As the business world goes online, more and more people are looking for tools to help them get the virtual reach they need.
GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar are just two of the leaders in this category, but although seemingly similar, they actually offer something quite different.
Which is better, GoToMeeting or GoToWebinar? GoToMeeting is an online platform for business meetings and communications, whereas GoToWebinar is specifically for hosting webinars that are more one-sided from the presenter.
Both are owned by Citrix which has a whole suite of business communication tools that are perfect for the modern age.
If you’ve been thinking about improving your online reach, you’ve probably considered the GoToMeeting vs GoToWebinar debate before.
To help you find that perfect match, we’ve compared their similarities and differences in the key areas a business needs, so check out this detailed comparison.
What is GoToMeeting?
GoToMeeting is a virtual meeting platform owned by Citrix, giving users the chance to meet online with up to 250 people including themselves.
With GoToMeeting, you can have online business meetings, create instant meetings, transcribe the event, and customize each meeting room to your team’s needs.
Key Features
- Allows for up to 250 people to attend and collaborate within a meeting.
- Real-time screen sharing and file sharing between attendees.
- Automatically transcribe everything that occurs in the meeting so you can read through it later.
- Video, audio, and chat communications possible for each meeting.
The Pros
- You can have a meeting from anywhere and at any time, so it’s extremely convenient.
- There’s no need to attend the meeting if you can’t, and you’ll still be able to see what happened.
The Cons
- Having too many participants in a meeting room can get noisy and make it hard to focus.
- When people are sharing video, it can take up a lot of bandwidth and slow down the speeds.
What is GoToWebinar?
GoToWebinar is another offering by Citrix and part of their GoTo range of products, with this one being solely focused on webinars.
Using GoToWebinar, you can create an automated or live webinar, market the event, create follow-up emails, see detailed analytics, and give the audience tools to engage with the presentation.
Key Features
- The ability to host up to 1,000 people in a single webinar.
- Tools for marketing, audience engagement, and presentation to make every webinar perfect.
- Customized registration pages and opportunities for branding.
- Detailed analytics and reporting that gives you a high-level overview of each presentation.
The Pros
- As a platform dedicated to webinars alone, every single thing has been thought of for when you host one.
- You get access to tools you can use before, during, and after a webinar so it never stops being effective.
The Cons
- It’s a costly piece of software for something that only lets you create and host webinars.
- Compared to some of the other webinar platforms, it can look a little dated on the dashboard.
Ease of Use
One of the reasons for GoTo’s success in the world of online communications is how easy its software is to use.
As GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting belong to the same company, this user-friendliness is apparent in both platforms, and it means that even the most novice users can master them.
Whatever it is you’re doing on these platforms, you’re guided through the steps required to do it. Within a meeting, it’s easy to share files, communicate with others, and schedule meetings, so there’s not a lot of detail that goes into using the program.
GoToWebinar is a little more complex because you’re creating an event, hosting it, and then following up, but GoTo still walks you through every step of the way with ease.
Pricing and Plans
GoTo tends to price all of their products the same, so it’s not surprising to see that each of these costs mid to high range in their comparable markets.
There doesn’t appear to be a group offering from GoTo that bundles the most popular products they have, so you’ll need to purchase each one individually if you want to use it.
GoToMeeting comes with just two plan options including Professional for around $17 a month and Business for $23 a month. The former gets you up to 150 participants in a meeting room and the latter 250 of them.
If you need something large scale, they also offer an Enterprise plan that can be customized with a sales representative and it may be possible to allow for up to 3,000 people to attend a meeting on this plan.
On the other hand, GoToWebinar has four plans to choose from, starting at $64 a month and increasing to $519 a month for their Enterprise option.
The difference in plans is mainly how many people you can have to attend your event, with the highest also being 3,000.
You’ll be given the chance the test out the GoTo software for just seven days on a free trial, which is somewhat short compared to other platforms.
If you do sign up and don’t enjoy it, they also offer a satisfaction guarantee that promises your money back if you cancel within 30 days of signing up.
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Customer Support
GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting have ample resources available to assist with training and common queries, but they also offer a live support option.
Among their standard help resources, you’ll find things like training videos, customer community, and FAQs, so it should be easy to get the answer you’re looking for.
However, there have been some complaints in the past about the GoTo suite and their supposed live chat options, with a few customers claiming that it was more like a chat bot that responded to them than a real person.
When you’re paying such a premium price for software, you’d hope that a brand would honor their promise for 24/7 customer support, but it doesn’t seem to be the case always.
Marketing Tools
The basic premise of GoToMeeting is that it’s used in an existing workplace or to communicate with peers from another company. There’s not a lot of need for marketing anything, so it should be viewed as more of a communication platform than anything else.
GoToWebinar is a standout in terms of marketing and if you’re looking for software that can help you grow your brand and reach more customers, they’re the way to go.
Among their marketing features are branded registration pages, scheduled and automated emails, payment processing, and lead capture. These tools work before, during, and after a webinar so the marketing value is high.
As far as marketing integrations, GoToMeeting does have a lot to offer.
At last count, you can integrate with a range of software and apps including Office 365, Google Calendar, Salesforce, all designed for business workflow and communications.
GoToWebinar has an even more extensive list of integrations including Hubspot, Microsoft Teams, Zoho, and Oracle, to suit all kinds of businesses.
Analytics and Data Exports
As a marketing tool, it’s great to see the analytics and reporting possible with GoToWebinar. You’ll get access to tools that let you see things like attendance rate and what the attendees were doing during the session.
You can also capture information at the registration page that lets you convert those contacts into leads, so there’s no shortage of data on hand.
The data export section of GoToMeeting is focused on transcripts and this is one of the leading features that this software offers. Each meeting will be transcribed automatically unless you request it not to be, so you can read back over what was said.
This means people who weren’t able to attend in real-time can also watch the meeting in a replay or read the transcript, so they don’t miss a thing.
These platforms each gather data in a different way and for different purposes, so it’s a hard category to compare them.
GoToWebinar is more about seeing the performance of those who attended the event, whereas GoToMeeting gives you a rundown of what was discussed during the meeting, both of which can be beneficial.
Video and Audio Quality
One area where GoToMeeting is lacking is how it performs when there are too many people sharing a video in a meeting. Most people have found that having around 25 people, including yourself, should be the limit as otherwise, the video starts to lag.
You’ll need to restrict how many people share their video if you have any more participants or find that it’s chewing up your bandwidth.
The GoToWebinar streaming service excels over its pre-recorded video quality, so if you plan on doing mostly live webinars, you’re in luck.
Although the pre-recorded quality is still good, it loses some of its sparkle when the file is converted, so keep this in mind if you plan on using the replay function.
As Citrix owns both of these platforms, their video and audio quality is fairly similar, but keep in mind that it can only perform as well as your internet connection allows it to.
If you don’t have a solid network connection you can rely on, you’ll need to invest in upgrading this before you can use GoToWebinar or GoToMeeting effectively.
Which One Is Right For Your Business?
To determine which of these is best for your business, there are three simple questions you should ask:
- How many people am I talking to?: The meeting rooms of GoToMeeting support up to 26 people but GoToWebinar lets you speak to 1,000 attendees.
- How fast do I want to meet?: GoToMeeting allows meetings to be scheduled instantly whereas webinars require planning and registration before they can go live.
- Do I need interaction with attendees?: If so, a meeting setup is probably better, as webinars are more one-sided and about the presenter delivering information to the attendees.
If your business has more requirements, you could need both GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.
A quick look at the offerings from the GoTo brand might highlight other tools that could help your business thrive.
The Verdict
Although GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting come from the same company Citrix, they offer something unique for business communications.
The GoToWebinar platform is exceptional for those wanting to create and host webinars, but if you’re after a virtual meeting environment for your business that allows people to collaborate, there’s none better than GoToMeeting.
Related Questions
Most businesses do their communication and marketing online these days, and it’s helpful if you have an efficient platform to do it from.
To help you learn more about what’s out there, we’ve answered some commonly asked questions about these types of software so you can get the basics.
Is Zoom Meeting a Webinar?
Zoom is an online communications platform that allows for things like meetings and webinars to take place. To use the Zoom Webinar service, you must pay an additional fee and subscribe to a plan, which then allows you to host up to 50,000 attendees on a viewing-only profile.
Do Webinars Have Breaks?
If your webinar is longer than 60 minutes, you might like to add a break in the middle of it to give attendees time to freshen their minds and stretch their legs.
Most webinars are shorter than 90 minutes so there should be no need to add a break to the presentation if you don’t feel it necessary.
Do Webinars Have Mic?
Attendees at a webinar won’t usually be asked to speak so there’s no need to have a microphone or camera to attend them.
A webinar is more of a one-sided presentation and less of a collaborative event like a meeting, so the speaker will be the only person required to have a microphone.
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