As one of the most effective marketing tools your brand can have up its sleeve, you want to make sure you’re creating a webinar that matters. With tools like Livestorm and GoToWebinar to rely on, it’s a lot easier to do so, but choosing between the two is a common contemplation.
Which is best, Livestorm or GoToWebinar? Livestorm and GoToWebinar both let you create and broadcast webinars, but GoToWebinar is made specifically for this purpose whereas Livestorm includes it with other video engagement features.
Depending on what your business needs from a webinar host, the general approach or a more specialized one might be better.
The Livestorm vs GoToWebinar debate can’t be settled so easily without looking at how these two platforms stack up where it matters.
We’ll compare them in pricing, features, presenter tools, and more so you can find one that best aligns with your webinar needs.
What is LiveStorm?
Livestorm is regarded as an all-rounder for all video engagement needs a business might have, including webinars, virtual learning, meetings, and virtual conferences.
Their webinar platform lets you create live, on-demand, and automated webinars plus all other kinds of virtual events.
The Pros
- There’s a decent free offering of this software that you can use for your first webinars until you build up a larger following.
- You’ll get lots of opportunities to customize the pages and webinars to your brand.
The Cons
- Although it’s handy having other features, Livestorm isn’t solely dedicated to webinars and it shows.
- The quality of webinar replays isn’t as good so you might want to skip using this feature.
What is GoToWebinar
GoToWebinar is one of the most trusted names in webinars and they’re committed to webinar production only.
You can choose to stream live, create an automated webinar, or let people watch on demand, and it’s packed with tools for audience engagement and marketing to make your job easier.
The Pros
- As software designed specifically for webinars, you’re getting the very best in features and tools.
- There are loads of integrations with other software so it works seamlessly with the rest of your business.
The Cons
- You need to download software to use GoToWebinar for pre-recorded webinars.
- Compared to other webinar platforms, the Pro version of this plan is expensive and might be out of reach for some businesses.
User Friendliness
The best webinar platforms are the ones that show you how to create something amazing with very little input on your end, taking you through steps to set everything up.
Your goal as the presenter should be to focus on the presentation and let the software manage the rest, and thankfully Livestorm and GoToWebinar allow for this.
One area where Livestorm pulls ahead is in the modern design of its dashboard, and when you compare this to an older-looking setup as GoToWebinar has, the difference is obvious.
The simplicity of the layout with Livestorm makes it even easier to navigate through, especially for a newcomer, so they win in this category.
On both platforms, the controls are intuitive and there’s little need to think about what comes next.
You simply fill out the fields and change any settings so that they can be customized to your brand and the purpose of the webinar, and then it’s all ready for you to go live with.
Video and Audio Quality
Choosing a webinar platform that offers clarity and quality in video and audio is critical, and thankfully you don’t have to worry about this with GoToWebinar and Livestorm.
Livestorm’s Event rooms where the webinars are held have a maximum 1080p resolution and as long as you have a fast internet connection, there shouldn’t be any issues with creating an HD stream of your webinar.
With GoToWebinar, you’ll be able to broadcast your webinar in a high-definition video at 1920 x 960p, making it one of the better performers for a live stream.
However, there were some concerns with video recording on GoToWebinar, mainly issues like having to convert the file and the audio losing some of its quality once you do.
Device Versatility
There was once a time when GoToWebinar made users download its software to be able to host and attend a webinar, and thankfully those days are over.
Today, it operates on a browser-based client and even comes in a mobile-friendly version for people who need to catch your webinar on the go.
GoToWebinar also comes in an app for even more efficiency, so it’s worth downloading if you regularly use this platform.
Livestorm is also browser-based and it’s also been optimized to work on mobile and smart devices, but unfortunately, there’s no app offering at this stage.
Using the mobile site, you can even host from your phone if you want to, although this might not give off the most professional image if you’re doing it in a rush.
Presentation Tools
It’s easy to present an amazing webinar when you have a suite of tools to utilize, and Livestorm and GoToWebinar both excel in this area.
You can employ things like whiteboards, multiple hosts, screen sharing, and more so that it’s not just you speaking to your attendees without anything more to the presentation.
There are also loads of ways the presenter can engage with the audience, but when we stack these features up, Livestorm is slightly ahead.
As well as the emoji reactions and question upvotes that are unique to Livestorm, both platforms offer things like polling, call to action buttons, and virtual backgrounds.
Registration Pages and Conversions
Getting the registration page of your webinar just right is essential if you plan on converting these leads into sales.
Unfortunately, both of these platforms don’t offer a lot in terms of branding the registration page, but there are other ways that you can customize it to get what you need.
Livestorm has a fully customizable registration page that lets you utilize 14 predetermined fields like name, website, and city, or create your own.
This means you can capture the precise information you want from registrants to help you better convert them into sales.
However, you can use any images or logos, so it’s a missed opportunity to brand the registration page.
GoToWebinar’s registration page can also be customized so that you get whatever information you need from attendees.
However, as a bonus, they let you customize a link to the webinar so that it’s unique and easy to read, plus has your business name somewhere in it.
Analytics and Data Exports
Both GoToWebinar and Livestorm are considered end-to-end webinar managers, which means not only do they help you set up and broadcast the event, but follow up with marketing and analytics as well.
Both provide a high-level overview of all of your previous events or a focus on a specific one and do so in a single report, so you can get the exact data you need.
The GoToWebinar analytics include things like the number of registrants, number of attendees, and attendee activity from each session.
There are some limitations on what you can see and what you can do with this data, but if gives you a good overview of each session and what happened during it.
Livestorm also lets you see a registrant and attendee count but offers more in-depth information beyond this. You can also view individual attendees about them specifically and how they interacted during the webinar.
Livestorm lets you view how many times a session was replayed, how many questions were asked, and how long someone attended, so it’s pretty thorough in the reporting it offers.
Pricing and Plans
GoToWebinar’s plans come in four tiers: Lite, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise. These plans range from $64 a month to $519 a month. At the highest level, you can have 3,000 participants at your webinars and at the lowest, just 50.
All of their plans include features like cloud storage, reporting and analytics, full-service registration, and more.
On the other hand, Livestorm has a simpler selection of plans, including their Starer plan which is entirely free and lets you have 10 participants at a webinar.
The next stage is the Pro plan which costs around $100 a month for 100 attendees, another $100 for an extra $100, and roughly $300 a month for 1,000.
The Enterprise plan, which is discussed with a sales member, depends on what services you’re using and you’ll be given a customized quote to consider.
After reviewing the costs, Livestorm is a much more economical option if you have fewer attendees, especially considering that they offer a range of other features for video engagement.
The fact that you can use a free plan to test it out is even more impressive, and the fact that GoToWebinar’s free trial only lasts for seven days isn’t impressive at all.
Customer Support
GoToWebinar and Livestorm both offer 24/7 support for their customers, but both could do with improvements in this area.
Some customers found that they were speaking to a chatbot for a while until they were finally able to get real assistance, so both platforms aren’t as honest about on-demand support as they should be.
In addition to their live support though, you’ll find ample resources available from both GoToWebinar and Livestorm.
With services like online communities, FAQs, content libraries, and video training, most of your questions should be answered without needing to reach out for support.
If you sign up for the Enterprise plan with Livestorm, you’ll be given a one-on-one consultant who can answer many of the common questions a newcomer might have.
However, the cost for this plan is thousands of dollars a year so you’d expect this type of hands-on service from the webinar platform, and the responses aren’t as instant as one would hope.
The Final Say
Livestorm and WebinarJam each have pros and cons that they bring to the table, so depending on what you want out of a webinar platform, either will be a better fit.
GoToWebinar is solely for webinars and if this is all you need, it’ll be more than enough. Livestorm is much more expansive and can be used for all kinds of online business needs, giving you a host of tools you can utilize.
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Related Questions
Webinar software has improved in leaps and bounds, making it easier than ever to create a virtual event that’s truly engaging.
Before you jump in and choose a platform to host your next webinar, check out these commonly asked questions that can teach you a little more.
Can Webinars Have Breakout Rooms?
A breakout room is usually a feature reserved for online meetings, but if you’re using the right software, it may be a possibility.
The breakout room feature allows members of the webinar to separate into another room to discuss the content or work on an exercise, so they might not always be needed in a webinar setting.
How Do I Make an Interactive Webinar?
To engage with the attendees of your webinar more, you can utilize things like Q&A sessions, live chat, follow-up emails, and whiteboards.
This gives attendees a more genuine interaction with the webinar host without feeling as though they’re watching a pre-recorded event.
Can You Charge Money for a Webinar?
A paid webinar is not as common, but it is possible to have people pay to register for one if its content is valuable enough to merit it.
To create a paid webinar, this is usually done through the hosting platform you’re using, which will then give an option for people to input payment details on the registration page as they sign up.
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