The 10 Best Webinar Software For Marketers

Remember when simply sharing slides with a voiceover was enough to impress a webinar audience? Those days are gone. And good riddance! In today’s fast-paced world, attention spans are shorter than ever. There’s an abundance of eye-catching content vying for attention.

If you want to capture your audience’s attention for even just 20 minutes, you need to make every minute count! But here's the good news: hosting webinars is still a highly effective marketing tool. They just need to be done right.

Investing your time and resources into creating an engaging webinar is worth it. And the webinar software your marketing team uses plays a big part there. You want to choose a platform that enables you to create custom content and conduct the webinar without any hitches. You want something that does it all without breaking the bank!

In this post, we’ll explore how to choose the ideal webinar software for marketers. We’ll cover the pros and cons of the top software options and share some best practices to make your webinar one that your target customers will not forget.

What To Consider When Choosing Webinar Software For Marketers

The goal of every business is to drive more revenue and expand. As your marketing efforts intensify, you'll need a webinar platform that scales with you.

That amplifies the need for an intuitive tool that meets your ever-evolving needs. However, given the multitude of options, how do you make the right decision? Here are key points you must consider before selecting webinar software for marketers:

1. Scalability

As your webinar marketing strategy grows, you’ll need two things: more user seats to collaborate with teammates and the ability to host larger audiences. 

Unlimited user seats are an important feature for growing teams. Contrast lets you add as many teammates as you’d like to our webinar platform. On our free plans you can also host as many webinars as you like with up to 50 unique registrants per month. Need space for more attendees? No problem. The platform is built to scale with you without breaking the bank. 

As you grow you might even need to host longer virtual events. The maximum event duration on Contrast can be pushed up to 12 hours.

2. Rich engagement features

As a marketer, you would expect a webinar platform to offer basic features like CRM integrations, screen-sharing, branded emails, audience analytics, and customizable landing pages. That’s no longer enough though.  You’ll need your webinar software to do even more if you want to stand out.

The platform should have features that boost audience engagement during the webinar. That’s exactly why we built Contrast - to make webinars more engaging. It has a modern chat interface, polls with on-screen results, dynamic layouts, animations, widgets and more.

3. Content repurposing capabilities

Hosting a webinar takes a lot of time and effort, so treating it as a one-and-done event is a waste! Instead, you should find ways to repurpose your webinar content. It makes future content creation easier and optimizes the time and resources already spent.

Webinar software for marketers should have features like built-in session transcripts, highlighted moments, and clipping tools for editing short-form videos. All of these features are available in Contrast. 

4. Support and training

When selecting webinar software for marketers, it is important to have access to quick customer support options, like email or live chat.

Additionally, the availability of a knowledge base and instructional videos or tutorials can greatly accelerate your marketing team's learning process and make sure they’re taking advantage of all features.

You want to use a platform where support and resources to improve your webinars is readily available.

Contrast: The Best Webinar Software for Marketers

For an engagement-first approach to modern marketing, Contrast is the go-to choice. It takes all the pain out of webinar planning - letting you focus on what truly matters – delivering impactful experiences to your audience

Why Contrast is the best choice for marketers:

Easy to set up and highly customizable

Setting up a webinar in Contrast is straightforward and fun. Every aspect of your webinar – from fonts and backgrounds to transitions – can be tailored to your brand's unique identity. The result? A visually stunning and on-brand webinar.

As soon as you create your webinar you get a branded webinar registration page to drive your audience to.

Engagement like never before

Forget everything you know about boring webinars. Contrast was engineered to keep your audience glued to the screen. With intuitive features in their webinar Studio like Q&A, a lively chat experience, and interactive polls, your webinars become a two-way conversation. 

Repurpose webinars with ease

With Contrast, the content you've worked so hard on gets a second life. It’s automatically recorded and made available on-demand if you want. You can also easily edit and extract highlight clips to repurpose webinars and distribute wherever you’d like. This expands your reach and helps generate leads well after the live event.

Built for Teams of All Sizes:

Whether you’re a solo marketer or part of a large team, Contrast adapts to your needs. Enjoy the freedom of unlimited team members, simultaneous webinars, and multiple speakers, even on our free plan. We believe in providing you with the tools to grow, unrestricted.

Pros:

• Unlimited seats
• 24x7 customer support
• Easy-to-use interface
• Built-in transcript features 
• Fully customizable to your brand
• Recurring Webinars
• Modern chat
• Free plan (no credit card needed)
• Rich analytics and reporting features
• On-screen widgets, such as tickers and trending messages
• Dynamic layouts to reflect the theme of your presentation
• Powerful editing features to repurpose webinar content as you like

Pricing:

Most of our features are available on our free plan. If you decide to upgrade, the annual Pro plans begin at €60/month.

Other Webinar Software For Marketers

1. BigMarker

BigMarker caters primarily to sales and marketing teams. It helps you set up customizable webinars and virtual events with engagement features and branding materials.

Marketing team’s like BigMarker for its excellent attendee analytics and lead-scoring features. It also has an easy-to-use interface.

If you are running a focused lead-gen event and have budget to spare, BigMarker is a good option to explore.

Check out this article for a detailed look at BigMarker and its alternatives.

Pros:

• Designed for marketers
• Excellent branding features 
• Customizable event landing pages 
• Support for virtual and hybrid events 
• Gamification and lead scoring available 

Cons:

• Fewer networking opportunities 
• Audience experience 
• Expensive 

Pricing:

It offers three plans - Basic, Enterprise, and Enterprise+. You need to contact their team to request pricing, but user feedback suggests it is more expensive than other options.

2. Crowdcast

If you are looking for webinar software for marketers that helps with community-building, Crowdcast is a good option. This virtual event platform focuses on strong engagement features, such as dynamic Q&As, live video, chat, and polls, to keep conversations going.

You can also stream the webinar to social platforms like Facebook Live or embed it on your website. Crowdcast also offers advanced analytics and integrations via Zapier, which is important for marketers. 

Check out this article for a detailed look at Crowdcast and its alternatives.

Pros:

• HD video streaming 
• Affordable pricing plans for up to 1,000 attendees
• Option to customize the URL, image, video, and description
• Users can access a variety of engagement features, such as polls, Q&As, and chat even when the event hasn’t started

Cons:

• Mature content is allowed, which means some firewalls could flag it
• Viewer experience issues have been reported 

Pricing:

Its annual Lite package starts at $34/month, providing all base features.

3. Demio

This is another webinar platform to consider if you have a small marketing team. Demio offers a cheap and basic platform that anyone can use to set up their first webinar, allowing attendees to join right from their browsers.

It is easy to create landing pages and run analytics, and there are several attendee engagement features, such as polls, breakout rooms, and Q&As.

Check out this article for a detailed look at Demio and its alternatives.

Pros:

• Easy to use and inexpensive
• Good engagement features for the price point
• Browser-based platform for easy attendee login
• Branding option to personalize the registration page
• Use polls, featured actions, and handouts to boost invites

Cons:

• Limited options to customize webinars
• Free trial limited to only 20 attendees
• CRM integrations only on the Premium plans

Pricing:

Its annual Starter pack starts at $42/month, which is perfect for small marketing teams getting started with webinars.

4. GoToWebinar

One of the oldest players in the webinar market, GoToWebinar is part of the GoTo suite and is designed primarily for marketing webinars and training/enablement use cases.

It includes basic features like landing pages, polls, Q&As, and chat and is a good starting point for new marketers who want to keep things simple.

Check out this article for a detailed look at GoToWebinar and its alternatives.

Pros:

• Setup takes just minutes
• Hybrid events supported 
• No account needed to attend a webinar
• Enterprise-grade security to keep user data safe

Cons:

• Only surface-level CRM integrations
• Gets expensive if you want to increase the number of organizer seats 
• Key features like recording or video presentation are only unlocked with premium plans

Pricing:

Their Lite package starts at $49/organizer per month, billed annually.

5. Livestorm

This platform focuses on video engagement for webinars as well as live virtual events. From sign-up pages to Q&As to chat functionality, Livestorm comes with all the features you need for an engaging webinar - and you can add more from their app marketplace.

Overall, it is a user-friendly platform, but the visual capabilities could use some upgrades. Still, it offers a modern interface and is a good option if you are looking to expand your marketing webinars to a bigger audience.

Check out this article for a detailed look at Livestorm and its alternatives.

Pros:

• Custom integrations
• Browser-based solution
• Supports multiple languages
• Integrated reporting dashboard
• Stream live on multiple platforms
• Automated workflows keep things simple

Cons:

• Limited branding options
• Users complain about the HubSpot integration
• Only 30 seats available in the free package
• Can be expensive as you grow, especially with app add-ons
• Source tracking can be a challenge, i.e., you do not always know where people are signing up from

Pricing:

You can start using Livestorm for free. Its Pro package starts at $79/month, billed annually.

6. RingCentral Webinar®

RingCentral Webinar was built when the company acquired parts of another webinar platform, Hopin, which was reported to have been struggling. RingCentral Webinar offers a variety of products that help you run high-quality webinars and virtual events. This is a great option if you’re already part of the RingCentral ecosystem and using their other products. 

Pros:

• Event booths for networking
• Can support up to 100,000 attendees 
• AI tools to boost sound and video
• Host unlimited live sessions simultaneously with various moderators
• Works well with other RingCenral products

Cons:

• Backstage can be hard to navigate
• You have to pay for every additional host
• Training required for webinar setup
• Limited marketing and sales integrations

Pricing:

Its pricing package starts from $40/host/month. You can also try the tool for free.

7. Webex

This platform is owned by Cisco and designed as a webinar platform for big businesses and international teams. Webex’s main selling point is the AI assistant, which takes notes on your behalf and thus makes post-webinar analysis easier.

It also enables support for up to 100,000 attendees if you have the budget for it. This is a good choice for enterprise marketing teams with bigger budgets.

Check out this article for a detailed look at Webex and its alternatives.

Pros:

• Strong branding options 
• Breakout sessions available 
• Gamification for virtual events
• End-to-end encryption for top-notch security
• Real-time translation support for 100+ languages 
• Networking features like 1:1 meetings and virtual business cards

Cons:

• Mobile app required
• Tool designed primarily for meetings
• Plans can get expensive due to the licensing arrangement

Pricing:

You can start using Webex Free for free. Its Webex Meet package starts from $144 per license per year.

8. WebinarJam

WebinarJam is one of the more affordable webinar platforms for marketers. It includes all the basics to set up and run a simple webinar and allows you to create custom landing pages.

One cool feature is their “Replica Replay” option that mimics what happened during the live show, making it more immersive for people viewing it later. It also has most of the basic features you’d expect. 

Check out this article for a detailed look at WebinarJam and its alternatives.

Pros:

• Designed for beginner users
• On-demand webinars available 
• Affordable for small businesses 
• Host up to 5,000 people in one webinar session
• HD-quality video and high-res audio broadcasting

Cons:

• Limited number of user seats
• No native integrations with CRM tools
• Complex email and landing page builder
• Outdated user experience compared to alternatives

Pricing:

Its annual Basic package, accommodating 500 attendees, starts at $79/month.

9. Zoom Webinars

As one of the most-used platforms during the pandemic to conduct meetings and virtual interactions, Zoom needs no introduction. Since then, they’ve also built a webinar platform that has all of the basics you need to host a good webinar. It also has some impressive features that are helpful for hosting hybrid events. 

But its history as a video-conferencing tool and enterprise size make it difficult for them to innovate and stay on top of webinar trends and modern features. It’s also really expensive, especially if you need more than one person on your team to have a license. 

Check out this article for a detailed look at Zoom Webinar and its alternatives.

Pros:

• Highly popular tool
• Individual mute functions
• Affordable for smaller businesses
• Attendees can be exported to other meetings
• Up to 30 hours-long webinar sessions supported
• Packed with features for virtual trade-show booths and event sponsors

Cons:

• No option to automate webinars
• Has had security issues reported
• 40-minute time limit on the free plan
• Attendees need to download the Zoom app
• Negative connotations with the phrase “Zoom fatigue.”
• Really expensive as you scale

Pricing:

To host sessions with branding and event management capabilities, an annual subscription to Zoom Webinar is required.

The pricing tiers are as follows:

• For up to 100 attendees: €910 annually per license.
• For up to 500 attendees: €3,210 annually per license.
• For up to 1,000 attendees: €6,250 annually per license.
• For up to 3,000 attendees: €18,390 annually per license.

Larger plan costs are not listed on their site.

It's important to remember that these prices are for each license. This means if several team members require individual Zoom accounts, the cost will multiply accordingly.

Maximizing Your Marketing Team’s Webinar Software

In this section, we'll explore key strategies to help your marketing team get the most value out of your webinar software. 

1. Involve your entire team

Invite your entire marketing team to get involved in your webinar marketing. If you’re using a platform with unlimited user seats like Contrast, you can:

• Assign roles for back-end moderation to make it easy to run smooth webinars 
• Involve different team members in hosting and speaking roles
• Task your design team with creating an attractive and functional webinar page
• Engage your content team to leverage the software’s repurposing features

2. Integrate with your marketing automation platform

Connect your webinar funnel with your marketing automation platform to create sophisticated email campaigns. For example:

• Send a unique follow-up email to attendees who left early, including an edited clip that highlights what they missed, along with a link to the full webinar replay.
• Develop automated email sequences based on attendee behavior, such as sending additional resources or personalized messages to those who actively participated in polls or Q&A sessions.
• Email attendees who stayed until the end to ask them what they thought of the webinar and nudge them to book a consultation with your sales team.

3. Connect your webinar software with your CRM for sales insights

Linking your webinar software with your CRM system can provide valuable data for your sales team, allowing them to:

• Differentiate between attendees who watched the webinar and those who merely signed up. This distinction helps in prioritizing follow-up efforts.
• Access detailed engagement metrics from webinars, enabling a more targeted sales approach. For example, insights into which sections of the webinar captured the most attention can guide follow-up discussions.

4. Use webinar analytics for continuous improvement

Leverage analytics, such as watch times, audience demographic data, and interaction rates, to improve your content continuously. This data is invaluable in understanding how your webinar was received and what you could do to tailor future webinars more effectively to your audience’s interests and needs.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How can I assess the lead generation capabilities of a webinar platform?

Most marketers host webinars to increase brand awareness and generate leads. To make sure you’re  using the right tool for generating leads, you need to review its features such as lead scoring capabilities, registration forms, audience analytics, and CRM integrations. 

You should also check how easy or difficult it is for the webinar platform to capture attendee information and how it facilitates follow-up post-event. Additionally, evaluate whether it can host on-demand webinars for continuous lead capture.

2. How should my marketing team measure the ROI of our webinars?

The ROI of your webinars depends on what your original goal was. You should be calculating your webinar’s conversion rates, which is the percentage of participants who took a desired action such as signing up for a free trial, making a purchase, or filling out a contact form after the webinar. Check out our guide to webinar KPIs for more details.

3. How can I be sure that the webinar software I choose integrates with my existing tech stack?

Start by listing all the tools and platforms your team uses (e.g., email, CRM, social media, project management) and determine the key features essential to your operations. Then, understand the types of integrations you need, such as API access, compatibility with data syncing tools, and third-party connectors. Most platforms list all of their integrations publicly and you can always contact the vendors for more information.

Wrapping up our guide to the best webinar software for marketers

As you’ve seen, the right tool makes a huge difference in how you connect with your audience. Your choice of webinar platform can be the difference between a forgettable presentation and a memorable experience that people talk about. 

We hope this guide helps you find the best webinar software for your marketing team. If you want to hit the ground running, try Contrast for free and see just how easy it is to host webinars that are fun and exciting. We built it for marketers like you.