Comparing Zoom Webinar and GoToWebinar: Which One is Right for You?

As webinars continue to grow in popularity for businesses, educators, and marketers, the demand for reliable webinar platforms has also surged. Estimates suggest that the global webinar market could exceed $4 billion by 2025. Two of the most commonly used webinar platforms are Zoom Webinar and GoToWebinar. Both platforms offer robust features, but how do you know which one is the best fit for your business? In this post, we will compare Zoom Webinar vs GoToWebinar, helping you determine which platform offers the features and functionalities you need to run successful webinars.

Understanding the Basics of Zoom Webinar and GoToWebinar

Before diving into the detailed comparison, let’s quickly review what each platform offers:

• Zoom Webinar: As part of the widely known Zoom platform, Zoom Webinar is designed to support virtual events, including webinars, product demos, and live Q&A sessions. It’s often praised for its ease of use and scalability, making it suitable for both small and large webinars.
• GoToWebinar: A long-established player in the webinar space, GoToWebinar is known for its user-friendly interface and strong focus on functionality. It’s ideal for businesses looking to run recurring webinars with minimal setup.

Both platforms cater to businesses of different sizes, but there are key differences in features that could influence your decision.

Pre-Webinar Engagement and Customization

Pre-event engagement is crucial for ensuring high attendance and participation. Let’s see how both platforms perform in this area:

• Zoom Webinar: Zoom allows you to schedule webinars and generate registration links easily. It also supports automated reminder emails, although the customization options are somewhat limited. If you want advanced segmentation or drip campaigns, you’ll need to integrate with a third-party marketing platform.
• GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar offers a no-frills registration process with automated reminders. However, similar to Zoom, its customization options for emails and landing pages are basic. GoToWebinar does not offer full branding flexibility for your event materials or emails, which can be limiting if you prioritize strong brand consistency.
• Hubilo (Bonus Mention): If customization and pre-event engagement are important to you, platforms like Hubilo provide an edge with features like drag-and-drop email builders, custom landing pages, and integration of branded communication. Hubilo ensures that your audience is engaged even before the event starts.

Custom Branding and Landing Pages

Branding is an essential factor for many businesses when choosing a webinar platform:

• Zoom Webinar: Zoom allows limited customization on registration pages, such as adding logos and text changes. However, it lacks more advanced options like custom domains or white-labeling. If you need to fully brand your event, Zoom might feel restrictive.
• GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar also provides basic customization, like adding a logo or banner to the registration page. However, it lacks the ability to create fully branded landing pages and doesn’t support white-labeling.
• Hubilo: In comparison, Hubilo offers superior customization capabilities. From custom domains and white-label branding to fully customizable landing pages, Hubilo allows you to create a seamless and cohesive brand experience for your audience.

Attendee Engagement Features

Keeping attendees engaged is crucial to the success of your webinar. Here’s how each platform compares in terms of engagement:

• Zoom Webinar: Zoom offers some essential engagement features, such as polls, Q&A, and live chat. While these are great for smaller webinars, the platform lacks advanced engagement tools. If you want additional features, such as notifications or interactive apps, you’ll need third-party integrations, which can take additional setup time.
• GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar includes basic polls and chat functionality, but much like Zoom, it falls short when it comes to advanced interactive features. It doesn’t support embedded apps, mentions, or notifications to keep attendees engaged throughout the session.
• Hubilo: Hubilo takes engagement to the next level by offering tools like live polls, quizzes, Q&A, and integrations with third-party apps like Kahoot, Slido, and Interprefy. Hubilo also enables you to add clickable CTAs during the session, prompting attendees to sign up for demos or download materials instantly. These features create a more dynamic and engaging experience for your audience.

Post-Webinar Content Repurposing

Repurposing your webinar content for future marketing efforts can save time and maximize the impact of your webinars. Here’s how the platforms compare:

• Zoom Webinar: Zoom allows you to record webinars, but you’ll need third-party tools for creating highlight reels or clips. It doesn’t offer AI-powered content repurposing tools, so you’ll have to spend additional time editing content for social media or marketing campaigns.
• GoToWebinar: Like Zoom, GoToWebinar provides on-demand replays but lacks AI-driven tools for content repurposing. You will need to manually edit and extract content from recordings, which can be time-consuming.
• Hubilo: Hubilo makes repurposing easy with its Snackable Content Hub. This AI-driven feature automatically generates short video clips, social media posts, and write-ups, allowing you to share content instantly without the need for manual editing.

Scalability and Capacity

When planning a large webinar or conference, scalability becomes a critical factor:

• Zoom Webinar: Zoom excels in scalability, handling up to 3,000 attendees in webinar mode, with larger sessions possible in meeting mode (up to 10,000). For businesses hosting large-scale webinars, Zoom offers great flexibility.
• GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar also supports large events, but its scalability is more limited than Zoom’s. The platform can handle up to 3,000 attendees on its higher-tier plans, but scaling beyond this can be challenging without custom pricing or workarounds.
• Hubilo: Hubilo supports up to 100,000 attendees, making it an excellent choice for large virtual conferences, summits, or events. Its infrastructure ensures smooth performance, even for massive events, providing high-quality streaming and interaction.

Analytics and Reporting

Understanding the success of your webinar through detailed analytics can inform future strategies:

• Zoom Webinar: Zoom provides basic attendance reports, showing who attended and for how long. However, it lacks more detailed lead-scoring capabilities or real-time notifications about high-engagement attendees.
• GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar offers basic analytics, including attendance and poll response data. However, similar to Zoom, it lacks deeper insights, such as lead scoring or immediate feedback for sales follow-ups.
• Hubilo: Hubilo stands out with its comprehensive analytics tools, including detailed engagement metrics and a Revenue Impact Dashboard. You can track attendee interactions, segment leads based on behavior, and receive instant notifications about engaged leads, ensuring timely follow-up.

Customer Support

When issues arise, fast and reliable customer support is essential:

• Zoom Webinar: Zoom offers customer support based on your plan, but support is often slower for lower-tier users, relying on forums or email communication.
• GoToWebinar: GoToWebinar provides support during standard business hours, and while it has a knowledge base, live support is not always available during events.
• Hubilo: Hubilo offers 24/7 dedicated support, including a customer success team to assist with everything from onboarding to troubleshooting during the event.

Pricing Comparison

Pricing can be a deciding factor when choosing a webinar platform. Here’s a brief overview:

• Zoom Webinar: Starts at $79/month for up to 500 attendees. Prices increase based on the number of participants and additional features, such as Zoom Events or advanced branding.
• GoToWebinar: Starts at $49/month for up to 250 participants and offers more advanced features on higher-tier plans, including up to 3,000 attendees at $399/month.
• Hubilo: Hubilo offers more scalable plans starting at $800/month for 2,000 attendees/year. Hubilo’s pricing is ideal for businesses looking for more advanced features, including AI-driven content repurposing and custom branding.

Conclusion: Which Platform is Right for You?

Both Zoom Webinar vs GoToWebinar are solid choices for hosting webinars, but they come with limitations in terms of customization, engagement, and scalability. Hubilo stands out for businesses looking for robust features, customization options, and advanced engagement tools, making it a great option for those running large-scale virtual events or requiring detailed analytics.

If you’re focused on simpler, more straightforward webinars, Zoom Webinar or GoToWebinar may meet your needs, but if you’re looking to maximize attendee engagement and get deeper insights into your webinar’s performance, Hubilo is the platform that offers the most comprehensive solution.

To explore the power of Zoom Webinar vs GoToWebinar and see how Hubilo can take your webinars to the next level, request a demo and start creating impactful, high-conversion virtual events today!