Do-It-Yourself webinars for marketing, training, & more
4.5/5 (445 review)Pluspunten
There is one thing that really sets GoToWebinar apart from the competition in my opinion. First, if you subscribe to GoToWebinar Pro, you can pre-record and fully automate your webinars. If you run webinars in a timezone that's 12 hours behind or ahead of you, it's a HUGE lifesaver to be able to record a webinar a month in advance and have a fully-automated version of it run during the middle of the night when you're sleeping warm and happy at home. There's zero manual input required to run a recorded webinar which is amazing. Simply schedule the webinar, invite people to attend, and it's all done for you! Do see my note below regarding the one downside to recorded webinars with Goto.
In general, GoToWebinar seems to have the largest number of native integrations (integrations that don't require you to cobble something together with a third-party API connector).
From every other standpoint, I'd say GoToWebinar is on par with most solutions out there.
Minpunten
There are some quirks related to the setup of webinars that can be a bit frustrating and the customization of the webinar landing pages and emails is so minimal that it might as well be non-existent. Basically you slap your logo on the email and that's where the customization ends.
For recorded webinars, there's one big downside. You need to have the recording of the webinar done at the time that you schedule the webinar. This means that if you are planning to record a webinar in a month, you'll have to schedule the recorded version at a later date. We get around this now by hosting the recorded webinars one month after the original, however it would be much better if you could simply create a standard webinar, and change it to a recorded one after it's already been created.
A little pricey compared to some of the competition, but a LOT more affordable than others.
Pluspunten
- We can invite more people to join a live webinar before start the meeting.
- It is vet easy to connect to webinar meeting. With a few simple clicks from an email we can connect to meeting without any interference and hurdles in between.
- With the good speed of internet connection you can have a video with good call quality and clear vision.
- You can record the session too for future use and train more people with the same recording without repeating those things twice.
- Good software to conduct remote meetings with geographically distant colleagues.
- We can share screen too, so that other people will get more idea about what we want them to understand.
- You can transfer the rights of sharing of the screen too.
- you can submit the feedback after end of meeting for better improvements.
Minpunten
- This platform stuck and freeze more often compare to other remote meeting tools.
- If you do not have an accurate internet connection, then there is no use of this tool.
- The incident had happened to us that we were around 10 people in a meeting and not a single person was able to hear another person’s voice. Even after login and logout several times in tool. At last we had to switch that meets on another tool.
- We have to wait outside the main meeting page if the organizer is late.
I use this software to do a weekly webinar with our clients. Through this software, we can interact with a lot of people at the same time. They can ask us questions, and we can easily communicate with them and solve their queries. We are also using it to connect with our remote employees.
Pluspunten
GoToWebinar is a fantastic tool to host online webinars. It is pretty straightforward to get started. You can sign up in the software very quickly and begin organising great webinars.
The best feature which I liked the most about GoToWebinar is that we can send live questionnaire about the concept or theme of the webinar or we can directly talk to them about any issue faced during that time. In this manner, we get complete control over the webinar.
There are cases when someone is not able to attend a webinar due to some reason. In GoToWebinar, we can have a recorded copy of the webinar directly stored in our dashboard and then, we can also share the link with the participants of the webinar who were not present at the time it was being broadcasted. They can watch them through that link.
It automatically sends the webinar reminder to all the attendees just a few minutes before the webinar starts.
Minpunten
One thing which I would like to mention is to keep the chats scrolling automatically just like in the case of YouTube.
Sometimes, when I am taking coding cases, I would like to see the code on the webinar attendee's screen to correct or debug the code. So, I would love to see a video conferencing type feature to be added.
GoToWebinar helped us edit the content of our presentations, pertaining to the feedback we gained from our attendees. It was fairly easy to use and our clients were all familiar with the software so we never had issues with them not knowing what to do when logging in.
Pluspunten
What I liked most about GoToWebinar's software is that when we were putting together a presentation, it allowed us to invite hundreds of people. We were presenting to various sister hotels and knew we would have a large group that would exceed that of GoToMeeting's capacity, and I believe GoToWebinar had a limit of 1000 attendees at the time, which was more than we needed, but great to know we had the flexibility to invite more. It was also super helpful that attendees had to register to attend, allowing us to see exactly how many people were actually opening their invitations and interested in attending. Once we saw a general estimate of how many people would attend, we could tailor our presentation to make it more generic vs specific in order to address a larger group. The reporting functionality is by far the best feature for us as a sales team. We could see who came, who did the polls, how interested the attendees were, and poll results. It was eye opening for us to see that although we had a large turnout, the interest wasn't as great as we had expected. From that experience, we were able to analyze and re-evaluate the content of our next presentation based off of feedback we received.
Minpunten
I was a sales manager using the software so this didn't apply to me, but I do know that the GM did not like how expensive it was. He would often complain about the cost, but it wasn't enough for us to get rid of the software because we valued the information we gathered while using it.
Our goal with GotoWebinar is to connect with a massive audience (100-1000) and essentially sell them something. And a interrupt can be costly. The time and resources to get the leads to attend a live call is expensive. And if there's lag or breakdown in the connection, leads drop off and they won't buy. GoToWebinar's connection is consistent and once more, with 3-4 webinars a week - we don't see any downtime. It works!
Pluspunten
From a business perspective, GoToWebinar works - with about 3-4 webinars per week, we rarely had a problem. It's a solid platform, and it just works. I also like that people can call into the webinar.
Minpunten
It's pretty ugly. It's one of those platforms where I have to spend a few days training a client how to use it. There's so many buttons and features tucked away. Competitors
It's also pretty expensive for most users, especially with alternatives like Facebook Live, Google Hangouts, etc.
If you cannot determine it already - I'm a HUGE fan of this tool. I believe they are a frontrunner of the technology and hopefully will continue to be so.
Pluspunten
What don't I like is a better question. The software is flexible, user friendly, and it seems the engineers thought of everything. It takes some practice to get the hang of it, especially if you are the host and/or co-host and plan to change hosting roles in the middle of a meeting; nevertheless it is one of the best tools of its kind I've worked with and well worth the money. There are so many features from how you schedule meetings through video versus audio only, recording options, sharing screens or documents and even creating documents in the presentation. It's a fabulous tool to support business. Also customer service is amazing - I had an emergency 5 minutes before a meeting was about to start and called for help. The rep was able to get me up and running in time for the meeting.
Minpunten
The cost can be prohibitive for non-profits, which is what I mostly consult with, however, they have (at least in the past) priced for non-profits and/or you can typically find discounts through other sources.
- GoToWebinar has solved multiple issues related to:
1. Audience engagement - by using polls and active attendees
2. Capturing the number of registrants and actually attending
3. System requirements are minimal. So even low end devices can join as well.
4. No dropped connections or chopped audio
Pluspunten
- Easy to create events and inviting people
- Options for muting everyone to reduce background noise and only presenters can speak
- option for users to provide individual feedback after the session
- Webinar recording quality is commendable
- Desktop and phone app are pretty stable
Minpunten
- Need to run desktop version instead of web to get full experience otherwise user is limited with options
- Sometimes i have experienced sharing and audio issues
Overall, Gotowebinar works. Like a old workhorse, it's reliable and we never had issues with it.
Unfortunately like a old workhorse, there will be a time when something better comes our way and we move to that. While we found great webinar software that does have more features - they aren't as reliable as GoToWebinar.
Pluspunten
It's incredibly reliable. There's no other webinar software on the market that is as reliable as GoToWebinar. Visit a webinar from your computer, and the GTW app installs. There's a GTW app for those on mobile devices and you can dial in.
I also love their cloud recording.
Minpunten
At least 2% of our visitors ALWAYS have audio or video problems. I know it has to do with their set-up, but it's a hiccup. (Note - with other webinar software, it's significantly waaay higher).
There's just also too many freakin' buttons when you're a host. We had to spend a few days training our clients how to use it before we let them loose.
I hate that a user has to sign up to watch a webinar replay.
I wish that GTW had a 'stream to browser' mode, like Twitch or Youtube.
If you are looking for a standard webinar tool with no bells and whistle‘s this is the tool for you. Easy to use and allows for multiple users and licenses.
The sales team spends most of the time trying to sell other products and not a lot of time actually solving the problem at hand.
Pluspunten
This is a great webinar tool if you’re conducting regular run-of-the-mill webinars and do not need sophisticated features or the ability to integrate with other technologies
Minpunten
Customer support and their sales model went through some changes recently after they merged, and I’ve been disappointed with the results. Customer support Is not that great and will usually end up referring you to your account management team and sales. team who spent most of the time trying to sell other products and not a lot of time actually solving the problem at hand.
I wish we had started using them sooner. I wish I would've known more about their polling feature and the ability to upload a webinar recording to play during the webinar. These tools now help us create a more personalized experience for customers and automate our processes to save time and resources.
Pluspunten
GoToWebinar makes it so simple to setup all of our webinars for current customers and new customer we're onboarding. They've recently updated their design to a fresh new look that's even more intuitive to use. They have lots of powerful reports and allow you to create surveys and easily run polls.
Minpunten
Their Help Center was a bit lacking with a few questions I had, however when I called their support team I got a pretty quick answer and they were able to answer all of my questions easily.
GoToWebinar has served us as an impeccable tool for bringing our office up to speed in the realm of online professional development. It is an inexpensive, time-effective way to pass information that keeps people from having to travel.
Pluspunten
Our organization uses this software as a tool to get critical professional development information out to our hundreds of members on a biweekly basis. Its large capacity for attendees allows us to reach the breadth of our members with ease. It includes a wide array of analytics that allow us to not only track attendance, but also engagement in our webinars, providing us with almost instant feedback on our material.
Minpunten
One limitation that this software has is that we are only able to run one webinar at a time on the account. This issue is intuitive, and does not take away from the efficiencies it adds to my workplace. It is important, though to communicate well with fellow team members to avoid overlapping webinar schedules.
I used the GoTo platform almost every week from small meeting with just a few people, to conferences with hundreds of people that need to communicate with each other from distant locations. Once things were correctly setup, it never failed.
Pluspunten
Reliability. As long as my network was connected, I don't think I've ever had a meeting get dropped. Meeting setups can very customized to suit your needs.
Minpunten
Getting audio to route the way you wanted it to correctly could get really tricky. You have to look up which computer is hosting, how the meeting was setup, are any bridges or special devices needed etc.
I've been with GTW since they first began many years ago, and although there are many different options out there that do the same thing for less, GTW is still the most reliable provider out there, in my opinion.
Pluspunten
GTW and GTM make it easy, and profitable, to hold large online meetings for ANYONE. I'm not a large company, but I've done webinars with almost 200 attendees in the room before, and everyone managed to get in and connected without issues, not to mention they all stayed connected the whole time. Everything you need to host a meeting is built-in, including recording and screen notations, attendee questions, chats, polls, everything.
Minpunten
I've noticed that GTW can be a bit slow to add features, and when they do add them, there is a lengthy period of time where the program has glitches here and there before it works themselves out. They are also pretty expensive compared to most en mass meetings.
Pluspunten
GoToWebinar is an easy tool to quickly schedule & share a conference line with a large group of people. Connectivity is almost never a problem for me or my colleagues. The quality of the line is always above-average, and there is virtually no lag in the screen share.
Minpunten
I do feel that, sometimes, there are pieces of functionality that other connectivity solutions have that GoTo does not--ability to "whiteboard" easily, share multiple screens/users, etc. That would be a significant differentiation in the market.
Being able to engage others virtually in a presentation, webinar, or training session. You can reach multiple people at once and with video option you can see people who are presenting as if you were in the same room.
Pluspunten
It's easy to set up, attend, and invite others to a webinar. The reminder is automatically sent out to those who are registered to attend/participate. You have the option of listening via the computer on mute or calling in on the telephone. The webinar navigation bar for chatting and asking questions is simple. Uploading the PowerPoint is simple and accessible to those who attend the webinar.
Minpunten
The cost for this software/program is expensive for the smaller company. Because of the cost, it forces the smaller company to go with the free programs that are available that aren't as efficient.
Pluspunten
The best part of this software is that you never have to miss a meeting again. Meetings can be accessed from the comport of your own home or the country of your choosing. Go to Webinar are easy to use and give you multiple options to call in using phone, computer or simply typing your questions/answers. What I like most about this software is that you can have many users at the same time without laps in time or functionality, meaning that everyone is seen and heard at the same time without interruption.
Minpunten
There is nothing about the software that has given my team problems. The only small issue may be the speed of internet at a specific location but that is not a problem with the software its the problem with your internet provider and speed offered.
Starting to create and run webinars for my company took a lot of learning and a lot of effort. Thanks to gotowebinar it was not a difficult process. It helped a ton with everything from content, registrations, attendance, reporting, Pardot connector and increasing success over time. Overall we are happy with the service that we get from gotowebinar.
Pluspunten
I like the landing pages they provide. They tend to get better registrations than the ones I create on my own. The reports are very informative too. They help the sales team a lot. It pretty much takes care of all the little things like emails, surveys, recordings and it is very easy to use.
Minpunten
Not a ton of direction when we started. I think that a little bit more training would have been helpful. It could be more interactive.
I've setup several webinars for people, once you get a hand on it is really easy to use, the tool by itself won't do much since you need to advertise the webinar, maybe that is an area of opportunity for the company, to provide preset tools and/or email templates the clients could use.
Pluspunten
Stability in streams is great.
Once you learn te tool is easy to set up webinars.
Minpunten
If you are hosting the Webinar, most of the times you will need a product expert to set up.
A little expensive for starters.
Some of the features feel a little spammy for people who arrive to the webinar as client.
Pluspunten
Go to Webinar, is a nice forum for multiple people to gather and share classroom information. It is visually pleasing.
I like that more than one person can present at the same time.
Easy to share screen for presentations.
Minpunten
In the Q&A capabilities I find it difficult for presenters to keep track of questions as they come in, and they have difficulty in answering all the questions asked during a webinar.
Most people don't stay after, if their question is not answered right away, and may miss the information they are looking for.
If there is a transcript option for emailing to attendees after a webinar, I have yet to receive one.
If this is an option, it should be set so that an attendee can ask for that at the beginning of a webinar.
I have used GoToWebinar both as a webinar participant and as a presenter, and it's a great interface from either direction. As a participant, the sign in experience is easy and it's easy to tell how to do things like answer a poll question, chat, mute and unmet yourself, etc. As a presenter, it's easy to understand how to share your screen, see who's in the webinar, ask questions, and do everything you need to. I do recommend making sure you do a test run before your first live presentation, just to give yourself a chance to walk through things, and I've seen glitches when transferring between different presenters who are at remote locations from each other, so practicing transitions is a good plan.
Pluspunten
Easy to use for both presenters/hosts and participants. Chat & polling ability allows for interactivity without cross talk. Easy to screenshare.
Minpunten
It's not as pretty as some other online meeting interfaces, and I feel it sometimes gets a bad rap because it's been around a little longer. You might not seem as "cool" using GoToWebinar as if you use Zoom, but these are fairly minor points because mostly people just want something that works, and GoToMeeting does.
Overall I have been super pleased with Go ToWebinar and would recommend it anyone that has a busy schedule or who would just like a smoother way to meet, train and record!
Pluspunten
I love Go ToWebinar because we are able to be keyed into many different partners that use Go ToWebinar. With busy schedules and all the meetings we have to attend. Having some office time to just sit and watch a training, meeting or group report is so nice.
Minpunten
The only thing I have noticed about some of the streaming webinars I have attended is that it gets hard to get everyone off the sound. Sometimes if you have more than 40 people it gets a little hard to start the meetings. Otherwise when everything settles down on the users side, it is great!!
We use this software to connect meetings across our various offices. It helps to quickly set up and host meetings thus improving collaboration and efficiency
Pluspunten
There's no learning curve with this software. Anyone can get going with it in no time as it's really well built to be easy to set up and use.
I like the ability to easily record any presentation.
Another feature that's really good is the ability to conduct polls even in the middle of a presentation
The video and audio quality is also almost always very good.
Minpunten
One complaint is that the software sometimes freezes and has to be restarted to fix it.
Another issue is that it's a bit pricier than its competitors
Our team is glad to have purchased GoToWebinar because our on-campus open houses are now offered virtually for our online students. It has been helpful in gathering prospective student interest.
Pluspunten
GoToWebinar is very user-friendly. It was easy to log-in for my first webinar and get set up. It sends out reminder emails to your registrants in a sequence that works best for you. From that email it allows your registrants to add the event to their Outlook or Google Calendar. You have the ability to record the webinar so you can use it in the future. After my first event, GoToWebinar sent me an analytics dashboard that showed our team insights such as list of attendees, attentiveness, interest rating, etc. I was also able to pull into an excel file the list of questions that were asked during the session along with my answers. I used that information to send in my thank you email as a recap.
Minpunten
We had trouble with the chat box feature. As an organizer for the webinar, I could see the chat box and type/send messages in it. However, my registrants could not see the chat box (my colleague logged in as a registrant to make sure everything was showing properly). I'm not sure if this feature is just for organizers to speak to one another during the event, or if it is actually used for all attendees. It is something I need to reach out to GoToWebinar about.
Gotowebinar helps me increase my affiliate earnings. Helps me educate potential customers on my products and services.
Pluspunten
Gotowebinar is by far the best webinar software for me in the past two years now! As an internet marketer, I constantly host webinars to educate new and existing customers.
Gotowebinar has enabled me increase my affiliate earnings, It enables me to educate potential customers on my products and services.
These days, written words are not enough to make the desired sales, customers need to have a personal touch with you before they make that buying decision, and this is where Gotowebinar comes in handy.
Minpunten
This tool is great for the money, however, new marketers struggle to pay the price. I had to struggle so hard in order to afford this tool.
Great!
Pluspunten
Ease of use and efficient set-up compared to the full-version.
Minpunten
Took a while to download and install on a machine.
Great webinar tool that's supported by a huge number of other apps as well. The app performs reliably and has the added benefit that most people have used it so you rarely have to worry about people not being able to connect.