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Comparison of seven popular webinar and conference platforms

Recently, we shared several figures showing that many event organizers were not afraid of the online format and began to successfully adapt their seminars, lectures, and even entire conferences.

This time, we interviewed ten people who conducted more than a hundred online events regarding the platform used and the topic “online vs offline” in general. And yet - they made a small comparison of the main platforms, which included Google Hangouts, Zoom, GetCourse, Skype, Cisco Webex Meetengs, Discord and live broadcasts on YouTube.



So, we decided to compare the seven currently popular platforms for webinars and conferences, separately specifying the limitations of free accounts. Let's start with a general table, where the main features are immediately visible.


* - temporarily increased to 250.
** - temporarily increased to 50.
*** - they wrote about this in the news.

Why did we choose these platforms


  • Skype is actually a pioneer in this direction. Its release took place in 2003. This is not the first tool for organizing video calls, but due to the ease of registration, it quickly gained popularity, and already in 2009 the number of Skype accounts crossed over half a billion.
  • Google Hangouts — Google, 10 , G Suite ( Gmail, ..).
  • Zoom . . Gartner Zoom -.
  • Cisco Webex Meetings — ( ), .
  • GetCourse — .

In addition, we included in the review a couple of specialized tools that are not platforms for organizing video communications, but are now used as related tools:

  • Discord - we were prompted by an example of rapid adaptation of school distance education and some event organizers. For both, this platform is used as an accompanying tool for discussions during the webinar.
  • YouTube broadcasts - we included them in our review due to the increased popularity among the organizers.

A few words about each platform


Skype



www : skype.com

Perhaps he can be called the pioneer of mass consumer video communications. The service operates through a client that is downloaded and installed on a whole list of platforms. The web version is also available.

Advantages

Of the pluses is the ability to call landline and mobile numbers around the world, however, not for free. Moreover, even in Russia, you can substitute your mobile phone number in CALLER ID. In some countries, incoming calls to Skype from mobile via a special number are available.

The disadvantages of

Skype are more often used for small meetings or individual consultations. A large conference on Skype is a rarity.

Skype does not allow continuous communication for more than four hours. In addition, the volume of group video calls is limited to 100 hours per month (10 hours per day) - these are security limits set by developers.

The tool is often criticized for responding worse to network problems than the same Google Hangouts or Zoom. In addition, the mobile client is quite demanding on the resources of the device.

It is worth noting that Microsoft has a Skype for Business - did not fare as a standalone product in the Skype family, which has used athe best functionality. You cannot connect to a meeting in Skype for Business using regular Skype, but you can use the web client in a browser. Skype for Business has a feature for broadcasting meetings, which allows up to 10 thousand people to demonstrate what is happening (we have shown this in the table). But we did not begin to disassemble this product separately, because now it is being replaced by Microsoft Teams, which is a workspace for teams.

Google hangouts



www : hangouts.google.com

Google Hangouts is the heir to several of the company's services, introduced in 2013.

Advantages The

tool is convenient in that it is tied to calendars and Gmail. That is, making an appointment through the Google calendar, you automatically generate a link to the Google Hangouts room.

The Google Hangouts plugin can be used for group video calls from the popular Slack (the messenger was not included in our collection, since it focuses more on communication within teams).

Google Hangouts does not require additional registrations or activations: if you have a Google account, consider that there is also a registration in Hangouts. There is no problem switching between platforms and synchronizing chat and video call history.

disadvantages

The service does not do very well with video conferencing in an unstable environment. The free version supports no more than 10 participants - however, the local meeting can be automatically broadcast to YouTube.

In 2017, two services for corporate users appeared immediately on the basis of the tool: Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat. At the end of 2018, the upcoming closure of Google Hangouts was announced with the transfer of users to new services. True, specific dates were not called. Given the global situation, Google is unlikely to dare to do so in the coming months. Because of coronavirus, the company from the beginning of March, on the contrary, increased the allowable number of participants in video conferencing to 250. This limit will continue until July 1, 2020.

It is noteworthy that Google Hangouts has the ability to interact with other video conferencing tools, for example, Skype for Business, through the Pexip gateway. This is an important step in the video market, where each developer uses their own protocols and codecs, not being able to interact with competing services. But setting up this interaction is a separate matter.

Zoom



www : zoom.us

In a matter of days, Zoom has become the de facto standard for small webinars and discussions. In the news, an avalanche-like growth of users is noted, including due to the education segment, which almost completely went away.

The same tool is used at larger events to organize the interaction of listeners with speakers after a speech or in between (for example, Zoom was used in this way in the framework of the recently translated Moscow Python Conf ++ 2020 online format).

Advantages

Zoom focuses on relatively large meetings. Unlike competitors, there are “hand raising” functions and various organizer tools that allow you to control video communication. It is also important that the event can be recorded both in the local system and in the cloud. In addition to competitors, Zoom consumes relatively little traffic.

On paid tariffs, Zoom has an API for implementing additional functions. In general, the tool has many options, and it is possible to pay only for the functions used. In the list you can even find reporting and interaction with Outlook or Lync. There are separate packages for organizers of webinars for a specific audience. The organizer pays for this tariff only - participants are connected for free.

disadvantages

They are conditional. For example, a conference cannot last more than 24 hours. Other restrictions depend on the selected tariff plan.

Free of charge in Zoom, you can hold video calls for up to 100 people lasting no more than 40 minutes. One-on-one time limits do not apply to communication.

Cisco Webex Meetings



www : webex.com/video-conferencing

Enterprise-level tool from the "monster" of Cisco videoconferencing solutions. For companies, the plus of the solution is that it interfaces with hardware videoconferencing solutions and specialized devices that could be integrated earlier. For end users who only recently went to a remote site, this functionality is not particularly interesting, but we could not mention the solution.

Officially, the tool is available in Russia only through partners - it will not work to register and download a client without a VPN. Tariff policy also depends on partners.

Getcourse



www : getcourse.ru

This platform is designed for online education and earnings in this market. It allows you to create lessons and courses that are held live or are provided to subscribers in the recording automatically according to a specific schedule (the frequency of sending pre-recorded courses can be set).

The tariffication of the service depends on the number of connected users (course listeners) who are authorized in the system. File storage is paid separately.

Advantages

In addition to the video courses themselves, the platform offers tools for completing tasks, monitoring and multi-level user management and fundraising, as well as lecturer communication with students for mobile platforms - Chatium.

Unfortunately, the tool does not have a free tariff, but it offers a trial version with a limit of up to 1000 users. At paid rates, lectures are available for a wide audience (in the terminology of our review - broadcasts) and webinars. There is a limit on the number of participants (up to 500), while any of them can speak.

Discord



www : discordapp.com

Discord messenger was originally created for fans of computer games, but with the massive transition to udalenka it began to be used for online events and even for online learning in schools (on the personal initiative of students). At large online conferences, it is used as a multi-channel means of communication between participants and speakers, in parallel with the main lecture.

The main features of the service are provided free of charge. For $ 5 (or rather $ 4.99) per month, you can personalize your profile, transfer large files and 1080p video streams at 60 frames per second (screen demonstration - up to 1080p @ 30fps or 720p @ 60fps). There is a more expensive tariff, including a boost server.

It is noteworthy that due to the pandemic, the number of conference participants was temporarily increased from 10 to 50 people.

In general, regular users are very positive about Discord.

Youtube Broadcasts




Against the background of other described sites, YouTube stands out for its focus on broadcasting a video stream without interacting with a speaker. The only way to ask a question is to write it in the comments and hope that the speaker will look there.

The broadcast is not available for any account - only for those who have confirmed the phone number.

With all communication restrictions, YouTube broadcasts impress with their simplicity. Video can be broadcast from a computer’s webcam or from a mobile device from the application. YouTube Live supports HD video, but due to increased traffic during the pandemic, the service imposed a forced limit to SD.

What do those who have held dozens of webinars and online conferences say?


We managed to collect the opinion of ten people from our Leader-ID site , whose counter of online events has exceeded one hundred. Eight out of ten regularly use Zoom, noting a rich number of settings and options. The rest, due to the specifics, work more with webinar platforms (Webinar.ru, Yandex services).

When choosing a tool, you need to understand that the online format has its own characteristics. Here is what those who have been holding events remotely for several years have noted:

  • For the event organizer, online communication is more difficult than offline, because there is limited information that is “read” visually.
  • Some speakers avoid online speaking due to lack of feedback from the audience.
  • At an online event, it’s much harder to keep the viewer, because there are too many distractions around.

« , , , . - , , » — ( 166 Leader-ID).

However, online events have their advantages. For example, the speaker can be asked questions in a separate virtual space for at least several hours in a row, while listening to other reports. You can also cheat and record a report in advance so that everything goes smoothly during the conference. At the same time, during the reproduction of the report in "live" mode, answer questions in the chat.

It is not necessary to use one tool to demonstrate the report and its subsequent discussion. You can broadcast video through one platform and simultaneously conduct discussions using another, which is more suitable for discussion.
“There are no minuses and pluses in online and offline - there are features” - Elena Stasova (121 events at the “Leader”).

« , » — (95 «»).


For regular seminars and lectures in Zoom favorites. There are the most management tools and the largest number of possible participants. This choice is also confirmed by the "old men" who held a huge number of online events through our site.

You can also take a look at Google Hangouts as a free tool. Despite the restriction of 10 participants, the video, with a slight delay, can be automatically broadcast to YouTube, where the audience is no longer limited.

In general, the massive transition of events to online is a new and not yet fully understood phenomenon. We still have to identify many interesting patterns, especially when the pros who did large-scale events offline go there.

In the meantime, as a joke on the topic of the test of new formats, we’ll apply such a screenshot.



Well, as they say, in every joke there is a fraction of a joke. A couple of quarantined weekends - and such online meetings may well become a reality not only for the harsh IT people who have long settled in Zoom.

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