How to choose a webinar platform: what to check before you decide

Search for a webinar platform and you'll find a long list of options that all promise roughly the same thing. The differences usually show up in the middle of your first broadcast: a viewer who can't get in from their phone, a recording that vanished after a week, a reminder email that went out in the wrong language.

This article doesn't recommend a particular platform. It gives you a list of questions to ask, in roughly the order they matter. Run each option you're considering through it and see what's left.

First: what do you actually need

Before comparing anything, write down a few lines for yourself:

• Who the audience is: customers, members, employees, students.
• Roughly how many people attend, and the most you expect.
• How many webinars a month, and how long.
• What happens afterwards. Just a recording, or also a course, sales, a repeat broadcast.

These answers rule out half the options before you open a single website. Someone running one webinar a month for fifty people doesn't need what an organization broadcasting weekly to a thousand needs.

How your audience joins

This is the most important question, so it comes first. Every step a viewer has to take before they see you costs you part of your audience.

• Do they need to download software or an app?
• Do they need to create an account or sign in?
• Does it work on a phone, in the normal browser, with nothing to install? Many viewers will join from a phone, sometimes from the car or the couch.
• Which browsers are supported?

The only way to know is to try it: open a test broadcast link on someone else's phone, one that has nothing installed, and count the taps it takes them to get in.

How many viewers, and for how long

Every platform has limits, and they change by plan. Check:

• How many viewers can join at once, and what happens to people who arrive when the room is full. "Can't get in" and "leaves an email and gets the recording" are very different outcomes.
• The maximum length of a broadcast, and whether you can extend it mid-session when the questions keep coming.
• How many webinars a month are included, and what happens if you need one more.

Whose brand does the audience see

Look at everything the audience sees, not just the broadcast room: the registration page, the confirmation email, the reminder, the waiting screen, the end screen. Ask:

• Can you upload a logo and pick a color, and do they appear in all those places?
• Does the platform's own logo appear, and on which plans?
• What web address does your audience see, and can you connect your own domain?

We go into this in branded webinars.

Control over who gets in

Not every webinar is open to everyone. Check which options exist: open to anyone with the link, registration with a personal link, an invite list, or a check against a standing member list. For clubs, associations and communities, that last one matters a lot. More in members-only webinars.

What you can do during the broadcast

Things worth checking in the room itself:

• Screen sharing.
• Bringing guests on stage, and letting viewers ask to join.
• Chat, and whether you can moderate it: slow it down, close it, remove a message.
• Questions kept separate from the chat, with a way to mark them answered.
• Polls.
• A button that appears on screen at the moment you choose, to register or buy.
• An operator role, so someone can run the chat and polls behind the scenes.
• Live captions, for accessibility and for people watching with the sound off.

You won't need all of these for your first webinar. It's good to know they're there when you do.

Language

If your audience speaks more than one language, check what each viewer sees. Are the buttons, registration page and emails available in their language? Can a viewer switch the interface themselves? Do captions follow the language of the session? A platform that handles only one language well can be awkward for an international audience.

Recordings and what comes after

• Is every broadcast recorded, and where do you find the recording?
• How long is it kept, and do you get a warning before it's removed?
• Can you download it, and open a replay at the same link?
• What report do you get: who came, how long they stayed, and in what format?
• Does a thank-you email go out, and what happens to unanswered questions?

This whole stage has its own article: what to do after a webinar.

Privacy and who owns your audience

The list of people who register for your webinars is valuable. Read what the platform does with it. Is it yours? Is it sold or shared? Does your audience receive marketing from the platform itself? It's also worth checking whether there's an accessibility statement, and which standard it follows.

Your team

If you don't work alone, check how many people you can add to the account and what each one can do. An admin who sets things up, a speaker who only presents, an operator who runs the chat.

Price: read the details

The number on the pricing page is only the start. Check:

• Whether you can pay for a single webinar, or only for a monthly plan.
• What the free plan includes, if there is one, and what it leaves out.
• Whether there are extra fees, for example on sales.
• How you cancel, and what happens to your recordings afterwards.

How to test one properly

Once you're down to two or three options, run the same test on each:

1. Watch a demo broadcast, if there is one, from the audience's side.
2. Open a free account and set up a webinar with your logo.
3. Invite two friends, one on a computer and one on a phone.
4. Share your screen, run a poll, bring one of them on stage.
5. End it, then look at what you got: the recording, the report, the emails.

Half an hour like that tells you more than any comparison table. If this is your first webinar ever, also read how to host a webinar.

Put us through the same list

Kolcast is open to exactly this test. Your audience joins from the browser, on a computer or a phone, with nothing to download and no account, and each viewer can switch the buttons to their own language. You can watch the live demo broadcast, read the FAQ, compare plans and prices, and run one webinar free with no credit card.