What are the top webinar hosting platforms?

Since all you need is a web-browser, webinars have become the easiest way to teach and train employees without leaving the comfort of your own desk.

In addition, holding a webinar may very well be the solution to all your time and money problems.

Say goodbye to sending all your employees to seminars and travelling to training conferences on the other side of the country – now your organization can get the message across to a large audience right from their computer.

But, in order to host your webinars successfully, you’ve got to have the right software and platform for your business. Of course, there are loads available on the market – so what one should you choose?

The right webinar hosting platform will depend on your budget, needs and goals. Let’s have a look at the most popular webinar hosting platforms to find the best one for your organization today!

Adobe Connect

If you’re looking into webinar platforms, there’s no doubt you’ll have come across Adobe Connect. This award-winning and highly customizable platform provides high-quality audio and video options to host the perfect webinar for your employees.

Whether it’s a weekly meeting or annual training, Adobe Connect provides tools to incorporate whiteboards, note taking and to share documents during a video webinar.

The Q&A feature is particularly useful for allowing the host to answer questions live. You can even add your own company logo!

What’s more, employees will never miss an event again. The easy to use Microsoft Outlook integration means that all employees can receive an invite for the webinar through their emails.

You can use Adobe Connect on any smartphone or tablet and businesses can enjoy custom plans to allow up to 100 employees to join a webinar at one time.

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting by Citrix is a webinar hosting platform that’s well known for being simple and easy for everybody to use.

It can be used on any device to deliver HD video conferencing, with the ability to add webinars to Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar. Invites will be sent to employees with custom URL links to click on that will bring them straight to the webinar.

You can screen share to making learning easier, as well as allow the HDFaces feature to bring others into the learning sphere. Now everybody can take part!

There’s different plans available to suit your business needs, such as the starter plan that allows up to five participants in a webinar. The Pro Plan also allows you to record your webinars for employees that miss out, as well as up to 25 participants to join in learning.

For larger organizations, the Plus plan allows up to 100 participants at once. GoToMeeting even has 24/7 customer support to help you out if you run into problems.

BlueJeans

BlueJeans is the one-size-fits-all solution to webinar hosting. This cloud-based video conferencing software provides your company with a source of HD video webinar that can be accessed anywhere, on any device.

The interface is neat and tidy and it’s simple to create a meeting link for employee training or regular meetings. In addition, only the host of the webinar has to be a BlueJeans member – everybody else can access content without having to download anything.

During a webinar, you can screen share for better learning, as well as use video clips and documents with up to 100 people. There’s even an Active Speaker feature that can hand over the window to somebody new, keeping everybody in the loop.

BlueJeans don’t advertise their plans openly, but there’s a 14-day free trial you can have fun with to see if you like the interface and features.

Zoom

With Zoom, you can host small team meetings and large department training right in one place. The HD audio and video software allow you to interact with up to 100 employees and broadcast training viewing for up to 10,000 people – anything is possible with Zoom!

It’s easy to use and integrates well with Microsoft Outlook for webinar reminders and invites, as well as having the ability to share documents, videos and photographs to aid with learning.

You can even record your webinars for later and distribute the video to employees that couldn’t make it on the day. Zoom has a variety of free and paid plans to suit every size of organization.

Cisco WebEx

When it comes to webinar hosting platforms, you’ve got to have heard of Cisco WebEx. As one of the biggest names around, this platform boasts HD video and audio, as well as a bunch of advanced interactive features to make learning more engaging for employees.

This includes creating polls, promoting multimedia sharing and using Q&A live on screen – webinars have never been so much fun! Cisco WebEx is suitable for use on all devices and it’s easy to switch from one to another, even during a live webinar.

There are many plans available for Cisco WebEx that will allow you to invite up to 3,000 attendees at your training webinar.

Now you’ve read about the top webinar hosting platforms on the market, which one do you think will suit your company? It’s always recommended to try out any free trials first to see if you like the software before buying.

The bottom line?

Choosing the right hosting platform will allow you to create awesome webinars for your employees and promote professional development all year round.

For more insights on webinars and the latest L&D trends, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of it all. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.