Almost all organizations use web conferencing tools and webinars for meetings and training recruits. Generally, people mistake both platforms for the same. Why should they not? As both platforms offer video sharing, messaging, voice chats, project collaborations, etc. However, both platforms are different from one another.
A webinar is a setup for one-to-many presentations, whereas a conferencing tool is a setup for many-to-many. Being different does not affect their usage. Organizations around the globe use web conferencing tools and webinars for several purposes. However, the question is, what platform is best for your organization? Both platforms have their benefits, so deciding on one can be hard.
However, if we say some applications support both, your choice will become easy. We have prepared a list of the four tools that support both web conferencing tools and webinars. Let’s get started.
4 Tools for Web Conferencing and Webinar:
Zoom:
Zoom is one of the most prevalent apps for online meetings and video conferencing. Zoom offers services like free video calls, advanced chat rooms, connectors, integrations, etc. to support your organization regardless of size. The application has flexible features that allow you to use Zoom for small meetings to large public webinars.
Moreover, the feature to record meetings in the cloud and high-quality video makes Zoom stand out from other applications. The free version of Zoom includes 100 participants in limited-time meetings(40-minute). However, it does not support cloud storage. But with the subscription of Zoom pro at $14.99/month per host, you can enjoy additional features such as cloud recording, reporting, and admin controls. However, the number of participants remains at 100. Furthermore, using Zoom pro, the host can add video webinars allowing them to increase the number of view-only attendees to 10,000.
Microsoft Teams:
Another application that allows both web conferencing and webinars is Microsoft Teams. As a part of Office 365, Microsoft teams allow group and one-on-one video conferences in an organization. Moreover, using this application, you can transfer files to the participants. Microsoft team can work as a webinar tool, as it is developed for a large audience.
Microsoft teams is an easy-to-use platform and has top-notch collaboration or screen-sharing tools. This combination allows you to use Microsoft teams for both webinars and web conferencing. The free version of Microsoft Teams is more suitable for small enterprises, while others can use paid version starting at $12.50/month per user (under Office 365 premium subscription). Additionally, for immense webinars, you may opt for a $20/month subscription that allows unlimited users.
BlueJeans:
For the modern enterprise, BlueJeans provide three categories of platforms that involve meetings, rooms, and events. For web conferencing, you have BlueJeans Meeting and BlueJeans Rooms. Both platforms offer small-scale video calling, screen sharing, recording, and dial-up for users.
Moreover, with BlueJean’s room solution, you get all the necessary hardware to create a suitable shared meeting room ambiance. On the contrary, BlueJeans Events is more fitting for webinars as it offers features like Q&A and polling, recordings, chats, moderator control, and more. The subscription to BlueJeans starts at $12.49/month per user.
Adobe Connect:
Developed for multiple uses, Adobe Connect is a video conferencing platform for organizations. You can use Adobe Connect for web conferencing, learning modules, desktop sharing, one-on-one meetings, presentations, online training, and more. Users use Adobe connect as it offers personal meetings and webinars in one place.
Adobe Connect is a bit expensive, with pricing starting at $50/month for up to 25 participants. For webinars, the package starts at $130/month for up to 100 participants and $580/month for up to 1000 participants.
Conclusion:
In this era, collaboration tools have become essential for every organization. With remote employment increasing, it has become a must-have for enterprises. Web conferencing and webinars are the new way of professional meetings and planning projects. We have recommended the four best applications for you that offer web conferencing and webinars. We hope that our recommendations will help you in selecting the right platform.
