Best Cheap Webinar Software in 2021 and Beyond

Webinars have come to mean a lot for most companies and businesses.

And we are not surprised. The pandemic is here with no indicators of it ending soon.

The bane of being restricted from holding meetings and events physically has catapulted webinars from the caves to the open field.

They have proved to be far from a last resort though. Webinars are really benefiting all kinds of set-ups in ways few other business practices ever will.

So what am I implying? Webinars are here to stay.

The issue now is choosing the right kind of webinar software for your business.

There are several metrics for judging based on individual situations but in this review, we are singling out just a single factor that every business or company must grapple with.

And that’s pricing. Or better still, cheapness.

What are Webinar Software?

Webinar software refers to software used in hosting webinars.

They range in different categories from the ones that are cloud based to the ones that require you to install an application.

They are also not created equal. Some webinar software are built for hosting only certain types of webinars.

Others take a longer shot and are capable of running all kinds of webinars.

How to Choose the Most Suitable Webinar Software?

Choosing the most suitable webinar software depends on the needs of your business.

You should consider what kinds of webinars you should be hosting. Try to evaluate which kinds of webinars rhyme more with your audience.

In other words, the kind of webinar software you should use depends on how you want to use the webinar to interact with your audience.

And needless to say, your budget also dictates which kind of webinar software will be friendly to you.

Best Cheap Webinar Software for Business

So we are finally here. In this review, I have gone to great lengths to isolate the 7 affordable webinar software you might want to try out.

#1 Crowdcast

The first on our list, Crowdcast is a webinar software for hosting live events.

With Crowdcast, you can host your events in any form whether through presentations, products demos or simply sharing videos of whatever your company or business is up to.

With Crowdcasts, you don’t have to worry about audience capacity. You can host an unlimited number of attendees and even admit new guests with the event running.

The registration page is designed to help you customize everything about your event.  It is where you create and customize your URL, videos, images and descriptions to capture leads.

Confusion is knocked out as all the actions a viewer will perform such as registering, watching and replaying  are all in one link.

Crowdcast also makes it very easy for your audience to register for your online events and stay alert to them.

That means you, the event creator, can send push notifications to remind your audience at regular intervals before the event.

You can also send after-event emails to thank your audience or to get their thoughts on your event.

If you don’t want to do all the talking, Crowdcast has you covered as well. The tool allows you to invite a co-host, guest or attendees to come on screen.

And when things get interactive, you can allow audience participation.

Pros and Cons

Crowdcast is good but like every other human production, it has both sides to it.

That’s why we have to look again at where it delivers and where it under delivers.

Its pros are:

• Simplicity of style and excellent customer support
• Great interface and multitude of useful features
• Good video recording quality
• Supports various kinds of webinars (live, evergreen, hybrid)

Cons

• No microphone input availability to use headphones on the software itself.
• Lack of support for Safari. Apple users will thus have to make do with chrome.

Pricing Plans

The lowest plan is the starter plan which goes for 29$ monthly or 20$ monthly for the annual plan.

Up next is the lite plan which goes for 49$ or 34$ for monthly billing and annual billing respectively.

The next plan is the pro plan which is billed at 89$ (billed monthly) or 62$ (billed annually)

Lastly, we have the business plan which goes for 195$ or 135$ for recurring monthly and annual billing respectively

#2 Demio

Demio is a browser-based webinar platform meaning you won’t need any software before you attend webinars—all you need is a browser.

The platform works across all browsers and operating systems and supports more than 10 integrations with third party apps.

Many demio users report that the software has a clean, intuitive user interface and that came true when I was testing the software.

Demio packs a powerful punch with its host of webinar-enhancing tools.

For example, you can run webinars at your schedule with automated webinars that can be set to run at a preset time.

Demio also has a lot of visual-enhancing tools that can be tweaked to make your webinars as beautiful as they are informative.

But even before you release the webinar, there is a lot you can do to promote your webinar.

Nothing sucks like a webinar no one knows of. Demio has features that literally put your upcoming webinars right in front of your audience.

From professionally crafted templates to all capturing landing pages and customizable email notifications, Demio has your needs in mind.

You can even embed your registration pages on any landing pages or blogs.

Demio also waxes strong in hosting live events. You can run multiple events for any number of days and then with advanced reporting and analytics run collect all data about the webinars.

Does Demio support HD streaming? Yes and you don’t need to download or install anything extra for that.

Pros and Cons

Demio’s pros include:

• Ease of use and set up
• Sessions can be recorded automatically.
• Ability to send automated reminders with a customized message
• Supports various types of webinars

Cons

• Inability to send a replay link to people who attended on-demand or evergreen webinars so they can watch again if they missed it.

Pricing

There are three billing tiers: starter, growth and premium. The starter and premium go for 34$ and 69$ annually respectively.

For the premium, you have to connect with the Demio sales team via any of their contact handles.

#3 Webinarninja

Webinarninja screams live events and webinars that you can convert to products that your attendees can pay for.

Training sessions, online courses and presentations are also another venture that Webinarninja can handle well.

Complementing it’s webinar hosting powers is the analytics capability. It allows you to access every data about your webinars so you can spot what worked and what could improve.

You can even track your Facebook ads performance.

There are a ton of other features that are trademarks of its webinar hosting prowess.

You can tweak webinar settings like registration pages, email notifications and thank you pages even after creating the webinar.

Webinar statistics show your conversion rates and engagement along with all the  chats and questions that accompanied your webinars.

For storing the templates, images, videos, and other elements of your webinars for reference or future use, the media library is provided.

For your integrations, Webinarninja ninja supports Stripe for processing payments.

Other integrations include MailChimp, Aweber, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, Drip and Zapier.

Thanks to the Webinarninja Academy, you can access resources that include every material you need in order to find your way around the platform.

Utilizing Webinarninja’s in-built audience engagement features also mean that your webinars can be as interactive as possible. Chats, questions and polls are their answer to that need.

Add to all that offers and CTA capabilities and then Webinarninja seems to be an all-round package.

Pros and Cons

• Webinarninja’s pros at a glance include
• Ease of use
• Lot of features
• Emphasis on customization

Cons

Leans more towards webinars as several attendees cannot participate simultaneously.

No option to test a webinar before releasing to see how it will perform.

Pricing

Starter – $49 per month (billed monthly) or $39 per month (billed annually)

Pro – $95 per month (billed monthly) or $79 per month (billed annually)

Plus – $159 per month (billed monthly) or $129 per month (billed annually)

Power – $249 per month (billed monthly) or $199 per month (billed annually)

There is also a free 14 days trial.

#4 Clickmeeting

Clickmeeting is for both webinars and meetings. As such, even small businesses may find it a great tool for  video conferencing.

It has its own feature set that make it perform enough to be considered such as background skins, thank you pages, automatic thank you emails and so on.

It’s not too hard to set up meetings. It all starts in your dashboard and you can choose between a scheduled event or a permanent event.

All meeting features are supported such as adding agendas, inviting participants and presenters and then the waiting room in case you don’t want to start the meeting right away.

File sharing is also available and that can be done from your desktop or Dropbox account.

You can create the meeting such that late entries are denied access to the meeting.

Meeting recording is also available if presenters wish to.

The different audio modes allow you to dictate the level of audience participation throughout the meeting.

Presenter mode admits only presenters, Q and A mode means it’s time for audience participation and Listen Only ensures that all attendees are muted throughout the meeting.

Then there is Discussion mode which allows conversations between all in the meeting.

Pros and cons

• Excellent private chat
• Good audio and video quality
• Commendable screen-share feature

Cons

• System quality is not always reliable. Lags with more attendees.
• Poor customer support.

Pricing

Click meeting comes in two pricing formats: live and automated

They are billed at 35$ and 45$ monthly for the monthly billing or 25$ and 40$ monthly respectively for the annual billing

For trial purposes, there is a 30-day free trial.

#5 Webinarjam

Webinarjam takes a cloud-based approach to webinars. They state their mission in this quote from their website:

Ideal for… anyone having an audience to connect with, a product to sell, a coaching program to share, or a presentation to deliver.

To achieve the needs of their users, the team behind Webinarjam built the software to host a large number of attendees (up to 5000) and presenters (up to 6)

Blurry video makes most of us tune out fast but I’m sure that’s not going to happen with Webinarjam.

The software packs along HD video quality that is touted to look flashy across any monitor, yes even your smartphone.

I also could not fault Webinarjam in terms of interactiveness.

All options for live chat are supported viz:

Question and answer, private comments, moderation capabilities, highlighted comments, sticky announcements, etc.

Other features supported include replica replays for recording every nuance of the webinar, flexible scheduling, and everything else that cuts out the hassle from registration to streaming.

Pros and Cons

• Standout features of Webinarjam include:
• Step by step training to make sure you get the hang of the software.
• Ample customization powers
• “Panic Button” that immediately boots up a brand new live room and automatically transfers all presenters and attendees into it. Within 10 to 15 seconds, everybody will be ready to resume the broadcast where you left off.

Cons

• Slight but noticeable delay between the live action and what appears on the screen.

Pricing

WebinarJam’s pricing is split in three tiers.

The lowest is the basic followed by the pro and then the enterprise.

They cost 499$, 699$ and 999$ annually. The fee is not paid every month but once per year.

#6 Livestorm

LiveStorm takes after Webinarjam and some other webinar hosting platforms in being a cloud based service.

Which means with Livestorm as well, you can stream webinars and events from any location with an internet connection and on any device.

The software is simple to use and while it’s not as robust in features as some other platforms, it does what it does well.

That said, all the usual suspects are here such as registration page building tools, email notifications, automated, on-demand and live webinars, replays and audience engagement tools like live chat.

If there is anything that seriously needs to be improved on, it’s customisation. When it comes to that, it is swept off its feet by other webinar software.

The software is ideal though for hosting product demos, live events, employee onboarding and more.

Livestorm also doesn’t miss out on integrations. It does that well with a host of third party software to enhance your productivity.

Event analytics are also supported. You can, with that, see metrics that reveal the success of your webinar.

Pros and Cons

• It offers the advantage of automating emails before and after the webinar
• On Livestorm, you can invite a co-host that’s not your subscribe
• Lots of integrations

Cons

• You cannot switch the screen you are sharing without stopping the screen share.
• No automatic call-to-action during the webinar replay recording
• Call to action by attendees are one-time only. Once closed, they can’t be recovered.

Pricing

Livestorm has a free version that allows unlimited events and moderators but is limited in all other areas .

The next plans are the premium and enterprise plans. It costs 99$ monthly billed annually to upgrade to the premium plan.

For the enterprise plan, you’ll have to contact the sales team.

#7 DaCast

DaCast is somewhat different from the other software we’ve talked about above.

The rest are consumer oriented. DaCast is, however, B2B meaning it serves as a kind of cross business platform.

It’s main niche is in streaming online video content.

In other words, it allows businesses to broadcast and host live and on-demand video content as well as offer free or paid programming to other businesses.

DaCast presents itself as a cloud based SaaS solution (software as a service) and

streaming service all at once.

The platform allows users to monetize their video content via an integrated paywall into the media player or via ads integration.

Users are not limited to streaming video content alone though. Presentations that are entirely audio can also be handled by DaCast.

Pros and Cons

• Satisfactory tech support and streaming
• Intuitive and easy to use interface.

Cons

• Frequent problem of latency up to 15 minutes.

Pricing

DaCast pricing varies based on the bandwidth required to stream your video.

Remember it is a video streaming service that you can send your content to for publicity.

So if you’re uploading heavy, lengthy  content for streaming, you can expect to be charged higher fees.

Which is the Cheapest Webinar Software?

We aren’t looking for killer specs here as our main focus is which webinar software will not break your budget.

That’s definitely something to consider if you are a small business and are on a low budget.

In this review, we are giving the crown to Livestorm. It doesn’t only charge low subscription fees but also offers a free version, something that’s rare in this niche.

Wrapping Up

And there you have it. Whether you are a small business owner or head a large company, this review must have got you covered.

Keep in mind though that cheapest doesn’t guarantee a particular software as being the best.

So you might also want to judge the above-mentioned tools based on other factors as well.