Zoom Webinar vs. Meeting: Which One is Better for You

Zoom offers two primary solutions for virtual events: Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars. Each is designed to cater to different types of online interactions and audiences. We outline a complete comparison between the two solutions to help you choose the right one for your needs.

Zoom Webinar vs. Meeting comparison

We will start by comparing the main features of Zoom Webinar and Zoom Meeting to establish a broad understanding of both solutions.

So, right off the bat, Zoom Meeting is designed for general usage and small organizations. It encourages interactions between attendees and presenters and all the participants can take the role of leading the meeting and sharing their screens.

In contrast, Zoom Webinar is more like an auditorium where a large audience is attending presentations from 1-3 speakers. Basically, it’s the definition of a webinar or a virtual conference with one-way communication only.

Now that you have a broad understanding of what Zoom Meeting and Zoom Webinar are designed for, let’s break down their features in more detail.

Zoom Meetings key features

• Participant Interaction: Everyone can interact freely through voice, chat and screen sharing.
• Breakout Rooms: This feature available only in Zoom Meeting allows you to split participants into smaller groups for focused discussions. For instance, this is an ideal method to go from a general organization meeting to a department focused discussion later on.
• Screen Sharing: Any participant can take the presenter role and share their screen with the audience.
• Recording: Meetings can be recorded and shared later.
• Video streaming resolution: In the standard free version, the streaming resolution is 640×360 pixels, but you can upgrade that to 720p with a Pro account.
• Price and plans: Zoom Meeting has a free version, but it’s limited to 40 minutes/ meeting and has other limitations. The least expensive plan is Pro, which costs $13.32/user/month and includes 5GB of cloud storage, 30 hours meetings and more.

What is Zoom Meeting used for?

Zoom Meeting is designed for interactive and collaborative sessions. They are ideal for:

• Small to medium-sized groups: Typically up to 1,000 participants with the Large Meetings add-on.
• Two-way communication: All participants can share their video, audio, and screen.
• Collaboration: Features like breakout rooms, whiteboarding, and screen sharing make it perfect for team meetings, online classes, and group discussions.

Zoom Webinars key features

• Host control: Only the hosts and panelists control the audio and video.
• Q&A and polling: While you don’t have a two way voice or video communication, the attendees can still interact by asking questions via a Q&A box and participate in polls set up by hosts or speakers.
• Attendee management: As in any classic conference, the hosts can introduce and promote attendees to panelists if the situation requires that action.
• Video streaming resolution: 720p video quality is used for the active speaker video in a webinar, and if you want to switch to 1.080p resolution, you will need a Zoom Events or Zoom Sessions account. However, The streaming resolution will also be adapted to the bandwidth and capabilities of the speaker’s connection and computer. For example, to receive a 1080p broadcast you will require a 3.0Mbps speed and to stream in Full HD, you will need at least a 3.8Mbps connection.
• Price and plans: Zoom Webinar doesn’t have a free plan. First, it requires a Zoom Workplace license and the first available paid plan starts from $79/ month or $690/ year for unlimited webinars. The current prices were listed at the moment when we wrote this article. Make sure you check the plans before committing.

What is Zoom Webinar used for?

Zoom Webinars are tailored for large-scale events where the focus is on the host and panelists. They are best suited for:

• Large audiences: Can accommodate up to 100,000 attendees and 1,000 panelists.
• One-way communication: Attendees primarily listen and view the presentation, with limited interaction.
• Formal presentations: Ideal for webinars, virtual conferences, and large training sessions.

Conclusion

We end here our Zoom Webinar vs. Meeting comparison. Choosing between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars depends on the nature of your event and the level of interaction required. For collaborative and interactive sessions, Zoom Meetings are ideal. For large-scale presentations with limited interaction, Zoom Webinars are the better choice.

We have a complete guide on how to download and install Zoom if you need that information. If you want to know how Zoom compares to Teams, hit the highlighted link to learn.

If you have any specific questions or need further details, feel free to ask in the comments below.