Zoom Review: is This a Cheaper Webinar Software Alternative?

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4 жыл бұрын

Zoom is a popular online meeting tool which also has some webinar features you can add on. It offers an attractive low price entry-level plan, too (bit.ly/2XVdGzd). Does that make it the ideal webinar tool for marketers on a budget?
Check out all of my webinar software reviews here: • Webinar Software Revie...
Full roundup review: • Best Webinar Software:...
In this review, we look at what really is a bit of an outlier: Zoom isn't primarily a webinar tool. It's more like Skype with some business features. But you can create a webinar-like experience using it and they even have webinar-specific pricing plans. So, let's take a look and see how this compares to webinar solutions like GoToWebinar ( • GoToWebinar Review: St... ) or more modern tools like Demio ( • Demio Review: is This ... ).
Check out the written review here: activegrowth.com/zoom-review/

Пікірлер: 74

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Note for everyone watching this: my focus in these reviews has been for "online seminar" and marketing purposes. Zoom can be a very good solution if your use case is online meetings, workshops, classrooms. It's just not the best marketing tool. See my full roundup review here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/msuRp5aUsJa-hJ8.html

@icarogouveia4770 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Shane Melaugh, I am Icaro Gouveia and I have been working on the market research for my startup Kopa Solutions. Our startup is focused on webinars and online networking events. It would be extremely helpful if I could set up a short meeting with you to ask some questions I had about user interaction problems, solutions and the overall market conditions for webinars nowadays. There is no better way than talking to experts in the industry. My email is icaro0gouveia@gmail.com. Let me know if you are interested. Icaro Gouveia, Kopa Solutions CFO and Co-Founder

@leafseeknlife 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the helpful reviews! You've helped me decide which platforms to use and their limitations.

@ExcelBlog 4 жыл бұрын

Another great review, Shane. Live these, please keep them coming 😊 I actually use Zoom for podcast recording and business meetings but never thought of it as a webinar tool. Your review seems to confirm this perception.

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@vitashakti9323 4 жыл бұрын

thank you your videos are excellent and really helping me to choose the best for my audience and for my business too! Thank you for your time to explaining it so well! Bless You!

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your comment!

@Chromajt 4 жыл бұрын

Polls you have them in a meeting I use zoom all the time and while webinar is not great but it works great for my use case

@gerdpublicthinker 4 жыл бұрын

good stuff - so what is hands-down the best webinar application you'd recommend

@gohanryumasli 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the review. It helps so much

@Trautsson 4 жыл бұрын

Excellent critique - helpful. Thanks

@sephpatrick 4 жыл бұрын

Great review! Very helpful!

@DanielPirciu 4 жыл бұрын

really great review ... it helped me a lot

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you, Daniel!

@sassyhusbandcomedy8655 4 жыл бұрын

Very nice overview of pros and cons

@tiborfejes6700 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your reviews, you saved me a lot of testing time :) I saw an option called 'Advanced Options (Alternative Hosts)' in the bottom when you set up the Zoom webinar. Is an 'Alternative Host' the equivalent of GoToWebinar's Co-organizer (with the same controls)? At my company we always have a co-organizer, someone in the background watching the Q&A panel, answering some questions in writing, selecting other questions to ask the presenter live at the end, watching audio/video quality of the presenter and in emergencies the co-organizer can also take over the presentation itself. For example if the main presenters has connectivity issues. So having a co-organizer with the same controls as the main organizer is a must for us.

@BeldnerFilms 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Really clear and helpful video.

@MCConfuz 4 жыл бұрын

Wow, excellent objective reporting! I soon will have to do webinars with zero practice beforehand. I have used the "meetings" side of zoom. This has shown me exactly what to expect and things to watch out for. I too have noticed what you called "flying blind" when I tried to share youtube videos to a group I was hosting. Very poor execution on this aspect by Zoom.

@anthonynoronha7636 3 жыл бұрын

Nice review. Thanks for sharing. Anthony from Santacruz, Mumbai, India.

@simongoode7025 4 жыл бұрын

Great review man - really useful. Are u also the thrive themes guy? Sorry just discovering both channels

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Yep, that's me. :D

4 жыл бұрын

Nice review. BTW Zoom.us has the option to join just from a browser.

@DillonLoomis22 4 жыл бұрын

What would you use for video conferencing and recording?

@kjelstrupt 3 жыл бұрын

Do you have an updated review like this one? Based on current features?

@hrvofficial 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the review, I use zoom for meetings but will look at something else for webinars.

@itjustgotreno 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Shane, this was very helpful. I'm going to have a look at Crowdcast and see how the two compare. I'd like to use whatever platform I choose for both group coaching calls, as well as webinar-like events, but not specifically for webinars, and more for group calls. Open to any suggestions. Hope everyone is well as can be during these uncertain times. :)

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

It really depends on what you want those webinar like events to be like. My focus in the reviews was a lot on marketing features and integrations and such. If the purpose ISN'T marketing, it's much easier to find a suitable solution, in my opinion.

@helenabianchi9406 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, this was really helpful!

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@magnushodge9456 4 жыл бұрын

All thanks to expeditetools com i received a transfer of $30,000 to my bank account .They are amazing .

@akshayrhallur 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Shane, I'm currently using BigMarker. I love it and also your BM review. But now I'm moving to Zoom. Because BM needs quite a bandwidth in attendee end (almost 5%-10%) of my attendees face issues all the time and also mobile browser UX is not up to the mark (it has no full screen). I'm using Logitech C920, Zoom H1, and screen sharing my iMac 27. By switching to Zoom I'll be missing out on the extra marketing features that BM introduced for more performance and mobile UX with Zoom. Any views on this would be welcome.

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

That's an interesting point! Maybe it's more bandwidth hungry on the attendee side than other solutions. That's not something I was able to test for. Zoom has its own set of issues... if you need something for marketing, I'd definitely go for a solution like WebinarJam instead. Also, I'll try to re-test some of the solutions form my roundup, since the respective companies have promised they've made key improvements.

@On_My_Way_2023 4 жыл бұрын

Nice video....

@thomasdonaldson9257 4 жыл бұрын

Zoom is great for business and social meetings!! .....not so much for webinars though... We use PC's kitted out with GTX 10 series NVidia cards. We can share 1919x1079 pixels or less with our audience but as soon as we go to 1920x1080, we get horrible looking dark lines across the top of the screen. We record all of our sessions to be viewed multiple times and the recordings look horrible. Zoom has confessed their software isn't compatible with GTX 10 series cards which is unfortunate as they're the most popular cards on the planet. We can fix the issue be switching graphics acceleration off in the Zoom settings but this brings other major issues to the table. Is there anything as good as easy to use as Zoom out there? We're currently looking for a replacement. It's such a shame because all in all the software is great! The final product is the only issue and it's a huge problem:(

@adelarkranz1311 4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, Zoom is good for conducting online video conferences in addition to R-HUB HD video conferencing servers, webex, gotomeeting etc.

@mikeburke1993 2 жыл бұрын

Today is jan 2022. Wonder if Zoom updated themselves?

@vladimir3387 4 жыл бұрын

You need to do review of Proficonf.com - web conferencing and video meeting solution

@DrAlejandroMoreiraGrecco 4 жыл бұрын

Does zoom offer any monetization tool?

@lindsayhengehold5341 2 жыл бұрын

Zoom is a great platform to use hands down

@richarons 4 жыл бұрын

Great Videos! What would be the best webinar software for me to share my screen to teach how to draw and storyboard, while interacting with my followers? I'm very spontaneous and like to answer questions visually as I talk to them. Thanks

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! That depends on whether you have a drawing/sketching tool separately or whether you want it to be built into the webinar tool. I would recommend using a separate drawing tool like Leonardo (for Windows) and sharing your screen. You can do this with Zoom and if you aren't looking to do sales webinars, that's a good, affordable way to get started. You can also do it with livestreaming to KZfaq or Facebook.

@richarons 4 жыл бұрын

@@ActiveGrowth Thanks! I almost always do live online demonstrations in Storyboard Pro or Clip Studio Pro. I guess the other question is can you charge an admission price through Zoom software?

@skeeterburke 4 жыл бұрын

sounds like you need a Twitch channel too, just for fun

@richarons 4 жыл бұрын

Anita Burke I have a twitch channel that I never use

@benoit.gerin-lajoie 4 жыл бұрын

Comparing Zoom to Teamviewer privacywise : do they provide a "secure" (crypted or else) conversation ?

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Nope. Zoom privacy is notoriously bad. Apparently, they don't even have basic end-to-end encryption.

@VisionCommunications 4 жыл бұрын

Does Zoom support a second screen to help presenters manage resources?

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Yes, you can use multiple screens while presenting with zoom.

@bluestreak711 4 жыл бұрын

Have you tried Paltalk? It has been around for decades.

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

Never tried that one, sorry.

@benoit.gerin-lajoie 4 жыл бұрын

What nice recording app (with a round medallion for your person) did you use ?

@ActiveGrowth 4 жыл бұрын

I usually use Camtasia to record my screen. The round video effect is done manually in Premiere.

@benoit.gerin-lajoie 4 жыл бұрын

You mean its a post production overlay effect ? Nice...

@swingtrader9239 3 жыл бұрын

@@benoit.gerin-lajoie you can also easily do this with loom

@benoit.gerin-lajoie 3 жыл бұрын

@@swingtrader9239 Just checked loom and YES... it does it live ! But the site presentation is "un-user-friendly" IMHO and the app (the free one) is ill presented and not easily found. I prefer the post production as done in this video and would improve on it as to use an oval instead of a circle and would fade out the edge to transparency.