate that there is still a need to catch up in these industries.
Basic functions
Here we asked basic questions such as: How many presenters can you appoint? Is there a time limit on the duration of a webinar? Do webinar participants need to download software? There are already some differences in the basic features we asked about. For example, the number of participants per webinar ranges from 250 to 1 million. Here, when deciding on a provider, you should already have the order of magnitude in mind for which groups you want to use the webinar software. With two exceptions, the number of presenters you can designate is unlimited. Three of the providers have a mobile app, but only one software is not exclusively designed to operate as a SaaS solution.
User interface languages
As a rule, webinar software is purchased centrally by companies for all markets in which they are active. Of course, it is important in which languages the user interface is played out.
Functions before the webinar
The quality and thus the success of webinars is significantly higher if they are well prepared. In this category, we have compiled for you which functions are already available to you in the run-up to the webinar. The providers set different priorities here: Five solutions allow you to create your own landing page per webinar. Almost all tools offer the function of automated e-mailing to webinar participants, and most even allow you to set the time of dispatch individually. Only two solutions offer sharing functions for the participants. Two tools have all the requested functions on board.
Functions during the webinar
The central component of a webinar software are the functions during the webinar: Which formats can you upload and present? Is it possible that you mute all participants en bloc? The question of whether you can evaluate the behavior of the participants is also very relevant. When it comes to the functions during the webinar, the tools are basically all well equipped. There are outliers here and there, such as in the presence of a virtual waiting room or the ability to evaluate participant behavior. Basically, most of the criteria are met.
Interaction options during the webinar
Webinars differ from video formats primarily in that they allow real-time interaction between presenter and participant. In this category, we have asked you what possibilities the tools offer in this regard. Here, too, the tools have a good range of functions. The only differences are the possibility to chat with the moderators and the existence of a room for group work. In addition, the results of surveys, which are possible with every tool, are not also exportable with all of them.
Functions after the webinar
Even after the webinar, there are some features that can contribute to the success of the whole. These include, for example, the ability to send a recording of the webinar to participants. All tools in the market overview have this option on board. The providing of materials also works with almost all tools. The range of services thins out noticeably when it comes to other functions. Five of the seven tools make it possible to collect feedback from the participants afterwards. Only two of the solutions, for example, offer to issue certificates for the participants.
Payment & Controlling
In most cases, webinars are not only used by companies to provide information, but should also be monetizable. Generating leads is only one – albeit very popular – option. Another is monetizing the webinar itself, for example via paid participation or direct sales within the webinar. Those who want to take the latter route should look carefully when choosing software, because the insertion of offers or a countdown function for offers is only included in three of the seven tools. Only one tool even has integrated order processing for paid webinars on board.
Legal criteria
Our classic category, which we query with every new market overview. With the GDPR, server location and data processing are among the most sensitive, because important, selection criteria for the right software provider.
Interfaces & Integrations
As with any software, a webinar tool should integrate as seamlessly as possible into a company’s software landscape. This is usually done via interfaces and plug-ins. In this category, you can find out what options the providers in our market overview have on board for this.
Additional services provided
The project starts with the decision for a software. In order for you to be able to launch a webinar quickly and easily, it was also important for us to find out how the providers support you during the implementation and training phase as well as during ongoing operation.
Pricing models of the tools
After you have been able to compare the basic requirements for features and services, we now take a final look at the providers’ cost structures. The overview shows that the software manufacturers have developed different cost models and price ranges, so that for every use case and set of requirements, it should also be possible to identify a provider in this category that fits your own needs.
These webinar software solutions are included in the market overview
edudip next
Behind the solution is edudip GmbH from Aachen with its14 employees. The product has been around since 2018 and is already being used by 1,300 customers. USP according to its own statement, “edudip next impresses with its ease of use, is browser-based, compatible with all devices and immediately ready for use without prior installation. edudip’s webinar software is 100% GDPR-compliant, as it is exclusively developed, supported and hosted in German data centers.”
LiveWebinar
The company behind LicveWebinar is RTClab from Gdansk, Poland. With 13 employees, they have been working on the product since 2017 and 25,000 customers are already using it. USP according to them, “No installation required, works on all devices.”
MyOwnConference.com
The MyOwnConference.com tool comes from Akovana. The company is based in Vilnius, Lithuania, and employs 20 people. The tool has been on the market since 2012 and is used by 30,000 customers. USP according to its own statement: “Completely EU based. Quality. Support.”
RHUB TurboMeeting
RHUB Communications In. is based in San Jose, USA and has been on the market with its solution since 2005. 4 million users use the tool. USP according to their own statement: “Unlimited users, on-premise, full HD video, 4k desktop sharing, telepresence, mobile app, free phone dial-up, phone and VoIP possible simultaneously.”
talkyoo
talkyoo telecom UG is based in Hamburg and has been on the market with its product since 2004. USP according to their own statement: “Best voice quality, dial-in by phone, server location: Hamburg, GDPR compliant, compatible with Skype, own dial-in number, audio protocol (MP3), control of conference call via web browser, web conference/desktop sharing or online presentations, only 5 star ratings on Google.”
WEBINARIS
Webinaris GmbH employs 22 people and is based in Gräfelfing, Germany. The tool has been in use by customers since 2013. USP according to their own statement: “Webinaris has perfected webinars for marketing and sales purposes: Thanks to automated webinars, you can offer any number of appointments without having to be live all the time – and the many interfaces and numerous marketing features make the heart of every marketing expert beat faster.”
Zoho Showtime
The largest provider in the market overview has its European headquarters in the Netherlands, more specifically in Utrecht. The company employs more than 8,000 people. About 400,000 customers use the company’s software, which has been available since 2007. USP according to the company: “Privacy-centric products with our own data centers in Europe, simplicity with low learning curve and no need for DMG file installation, i.e. we can’t track anything out of the system, access to Zoho’s larger ecosystem of over 45 SaaS products, best price/performance ratio in the market.”
Conclusion
Digitizing knowledge delivery and digitizing sales have been two task areas that companies have been slow to approach. The Corona pandemic and associated restrictions are acting as a catalyst in the early summer of 2020, and webinars are filling a real gap in demand here. Even though internal pressure may be high and many voices are calling for quick solutions – make a requirements catalog and use it to check which software is the most suitable for you and your task. We hope that our market overview will provide you with a good orientation guide.
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