There are a number of similarities between the Meetings and Webinar platforms, but there are a number of significant differences.
A meeting is supposed to be a collaborative event in which there is the opportunity for all participants to view each other’s screens, turn on their video and audio, and see other participants in attendance as well.
We design our webinars so that your host and any of the designated panelists, who may be participating in the webinar, can share their screen, audio and video. If necessary, your host can also remove the muted status from participants. Attendees who view only a webinar in conjunction with virtual sessions have the ability to interact with the webinar through Q&A, chat, and polls. It is not possible to change the name of a webinar participant.
Meetings versus webinars
Meeting
Webinar
A Zoom meeting is ideal for hosting interactive sessions where participants will have lots of opportunities to interact or if you want to break your meeting down into smaller groups.
Think about webinars as virtual lecture halls or auditoriums. For public events with large audiences, webinars are a great solution. Webinar participants tend not to interact with each other during the webinar session. The Zoom platform is an excellent tool for you to interact with your audience in a more social manner, but your typical webinar will consist of a few speakers speaking to a very large audience.
Generally speaking, Zoom is most effective with medium to large groups of 2+ attendees.
It is also a good tool for meetings with customers.
For example, sales meetings.
As well as training sessions.
We have produced large events and public broadcasts (over 50 people in attendance) such as the following:
Town hall meetings
with quarterly updates
as well as educational lectures
for a variety of audiences
including general employees
as well as training groups
that host events
aimed at senior executives and the C-Suite
level of management, this publication is both free of charge and available on a subscription basis.
Paid Add-on, available to Pro or higher subscriptions.
Meeting and webinar feature comparison
Feature
Meeting
Webinar
Participant roles
Host and co-host
Participant
Learn more about Meeting Roles.
Host and co-host
Panelist
Attendee
Learn more about Webinar Roles.
Audio sharing
All participants can mute/unmute their own audio
Host can mute/request to unmute participants
The host can set all participants to mute upon entry
Only the host and panelists can mute/unmute their own audio
Attendees join in listen-only mode*
The host can unmute one or more attendees
Video sharing
All participants
Hosts and panelists
Screen sharing
✔
✔
Capacity
Up to 100 with free license, up to 1,000 depending on plan and large meeting add-on.
Ranging between 500-50,000 participants, depending on the license.
Participants list
Visible to all participants
Visible to host and panelist
Email reminders
N/A
If registration is enabled
Chat
In-meeting chat
Webinar chat
Meeting reactions
✔
Only raise hand
Q&A
N/A
✔
File transfer
✔
✔
Whiteboard
✔
✔
Annotation
✔
✔
Polling
Polling for meetings
Polling for webinars
Surveys
Surveys for meetings
Surveys for webinars
Livestream
Facebook, YouTube, Workplace by Facebook, Custom Streaming Service
Facebook, YouTube, Workplace by Facebook, Custom Streaming Service
Registration
Registration for meetings
Registration for webinars
Closed captioning
✔
✔
Recording
✔
✔
Breakout rooms
✔
N/A
Practice session
N/A
✔
Waiting room
✔
N/A
Paypal integration
N/A
✔
Require password to join
✔
✔
International dial-in numbers
✔
✔
*Note:
The host or co-host can enable the attendees’ microphones, as well as mute and unmute themselves, if they allow Allow to talk to be enabled.
