Choosing a System for Online Presentations

As the presenter or producer of the online session, you can think of yourself as a bus driver. You are responsible for getting a group from one location to another, and you want to use the best vehicle possible to make it happen. Just as buses are all different in their design, so too are online presentation tools varied in their cost, technical difficulty and features. When advising individuals on what to choose for their webinar solution, I always encourage people to first figure out whether they currently have access to any enterprise level solutions as part of their affiliation with a particular organization or institution. Because the heavy hitting enterprise level solutions for webinars are out of the price range of the casual user, chances are that you’ll only have access to the goods if someone else is footing the bill. Take advantage of what you already have – free technology doesn’t guarantee quality, but it’ll get you in the driver’s seat a lot quicker. If you don’t have access to an e-meeting solution, you’ll need to figure out your budget and look at solutions that meet that requirement. And don’t worry if you’ve got $0 to spend – many online meeting solutions can be acquired for free.

Next, you’ll want to figure out how many people that you’d like to have attend the webinar. Many of the free tools have participant limits, and some cannot support the heavy bandwidth of having numerous individuals broadcasting video all at once.

Lastly, you’ll need to decide if any of the bells and whistles that you are looking to implement are non-negotiables. Polling, recording, chat features and screen sharing are not available on all platforms, so you may want to choose based on how you’d like to set up your session.

The chart below gives descriptions of the main features of several popular online meeting tools, along with links to their sites where you can learn more. If you have a particular tool that you like that is not featured on this list, contact me with the name of the application, a link to their website, and a brief description of why you prefer to use it.

Comparing Popular eMeeting, Webinar and Online Presentation Programs

Last updated: November 20, 2012 at 4:14 am

Name	Cost	Users	Polling	Chat	Video	Whiteboard	Mobile	Recording
Name	Cost	Participants	Polling	Chat	Video	Whiteboard	Mobile	Recording
Adobe Connect Adobe offers a free trial and a pay-per-use plan at $0.32/min per user.	$45/mo	25	Yes	Yes	Unlimited	Yes	Yes	Yes
AnyMeeting This competitive solution is feature rich and free if you don't mind embedded ads.	$0	200	Yes	Yes	6	Yes	No	Yes
Blackboard Collaborate Formerly Elluminate, Collaborate offers additional asynchronous tools for recording and presenting and a freel trial.	Contact	400	Yes	Yes	Unlimited	Yes	Yes	Yes
Citrix GoToMeeting GoToMeeting also offers premium users the ability to create integrated registration systems.	$49-499/mo	25-1000	Yes	Yes	6	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cisco WebEx WebEx also offers an enterprise version that allows up to 500 users.	$0-49/mo	3-25	Yes	Yes	3-25	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fuzebox Fuzebox offers a 14 day trial and the ability to demo the software.	$15-69/mo	15-100	No	Yes	4-12	Yes	Yes	Yes
Google Hangout Recording feature kicks directly out to YouTube, so if privacy is an issue, this might not be for you.	$0	10	No	Yes	10	Yes	Yes	Yes
iMeet iMeet boasts heavy mobile support, social media sign-in and a slick customizable interface.	$19-59/mo	15	No	Yes	15	No	Yes	No
JoinMe JoinMe is typically used for on the fly screen shares, but with its low price tage, could be a viable solution for demos and presentations.	$0-19/mo	250	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Meeting Burner With one of the more generous free downloads, you can take advantage of a lot of enterprise level features on a nonexistent budget.	$0-$99/mo	10-1000	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
MegaMeeting For a little extra, you can also take advantage of customized interface designs and unique branding.	$39/mo and up	Unlimited	Yes	Yes	1-16	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Lync Online Microsoft's foray into synchronous online meetings, Lync seamlessly integrates with Office to increase productivity.	Contact	Unlimited	Yes	Yes	Unlimited	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mikogo Of their unique features, multi-language support might be particularly useful to global participants and language teachers.	$13-24/mo	3-25	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
OnCam Primarily video broadcasting software, OnCam gives participants the ability to publish content directly to their social media feeds.	$0	Unlimited	No	Yes	10	No	Yes	Yes
ooVoo ooVoo offers video chat and messaging with a bevy of features that make it close to many more expensive webinar solutions.	$0-$3/mo	12	No	Yes	12	No	Yes	Yes
Open-Tok Essentially an embeddable widget for interaction, Open-Tok is like a connection point that can be placed anywhere.	$0-2000/mo	Unlimited	No	Yes	Unlimited	No	Yes	Yes ($0.67/min)
Saba Saba also offers enterprise level solutions for up to 3000 users.	$0-$31/mo	4-40	Yes	Yes	4-40	Yes	Yes	Yes
Skype Free for group audio calls, but video calls will cost you extra.	$0-$4.50/mo	25	No	Yes	10	No	Yes	No
Vyew Built with classrooms in mind, Vyew has an interface that's particularly appealing to younger learners.	$0-$20/mo	10-100	Yes	Yes	6	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yugma Yugma also has a nifty plugin that works with your pre-existing Skype account.	$0-$160/mo	2-500	Yes	Yes	10	Yes	No	Yes

Do Your Homework

You’ll notice that this chart doesn’t rate or rank each of the individual platforms. Although I have my favorites on this list, I want you to be able to choose a product that works for your unique needs. Do a quick Google search on each of the applications above and you’ll get a bevy of reviews from users who have seen the performance of each product in action. And if you still want to know how I rate each of the above, contact me for more info.

Try Before You Buy

While many of the applications may seem out of reach due to cost, check out their websites to see if they have the option to try before you buy. Just about all of the applications listed above offer free trials with the same functionality as the full versions.

Creative Customization

Do you have a tool in mind that is just about what you need for your session, but not quite there? Consider bringing in third-party applications to build your own webinar with all the bells and whistles that you want. No polling feature? Consider using a free, web and mobile-supported polling system such as PollEverywhere. No recording feature? Records the session yourself using screen capture software such as Camtasia ($299 Retail – Ed Discount Available), Jing ($0) or Microsoft Expression Encoder ($0).

Consider Hosting the Party

If you are super adept with technology but have a limited budget, you may also consider downloading and running your own webinar software. Big Blue Button and OpenMeetings offer 100% solutions with the trade off that you handle the hosting and the maintenence.