If you’ve been looking at Demio and CrowdCast and wondering which might be the right video-conferencing solution for you, let us help you decide with this Demio vs CrowdCast review.
Here’s a glimpse of how the two compare: Demio is a webinar hosting software built mainly for marketers to generate leads, convert them into clients, and engage with potential and existing customers. On the other hand, CrowdCast is built for just about anyone who needs to hold a live event, webinar, conference, or interview.
Let’s look at what these two have to offer, how they’re different from each other, and other important details.
What Is Demio?
Demio is a browser-based webinar hosting platform that allows hosts to create live events such as webinars, workshops, and training sessions. Its parent company, Banzai International, was launched in 2015 and offers 2 other products:
- Banzai Reach
- High Attendance
Using the 3 products by Banzai International, you can plan, create, promote, launch, and analyze webinars under a single roof.
Here are the various features of Demio:
- Branded, interactive webinar room
- Automatically records webinars in the cloud to enable replays
- Can upload presentation slides on Powerpoint and Keynote into webinars
- Can share videos and images with attendees
- Attractive, minimal design
- Share handouts
- Make offers and call-to-action buttons
- Polls, live private and public chat, Q&As, emojis, and mentions
- Can make attendees hosts
- Has an address book
- Round-the-clock customer support
- HD quality video
- Customized registration pages
- Email notifications
- Integrates with Zapier, AWeber, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, Drip, Mailchimp, and other apps and platforms
How to Use
Getting started with Demio is simple enough. Sign up with your full name and company email address, set a login password, and subscribe to any one of Demio’s 3 membership plans. Now you can plan, promote, set up, and launch your webinars with ease.
Once you get your attendees to sign up for your webinar on your customized registration page, they can join your webinar from any browser with a single click. You can also share the webinar replays with them after the webinar ends.
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Easy, quick setup process
- Built for marketing and customer engagement
- Offers live, series, and automated webinars
- No need for attendees to create an account
- Quick, responsive customer support
- No lag in live streaming
- Wide range of customizable templates
- Can add videos to registration pages
- Analytics provided for webinar campaigns
- No need for attendees to download an app or software
- Extensive knowledge base
- High security
Cons
- Needs a strong internet connection
- No mobile app
- Hosts unable to choose compression level for webinar recordings
- Needs more integrations
- Needs to provide greater customization for registration pages
- Comments, polls, handouts, and calls to action from live events not shown in webinar replays
What Is CrowdCast?
CrowdCast is a browser-based video conferencing software that is designed for businesses, coaches, trainers, teachers, and independent content creators.
Founded in 2015 by Sai Hossain, the platform allows users to host live shows, workshops, webinars, conferences, courses, interviews, virtual summits, online festivals, and group calls.
It offers the following features to hosts:
- Broadcast to YouTube Live, Facebook Live, LinkedIn Live, Twitch, and Periscope
- Polls and votes
- Live chat and timestamped Q&A
- Integrates with Zapier, MailChimp, PayPal, Stripe, Patreon, and other platforms
- Can create free and paid live events
- Can create multi-session and hybrid events
- Offers the option to duplicate events
- Can display calls to action
- Works with different browsers like Google Chrome, Opera, Edge, and Brave
How to Use
Using CrowdCast to host a webinar is rather easy.
Hosts need to register with CrowdCast and purchase a subscription plan according to the features and integrations that they need. They can then use their CrowdCast account to set up virtual events through any browser.
Attendees can join a webinar easily via any browser. They can even choose to access the event through mobile applications on Android or iOS.
A single link is used to set up the webinar, attend it, and even replay it once it ends.
Pros
- No delay in live streaming
- Can upload presentations from Powerpoint and Keynote
- Can share pre-recorded videos and images with viewers
- HD quality video
- Intuitive user interface
- Fast setup
- Advanced analytics to measure webinar performance
- No need for attendees to download an app
- Unlimited attendee registrations
- Automatic webinar replays
- Can download webinar recordings in HD quality
- Can send push notifications and emails to attendees before, during, and after a webinar
- Can embed events on the host’s website
- Customized built-in landing page
- Screen sharing
- Allows export of data
- Allows input of Facebook Pixel ID information to track Facebook ad performance
Cons
- Requires attendees to sign up or log in
- Automated webinars not offered
- Need to pay extra for live customer support
- Needs a strong internet connection
- More integrations needed
- Boasts browser-based access but has been known to have compatibility issues with Internet Explorer and Safari
Video Quality
What kind of video quality do these two applications offer? Which is better?
Demio
Demio supports an audio bitrate of up to 30 kilobits per second (Kbps). Audio and video connectivity is smooth, with less than 0.5% packet data loss in optimal conditions. This means you get perfectly synchronized video that doesn’t lag or have skipped frames. You can expect HD-quality video as well as clean and crisp webinars.
Demio runs best on Mozilla Firefox and Safari. To run Demio on Google Chrome, you’ll need to configure your browser for best results.
CrowdCast
CrowdCast enables 1280×720 pixel HD video quality on optimal devices with good connectivity. It also supports audio quality up to 128 Kbps.
Hosts need to download a Chrome extension for better quality screen sharing. The webinar platform does not work well on Safari and also does not work at all on Internet Explorer.
Security: Demio vs CrowdCast
Demio
The platform meets all General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. Moreover, when a host deletes their Demio account, the platform deletes all the information it collected within 30 days. Hosts can also request Demio to delete their company data from the latter’s servers by contacting its Support team.
Besides these, the following security features are provided by Demio to hosts:
- Hosts can keep the audio or video on or off for the duration of the event.
- Hosts can choose to share their screens with their viewers.
- Demio allows hosts to stream on Youtube, Facebook, or both at the same time.
CrowdCast
CrowdCast provides hosts and attendees with reliable security. For enhanced privacy, hosts can create unlisted events. They can also set passwords to prevent uninvited attendees from participating in an event.
CrowdCast also gives hosts the following security controls:
- It allows multiple hosts and admins for a single webinar.
- Hosts can choose to focus the screen on a user or remove someone from the stage.
- Hosts can choose to toggle the audio or video off for a webinar.
- Hosts can choose to invite someone to be a guest on screen.
- Webinars can be safely streamed on various platforms including Facebook Live, LinkedIn Live, Youtube Live, Periscope, and more.
- Hosts can choose whether or not to share their screens with users.
- Hosts can delete chat comments and ban trolls.
- The number of available seats in a webinar can be limited.
Pricing: Demio vs CrowdCast
Demio
Demio has 3 memberships plans that are billed monthly or annually: Starter, Growth, and Premium. You can also try the software for free for 14 days to see if it works for your needs. During the free trial, you can host 1-hour webinars with up to 20 attendees.
Let’s take a closer look at its 3 paid plans:
Starter
The Starter plan costs $49 on a monthly basis or $34 per month if paid in advance for one year. It accommodates a single host and up to 50 attendees. You can host unlimited live and series webinars up to 3 hours long with unlimited registrations.
You also get 24/7 chat and email customer support, advanced webinar setup, in-depth analytics, unlimited data storage, engagement tools, and event localization. This plan gives you basic integrations with platforms like Zapier, customized registration pages, and uploads of presentation slides, videos, and images.
Growth
Better suited for bigger companies, the Growth plan costs $99 per host on a monthly basis or $69 per host per month with the annual membership. It is good for 150 attendees. You can have up to 1,000 attendees under the Growth plan. With 1,000 attendees, your Demio subscription will cost you $257 a month but this is paid annually.
This plan gives you all the standard features mentioned in the Starter plan but allows you to hold 8-hour webinar sessions instead of just 3 hours, automated webinars, up to 5 presenters, and registration source tracking. You can also customize your webinar rooms, email notifications, forms, and registration pages.
Premium
Demio Premium is an annual subscription plan that allows you to have unlimited presenters, 500 to 1,000 attendees, 10-hour webinars, and all the features from the Growth plan.
You also get priority customer support, a dedicated account manager, one-on-one onboarding, custom domains, premium integrations, and early access to beta features.
The cost of the plan is undisclosed so you’ll need to contact Demio for a personalized quote.
CrowdCast
In contrast, CrowdCast has 4 monthly or annual subscription plans: Starter, Lite, Pro, and Business. You can also sign up for CrowdCast’s free 14-day trial and check out its various features and functionalities to decide if it’s the right fit for you.
Check out the 4 plans below:
Starter
The Starter plan costs $29 per month. If you pay ahead for the entire year, your per month subscription is reduced to $20 per month. This entitles you to host 50 live attendees and up to 5 hours of streaming per month. Every additional live attendee is charged 15 cents.
With this plan, you can hold webinar sessions up to 2 hours long. You also get unlimited registrations, HD quality live video with automatic recordings, the option to view and download replays, multi-session events, and general email and chat support. If you have a subscription to live streaming software RTMP Studio, you can use it to enhance your live event in CrowdCast.
Additionally, you can leverage on integrations with Patreon and Stripe.
Lite
Lite costs $49 a month if paid monthly and $34 per month if paid annually. You can host up to a hundred live attendees and get 10 hours of streaming each month. Like the Starter plan, this plan charges 15 cents for every extra live attendee.
Besides the features in the Starter plan, you also get event and session analytics, data export, and integrations with Zapier, ConvertKit, and Drip.
Pro
CrowdCast Pro costs $89 per month when paid on a monthly basis and $62 per month if you pay ahead for the entire year. Under the Pro plan, you get up to 250 live attendees and up to 20 hours of monthly streaming. A charge of 15 cents is added for every additional live attendee.
This plan provides you with features from the Lite plan and also 4-hour webinar sessions, multistreaming to 1 location, custom registration forms, and shared presentations from up to 6 screens.
Business
The Business plan costs $195 per month with a reduced rate of $136 per month if you pay annually. This gets you up to 1,000 live attendees and an additional 15 cents for every attendee in excess of that limit.
Along with the features in the CrowdCast Pro plan, you get 6-hour webinar sessions, up to 40 hours of monthly streaming, and multistreaming to 3 platforms.
Customer Support: Demio vs CrowdCast
Demio
Demio offers 24/7 customer support via email and live chat. If you’re stuck anywhere, you can also access the platform’s comprehensive knowledge base and tutorial videos to learn how it works.
You can also check out the in-depth courses at Demio University or sign up for Demio’s blog, weekly and monthly newsletters, and podcast to receive industry updates and tips.
The software also offers 1-on-1 onboarding to help you and your team learn its features and tools faster.
CrowdCast
CrowdCast offers customer support via email and chat, but note that you may get a delayed response as live support isn’t offered round-the-clock. If you need live technical support during an online event, you can hire CrowdCast’s team of experts from different fields.
You can also learn more about the platform using its wide knowledge base, demo videos, and blog. CrowdCast also has a Facebook community where you can interact with other users and experts.
Moreover, on Wednesdays, CrowdCast hosts live Q&A sessions for its customers from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. During these sessions, users can post questions and receive answers. They can also get additional tips on how to host virtual events.
Final Verdict: Demio vs CrowdCast
Demio and CrowdCast provide a wide range of benefits and features to their users, making it tough to declare a clear winner between Demio vs CrowdCast.
However, there are some subtle differences which may make one more ideal than the other. Demio is apt for businesses and marketers. It also offers better security, live 24/7 customer support, automated webinars, webinar sessions up to 10 hours long, and relatively cost-efficient pricing that make it a great webinar hosting platform.
CrowdCast, on the other hand, is best for educators and independent creators who need to create hybrid events or broadcast to YouTube Live, Facebook Live, LinkedIn Live, Periscope, and other platforms. It’s also great for those who need to host more than 1,000 attendees in a webinar.
The main downside to CrowdCast’s subscription plans is it places a limit on how long you can broadcast each month. If you do live events often and can’t predict how many hours you’ll be needing it for live webinars, then you’re better off with Demio since it doesn’t put a cap on how many hours you can use it.
Which one would you choose? Let us know in the comments below!
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